Peloponisian Wars Essay, Research Paper

?Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the

Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and

believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that

had preceded it. This belief was not without its grounds. The preparations of

both the combatants were in every department in the last state of perfection;

and he could see the rest of the Hellenic race taking sides in the quarrel;

those who delayed doing so at once having it in contemplation. Indeed this was

the greatest movement yet known in history, not only of the Hellenes, but of a

large part of the barbarian world- I had almost said of mankind. For though the

events of remote antiquity, and even those that more immediately preceded the

war, could not from lapse of time be clearly ascertained, yet the evidences

which an inquiry carried as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all

point to the conclusion that there was nothing on a great scale, either in war

or in other matters?.

It is with these words that the great Greek historian Thucydides begins his

epic history ?History of the Peloponnesian War?. He documented the war

between Sparta and Athens, which lasted for 27 years between 431 and 404 BC. The

war was the largest the Greek world had known of up to this date, and

encompassed almost all of the Greek world, and came with a very high price.

Athens, once the mightiest power in Greece lost her supremacy due to the war,

and Sparta, although victorious, used so many resources that she would never

recover from it, and indeed lost her hard won power shortly after winning the

war. Although Sparta won the war, it is clear in hindsight that both sides lost.

The loss of Athens to Sparta during this conflict resulted in the complete

destruction of Athenian political power in Greece, although she remained an

important city in the region. Athens retained cultural and philosophical

importance, but would never again lead an empire or control the affairs of

Greece.

The Athenian loss in the Peloponnesian War is due to many different factors.

The first of these reasons is the tactic of the Spartans to blockade Athens on

land year round, something they had not done for the entirety of the war. For

the majority of the war, Spartan forces would occupy the land around Athens for

a part of the year, but then retreat as winter approached. By blockading Attica

year round, the Spartans forced the Athenian citizens to live in cramped,

disease-ridden conditions year round. Athens would also have had to import food

year round in an effort to feed the citizens, which would cost a lot of money.

Secondly, the democratic coup in 411 BC had a demoralizing effect on the

citizens of Athens. No longer were the common people free to make their own

policy, but were ruled by the oligarchy who believed they were much more

qualified to make such decisions. Although this government did not last very

long, it had a profound effect on the Athenian war effort, as the citizens were

busy in the midst of a revolution, and could not focus primarily on the war with

Sparta.

A third reason for the downfall of Athens was the escape of 20,000 slaves

from the silver mines Athens controlled. This represented a serious threat to

the economy of Athens, who relied on the silver to pay her soldiers, sailors,

hire mercenaries, build ships, and buy goods like food and weapons.

Another major obstacle to Athenian victory in the war was the failure of the

expedition in Sicily, launched in 414 BC. This defeat led to the depletion of

much of Athens resources, in money, manpower, and ships. It is this reason that

allowed for the Persian aid received by Sparta had such a profound effect upon

the war.

The final, and most influential, reason for the loss to Sparta was the

Persian influence. This essay will deal with the role of Persia, which was

central to Athenian defeat. The Persian support of Sparta in the latter years of

the war was the most important reason for Spartan victory and Athenian defeat.

Athens?, who was a rich port city for an extended period of time,

controlled the largest and most powerful navy in Greece. Her fleet consisted of

hundreds of triremes that were manned by crews of well-trained and highly

effective sailors. Sparta, on the other hand, was a landlocked city-state, and

did not have a navy to speak of. Spartan victories always came because of an

excellent army consisting of extremely well prepared soldiers. Spartan military

training of young men began at an early age, and the Spartans were by far the

best-equipped city-state for land battles. Because she had such a good army,

Sparta did not believe it had a need for a navy.

When the Peloponnesian war began, Sparta resorted to tried and tested

tactics. Her army would invade the lands of Attica, forcing the Athenians to

take shelter behind the long walls that led from Athens proper to Piraeus, the

port where the Athenian navy was stationed. This tactic worked well for Sparta,

and in 429 resulted in a plague that wiped out many Athenians, and also their

leader, Pericles. The cramped conditions the Athenians were subjected to because

of the Spartan invasions led to an environment ripe for infectious disease.

Sparta believed that by forcing the Athenians out of the countryside and behind

the shelter of the long walls, they could win the war by starving the Athenians,

who they believed, would beg for an end to the conflict. However, because of the

Athenian superiority on the sea, she was able to import food and goods, with no

threat from a Spartan naval blockade. The money that Athens collected from the

Delian league was more than enough to support the populations food and good

needs.

While the Spartans were camped out in Attica, waiting for the Athenian

surrender, the Athenian fleet would sail out of Piraeus and attack the

Peloponnesian coast. The Spartans, having no navy, could only watch the

Athenians do this, with no chance to meet them at sea and challenge the Athenian

navy.

The war was at a standstill, neither side able to gain much ground in the

conflict. The Athenians would not directly challenge the Spartans on land, and

the Spartans were unable to meet the Athenian navy at sea.

In 414, the Athenians launched an expedition to Sicily, in an attempt to gain

some new territory and allies to the west of Greece. The Athenians were defeated

decisively, and it was this that started Athens down the final road to defeat.

Because of the failed expedition, an oligarchic coup wrested control of Athens

from the democratic party, and opened the door to the Spartan victory.

