athens and sparta were allies in what war

In the first book of his History Thucydides shows ‘the Spartans and the Allies’, to give the Peloponnesian League its formal title, making the decision that Athens had broken the Thirty Years Peace. 425/4, allies and former allies of Athens appealed for Spartan aid to Thraceward region 38. The Rivalry Between Sparta And Athens Before conflicts with the invading Persians, Sparta and Athens were rivals. "He then assigned to Lysander all the tribute which came in from his cities and belonged to him personally, and gave him also the balance he had on hand; and, after reminding Lysander how good a friend he was both to the Lacedaemonian state and to him personally, he set out on the journey to his father." There was a truce period of 30 years before the Peloponnesian wars started between Athens and Sparta. Rising to particular importance in Athenian democracy at this time was Cleon, a leader of the hawkish elements of the Athenian democracy. He would never again lead Athenians in battle. Athens and Sparta were two great city-states in ancient Greece, and they were often in conflict. The fortification of Decelea prevented the shipment of supplies overland to Athens, and forced all supplies to be brought in by sea at increased expense. In 430 BC an outbreak of a plague hit Athens. The longest Spartan invasion, in 430 BC, lasted just forty days. In a battle at Amphipolis in 422 both Brasidas and Athenian leader Cleon were dead. The Peloponnesian War was soon followed by the Corinthian War (394–386 BC), which, although it ended inconclusively, helped Athens regain some of its former greatness. Killing a large number of civilians and large parts of the army. In the final stages of the preparations for departure, the hermai (religious statues) of Athens were mutilated by unknown persons, and Alcibiades was charged with religious crimes. Ed. This began with the Spartans which were under the rule of Archidamus II which was then leading an army into Attica which is the region around Athens. What then ensued was a period, referred to as the Pentecontaetia (the name given by Thucydides), in which Athens increasingly became in fact an empire,[8] carrying out an aggressive war against Persia and increasingly dominating other city-states. The democratic alliance was broken up, and most of its members were reincorporated into the Peloponnesian League. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused. While this was going on the Spartans attacked Athenian bases in western Greece but then were driven away. They also fought on the same side several times. Led militarily by a clever new general Demosthenes (not to be confused with the later Athenian orator Demosthenes), the Athenians managed some successes as they continued their naval raids on the Peloponnese. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved. There is probably no accurate historical record of all of the allied city-states who fought with Sparta and Athens. Threatened with starvation, the Athenian fleet had no choice but to follow. Alcibiades was not re-elected general by the Athenians and he exiled himself from the city. Years passed and the end came in around 405 when the Athenian navy was destroyed at Aegospotami by the Spartan fleet under Lysander, who hadn’t really received much aid from the Persians. The Spartans, whose intervention would have been the trigger for a massive war to determine the fate of the empire, called a congress of their allies to discuss the possibility of war with Athens. Perhaps it is natural to be confused when one tries to explain historical facts through contemporary experiencies. Nicias then sent word to Athens asking for reinforcements. The rebels quickly secured the support of a Persian satrap, and Athens found itself facing the prospect of revolts throughout the empire. [9], Friction between Athens and the Peloponnesian states, including Sparta, began early in the Pentecontaetia; in the wake of the departure of the Persians from Greece, Sparta attempted to prevent the reconstruction of the walls of Athens (without the walls, Athens would have been defenseless against a land attack and subject to Spartan control), but was rebuffed. However, there was much tension between Sparta and Athens during this time period; these two cities were the main competitors in the Peloponnesian War. This was a direct violation of the Thirty Years' Peace, which had (among other things) stipulated that the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League would respect each other's autonomy and internal affairs. Aegina, an island strategically located off the coast of Attica, and a member of the Peloponnesian League, was besieged and conquered by Athens. Really the years of fighting between the Athens and Sparta can be divided into two periods separated by a truce of six years. In the 17th year of the war, word came to Athens that one of their distant allies in Sicily was under attack from Syracuse. In the 5th century BCE Sparta and Athens were the two major powers in Greece and it was perhaps inevitable that their spheres of influence would overlap and cause conflict. The Spartans summoned forces from all of their allies, including Athens, to help them suppress the revolt. