In the 5th century BC, having beaten the Persians together, Athens and Sparta became the two powers of the Greek world. Their ways of life were opposites, and in the end they fought a war lasting twenty-seven years.
Two cities compared
| Athens | Sparta | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Attica, by the sea | Laconia, inland Peloponnese |
| Government | Direct democracy: citizens' assembly, offices filled by lot | Oligarchy: two kings, five ephors, council of elders (gerousia) |
| Military strength | Fleet of triremes | Hoplite infantry, the best in Greece |
| Economy | Trade, crafts, silver mines of Laurion | Farming, worked by helots, serfs of the land |
| Education | Private schools, gymnasium, rhetoric and philosophy | Agoge: from age 7 boys live in barracks and train for war |
| Women | Excluded from public life, kept at home | Freer: they exercise and manage property |
| Culture | Theatre, philosophy, art, architecture | Austerity, discipline, little art |
| Allies | Delian League, mostly islands and coastal cities | Peloponnesian League, land cities |
Sparta gives us spartan, meaning bare and severe; and Laconia gives laconic, because Spartans spoke little and tersely.
Causes of the war
After the Persian Wars Athens turned the Delian League, formed for defence against Persia, into an empire: it moved the treasury to Athens, imposed tribute and punished those who tried to leave. The historian Thucydides wrote that the real cause of the war was the fear Athens' growth aroused in Sparta. The triggers were clashes with Corinth, Sparta's ally, over Corcyra (Corfu) and Potidaea, and the trade embargo on Megara.
Phases of the war
- 431 BCThe Spartans invade Attica; Pericles shelters the Athenians within the Long Walls and relies on the fleet.
- 430-426 BCPlague kills perhaps a third of the Athenians; Pericles dies in 429.
- 425 BCThe Athenians capture Spartan hoplites on Sphacteria, near Pylos.
- 421 BCPeace of Nicias: a fragile truce.
- 415-413 BCThe Sicilian Expedition against Syracuse, championed by Alcibiades, ends with the destruction of the Athenian army and fleet.
- 413 BCSparta occupies Decelea in Attica and allies with Persia.
- 405 BCThe Spartan Lysander destroys the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami.
- 404 BCAthens surrenders: walls torn down, fleet handed over, rule of the Thirty Tyrants.
After the war
Sparta's victory brought no stability. Athens soon restored democracy (403 BC), which in 399 condemned Socrates to death. Sparta was defeated by Thebes at Leuctra in 371 BC, and the exhausted Greek cities fell under the dominance of Macedon under Philip II, father of Alexander.
Thucydides
The war is told by Thucydides, an Athenian general exiled after a defeat, who set out to write a work "for all time": based on checked testimony, focused on causes and the mechanics of power. The Melian Dialogue, in which the strong explain to the weak that "right is only in question between equals", and Pericles' funeral oration on democracy are still read in universities around the world.
See also the history of Athens, Alcibiades and the timeline.