After Sicily, Athens resources were depleted almost entirely. Her navy had

been greatly reduced, and morale among the Athenians was at a low. It was

following this great defeat that Sparta began to take the upper hand in the war.

The Spartans sent to the Persians to ask for aid to help with the war effort.

In return for this aid, the Spartans surrendered the Greek city-states in Asia

Minor, returning them to Persian control. The Persians provided the Spartans

with money and resources in order to construct a navy that could finally

challenge the Athenians on the sea.

The Athenians, after defeating the Spartan navy at the Arginusae Islands,

once again regained control of the water. The Spartan general, Callicratidas,

was killed during this battle, and 75 of the Peloponnesian ships were sunk,

while the Athenians only lost 25.

After this defeat, the Spartans offered peace to Athens, who refused. The

Spartan fleet still had 90 ships, while the Athenian consisted of 170. Athens

was finally out of resources now, though, and if this fleet were defeated, they

could not raise another. In a surprise attack by Lysander, the Spartans managed

to capture or destroy the entire Athenian navy, only ten ships escaped the

attack, and Lysander executed 3000 captured Athenian sailors. With Athens having

no more ships or resources to build any, the Spartan navy could now attack

Athens and Piraeus without fear of being attacked.

The loss of her navy, coupled with the year round siege of Attica by Sparta,

was a complete disaster for Athens. No longer could she import goods into

Piraeus to fend off starvation and keep the economy afloat. Athens was without

any means to trade for food or goods, either by land or by sea. In 404 the

Athenians, recognizing their position, surrendered to Sparta, and ended the

Peloponnesian War.

Had the Athenians been able to retain her superior navy, she would have been

able to keep the war at a standstill indefinitely. The Persian aid that was

instrumental in building and maintaining a Spartan navy was the deciding factor

in the Spartan victory. With help from Persia, Sparta had managed to overwhelm

the vast Athenian navy and turn the tide of war to their favour.

When the war had begun, Athens had no equal upon the sea. Her navy, numbering

in the hundreds, was able to completely support the city and strike back at the

Peloponnesian coast. The long walls from Athens to Piraeus provided her citizens

with a means of trade and also shelter from the invading Spartan troops.

Sparta, on the other hand, did not have a navy. Sparta had always relied upon

her ability to win using land forces to destroy her enemies and lay siege to

enemy cities. If nothing had changed, and Athens continued to control the sea

and Sparta the land, the war could have lasted much longer than it did.

Although Sparta won the war, it is clear that Greece was not much better off

for it. The Persians now controlled the Greek city-states in Asia Minor, which

Sparta had sacrificed for Persian aid. The Persian king had dictated the terms

of the treaty between Sparta and Persia, as the Spartans were the ones requiring

help. Sparta had also been named as the guarantor of the peace, it was their job

to make sure the peace between Greece and Persia was honoured by all Greek

states. Sparta was, in effect, the police of the treaty.

The long drawn out war between Athens and Sparta depleted the resources of

both states immensely, and neither would ever recover from it. Shortly after the

Peloponnesian War, Sparta lost her hard won hegemony to Thebes, another powerful

city in Greece.

There is no doubt that the Spartan victory would not have been achieved

without Persian help. The Athenian navy would have continued to rule the sea and

in doing so, support herself indefinitely. Had the Spartans never received

funding and resources from Persia to build it?s own navy, they could not have

won the war. The traditional Spartan tactics of relying on her army and only

having land battles would not have conquered Athens. The Athenian sea trade was

too extensive. The long walls to Piraeus would provide shelter for the Athenian

citizens and allow for the unblocked flow of goods and food from Athens to her

harbour and beyond. The sea provided Athens with a means to survive as long as

needed.

When the Spartans did challenge the Athenian navy, it was only because the

Persians had provided Sparta with a navy. It was not a superior navy to the

Athenian one, by any means, but it could finally challenge Athenian naval

superiority. When the Spartans did finally manage to defeat the Athenian navy,

it was shortly after that Athens surrendered.

The Persian help Sparta received came with at a high price though. Persia now

controlled most of Asia Minor and the two largest and most powerful Greek city-

states had been decimated by the extended war between them. It was a win-win

situation for Persia, gaining territory and hurting two major enemies all at

once.

Thucydides, the Athenian historian who had documented the war from it?s

beginning died shortly before the Athenian defeat. It would have been

interesting to hear what he would have said about the defeat and it?s

consequences for Athens, Sparta, and Greece as a whole.

The war had encompassed the entire Greek world and had lasted longer than any

other Greek conflict before it in history. History shall forever record the

Spartan defeat of Athens, but shall also record the end of an era in which Greek

city states were the most powerful in the world. After the war and the Athenian

defeat, no Greek city would ever become as powerful as 5th century Athens was,

and the end of the war paved the way for the rise and fall of Alexander, and the

global domination of Rome.

Bibliography

Boise State University, History of western Civilization: The Peloponnesian

War, 1995 http://history.idbsu.edu/westciv/peloponn.htm

Kuhlmann, Kurt, Historical Commentary on the Peloponnesian war, 1998 http://warhorsesim.com/epw_hist.html

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian war, Penguin classics, 1972 tr. Rex

Warner 1954