XLVI. End as of 11/8/95
A. About now, in fact, the old Timocrats start opposing imperialism, which was political suicide
1. It aligned them with Sparta
2. And then Pericles began the...
B. Having been driven out of the political process, the Oligarchs/Timocrats are driven to alternative means of expressing their views (Coup of 411)
1 Makeover of Athens
1 Pisistratus had made himself popular with HIS work on the Acropolis and other public "jobs bills," as we call them today, the largest (and least heralded) being Eisehower's Interstate system.
2 The long walls were exactly that: A HUGE public work of undeniable military necessity. (Thuc.1.93-94)
C. The Allies were being forced to pay for something that would keep the chains on
D. The "Middle Wall:" Athens is so wealthy that they can re-do a third wall just to polish over an oversight when they built the system (Coast of Phalerum)
E. Construction of ship-sheds: The fleet will never go away!
3 What Pericles did the Acropolis after 447 is why Thucydides could think that Athens would forever be considered a great city.
A. He was absolutely brazen about the means:
1. Why should the allies complain, as long as they're protected from Persia
2. And kept at a constant rate of wartime taxation?
3. What's more, what are they going to do about it?
4. Plenty, but that'll come later.
B. No coincidence that the last great opposition leader, Thucydides SON OF MELESIAS was ostracized soon after the work began, in 443.
C. Athena Promachos out front, the BREATHTAKING Athena Parthenos inside
D. The Erectheum: Magnificent and ornate on the small scale
E. The Parthenon itself: O, Wow. Built in record time, too.
F. Temple to Hephaestos: Salute to the Industrial might of Athens
2 Death throes of the opposition: Prosecution of Phidias, but talent will out: Zeus of Olympia, 438. We've found his molds! Oh, wow. Contradicts the stories in Plutarch that he died in prison, too.
3 Prosecution of Anaxagoras
4 Stories about Aspasia after 450, helped by Pericles' too loose tongue:
1 The hand that rocks the cradle
2 Samian revolt of 440-439 (Thuc 1.115-17). Guess where Aspasia's from?
3 Samian leaders executed, branded, Aristophanes' (450-380)joke ("A deeply-lettered people!) vs. Samian revenge in later years.
4 Pericles wasn't laughing: Threat of prosecution before the Boule for comic playwrights. Contrast B3 p. 241 with what YOU believe
5 Benefits and Drawbacks of Athenian rule:
1 Increase in commerce due to league policies and Athenian anti-pirate sweeps (AND: Your piracy theory!) BUT
2 Young men in effect hostages and also dependent of Athenian funds to survive=CLUB.
3 Stability in the Aegean allows local economies to thrive BUT
4 Coinage Decree: Athenians forbid subject states to do their own minting of silver, call in rebellion- nurturing coins for re-minting; CHARGE for that service--quite some price to pay for standard coinage! Not to mention the inflation.
1 Athenian imperialism, then, was having the effect of descrediting both democratic government and the very concept of Greek Unity. (Thu. 3.27)
2 Aristophanes, The Birds (414): "We're from Athens! Where the pretty triremes come from!" and swipe at the coinage decree. It's hard to be serious when the politicians keep handing you so much ammunition.
XLVII. The Causes of the (2nd) Peloponnesian War:
1 One of the things people seem to forget is that when Thucydides' War started, the Athenians and Spartans had already fought an inconclusive war.
1 Wars tend to go on until something is settled. This is the war that settles Athens.
2 The preliminaries ARE important (and you'll get them!), but Thu. 1.88 cuts to the chase and earns his reputation: Athenian imperialism was completely incompatible with Sparta's need for stability.
2 Like most great wars (WWI: Serbia, WWII: Poland), the fun starts with the allies. Thu. 1.23.5-55).
1 The reverse: Epidamnus's democracy asks the Corcyrean Nobles for help, and doesn't get it (435). Mother cities had an obligation to their colonies... And so Epidamnus goes to grandma.
2 Corinth is DELIGHTED to interfere and get a good spot for attacking her wicked daughter
1 Note that both are members of the Peloponnesian League; note how much THAT counts
2 And note how quickly Sparta is NOT willing to intervene and keep her allies in line.
3 Corcyra settles Corinth's and Epidamnus's hash in 435, siege and naval battle.
4 Corinth MEANS it this time: Preparations of 434- 3.
1 It's nice not to have allies until you need them: dueling embassies in Athens
2 Thucydides is a good speechwriter (see Thuc. 1.22 again on what he did)
3 Athens tried to fudge:
A. Did not want Corinth (150 ships) to get Corcyra's fleet (110 ships), cf. British and French at Oran, 1940
B. Did not want to violate the truce with Sparta by attacking Corinth
C. Semi-alliance, which of course resulted in all-out war after Sybota, 433. Don't put troops in harm's way and tell them they're not supposed to fight!
1. Two notes: "Old Fashioned Battle," boarding vs. professional crews' tactics of ramming and maneuver. Corinthian flight from Athenians.
2. Heavier Corinthian ships vs. lighter and faster Athenian vessels. This situation will recur.
D. Corinth is VERY nice to her Oligarchic P.O.W.'s.
4 The Athenians proceed to get very suspicious of ANYTHING Corinthian, and since Potidaea (on the Chersonese) got her magistrates yearly from Corinth
A. Potidaea is to end her system of government and
B. Potidaea is to level her seaward walls
C. Sparta and Perdiccas of Macedonia promise help and Athens doesn't really give any choice, and so Potidaea revolts in 432. No help comes, of course (Falls, 430).
XLVIII. End as of 11/13/95
1 Needless to say, Corinth runs SCREAMING to the Spartans, saying that the Athenians had violated the 30 Years Peace of 445 (not to mention aimed a Naupactus at them), negotiated after Athenians lost the line of defense in Megara.
