His decision for expressing these words is mainly based on historical facts. King Archidamus claims that if their unprepared population decides to ignore these facts, it will bring a greater harm to their population. In contrast, their foe, the Athenians have access to a variety of essential resources such as, a strong navy and their numerous tax-paying allies allows them to achieve a higher chance of victory at war. (1.80). Therefrom, due to these important facts, the wise king Archidamus strongly encourages their population to postpone their attack and to prepare their army instead.
The conflict between the Spartans and her allies and Athenian Empire was caused by several factors. Individuals indeed played a key role in the cause of conflict. However, they alone could not initiate conflict. Political ideology acted as a springboard from which they could exploit. Although, trade and financial advantages were often the most prominent, yet hidden cause of conflict in the Greek World.
Assess the contribution of speeches in Thucydides’ work. Thucydides’ introduces his work by presenting it as a “history of the war fought against each other by the Peloponnesians and the Athenians”. However his work was not a simple narrative of the events that unfolded, Thucydides wanted his work to be judged as useful because he believed that history repeats itself. He wrote his work largely to explain the fall of the Athenian empire. Thucydides’ work, however, was not simply a book written about Athens as the protagonist which was defeated by its foolish over-ambition, he wrote about the Athenians and Spartans with similar objectivity, acknowledging both their weaknesses and virtues.
The Greco-Persian wars, the great struggle between the United Greek Poleis against the growing Persian Empire of the East. Sparta, one of the Major greek Polis was responsible to a great extent for the victory of the Greeks over the Persians. Sparta not only participated in several crucial battles of the war such as Thermopylae and Plataea, but also contributed to the Greek Political and cultural idea of unity. Along with the physical strength of the Spartan forces, their leadership at battles such as “Salamis” and “Plataea” allowed the Greeks to be victorious in the Greco-Persian Wars. The battle of Marathon, the first and instigating battle of the Persian wars of 490Bc, was fought and won by the forces of Athens and Plataeans, without the help of the Spartans.
But all in all what most historians debate is not why Leonidas stayed but whether or not his decision to stay was the overall right choice. My perspective on the situation is that Leonidas’ decision to stay was not the right choice. I postulate this because the whole goal was to protect the pass so that the Persians could not reach Athens, but after the defeat of the Spartans the Persians pushed forward and burned Athens to the ground. So in essence the last stand of the Spartans was pointless because the Persians completed their goal of the ransacking of Athens. Themistocles was the true hero; he evacuated Athens before the Persians came and defeated the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis, which forced the Persians to flee back to Asia.
Both Lysander and King Pausanias actions demonstrated their incapability to lead Sparta which consequently resulted in the ineffective leadership of Sparta as hegemon of Greece. Lysander was the dominant figure in Spartan politics presiding the fall of the Athenian Empire in 404 BC, and his and Sparta’s aim was a far as possible to secure Greek hegemony allowing for Spartan Imperial expansion. The ‘anomaly’ of Lysander’s dominance within Sparta’s military and political enterprises, traditionally governed by the Kingships, saw him exploit his foreign policy across the populas of the Aegean much to their discontent “The Spartans reckoned that they themselves, having defeated the Athenians, would now securely dominate the whole of Greece” (Thucydides 8.2.4). Lysander installed a brutal pro-Spartan oligarchy (known as ‘The Thirty Tyrants’) on Athens, reciprocating this system of government in other Greek states in order to suppress prevailing democracies. Installed to govern were pro-Spartan Harmosts, all supported by a garrison of troops who served under the orders of Lysander.
Q) Asses the role of the navy in the first Punic war During the first Punic war (264 to 241 BC) The role of the navy was extremely important. The navy played a major rolein the 1st punic war. Whichever nation held the balance of power and influence throughout the Mediterranean needed an effective maritime force. As the established power in the Mediterranean benefited grately from having a strong naval force. It Became clear between the two Empires quite early in conflict that whichever side held naval dominance would win the war due to certain and significant factors such as the importance of islands i.e.
But the Athenians rejected their offer by saying that they would not be much affected by their hostility but on the other hand their friendship would prove a sign of their weakness and they would be considered coward to allow such a small and insignificant island to not be ruled by them. The Melians questioned the justice of the Athenians by asking that how fair it is to treat a neutral nation equally with its colonies or rebels. But the Athenians refused to look at things from their point and argued that by conquering the Melians they would not only increase their size but also security. The second argument presented by the Melians was that in case of a war, the Spartans would come to their rescue as a return of favor done
The Athenians came in from the center and from the sides as well. This strategy had worked and the Athenians had won victory. They marched back to Athens with pride, but were ready to defend Athens against the Persian’s cavalry. We commemorate the Athenian soldiers and leaders who helped Greece. They were so brave and knew they could do it, even though they were small compared to the Persians.
It is said by Plutarch that Miltiades enjoyed the highest prestige from the battle, and this would have increased Athenian reputation among the Greek states (it is important to note that one factor of the formation of e empire was that the Ionian States chose Athens), and would thus have made them more inclined to choose Athens as the hegemon, and allowing them to create their empire. Pausanius also played an influential role in the formation of the Athenian Empire; however it was through his negative actions and behaviour that this came to be. Pausanius was the Spartan