Preview

Causes Of The Peloponnesian War

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
357 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Causes Of The Peloponnesian War
Around 430 BC, a great war had started. In ancient times there were major power houses, and they were Sparta and Athens. These two city-states were ruled vastly differently. Sparta was rules by strong militaristic leaders and the only change of power was where the original leader died or was forced out of office. On the contrary, Athens was ruled by elected leaders and they were reelected annually. Athens was more centered on education and arts.
One of the main causes of the Peloponnesian War was the fact that Sparta had alliances with the Argos and Achaea cultures. Alliance is a loose term at this point – these alliances were founded soles on trade and weak treaties. Sparta was known as the military capital of the Greek world. After the Persian

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Similarities between Sparta's goals in the Peloponnesian War and Rome's objectives in its expansion across Italy lie in the quest for dominance and control. Both city-states sought to establish rule over their respective regions, motivated by power, resources, and strategic advantage. In the Peloponnesian War, Sparta aimed to curb the rising influence of Athens, the leading naval power in the Greek world. The conflict arose from a struggle for dominance between two major city-states, each representing a different political and military ideology. Sparta, with its focus on militarism and a land-based military force, sought to assert its supremacy and diminish Athens' naval and political prowess.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ancient Greece era (ca 800-323 BCE), Greece was consisted of hundred of city states called “Poleis”. Each polis was an independent small country and many were only like a small town or a small village. A polis sometimes controlled very small territories. However, among all of the “Polies” in Greece, there were two poweful city states named Athens and Sparta. These two city states were powerful and influential among other Greek city states or poleis1.…

    • 1661 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If there was one thing Sparta wanted out of the Peloponnesian War, it was to bring down Athens. Given Athens' rising strength and its ability to acquire an ever-larger navy of vessels from contributions paid by its dependents and allies, Sparta appeared to be concerned (Cartwright, 2018). As a matter of fact, Athens was becoming stronger and winning more and more wars thanks to its allies. Furthermore, Sparta believed that if nothing was done, Corinth, another major Greek state, was going to be forced to go along with Athens (Cartwright, 2018). When discussing ancient Greece, we frequently concentrate on Athens and Sparta, two of the principal towns.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Peloponnesian War vs

    • 739 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When I first look at the Peloponnesian War, I see a very troubling precedent. There were two sides that were just able to drive out the Persians from Greece, but both had equal parts of it. Sparta was able to dominate the land, while the Athenians were more dominant on the sea. With teamwork and effort they would have been unstoppable to stop, and they may still be running to this day from my perspective. However, when things seem to be working perfectly, there must always be something that decimates the good things. For that of the Greek empire, both the Athenians and Spartans felt like they could take advantage of one another hence leading to the gutful Peloponnesian War. This is much like the Vietnam War due to how South and North Vietnam both seemed to make valuable teammates. The relations ended however, due to the hunger for more land and power. The name Vietnam War gets its name from the battling that would then occur following a severe disagreement between two nations. This…

    • 739 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “If we do go to war, have no thought that you went to war over a trivial affair” (Thucydides, in Hunt 101). The Peloponnesian War lasted longer than any other pervious war in Greece. The war began in 431 BCE with Sparta’s invasion of Athens. The Athenians sacrificed the destruction of their private property in order to hide in the safety of their city. The Long Walls of Athens protected its citizens and preserved its population. The Spartans however had the upper hand in infantry while the Athenians were superior at sea. With the aid of Persia, Sparta eventually defeats Athens at Syracuse in 404 BCE after a continuous twenty-seven years at war (Hunt 104). The creation of the Delian League, the reign of Pericles, the aggravation of Corinth, and the refusal to negotiate made Athens the sole instigator for the long and violent Peloponnesian War.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Athens and Sparta in the ancient Greece world are both revered by many modern civilizations as being foundry influences on modern democracy. The two city states, however, were polar opposites in how they viewed democracy and ran their government. Sparta was known for its military prowess and power, while Athens has always been famed for its progress in the arts and sciences. While both being developmentally different and butting heads sometimes, they both were integral voices on how similar democratic societies ran their governments up until today. The defining differences between the two is that Athens was a heavily class based Democracy, compared to Sparta which was more definable as being an Oligarchy.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Athens and Sparta were two Greek poleis that coexisted between 750-c. 500 B.C.E. (Duiker 119). Even though these two city-states were similar in a few ways, they were different in many more ways, so they didn’t particularly get along very well. Almost every aspect of their lives was different, from their government systems, to their views on men and women, and finally to their lasting effects on Greek history and culture. Despite their differences, they both influenced Greece and the Mediterranean areas.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Allies from their existence, Athens and Sparta had fought side by side for centuries. These two Greek city-states fought together in the Greco-Persian war, but when the Persians retreated, tension rose. Athens gained more power than they needed, plunging the two cities into nearly three decades of war. The outcome was devastating. Although Sparta won, they were extremely demoralized. Athens was bankrupt and exhausted, and neither city regained the military strength they once had. This infamous conflict came to be known as the Peloponnesian War.…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the case of the Peloponnesian war, we have two different powers that were in control of Greece. Athens and…

