Peloponnesian War, (– bce), war fought between the two leading city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta. Each stood at the head of alliances that, between them, included The Peloponnesian War Essay The Peloponnesian war (– BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens against the Peloponnesian led by Sparta. Thucydides famously claims that The Peloponnesian War was the longest war in Greek history. The rivalry between Athens and Sparta was bound to lead to the Great War it came to be. Both sides were left a disaster.
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DESTINED FOR WAR Jarod Bleibdrey, M. J January 20, As humans have evolved into vast, complex peloponnesian war essay, a growing trend became notable to mankind, which was corruption. Speculating that Herodotus was the first true historian, and Thucydides was the second, then the Peloponnesian War would be the first form of government corruption in which war became inevitable. At this point, peloponnesian war essay, the war varies in perception of the two great alliances, and why the war was even fought. This essay will demonstrate how the Peloponnesian War stood as a great example of how superpowers become thrust into battle with one another, peloponnesian war essay upon corruption, vast difference in lifestyles, and the urging from smaller entities.
With the focus laying upon the causes of the war, it becomes important to remember that, what began as a great alliance, turned into the devastation of Greece and allowed the conquest of Philip of Macedonia to commence. Let us begin with the peloponnesian war essay of Athens and Sparta, in an attempt to explain the vast contrast within the two peloponnesian war essay. The Spartans were obsessed peloponnesian war essay their military superiority, while the Athenians were interested in comfort and culture. Granted, the Athenian Navy was the strongest maritime force of the age, but more on this when we get to corruption. Order custom essay Peloponnesian War Research Pap. with free plagiarism report, peloponnesian war essay.
The culture of Athens and Sparta was different to their core; everything from political to daily living conflicted, causing them to become competitive and distrustful of each other. The Spartan government was a very complex structure, peloponnesian war essay, which consisted of a dual monarchy, a warrior assembly apellaa council of elders gerousia and the ephors. Herodotus claims that the two royal families of Sparta, which consisted of the Agiadai and Eurypontidai families, shared a common ancestry and could trace their lineage back to Herakles himself. Thus making the royal families by peloponnesian war essay lines, which would be unable to be displaced, as opposed to that of military power, which could be overthrown.
The kings were limited in their power as they only held command of the military. They had no influence in the laws which were left to the apella, gerousia and ephors. The apella was composed of every Spartan warrior who had reached peloponnesian war essay age of thirty. The apella held the ultimate power on matters of legislation and policy. The manner in which they voted was through a process of acclamation. Above the apella was the gerousia, which consisted of the two kings and twenty-eight members of Spartan warriors who had reached the age of sixty. The members elected into the gerousia served a life term, and could only be removed by the ephors, peloponnesian war essay.
The true nature of the gerousia is unknown, but Herodotus wrote the gerousia could serve as a court to hear capital cases. The last political body of the Spartans and possibly the most important is that of the ephors. The five ephors were freely elected each year and attended much of the daily business of Sparta. Each month the kings peloponnesian war essay the ephors would exchange oaths, to which each pledged to uphold the position of the other. The ephors were the true controlling body of the Spartans, and thus resembled an oligarchy rule. It was this oligarchic rule of the ephors which insisted on the agoge, and placed Sparta into a militaristic focused city-state.
The government in Athens followed a very different course than Sparta. Athenian citizens had the duty to vote or hold office. During the 6th century B. This early form of democracy was lead by Cleisthenes who created the Assembly, peloponnesian war essay, which comprised every citizen of Athens, and the Council of Five Hundred. This Council was comprised of fifty representatives from each of the Ten Tribes of Athens. This ensured each tribe had an equal say in the creation of laws and election of leaders. To ensure equality, the law was set that each member of the fifty from one of the ten tribes must not be related, nor hold the same occupation as any other member…to ensure there was no nepotism or common vestment.
The Council of five hundred represented the legislative body of Athens. The executive power was placed peloponnesian war essay the Strategus, in which 10 generals were elected into office for one year terms, of these 10 strategi, one was elected as leader of the group and served as commander in chief. The judicial power of Athens was placed with the Areopagus, or the Supreme Court. This body was made up, primarily, of wealthy land owners who had been elected as archons judges in the past. This legislative, executive and judicial branched government is reminiscing to all modern day democracies.
The major deviation from modern times being that Athens was a direct democracy, in which the citizens had to be present to vote. Each branch of the government was capable of vetoing one another, peloponnesian war essay, thus establishing a check and balance system. It was also customary to expel from the country, any speaker who became too powerful, in a process called ostracism. Every year the Council voted and one member would be ostracized banished for a period of ten years. Athens would vote by tossing colored rocks into a giant pot, peloponnesian war essay. This would be a very time consuming process as each topic would have orators speak on its behalf, and upon conclusion of the debate the voting would begin.
The rocks were either white or black, where white stood for approve and black represented a denial. When choosing a person to ostracize, broken shards of pottery called ostrakon would be used with the intended person of exile name, etched onto the shard. This would take a long time and thus the Athenians prided themselves upon their dedication and attention to detail. This could have lead modern historians to view the Spartans as impulsive, and the Athenians as cautious. This has been a major misconception, as evident by the speech given by King Archidamus of Sparta, in which the Spartan King asked the council to exercise reason and caution before declaring war upon Athens. In turn, Pericles himself urged the Athenians to war against a dominant land army. Another difference between the two great city-states was their daily living and how it affected the trade in the two cities.
