Destruction of the Athenian Golden Age

711 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Explain how successful the Delian League was.

Road to self-destruction
Many circumstances led to the end of the Athenian golden age. Ironically, the formation of the Delian league marked the beginning stages of the end of the Athenian golden age. The same league that would prove instrumental in pulling up Athens from state to empire, eventually played a role in its destruction.
Athens harsh treatment towards other weaker states served as an instigator for hatred and resentment. No one state was strong enough to defend themselves against Athens’ pressures, as it had a very fortified navy. As Athens grew stronger, it also grew harsher and unintentionally isolated itself from all other Greek states. I say unintentionally because they did it for their own benefit and because of their power,
I imagine in their first meeting-the Peloponnesian league- , there would be an uproar of resentment, hatred and fire for revenge against Athens.
Consider that Athens, even after resigning member states from the Delian league from member status to subject status, was still charging them yearly tributes. States were contributing part of their economic output to Athens and this was in no way benefitting them. We could say that by strengthening Athens (and its navy) they were buying protection for themselves from invasion of foreign potential threats, but it must have been hard for them to just see it that way, when Athens was building expensive temples and architectural wonders using the leagues treasury. Athens was taking advantage of these states and they all had that feeling of resentment In common. It must have been very easy for Sparta to persuade other Greek states to join them in forming the Peloponnesian league. So now, think of the first meeting of the Peloponnesian league. What do you see? I see anger, hatred, a will for revenge and lots and lots of energy to uproot the Athenians from their
Let’s delve deeper into some details of the war.
Athens had the gold, they had the ships, and they had it all. To their disadvantage however, the Spartans and the Peloponnesian league would win the favor of a new rival to Athens; the plague.
When Sparta launched their attack, there was a huge migration of people deeper into Athens. Due to the congestion that must have caused, a massive plague spread killing almost a quarter of its army, sailors, thirty thousand citizens and its military leader Pericles. The chaos and loss of proper direction to lead the military in my opinion was most likely the factor that led to the Athenian defeat. Spartans were known for being great warriors, and I don’t doubt they used that opportunity to their full advantage. A disease-struck city with a leaderless army would have been a training exercise for the Spartans.

At the end of it all… Empire to

Show More
Related

  • The Old Oligarch: Revealing Athens as a World Class City

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    The effects of this go far beyond the imbalance of military power between Athens and her tributaries, however. The Old Oligarch lists four main areas where the existence of the Empire benefits the common people of Athens, thus giving impetus to radicalize democracy and justify the expansion and strengthening of the Empire, and giving is reason to find an ongoing justification for its existence. The first is the building of the disproportionately large Athenian navy. Second is the overall flattening of the Athenian social pyramid, raising the relative status of the lowest classes of society, and exemplified by the way that Athens becomes a magnet for aliens to live and work, and gives unusual freedom and opportunity to slaves. Third is that the allies are compelled to have their court cases tried in Athenian courts, bringing both prestige and financial reward to Athens. Finally, the centralizing effect of these things, and the obvious maritime nature of the Empire, make Athens a trading center, m...

    Read More

  • Delian League Strengths And Weaknesses

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    On one hand the Athenian’s unique style of government allowed a larger inclusion of people into the Polis through state pay for service. This inclusiveness gave the people of Athens a patriotic fervor that simply was not present on the same scale in other Greek Poleis. On the other hand, the main weakness of the Athenian Assembly was its unpredictability. The Demos was easily convinced into brash decisions by demagogues that cost the Delian League dearly in the long run. This unpredictability led to the League’s campaign into Egypt, where League forces sustained massive loses. Athenian’s elitist attitudes also contributed to further separation between Poleis where the League could have been used to increase Greek

