The war between Athens and Sparta was called the Peloponnesian War. Athens and Sparta were completely different in many ways and had different goals. Athens wanted to expand with new buildings, such as the Parthenon. They were growing in wisdom through their philosophers, such as Aristotle and Socrates. Sparta, on the other hand, cared about expansion for power, not for things such as buildings and wisdom. These two rival city-states were once united to protect the Greek states from invasions by Persia, but their friendship did not last long.
Spartans were trained all their lives to be soldiers, and were known for their military abilities. Spartans and their allies, other Greek city-states, were known as the Peloponnesian League and dominated southern Greece. Athens, on the other hand, had a very strong navy and their allies were known as the Delian League. Conflict aroused between the two city-states and their allies, which lead to the Peloponnesian War.
The war began on 4 April 432 BCE and ended on 25 April 404 BCE. The reason the war started came from Sparta’s fear of Athenian growth of power. It was a strung out war with one side, the Spartans, who dominated on land, and the other side, Athens, who had advantages at sea. They each took advantage of their strengths; Athenian navy raided cities on the Peloponnesus, while Sparta damaged Attica, the territory around Athens. The twenty-eight year war involved various fighting mixed with peace treaties along the way.
In the end, Athens invaded Sicily, which ended in disaster, and the Athenian army surrendered to Sparta. The Athenian city walls and empire were torn down. Sparta’s victory is argued as to whether is was harmful or helpful to Greece as a whole.
http://www.laconia.org/gen_info_literature/Peloponnesian_war.htm
http://www.indiana.edu/~thtr/2002/lysistrata/war.html
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw4athensspartap2dz.htm
It is interesting to learn the differences between the two cities. They each had there own unique culture!
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