Peloponnesian War Research Articles

Silver from the North

Following Strabo, the mines at Damastion and in its wider region have traditionally been localized in western Illyria. But for several reasons the only known ancient silver mine, west of the Axios, in the Openika hills up modern Ohrid, is no option. Findspots of coins of the Damastion type, minted after the Chalkidian model, however hint at the wider Skupi/Skopje basin as an area of circulation and as a center of silver commerce. Two ancient mining districts can be located not far off, to its east and north, in the regions of Kratovo (in modern North Macedonia) and (somewhat later) Ulpianum (in Kosovo or southern Serbia). From both districts, in the first half of the 4th c., mineral silver travelled south via the Axios Valley and the Anthemous region to the federal Chalkidian mint at Olynthos. The mines in the Kratovo district bordered on Hellenized Paionia, whereas those in the north, belonging to Dardania, were far less in touch with Greek civilization. Damastion’s location, probably in the Paionian borderlands, accounts for the Greek character of its coins. They became models for those from Dardanian mines which, however, soon fell off Greek standards. Nonetheless, Damastion kept close connections with the Chalkidians: soon after the Peloponnesian War it had been founded by the Mendaians and other groups including refugees from Aigina. Chalkidian economic connections with the Dardanian north, based on silver trade, were an impulse for a defensive alliance that the Illyro-Dardanian king Grabos concluded around 357 with the Chalkidians against Philip. Extremely short-lived, it was cancelled by the Olynthians when they accepted Philip’s offer of a symmachy. They threw the stele inscribed with their Dardanian alliance into a river flowing by their city even before it was fully incised.

Illyrians and Macedonians in the Fifth Century BC

The Illyrians lived in a mountainous territory that bordered the rich plains of Macedonia. Therefore, since the archaic age, they tried several times to penetrate Macedonia. Greek sources emphasize the resistance of the Macedonian kings, who were repeatedly defeated by the Illyrians. During the Peloponnesian War Macedonian king Perdikkas II allied with the Spartan general Brasidas to fight against the Illyrians and stopped their advance. But only half a century later the great king Philip II managed to keep the Illyrians permanently away from the borders of Macedonia.

Obraz życia kobiet na podstawie "Lizystraty" oraz "Sejmu kobiet" Arystofanesa

It is common knowledge that in ancient times women did not have many rights that were assigned only to men, such as the right to education, owning their own property or freely choosing a partner. The aim of the article is to present the image of the life of women in ancient Greece, with particular emphasis on the citizens of Athens during the Peloponnesian War and after its end, based on two comedies by Aristophanes: Lysistrata and Assemblywomen. By highlighting some stereotypes regarding women, the comedy writer draws attention to the chaos that prevails in political matters for which men are responsible. Women make a kind of transition from the zone of oikos intended for them to the zone of polis, becoming the main characters of comedy.

Political and cultural changes as an effect of the pestilences and pandemics through the centuries: Case studies

In considering pandemics from an historical point of view, we should first have in mind the differences in perception and language which have evolved over the centuries: the numerous sources we are dealing with may refer to the same phenomenon in different ways. Notwithstanding the fact that pestilences belong to human history from the very beginning (the Bible, the Iliad and Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War are some appropriate witnesses), only between the 1800s and the 1900s did the scientific notions start classifying viruses and related diseases, allowing intervention through scientific medicine to repair all or some of the damage caused by pandemics. The Black Death is in everyone's memory, but other pandemics have killed before and after it. This article goes through the events, giving evidence of the contacts and distances between different pandemics, aware that the effects of those diseases on culture and society are controversial and that the debate is still open.

Una magistratura finanziaria ateniese poco nota: i poristai

Abstract A little-known Athenian financial magistracy: the poristai The essay examines the role of the poristai, a financial magistracy that functioned in Athens between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, and to which scholars have devoted scarce attention. The importance that Athens ascribed to the poroi was a central factor in its politics from as early as the 5th century. Management of the Athenian economy underwent a series of substantial changes from the end of the Peloponnesian War onwards, and since the state required increasingly specialized financial management skills, these authorities seem to have played a prominent role. The difficult economic situation that ensued from the Sicilian defeat of 413 had necessitated the creation of this unusual board of magistrates known as the poristai, whose unusual task was most likely that of administering public funds and state revenues. This essay focuses on references to the board in ancient sources, and on the often ‘technical’ use of the verb porizo, in order to shed light on the functions and identity of some of these magistrates, and on the possibility that this initially anomalous office gradually gained a permanent status during the 4th century.

