Ancient Greece Part 5 – Peloponnesian War

Delian League As we learned before, Sparta and Athens worked together to win the Persian Wars, with the Spartans fighting most of the land battles, and the Athenians fighting at sea. After the war, the powerful Athenian fleet continued to protect Greece from the Persian navy. This have Athens great influence over much of Greece. After the Persian Wars ended, many city-states formed an alliance, or agreement to work together in order to punish Persia for attacking them and to help defend each other in the future. To pay for this defense, each city-state gave money to the alliance. Because the money was kept on the island of Delos, historians call the alliance the Delian League. Because of its navy, Athens was the strongest member of the league and began to treat other league members as their subjects, refusing to let members quit, forcing others to join, using league money to pay for buildings in Athens. Essentially, Athens made the Delian League an Athenian empire.

Peloponnesian League After the Persian Wars, Sparta and many cities in southern Greece formed their own alliance called the Peloponnesian League (named after the peninsula on which they were located). The growth of Athenian power worried the Peloponnesian League. To stop Athens’s growth, Sparta declared war. The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta lasted from 431- 404 BC and threatened to tear all of Greece apart.

Peloponnesian War In 431 BC the Spartan army marched north to Athens and surrounded the city, waiting for the Athenians to come out and fight. When they didn’t come out, the Spartans began to burn the crops in the fields around the city hoping to starve them into surrendering. The Athenian navy escorted merchant ships filled with food to the city. The navy also attacked Sparta’s allies, forcing them to send troops to defend other cities. Disease wept through Athens, killing thousands. For 10 years neither side could gain an advantage. They agreed to a truce. Athens kept its empire, and the Spartans went home.

Peloponnesian War A few years later, in 415 BC, Athens tried again to expand its empire and sent its army and navy to conquer the island of Sicily. It backfired. The entire Athenian army was defeated by Sicilian allies of Sparta and taken prisoner. They also destroyed most of the Athenian navy. Sparta took advantage of Athens’s weakness and attacked, starting the war up again. Sparta surrounded the city and cut off their food supply completely. In 404 BC, Athens surrendered.

Ripe for Invasion The war was over, and Sparta was in control. For about 30 years, Sparta controlled nearly all of Greece until other city-states started to resent them. This resentment led to a period of war where control shifted from varying city-states. All this fighting weakened Greece and left it open to attack.