Greek: Relations between states 479-404BC Flashcards
What were the reasons for Athenian failure in the Peloponnesian war?
- Epiteichismos at Decelaea
- Spartan-Persian alliance
- Sicilian expedition
- Failures of democracy
Aristophanes Peace 609
“to prevent all danger to himself, he threw out that little spark, the Megarian decree, set the city aflame”
Aristophanes Peace 648
“It was the tanner who was the author of all this woe”
Aristotle, Politics 1284a38
“For as soon as they (Athens) had firm control of the empire, they humbled these islands (Samos, Chios and Lesbos) contrary to the agreements”
Diodorus 11.46.5
“in their admiration of Aristides they eagerly submitted to him in every matter and thus he received the supreme command by sea without having to fight for it”
Harpocration s.v. Atticois grammasin
“Theopompos…says that the treaty with the Persians is a fake, written up not in the Attic but in the Ionic alphabet”
Plutarch, Aristeides 23
“not by means of hoplites or ships or horsemen, but by tact and diplomacy he had stripped them of the leadership”
Plutarch, Cimon 11.2
“so suffered the allies, caught with the bait of their own ease, to stay at home and become tillers of the soil an unwarlike merchants instead of warriors”
Plutarch Cimon 11.3
“before they knew it, they were tributary subjects instead of allies”
Plutarch Pericles 23.1
“every year ten talents found their way to Sparta from Pericles, and that with these he conciliated all the officials there, and so staved off the war, not purchasing peace, but time”
Plutarch Pericles 30.4
“But the Megarians denied the murder of Anthemocritus, and threw the blame for Athenian hate on Aspasia and Pericles”
Plutarch Pericles 30.2
“He must have secretly cherished, then, as it seems, some private grudge against the Megarians”
Herodotus 9.105
“In that battle those of the Greeks who fought best were the Athenians”
Thucydides 1.23
“The real cause I consider to be […] The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon (Spartans), made war inevitable”
Thucydides 1.33
“gaining a high character in the eyes of the world, the gratitude of those whom you shall assist (Corcyra), and a great accession of strength for yourselves”
Why did Athens intervene in Corcyra?
Thucydides 1.33: “gaining a high character in the eyes of the world, the gratitude of those whom you shall assist, and a great accession of strength for yourselves”
1.32, they are the greatest naval power next to Athens and in helping them they will both strengthen their own fleet and cripple the Peloponnese
Thucydides 1.40.1
“Did we (Corinth) on the defection of the Samians record our vote against you, when the rest of the Peloponnesian powers were equally divided on the question of whether they should assist them? No.”
Thucydides 1.40.2
“there may be a clause in the treaty stating that any city not included in the original agreement is free to join whichever side it likes; this cannot refer to cases where the object of joining an alliance is to injure other powers”
Thucydides 1.44
“But each of the contracting parties had a right to the other’s assistance against invasion, whether of his own territory, or that of an ally”
Thucydides 1.58
receiving from the Lacedaemonian government a promise to invade Attica if the Athenians should attack Potidaea, the Potidaeans […] entered into league with the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, and revolted.
Thucydides 1.60
“sent volunteers from Corinth, and mercenaries from the rest of Peloponnese” (To Potidaea)
Thucydides 1.66
“the complaint of Corinth was that her colony of Potidaea, and Corinthian and Peloponnesian citizens within it, were being besieged”
“Athens against the Peloponnesians, that they had incited a town of hers, a member of her alliance and a contributor to her revenue, to revolt”
Thucydides 2.8
“they (Spartans) proclaimed themselves the liberators of Hellas”
Thucydides 4.20
“let us be reconciled, and for ourselves choose peace instead of war, and grant to the rest of the Hellenes a remission from their sufferings”
