The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) weakened the Greek city-state system, causing widespread casualties and poverty. Divided into three phases, it was recounted by Thucydides and commented on by other Greeks, including Aristophanes, Euripides, Sophocles, and Aristotle. Sparta emerged victorious, fracturing Greece and setting the stage for further civil wars.
The Peloponnesian War was a military conflict in ancient Greece that lasted from 431 BC to 404 BC This period of conflict radically changed the political landscape of Greece, greatly weakening the classical city-state system that had dominated the region for over three hundred years before the outbreak of war. The events of the Peloponnesian War were also notable because this was one of the first military conflicts to be recounted by a contemporary, Ticydides, who wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War, a text which is still read and discussed today.
Most historians divide the Peloponnesian War into three distinct phases: the Archidam War, the Sicilian Invasion, and the Decelean or Ionian War. These conflicts were characterized by widespread casualties in which many civilians and bystanders died or suffered greatly from the destruction of crops and military maneuvers crowding people, increasing the risk of diseases such as the plague. By the end of the Peloponnesian War, a much weakened Athenian state had fallen and there was widespread poverty throughout Attica, the region of Greece that was once ruled from Athens.
During the Archidamian War, the Greek city-state of Sparta invaded Athens and the surrounding area. The two sides traded victories and losses as they fought for dominance in Attica for 10 years, finally signing the Peace of Nicias to end the conflict in 421 BC Shortly thereafter, however, Athens overran the city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily , unleashing a new wave of conflicts. During the Athenian assault on Syracuse, the Athenians suffered a series of defeats, weakening the Athenian army and especially their navy, and setting the stage for the final phase of the war, when Sparta invaded Athens with the assistance of the Persians.
During the Decelean War, the Spartans also encouraged their Athenian subjects to revolt, so Athens found itself under attack from within and without. This eventually proved too much for the troubled city-state, which surrendered victory in 404 BC By the end of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta had managed to fracture the city-state system, dominating Greece and setting the stage for further civil wars. and internal strife that finally brought Greece to its knees.
Besides Ticydides, other Greeks also commented and wrote about the Peloponnesian War, including Aristophanes, who satirized it in comedies, Euripides, Sophocles and Aristotle. The events of the Peloponnesian War attracted much attention among the Athenians and Spartans, who sensed that the war would have a dramatic impact on Greek society, as indeed it did.
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