The Peloponnesian War: A war that destroyed Greece

The Peloponnesian War was a war between 431 and 404 BC. Athenian leaders Delian League and Sparta led the Peloponnesian League for a decade-long war. There were several truces between Athens and Sparta, but the war ended with the victory of Sparta. The war ended the classical era in Athens and the democratic era in Greece. As a result, the prosperous ancient Greece was severely damaged, which further led to the crisis of the Greek slave city-state, and made Greece gradually decline from prosperity. The war covered the entire territory of Greece at that time, and almost all the Greek city-states were involved. was also called "ancient world war " in modern studies.

The cause of the war

In the 5th century BC, Athens and Sparta united front and formed an alliance with the purpose of defeating the Persian Empire. The Delian League, also known as the Aegean League, is a voluntary alliance formed by the free cities of Greece to resist the Persians during the Greek War. Sparta also led its neighbors to form a defensive alliance called the Peloponnesian Alliance. Fifty years after the end of the war, the Hilo League is no longer what it was originally. Athens used the alliance to build a maritime empire for its own benefit. To this end, it used force to deter other federations and used funds from its allies to reduce other allies to the status of vassal. Those rebels were regarded as conquering nations, taking over their navy and extorting them with tribute. All countries that once enjoyed the free protection of Athens and became allies must pay taxes to the Athenians. The Spartans worried that Athens would extend its hegemony to all of Greece. To this end, Sparta led the neighboring countries to form a defensive alliance,It is called the Peloponnesian League, as a counterbalance to the hegemony of the Delian League. In addition, Athens has built a "long wall" to connect Athens with the seaport of Reus , so that this area of ​​the "road of life" for Athens is protected from land enemies. threat.

The conflict between Athens and Sparta dates back to 460 BC. As the power of Athens grew, Sparta's fear of Athens grew. When Megara finally withdrew from the Peloponnesian Alliance and defected to Athens, conflict broke out. This conflict that lasted from 460 BC to 446 BC is called the First Peloponnesian War, and is usually regarded as the prelude to the Peloponnesian War. In 446, the two sides drew a draw, and Megara returned to the Peloponnesian Alliance. The warring parties signed a 30-year peace treaty. When the peace treaty was signed, both sides felt that they were on an equal footing and needed a judge to judge right and wrong in the conflict. However, they made a very serious mistake. They excluded the "neutral" city-state from the peace treaty. In the 430 BC, on the edge of Greece, the small city-state Epidamus broke out in civil war. A fuse was ignited, and the subsequent series of events led to the outbreak of war.

The military forces of Athens and Sparta have their own advantages due to the geographical environment, and the two sides have different priorities. Athens relied mainly on its navy and allies to become the largest maritime hegemon. The alliance headed by Athens is mostly based on islands and coastal cities, and its strength lies in naval warfare. The most important thing about the Athens Navy is its three-row battleship and the geographic location of the Aegean Sea. The three-row paddle battleship is a light ship, not suitable for long-distance navigation in the deep sea.Once the weather turns bad, a safe haven must be found immediately. The beach is the best refuge, but the Aegean Sea is dominated by rocks and coral reefs, and there are few beaches. Appropriate shelters are usually in port cities. Therefore, for the Greek navy , the Allied port is very important. The Delian League was very important to Athens' trade and war. The Spartan Alliance, composed of the peninsula and some land cities, is a land-based country, and their power is concentrated in the spearmen .

At this time Athens is at the peak of its culture. From the perspective of political structure, Athens is a democratic society and Sparta is a mixed constitution. The allies of the two alliances also differ in political form. The difference in the form of consciousness between the two parties is crucial. Both sides want to extend their political system to other city-states. Athens respected the democratic factions, Sparta respected the noble factions, the democratic politics of Athens and the aristocratic oligarchy of Sparta were incompatible with each other and did not make concessions to each other. Economically, the two sides are still vying for the raw materials, slaves, and commodity sales markets, creating frictions. The political and economic contradictions between the two sides have become increasingly acute. It is worth noting that for the people at the time, democratic Athens was a city-state that oppressed and pursued freedom, while Sparta, who opposed democracy and militarism and oppressed the majority of the country’s people, was a free Greek guardian.

After the war

1. Ten-Year War
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was attacked at the end of 3rd span at the end of span 1span at the end of 3 years B.C.Because the sons of the two city-states belonged to the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League, a war was triggered. In May 431, King Archidum II of Sparta led an army of 60,000 to invade Attica , and the war was fierce. There are about 30,000 troops and 300 warships in Athens. In order to seize Attica, Sparta decided to take advantage of the military power of the two sides to seize Attica with the advantage of its own army, separating the Delian League and isolating Athens from the Delian League. Berkeley, the ruler of Athens, reacted immediately. Through the cooperation of land and sea, he defended by land and attacked by sea to attack the coastal areas of Peloponnese, forcing Sparta to reconcile. Around 427 BC, anti-Athens uprisings frequently took place in city-states such as Mytilene, and the form of Athens on land slowly became passive. In 425 BC, the Athenian navy incited Spartan slave riots in Pylos on the banks of the Messenia River and the nearby island of Sfaktyria, and also put Sparta in trouble.

In 422 BC, the two sides fought a fierce war in a small town called Amphipolis on the northern shore of the Aegean Sea. Both sides of the main war factions in Athens were killed in battle. The following year, the two sides signed the "Nikias Peace Treaty."



