In the Peloponnesian war there were many different accounts from people who considered upon what they saw happened. This means that their is a large amount of differentiation with each and every account whether it is a Primary or secondary source. Such includes the 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Thucydides account of what happened, Xenophon, Victor Davis Hanson’s account, Kurt Kuhlmann and many more accounts.
The first account I should mention is the primary sources and the first one I will be mentioning is the full account by the Greek writer Thucydides. According to Thucydides he mentioned that during the war was not just the Athenians fighting against the Spartans but also mention of other cities involved somehow. These included the Peloponnesians, Corcyraens, Italiots, Syracusans, Corinthians and the Thasians. He even mentioned that the Spartans were called, “Lacedaemonians”, the fact that Athens was a growing power and that there was an earthquake that happened during the events of the Peloponnesian war. The account about how many troops fought during the war was mentioned and also mentioned the plague that affected the Greeks at that time. The fact that oaths, conventions and terms being accounted, statistics of how many troops fought during the time than many other issues with this particular source.
Thucydides was also involved in the dialogue process what each city-state leader said as a result previously to the war, established a remarkable credibility of observation in the area of geology as seen in areas of earthquakes, tidal waves, topography and its scientific occurances as well. Last but not least Thucydides made a complete story what happened during the war which basically hardly any of the other sources made as well as its length. In effects, Thucydides was more of a pro Spartan supporter because he said that the war was caused by Sparta’s fear over Athens as a belief how they perceived the reason the war started and contained the best account of the war.
We then have Xenophons belief what happened during the war. I should start by saying that he firstly mentioned stadia as a form of measurement used, mentioned on how they fought during the Peloponnesian war and mentioned that Athens and Sparta were generally not the only ones involved allongside the war but few other places as well. According to Xenophon he described upon what happened at the end of the war and the battle of Aegospotami which ended the war. He also mentioned on the Decelean on Ionian war which was included in the Peloponnesian war campaign where he said that the Spartans “tore down the Long Walls among scenes of great joy and to the music of flute girls” (Hellenica 2.2.24) somehow during the war.
Another issue is that Xenophon said that the Athenians were more richer and higher classed people than the Spartans and mentioned that there were not one but two Alcibiades of the book, Hellenica and that Alcibiades lost his position as the general during the Peloponnesian war also. Last but not least Xenophon not only mentioned his view on Alicibiades but also his view on General Conon who was one of many Athenian generals who fought during the Peloponnesian war, the punishments involved in the war, the religious contexts involved, stadia as a form of measurement and included the use of ephors in his account and the statistics of how many ships were involved in the war.[1]
Other times in the work of the creation of the “Hellenica” he spoke about a religious context, the mention of other Greek provinces similar to Thucydides but Thucydides account that not include “Scepsis and Gergis” located in the Greek mainlaid and the fact that sometime somehow the Lacedaemonians were in control of the whole of Greece. In effects, Xenophon had a strong political prejudice who was the partisan of this reactionary movement which triumphed after the fall of Athens. This was his main bias and the fact that he was ideal to Sparta and thought of as Agesilaus as his hero.
Our very next source by Diodorus of Sicily made references to three parts of the Peloponnesian war that included the Archidamian war, the Sicilian Expedition and the Ioninan war. His version of the Peloponnesian war and its origins, based on Ephorus and possibly Philistus, provided an interesting contrast to Thucydides, focused on vastly important events such as the earthquake Sparta experienced that happened during the Peloponnesian war. Last but not least Diodorus makes accounts what happened to the prisoners captured in Sicily. According to the nineteenth and twentieth century scholars Diodorus of Sicily biasedly described him as an uncritical maker of excerpts and a poor historian according to their vision. [2]
After Diodorus of Siculus account of the Peloponnesian war we have Plutarch’s account of what really happened. According to Plutarch’s book called “The Rise and Fall of Athens” mentioned most of what happened at Athens at that time during the events of the Peloponnesian war. His other novel called, “Parallel lives” was also important for him as it showed a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans and the one we have thought was most important was the biography of Alcibiades who was involved in the Peloponnesian war. He also made note of the two political powers who fought in that time and transformed the way he depicted on the people at that time. Last but not least Plutarch made a biography of famous people in the Peloponnesian war that included Alcibiades, Cimon, Perickles, Solon, Aristides, Themistockles, Nicias, Theseus and Lysander.
In the Peloponnesian war plays a person names Cornelius Nepos interpreted the Peloponnesian war account on three different accounts by Alcibiades, Lysander and Thrasybulus. In his account he interpreted it in a more Latin sort of way and so it can be hard to determine what he was saying when he was interpreting his work as well as the fact that I have trouble on knowing what Cornelius Nepos said about it. So in this case it was hard to find out whether he was a Pro-Spartan supporter or a Pro-Athenian supporter.
