The Peloponnesian War was a long conflict in the late 400s B.C. between the Greek city-states* of Sparta and Athens. In 431 B.C., Sparta attacked Athens, starting a war that eventually split the entire Greek world into two camps. Sparta and its allies, including Corinth and Thebes, were known as the Peloponnesian League. Against them stood the Delian League, made up of Athens and its allies. The Greek historian Thucydides wrote a detailed account of the causes of the war and its history through 411 B.C. The historian Xenophon recorded the final years of the war, which lasted until 404 B.C. and ended with the defeat of Athens.
* city-state independent state consisting of a city and its surrounding territory
The Spartans started the war because they feared and resented the growing power of Athens. In the years before the war, the Athenians had built a powerful navy that could block the sea trade of any city with whom they had a dispute. The cities of the Peloponnese* were particularly concerned, since the Athenian navy was able to cut off their supply of wheat from Sicily, an island off the coast of Italy. Athens had also extended its power over many other city-states in Greece and on the Asian coast, although some of these cities were growing restless under the agreement that bound them to Athens.
Although Athens had the finest navy in the Greek world, Sparta and its allies had the biggest and best armies. At the beginning of the war, Sparta invaded Attica (the region in which Athens is located) and destroyed the crops in an attempt to force Athens to surrender. Under the leadership of the statesman Pericles, the people of Attica remained safe behind the city walls of Athens, while the navy protected ships carrying food and supplies to the port of Athens. Plague* broke out in Athens in 430 B.C., however, killing Pericles and causing great suffering inside the city.
Sparta attempted to seek peace in 425 B.C., after Athenian forces had trapped Spartan troops on the island of Sphacteria. However, the Athenians claimed the troops as prisoners of war and the conflict dragged on, with acts of cruelty, bravery, treachery, and good leadership on both sides. After a few more years of hardship, with no clear victories, the Athenian statesman Nicias arranged a peace treaty with Sparta in 421 B.C. The treaty failed, however, because several of Sparta’s allies refused to accept its terms and continued the war against Athens. Diplomacy gave way to fighting, with each side trying to win smaller states over to its side. The Athenians attacked the
* Peloponnese peninsula forming the southern part of the mainland of Greece
* plague highly contagious, widespread, and often fatal disease
Peloponnesian League in 418 B.C., but the Spartans won the battle at Mantinea. Two years later the Athenians, with brutal force, brought the island of Melos into their empire. Then in 415 B.C., Athens launched an expedition to gain control of Sicily and the city of Syracuse, which was Sparta’s ally. The attack failed miserably, and during a two-year siege, Athens lost many men and numerous vessels.
Although the armies of the Peloponnesian League continued to ravage Attica, the final stages of the war involved much fighting at sea. The Persian Empire, eager to reclaim Asian cities that Athens had earlier freed from Persian rule, joined the conflict on Sparta’s side. Athens won some impressive victories in this phase of the war. In 410 B.C., the Athenians, under the leadership of Alcibiades, crushed the Spartan navy and the Persian army. However, a brilliant admiral named Lysander then took charge of the Spartan navy, making it a force capable of defeating Athens at sea. Lysander’s leadership, together with renewed support from Persia, enabled Sparta to capture the Athenian fleet and blockade* the city of Athens. After six months of starvation, the Athenians surrendered and the Peloponnesian War ended. (See also Armies, Greek; Greece, History of; Wars and Warfare, Greek.)
* blockade military means used to prevent the passage of enemy ships or troops into or out of a place