Peloponnesian War Essay
“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”, said Thucydides, the Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides described the conflict between Athens and Sparta that ended the Golden Age. The war is called Peloponnesian, because it corresponded Sparta’s alliance against Athens and the Delian League. According to historical records, there are enough reasons to say that it was more Athens’ fault. The evident includes emergence of innovation ideas that significantly affected the Athenian society, rejecting the ultimatum by Pericles, failure to negotiate peace with Sparta, rejecting a peace and attacking Spartan allies, …show more content…
These intellectual changes led to a political tension by harsh treatment of its own allies and economic sanctions against Sparta’s allies (Hunt 90). Athenians started to connect philosophical ideas to a nature of justice that influenced the perception of its foreign policy in general.
The second fault from Athens’ that eventually became the reason of a beginning of the Peloponnesian War was a rejecting the ultimatum from Sparta. Sparta was alarmed by Athens’ rapid growing and started to get complaining from Corinth and Megara, crucial Spartan allies. Sparta’s leaders therefore gave Athens an ultimatum- stop mistreating our allies. However, Pericles convinced the Athenian voters to reject the ultimatum. Some Pericles’ critics claimed he was insisting on war against Sparta (Hunt 100). These disputes had shattered the peace treaty between Athens and Sparta.
The next reason is the Athens’ failure to negotiate peace with Sparta when it had the chance. When Sparta made the first strike of the war, Pericles advised two strategies to win. The first one was using the navy to raid the lands of Sparta. Another one required a sacrifice of a valuable property. Athens’s people were supposed to stay behind the impermeable walls, but emergence of plague killed thousands of population as well as Pericles himself (Hunt
A Primary Text Analysis: The Funeral Oration Of Pericles
664 Words | 3 PagesPericles argues that Athens has become a model for others, and articulates what it is to be a good citizen. This can be seen when he says, “although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.” (Thucydides, 2.39) It proves that Ancient Athens’ valued greatness and worked in order to achieve the excellence of the state, by focusing on rebuilding themselves back up after the Persian war. Pericles played a big role in this because he showed his ambitions to rebuild Athens, which lead to the thriving of other subjects such as literature, philosophy, science, art, and religion.
How Did Thucydides Affect The Peloponnesian War?
824 Words | 4 PagesBeing alive to witness the events that occurred in and around fifth century B. C. E. Greece meant that Thucydides could not help but write down his experiences. The Athenians of Greece and the people of the Persian Empire were constantly at odds with each other, and these differences eventually led to the Peloponnesian war. This war lasted from 431-404 B.C.E. and began an era of conflict between the two peoples (Bulliet). This power struggle not only inflated the ego of the Athenians, but created many negative viewpoints of the Persians. Thucydides, being an Athenian, was therefore extremely biased against the Persians.
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1229 Words | 5 PagesThe outcome of their differences made the entire Greek world a loser (Spielvogel). The government system
Why Did Athenian Democracy Spur On The Peloponnesian War
675 Words | 3 PagesAthens constructed walls around its empire to save them from Spartan attack when the Persians fled Greece. This enraged the Spartans, but still made no moves to attack. Athens sided with Megara in the Megara and Corinth war, which, in turn, resulted in ‘The First Peloponnesian War’ between Athens and Sparta - each standing at the head of alliances that, combined, included nearly every Greek city-state. This war was a series of conflicts and minor wars, such as the Second Sacred War. The fighting was regarded by Thucydides as the most momentous war thus far.
Thucydides Decisions In The Peloponnesian War
701 Words | 3 PagesBefore even mentioning the expedition, Thucydides’ text suggests that he was unhappy with the demagogues, the popular leaders in Athens following Pericles’ death. Thucydides found Pericles to have been an ideal leader for the people, both in and out of war; moreover, he links straying from Pericles’ plan of attack for the Peloponnesian War to Athenian defeat. Pericles instructed the city to avoid new conquests, avoid exposing hazards to the city, and care for their ships; instead, Thucydides attributes diverging from the plan
Surrounded By Glory: Pericles Impact On Society
491 Words | 2 PagesPericles’ actions shaped his society in a number of ways, socially economically and politically.
Pericles Peloponnesian War Essay
513 Words | 3 PagesIn fact, Pericles dominated Athens Politics from 461 BCE to 429 BCE (Brand, n. d.). Basically, the whole Greek world including Athens and Sparta fought as a kind of "Greek World-War". Additionally, in 431 BCE, Pericles led Athens for the first series of Peloponnesian war against Sparta. While starting the war, the Athens was quite great in navy, good annual revenue of silver from the silver mines located at Attica, and the tribute payment from her empire.