The political economy of the original “Thucydides’ Trap”: a conflict economics perspective on the Peloponnesian war

The political economy of the original “Thucydides’ Trap”: a conflict economics perspective on the Peloponnesian war

Unity and Diversity in Greek Art

Athenian art was more or less dominant in the visual culture of the Greek world in the classical period but not in all areas. We explore here the influence of Athens on the art and architecture of regions that had developed their own local traditions. Thishappened in times of crisis, political as well as social. Such crises can be detected in the last decades of both the fifth and the fourth centuries BCE. We will begin by examining the impact of the Peloponnesian War on the artistic development of Arcadia and Laconiaand conclude with the aftermath of the Macedonian conquest of Athens after the Lamian War. It appears that in the last twenty years of the fourth century the Macedonians hired Attic masons to reproduce Athenian buildings in Macedonia, and the ban on luxurious grave monuments imposed on Athens by Demetrios of Phaleron drove Athenian artists to emigrate to Macedonia.

Peloponnesian War Perpetual Conflict and Future Challenges

The Peloponnesian War, a monumental conflict in ancient Greek history, provided much valuable knowledge for modern foreign policy. Through an analysis of conflict-inducing factors, the military and political strategies used by Athens and Sparta, and their implications for the future, this article highlights the importance of diplomacy, strong alliances, balance of power, and effective military strategy in preventing conflict and promoting peace. Recommendations are given to prioritize diplomacy, strengthen regional alliances, respect the balance of power, collaborate multilaterally, and maintain flexibility and adaptation in foreign policy. The methodology used in this article is a comprehensive literature study on the topic of the Peloponnesian War. By applying knowledge from the Peloponnesian War, nations can build a solid foundation for future peace, stability, and prosperity, drawing lessons from history to shape a better future for all humanity.

Was the Peloponnesian War Inevitable? Athens’ Campaign to Egypt (460-454 BCE) and the Evolution of its Grand Strategy

This essay aims to present a new perspective on the political history of Hellas from the end of Persia’s invasions to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by examining the expedition of Athens to Egypt (460–454 BCE), its motivation, failure, and impact on Athens’ grand strategy. Guided by Thucydides’ account, studies of this period have often focused on how Athens, growing into a self-assertive power, threatened Sparta’s dominant position within Hellas through its relentless pursuit of power, making a major war with Sparta inevitable. This study criticises this interpretation, showing that it obscures the fact that Athens’ foreign strategical vision following the Persian invasions did not directly evolve into a competition with Sparta for hegemony within Hellas. Athens’ ambition lay in dominating the Eastern Mediterranean, with the Egyptian expedition representing the culmination of its offensive in the region. Only by considering how the failure of this enterprise affected Athens’ grand strategy and the power constellation in Hellas can the entangled journey to the Peloponnesian War be properly reconstructed. Thus, this essay proposes a reconsideration of the prevailing theme of the war’s inevitability, urging a review of its relevance.

Plato, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien Using Literary and Philosophical Texts to Navigate Post-Pandemic and Political Teaching Challenges

We examine how Plato, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R Tolkien responded to tumultuous times that included the ongoing reality of death through wars and plagues and social unrest. More specifically, we draw upon the historical backdrop of Plato’s dialogues, C.S. Lewis’s essay, “Learning in War-time”, and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to bring to light important social and psychological dimensions of the learning process that may help students and educators navigate these tumultuous times that cause confrontation with death. We argue for a middle ground between emphasizing the “unprecedented” nature of events like COVID-19, the politically divisive state of affairs in America, the war in Ukraine, the devastation of earthquakes in Syria and Turkey, and the desire to find a new normal in the midst of world-wide turmoil. We first reflect on our experiences with pandemic teaching and learning. Then, we address some contemporary research on pandemic learning. Third, we turn to the historical backdrop of Plato’s dialogues, specifically the Plague, The Peloponnesian War, the rule of “The Thirty”, the restoration of democracy, and the Reconciliation Agreement in Athens. Fourth, we consider some of the effects of the first and second world wars for both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Finally, we suggest that Gandalf emerges as a model of the middle ground we aim for in our pedagogical relationships.