    Read More

  • Peloponnesian War

    2670 Words  | 6 Pages

    Dating back to 449 B.C., Sparta and Athens always had an alliance, but as time grew that balance slowly began to fall as one felt threatened by another. Before any sight of unsteadiness the Spartans and Athenians had a bound partnership. Beginning after their domination of the Persian war, the two states slowly became aware of one another’s growing power. More time went by, and the Spartans began to grow conscious of the other states, feeling wary and paranoid around them (Fox, 170). No state was particularly to blame for the strain on their peace treaty, nor for the war, it came as the two states developed. Eventually the two states had clashed enough and declared war. Although the Spartans gave the Athenians a chance to back down and temporarily stall war, the two states would never be equal, their allies resented one another far too much. The growing urge for power was bound to take over sooner or later. Finally, after 7 years of uneasy tension, Sparta could wait no longer and declared war against Athens (Fox, 167). Although the Athenians and Spartans lived together in peace for so long, they existed in a fragile balance that was bound to eventually lead to war.

    Read More

  • Obituary Ancient Greece

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    Of all the history of the Ancient Greece, there were two events that showed really well how disunity among the Greeks highly contributed to its downfall, which were the Peloponnesian War and Successors’ War. Interestingly, both wars occurred after a unity and followed by a unity that was carried out by “outsiders”. This may have actually shown that the Greeks had never learned from their past

    Read More

  • A House Divided: Athens, Sparta, and the Inevitable Fall of Greece

    1920 Words  | 4 Pages

    Thucydides sets down the development of the relationship between the power of Athens and Sparta in the Archeology. Athens emerges from the Persian Wars as the undisputed commercial superpower in Greece. Where Sparta is located in the fertile Peloponnesus, and is thus able to sustain itself on agriculture alone, making trade unnecessary and allowing it to maintain its own laws and customs for “more than four hundred years” (I.18.1), Athens’ infertile land forces it to turn to olive oil for revenue, and it consequently develops a flourishing trade economy even before the Darius set his sights on Greece. The Persian invasion itself makes a sea power out of Athens, allowing it to establish a Mediterranean empire, and export its culture and government to the rest of Greece (I.18.2, I.6.3). This serves to unify the scattered Ionian and Doric cities under the umbrella of the Hellenes culturally where the Spartan campaign to remove tyrants unifies it politically by giving Greeks relative freedom and subordinating it uniformly to the law, and the joint coalition against the Persians ultimately secured it militarily (I.

    Read More

  • Political Differences Between Sparta And Athens

    1303 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Persian War, Sparta and Athens worked together to defeat the Persians. The discipline and strength of Spartan Army helped saved Greece from invasion. Afterwards Sparta and Athens alliances were formed. Athenians had superior naval force and enforced the democratic rule in states allied to Athens. Neighboring allied states depended on the trade provided by Athens navy. In the same time Athens had established themselves as the head of the empire. (Lecture 7 notes). Sparta had superior land army and they destroyed Athens crops in order to have a hold on Athens and force them to surrender. The war lasted 10 years with neither side winning the war. At the end they agreed to a truce. A few years later, Athens tried to conquer Sicily, but the Sicilians defeated Athens. Athens lost much of its army and navy. The Spartans took advantage of this weakness and attacked Athens and cut of their trade routes and food supplies. Spartans won and Sparta became the most powerful city in

    Read More

  • The Delian and The Peloponnesial Leagues

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    Facing starvation and disease, Athens surrendered in 404BC, along with its allies. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens be destroyed and all its citizens enslaved, hovever Sparta decided to take Athens into its own system.

    Read More

  • The Peloponnesian War

    2333 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, there has been only one which changed the course of Greek history forever; the Peloponnesian War. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its wake. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Peloponnesian War

    1502 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...s of the war itself, there are a number of crucial points which set the course of the tide, and I have tried to illustrate those which I consider to be most important and influential. In any case, it seems that if Athens would have continued with the policy of Pericles, she might not have been so weakened by the destruction of her superior naval forces, which, it seems, can largely be accounted for by Alcibiades and his supporters.

