How did Sparta invade Athens?
After the battle of Aegospotami, Sparta took over the Athenian empire and kept all of its tribute revenues for itself; Sparta’s allies, who had made greater sacrifices for the war effort than had Sparta, got nothing. For a short period of time, Athens was ruled by the “Thirty Tyrants”, and democracy was suspended.
Why did Sparta declare war on Athens?
When Sparta declared war, it announced that it wanted to liberate Greece from Athenian oppression. And with some justification, because Athens had converted the Delian League, which had once been meant as a defensive alliance against the Persian Empire, into an Athenian empire.
How did Sparta begin?
Sparta was unique among the Greek city-states because of the rigid program of military indoctrination it instilled in its citizens. Legend dates the founding of the city to Mycenean times, when the legendary King Menelaus, who helped defeat Troy, supposedly ruled the city.
Did Sparta and Athens fight?
The Peloponnesian War was a war fought in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta—the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece at the time (431 to 405 B.C.E.). This war shifted power from Athens to Sparta, making Sparta the most powerful city-state in the region. This eventually drew Sparta into the conflict.
What was Athens strategy during the war with Sparta?
Initially Athens’ strategy, as guided by Pericles, was to avoid open battle with the more numerous, and better trained Spartan hoplites, and to instead rely on Athens’ superior fleet. Sparta also abandoned its invasion of Attica during this time, unwilling to risk contact with their diseased enemy.
What caused Sparta to fall?
Spartan power declined due to the military, social and cultural factors that allowed other states to challenge their preeminent position in the Greek world.
What caused the fall of Sparta?
This decay occurred because Sparta’s population declined, change in values, and stubborn preservation of conservatism. Sparta ultimately surrendered its position as ancient Greece’s preeminent military power.
How did Sparta and Athens war strategies differ?
Instead, this article views the war as a contest between two opposing grand strategic designs. In contrast to the Athenian grand strategy of exhaustion, based on Athens’s economic power, Sparta followed a grand strategy of annihilation centered around Spartan military might.