...Thucydides, an Athenian historian, political philosopher, and commander is more commonly known for his work surrounding the history of the Peloponnesian War. While serving his time as commander in the war he was exiled for his failure and wasn’t allowed to return to Athens until after the war had ended. While this may not have been ideal for him at the time, it gave him the opportunity to gather information from both opposing sides, Athens and Sparta, throughout the war. This then enabled him to write a direct and concise account of the war and to refrain from any personal opinion. He is commonly regarded as the father of philosophical history. His account of the Peloponnesian war is not only extremely accurate, but it chronicles a war that...
Words: 3905 - Pages: 16
...Although many groups are involved in the Delian League, some are not. The Spartans want to keep their unique way of life and they opt out of joining forces with Athens. Instead, they create the Peloponnesian group to combat the Athenian military. The Spartans gain allies after one small group of Greeks, the Melians, refused to join the Delian League and the Athenians killed them off (Crash Course World History, #5). Eventually, the Peloponnesian War breaks out between Athens, Sparta, and their respected allies. This war lasts for 27 years and causes massive destruction to the environment and the culture of the Greeks. In addition, the war creates major divisions between the Greek people. By the time the Peloponnesian War ends, there...
Words: 513 - Pages: 3
...Thucydides composes a book from the Peloponnesian War. “Often regarded as the father of realism, Thucydides was a historian and an original political thinker who described and analyzed social and political events.” (Korab-Karpowicz) In the introduction, it states several times that we do not actually know much about Thucydides. On the contrary, we do know some things though. It states that he was a young man, probably in his later twenties when the Peloponnesian War began. He was also from Athens and was considered to be a part of the aristocratic level of society. When the war began, he perceived that it would be a conflict on a scale without precedent and he wanted to become its historian. Thucydides was also a commander in the north-east...
Words: 1193 - Pages: 5
...The most important result of the Peloponnesian Wars is that Greece and other city-states lost their independence. Losing their independence made the Greek city-states easily conquerable by the Romans because they lost their unity as a military and were influenced politically by those they were conquered by. Before the Peloponnesian Wars began Greeks wanted to preserve the sovereignty of each city-state because they thought the independent city-state structure was a suitable political system. Athens wanted more power so they created the Delian League so that they can have power over the other city-states. Sparta and other Peloponnesian states feared Athens held too much hegemony over them but Athens wanted to maintain the power. With Sparta and Peloponnesian states disagreeing Spartans invaded in 431 B.C.E against Athens but failed. Spartans failure led to a brief peace between them and Athenians from 421-418 B.C.E after the peace Athenians attacked neutral states in the Aegean. The war led to the defeat of Athens, with the defeat the Delian League fell. The fall of the Delian League was a big result to the Peloponnesian wars because Athens lost all it power. Not having control over the other city-states and their loss of the military they no longer could have a...
Words: 430 - Pages: 2
...The peloponnesain war was a war that was fought by Athens and its empire against the peloponessain league led by sparta. The War shaped the waybyb. fI or how Greece developed after the war. There were 2 wars The Peloponnesian war was basically a greek civil war: Athens and its allies vs Sparta and its allies. although Sparta won, Greece as a whole was weakened and eventually conquered by tribal people of the north. During the war sparta told the other greek city states what athens was doing and they supported sparta persia also joined them to fight.In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' n and dehydration. in the war sparta was far superior to athens in hand to hand combat but athens was...
Words: 535 - Pages: 3
...Life in Athens during the time surrounding the Peloponnesian War was full of strife and clashing ideas. Having previously fought alongside Sparta in the Persian War years before, Athens was the site of various political partitions that deeply divided the city-state, and this division created many problems for the future. The Peloponnesian War not only drained Athens of its resources, it also created a barrier between the Athenians that would last for years to come. Democracy in Athens was not the same as democracy currently seen throughout the world; rather, it was based around public forums. When Athens came to take over other city-states, creating its own empire, many citizens of the Hellenistic world disagreed on what the proper form of government should be....
