The Peloponnesian War began in 431 BCE as tensions grew between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. A series of military campaigns and battles ensued over decades as each side tried to gain the upper hand. A key turning point was the disastrous Sicilian Expedition launched by Athens in 415 BCE, in which their entire expeditionary force was defeated and destroyed. This seriously weakened Athens and allowed Sparta to invade Attica. Athens ultimately surrendered in 404 BCE, losing its naval empire and political influence in Greece.

1. The Peloponnesian WarThe Peloponnesian War
a.k.a.
“Ain’t Democracy
Wonderful?”
a.k.a
“Ain’t ‘Doh’mocracy
Wonderful?”

2. How It All Began
 Remember how the Greeks established
colonies in Asia Minor?
 Remember how the Athenians and other
Greeks helped the Greek city-states in Asia
Minor revolt against the Persians?
 Remember how Darius didn’t get mad – he
got even?

3. Trying to Get Even Backfires -
1
 Darius invades Greece in 490 BCE
 Athenians defeat a much larger Persian
force at Battle of Marathon.
 Pheidippides – The human counterpart to
Argos!
 Athenians begin to strut their stuff because
Darius retreats

4. Trying to Get Even Backfires -
2
 Xerxes invades Greece in 480 BCE
 Spartans at Thermopylae
 Persians torch Athens
 Athenians defeat Persian navy at Battle of
Salamis
 Xerxes retreats

5. Trying to Get Even Backfires -
3
 Xerxes invades Greece again in 479 BCE
 Athenians (and others) defeat Persians at
Battle of Platea
 Xerxes retreats again

6. Trying to Get Even Backfires

7. The Athenian Empire
 Following the Persian War, Athens
exaggerated the threat of another Persian
invasion to other city-states
 Then Athens suggested that other city-
states join it in a ‘mutual’ defense treaty
– Can you say ‘Warsaw Pact’
– Can you spell NATO?
 Other city-states then paid money to
Athens so that Athens would ‘protect’
them from the Persians

8. The Evil Empire - I

9. The Evil Empire - II

10. The Evil Empire - III

11. How Did the Athenians Create
Their Empire?

12. I’m gonna make you an offer
you can’t refuse

13. Growth of the Empire
 From the end of the Persian Wars in 479
BCE to the beginning of the Peloponnesian
War in 431 BCE, the Athenian Empire
grew by leaps and bounds

14. What the Hell(as) is a
Peloponnesus?

15. And Why Was a War Named
After It?
 Athens created Delian League
 By 431 BCE, Delian League covered
almost entire Aegean Sea
 Sparta becomes paranoid about expanding
Athenian hegemony (Ever heard of the
‘Red Scare?’)
 Sparta convinces numerous city-states on
Peloponnesus to join the Peloponnesian
League, another mutual defense
arrangement

16. Let’s Pick Sides and Do Rumble

17. Flashpoint
 Thebes (Peloponnesian League) attacks
Platea (Delian League). Athens comes to
aid of Platea, Sparta comes to aid of
Thebes.
 Corinth (one of richest and most powerful
city-states) joins Sparta

18. It’s Stella Bella Time

19. Reasons for War
Spartan land dominance, Athenian sea
power
Corinth: “Athens is a threat to Greek
liberty.”

20. Reasons for War
 Corinth – 2nd largest naval power
 Athens - natural leader of the Greeks
 Sparta – fears Athens

21. Athenian Strategy
 Pericles’ plan pays off, as the Athenians
can get supplies through the long walls,
and with the help of their fleet.

22. The City Secured
 All of Attica (area around Athens)
withdraws into the city
 Spartan army invades, ravages countryside
 Walls protect food supply

23. But the Plan is Flawed . . .
 Can’t attack from within
 Can’t keep thousands stuffed inside city
 Can’t outlast the plague

24. The Plague
 “In general, there was no known cause, but
people in good health were all of a sudden
attacked by violent heat in the head and
red and inflamed eyes, and internally the
throat and tongue were bleeding . . . The
body itself was not very hot, nor pale, but
reddish, livid and breaking out into all
manner of pustules and ulceratic wounds.”

25. The Death of Pericles
 429 BCE
 Oligarchs (favored peace with Sparta) vs.
Democrats (wanted to continue war)
 Why would poor want to continue war?

