The Peloponnesian Wars
How the Greeks Destroyed
Themselves
Objectives
Why/How did the Greeks embark on a self-
destructive war?
Did the Greeks City-States become
Empires
How was Pericles considered a democrat?
In the end, was there really a victorious
power in the Peloponnesian Wars? While
one power lost, the winning power also
failed to fill the power vacuum.
The Delian League vs. the
Peloponnesian League
The Delian League (Athens)
I.
Cimons suppression of Thasos (465 BCE)
B. Power struggle at home: Pericles becomes
leader of a faction
C. Spartan seeks help of Athens for their
rebellion
D. The Spartans reject Cimons help and
Ephialtes and others in Athens reconfigure
power in the Areopagus
A.
First Peloponnesian War
II.
A.
War begins with a dispute between Megara
and Corinth over a boarder dispute.
Megara withdrew from the
First Peloponnesian War
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
1.
2.
Begins over boarder dispute
Early Athenian advantage/ Egyptian
campaign
Revolt within Delian league, Truce
War breaks out in Boetia and Megara
opening Athens to Spartan invasion in
446 BCE.
Pericles negotiates 30 year peace
Divide was now distinct
Sparta and its alliance on the mainland
Athens and the Athenian Empire in the
Aegean
Athens Builds during the
truce
The Athenian Empire
I.
449 BCE/ Athens moves Delian League
Treasury to Athens
Expanse of Empire
Change from Alliance to Empire
A.
B.
C.
1.
2.
Change due to pressure of war and rebellion and
unwillingness of the allies to see to their own
defense.
30 year peace is the key to prosperity and
security
Athenian Democracy
II.
A.
Must view democracy in the domestic
sense rather than empire
Athens Builds during the
truce
Athenian Democracy
II.
Pericles: under leadership Athens becomes
freest government
C. Opened the leadership offices: No adult
male was barred from Archonship due to
property.
D. New Circuit court judges
E. Democracy was the privilege of citizenship.
Citizenship was a valuable commodity.
F. Citizenship restricted.
B.
Athens Builds during the
truce
Athenian Democracy
II.
G.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Extent of Democracy
All decisions of the state were approved by the
popular assembly, not representatives
Judicial decisions subject to appeal to a popular
court of not fewer than 51 citizens.
Main elected officials, generals, imperial
treasurers, were nobles. Usually rich, but citizens
could choose others
Public officials were subject to scrutiny before
taking office & could be called to account for
actions in office and removed
All citizens at the end of terms of office were held
to compulsory examination and accounting.
No standing army
Athens Builds during the
truce
III. Pericles
Elected to Generalship for 15 years consecutively,
(30 times in all)
B. When he lost the confidence of the people they did
not hesitate to removed him form office
C. After Egyptian defeat he became more conservative
D. Sought to retain the Aegean Empire and live at
peace with the Spartans
A.
IV. The 30 years peace/2nd Peloponnesian War
A.
B.
C.
Peace lasts 445-435 BCE.
Spartan Strategy: land strategy
Athenian Strategy: Large income, Superior Navy
Athens Builds during the
truce
IV. The 2nd Peloponnesian War
Athenian Strategy: devastation of land, withhold siege
E. Pericles exists the stage 429 BCE
F. Peace of Nicias: 50 year peace
G. Alcibiades: persuaded Athenians to attack Sicily 415413BCE
H. Power of Athens destroyed? 411 BCE survived an
oligarchic coup, fleet caught napping and destroyed at
Aegospotami in 405 BCE.
I.
Spartans under Lysander cut off their food supply &
starved the city into submission, 404 BCE Athens
surrenders unconditionally.
J.
The Great Peloponnesian War was over
D.
Lessons of the Peloponnesian Wars
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Utter defeat of Athens
Power Vacuum in Greek world
Sparta makes mockery of Greek freedom
Spartan Hubris
Sparta sets up government in Athens
Athens will regain some freedom under
Pausanias, other than Foreign Policy
The Greeks of Asia Minor
A. 405-404 BCE: Greek mercenaries & intervene in Persia on
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
behalf of Cyrus the younger. (Persians were in the middle
of a power struggle)
Afraid of revenge, they sent to Sparta for help
The Persians respond by seeking help from the cities
disaffected with Spartan domination.
Corinthian War (395-387) Argos, Corinth, Thebes, Athens
Athens rebuilt their wall by 394 BCE
This sudden reemergence alarmed Persians
Spartans turned to their old ways. They disbanded all
alliances, except Peloponnesian League, and put friends in
power
In 382 BCE, they seized Thebes without warning, and in a
time of peace.
The Greeks at War with themselves
Still
A. Thebes joined forces with those who had
rebelled against Sparta, 371 BCE defeated
Sparta
B. Thebians encouraged the Arcadian cities
of the Peloponnesus to form a federal
league and freed the Helots (helping them
found their own city)
C. Sparta was no longer able to keep and
maintain an army of more than 2000,
surrounded by hostile enemies, deprived
of farmland and slaves, Sparta ceases to
be a first rate power
The Second Athenian Empire
A. Athens in 378 BCE attempt to rebuilt former Delian
B.
C.
D.
E.
League
Made promises that they would not be as they were
before, only to break them when rebellion among
allies breaks out.
Athens did not have the power to suppress
resistance as it had before.
By 355 BCE Athens had to abandon most of their
empire,
After 2 centuries of almost continual warfare the
Greeks return to the chaotic, disorganized city-states
that hey were before the founding of the
Peloponnesian League
