The Archidamian War, 431 - 420 BC

Question 1

What was Archidamus II stated policy for commencing operation against Athens in 431BC?

Answer 1

To liberate the Greeks.

Question 2

What was Spartan strategy?

Answer 2

To invade Attica and provoke a land-based fight, as a consequence there were annual invasions in 431, 430, 428, 427, and 425 BC.

Question 3

What prevented annual invasions in 429 and 426?

Answer 3

Plague and earthquakes

Question 4

What is the conflict between 431 and 421 BC typically referred to?

Answer 4

The Archidamian war

Question 5

What was the basis of Pericles strategy?

Answer 5

To avoid hoplite battle with the Spartan army because, here, the Spartans could not be defeated.

Question 6

What did Pericles do in regard to Attica?

Answer 6

Directed the rural population to abandon their fields, move inside the city for the duration of the invasion, and resist the temptation to defend their land.

Question 7

How did people respond to Pericles policy?

Answer 7

Not uniformly accepted, Pericles was forced to defend his policy and Athenian imperialism in general. There was unrest at the sight of crops being destroyed.

Question 8

Why was it hard for the Spartans to destroy Attican crops?

Answer 8

Mainly farmed the cash crops of olives and vines, both of which are almost impossible to destroy, most destruction done by the Peloponnesians was probably done in order to feed themselves.

Question 9

Which was the longest invasion and how long did it last?

Answer 9

The 430 BC invasion was longest and lasted 40 days.

Question 10

Why were the invasions so short?

Answer 10

The peloponnesian allies, unlike the Spartans, were all farmers who had to return home in time to harvest their own crops.

Question 11

What did Pericles urge Athens do during the war? and why?

Answer 11

Pericles urged the Athenians not expand during the war. The strategy wasn’t to defeat the Spartans, just to outlast them. By this policy, avoiding a defeat was considered victory.

Question 12

What responses did Athens make to Peloponnesian invasion?

Answer 12

Guard duties and cavalry action against the invaders, together with naval raids against the Peloponnese.

Question 13

What was the first event of the war?

Answer 13

Thebes attacking Plataea in Boeotia, a direct contravention of the thirty year peace. Thebes succeeded in taking Plataea but were later overpowered and used as human shields. The Athenians helped to garrison the city and then it was besieged for 3 years by the Spartans. The city fell and the Spartans killed all who opposed them.

Question 14

Where was the bulk of the Plataean population?

Answer 14

Evacuated and resided in Athens for the rest of the war.

Question 15

When did the plague hit Athens? how long did it last?

Answer 15

Soon after the second invasion in 430 BC, it lasted for two years and had a brief resurgence in 426 BC.

Question 16

Where did the Plague reach?

Answer 16

Only Attica, the Peloponnese were fine so were Athenian troops elsewhere

Question 17

Why was the Plague worsened?

Answer 17

The evacuation of the Attican countryside had led to up to 200,000 people being crammed into Athens during the annual Peloponnesian incursions. The heat of summer combined with a lack of water, shelter, and sanitation, caused the disease to rapidly spread.

Question 18

How many Athenian hoplites died from the plague?

Answer 18

4400 out of the total 13000

Question 19

When did the Peloponnesians first attempt to send an embassy to Persia?

Answer 19

430 BC, but they were detained by the prince of Thrace and executed.

Question 20

What happened in the second year of the war?

Answer 20

Potidaea fell to the Athenians.

Question 21

Where was general Phormio stationed and what did he hope to capitalise on?

Answer 21

Phormio was operating in western Greece, hoping to capitalise on the successes in Ambracia and gain allies in the north of the Peloponnese.

Question 22

What area did Phormio block?

Answer 22

The gulf of Corinth.

Question 23

What did the blockade of the Gulf of Corinth lead to?

Answer 23

Naval battles at Naupactus where the Peloponnesian fleet, mainly made up of Corinthian ships, was soundly defeated.

Question 24

Why did operations in Ambracia stop?

Answer 24

a local peace between local inhabitants, independent from Sparta and Athens, was agreed in the winter of 426-25 BC

Question 25

In 428, which Athenian ally rebelled and joined the Peloponnesian league? Why was this ally important?

Answer 25

Their allies at Mytilene on Lesbos, Mytilene was one of two ship-providing allies.

Question 26

What was the motion presented by Cleon in response to the rebelion? was this passed?

Answer 26

To put all the inhabitants of Mytilene to death. The decision to pass the motion was rescinded after a second debate

Question 27

Why had Athens’ attitude towards their allies changed?

Answer 27

After five years of war, money was running out

Question 28

What two decrees aimed to solve the financial issues of Athens?

Answer 28

The Cleonymus decree of 426 and the Thoudippos decree of 425. Each insisted on the tightening up of tribute collections and placed penalties on officials who failed in their duties to exact the tribute.

