DEVASTATING FACTS ABOUT THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR YOU PROBABLY IGNORED
Added on: 12th Dec 2016
THE WAR TOOK ITS NAME FROM THE PENINSULA
AT THE TIP OF SOUTHERN GREECE, WHICH, TO
THIS DAY, IS CALLED THE PELOPONNESE. MANY
GREEK CITY-STATES, INCLUDING SPARTA, CORINTH
AND ARGOS, ARE SITUATED IN THIS REGION
EVEN THOUGH THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR WAS
FOUGHT AMONG NUMEROUS GREEK CITY-STATES,
MOST PEOPLE KNOW IT AS A STRUGGLE FOR
DOMINATION AND POWER BETWEEN ATHENS,
WHICH LED THE DELIAN LEAGUE AND SPARTA,
WHICH LED THE PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE
THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE WAS AT ITS PRIME JUST
BEFORE THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR STARTED.
MORE THAN 150 GREEK CITY-STATES THAT HAD
JOINED THE FIGHT AGAINST PERSIA WERE UNDER
ATHENIAN CONTROL
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR WAS ACTUALLY TWO
SEPARATE WARS THAT TOOK PLACE BETWEEN
431 BCE AND 404, WITH A SIX YEAR TRUCE IN BETWEEN
THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR IS
WITHOUT A DOUBT THE MOST POPULAR HISTORICAL
ACCOUNT OF THE WAR, WRITTEN BY ONE OF THE
FATHERS OF WESTERN HISTORY, THUCYDIDES.
THE FAMOUS ATHENIAN HISTORIAN ALSO
HAPPENED TO SERVE AS A GENERAL DURING THE WAR
ONE CAN ALSO FIND VALUABLE INFORMATION ABOUT
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR IN THE HISTORIES BY
HERODOTUS AND THERE ARE REFERENCES TO
IT IN ARISTOPHANES’S COMEDIES, XENOPHON’S
HELLENICA AND IN THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION
BY AN ANONYMOUS STUDENT OF ARISTOTLE
THE FIRST PELOPONNESIAN WAR IS ALSO KNOWN
AS THE ARCHIDAMIAN WAR, TAKING ITS NAME
FROM THE SPARTAN KING ARCHIDAMUS II
THIS WAR LASTED TEN YEARS FROM 431 BCE TO 421.
IT WAS LESS INTENSE THAN THE SECOND WAR
AND WAS FOUGHT MAINLY BETWEEN ATHENS
AND CORINTH, AN ALLY OF SPARTA
HOWEVER, ACCORDING TO MOST HISTORIANS
AND ACADEMICS, THERE WERE DEEPER ISSUES
MOTIVATING THE HOSTILITY BETWEEN ATHENS
AND SPARTA. THE SPARTAN LEADERS FEARED
THE ATHENIANS WOULD USE THEIR SUPERIORITY
IN LONG-DISTANCE OFFENSIVE WEAPONRY,
SUCH AS THE NAVAL FORCES OF THE DELIAN
LEAGUE, TO DESTROY SPARTAN CONTROL
OVER THE MEMBERS OF THE
PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE
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