If it seems like I'm ignoring the Peloponnesian War, yes, I mainly am, since I've read about it roughly a million times and had to teach it to the ungrateful youth about as often. Maybe I'll say something about the causes later on. Anyway:
At the end of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta put the Thirty Tyrants into power in Athens. They included Critias, former student of Socrates, and Theramenes, a moderate member who was executed during the reign of terror for opposing the murder of inhabitants of the city and the confiscation of their property. See Lysias, Kata Erastosthenes. A force of exiles under Thrasyboulos seized fortified positions close to the city at Phyle and Munichia and defeated a Spartan/oligarchic force before retaking the city after the tyrants fled to Eleusis. This resulted in a general amnesty, and divisions inside the Spartan government (Lysander and Pausanias) resulted in the city mainly being left to its own devices.
The Spartan hegemony, while it lasted, was oppressive and caused rifts with the other states of Greece, resulting in the Corinthian War (395-87) versus an alliance of Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos, which resulted in a return to the status quo. Despite early Spartan victories, such as at Coroneia, they suffered low-level reverses later on and in the islands, which resulted in the Persian-brokered Peace of Antalcidas. Sparta soon dispersed Mantinea and undertook a successful offensive in Chalcidice.
In 379 a rebellious force seized the Cadmea (the acropolis of Thebes) away from the Spartans who had controlled it since 382. This was the first major challenge to the Peloponnesian League, and forced the Spartans to withdraw from Boeotia and campaign against it for the next few years. Athens, reviving quickly, put together the Second Athenian Sea League in 378 to protect itself, its grain tithe at the Bosporus, and the interests of small maritime poleis. Under the leaders Timotheus and Iphicles, they expanded Athenian influence in Corcyra, Thrace, Chalcidice, and inducted new members into the League. The League would be weakened by secessions in the 360s which coincided with a Social War against its allies.
Theban power became worrisome to Athens and Sparta following the destruction of Plataea (372). After a quibble during a peace negotiations, matters came to a head when the Theban army under Epaminondas crushed a Spartan force at Leuctra (371), the first major Spartan defeat on land. Afterwards Thebes stirred up unrest in Arcadia and elsewhere in the Peloponnese; they liberated Messenia from Spartan control in 369, forever weakening Sparta's power base. The resulting peace a couple years later resulted in the dissolution of the Peloponnesian League. Problems with the alliance in Arcadia led to a Theban expedition that ended at Mantinea (362) with an indecisive battle in which Epaminondas was killed.
Philip II rose to power in 360. Involved in conflict with the Illyrians, he expanded into the Chalcidice, taking control of Amphipolis, Potidaea, and Pydna. Athens had insufficient power to oppose him at the time, so this ended in negotiated peace. The rise of Macedon coincided with a series of Sacred Wars in Thessaly and Boeotia in which the Amphictyonic League declared war in response to a series of religious transgressions against Delphi and the management of its money. Philip assisted in campaigns against the Phocians and their allies in 353/2 (Sacred War III) which resulted in his expansion into Thessaly. Afterwards he campaigned in Thrace and conquered Olynthus (348) in Chalcidice (hence the Olynthiacs). Athenian concern about his next move led to the Peace of Philocrates (346).
His control of Greece started with a pro-Macedonian party taking power in Phocis, by which he gained control of Thermopylae (346). He spent the next years fighting in Illyria while Athens was internally divided over how to approach Maceon; the rivalry of Aeschines and Demosthenes flourished around this time, with Demosthenes taking the more stringent approach. They resolved to resist and opposed Philip's campaigns in Epirus (343/2) and near Byzantium (340). After disappointments there and in Thrace, he intervened in the Fourth Sacred War (339-8) against Amphissa; Athens, despite being anti-Amphissa, aligned against him. He outflanked Thermopylae by seizing Elatea, and after negotiations failed, defeated a combined Athenian and Theban force at Chaeronea (338). In the aftermath, he forced the states south of Macedon save Sparta into the League of Corinth, which promptly declared war on Persia.
Philip's son Alexander, of course, would conquer Persia with a combined Greek army and die in Babylon in 323.
No comments:
Post a Comment