The Origins of the Great Peloponnesian War Quiz

Answer: The Peloponnesian League and the Delian League

The Peloponnesus was that part of Greece south of the Isthmus and had been dominated by Sparta for at least a 150 years. Thebes, north of the Isthmus, was also a member. The Delian League, which got its name from the island of Delos, had come into existence after the Second Persian War in 480-479 BC when Athens began defending the Greeks inhabiting the islands along the western coast of Asia Minor from the Persian Empire.

Answer: Sparta dismissed Athenians who had come to help with a revolt.

In 464 BC Sparta suffered a major earthquake and the helots, Spartan slaves, took the opportunity to revolt. Sparta requested help under the old Hellenic Alliance and Athens sent men to help with a siege. Spartans soon realized that having Athenian Democrats help them put down a slave revolt was probably not smart. Sparta dismissed the Athenians summarily and without giving a good reason, humiliating them in the process. Cimon's policy was reversed and soon the two leading Greek powers were on a collision course.

Answer: The First Peloponnesian War

The First Peloponnesian War was no mean conflict; it ran from 460-445 BC, until the ratification of The Thirty Year Peace. It also set the stage, because of its unsatisfactory outcome for both sides, for the longer, "greater," war that would follow in 431 BC.

Answer: Corinth

Once Corcyra's long-time rival, Corinth, took sides in the Epidamnian conflict, Corcyra felt it needed to support the oligarchs. While Corcyra was neutral under the Thirty Year Peace, Corinth's involvement was very important due to its membership in the Peloponnesian League. Any member of that League threatened by a third party automatically concerned Sparta.

Answer: Athens did not want Corcyra's 110 ships falling into the hands of a hostile power.

Athens by this point was the greatest naval power in Greece and had turned the Delian League into the Athenian Empire. Athens simply could not allow the Corcyrean fleet to fall into the hands of a member of the Peloponnesian League. Its Empire, spread among almost all the Greek Islands of the Aegean, depended on naval superiority.

Answer: A defensive alliance

Athens did not want Sparta and the Peloponnesian League to come in on the side of Corinth. Historian Donald Kagan believes Pericles, by agreeing to a defensive alliance only, was diplomatically signaling to the Spartans that Athenian aims were limited.

But events would soon spiral further out of control. Corinthian ships would fight with Cocyrean ships, with some Athenian assistance, off Corcyra in 433 BC.

Answer: Potidaea

Potidaea was founded by Corinth but had been under Athenian control for some time. Athens suspected rebellion and demanded that Potidaea give hostages, tear down its walls and dismiss the Corinthian magistrates. Potidaea refused and Athens besieged the city. Corinth responded by sending some "volunteers." Any official Corinthian response would have meant it was in violation of the Thirty Year Peace.

Answer: A decree prohibiting all Megarian ships from entering a port in the Athenian Empire.

While the exact date of the Megarian Decree is not known, it is generally taken to be the last straw. Megara was also a part of the Peloponnesian League, which naturally meant Spartan interests were involved. Sparta and the League declared war in 432 BC on Athens and her empire. Still, Sparta's King Archidamus was reluctant to the end and sought a way out. According to Thucydides, the King knew that Athen's money, empire and navy made it a formidable opponent, and that the war would be "passed on to their sons."

Answer: Sparta's fear of the growth of Athens' power.

Sparta's way of life and political structure were predicated, in no small part, on its leadership of the Peloponnesian League. If Sparta had simply allowed Athens to infringe the perceived rights of Corinth and Megara, then its leadership of the League would have been called into question. Hence Sparta declared war, which meant war for the entire Greek world, from Asia Minor to Sicily.

Answer: A small Theban surprise attack on the small town of Plataea.

Thebes, another member of the Peloponnesian League, had been at odds with small Plataea-- which had long looked to Athens for protection-- since the last Persian War in 480-479 BC. Like the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand prior to the First World War, this small sneak attack by 300 Theban soldiers set off larger actons. King Archidamus of Sparta, who had been playing for time in an attempt to avoid war, now invaded Attica and ravaged Athenian farms and homes in the country-side.

In turn Pericles sent out the fleet and attacked the coasts of the Peloponnesus.

The Great Peloponnesian War was on.