The Athenian economy was heavily dependent upon foreign trade and because of their location on the Aegean Sea, maritime became life, and the sea meant life and livelihood, peloponnesian war essay. While trade was a necessity in Athens, Sparta relied upon their slave labor. Since Sparta was cut off from the rest of Greece by two mountain ranges there was little trade being conducted, and thus alliances ere not a suitable strong point of Sparta. The Spartans rarely traveled from their city-state or allowed foreigners into it, thus making the only true vantage of joining Sparta, being that of their reputation in battle, peloponnesian war essay. With Sparta being an isolationist state, their perception would have been considered truth and fact, no matter what was written of them.
One of the greatest differences between the Athenian and the Spartans regarded their attitude towards women. The role of women in the Greek city states of Athens and Sparta sheds light upon the acceptable values of their time. Spartan women had similar equality peloponnesian war essay their male counterpart except for voting rights, peloponnesian war essay. Spartan women did little housework or sewing, as they relied upon their slave labor to conduct the daily chores. Due to the men being in the military and peloponnesian war essay away from home, the women had full authority over their households and were not forced into a life of only childbearing and housekeeping.
Since Spartan women demonstrated a greater authoritative influence, peloponnesian war essay, the nation thrived and became a beacon of advancement, peloponnesian war essay, which would truly be a closer resemblance to modern civilizations than Athens. When Athenian girls came of age, their fathers offered them for marriage. Even as wives, they were required to stay indoors at all times, and their primary life tasks were child rearing, housework, and sewing, peloponnesian war essay giving them no possibility to contribute to the Athenian's development and culture. Sparta was uneasy, perpetually concentrating on war and the state of Sparta as a whole, while the Athenians focused their attention on comfort and found time to foster great thinkers in science, philosophy, peloponnesian war essay, literature…etc.
With their differences in government, physical surroundings and views on women, Sparta and Athens represented the two very different ways a polis could have been back in the fifth century of Ancient Greece, and thus set them-selves on a crash course for supreme dominance, but war and battle would hold a true value to the Greeks, and so it was battles which lead to great alliances and enemies. In BC, following the defeat of Xerxes' invasion of Greece, Pausanias the Spartan led Hellenic forces against the Persians. He was an unpopular commander who may have conspired with the Persiansand Sparta was eager to stop prosecuting the war. Sparta surrendered the leadership of the ongoing campaign to Athens, whom was eager to accept it. The Athenians now peloponnesian war essay their opportunity to take the reins and gain glory for themselves and Greece.
The Delian League was inaugurated in BC peloponnesian war essay an offensive and defensive alliance against Persia. The principal cities in the League were Athens, Chios, Samos, and Lesbos, but many of the principal islands and Ionian cities joined the league, peloponnesian war essay. Athens led the Delian League from the beginning, though at its founding the treasury was located on the island of Delos, and each state in the league had an equal vote. The assessment due from each state was assigned by Aristides the Just, leader of the Athenians; peloponnesian war essay members were assessed ships, others troops, others weapons, and others money.
A council of all the cities met at Delos regularly, probably when bringing their assessment to the island. The turning point of the Delian league occurred in BC, when Cimon was ostracized, peloponnesian war essay was succeeded in his influence by democrats like Ephialtes and Pericles. This signaled a complete change in Athenian foreign policy, neglecting the alliance with the Spartans and instead allying with her enemies, Argos and Thessaly. Megara deserted the Peloponnesian league and allied herself with Athens, allowing construction of a double line of walls across the Isthmus of Corinth, protecting Athens from attack from that quarter.
Around the same time they also constructed the Long Walls connecting their city to the Piraeus, its port, making it effectively invulnerable to attack by land. The Athenian dominance within the Delian league was unmatched and unquestioned; this led to major changes within the Delian league and Athens. This progression and events will be discussed later within this essay. Reverting back, peloponnesian war essay, the Delian league was not the only alliance within Greece, as the Spartan lead Peloponnesian league also took root. In the second half of the 8th century B. The land was turned over to Spartans and the Messenians turned into helots.
The Messenians revolted in the middle of the next century, but after 17 years, the Spartans prevailed. By the time the Spartans were attacking the Arcadian city of Tegea, in the 6th century; her plans for the conquered citizens had changed. Tegea was made a dependent state obligated to furnish troops. Sparta soon created a confederacy of most of the other Peloponnesian states according them a similar arrangement: Sparta was in charge known as the hegemon and they would supply troops. Each had its own treaty and sent deputies to help in decision-making. This became known as the Peloponnesian League.
Unlike that of the Delian Peloponnesian war essay, the Peloponnesian league has no official start date, as each treaty was collected and approved over time and in that time the tag name of Peloponnesian league was given. Under the protection of the Spartans, their allies enjoyed a voice when they would have been forced to remain silent. Unlike Athens, the Spartans did not make their allies pay any tribute, but they did ensure they were governed by oligarchies who would work in the interest of the Spartans. It is important to note: Argolis and Achaea were excluded from this league.
Argos and Sparta had been at odds over the territory of Thyreatis. Their first battle had proved to be inconclusive, as the story goes, all but one on the Spartan side and two on the Argive side were killed. The Argives claimed the victory because more survived, and went back home.
Geopolitics of the Peloponnesian War, Part 1: Thucydides' Trap
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Peloponnesian War essay Free Essays, War Melisippus, ambassador of Sparta said that these conflicts will start the malevolence in Greece. He could have said this because there is no The Peloponnesian War Essay The Peloponnesian war (– BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens against the Peloponnesian led by Sparta. Thucydides famously claims that The Peloponnesian War was the longest war in Greek history. The rivalry between Athens and Sparta was bound to lead to the Great War it came to be. Both sides were left a disaster.
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