Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC)

A Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) is an ancient Greek war that occurred between the two major Greek powers, Athens and Sparta, and their respective allies.

• Context:
  • It can (often) be divided into three major phases: the Archidamian War (431–421 BC), the Peace of Nicias Period (421–413 BC), and the Ionian War (413–404 BC).
  • It can (often) be defined by the rivalry between the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.
  • It can (often) involve notable battles and events such as the Siege of Plataea, the Battle of Sphacteria, the Battle of Mantinea, and the disastrous Sicilian Expedition.
  • It can (often) be marked by shifts in strategy, with Athens using its naval superiority and Sparta relying on its land-based Hoplite forces.
  • It can (often) involve major political figures such as Pericles, Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lysander.
  • It can (often) include diplomatic maneuvering, as seen in the temporary Peace of Nicias in 421 BC, which tried to halt the hostilities but ultimately failed.
  • It can (often) lead to political upheaval, including the establishment of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens after the war's conclusion.
  • It can be seen as a conflict between two political ideologies: Athenian Democracy and Spartan Oligarchy.
  • It can (often) have major consequences for all Greek city-states, weakening them and paving the way for Macedonian dominance in the following century.
  • It can (often) involve alliances with foreign powers, such as the Persian Empire, which supported Sparta financially during the Ionian War phase.
  • It can (often) influence subsequent Greek conflicts, including the Corinthian War (395–387 BC) and the Theban Hegemony.
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• Example(s):
  • Battle of Sphacteria (425 BC) — A significant Athenian victory where the Spartans surrendered, leading to a temporary advantage for Athens.
  • Battle of Mantinea (418 BC) — A crucial Spartan victory that temporarily restored its dominance over the Peloponnesian League.
  • Sicilian Expedition (415–413 BC) — A catastrophic Athenian military campaign that ended in a complete defeat, marking a turning point in the war.
  • Battle of Aegospotami (405 BC) — The decisive Spartan naval victory that led to the fall of Athens.
  • Siege of Plataea (429–427 BC) — A prolonged siege by the Spartans that demonstrated their strategic persistence.
  • Peace of Nicias (421 BC) — A temporary truce that ultimately failed to bring lasting peace between the two powers.
  • Battle of Amphipolis (422 BC) — A Spartan victory that killed both Athenian general Cleon and Spartan commander Brasidas, disrupting peace efforts.
  • Occupation of Decelea (413–404 BC) — A Spartan strategy to cripple Athenian supply lines, leading to the third phase of the war.
  • Naval Battle of Cyzicus (410 BC) — An Athenian victory that briefly restored its naval power.
  • Thirty Tyrants (404 BC) — An oligarchic regime established in Athens under Spartan control after the war’s conclusion.
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• Counter-Example(s):
  • First Peloponnesian War (460–445 BC), which was an earlier conflict between Athens and Sparta but ended with the Thirty Years' Peace.
  • Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC), which saw the Greeks united against a common enemy, unlike the Peloponnesian War's civil strife.
  • Corinthian War (395–387 BC), which involved different alignments of Greek states and was a reaction to Spartan hegemony post-Peloponnesian War.
  • Social War (357–355 BC), fought by Athens against its rebellious allies, but not a conflict between the major Greek powers.
• See: Classical Greece, Ancient Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, Delian League, Peloponnesian League, Thirty Tyrants, Spartan Hegemony, Classical Athens, Sparta, Pericles, Cleon.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War Retrieved:2024-10-3.
  • The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided until the later intervention of the Persian Empire in support of Sparta. Led by Lysander, the Spartan fleet (built with Persian subsidies) finally defeated Athens which began a period of Spartan hegemony over Greece. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. The first phase (431–421 BC) was named the Ten Years War, or the Archidamian War, after the Spartan king Archidamus II, who invaded Attica several times with the full hoplite army of the Peloponnesian League, the alliance network dominated by Sparta (then known as Lacedaemon). The Long Walls of Athens rendered this strategy ineffective, while the superior navy of the Delian League (Athens' alliance) raided the Peloponnesian coast to trigger rebellions within Sparta. The precarious Peace of Nicias was signed in 421 BC and lasted until 413 BC. Several proxy battles took place during this period, notably the battle of Mantinea in 418 BC, won by Sparta against an ad-hoc alliance of Elis, Mantinea (both former Spartan allies), Argos, and Athens. The main event was the Sicilian Expedition, between 415 and 413 BC, during which Athens lost almost all its navy in the attempt to capture Syracuse, an ally of Sparta. The Sicilian disaster prompted the third phase of the war (413–404 BC), named the Decelean War, or the Ionian War, when the Persian Empire supported Sparta to recover the suzerainty of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, incorporated into the Delian League at the end of the Persian Wars. With Persian money, Sparta built a massive fleet under the leadership of Lysander, who won a streak of decisive victories in the Aegean Sea, notably at Aegospotamos, in 405 BC. Athens capitulated the following year and lost all its empire. Lysander imposed puppet oligarchies on the former members of the Delian League, including Athens, where the regime was known as the Thirty Tyrants. The Peloponnesian War was followed ten years later by the Corinthian War (394–386 BC), which, although it ended inconclusively, helped Athens regain its independence from Sparta. The Peloponnesian War changed the ancient Greek world. Athens, the strongest city-state in Greece prior to the war, was reduced to a state of near-complete subjection, while Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece. The economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece, poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens was devastated and never regained its pre-war prosperity. The war also wrought subtler changes to Greek society, the conflict between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, each of which supported friendly political factions within other states, made war a common occurrence in the Greek world. Ancient Greek warfare, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states, complete with mass atrocities. Shattering religious and cultural taboos, devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece.

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