WORDS, WORDS, SDROW—and alas, WORDS: The Fate of Words and Language in Turbulent Times

ABSTRACT Everyone, even when asserting unchallengeable authority from God or Science, thinks in language, in words and phrases, in expressions of moral, social and political impact, fighting words and words with and over which we fight. However, debates among the educated can be irrelevant elsewhere, ineffective against the highly motivated whose dogma instructs and guides them, their voting and their arming. The degeneration of “democracy” to “tyranny” such as Plato’s Republic postulated threatens in some lands “of the free,” while in others it seems inexorably in progress. Today “democracy,” republic,” “liberty/freedom,” “justice,” “law and order” are adduced by their actual enemies to complement “nationalism,” “patriotism,” and frightening “empire.” Extremists on both sides decry “Tyranny!” each in fact seeking authoritarian power. All of which have instructive ancient precedents: in the History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides offers horrific accounts of ancient nation-states “long ago and far away,” more or less democratic, that abandoned common sense, moral sense, and with them regard for value words and truth itself. In the early 2020s CE many persons and governments have done little better during the still lingering pandemic. A second horror is prompted by Thucydides’ report of civil war on Corcyra, telling how faction spawned riots, coups d’état, and outright civil war. The twenty-first-century media are uniquely potent, yet mechanics of seduction are timeless. Likewise techniques for winning true believers and votes, as illustrated by passages in Mein Kampf on the language of propaganda, its production and reception. Our hope is therefore Education for a New Era to help students to discover pitfalls of media(ted) “information,” to achieve independent critical thinking at levels of basic language use and foundations of argument. Besides recognizing mis- and disinformation as harmful, they must learn themselves to judge thoughtless use, cynical abuse, or, worse yet, brazen disdain of vocabulary indicating moral/ethical value. Scientists have key roles in this drama; humanists larger ones yet.

Bendis, Deloptes and Asklepios: Reconsidering Reciprocal Formations of Iconography and Placement of Newcomer Cults in the Piraeus

Abstract In the fifth century BCE, Athenians intensified the worship of non-Athenian and non-Greek deities, a fact which has resulted in massive scholarly attention (Garland 1992; Parker 1996; Neumann 2022). While the legal facet of this procedure has been extensively analysed (Parker 1996; 2011), the spatial aspect of the establishment of new cults – the ‘placemaking’ – has been mainly neglected. This article re-examines the placement of the cults of Asklepios, Bendis and Deloptes, commonly assumed to have been a healing hero and a paredros of Bendis. Based on the iconographical analysis of Piraean votive reliefs for these divinities in combination with the spatial and temporal setting of these attestations, I argue that the Athenians provided space for this first wave of officially accepted religious newcomers close to the Zea harbour. At the temenos, which is usually identified as the Asklepieion and its immediate surroundings, several originally non-Athenian cults were installed during the Peloponnesian War, making it an anchoring point for the divine new arrivals.

The National Identity of Ancient and Modern Greeks

The issue of national identity in ancient Greece played an important role during periods of war due to the absence of a unifying political authority. Ancient Greece was organized along the lines of independent city-states with different political systems. However, in two wars, they were able to unite to combat a common enemy of Greece. In the Greek-Trojan War, the Greeks were the aggressors, and many Greek city-states responded to the call for joint action. In the Greek-Persian War, the Greeks defended their homeland. Once again, the Greek city-states, primarily Athens and Sparta, joined forces to repel the Persian invasion of mainland Greece. Homer, in his Iliad, and Herodotus, in his Histories, provide definitions of what Greek national identity was all about. By the time of the civil war, i.e., the Peloponnesian War, there appears to be a paradigm shift in what constitutes Greek national identity. The best definition within the context of this paradigm is given by Isocrates. This paper examines the national identity of Greeks as proposed mainly in the works of Homer, Herodotus, and Isocrates. It also explores the 19th-century controversy regarding whether modern Greeks have the same national identity as their ancient counterparts. Keywords: national identity, education, Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Isocrates, virtue, ancient Greeks, modern Greeks.

Origins and Ends: Money and Power in and beyond Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War

Abstract This article examines the disconnect between, on the one hand, the insistence on the part of multiple characters in Thucydides’ first book on the need for the Peloponnesians to invest in naval power to defeat Athens, and, on the other, the failure to act on this in the narrative of books 2–7. It then analyses the numismatic evidence for the way in which Sparta does then act upon this advice in the course of the Ionian War, and suggests that Thucydides’ view that this was done primarily with Persian support may be missing a (brief) Spartan attempt to create a fiscally self-supporting empire.

