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A deal was struck where the Spartans promised the helots they could leave the citadel peacefully, if the helots promised to move outside of Spartan territory. The Spartans put down the helot rebellion on their own, but could not remove a band of helots from high on a mountain top fortress. The desperate Spartans asked Athens for help, but when the Athenians sent hoplites to Sparta, the Spartans, having second thoughts, sent them back to Athens. As you read in the last chapter, a great earthquake rocked Sparta in 465 BC. Let me give you one example of the distrust between the two city-states.
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What is interesting about that statement is that for the first time in history, emotion is said to be the cause of a war. Thucydides tells us that Athens greatness during this period brought fear to Sparta.
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Thucydides tells us that this was a time of distrust between Athens and Sparta. The Pentecontaetia “the period of fifty years” (a word created by Thucydides) was the time from the end of the Persian Wars to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. Apparently is was easy to join the Delian League, but impossible to back out, and the league was beginning to look more like an Athenian empire. Athens treated these city-states harshly by tearing down their walls, taking their fleet of ships, and insisting they continue to pay the league taxes. Athens stepped in and did not permit these Greeks to leave the league. Some of the islands in the Aegean wanted to leave the league, they no longer wanted to pay money and provide ships. The Delian League navy crushed the Persian navy so badly, that some of the Delian league members thought the threat by Persia was gone, and the league was no longer necessary. In 466 BC, an important battle took place at Eurymedon, off the coast of Asia Minor. If any one of the Delian league members was attacked, the other league members would come to their support. These wars turned very personal, as both Athens and Sparta felt that their way of life was being threatened by the other power.Īs you read in the last chapter, Athens, along with about 150 other city-states, formed the Delian League as a way to protect against a possible Persian invasion. Innocent school children were murdered, and whole cities were destroyed. During the Peloponnesian Wars, prisoners were hunted down, tortured, thrown into pits to die of thirst and starvation, and cast into the waters to drown at sea.
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Thucydides warns us in his histories that the longer wars go, the more violent, and less civilized they become. Prisoners were treated with respect and released. The losers were rarely, if ever, chased down and stabbed in the back. Before the Peloponnesian Wars, wars lasted only a few hours, and the losing side was treated with dignity. The Peloponnesian Wars were ugly, with both sides committing atrocities. From 431 to 404 BC the conflict escalated into what is known as the "Great War." To the Greeks, the "Great War" was a world war, not only involving much of the Greek world, but also the Macedonians, Persians, and Sicilians. Thucydides wrote a book called The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was ostracized after the Spartans' decisive victory at the Battle of Amphipolis in 422 BC, where Thucydides was one of the Athenian commanders. The Athenian Thucydides is the primary source of the wars, as he fought on the side of Athens. These wars also involved most of the Greek world, because both Athens and Sparta had leagues, or alliances, which brought their allies into the wars as well.
ANCIENT WARS SPARTA 2 ALEXANDER SERIES
The Peloponnesian Wars were a series of conflicts between Athens and Sparta. The Peloponnesian Wars ("The Great War" 431-404 BC)