Question 29

What was the new number of levied talents? (up from Aristeides 460 talents and 600 talents at the start of the war)

Answer 29

Was now 1460 talents at this time. This number is corroborated by Plutarch in Aristeides, where he states that tribute was increased to 1,300 talents.

Question 30

What happened in the year of 425 BC?

Answer 30

The final invasion of Attica, at the same time Athenian general, Demosthenses, had fortified a position on the promontory of Pylos in the south-western coast of the Peloponnese. This strategy (building a fort in enemy territory) is known as epiteichismos.

Question 31

What the motive behind Demosthenes strategy?

Answer 31

To incite fresh revolts among the helots living there.

Question 32

What were the results of Demosthenes positioning?

Answer 32

The Spartans withdrew from Attica, making the sixth incursion the shortest, only lasting 15 days. The Spartans then counter-attacked on both land and sea; occupying the island of Sphacteria to the south, hoping to gain control of the entrance to the harbour below the promontory, so that the Athenians had nowhere to shelter. The Athenians had to repel attacks until a fleet arrived. When it did it secured the harbour and isolated the Spartan hoplites on the island.

Question 33

What did the Spartans do in response to this outcome?

Answer 33

Arranged an armistice and sent an embassy to Athens to call for peace.

Question 34

What was the response in Athens to this peace offering?

Answer 34

1) Cleon incited the assembly to ask for better terms,
2) All sources treat Cleon as an opportunistic rabble-rouser; biased as his nature would naturally offend the aristocratic Thucydides and Aristophanes,
3) Cleon called for a return of the places Athens had given up as part of the terms of the 30 year peace: Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen, and Achaea.

Question 35

How did the Spartans respond to Cleon’s demands?

Answer 35

Could not accommodate them and returned empty-handed.

Question 36

Why did the Athenians come to regret not taking the peace offer? and what did this lead to?

Answer 36

Athens had realised that they couldn’t hold the blockade through the winter. This led to challenges and disagreements between Cleon and the general Nicias.

Question 37

What did Nicias offer to do if Cleon thought he could take Sphacteria?

Answer 37

Nicias offered to relinquish his command if Cleon thought he could do a better job, as a result Cleon claimed he could take the island in 20 days. The Athenians landed 800 hoplites on the island together with the crews of seventy ships and another 1,600 archers and javelin throwers.

Question 38

How did the Spartans react to Athenian troops landing on Sphacteria? How did the battle end?

Answer 38

Fell back under the sheer weight of numbers to the north end of the island and dug in.Cleon and Demosthenes offered to cease the attack if the Spartans surrendered. And to the surprise of Athens and the rest of the Greek world, they did.

Question 39

What effect did the events on Sphacteria have on the reputation of the Spartans?

Answer 39

Their reputation for never surrendering as gained at Thermopylae in 480 BC, collapsed. The Spartans were no more super-human, and no less fallible, than any other Greek people

Question 40

What is a possible explanation for the Spartan surrender?

Answer 40

Archidamus had counselled against war in 432 BC and many Spartans may have voted with him, Pleistoanax’s retreat from Attica in 446 BC may have been due to his disposition towards peace. Archidamus and Pleistoanax can’t have been alone in thinking war should be avoided. Could be maintained that the Spartan commander in Sphacteria, Styphon, was similarly disposed to peace.

Question 41

What did the Athenians do with the Spartan prisoners of war? What was a result of Sphacteria in Athens?

Answer 41

Brought them to Athens and threatened to kill them if there was another invasion of Attica, making the prisoners human shields. This brought about a change in Spartan strategy. Cleon’s power grew in Athens.

Question 42

Where did Nicias next claim? What effect did this have on the Spartans?

Answer 42

The island of Cythera off the south of the Peloponnese. The Spartans as a result accepted their strategy of annual invasions of Attica was not working, and thus they elected a new type of leader; Brasidas.

Question 43

What did Brasidas do in 424 BC?

Answer 43

Took a force of freed helots and mercenaries to open up a new theatre in the Thrace-war region on the northern Aegean coastline.

Question 44

Why was the Thrace-ward region important to Athens?

Answer 44

Athens had many tributary allies in the area, which was rich in both minerals and timber. Timber was vital for Athenian ship-building, yet these allies were now ripe for revolt.

Question 45

Where did Brasidas first approach in his campaign? what happened there?

Answer 45

The city of Acanthus. Various factions within the city were unsure as to whether to receive him. Brasidas was allowed to address the people, in which he said that he came to liberate the Greek peoples, but also threatened them to let him in. They had little option but to receive him and his cohort.

Question 46

What were Athenian generals Demosthenes and Hippocrates doing in central greece 424 BC?

Answer 46

Attempting to turn several Boeotian cities in an attempt to re-establish the land empire they had held during the first peloponnesian war. They were opposed by members of the Boeotian confederacy led by Thebes; resulting in the first major hoplite battle of the war at Delium in Boeotia. Demosthenes, was the one who pushed for expeditionary warfare contrary to Pericles’ policy, and it was here that Athens suffered its first major defeat.

