Greek: Relations between states 479-404BC

Question 1

What were the reasons for Athenian failure in the Peloponnesian war?

Answer 1

1. Epiteichismos at Decelaea
2. Spartan-Persian alliance
3. Sicilian expedition
4. Failures of democracy

Question 2

Aristophanes Peace 609

Answer 2

“to prevent all danger to himself, he threw out that little spark, the Megarian decree, set the city aflame”

Question 3

Aristophanes Peace 648

Answer 3

“It was the tanner who was the author of all this woe”

Question 4

Aristotle, Politics 1284a38

Answer 4

“For as soon as they (Athens) had firm control of the empire, they humbled these islands (Samos, Chios and Lesbos) contrary to the agreements”

Question 5

Diodorus 11.46.5

Answer 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”

Question 6

Harpocration s.v. Atticois grammasin

Answer 6

“Theopompos…says that the treaty with the Persians is a fake, written up not in the Attic but in the Ionic alphabet”

Question 7

Plutarch, Aristeides 23

Answer 7

“not by means of hoplites or ships or horsemen, but by tact and diplomacy he had stripped them of the leadership”

Question 8

Plutarch, Cimon 11.2

Answer 8

“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”

Question 9

Plutarch Cimon 11.3

Answer 9

“before they knew it, they were tributary subjects instead of allies”

Question 10

Plutarch Pericles 23.1

Answer 10

“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”

Question 11

Plutarch Pericles 30.4

Answer 11

“But the Megarians denied the murder of Anthemocritus, and threw the blame for Athenian hate on Aspasia and Pericles”

Question 12

Plutarch Pericles 30.2

Answer 12

“He must have secretly cherished, then, as it seems, some private grudge against the Megarians”

Question 13

Herodotus 9.105

Answer 13

“In that battle those of the Greeks who fought best were the Athenians”

Question 14

Thucydides 1.23

Answer 14

“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”

Question 15

Thucydides 1.33

Answer 15

“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”

Question 16

Why did Athens intervene in Corcyra?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Thucydides 1.40.1

Answer 17

“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.”

Question 18

Thucydides 1.40.2

Answer 18

“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”

Question 19

Thucydides 1.44

Answer 19

“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”

Question 20

Thucydides 1.58

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Thucydides 1.60

Answer 21

“sent volunteers from Corinth, and mercenaries from the rest of Peloponnese” (To Potidaea)

Question 22

Thucydides 1.66

Answer 22

“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”

Question 23

Thucydides 2.8

Answer 23

“they (Spartans) proclaimed themselves the liberators of Hellas”

Question 24

Thucydides 4.20

Answer 24

“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”

Question 25

What year was the revolt of Naxos and why was it significant?

Answer 25

1. 471BC Naxos revolts from Athens and the Delian League
2. Loses its independence, walls, ships and vote in League
3. Subjugated, “Contrary to the Hellenic right” 1.98 Thucydides

Question 26

“The Athenians as rulers were no longer popular…for this position it was the allies themselves who were to blame”

Answer 26

Plutarch (probably Cimon)

Question 27

Why is the revolt of Thasos significant?

Answer 27

1. 465BC Thasos appeals to Sparta in trying to break away from Athens
2. Sparta “would have helped” but there was an earthquake
3. Thasos forced to accept Athenian terms
4. This is a good example of Sparta being hesitant to fight Athens as we know that earthquakes are very common in Greece

Question 28

What are the chief causes of the first Peloponnesian War?

Answer 28

1. Megara defects from Peloponnesian League due to border disputes with Corinth
2. The Athenian Long Walls built in 461
3. 462BC Sparta asks and Athens sends hoplites to assist Sparta after 465 hoplite revolt, only to have Sparta change their minds due to fear of Athenian radicalism (Thucydides 1.102)

Question 29

Thucydides 1.102

Answer 29

“fearing lest the audacious and innovating humour of the Athenians [..] might cause some alteration if they stayed, dismissed them alone of all the confederates”

Question 30

Thucydides 1.90

Answer 30

“They (Sparta) were urged on by their allies, who were alarmed both by the sudden growth of Athenian sea-power and by the daring which the Athenians had shown in the war against Persia”

Question 31

Thucydides 1.95

Answer 31

“They (Sparta) no longer wished to be burdened with the war against Persia”