Introduction


Thucydides wrote the first history of the Peloponnesian War (Library of Congress).
Ancient Greece was made up of a series of city-states, most of which were aligned with either Athens (the cultural hub of Ancient Greece) or with Sparta (the military powerhouse of the Peloponnesian Peninsula). Sparta was afraid of the growing influence of Athens, and war broke out between the two powers. Called the Peloponnesian War, the fighting was disastrous for Greece. At first it seemed that Athenians had the edge: they had money, powerful allies, and a great navy that could attack deep into Spartan territory. The Spartans had a formidable land army and fearless fighters. In the end, Athens fell in 404 BC because of a devastating plague, military incompetence, and poor leadership.

Essential Facts

  1. Sparta and Athens were complete opposites in all ways. While Athens was known for its trade, art, drama, and democracy, Sparta was known for its military prowess. Sparta was ruled by an oligarchy, and every aspect of its society centered on war. Boys left their homes at age seven to be trained for the military. Even Spartan women were trained to fight. In contrast, Athens was the home of philosophers such as Socrates and Plato as well as to the playwrights Sophocles and Euripides.
  2. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC, Athens was led by Pericles, a charismatic ruler with a great military strategy. Had things gone well for Pericles, the war might have ended years earlier with Athens as the victor. But only one year into the conflict, a great plague hit the densely populated Athens. Thousands upon thousands died, including Pericles and his sons.
  3. Pericles had predicted that Athens could defeat Sparta by waging a conservative war and refusing to be drawn into land battles with Sparta’s armies. He believed that if Athens withdrew into its walls and used its navy to attack deep into Spartan territory, they could defeat the Spartans. After his death, Athenian leaders rejected his wise strategy, with disastrous results.
  4. Most of what we know today of the Peloponnesian War is from the historian Thucydides. Considered by many to be the first true historian because of his insistence on accurate sources, Thucydides was an Athenian who actually fought in the war. Having been exiled for a failure in battle, he set out to write a history of the war.
  5. After ten years of fighting, a temporary truce was called. Sparta used the six-year truce to construct its own navy. In 404 BC, the Spartan general Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet, and Athens was lost.