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. Ancient Greek warfare, meanwhile, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Although the power of Athens was broken, it made something of a recovery as a result of the Corinthian War and continued to play an active role in Greek politics. According to Thucydides, the Spartans acted in this way out of fear that the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots; the offended Athenians repudiated their alliance with Sparta. Each stood at the head of alliances that, … The Athenian force consisted of over 100 ships and some 5,000 infantry and light-armored troops. What was the cause of the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC? The war was being continued at sea with the Sparta and Athenians fleets trading costly victories. Known as the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.E. The people of Syracuse were ethnically Dorian (as were the Spartans), while the Athenians, and their ally in Sicilia, were Ionian. However, the Athenian warships participated in the battle nevertheless, and the arrival of additional Athenian triremes was enough to dissuade the Corinthians from exploiting their victory, thus sparing much of the routed Corcyrean and Athenian fleet.[17]. In addition, the fear of a general revolt of helots emboldened by the nearby Athenian presence drove the Spartans to action. Athens defeat could be said to be the worst casualty in a war that crippled Greek military strength and the most culturally advanced Greek state brought into final of the war. Events. A. Athens blocked Spartan trading routes. In 403 BC, the oligarchs were overthrown and a democracy was restored by Thrasybulus. I'm writing a paper on Sparta in the Peloponnesian Wars and now that I've gotten to the part that 'Sparta had superior allies', I realized I cant exactly write a persuasive paper if I'm not fully sure who exactly were the people helping the Spartans in the Wars (besides Persia and Corinth of course). The two poleis had very different societies and cultures. By the 460’s therefore Greece had three major alliance systems: the overarching Hellenic League, the older Peloponnesian League led by Sparta, and the new Delian League led by Athens. There were thousands of Athenians stuffed inside the city walls. The Spartans recognized Athens’s ambition and formed an alliance of their own with the intent to curb Athens’s influence. The delay allowed the Syracusans to send for help from Sparta, who sent their general Gylippus to Sicily with reinforcements. With its victory at Mantinea, Sparta pulled itself back from the brink of utter defeat, and re-established its hegemony throughout the Peloponnese. The fleet appointed Alcibiades their leader, and continued the war in Athens's name. The Athenians captured 300 Spartan hoplites. [3] Tissaphernes also helped fund the Peloponnesian fleet. These very distinct provinces were that of Sparta and Athens.Sparta was focused on having a perfect military, whereas Athens made it a point to have a perfect government for their people. ", LibriVox: The History of the Peloponnesian War, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peloponnesian_War&oldid=996620383, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 December 2020, at 18:25. Athens and Sparta were two rival city-states, while the latter had very well trained military and soldiers, the former boasted of a good navy. The Spartans also suffered a fall back at sea. Alcibiades, while condemned as a traitor, still carried weight in Athens. [18] The Corinthians, outraged by these actions, encouraged Potidaea to revolt and assured them that they would ally with them should they revolt from Athens. If you’d like this or any other sample, we’ll happily email it to you. After suffering a defeat at the hands of their colony of Corcyra, a sea power that was not allied to either Sparta or Athens, Corinth began to build an allied naval force. In order to uphold the Thirty Years' Peace, however, the Athenians were instructed not to intervene in the battle unless it was clear that Corinth was going to press onward to invade Corcyra. Around 425 the picture was blank for Sparta which began to sue for peace. From 414 BC, Darius II, ruler of the Achaemenid Empire had started to resent increasing Athenian power in the Aegean and had his satrap Tissaphernes enter into an alliance with Sparta against Athens, which in 412 BC led to the Persian reconquest of the greater part of Ionia. The delay was costly and forced the Athenians into a major sea battle in the Great Harbor of Syracuse. Remember: This is just a sample from a fellow student. Both were cities in Greece. The Ionian states that rebelled expected protection, and many rejoined the Athenian side. In the 17th year of the war, word came to Athens that one of their distant allies in Sicily was under attack from Syracuse. Its empire began as a small group of city-states, called the Delian League – from the island of Delos, on which they kept their treasury – that came together to ensure that the Greco-Persian Wars were truly over. These sanctions, known as the Megarian decree, were largely ignored by Thucydides, but some modern economic historians have noted that forbidding Megara to trade with the prosperous Athenian empire would have been disastrous for the Megarans, and have accordingly considered the decree to be a contributing factor in bringing about the war. By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. Thucydides survive an attacked on the plague left an impressive amount of its impact on the Athenian confidence. In