    • 170 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the home front spartan kings had far less power the real power was in the Gerousia that was an elder council made up of males over 60 years of age. The rules that governed the selection of public office holders in Sparta were rigid. To be one of the kings you had to come from the bloodline of kings. To be an Ephor you had to be elected and could only serve one year in office. To be a member of the Gerousia you had to be age 60 and you coud apply but there could only be thirty members at a time. The assembly was all recognized free males of Sparta however they had little actual power. In Athens it was a democracy and wealth ruled the selection of public office holders. Athens and Sparta stood on two different sides of the fence one was a democracy and one was a dictatorship. The things they were similar in their governmental structures was keeping the poor and the weak down while the middle and the top thrived. Some of the things that the city-states differed on were the treatment of the low class Sparta made it obvious that you were lower than them whereas In Athens it was done but not as…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sparta then prepared for war against Athens. As war broke out Athens began to fall and lose the war. Mainly because they were better fighters on water and not on land. Unlike the Spartans who were the best at fighting on the land.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In 480 and the years prior the Athenians and Spartans, banned together to defeat the Persian Army. The Spartans stand at Thermopylae, allowed the Athenians time to prepare, and ultimately allowed the victory. With both of these great city-states located so close together in Hellas, there differences would ultimately lead to dissension. Throughout the course of this paper, I hope to explain the reasoning behind the dissension between Sparta and Athens, made war between these former allies inevitable.…

    • 2611 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Peloponnesian Wars were a series of conflicts between Athens and Sparta. 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. The Athenian Thucydides is the primary source of the wars, as he fought on the side of Athens. Thucydides was ostracized after the Spartans decisive victory at the Battle of Amphipolis in 422 BC, where Thucydides was one of the Athenian commanders. Thucydides wrote a book called The History of the Peloponnesian War. 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.…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Ancient Greece, the two most essential cities were Sparta and Athens. The two cities had a diversity of cultures, lifestyle, and values, even though they lived in the same region. Sparta was established around 900 BCE. It is located in the Eurotoas valley of Laconia, southeast of Peloponnese (Sparta, Ancient History Encyclopedia). Ancient Sparta has a population of about 100,000 citizens. Spartans dedicate approximately all their time to military training, hunting, war tactics, and even war policies. These activities are what makes Sparta admire war and what makes other cities fear them. Athens has been around for about 3,000 years. Athens is the capital of Greece and it is also the largest city. It is also the intellectual center of Greece. Athens originated from as early as 5000 BCE. Athens began as a small, Mycenaean community and grew to become a city (Athens, Ancient History Encyclopedia). The Athenian King, who ruled the land, sought to name the city after a Greek God because he wanted the name to be divine. Athena was selected, hence, the name Athens. Athens was a city that exemplifies ancient Greece. Society, politics, and economy are what make cities diverse, but they can have a…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By the middle of the 5th century B.C. Athens and Sparta, the two most powerful Greek city-states, found themselves on the brink of a full-scale war. According to Thucydides, at the beginning of the war both Athens and Sparta were at the pick of their might and flourishing and could trade and cooperate to each other’s benefit; instead, they got involved into an armed confrontation, in which the rest of the Greek cities participated, on one side or on the other.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays