How did Athens take over the leadership from Sparta after the Persian Wars
During the period of Greek history from the last years of the Persian Wars tillthe beginning of the First Peloponnesian War, the primacy of Sparta declined while Athens was gaining increased influence in Greece. The Athenian, Thucydides(460-400 BC), one among few contemporary historians, left behind the mostcreditable 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.
Sparta's ongoing need to keep her army at home most of the time to guard against helots' revolt also made prolonged overseas operations difficult to maintain. Athenians successfully took over the leadership and took in hand all important decisions about the war, quantity of money or number of ships that every country was Hornblower, S. "The Greek World 479-323 BC" (1983), Methuen, London indications that Pausanias co-operated with Persian king, Sparta did not have other choice but to pull him out of war and bring him up to the court. He was condemned to starve to death (I, 94-95). His arrogant and violent behaviour quickly led to dissatisfaction with Spartan leadership among the Greek allies. After this affair no 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 continued. With all the military help from other allies in the Peloponnese and Athens, Sparta did not succeed to capture Mount Ithome. The most important and dangerous for Sparta was increased restlessness of the serfs in Messenia and Laconia. After his failure outside of Laconia and the betrayal because of which Sparta abandoned him, Pausanians tried with the help of helots to throw off existing constitution of Sparta, but at the same time collaborating with
Some common words found in the essay are:
Byzantium Pausanias, Thucydides460-400 BC, Greeks Spartan, Athens Persian, Persian Wars, Spartans Athens, Thucydides Sparta, Messenia Laconia, Classical Greek, Athenian Sparta, persian wars, persian invasion, greek history, 479 bc, relationship sparta athens, athens sparta, authority willingly, sparta's leadership, war athens, peloponnesian league, sparta athens, fear persian invasion,
Approximate Word count = 1739
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
