The Peloponnesian War and Its Sieges

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter discusses the sieges of cities, wanton plunder, and massacres in the period of the Peloponnesian War, which contributed more misery to the Greeks than all previous wars and saw an increase in the number of cities taken and Greeks killed or exiled. It can often be seen in Greek siege warfare that a city surrendered after internal ideological strife brought about a betrayal of the town. The Greeks experienced a dramatic rise in the number of sieges during the Peloponnesian War, but sieges and the atrocities that often accompanied them were experienced by Greek poleis before the Peloponnesian War and long before the late fifth century BC. They made assaults on cities throughout the Peloponnesian War.