just within a few months Pericles fell victim to a plague. With winter approaching, the Athenians were then forced to withdraw into their quarters, and they spent the winter gathering allies and preparing to destroy Syracuse. in Xenophon, Plutarch. The war between Athens and Sparta was the Peloponnesian War. Following the destruction of the Sicilian Expedition, Lacedaemon encouraged the revolt of Athens's tributary allies, and indeed, much of Ionia rose in revolt against Athens. Only twelve Athenian ships escaped, and several of these sailed to Cyprus, carrying the strategos (general) Conon, who was anxious not to face the judgment of the Assembly. Students who find writing to be a difficult task. Following the defeat of the Athenians in Sicily, it was widely believed that the end of the Athenian Empire was at hand. This war was between Athens and Sparta that resulted in the transfer of domination in Greece from Athens to Sparta. The war took over a good part of the Greek world and Thucydides was the one who judged it. (1) This turn of events sparked an uprising which Sparta and the Peloponnese lead against Athens and so the Peloponnesian war began. Another source of conflict was the close relationship of Syracuse and other Dorian cities of the west to Athens's great commercial rival, Corinth. As the preeminent Athenian historian, Thucydides, wrote in his influential History of the Peloponnesian War, "The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable. Home — Essay Samples — History — The Peloponnesian War Was Between Athens and Sparta. -Populations declined. The Peace of Nicias began in 421 and didn’t really last long, it only lasted 6 years. After these battles, the Spartan general Brasidas raised an army of allies and helots and marched the length of Greece to the Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace, which controlled several nearby silver mines; their product supplied much of the Athenian war fund. The surrender stripped Athens of its walls, its fleet, and all of its overseas possessions. A treaty known as the Thirty Years Peace was signed between Sparta and Athens, but it … Sparta, which had no navy of significance, was powerless to aid Aegina directly, and the … Seizing its opportunity, the Spartan fleet sailed at once to the Dardanelles, the source of Athens's grain. -404 B.C Athens surrender to Sparta and her allies. [22] Undeterred, a majority of the Spartan assembly voted to declare that the Athenians had broken the peace, essentially declaring war.[23]. All rights reserved Gradesfixer ™, “The Peloponnesian War Was Between Athens and Sparta.”, The Peloponnesian War Was Between Athens and Sparta [Internet]. The economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece; poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens was completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity. He took command of the Syracusan troops, and in a series of battles defeated the Athenian forces, and prevented them from invading the city. After gaining reinforcements in 413, the Athenian army was defeated once again. I have tried looking it up and all but there are just bottomless articles for results. [36], A symbolic peace treaty was signed by the mayors of Athens and Sparta 2,400 years after the war ended, on March 12, 1996. 2021 © gradesfixer.com. Upon landing in Sicily, several cities immediately joined the Athenian cause. You can order Unique paper and our professionals Rewrite it for you. The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world. [37], "Athenian War" redirects here. Despite their victory, these failures caused outrage in Athens and led to a controversial trial. in. After defeating the Second Persian invasion of Greece in the year 480 BC, Athens led the coalition of Greek city-states that continued the Greco-Persian Wars with attacks on Persian territories in the Aegean and Ionia. More battles ensued and again, the Syracusans and their allies defeated the Athenians. This event was the disaster which was suffered by the Athenian act of war. The two major city-states in Greece were Sparta and Athens; they were sometimes united in order to defeat a common enemy. GradesFixer. These two city-states had few similarities but were contrasted in many, many ways. The Athenian fleet, the most dominant in Greece, went on the offensive, winning a victory at Naupactus. Cavalry was limited to about 30 horses, which proved to be no match for the large and highly trained Syracusan cavalry. The Athenian army, attempting to withdraw overland to other, more friendly Sicilian cities, was divided and defeated; the entire Athenian fleet was destroyed, and virtually the entire Athenian army was sold off into slavery. [5] What statement about the Peloponnesian War is best supported by the map? From that Sparta and its allies accused Athens of aggression and threatened war. The differences between Athens and Sparta eventually led to war between the two city-states. In … The Peloponnesian League was formed in 505 BC, and members agreed to have the same allies and enemies as Sparta. Having trouble finding the perfect essay? Athens was part of the Delian League, an alliance of ancient Greek-city states led and funded mainly by Athens that eventually morphed into the Athenian Empire, and Sparta was a member of the Peloponnesian League. Thucydides was dispatched with a force which arrived too late to stop Brasidas capturing Amphipolis; Thucydides was exiled for this, and, as a result, had the conversations with both sides of the war which inspired him to record its history. