How Athen took over leadership of sparta after the persian wars
HOW ATHENS TOOK OVER LEADERSHIP OF SPARTA AFTER THE PERSIAN WARSDuring the period of Greek history from the last years of the Persian Wars till the beginning of the First Peloponnesian War, the primacy of Sparta declined whileAthens was gaining increased influence in Greece. The Athenian, Thucydides (460-400 BC), one among few contemporary historians, left behind the most creditable records about this period. Although he did not give enough documentation for many events he described, his Histories remained the main resource of the facts from that time. In consideration of the fact that he was an Athenian and a participant of the Athenian army, future historians could not entirely count upon his writing. In the 480-479 BC there was great anxiety about the strength and magnitude of the Persian threat. Although the Greeks had managed to force Persians retreat from the Greek mainland, the danger of reconquest by the Persians was still present. In the battle of Plataea (479 BC), the Greeks, under the Spartan regent and general Pausanians, obliterated the Persian army. The Greeks also won a naval victory at Mycale. Although the war drugged on for many years, these two victories marked the end of the Persian
But there is some evidence which direct that Sparta was forced to accept the change. Thucydides was suspicious to Sparta's reasons for disagreement about fortification of Athens. They regarded the Athenians as being perfectly capable of exercising the command and as being also at that time friendly to themselves" (I, 95). Some Spartans were ready to start a war with Athens, instead of handing the leadership over to her. According to Thucydides, when Sparta heard about rebuilding, she immediately sent an embassy to the Athens to ascertain the truth. As there were some indications that Pausanias co-operated with Persian king, Sparta did not have other choice but to pull him out of war and bring him up to the court. Sparta's control over her allies was still unbroken. He even gave orders to the Athenians not to allow Sparta's delegates to come back until the work of rebuilding the walls was done. The most important direct result of the wars was the establishment of Athens as dominant Greek naval power. Helots tried to take advantage of the calamity, but Sparta's king Archidamus re-established the control in Laconia. "The Athenian Empire" (1972), At The Clarendon Press, Oxford Thucydides, "The History" - Book I (1979), Arno Press, New York. His plan was to hide the truth about the walls as long as Athenians finished them (I, 90). "From Plataea to Potidaea" (1979), Oxford, London Herodotus, "The History" (1987), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London Hornblower, S. This gave Athens the opportunity to create, in the years to come, an extensive empire over the newly won territories which had no parallel in earlier Greek history.
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