In him, Cyrus found a man who was willing to help him become king, just as Lysander himself hoped to become absolute ruler of Greece by the aid of the Persian prince. The Spartan fleet under Callicratidas lost 70 ships and the Athenians lost 25 ships. Athens was then victorious at the naval battle of Arginusae. Recognizing the opportunity for an These ships were then released, and served as the core of the Athenians' fleet throughout the rest of the war. The fleet appointed Alcibiades their leader, and continued the war in Athens's name. [4][5] The war also wrought subtler changes to Greek society; the conflict between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, each of which supported friendly political factions within other states, made war a common occurrence in the Greek world. He took command of the Syracusan troops, and in a series of battles defeated the Athenian forces, and prevented them from invading the city. Only twelve Athenian ships escaped, and several of these sailed to Cyprus, carrying the strategos (general) Conon, who was anxious not to face the judgment of the Assembly. was able to use gold, sent from the Persian king Cyrus, to build a fleet In 411 BC this fleet engaged the Spartans at the Battle of Syme. Sources. When Cyrus was recalled to Susa by his dying father Darius, he gave Lysander the revenues from all of his cities of Asia Minor. After boasting that he could put an end to the affair in the Assembly, the inexperienced Cleon won a great victory at the Battle of Sphacteria. In the final stages of the preparations for departure, the hermai (religious statues) of Athens were mutilated by unknown persons, and Alcibiades was charged with religious crimes. would last from 431 to 421. With its victory at Mantinea, Sparta pulled itself back from the brink of utter defeat, and re-established its hegemony throughout the Peloponnese. He was succeeded by Nicias. Emboldened, the Argives and their allies, with the support of a small Athenian force under Alcibiades, moved to seize the city of Tegea, near Sparta. demolished. the Battle of Mantinea, Argos, which had been courted by both sides, The Athenians managed to survive for several reasons. Athens was "to have the same friends and enemies" as Sparta. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. This Peloponnenese, The people of Syracuse were ethnically Dorian (as were the Spartans), while the Athenians, and their ally in Sicilia, were Ionian. In 404 B.C. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. The fortification of Decelea prevented the shipment of supplies overland to Athens, and forced all supplies to be brought in by sea at increased expense. They were supported in this by Argos, a powerful state within the Peloponnese that had remained independent of Lacedaemon. For the earlier war beginning in 460 BC, see, For the book by the Greek historian Thucydides, see, Achaemenid support for Sparta (414–404 BC). It was during referred A base was formed there and was used by the Spartans for pestering the farmers of the region. the island of Corcyra sought to throw off their Corinthian overlords, in. Each promising each other things though when time came to deliver on the promises, excuses and compromises were made. Thus, the two powers were relatively unable to fight decisive battles. At the start of the war, the Athenians had prudently put aside some money and 100 ships that were to be used only as a last resort. of the injustice of the Sparta-backed Athenian oligarchy that had been the Greeks were at war with each other at least one-third of the time. It was also during this stage It really had no choice to take the help Persia was offering, even though it was against their reasons for originally starting this war. After defeating the Second Persian invasion of Greece in the year 480 BC, Athens led the coalition of Greek city-states that continued the Greco-Persian Wars with attacks on Persian territories in the Aegean and Ionia. [18] The Corinthians, outraged by these actions, encouraged Potidaea to revolt and assured them that they would ally with them should they revolt from Athens. Athens stretched their military activities into Boeotia and Aetolia, quelled the Mytilenean revolt and began fortifying posts around the Peloponnese. The Athenians were able to successfully put down that revolt. The Spartans and Athenians agreed to exchange the hostages for the towns captured by Brasidas, and signed a truce. Even though this uprising was short-lived it provided Persia with a justification of helping Sparta. The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC)[2] was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. The faction hostile to Alcibiades triumphed in Athens following a minor Spartan victory by their skillful general Lysander at the naval battle of Notium in 406 BC. The plague wiped out over 30,000 citizens, sailors and soldiers, including Pericles and his sons. [22] Undeterred, a majority of the Spartan assembly voted to declare that the Athenians had broken the peace, essentially declaring war.[23]. resupply to Athens. Rising to particular importance in Athenian democracy at this time was Cleon, a leader of the hawkish elements of the Athenian democracy. The Battle of Mantinea was the largest land battle fought within Greece during the Peloponnesian War. Corinth and Syracuse were slow to bring their fleets into the Aegean, and Sparta's other allies were also slow to furnish troops or ships. After this battle, Persian officially entered the contest and threw [14] The war was officially ended by the Thirty Years' Peace, signed in the winter of 446/5 BC. With the treasury and emergency reserve fund of 1,000 talents dwindling away, the Athenians were forced to demand even more tribute from her subject allies, further increasing tensions and the threat of further rebellion within the Empire. From 414 BC, Darius II, ruler of the Achaemenid Empire had started to resent increasing Athenian power in the Aegean and had his satrap Tissaphernes enter into an alliance with Sparta against Athens, which in 412 BC led to the Persian reconquest of the greater part of Ionia. The Second Peloponnesian War. Seizing its opportunity, the Spartan fleet sailed at once to the Dardanelles, the source of Athens's grain. Demosthenes argued for a retreat to Athens, but Nicias at first refused. The Lacedaemonians, with their neighbors the Tegeans, faced the combined armies of Argos, Athens, Mantinea, and Arcadia. The democrats at Samos, loyal to the bitter last, held on slightly longer, and were allowed to flee with their lives. The Athenians felt obliged to assist their ally. This tribute was used to support a powerful fleet and, after the middle of the century, to fund massive public works programs in Athens, causing resentment. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from the Achaemenid Empire, supported rebellions in Athens's subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens's empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. At the end of the first year of the war, Pericles gave his famous Funeral Oration (431 BC). remaining Athenian fleet was caught unawares at Hellespont and Early Spartan attempts to break up the coalition failed, and the leadership of the Spartan king Agis was called into question. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In the year 446, at the end of the First Without the help of Persia Sparta’s attempts at winning this new was with Athens would have been limited. Thus, Cyrus put all his means at the disposal of Lysander in the Peloponnesian War. [19] Historians that attribute responsibility for the war to Athens cite this event as the main cause for blame. The Great Peloponnesian War is largely famous because of the efforts of the historian Thucydides, the second great Greek historian. ** The image above shows the plague of Athens Persia, on the other hand, had everything to gain from the war. The Lacedaemonians were not content with simply sending aid to Sicily; they also resolved to take the war to the Athenians. The silver-mines in Lavrio also became detached from Athens. No matter who was the victor between Sparta and Athens, after exhausting themselves in this long drawn out war and using all of their supplies and resources, Persia would be in a good position to take total control over Greece.