Peloponnesian War Essay

The Peloponnesian war involved Greece’s two most prominent city-states, Athens and Sparta, between 431-404 BC. Both Athens and Sparta held numerous alliances, causing essentially the entire ancient Greek world to be engulfed in war. The Peloponnesian war was perhaps one of the most momentous wars of its time and is meticulously documented in the historian Thucydides contemporary account History. Thucydides stated that the most prominent cause of the war was Sparta’s unease at the rapidly growing power and capital of Athens. Other events caused friction between the city-states, notably Athens intervening in a dispute between Spartans ally, Corinth, and her colony Corcyra over the city of Epidaurus. The revolt of Potidaea against Athens and the Peloponnesian Leagues interference in the event caused an undeniable tension across the Greek world. It was perhaps Athens hostile decrees against Sparta’s ally Megara that made war inevitable.

Thucydides’ Histories has been the most prominently referred to source for the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war. Thucydides history is a primary source of the Peloponnesian war for the period of 479 to 411 BC as he served as an Athenian general in the war.

The empire of Corcyra was an ally of neither the Peloponnesians nor the Athenians but its vastly growing naval power evoked a strong concern in both of the empires. Corcyra was a neutral colony of Spartan’s ally Corinth but Athens, being determined to grasp the city’s rapidly expanding fleet, intervened when problems with Epidamnus arose. Corcyra had instilled its own colony at Epidamnus, it was there a civil war erupted between monarchs and oligarchs. The democrats of the state turned to Corcyra for aid but were refused, leading them to seek ...

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...by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. For Alexander Donaldson, and sold at his shops in London and Edinburgh.)

It is evident through Plutarch that the inimical decrees against Megara could very well have been caused by Athens lingering resentment over Megara assisting Corinth in the battle of Sybota. It can also been seen that Pericles and by extension the Athenians were under the impression that Megara had been cultivating sacred land. One of the decrees that Pericles declared against Megara was that all merchants from Megara were banned from ports belonging to the Athenian empire. This was yet another way the Athenians aggravated and caused difficulties for the Peloponnesian league without technically infringing any terms of the Thirty Years’ Peace. This inability to access Athenian ports greatly devastated Megara’s economy, causing Sparta to become involved and assist.