What was peloponnesian league

Not unlike the creation of the nineteenth-century European empires, the growth of the Spartan coalition was caused by local factors as well: Sparta was pulled into alliances as well. One such factor may have been that the Spartans were often willing to help people expel tyrants. If this happened in far-away places like Samos or Athens where the Spartans expelled Polycrates and Hippias , the ties of friendship were fleeting, but Peloponnesian states joined the Spartan alliance on a more permanent base e.

It is also reasonable to assume that towns that felt threatened by Argos gladly asked Sparta for protection. In the sixth century, every Peloponnesian town had to make this choice between Sparta and Argos.

A part of the treaty is quoted in the Greek Questions by Plutarch of Chaeronea , who in turn quotes Aristotle of Stagira , and although the interpretation is notoriously difficult, it is clear that Tegea gave up some of its autonomous foreign policy in return for Spartan protection. After this, the balance of power between Argos and Sparta tipped in favor of the latter, the Spartan king Cleomenes defeated the Argives, and Sparta became the uncontested master of the Peloponnese.

The Peloponnesian League can best be seen as a network of probably bilateral perpetual alliances. Except for Argos, all towns on the Peloponnese were member of the Spartan alliance. Most of them had sworn, like Tegea, to subordinate their foreign policy to Spartan wishes and received protection in return. Sparta could also call for perhaps one third of a town's soldiers, who had to serve under Spartan command.

Still, a major city like Corinth was left a considerable freedom. The historian Thucydides records how in the late s, the Corinthians waged war against the Corcyrans without much care about Spartan leadership.

Under the Spartan general Lysander, the war raged for another decade. By in B. Lysander decimated the Athenian fleet in battle and then held Athens under siege, forcing it to surrender to Sparta in B. The Peloponnesian War marked the end of the Golden Age of Greece, a change in styles of warfare, and the fall of Athens, once the strongest city-state in Greece.

The balance in power in Greece was shifted when Athens was absorbed into the Spartan Empire. It continued to exist under a series of tyrants and then a democracy. Athens lost its dominance in the region to Sparta until both were conquered less than a century later and made part of the kingdom of Macedon.

Martin, published by Yale University Press, But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The story of the Trojan War—the Bronze Age conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece—straddles the history and mythology of ancient Greece and inspired the greatest writers of antiquity, from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles to Virgil.

Since the 19th-century By the time the First Punic War broke out, Rome had become the dominant power throughout the Italian The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles B. Pericles transformed his One of the greatest ancient historians, Thucydides c.

Leonidas c. Although Leonidas lost the battle, his death at Thermopylae was seen as a heroic sacrifice because he sent most The Athenian philosopher Plato c. In his written dialogues he conveyed and expanded on the ideas and techniques of his teacher Socrates.

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Ancient Greek politics, philosophy, art and scientific achievements greatly influenced Western civilizations today. One example of their legacy is the Olympic Games.

Use the videos, media, reference materials, and other resources in this collection to teach about ancient Greece, its role in modern-day democracy, and civic engagement. Sparta was one of the most dominant of all the Greek city-states, and is most often remembered for their athletic and militaristic values.

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