A Brief History of the Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian war which lasted from 431-404 BC was a war primarily between the Athenians and Spartans that enveloped the Greek city-states and lead to the downfall of Athens.

The war is generally divided by historians into three phases, the first of which called the Archidamian war was comprised of a series of invasions on Attica by the Spartans while Athens took advantage of its Naval superiority to launch coastal raids on cities sympathetic to the Spartans. This part of the war lasted for tens years and is acknowledged to have ended in 421 BC with the signing of the Peace of Nicias.

In 415 BC however Athens attempted an invasion of Syracuse in Sicily. The massive expedition ended in disaster for Athens and ushered in the final phase of the war in 413BC. This last phase of the Peloponnesian war known by several different names including the Ionian war saw Persia joining forces with the Spartans to undermine the Athenian empire by encouraging rebellions in its subject states.

The Peloponnesian war devastated most of the Greek city states. Athens as almost completely devastated and most Greeks were reduced to extreme poverty. Though Sparta may have won the war and gained Hegemony over the Greek world and parts of what was Persia. This victory did not last for very long without the infusion of what had been Athens great culture and Sparta was eventually destroyed.

Greece was nearly destroyed and what had been civilized before the war was now thrown back to a more primal and violent culture of survival.