![]() ![]() ![]() This was the assessment of the situation made by Pericles, the Athenian leader, and his strategy was based upon it. It had sufficient finances to buy supplies and pay the fleet (and army). The defences of Athens were strong and the city could not be starved into surrender, as it was connected to the port of Piraeus by the Long Walls and could import supplies almost with impunity. In the event, Sparta's army was far superior in quality and quantity, but the Athenians had an even bigger advantage at sea. (Why the narrative is incomplete is not known It was continued by Xenophon who covers the last seven years of the war in his Hellenica.) A number of sources of friction sparked the hostilities, notably Athenian intervention in a quarrel between Corinth (Sparta's ally) and her colony Corcyra, but the real reason for the conflict, according to the Athenian historian Thucydides, was the rise of Athens to greatness, which made the Spartans fear for their own position.Īthens was morally the aggressor, but it was Sparta who first declared war. ![]() Thucydides' narrative covers the first 20 years of the conflict, which came to a final end in 404 BCE. The Peloponnesian War was a conflict between Athens and Sparta-the two leading ancient Greek city states-and their respective allies. ![]()
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