The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian war was a war between the Spartan led Peloponnesian League and Anthenias. The war started in 431 B.C. and went on until 404 B.C. The war started when Athenias realized they had the power to take over the whole Greece and attempted to do so. But, the Spartans did not like the idea of Athen taking over Greece and started fighting back for the freedom of the Greece people.

In the First year of war, the Athenians were doing really well. Because of their great amount of power and their big sum of money, they were really strong. The Athenians were also the only City that had a good Navy. The Athenians had a big wall that the Spartans could not get through, so it protected them when the Spartans attacked. This was a big problem to the Spartans. The Athenians were totally safe and were able to get food by sailing with their ships. There was no way for the Spartans to stop the ships cause they did not have a navy.

Summer 430 B.C. the Athenians began to die. This was caused by a plague that the people caught and died of. The Athenian farmers had to move inside the walls so it began to be extremely crowded inside the walls. People had to live in very uncomfortable places ( e.g. wooden shacks) and some even had to sleep without any protection from the rain. Because of this, the plague spread very easily.

The Plague itself has been said to have been a strong version of measles. We do not have any proof of anything so the whole plague is quite unknown to us modern people. Unfortunately, the plague was deadly and killed hundreds of people including Pericles, the Athenian general who had led the war.

Because of this plague, the Spartans started winning battles. Athens ofcourse noticed this and chose Alcibiades and Nicias (two generals) to lead a army to capture Sicily, the place Sparta got their food supplies from. There was a problem before they left because somebody broke fine statues in Athens and some people thought it was Alcibiades group. Luckily, it was all sorted out and Alcibiades and Nicias got to lead the army to Sicily.

But, that wasn’t the end of that. The Athenians came to the descision that he should go through trial for breaking the statues. They sent a ship to get Alcibiades but when they were going back half way, Alcibiades fled away and joined the Spartans. This made the Spartans stronger because Alcibiades was able to give them great advice for winning the Athenians.

The Spartans defeated the people trying to take over Sicily and with Alcibiades’s help the Spartans and taught the to fight naval. Later on Alcibiades became unpopular of the things he had done and Alcibiades fled again, this time to the protection of a Persian satrap. Alcibiades persuaded Tissaphernes (soldier) to give money to the Spartans and bribe them to let Alcibiades be the commander again. Tissaphernes did not end up paying, so Alcibiades lost his rank.

But, the Athenian navy heard that oligarchs were getting some power in Athens and wished to surrender to the Spartans. The soldiers were angry about losing the democracy and they elected Alcibiades to be their general (again). They demanded Athens to restart Democracy. The Athenians were going to say no, but then the surrendering negotiations failed and Sparta attacked and the the fleet of Athenians was destroyed in Athens. The Athenians got back the democracy and put Alcibiades to be their General. The Athens stopped surrendering to Sparta.

The Spartans blocked the Hellespont where some ships brought food to Athenians through. The Athenians started fighting and fired Alcibiades who retired from the war. When the Athenians did not get enough food, they started to starve and in the end surrendered to Sparta and pulled down their city walls.