1 Funny we should mention Megara...
1 Twelve Megarian ships had fought for Corinth at Sybota
2 If a coup could be generated in Megara, Athens will have that line of defense again, and so Pericles tries to prompt one: The Megarian Decree of 432.
1 Aristophanes The Acharnians (425): Starving Megarians
2 Corinth & Megara put it to Sparta: Either PROVIDE that protection you promise or the Athenians will pick us off one by one.(Thuc. 1.67, 1.71)
3 That quite justified suspicion that Athens and Sparta could divide up the world between them.
4 That did it: Peloponnesian view of Athens: A people who do not know how to be at peace themselves, or how to allow that joy to others.(Thu. 1.70)
XLIX. The Archidamian War (431-421)
1 Here's the first irony: This Half of the War is named after the Spartan King who was markedly unenthusiastic about it.
2 The preliminaries are good for a few laughs:
1 Curse of the Goddess=Pericles, the Alcmaeonidae and propaganda
2 Curse of the Brazen House/Curse of Taenarus: Spartans murder their leaders and their Helots
3 Peace if Independence restored: YOU should talk!
3 The Sides: Same People, different categories.
1 Ionians vs. Dorians, the oldest division BUT
1 The Ionians of the Aegean were more of less sick of Athenian domination
2 The Ionians of the Persian coast were living under the constant threat of Persian attack, and could in fact do very little to help.
3 Also, nobody paid TOO much attention to this division. It was part of the whole.
2 Tiger vs. the Shark: Not only WHY do they fight, but HOW?
1 Pericles had his defense plan, allowed by the fleet and the Long Walls. (Thuc. 1.141-145)
A. Athens is to evacuate Attica completely, down to the timber door frames of the country buildings, and send the cattle, etc. to Euboea. Pericles has systematically subjugated the cities of Euboea after they had attempted a revolt in 446--it could NOT be allowed to get away (not that it wouldn't try!)
B. The Athenian army is NOT to fight the Spartans on any circumstances. The cavalry will shadow the Spartans and look for an opening, small outposts will be occupied to attack isolated raiding parties (mostly from Boetia) if opportunity allows.
C. Sparta's worst nightmare will be nurtured: The Athenian fleet will (shark-like!) keep circling the Peloponnesian coast and buiild and occupy phrouria where Helots can flee and be provided with useful implements. This policy will falter almost completely without Pericles (d. 429) to force it, but make a devastating comeback in 425.
D. With a reserve of 6000 T and a (hoped-for) income of 1,000 T from the empire, Athens can stand a long war a lot better than Sparta and her allies can, barring the unforeseen...
2 One of the Reasons the Spartans do so badly is that they don't really have a developed war plan (Damn Useful: Plan Orange, WWII)
A. Sparta wins her wars by invading enemy territory, burning the crops, forcing the enemy to come out and get slaughtered by the Spartan army. Does this sound a little 8th century to you?
B. Archidamus seems to have known all that, hence HIS speech, (Thuc. 1.80-85). It didn't convince anyone, the hellbent having a tendency to get where they are going.
C. In infantry, it's no contest: 13,000 Athenian hoplites, 1,200 cavalry and special forces, emrgency reserve of 16,000, vs. 30,000 crack Spartan, Peloponnesian, and Boetian troops.
D. Mind you, a lot of GREAT plans show up in at the Conference of 432, where the Spartans gathered all their allies to make sure they'd support the war: Speech of the Corinthians (Thuc. 1.121-5)
1. Hire away the Athenian oarsmen. Archidamus knew that the Spartans couldn't afford that, but the PERSIANS could.
2. Once you've got a navy, encourage revolts among their subjects and support them for a change.
3. Destroy the Athenian navy and you destroy Athens
4. Fortify a position in Attica
E. The fact that WHEN these things are done, Athens goes down, argues that Thucydides (who survived the war) is retrojecting for YOUR benefit. Note that just "the Corinthians" makes this speech.
F. Note also that Pericles has a solution for all these attacks in Thuc. 1.140-145 when Athens rejects the Spartan ultimatum.
G. Thucydides seems to have supported him, not? But Pericles won't be around to implement them. B3 p. 252 say that Thuc. was a Periclean democrat, despite the fact that his rich family owned silver mines in Greece. Could it rather be that ADMIRAL Thucydides approved of a leader with a plan that could have won the war? cf. FDR
3 Athens' friends vs. Her Enemies: Ultimately what counts.
1 The Empire had just done too much dirt in the years since the Persian war for anybody but the Athenians to support it. What allies Athens will have will be in it for their self-interest, e.g.
A. Corcyra, which is going to be of almost no help at all.
B. Plataea, on the Boetian border, is going to be sacrficed as a result of Pericles' policy, with consequent loss to Athenian prestige (431-427).
C. The Acharnanians and the Naupactans hate and fear the Spartans, which is something. Just about everybody else hates and fears the Athenians. Even Athens' own colonies of Thurii.
2 Meanwhile, however:
A. Corinth and Megara have been hating Athens for Centuries and block the Isthmus to her and open it against her.
B. The Boetians hadn't liked the Athenians much either, and they had the late unlamented conquest and Athens' support for Plataea to remember.
C. Macedonia and Persia have both been on the wrong ends of Athenian imperialism and will each do what they can to hurt the Athenians and to help themselves to anything that isn't nailed down.
D. Sparta's in a fix:
1. On one hand, Athens posed no particular direct threat to them in peacetime BUT
2. Corinth's, Megara's and Thebes threat to abandon the Peloponnesian League would have left them wihout buffers and open to invasion/Helot revolts AND
3. It was clear that the Athenians (Corcyra) were not going to stop upsetting the applecarts.
L. End as of 11/15/95