Essays xix. The Peloponnesian War started when Megara and Thebes was forced into the Confederacy of Delos. They then decided to revolt with the help of Sparta, but that ended a decisive victory for Sparta and a peace treaty with Athens. Athens chose to break the deal and they went after Potidaea, but that ended up as a draw. Pericles was a very strategic leader and they decided to start another war by going to the source, Sparta.
It was a group of democratic city-states. Since Athenians were already democratic they decided to let Athens be the capital of Greece and run government issues. Once Athenians start to tax other city-states Sparta grows weary of the Athenians rule. This is what started the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta (other city –states also helped). Now just like in the first war Sparta couldn’t do it alone; so they asked the Persians to help conquer Athens.
Tensions between the Peloponnesian League and the Delian League eventually led to the Peloponnesian war. Thucydides believed that Sparta was afraid of the growing power of Athens, which had essentially resulted in the creation of an Athenian empire. Sparta felt that Athens was meddling in their business, and Athens would not agree to avoid interference. After twenty-seven years of war, and the participation in one way or another of many of the city-states belonging to the two leagues, both Sparta and Athens were in ruins. Sparta claimed the victory, and the city-states continued their bickering and fighting.
It is apparent on how the Ancient Athenians executed Socrates after the series of attempts of his followers to destroy Democracy. It is also a Democracy of the Sword because of the Ancient Athenians view war as a necessity to protect Democracy, which they claim to be the model government for other Greek City-States to follow but eventually these wars destroyed Democracy. The Democracy of the United States of America during the 20th century, as I see it, is a Democracy of principles in a sense that Ideologies are dominant in the United States. There are four dominant Ideologies namely: liberal, conservative, libertarian and populist. I tend to think that the United States view the world as a political area and it is just a mere battle of principles of state governance.
The Athenian ownership of the Delos treasury, suppression of revolts as well as the challis decree marks the transformation of the delian league into the Athenian empire. The role of the delian league was to protect those Greek states which had already revolted from Persia and to liberate those still under Persian rule. The league was very active in overthrowing Persian power and consolidating the role of Athens as hegemon’s in the Greek world. It was clear that the alliance was unequal from the beginning because, the leadership was Athenian, they had the largest fleet and they were also superior in resources. This was a result from their successes in the Persian wars, in particular the battle of Salamis.
De Ste Croix believes that the “prosklema” translated by traditional scholars such as Meiggs as simple “aims” actually had an imperialistic connotation, because prosklema was a “professional aim”. This was to cover up the Athenian ambitions of having a large, powerful, active and rich alliance under its control. This would help explain why many of the actions taken by the league were imperialistic. Both Aristotle and Plutarch mention the oath taken by members and Aristotle says that it was Aristides...”who swore the oaths to the Ionians that they should have the same enemies and friends, to confirm which they sank lumps of iron in the sea”. This oath, sworn between the Athenians and allies indicated that the Athens was to be the hegemon (leader) for as long as the League continued, and the League was meant to be permanent.
All but one decided there was no reason to attack the Athenian troops but the one final Boeotarch, Theban Pagondas, disagreed and giving an emotional speech that convinced all to pursue the Athenians. He claimed that attacking the enemy now
The Athenians and US are both conqueror and both are driven by money. The Athenians forces smaller, less powerful islands to capitulation and help out in their big fight against Sparta. The US has military presence in about 130 countries, which have increased in number after September 11,2001, to fight the “Global war on Terrorism.” Neutrality is not acceptable, “either you are with us or against us.” The Melians try to argue that they are neutral to the whole Athens vs. Sparta Conflict, as does Iraq claimed in modern time. The Melians and Iraq both warn of great repercussions if they are attacked. Although in the no immediate repercussion came to the Athenians and the US, later they both faced rebellions.
Although these traits are used to become a leader, the way one applies these traits can cause consequences. During the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades was seen as a negative factor in the Athenian cause because of his pride, and overconfidence in himself. We encounter Alcibiades arrogance in Tides of War when he says “ we will take these cities as we took the islands of our empire” this shows Alcibiades over analyzing how strong
We understand from Herodotus that the cause of the Ionian revolt was due to the decisions of certain individuals such as Aristagoras and Histeaus of Miletus, we know that Herodotus did not have a good view of the Ionians as he regarded them as lazy. However after the subjugation of Lydia by Croesus we can understand why the Ionians may have revolted, Miletus in return for complete subjugation was given very good terms in comparison to the rest of Ionia who were heavily taxed by Darius who introduced the Daric coin into Ionia, also Herodotus describes him as the shopkeeper due to his heavy taxes. Also we are shown by Herodotus that in Darius expedition to Scythia in 513 BC many Ionians were forced to fight for the Persian army, compulsory service in a foreign army would have caused resentment among the Ionians towards the Persians. Herodotus concentrates on individuals in his cause for the Ionian revolt, the story of the tattooed slave sent to Aristagoras shows us that maybe because of the Ionian revolt, Histeaus wanted to resolve his bad reputation being pro-Persian by making a story which would show him to be being part of the Ionian revolt. In Ionia and islands such as Samos and Naxos, there was a clear divide in attitude towards the Persians, Polycrates the tyrant of Samos was pro Persian like many of the tyrants in Ionia, and he sent 40 ships to help the Persian in their expedition to Egypt, as we know there was an uprising by a anti Persian party in Samos, this would show us that even before the Persian subjugation of Ionia there was a clear resentment to Persian occupation.