Summary Of Pericles Objectives During The Peloponnesian War
1125 Words | 5 PagesThe Athenian City State objectives had two different strategies during the Peloponnesian War. The first strategy set forth by Pericles’ was to the use the powerful Athenian Navy to preserve all current resources in the empire and to protect Athens. The second strategy which the established by the assembly supported by Cleon and Nicias was an offensive strategy in order to expand the growth of the empire however, it drained resources and exposed Athens to significant risk. Each strategy presented significant risks and levied different requirements on means and ways as Athenian leaders tried to protect and enhance the empire.
Pericles Strategies During The Peloponnesian War
1047 Words | 5 PagesAthens had the means to support the war due to the immense wealth and the resources remitted from Athenian colonies and allies. He figured that they would outlast the Spartans do to their limited wealth and resource base available to them. To ensure that the means of Athens were maintained, she was required “to keep a tight rein on their allies” since without their allies the support being provided and remittance of resources would dry up. During the Spartan raids into Attica in attempts to draw out the Athenian army, the ever present risk that was present to answer the raids due to the honor which called the people to defending their homes and lands. Pericles minimized the risk by not calling an assembly or meeting the people, which could reverse the strategy that he outlined.
Pericles Presentation Of Attributes During The Peloponnesian War
616 Words | 3 PagesThe Peloponnesian War was a difficult period in Athenian history. Every victory was quickly followed by a crushing defeat. The overall morale of the Athenian people was low. During the funeral oration, Pericles gave a speech with this thesis: In order to protect the splendor and ideals of Athens, the Athenian citizens needed to undergo hardship for her sake.
Boundless World History: Democracy In Athens Was Overthrown In 411 BCE
353 Words | 2 PagesAs we had read in the assignment titled ‘Boundless World History’, “Democracy in Athens was overthrown in 411 BCE because of its poor handling of the Peloponnesian War.” Athens and Sparta had engaged in the Peloponnesian War that was between 404 and 431 BCE. In ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta were two of the most important city-states. According to most historians, the Peloponnesian War battle, which was supposed to have almost consumed the entire Greek world, was the most important battle of its time. Since Sparta won and Athens ultimately lost the Peloponnesian War, it can be stated that Athens was unable to accomplish the Peloponnesian War successfully.
Peloponnesian War Rhetoric
1304 Words | 6 PagesPericles explicitly describes how Athens is definitely equal to Sparta, and in fact better, because it has the supply of more troops. Pericles additionally explains Athens’s superiority in terms of its navy, citing that Sparta could never surpass it even if it gained enough supplies (1.143). In his funeral oration, Pericles also loquaciously praises Athens’s government and culture, even saying that the city is “the school for Hellas” (2.41.1). Pericles’s utilizes multiple examples to explain the greatness of Athens, suggesting the idea that this is a country any man should be willing to fight for. Additionally, Pericles infuses a persuasive rhetorical question in his oration: “Did not our fathers resist the Persians…and advance their affairs to their present height?
Athenon Vs Sparta
530 Words | 3 PagesThe Spartans had a very conservative foreign policy, since they did not want to risk a Helot revolt while they were away at war. Spartan discipline did produce magnificent soldiers, inured to hardship and blind obedience to authority, but with little talent for original thinking or self-discipline. Thus, these huge differences between Spartans and Athenians made Peloponnesian War unavoidable. Thirdly, the effects of Peloponnesian War were devastating to the Greek society.
Thucydides Grievances
444 Words | 2 PagesThe historian Thucydides described himself as a wealthy Athenian general whose exile to the Peloponnese allowed him to personally observe, from both the sides of the conflict, a comprehensive account of the Peloponnesian War. Book 1 in Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War” is dedicated to explaining over fifty years of the events and proceedings that led to the abandonment of the Thirty Year’s Peace and subsequent war. In Book 1 he identifies four main incidents, which I shall refer to as ‘grievances’, regarding the conduct of Athens towards both their Delian members and the Peloponnesian allies. Yet he also mentions what he deems to be a more ‘real’ truth than these four grievances that led to Sparta and the Peloponnese going to
Pericles And Oedipus Comparison Essay
963 Words | 4 PagesIt is possible that Sophocles was making a comparison between Pericles and Oedipus because they(Sophocles and Pericles) were alive during the same time period(497 B.C.-405 B.C.) and Sophocles probably witnessed the life of Pericles: his rise to power, his great exploits and his death. Also, Sophocles wrote about a great plague in the text, one that caused great sorrow and misery and this is said to be a reflection of the plague in Athens that started 430B.C. The similarities between both men and the effect of Sophocles' comparison will be discussed. Pericles was a pioneer that brought democracy to Athens. He was a politician and worked his way to the top defeating his opponents and leading the Athenians in battles victoriously.
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