As part of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 b. c.e.), this conflict contributed to the destruction of the Athenian Empire and helped lead to the endless warfare that would ruin Greece in the fourth century b. c.e.
Date: May, 431-March, 421 b. c.e. Category: Wars and battles Locale: Greece
Summary The growth of Athenian power in the fifty years since the Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 b. c.e.) led to war between the Athenian Empire and Sparta’s Peloponnesian League.
The Archidamian (ahr-kuh-day-MEE-uhn) War, named after the Spartan king Archidamus II, began as a defensive war on the part of Athens, but when Pericles died of the plague in 429 b. c.e., his plan for sheltering in the Athenian-Piraeus fortress while conducting naval raids on the Peloponnesians died with him. Led on by hawkish demagogues such as Cleon of Athens, the Athenians soon began conducting offensive operations and in 425 b. c.e. established a base at Pylos in the Peloponnese, capturing 120 Spartans in the process. Buoyed by their success, the Athenians refused a Spartan peace offer, but a year later, Brasidas of Sparta captured the vital city of Amphipolis. In 422 b. c.e., both Cleon and Brasidas, the main obstacles to peace, were killed in a failed Athenian attempt to recapture Amphipolis, and in March, 421 b. c.e., the ultimately ineffective Peace of Nicias was signed, bringing a temporary halt to hostilities.
Significance The war produced dangerous divisions in the democracy and a new aggressive imperialism that would ultimately lead to Athens’s defeat in the next two decades.
Further Reading
De Souza, Philip. The Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B. C. New York: Rout-ledge, 2003.
Hanson, Victor Davis. A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War. New York: Random House, 2005.
Kagan, Donald. The Archidamian War. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974.
_. The Peloponnesian War. New York: Viking, 2003.
Thucydides. “History of the Peloponnesian War.” In The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, edited by Robert B. Strassler. New York: Free Press, 1996.
Richard M. Berthold
See also: Archidamus II of Sparta; Athens; Brasidas of Sparta; Cleon of
Athens; Peloponnesian Wars; Pericles.
World History