Between ‘The Character of the Athenian Empire’ and The Origins of the Peloponnesian War (and beyond)

Abstract This article discusses the fortune of Geoffrey de Ste. Croix’s famous article ‘The Character of the Athenian Empire’, and reassesses its basic thesis that the Athenian Empire was popular among the lower classes of the allied cities in the light of recent developments in the field. After surveying the article’s immediate and more recent reception, and discussing its relation with The Origins of the Peloponnesian War and The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World, it isolates four key new trends in Greek history that, while going against some of Ste. Croix’s basic convictions, end up reinforcing his overall case. These are: a renewed attention to the mass and elite dichotomy, with recent work interpreting Greek oligarchy as a fundamentally reactive and anti-demotic regime; the recognition of the continued relevance of Persian meddling in the later fifth-century; a sea-change in Attic epigraphy which has led to the post-dating of several ‘imperial’ decrees; the new recognition of the dynamism of the Greek economy, and of the economic function of the Athenian Empire itself. Finally, the article addresses the paradigm of class struggle and stresses how democracy and economic dynamism, to which the Athenian Empire contributed, fostered the growth of slave markets and worsened the exploitation of ‘marginal’ regions as slave suppliers.

Fafner and the Rhinemaidens’ Treasure, Fifty Years On

Abstract This article discusses G.E.M. de Ste. Croix’s contentions about the effect of Helotage on Spartan foreign policy articulated in chapter IV of Origins of the Peloponnesian War, namely that Sparta’s Helot population was uniquely dangerous, constraining Sparta’s ability to send large numbers of citizen hoplites abroad lest it be exposed to the threat within. It shows that while certain arguments advanced by Ste. Croix are no longer tenable in light of subsequent research, others still stand up to critical scrutiny fifty years on; furthermore, other points neglected by Ste. Croix reinforce his overall claims.

The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, the Origins of the Peloponnesian War, and Theories of International Relations

Abstract This article investigates the theoretical assumptions and implications of de Ste. Croix’s approach to interstate politics in The Origins of the Peloponnesian War. It suggests that two approaches can be identified in the work: one which sees a fundamental connection between political systems within a state and that state’s conduct of interstate politics, and another, closer to conventional ‘Realist’ theories, which sees a clear dividing line between domestic and interstate politics, and in which interstate relations need to be understood according to a distinct analytical framework. Although this tension was probably not a particular concern to de Ste. Croix himself, it does have a bearing on ongoing debates in International Theory; the final part of the article briefly explores the possibility that the concept of ‘compulsion’, important to both Thucydides’ and de Ste. Croix’s understanding of the causes of the Peloponnesian War, might provide a way of reconciling these two approaches.

The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, Chapter IV, and the Development of Spartan Historical Studies

Abstract This article examines the impact on Spartan historiography of Chapter IV of de Ste. Croix’s Origins of the Peloponnesian War, focusing on his discussions of Spartan politics and society in Sections v–vi. These sections fit oddly within the overall chapter, but they blew a breath of fresh air into Spartan studies through their revisionist approach, intimations of the socio-economic bases of policy-making, and extended accounts of ‘real-life’ political episodes across the classical period. Along with Moses Finley’s near-contemporary article on Sparta, OPW significantly influenced the following generation of British historians (including the author), although they often adopted different interpretations or developed new perspectives on Spartan society only hinted at by de Ste. Croix. OPW also had an important impact on Western European historiography on Spartan politics. Its combination of constitutional and societal approaches gives it an enduring currency in the context of developing Historical Institutionalist approaches to political studies.

OPW and de Ste. Croix: the Past and Present Views of a Pupil

Abstract This survey, by a pupil of Geoffrey de Ste. Croix and eventual successor in his Oxford job, combines personal recollections of de Ste. Croix’s horizons and intellectual range with a penetrating study of his Origins of the Peloponnesian War, its underlying debts and detailed contentions. It addresses his, and Thucydides’, engagement with origins and causes, his central contention about votes by the Spartans and their allies on whether to go to war, the roles of Corinth, Megara and the much-discussed Megarian decree. It also presents a close reading of an Athenian involvement in Macedon and the north and its relevance to de Ste. Croix’s views on Athenian imperialism. It then sets the book’s conclusions in a wider context, ranging from modern writings on the origins of war to its concluding echo of Lenin.

The Curse of Triumph: Military Revolution During the Peloponnesian War and Sparta's Failure to Adapt

The Curse of Triumph: Military Revolution During the Peloponnesian War and Sparta's Failure to Adapt