The+Peloponnesian+War

. Marshall Lerner The Peloponnesian War was a war that almost tore Greece apart. Sparta and their allies were against Athens and their allies. It started because Sparta was suspicious of Athenian power and wealth. In this essay I will tell you about three of the battles, the battle of Amphipolis, the battle of Delium, and the battle of Hysiae. The battle of Amphipolis was fought in the Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace on the Strymon River. It was started when the Spartan general Brasidas besieged the Amphipolis. Eucles, the Athenian general, had to send help to Thucydides, who was in Thasos with seven ships. Before Thucydides arrived, Brasidas wanted to capture the city so he offered to let everyone who wanted to stay in the city keep their property, and also offered to have safe road for the people who wanted to leave. So, Amphipolis surrendered even though there were protests from Eucles. When Thucydides arrived, he arrived at the city of Eion, which was on the water. He arrived the same day Amphipolis surrendered. While Thucydides was doing that, Brasidas became allies with many of the Thracian towns, and also Perdiccas II of Macedon. The general Brasidas was also attacking other towns in the area like Torone. That was all before the war began. Cleon, from Athens, arrived at Thrace with 30 ships, 1,200 soldiers, and 300 cavalry, but Brasidas had 2,000 soldiers and 300 cavalry, but no ships. Brasidas moved his army into Amphipolis while Cleon moved towards the city. Brasidas didn’t come out, so Cleon thought there would be no attack, so he moved his troops back. At that point, Brasidas came out of Amphipolis and charged the army, but in rout he was mortally injured and so was Cleon. In this battle, 600 Athenians were killed, but only 7 Spartans were killed. The battle of Delios was fought in Delium. The Athenian generals Demosthenes and Hippocrates planned to invade Boeotia. Demosthenes started sailing too early and landed at Siphae. A Phocian named Nicomachus betrayed him, but since Hippocrates had not landed yet, Demosthenes could not fight and was forced to surrender. Hippocrates eventually arrived at Boeotia with an Athenian army and made a fortification at a temple. The Boeotians were about to attack when they saw Athenians were leaving. But, Pagondas of Thebes, the commander of them, urged them to fight because he knew that eventually the Athenians were going to use Delium as a base later. When the battle finally started, Pagondas moved his army near the Athenians, but they couldn’t see each other because of a hill. There were 7,000 citizen-soldiers, 1,000 cavalry, and 10,500 light troops. Athenian General Hippocrates had about the same number of citizen-soldiers and cavalry, but had fewer light troops. In the battle about 500 Boeotians and 1,200 Athenians had been killed including Hippocrates. The Boeotians made a strange device, which seems to be a thing like a flamethrower. It set fire to Delium but only killed 200 Athenians because they fled. The battle of Hysiae was fought in Hysiae. This time it wasn’t between Sparta and Athens, but was Sparta against Argos. Thucydides said the Spartans started battle against Argos in winter with their allies, but didn’t succeed in taking over Argos. But, the Spartans didn’t take no as an answer and capture the Argive town of Hysiae and took all of the male citizens hostage. All of the hostages were killed. The Peloponnesian War was a war that almost tore all of Greece apart. It ended in the Spartans and their allies winning the war. After the war Sparta was the most powerful polis in all of Greece.