They'd fought cooperatively against the Persian enemy during the prolonged Persian Wars, but afterwards, relations, strained even then, fell further apart. Greek against Greek, the Peloponnesian War wore both sides down leading to a state where the leader of Macedonia and his son, Philip and Alexander, could take control.
The Peloponnesian War was fought between two groups of Greek allies.
One was the
Peloponnesian League, which had Sparta as its leader. The other leader was Athens, which controlled the
The Delian League.
Maps of Ancient GreecePersian War |
Causes of the Peloponnesian War| Before the Peloponnesian War (All dates in the 5th century B.C.) | | 477 | Aristides forms Delian League. | | 451 | Athens and Sparta sign five-year treaty. | | 449 | Persia and Athens sign peace treaty. | | 446 | Athens and Sparta sign 30 years peace treaty. | | 432 | Revolt of Potidaea. |
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| 1st Stage of the Peloponnesian War (Archidamian War) from 431-421 | | Athens (under Pericles and then Nicias) successful until 424. Athens makes little forays on the Peloponnese by sea and Sparta destroys areas in the countryside of Attica. Athens makes a disastrous expedition into Boeotia. They try to recover Amphipolis (422), unsuccessfully. Athens fears more of her allies would desert, so she signs a treaty (Peace of Nicias) that allows her to keep her face, basically setting things back to how they were before the war except for Plataea and Thracian towns. | | 431 | Peloponnesian War begins. Siege of Potidaea. | | Plague in Athens. | | 429 | Pericles dies. Siege of Plataea (-427). | | 428 | Revolt of Mitylene. | | 427 | Athenian Expedition to Sicily. [See map of Sicily and Sardinia] | | 421 | Peace of Nicias. |
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| 2nd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 421-413 | | Corinth forms coalitions against Athens. Alcibiades stirs up trouble and is exiled. Betrays Athens to Sparta. Both sides seek the alliance of Argos but after the Battle of Mantinea, where Argos loses most of her military, Argos no longer matters, although she becomes an Athenian ally. | | 415-413 | Athenian expedition to Syracuse. Sicily. |
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| 3rd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 413-404 (Decelean War or Ionian War) | | Under the advice of Alcibiades, Sparta invades Attica, occupying the town of Decelea near Athens [source: Jona Lendering]. Athens continues to send ships and men to Sicily even though it is disastrous. Athens, which had started the war with the advantage in naval battle, loses this advantage to the Corinthians and Syracusans. Sparta then used Persian gold from Cyrus to build her fleet, stirs up trouble with Athenian allies in Ionia, and destroys the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegosotami. The Spartans are led by Lysander. | | 404 | Athens surrenders. |
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| Peloponnesian War ends. | | Athens loses its democratic government. Control is put into the Board of 30. Sparta's subject allies have to pay 1000 talents annually. | | Thirty Tyrants rule Athens. |
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