Other problems lay on the horizon for Athens. For a long time, a conflict with Sparta had been simmering. As early as 459 B. C., the two had clashed over control of Megara (MEH-guh-rah), an Attic seaport west of Athens. For many years afterwards, there was occasionally fighting between Athens and Sparta. When all-out war finally came, Megara was its immediate cause.
The people of Corcyra (kohr-SIE-ruh), off the northwest coast near Epirus, had always had tense relations with the Corinthians who had colonized their island some 300 years before. When civil war broke out between the oligarchs and democrats of the island, Corinth moved in to suppress the democratic revolt. Quickly the lines were drawn: Athens, as the birthplace of democracy, was determined to spread freedom like a new religious faith, and Corinth and its powerful ally, Sparta,
The Peloponesian War.
Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Were just as determined to suppress the threat. Aided by the Athenians, the democrats of Corcyra drove out the Corinthians in 433 B. C. Corinth demanded help from Sparta, and the two sides prepared for war as tensions mounted. Then, in 431 b. c., Athens imposed a trade embargo on Megara, by then a member of the Spartan League. In response, Sparta declared war.
Aware that his army was no match for Sparta's, Pericles decided to take a defensive strategy, bringing all the people of Attica inside the fortifications around Athens. to the Long Walls, the city still had access to the sea, but the Spartans ravaged the countryside, burning olive trees that had taken many years to grow. Even worse, overcrowding helped spawn the Great Plague of 429 b. c. Facing severe criticism for his handling of the war, Pericles led several expeditions against cities on the Peloponnese. The results of these attacks were uneven and in any case were overshadowed by the devastating effects of a 40-day siege against Athens conducted by the Spartans in his absence.
Within a year, Pericles was dead. Though he had not proven an able general, he had been a great leader. The men who succeeded him were far from his equals in ability. On the one side was a group led by Nicias (NIS-ee-uhs), who urged peace with Sparta; on the other was Cleon (KLEE-ahn) and his faction, who wanted to pursue the war with vigor. Cleon won out. At first his policy seemed to succeed. In 425 b. c., Athens defeated Sparta in battle, and Sparta surrendered. In the following year, the Spartans were again on the move under a new leader, Brasidas (BRAS-uh-duhs). The two armies clashed over the Athenian colony Amphipolis (am-FIP-uh-luhs) in Mace-don in 422 b. c. This engagement ended in a Spartan victory— and the deaths of both Cleon and Brasidas.
In 421 B. C., Nicias managed to secure what appeared to be a peace agreement, but forces on both sides wanted the war to continue. Among these was Alcibiades (al-suh-BIE-uh-deez; c. 450-404 B. C.), a truly dastardly figure who in 415 b. c. led an ill-advised attack against the Corinthian colony of Syracuse in Sicily. When Alcibiades was accused of mutilating statues of Hermes, leadership of the Athenian force fell to a reluctant Nicias, who perished at Syracuse in 413 b. c.
Alcibiades had meanwhile switched sides. He helped the Spartans in 412 b. c. by inciting an Ionian revolt against Athens, thus effectively destroying the influence of the Delian League. He also encouraged the Spartans to appeal to an old enemy, Persia, for help. Sparta took up the idea, signing a treaty with the Persians, but the Spartans did not trust the traitor Alcibiades, who switched sides yet again. Amazingly, the Athenians put him back in leadership, and he led them to several victories. After a defeat in 407 b. c., however, he was stripped of his general's rank, and three years later, in 404 b. c., was murdered in Phrygia.
By that time, the war was over. In 405 b. c., Lysander (lie-SAN-duhr; d. 395 b. c.), the Spartan naval commander, had formed another alliance with the Persians. Together they defeated Athens at Aegospotami (ee-guh-SPAH-tuh-my) off the coast of Thrace. Athens, once rich and glorious, had been reduced to melting gold temple ornaments to pay for its war effort. Only the memory of their shared struggle in the Persian Wars kept the Spartans from destroying Athens completely. They did destroy the Long Walls, however, and placed the city under Spartan rule, bringing to an end a Golden Age that was all too brief.
World History