Question 47

Where did Brasidas turn his attention in the winter of 424 BC? and what did he do there?

Answer 47

Turned to Amphipolis, a recently formed Athenian settlement on the river Strymon. He took the bridge across the Strymon; had strategic importance as it controlled access towards the Hellespont to the east.

Question 48

What Athenian general sailed to Amphipolis in response? and what did this cause Brasidas to do?

Answer 48

Thucydides sailed from Thasos to support the town. Fearful that Thucydides arrival would make the town resist him, Brasidas offered the inhabitants moderate terms. In response they opened the town to Brasidas before Thucydides arrived.

Question 49

Following his successes, what did Brasidas seek? And why was this hard to obtain?

Answer 49

Additional troops. Rivalry in Sparta prevented this from happening. Thucydides claimed that this was due to jealousy and a desire to recover the troops lost at Sphacteria; there was still disagreements in Sparta as to how to proceed with the war. Some saw Brasidas’ actions as a means to achieve their goal of liberating all the Greeks, others simply wanted to make a reasonable peace.

Question 50

What other Athenian allies did Brasidas turn? What was the Athenian response?

Answer 50

Torone fell next. In Spring of 423 BC, an armistice was signed; the Athenians were keen that Brasidas enjoy no further success, and the pro-peace spartans seemed to have their sway. Yet Brasidas continued to operate independently and the town of Scione came to his side willingly. As the armistice allowed both sides to keep what they held at its signing, Athens demanded Scione be handed back over to them. Both Brasidas and the inhabitants refused. Subsequently the city of Mende also came over to Brasidas.

Question 51

What did Brasidas’ violation of the armistice lead to?

Answer 51

Cleon proposed a decree that all the citizens of Scione be executed. Nicias sailed to the region and re-took Mende before besieging Scione. Neither action of Nicias’ infringed the armistice.

Question 52

What was each sides reaction to the armistice?

Answer 52

The Spartan peace party had hoped the Athenians would become accustomed to peace. In Athens, Cleon was agitating for the losses in the north to be turned around. The Athenian assembly didn’t want to continue the armistice for another year, and in 422, Cleon sailed north.

Question 53

What was the result of Cleon’s 422 campaign?

Answer 53

Cleon retook Torone and then turned on Amphipolis, here Cleon and Brasidas fought a battle. Both died in the battle, Thucydides describes Cleon as dying a coward’s death; turning tail and taking a javelin to the back. Brasidas was injured and later succumbed to his wounds. Ultimately Sparta won the battle.

Question 54

What other defeat did Athens suffer at this time? what was the result of these defeats?

Answer 54

They suffered a defeat at Delium. Athenian confidence was damaged and many questioned the wisdom of expeditionary warfare. Moreover, they feared their allies would begin to revolt. Sparta still wanted to regain their men from Sphacteria, and had the problems that came with their loss in reputation and confidence militarily. Athens had also reinforced positions through the practice of epiteichismos at Pylos and Cythera, and the helots were desertng.

Question 55

What peace was about to end in 424/3 BC?

Answer 55

The Spartan-Argos thirty year truce. They had been on bad terms since Argos had contended for leadership of the Peloponnese in the sixth century BC.

Question 56

Who led negotiations with Athens?

Answer 56

King Pleistoanax, who had only recently been restored to Sparta, but was still facing criticism.

Question 57

In 421, The Peace of Nicias was signed. What were the terms (according to Thucydides)?

Answer 57

1) Everyone had the right to go to pan-Hellenic temples,
2) The treaty was to last fifty years,
3) Neither Athens and its allies, nor Sparta and its allies, were to attack each other,
4) The Spartans were to give back the cities they had taken in the Thrace-ward region,
5) The Spartans were to relinquish Panactum, a strategically important fort on the border between Attica and Boeotia,
6) The Athenians were to give back Cythera and other islands off the Peloponnese,
7) The Athenians were to give back the prisoners taken at Sphacteria,
8) The allies were to swear to the agreement,
9) The Athenians and the Spartans were entitled to adjust conditions if they agreed.

Question 58

Why did the peace of Nicias suffer problems?

Answer 58

1) It was very much a peace between Athens and Sparta, rather than between Athens and the Peloponnesian league; a number of Sparta’s allies did not accept the terms. This included: The Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and the Megarians.
2) The inhabitants of Amphipolis did not return to Athens, and the Spartan commander on the ground was unwilling to compel them to.
3) Argos did not renew their treaty with Sparta,
These issues left Sparta concerned that the peace would not hold. The Spartans went further and brokered a defensive alliance with the Athenians for fifty years. According to which, the two agreed to defend each other’s territory, and to make peace and war together. Sparta was concerned about its position, particularly in regards to Argos.