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Thucydides And The Peloponnesian War

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Thucydides, an Athenian historian, political philosopher, and commander is more commonly known for his work surrounding the history of the Peloponnesian War. While serving his time as commander in the war he was exiled for his failure and wasn’t allowed to return to Athens until after the war had ended. While this may not have been ideal for him at the time, it gave him the opportunity to gather information from both opposing sides, Athens and Sparta, throughout the war. This then enabled him to write a direct and concise account of the war and to refrain from any personal opinion. He is commonly regarded as the father of philosophical history. His account of the Peloponnesian war is not only extremely accurate, but it chronicles a war that …show more content…
At the time of the Persian War, a precursor to the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans were the head of the Peloponnesian league and were the leading power in Greece. The Athenians, along with the Delian League, built a navy in order to combat the Persian fleet and slowly became an empire. As this empire continued to grow, the Spartans began to grow jealous and afraid of the Athenians power and challenge to their authority. This led to a serious of quarrels in the 460’s BC which came to be known as the First Peloponnesian War. This ended in 445 with the Thirty Years’ Peace. Peace lasted for over a decade but in 431 Sparta’s ally Thebes attacked Athens’ ally Plataea. The following spring, a large Spartan army invaded Attica and cut down the Athenians’ grain, destroyed farmhouses, and country homes. Pericles, who was the leader of Athens, established a strategy in which land battles would be avoided and instead raids would be launched around the Peloponnesus. He waited for the Spartans to realize that they had no strategy that could lead them to a victory. This was difficult for him to do, however, because many of the Athenians wanted to go out and fight. Unfortunately for Athens, a plague hit which led to not only many physical deaths, but a defeated moral of the people as well. The Athenians attempted to ask for peace but Sparta refused and the war continued on. Pericles then died of the plague in 429 (Kagan,

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