Words: 474 - Pages: 2
...One of the most historical wars was the Peloponnesian war. Fought between Athens and Sparta, the two leading city-states. From 431-404 BC. The fighting covered the entire Greek world. Although Athens and Sparta were at war for numerous years they have many similarities and differences. One of the similarities is women were oppressed in both societies. An example is women weren’t allowed to take part in government. Both also had Polytheistic religion. They worshipped gods of nature and emotions such as Zeus, Athena, Hades, Aphrodite, and Poseidon. They both held an event we still enjoy today, the Olympic games. Many events were held, including pentathlon, running, jumping, wrestling, boxing, pankration, equestrian events, and discus throwing....
Words: 398 - Pages: 2
...With the final push of the Persian Empire out of Greece, the end of the war represents the end of a era where Greece and its ideals were threatened by a great and powerful enemy. The epic victories against the Persians could also be considered miracles since the odds were stacked against them from the beginning. At the end of the wars, democracy took flight and religion flourished. The rebuilding of Athens, construction of many great temples including the Parthenon conveyed that religion may have actually been at the forefront of their society. Be that as it may, a transfer in power from the elite to the common man, the Peloponnesian War and the Great Plague that came next all contributed to a deterioration of religious belief. Only a...
Words: 284 - Pages: 2
...Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian War, attempts to create a lasting piece of literature to be used by future generations. He uses the Athenian empire as an example of how politics work, especially during times of war, and how they can change through speeches from major debates. Through these dialogues, Thucydides is able to characterize the Athenian empire as an imperialistic and arrogant force whose external popularity was awful and whose internal popularity gradually degraded as the war lingered on. One of the main questions that must be answered when determining the overall view of Athens is whether they were a tyranny or, what the Athenians believed, a democracy. At the outbreak of the war “so bitter was the general feeling...
Words: 610 - Pages: 3
...Last discussion, we focused on Thucydides’ motives and methods for his historical record of the Peloponnesian war. First, we established that Thucydides’ stated purpose was to create a lasting account of the war between Sparta and Athens and to inform future generations of the lessons in history. Thucydides, unlike his contemporary Herodotus, was alive for all of the events he described. As a result, much of his evidence his is based on speeches, which he and his informants were unable to perfectly record. In place of the exact words, Thucydides takes the general sense of the speeches and applies what in his opinion “was called for by each situation” (1.22) This methodology ties directly into Thucydides’ notion that human nature remains constant....
Words: 334 - Pages: 2
...The Peloponnesian War was a conflict between the Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta, from 431 BC that brought an end to the Hellenic age of Pericles and his empire by the succession of Sparta by the end of the war. Thucydides is seen as a ‘proto-realist’, one of the first realists in the study of politics that wrote in a more theoretical sense, as well as the founding father of International Relations. His study on the History of the Peloponnesian War provides awareness of the conflict and various analyses on the causes of the war by observing the strategic interaction between the states, hierarchy amongst the states along with legitimacy and levels of power to determine the pattern of their relations. Although there are undeniably numerous differences between Thucydides era and our world system today, Thucydides persists to influence contemporary international relations, namely Realism, with many realists frequently referring to the Melian Dialogue when advocating a power-based approach. With Thucydides often portraying insights into human nature, many scholars use his findings as a guide that is still relevant today due to the generality of self-interest, fear and power maximisation that still occurs as it did previously. Thucydides’ relevance today has been greatly perceived through his impact upon political realism in his studies concerning the concept of power politics. Whilst political realism expresses the view that international relations is the battle of self-interested...
Words: 2114 - Pages: 9
...Athens and Sparta had cooperated during the Persian War, but relations between these powerful states declined throughout the years. The Athenian pursuit of equality in their city combined with their growing domination abroad allowed Athens to attempt to create a land and maritime empire. This was one of the main causes for the First Peloponnesian War. The Delian League was initially established as a naval alliance among the Greek nautical states. Overtime, the aggressive policies of Athens converted the voluntary allies of the Delian League into the involuntary subjects of an Athenian naval empire. When Athens tried to expand their kingdom to the Greek mainland they encountered a series of battles with Sparta and its allies, which started the First Peloponnesian War. After a succession of defeats for the Athenians, their land empire began to collapse and they agreed to a thirty year peace treaty with the Spartans. Athens began to use the Delian League as its own empire. They eventually increased their control over it by gaining power of its treasury. The Athenian Pericles was responsible for taking Delian League funds for various projects. He constructed the “long walls” with these reserves enclosing Athens as well as the port of Piraeus. The Spartans saw this piece of land as an important part of their defenses and believed this gave the Athenians an unfair military advantage. Athens did not allow members of the League to leave their alliance. Each ally was charged a fee for...
