How Athens took over the leadership from Sparta after the Persian Wars
During the period of Greek history from the last years of the Persian Wars till the beginning of the First Peloponnesian War, the primacy of Sparta declined whileAthens was gaining increased influence in Greece. The Athenian, Thucydides (460-400 BC), one among few contemporary historians, left behind the most creditable records about this period. Although he did not give enough documentation for many events he described, his Histories remained the main resource of the facts from that time. In consideration of the fact that he was an Athenian and a participant of the Athenian army, future historians could not entirely count upon his writing. In the 480-479 BC there was great anxiety about the strength and magnitude of the Persian threat. Although the Greeks had managed to force Persians retreat from the Greek mainland, the danger of reconquest by the Persians was still present. In the battle of Plataea (479 BC), the Greeks, under the Spartan regent and general Pausanians, obliterated the Persian army. The Greeks also won a naval victory at Mycale. Although the war drugged on for many years, these two victories marked the end of the Persian threat to Europe and the beginning of the period of Greek greatness.
Hornblower, S. "The Greek World 479-323 BC" (1983), Methuen, London Secondly, Thucydides' writings contain contradictions, although he clamed that Spartans gave away their authority willingly. Thucydides stated that in the 477/76 BC Sparta sent her army under the leadership of Pausanians on Cyprus and Byzantiuru (I, 96), which suggests that they had desire to extend their influence and stay in the race with Athens. The idea of panhellenism - the awareness of Greek unity- appeared as a reaction to the fear of the Persian invasion. This is how Persia helped the Greece to recognise their identity, which gave significance to the year 479 BC to be marked as the beginning of the Classical Greek period. At the other side, the year 479 BC does The second reason of the strengthening of Athens was the Spartan commander, Pausanias. He commanded over the Hellenic forces against Cyprus and Byzantium. Pausanias was unpopular among his own people, especially in those states which were recently freed from Persian invasion. These states wanted Athens to take the command over from Sparta and to protect them from Pausanias. As there were some Soon after the end of the Persian Wars, the Athenians started rebuilding the walls around their city previously destroyed in the war. According to Thucydides, when Sparta heard about rebuilding, she immediately sent an embassy to the Athens ally were ready to accept Sparta's leadership in their descents. This is how Sparta decided to give up her leading position. In the words of Thucydides," they feared that when their officers went overseas they would become corrupted, as they had seen happen in the case of Pausanias, and at the same time they no longer wanted to be
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Approximate Word count = 1731
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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