THE PRICE OF POWER: THE SECOND PELOPONNESIAN WAR AND THE FALL OF A CIVILIZATION

 

The Clash of Titans began in 433 BCE when Athens formed an alliance with Corcyra, a Corinthian colony, sparking conflict. Athens’ actions violated the Thirty Years' Treaty, prompting Sparta and its allies to accuse Athens of aggression and threaten war. Following Pericles' advice, Athens refused to yield. Diplomatic attempts to resolve the issue failed, and in the spring of 431 BCE, Thebes, a Spartan ally, attacked the Athenian ally Plataea, leading to the outbreak of open war, which ultimately led to the Second Peloponnesian War — a brutal and protracted conflict that would reshape the power dynamics of ancient Greece and determine the fate of Athens, Sparta, and their respective allies.

The fighting in the Second Peloponnesian War began in 431 BCE when the Spartans, led by Archidamus II, invaded Attica, the region surrounding Athens. Pericles, refusing to engage the superior Spartan forces on land, advised the Athenians to remain within the security of their walls and use their naval superiority to harass the Spartan coast and disrupt shipping. However, in the midst of the conflict, Pericles succumbed to a devastating plague that ravaged Athens. The plague killed a significant portion of the population, including many soldiers and civilians. His death left Athens without its most influential leader. This created internal divisions and led to a shift in leadership.

After Pericles' death in 429 BCE, Athens faced a period of leadership struggles and internal division. The loss of Pericles was also the loss of Athens' most respected and strategic mind, leaving the city vulnerable to internal political chaos and less capable leadership. Cleon, a populist leader, rose to prominence and pushed for more aggressive tactics, advocating for a harsher approach in dealing with Sparta and its allies.

Under Cleon’s leadership, Athens adopted a more aggressive stance, further escalating the conflict. The Mytilene Massacre of 427 BCE, where Athens executed the leaders of a rebellion on the island of Lesbos, symbolized the brutal shift in Athens' strategy. This represented a move away from Pericles' cautious and diplomatic approach to a more revengeful and harsh military policy. The Athenians, encouraged by their naval power, expanded their influence, but this shift also led to significant internal and external challenges. Athens' military operations became less strategic and more retaliatory, alienating some of its allies.

However, the war was far from one-sided. In 425 BCE, the Battle of Pylosbecame a rare victory for Athens. In this battle, the Athenians captured a group of Spartan soldiers on the island of Sphacteria off the coast of Pylos. This was a major blow to Sparta, as the loss of these elite soldiers was seen as a significant setback. The Athenians, under Demosthenes and Cleon, successfully forced a peace negotiation. This victory gave Athens a much-needed morale boost and temporarily tilted the balance of power in its favor.

Despite this success, Athens would face another major setback in the Sicilian Expedition, one of the most catastrophic military campaigns of the war. In 415 BCE, Athens launched an ambitious campaign to expand its influence in Sicily, hoping to use Syracuse as a base to disrupt Spartan power. The Siege of Syracuse turned into a disaster. Athens' forces, led by Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus, failed to achieve their objectives and were decisively defeated in 413 BCE. The failed campaign resulted in the loss of nearly the entire Athenian fleet and severely weakened Athens' position in the war. This setback had lasting consequences; Athens' resources were depleted and morale was deeply damaged.

After the Syracuse disaster, Sparta, now supported financially and militarily by Persia, began rebuilding its naval power. Persian funding allowed Sparta to create a fleet that could rival Athens. By 405 BCE, the Battle of Aegospotami marked a crushing defeat for Athens. The Spartan fleet, commanded by Lysander, caught the Athenian navy off guard and annihilated it. Lysander effectively severed Athens’ lifeline — its navy — leaving the city defenseless and unable to continue the war.

Following this defeat, Athens was forced to surrender in 404 BCE, ending the conflict and bringing an end to Athens’ golden age. With its defeat, Athens' political and military structures collapsed. In place of the democratic government that had once ruled the city, the Spartans imposed the Thirty Tyrants, a pro-Spartan oligarchy that governed Athens with ruthless authority. The Thirty Tyrants ruled with brutality, executing and exiling many of Athens’ prominent democratic leaders. This period of harsh rule led to a significant decline in the city’s social and political life, and Athens, once the beacon of democracy and culture, faced years of instability and repression.

Despite the oppressive rule of the Thirty Tyrants, Athens was not doomed to permanent decline. In 403 BCE, a coalition of democratic exiles led by Thrasybulus launched a resistance movement from Phyle, a fortress north of Athens. Through a series of bold and strategic actions, Thrasybulus and his followers gradually gained support and defeated the oligarchic forces. They eventually entered Athens and overthrew the Thirty Tyrants, restoring the democratic government. This marked the end of the oligarchic rule and the beginning of Athens' recovery, though the city would never fully regain the same level of power or influence it had enjoyed during its golden age.

The war and its aftermath left Athens deeply scarred, and while it eventually regained its political freedom, it was no longer the undisputed leader of the Greek world. Instead, the power dynamics of Greece had shifted, with Sparta, and later Thebes, briefly emerging as dominant forces.

Athens’ eventual recovery marked a significant turning point, but the scars of the war remained. The Second Peloponnesian War had changed the course of Greek history, and while Athens would continue to thrive as a cultural and intellectual hub, its military and political dominance was gone. The legacy of the war serves as a reminder of the fragility of power and the consequences of prolonged conflict.

From a theoretical perspective, the war illustrates the tension between liberal ideals and realist necessities. Athens, once a beacon of democracy and maritime cooperation, ultimately succumbed to the brutal logic of power politics. Pericles’ vision of a stable, prosperous empire rooted in democratic values clashed with the realist imperatives of survival, dominance, and strategic advantage. Sparta, acting on realist principles of balance of power and self-preservation, challenged Athenian expansion, triggering a catastrophic war.

The Second Peloponnesian War reminds us that peace and cooperation inside a state do not always translate into peace between states. The internal achievements of Athens could not shield it from external threats. Power, fear, and survival -core tenets of realism- shaped the war’s outcome more than ideals or morality. This serves as a tough reminder of how the international system punishes those who exceed their limits, regardless of their intentions or values.

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

Edmund Burke

References: 

• https://liberalarts.vt.edu/magazine/2017/history-repeating.html#:~:text=Irish%20statesman%20Edmund%20Burke%20is,Churchill%20wrote%2C%20“Those%20that%20fail

• https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/peloponnesian-war/

• https://www.worldhistory.org/Peloponnesian_War/

• https://www.britannica.com/event/Peloponnesian-War

• https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Pylos

• https://www.britannica.com/event/Siege-of-Syracuse-213-BCE

• https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Aegospotami

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch2tke5Rf1A

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