In 431 BC, a colony of Corinth, Corcyra, revolts against his mother, with the support of Athens. The latter also requires Potidaea, a former Corinthian colony, shaving her walls, and prohibits merchants Attica Megara, thus precipitating the downfall of the city. Without waiting, Corinth, Megara and quEgine, to appear before the Assembly of Sparta: Athens must fight! The Spartans, reluctant, eventually be convinced: the Peloponnesian War begins. The Spartans and their allies have 40,000 hoplites. The Athenians, they can not align land a force of 13,000 hoplites and 1,200 cavalry. But Athens is rich, thanks to tribute the allied cities, and sea, it is the strongest. The first years were spent in limited operations. The Spartans ravaged Attica repeatedly; Athens and Aegina occupies, according to its strategy, ruin enemy odds. Crammed behind their fortifications, the Athenians faced in 430 BC, a plague. In two years, it carries a quarter of the population. Pericles himself succumbs in 429 before our era. At his death, Athens is divided: the aristocracy, Nicias, the more moderate want a defensive war, while Cleon and his followers preach out war. When Cleon succeeded in prisoners 429 hoplites enemies and bring them back to Athens, the fighting started again. Then, in 421 BC, war loses two of its fiercest supporters: the Athenian Cleon and the Spartan Brasidas die before Amphipolis, a colony of Athens. Those dead, we can negotiate Sparta feared for the lives of his prisoners. Nicias concluded peace, each opponent withdrawing his earlier positions. Peace of Nicias should last fifty years. But in Athens, supporters of the war are a new chief Alcibiades, the nephew of Pericles. He is thirty years old and wants revenge Athens, but especially wants to give free rein to his ambition. Playing rivalries of the Peloponnese, is working to rally alongside Athens enemies of Sparta, as Argos. The war continues. In 418 BC, Sparta restore its dominance in the Peloponnese. In Athens, the supporters of peace prevail again. Total confusion in the city, and the rivalry between Nicias and Alcibiades paralyzes any activity. Three years pass. Alcibiades finds his influence. He persuaded the Athenian Assembly to resume the policy of expansion to the West and to tackle Sicily. In 415 BC, the Athenians send an expedition against Syracuse, commanded by Nicias and Alcibiades moderate ambitious. In Athens, crises and conspiracies succeed. Alcibiades is questioned, accused of mutilating Hermes. Athens then dispatch him a vessel to bring it back into the city. For his part, Syracuse sends emissaries seek help from Sparta. They found an unexpected advocate, Alcibiades fled the boat returning to Athens. To the enemy, it demonstrates the Spartans they have everything to fear from a stranglehold on Sicily Athens. Sparta therefore sends troops to the aid of Syracuse. Athens gave the signal for the assault. This is a disaster: twelve thousand dead, the destroyed fleet. Athens is on the brink of the abyss. To break definitively the Athenian Empire, Sparta turned to the Persian satrap Tissaphernes and down. The latter found an excellent adviser in the person ... Alcibiades, which now relies on a weakening of both sides to facilitate his return to Athens. So the war resumes for control of Asia Minor coasts. And Athens was undergoing its worst political crisis since the fall of the tyranny. Ruined by the war, part of the city involves the democratic system. In 411 BC, the coup: the Council of Five Hundred is replaced by a Council of Four Hundred representing the wealthy. Assembled at Samos, the other side of the Aegean Sea, the Athenian fleet dismisses its leaders and replace them with men of state Democrats, Thrasybulus and Thrasyllos. They need a support against the new Athenian government. It appeal to Alcibiades, who accepts. It helps Democrats regain control of the Hellespont, convinced the Persians to divert their funding Sparta and Athens ... can regain its cities, these strong victories. The city is in decline. In 406 BC, Athens still won a victory over Sparta Arginusae the islands, but the battle caused many deaths in the Athenian ranks, and winners strategists were sentenced to death on their return. A Aigos Potamos, the commander of the Spartan fleet, Lysander takes a good part of the Athenian fleet. Soon, he besieged the city of Attica. Behind the Long Walls, famine raged. 404 before J. C. Lysander into the city. Thebes and Corinth ask that the conquered city is shaved, but Sparta opposes this vengeance. It merely to destroy the fortifications and enter the fleet. Athens retains only twelve triremes ...
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 09:20:02 +0000
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