Transcript Peloponnesian War 431 - 425 BCE

Peloponnesian War
431BCE-425BCE
The Plague
• According to Thucydides the plague started in
Ethiopia and spread through Egypt and North
Africa and then to Athens.
• Killed 1/3 of the Athenian people.
• “As it devoured the flower of their manhood
and their strength”.
Riots
• Became indifferent to laws and religion.
• The people lost faith in Pericles and deposed
him.
• Investigated and fined, but soon returned to
power.
Death of Pericles
• Pericles dies of the plague.
• Cleon (leather merchant), Lysicles (sheep dealer) and
Hyerboulus (lamp maker) all three wanted an aggressive war.
• Wealthy classes:
• Supported Nicas, a conservative land owner and slave dealer.
• NO CONTINUITY!!!
Cleon
• Demagogue.
• Involvement in
-The Mytilenian Debate
-the speech of the Spartan envoys during the
Pylos campaign
-the debate on Pylos
-the military campaign
Deeply disliked by Thucydides
The Lesbian Uprising
• Independent ally of Athens. Provided ships.
• Mytilene had intended to annex Lesbos, and
asked Sparta for help.
• Eventually Athens besieged the city.
• Envoys Mytilene convinced the P: to help the
Lesbians.
Appeal to Sparta
• “It is not in Attica, as some people think, that
the war will be won or lost, but in the
countries from which Attica gains her
strength...you will be in a much better position
for breaking the power of Athens by detaching
her allies from her...” Thuycidides
Mytilenian Debate
• ‘the entire male population of Mytilene and to
make slaves of the woman and children’.
Bibliography