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.” (Thucydides I.1.23). This tribute was used to support a powerful fleet and, after the middle of the century, to fund massive public works programs in Athens, causing resentment. B. [16], The more immediate events that led to war involved Athens and Corinth. Athenian manpower was correspondingly drastically reduced and even foreign mercenaries refused to hire themselves out to a city riddled with plague. Insisted by the demagogue Cleon the Athenians had a vote to massacre the men of Mytilene and unfortunately enslave everyone else. Theban-Spartan War Part of the Spartan hegemony and the Theban hegemony Hoplites in combat Date378–362 BC Location Mainland Greece Result Theban victory, End of Spartan hegemony Start of Theban hegemony Belligerents Sparta and allies Supported by: … Demosthenes argued for a retreat to Athens, but Nicias at first refused. Athens Vs.Sparta Tyler King Greece, a country united by its name, but divided by its opinions, was separated into many city-states. Athens vs.Sparta The two rivalries of ancient Greece that made the most racket and created many of the traditions were Athens and Sparta.These two were so close to each other on the map, yet they were so far apart in the way they valued and approached life. At the start of the war, the Athenians had prudently put aside some money and 100 ships that were to be used only as a last resort. In Around 428 they tried to help the island state of Lesbos which Lesbos was a tributary of Athens that was planning on revolting. Emboldened, the Argives and their allies, with the support of a small Athenian force under Alcibiades, moved to seize the city of Tegea, near Sparta. C. Sparta feared the growth and the power of Athens… During this period Athens started acquiring a lot of wealth and was supremacy at the sea. Shattering religious and cultural taboos, devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece.[6]. During the first phase, known as the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the Peloponnese coast. [10] According to Thucydides, although the Spartans took no action at this time, they "secretly felt aggrieved". Their treasury was nearly empty, its docks were depleted, and many of the Athenian youth were dead or imprisoned in a foreign land. The Athenians were thoroughly defeated. After the death of Pericles, the Athenians turned somewhat against his conservative, defensive strategy and to the more aggressive strategy of bringing the war to Sparta and its allies. Towards the end of 411 Athenians rebuilt their Navy which wa fresh from several victories and acted to restore democratic rule. The Peloponnesian War was between Athens and Sparta, theses were two leading-city states in ancient Greece. The Lacedaemonians were not content with simply sending aid to Sicily; they also resolved to take the war to the Athenians. Fearing that he would be unjustly condemned, Alcibiades defected to Sparta and Nicias was placed in charge of the mission. Many of the citizens of Attica abandoned their farms and moved inside the Long Walls, which connected Athens to its port of Piraeus. We can custom edit this essay into an original, 100% plagiarism free essay. 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[35], The overall effect of the war in Greece proper was to replace the Athenian Empire with a Spartan empire. On the advice of Alcibiades, they fortified Decelea, near Athens, and prevented the Athenians from making use of their land year round. The Athenian Empire, although based in the peninsula of Attica, spread out across the islands of the Aegean Sea; Athens drew its immense wealth from tribute paid from these islands. Later the Athenians took the measures into breaking the Thirty Years Treaty since now they got together with Corcyra, a colony of Corinth. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese attempting to suppress signs of unrest in its empire.. [20], At the request of the Corinthians, the Spartans summoned members of the Peloponnesian League to Sparta in 432 BC, especially those who had grievances with Athens to make their complaints to the Spartan assembly. [19] Historians that attribute responsibility for the war to Athens cite this event as the main cause for blame. Roughly one-third to two-thirds of the Athenian population died. Even afterwards the navy was also beaten and the Athenians were horribly destroyed and now they tried to retreat. This was the period in which a diplomatic maneuvers gave the way to small-scale military operations as every city tried to win smaller states over to its side. As prominent historian J. We’ve got you covered. He also persuaded the Athenian fleet to attack the Spartans at the battle of Cyzicus in 410. Between 410 and 406, Athens won a continuous string of victories, and eventually recovered large portions of its empire. The democrats at Samos, loyal to the bitter last, held on slightly longer, and were allowed to flee with their lives. Athens's naval supremacy would now be challenged without several of its most able military leaders and a demoralized navy. First, their foes were lacking in initiative. Thus, Cyrus put all his means at the disposal of Lysander in the Peloponnesian War.

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