Skip to main content
HISTODEX

Peloponnesian War

431 BC–404 BC

From 431 to 404 BCE, the Athenian-led Delian League and the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League fought for primacy in the Greek world.

People study a map at an Aegean harbor while discussing the conflict between Athens and Sparta
Reconstruction note: This educational reconstruction is not a primary-source image of the event.
Period
431 BC–404 BC
Kind
War
Regions
Europe
Keywords
Athens · Sparta · Peloponnesian League · Sicilian Expedition · Thucydides

Follow the story · Four stages

  1. Background

    After the Persian Wars, Athens's maritime empire and Sparta's alliance network stood in parallel. Conflicts involving Corinth, Corcyra, and Potidaea strained the Thirty Years' Peace.

    • Athens extended a maritime alliance across the Aegean
    • Sparta and the Peloponnesian League opposed that power
    • Competing alliances and interests raised the pressure
    A maritime Athenian city with harbor walls and ships moving through the bay

  2. Course

    Athens relied on its walls and navy while Spartan armies invaded Attica. Plague, Pylos, the Peace of Nicias, the Sicilian expedition, and the occupation of Decelea preceded a Spartan fleet financed by Persia that forced Athens toward defeat.

    • War began in 431 BCE
    • Plague, the Sicilian Expedition, and naval fighting shifted the balance
    • Athens gradually exhausted its resources and allies
    A supply column crosses the Peloponnesian hills toward a distant port

  3. Outcome

    Athens surrendered in 404 BCE, losing its Long Walls and fleet, and the Delian League was dissolved. Sparta gained a brief hegemony, but the exhausted poleis remained divided.

    • Athens surrendered in 404 BCE
    • Sparta briefly became the leading power in the Greek world
    • The war depleted the population, finances, and politics of the poleis
    Envoys face one another over a document setting out terms of surrender

  4. Historical significance

    The war exposed the risks of linking alliances, empire, democracy, and oligarchy. Athens's defeat and Sparta's short-lived supremacy helped create the conditions for the later rise of Macedon.

    • It left a framework for thinking about naval and land power
    • Thucydides' account became a classic of international politics
    • It changed the balance of the polis world for generations
    Historians record the memory of war around maps and writing tables

Related figures

Related events

  1. c. 478 BC

    Two alliance systems

    Ships carry supplies from a harbor toward islands beneath a fortified coastal city

    The Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues divided influence across the Aegean and mainland Greece.

  2. c. 433 BC

    Peace begins to fray

    Envoys exchange a sealed agreement over a map of rival cities

    Conflict around Corinth and Athenian pressure destabilized the Thirty Years’ Peace.

  3. c. 431 BC–c. 404 BC

    The long war

    Current event

    Soldiers and pack animals move along a hill above a walled Greek city

    Plague, expeditions, and naval blockades combined as war lasted from 431 to 404 BCE.

  4. 404 BC

    Athens surrenders

    Ships gather in a harbor as envoys read the terms of surrender

    After losing the fleet and the resources of its maritime empire, Athens accepted Spartan terms.

  5. c. 404 BC–c. 371 BC

    Spartan hegemony

    People organize a new order in a harbor market beneath a fortress

    Sparta extended its influence after victory, but its hegemony proved unstable and provoked new rivalry.

Sources