The Peloponnesian War

The war between Athens and the Athenian empire versus Sparta, Thebes, Corinth, and other members of the Peloponnesian Confederacy 431 - 404 B.C.E. Large scale campaigns and heavy fighting took place from Sicily to the coast of Asia Minor and from the Hellespont and Thrace to Rhodes. It was the first war in history to be recorded by an eyewitness historian of the highest caliber. It has come down through history as the archetypal war between a commercial democracy and an agricultural aristocracy and a war between a maritime superpower and a continental military machine. Thycidides' history is itself a classic, which for generations was considered a foundation of a proper education. The war began on 4 April 431 B.C. with a Theban attempt to surprise Plataea, Athens' ally and outpost on the northern base of Cithaeron. It ended on 25 April 404 B.C., when Athens capitulated. The cities of the Boetian Confederacy under Theban leadership were Sparta's allies from the first. Syracuse and other Sicilian cities gave active help in the last part of the war. Argos, her hand tied by a treaty with Sparta, remained neutral during the first ten years, but as a democracy, was benevolently inclined towards Athens. Persia at first held aloof, waiting for an opportunity to regain her dominion over the Greek cities of the Asiatic seaboard, which Athens had liberated, but finally provided the crucial financial and logistic support required by Sparta to conduct a maritime offensive. Athens, was unpopular with many members of her own empire, but held most under control by her maritime supremacy. The war may be divided into three major periods or five phases: The Archidamian war: phase 1 431-427; phase 2 426-421 The Sicilian war: 421-413 The Ionian or Decelean War: phase 1 412-404; phase 2 407-404 [Greece Ancient War Links]