26. Cleon the Democrat’s Plan
 Invade Sparta
 Logic: Deter Spartans from invading
Attica
& Helots will revolt
425 BCE – invades with army, dead in 422

27. The Peace of Nicias
 Nicas negotiates a treaty
 30 year truce that lasts only 7 years
 Everyone goes back to their land
 But pro-war faction does not vanish

28. FB Photo of Nicias

29. Alcibiades the Agitator
 Everything you could want in a politician:
 Young, good speaker, clever . . .
 Highly educated, daring,
 Student of Socrates
 Nephew of Pericles
 But best of all, he threw the best parties in
town

30. DOC Photo of Alcibiades

31. With a leader like this, what
could go wrong?
 He is politically amoral
 Picks the war effort because it suits him
 Wants to lead and this side needs a leader
 By 420 he is strategos
 Figures out how to attack
 Up until now, the plan had only been how
to defend Athens

32. Alcibiades’ Plan –
The Sicilian Expedition
 Sparta depends on Magna Graecia for
supplies and Corinth for trade
 Cut off the supplies, and you have victory
 Go for Syracuse

33. Magna Graecia

34. Could this plan work?
 Capture Syracuse (main city in Sicily)
 Capture Sicily (the breadbasket of Europe
for millennia)
 Cut Corinth and Sparta off from trade and
supplies

35. Problems
 How to get the fleet past Corinth?
 Could an Athenian army take Syracuse?
 How could Athens afford this?

36. Alcibiades’ Speech
 “Know that we shall increase our power at
home by this adventure abroad . . . Let us
humble the pride of the Peloponnesians by
sailing off to Sicily . . . And at the same
time we shall become either masters, as we
very easily may, of the whole of Hellas . . .
Or in any case ruin the Syracusians, to no
small advantage to us and our allies.”

37. Nicias’ Argument
 Need large land army
 ? Feasibility of plan
 Take all supplies along
 Very expensive
 “With this Nicias concluded thinking that it
would either disgust the Athenians by the
magnitude of the task . . . or that they
would be persuaded to do this in the safest
way possible”

38. Nicias’ Devious Plan
 Nicias realizes that the Athenians will vote
for war
 In a last desperate attempt to dissuade the
Athenian assembly (i.e., all of the citizens
of Athens voted), he proposes a
ridiculously expensive, outlandish plan
that he believes no one in his right mind
would adopt

40. Who Should We Put In Charge?

41. Who Should We Put In Charge?

42. Who Should We Put In Charge?

43. The Leadership Troika
 3 Commanders to keep things fair and
balanced . . .
 Alcibiades
 Nicias
 Lamachus

45. The Expeditionary Force
 134 triremes, 27,000 men
 Treasury is emptied as a result

46. The Night Before
 Alcibiades throws a party to end all parties
the night before the expedition is set to sail
 His friends ‘worship Dionysus’ then start
lopping off parts of statues of Hermes
(herms)

47. The Morning After
 Bright and early the next morning, the fleet
sails for Sicily
 When Athenians wake up they see the
dismembered herms
 The Athenians are religious people and
believe that Hermes would not get mad,
but would get even, so they set out to arrest
Alcibiades

49. Sparta, Here I Come

50. Nicias Takes Command
 How to win the war when the guy who
wanted it is now on the other side???
 And the guy who didn’t want it is now in
charge???
 Things are not looking good for Athens

51. Alcibiades to Spartans

52. Help!!!!!
 Nicias thinks he needs more troops and
ships
 He asks Athenian assembly for same
 Guess what?
 They give him more troops and ships

53. You want more? Sure

54. Superstitious or Stupiditious
 When Nicias gets to Sicily, he waits for
around a month because the omens were
not propitious
 What does that delay allow the Spartans
and other members of the Peloponnesian
League to do?

55. What’s the harm in waiting?

56. Disaster Strikes
 Surprise Ambush
 Land Assault
 Most terrible loses in the history of Greece

57. Damage Control
 Athens raises second fleet
 Lack of leadership dooms attempt
 Oligarchs take control in 414
 Democrats favored by 410

58. Who You Gonna Call?

59. Not Again!

60. 405 BCE
 Athenians attempt to restock ships
 Spartans and Corinthians are waiting
 Athenians fail to guard fleet
 There can be no recovery

61. Not Again!

62. Spartans Invade Attica
 In 404, Athens surrenders
 Athenians forced to pull down walls of city
 Athenian fleet restricted
 Ally with Sparta (forced to do this)

63. The Consequences are Dire
 Lost the Empire
 Never a major political influence again
 Sparta does not have the leadership skills
to unite Greece

64. Nature abhors a Vacuum