S9_2nd/Post-Peloponnesian War & Theban Hegemony

• In 435, war broke out between Corinth and her colony, Corcyra. This conflict eventually escalated into the (Second) Peloponnesian War.
• The Peloponnesian War, between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies and dependents, occurred from 431-404.
• Thucydides, an Athenian statesman who opposed Pericles, wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War, which covered the war until 411.
• In 431, the Spartans, led by their king, Archidamus, invaded Attica. In 430, a devastating plague hit Athens and killed 1/4 of its population. Pericles died of the plague in 429. The son of Pericles by Aspasia was legitimized by decree, because she was not an Athenian citizen. The Spartans then laid siege to Plataea and took that city in 427.
• In 428, Mytilene tried to revolt from the Athenian empire. The revolt was defeated and the men of Mytilene were sentenced to death and the women and children to slavery.
• In 425, the Athenian general Cleon captured 100 Spartans, who were thought never to surrender, at Sphacteria. The Spartan general Brasidas forced Athens into a one year truce in 423.
• In 422, Brasidas and Cleon were killed at the battle of Amphipolis, a Spartan victory. In 421, Athens and Sparta agreed to the peace of Nicias (named after the Athenian statesman), ending the first ten year period of the war, called the Archidamian War.
• Alcibiades rose to prominence in Athens in 420. He convinced the Athenians to undertake an expedition against Epidaurus in 419. The Spartans supported the Epidaurians and the Athenians then declared that they had broken the peace.
• The Athenians sent an expedition to Sicily to try to force Syracuse, a powerful Spartan ally, out of the war. The three generals originally in command were: Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus. As the expedition set out in 415, the hermae, statues of Hermes in the harbor, were mutilated.
• Alcibiades was accused of doing this, but acquitted. Alcibiades was recalled and after being condemned to death (for the hermae mutilation, a youth named Andocides confessed to the crime and named Alcibiades as the main conspirator) he fled to Sparta in 414.
• Alcibiades informed the Spartans about Athenian strategy, and advised them to fortify the city of Decelea. He also convinced the Spartans to aid Syracuse, and they sent Gylippus to take command of Syracusan forces and mold them into an effective army. The Spartans fortified Decelea in 413. That same year, the Sicilian Expedition was defeated; an eclipse was partly to blame. Athens lost 45,000 men. Nicias was the general who doomed the expedition and its defeat basically doomed Athens.
• In 411, the four hundred, led by Theramenes, came to power in Athens. This meant a more oligarchic government. Later that year, Alcibiades was recalled. The four hundred fell from power that same year, and were replaced by a government called the Five Thousand. In 410, Alcibiades led the Athenians to victory over the Spartans at the battle of Cyzicus. As a result of that victory, Athenian democracy was restored.
• In 407, Alcibiades lost the battle of Notion to the Spartan admiral Lysander. Alcibiades was removed from command as a result. In 406, the Athenians won the battle of Arginusae. In 405, Lysander defeated Athens at the battle of Aegospotami. Athens was forced to surrender in 404. The Long Walls of Athens were torn down.
• Sparta set up an oligarchy in Athens called the Thirty Tyrants. Draconides officially proposed their institution. The most radical of the Thirty was Critias. Theramenes was the other important Tyrant. Critias condemned Theramenes to death in 403. Critias was killed in the ensuing civil war, and the Thirty fell from power. Thrasybulus led the rebels.
• In Persia there was a civil war for the throne between Artaxerxes and Cyrus the younger.
• For the Persian Civil War, Cyrus hired ten thousand Greek mercenaries. They marched to Persia and joined Cyrus’ forces. In the battle of Cunaxa, in 401, the Greeks were victorious (Clearchus commanded the mercenaries), but Cyrus was killed.
• The mercenaries then had to escape from the middle of Persian territory. Xenophon took command and led them on the March of the Ten Thousand. Xenophon wrote the Anabasis, an account of the march. When the Greeks reached the Black Sea, they famously cried “Thalassa, Thalassa.” Thalassa is a Greek word for sea. They escaped to a Greek colony there.
• Agesilaus came to the throne of Sparta in 398 and succeeded Lysander as the most important Spartan.
• The Spartans, now masters of Greece, proved to be more unpopular than the Athenians had been to former Athenian allies now controlled by Sparta. Harmosts were Spartan governors.
• The Athenian admiral Conon was appointed commander of a large Persian fleet. He defeated the Spartans at the battle of Cnidus in 394. This destroyed Spartan maritime power. Lysander was killed at the siege of Haliartus in 395.
• In 392, the king of Persia, through Spartan diplomacy, tried to mediate a peace between the warring Greeks. It was ineffective. Finally, Spartan maneuvering was successful, and the King’s Peace was imposed by Persia in 386.
• The Second Athenian Confederacy was founded in 378. Callistratus organized the finances and was called “the Aristides of the Second Athenian League.” Thebes and Athens became allies against Sparta. The Athenians under Chabrias won the battle of Naxos (a sea battle) over the Spartans in 376.
• Athens and Thebes fell out and Athens agreed to the Peace of Callias with Sparta in 371. The Thebans were excluded from the peace and continued fighting.
• The Thebans under Epaminondas defeated the Spartans under Cleombrotus at the battle of Leuctra. This battle ended Spartan hegemony. Jason of Pherae laid down designs for domination of eastern Greece, but was assassinated in 370.
• Thebes became the dominant power in Greece. Thebes founded Megalopolis through synoikismos (same as synoecism) in 370-369. They also helped to found the Arcadian League. Both Megalopolis and the Arcadian League were designed to keep Sparta in check.
• In 362, Epaminondas ended Spartan prominence forever by defeating them at the battle of Mantinea, but he was killed in the battle, supposedly in single combat with Gryllus, the son of Xenophon.