2, the Sicilian war

The signing of the 50-year peace treaty is nothing but a blank letter about "peace". Both parties failed to keep their promises and were unwilling to surrender the land. In the years after the treaty was signed, although no major battles took place, violations of the treaty increased. General Athens Alkibiades , , Nikias and Lamarcos led the expedition Sicily .Athens completed epic preparations in the early summer of 415 BC, with 136 warships, 5,100 heavy infantry, 480 archers, 700 slingers, 1,200 light and heavy infantry, and approximately 26,000. Oarsman. In addition, there are 30 merchant ships carrying bakers, masons, carpenters, food and a complete set of tools for building fortresses. Collected more than 100 ships, many people voluntarily to do business with the expeditionary army. This is the most spectacular and expensive voyage in the history of Athens.

The mighty fleet left the port, accompanied by waves and horns from afar, slowly sailing to the distant country. When the expeditionary army arrived in Sicily, the citizens' assembly ordered the suspected Alkibiades to return to China for trial. On the way back home, he took refuge in Sparta. Under the joint command of Lamarcos and Nikias , the Athenians initially won a small victory. With the death of LaMarcos, Nikias had to command the battlefield alone. The situation has reversed. Sparta and Corinth soon sent reinforcements. Although Athens sent more troops to support, Nicaea's command alone could not turn the tide of the battle. The entire army was destroyed in September 413 BC. Athens lost a large number of ships and horses, and suffered heavy losses. With Nikias killed. Athens has since lost its maritime advantage.



3. The War of De Keliya

413 BC,The Spartans occupied Attica and De Kyria for a long time, destroying and consuming the power of Athens. Athens was isolated from the outside world, agricultural production was completely paralyzed, 20,000 slave craftsmen fled the city, and the economy deteriorated seriously. In the last war, Athens spent all of its money to rebuild its fleet, and from 412 BC to 411 BC in Abydos, Kichikus was defeated Spartan's fleet. However, Sparta rebuilt the navy with the help of . Under the command of Lasander, the new fleet hit the Athenian navy at the mouth of the Sheep River near the in 405 BC, and then surrounded Athens from the sea and land, forcing Athens in 404. Surrendered in April of 1984 and accepted the humiliating peace treaty. In the peace treaty, Athens announced the dissolution of the Delian League and joined the Peloponnesian League; they demolished the long wall from Athens to the estuary; they withdrew the entire navy, leaving only 12 ships. Since then, Sparta replaced Athens as the overlord of Greece. As a result of the Peloponnesian War, all Greek cities, whether they win or lose, have been seriously damaged. In the 4th century BC, due to the socio-economic and political crisis of the city-state, Greece became a subject of Macedonia .



The result of the war

The scope of the war was quite extensive. The war spread to the whole of Greece, from Sicily to Turkey, from to Byzantium to Crete.The whole of Greece was thrown into this crazy war. People have started wars on every inch of soil, and gunpowder is everywhere. This war allowed Sparta to rule the whole of Greece and its oligarchy. Democracy forces in all states are being persecuted at the same time. The Peloponnesian alliance tended to disintegrate, and the oligarchy rule of Sparta caused many city-states to rebel, and countries expressed strong dissatisfaction. Subsequently, several relatively powerful city-states such as Thebes and Athens continued to fight for the hegemony of Greece. In the first half of the 4th century BC, the Greek civil war continued, consuming each other's forces, and was later destroyed by the long-awaited foreign enemy Macedonia. The once overlord of the sea could not escape the end of being destroyed in the end.

The Peloponnesian War occupies a very important position in ancient military history. In the battle of the sea passage between the two sides, the enemy's blockade and invasion from the sea has reached a very large scale; the occupation of the fort has created many new methods, such as flooding, burning and digging tunnels; the phalanx is still a battle formation. However, infantry can move up and down in dense and scattered formations; professional soldiers began to appear. These have had a profound impact on the Greek and Western European armies.

This war is of great significance not only to ancient Greece, but also to history itself. This itself is the first scientific and historical record of events: Greek historians Thucydides recorded these events in detail in his " Peloponnesian War History", The war ended in the winter of 411 BC. Thucydides analyzed the cause and background of the war, and his analysis can be said to have a pioneering effect in European history. After Thucydides, Xenophon continued the work of Thucydides in his "Hiero", recording events after 411 years.It is worth noting that the ancient Greeks of did not call this war the Peloponnesian War, but later people called it the Peloponnesian War.



Thucydides began to record when the war broke out, thinking that this may be very important, perhaps more meaningful than any history. He thinks so because both sides have exhausted their means. This war has profoundly affected Greece and a part of the barbarians. It can be said that this war has affected the entire human society. " The Peloponnesian War was a very cruel war that devastated its internal affairs and foreign affairs. Athens eventually lost its status as a great power in this war. But the end of the war brought a lot of damage. New hope, especially the hope for peace and freedom. Xenophon said when describing the surrender of Athens: "Everyone believes that from this day the freedom of Greece begins. "

The war ended the classical era in Athens and the democratic era in Greece, and brought about earth-shaking changes in the Greek country. This war has brought about tremendous changes to the situation in Greece. Probably more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Greek history Thucydides also thinks in this way. His explained this long war between Athens and Sparta in the book "History of the Peloponnesian War" that has affected the entire history of Greece: "The power of Athens continues The growth led to the fear of the Spartans, which made war unavoidable. "According to the American scholar Graham Allison's explanation, this means " A newly rising power will inevitably challenge the existing powers, and the existing powers will inevitably respond to this threat ”.

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