Words: 711 - Pages: 3
...The Peloponnesian war was fought by the Greek city states of Athens and Sparta, and lasted between 431 BC to 404 BC. Before the war between the two had started they had agreed to a thirty year peace. They didn’t want to fight while recovering from the Persian War. Throughout this time Athens grew powerful and Sparta grew jealous and no longer trusted Athens. In 431 BC Sparta and Athens were on different sides of a conflict over the city, Corinth. Sparta declared war on Athens. The first war is sometimes called the Archidamian War after Sparta's King Archidamus II. This war lasted a good ten years. During the war the Spartans declared the land as Athens did the sea. Athens built long walls from the city to its seaport. The wall made it possible for them to stay inside the city and still have access to trade and supplies from their ships. Spartans never breached the walls of Athens during this war, however many people died due to plague including the general of Athens, Pericles. After ten years in 421 BC they agreed to a truce called Peace of Nicias. In 415 BC, Athens decided to help one of their allies on the island of Sicily. They sent a large force there to attack the city of Syracuse. Athens lost the battle horribly and Sparta decided to retaliate starting the Second Peloponnesian War. In 415 BC, Athens helped one of their allies on the island of Sicily. They sent a large force there to attack the city of Syracuse. Athens lost the battle and Sparta decided to start the Second...
Words: 368 - Pages: 2
...Greece, superior naval forces were every bit if not more vital to national defense. The idea of a strong navy was especially significant to the Greek nation of Athens. Many nations during that time would say that a superior navy was far more important than having superior land forces. With Athens and Sparta fighting countless battles for control over Greece a superior Athenian navy was more effective in war than a superior Spartan army. There were numerous reasons why Athens was able to have superior naval forces, but the largest reason was money. According to Anna Maria Gillis of Humanities.gov; when speaking of money in Athens “money mattered.” The Athenian empire was secured with continuous military victories over prospective invaders. This military success was due to Athens’ superior naval forces, and because of their victories Athens received large sums of money (tribute) from other Greek nations for naval protection. Athens used this income to bolster its navy by building more ships and paying their respective crews. Athenian naval personnel were highly experienced war fighters, and were led in battle by brilliant commanders. Standard Athenian naval strategies were based upon the concept that they would easily outmaneuver any invading land forces. With this concept, not only could an overwhelming naval fleet transport infantry around or behind invading forces, but the Athenian fleet would also be able to provide protection to vital supply lines. Unarmed...
Words: 1273 - Pages: 6
...The Persian Wars allowed to Greece to gain considerable power and prestige, create a great Empire due to the establishing of the Delian League. History is strewn with alliances and pacts that change with political ambition, power struggles internal and external which change with time; as we are witnessing today with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, emergence of Putin and China onto the global stage. The rise and decline of Athens, Persia and Sparta and emergence of Macedonia involved many such alliances, pacts between states. By 478 BC Athens emerged as the dominant power with Sparta disadvantaged despite being the dominant force in the Delian League not helped by internal strife and a devastating earthquake ,resulting in asking Athens help. It was the resulting consequence of involving Athens that a further 30 years of skirmishes between them which neither gaining the upper hand. The Second Peloponnesian War as the Greek historian Thucydides who lived through these events states :what made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear this caused in Sparta: The constant power struggles and alliances, skirmishes resulted in both Athens and Sparta being weakened undermining both. Athens second attempt to take Sicily was a disaster Thucydides......for they(Athenians) were utterly defeated; their sufferings on an enormous scale, army navy, everything was destroyed and out of many only a few returned. This defeat in Sicily was the turning point in this...
Words: 313 - Pages: 2