    Read More

  • Athens in the 5th century B.C.E: Athenians’ Golden Age

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    Following Athens’ victory over Persia, Athenians entered a golden age due to a strong economy, military and government and faith of the people. The Battle of Marathon took place in Athens in 490 BCE, and the citizens fought against the invading Persian army. Athenians were able to prevent Persian control of Greece, making it the first time Persians had been defeated on land. Because Persia was a superpower, the impact on Athens’ following the triumph was tenfold. Athenians viewed themselves as the epicenter of Greek culture and power. They now had a strong economy because Athenians’ wealth multiplied due to increased trade. Their trade had surged because of their newfound dominance of the sea due to their newly formed Delian League. This strong Navy was the brainchild of Athenian leader Pericles, formed because of widespread Greek fear of Persia’s return. All city-states give money to Athens for the Delian League, and this created a sense of security. Athens had an established government; a direct and limited democracy. Athenians were now more patriotic, prideful and loyal to their city-state now than ever, which they displayed through various cultural achievements such as those in architecture and literature.

    Read More

  • Athens vs. Sparta: Was War Between the Two Inevitable?

    2610 Words  | 6 Pages

    When two great and powerful city-states ban together for a common cause the results will in turn will have great expectations. Those expectations were met when an undermanned Greek army defeated the large Persian Army throughout the course of the Persian War. The problem occurs when each of the city-states’ own ego gets in the way of the cause. They handily defeated the Persians, but the Athenians took the credit for it, and paid homage to themselves, through elaborate celebrations of victory. In their minds, they were at the head of Hellas. The Spartans took exception to this and rightfully so. The credit has to go to them as well, for the large part that they played in the victory over Persia. This dissension in the end had a lot to do with the Peloponnesian War. Never mind the military structures and governments that each set up, which made their differences clear cut. There was no way to avoid the war between these two great powers, it was inevitable, just as Thucydides had predicted.

    Read More

  • What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Delian League

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Greeks of smaller city-states found the league a trap they were in from which they could no longer escape or secede and spare themselves from the overwhelming influence of Athens. The league became hegemonic and the Athenians were the “master brother” to whom it was obligatory for smaller city-states to offer not only arms, but financial contribution in the form of tax so Athens can make its bigger and stronger presence and share in defending the lands of the Greeks. With Athens espousing interest in forming a league that will continue fighting Persia, it now posed a threat as much as the Persians against its fellow Greeks in its ambition to become an empire. Eventually, it appears that the wars between the Greeks and Persia, and the civil wars among the Greeks were all needless to say the least and waste of resources and human life. In my view, it does exemplify my belief that all wars are unnecessary. The Greeks who were threatened by Persia ended up allying with the foreign enemy against their internal enemy. Sparta and other Greek city states went as far as receiving support from Persia to counter

    Read More

  • Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Peloponnesian War

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of those traits is that although Athenian citizens and soldiers live a more leisurely life and are not trained as rigorously as the Spartans in land warfare, Athenians’ natural courage makes up for that (Thucydides pg. 42). Athens was definitely the dominant naval power in Greece at the time, but the Athenians’ devaluing of land warfare led to a stalemate in the first phase of the Peloponnesian War before the Peace of Nicias in which Sparta ravaged Athens’ countryside and forced its citizens to be holed up in the city walls and to live in close quarters, making them susceptible to the plague. Another trait of Athens that can be argued as not a positive factor is its institution of democracy. Athenian democracy was quite limited in the modern sense since its citizenry only included ethnic Athenian males over the age of 20, but it was remarkable in the ancient world for the amount of civic participation it allowed of those that it considered citizens. The Athenians prided themselves on including people of lower economic status into the citizenry, but this trait may be not as positive as Pericles proclaimed (Thucydides pg. 40). In an oligarchic system such as Sparta’s, if the city-state was to win a war, it

    Read More

  • The Causes and Effects of the Peloponnesian War

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the years following the Persian Wars in 479 B.C., Athens had come out on top being the most dominantly powerful of any Greek city with a navy that had superior strength that increased day by day. The Athenians “ruled with heavy-handed, even brutal force as well as with reason” (Kagan 2). This was due largely to the fact that Athens had a stable and effective government, which only increased their advantage in proving themselv...

    Read More

  • Greek Golden Age Essay

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the year approximately 500 B.C., the Greek civilization came upon a time of peace. Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave

    Read More

More about Destruction of the Athenian Golden Age

Open Document