The last primary source by Aristophanes mentioned of the war through the work of performances which he portrayed in his play.[3] Altogether he performed three plays for influencing the stop of the Peloponnesian war which were called the Acharnians, the Peace and the Lysistrata that were used to influence others used during the events of the Peloponnesian war. Evidently he seemed to be a more pro-Spartan supporter due to the fact that he influenced the Athenians to stop the war without turning against them.[4]
Altogether the accounts by Plutarch, Thucydides and Diodorus of Sicily made a brief mention of the earthquake Sparta experienced in 464/465 B.C. There are few discrepencies found in these relative articles on the earthquake and the helot revolt including the fact that Thucydides considers the earthquake as an “earthquake” and attributed the revolt of the Messenian helots, whereas Diodorus mentions multiple earthquakes. This earthquake was a symble of contributing towards animosity between the Spartans and Athenians during the events of the tragic Peloponnesian war. Last but not least most of the accounts mentioned that in the end of the Peloponnesian war, Athens ended up being defeated and the victors came to the Lacedaemonians or Spartans.
After the Primary sources we have the secondary sources and the first one I will speak is what the 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica says about the Peloponesian war. The Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 says that there was not just two city states that were fighting against one another but many. It also mentions that Sparta and Athens be considered as the leading states in Ancient Greece and had a thirty year treaty prior to the Peloponnesian war. The Encyclopaedia mentions that the leaders were Archidamus from Sparta and Perickles of Athens who were affected by a plague while the final battle of war war was won by Sparta in Aegospotami. The results the Encyclopedia Brittanicca is more of a reference suite depicting upon other sources what happened, which is neither biased for any sources.[5]
Another account about the Peloponnesian war was by Kurt Kuhlmann who said that the war was divided by three stages that included the Archidamian War (431-421), the Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (420-413), and the Ionian War (412-404). Kurt mentioned the quotes or accounts which were according to Thucydides, the main writer of the war. He also said that the treaties made by Sparta were lenient but they became the main victors during the Peloponnesian war. Last, Kurt said that after the war the Athenians had to get rid of the long walls and the walls around Piraeus but still maintained alliance with Sparta and still maintained independence. Like the Encyclopaedia Brittanicca Kurt Kuhlmann was not biased in writing what he thought what happened in the Peloponnesian war. [6]
Our best encyclopedia search engine which is Wikipedia said that the war was between the Peloponnesian League which included Sparta against Athens and their growing empire. Unlike Kurt’s account as I previously have mentioned they not just included the three stages in the war but also included the second war after the three stages compromised by Kurt. They also mentioned that the Thirty Tyrants took over after the war which Sparta brought to control Athens. Wikipedia is well known as a search engine that basically anyone could have posted. In this case to be honest we are still unsure whether what they say in Wikipedia is true or not due to the fact that anyone could have posted the relative information. Last but not least Wikipedia could have spoken the text with the use of more than one person which could have posted it. [7]
The encyclopedia I am going to mention last is the Columbia Encyclopedia which mentioned that there was rivalry between Athens and Sparta mentioned of Brasidas as the Spartan leader and says that the Persians were involved using a fleet of ships. It also says that Sparta’s empire was long standing and also makes mention that there was a conflict between Corinth and Athens which happened prior to the Peloponnesian war.
According to Dr. Skip Knox’s events on the Peloponnesian war, it started by Persia’s increasing threats to Greece and that Athens were not there to continue a huge empire but was to stop the Persians from advancing. This website gives account to 17 important criterias that were spoken of on the events of the Peloponnesian war and it also mentioned that Pericles was the main person involoved in making Athens the most beautiful and the richest of the Greek cities. Last but not least it also mentioned Alcibiades as the new leader of the war party during this Peloponnesian war event and the fact that his account was not everything that happened in the war but its main summaries.
Another useful area resource is the Laconian professionals who categorised the Peloponnesian war into 5 phases. According to one of the phases they mentioned that they fought at a place called Spacteria which was not mentioned by hardly any of the previous sources. It also gave the dating of when the phases took place and their bibliography too. The Laconian professionals were more biased against Athens due to the reason that the war started due to Athens growing power over Greece.[8]
Next our Peloponnesian war interpreters from the infoplease website said that in the Peloponnesian war, Alcibiades was somehow once in Athens before he went to Sparta but influenced Nicias to attack the Syracusans. Nicias was described more as a peaceful leader while Alcibiades was more of a warlike character. Not much was spoken about Alcibiades but spoke more on Lysander and concluded that thirty years after the war Sparta became the main dominance in Greece.
One of the university professors from the place called Yale University said that in the war was brieflty categorsied into five sections. The first section is the war debate between Athen’s and Sparta, then the plague of Athens, Revolt of Mytilene, Battle of Pylos and the Sicilian expedition. It also mentioned Thucydides as a Greek historian who described the war like no other wars in history. Like all other secondary accounts, this account was the same as it did not tell any bias’ at all unlike some of the primary sources written by Thucydides, Xenophon and etc.[9]
During what happened in the war itself demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of each main dominions who fought at that time whose main rivalry was between Sparta and Athens. These weakneses and strengths included the fact that Athens had a navy while Sparta didn’t and that Athens had a much stronger wall than Sparta, summaries based on what happened and many related searches that you can be looked up than the ordinary summary of the Peloponnesian war such as “The History of Sparta” and the bibliography of “Alcibiades”. All of these and more are interpreted by the secondary sources, mentioned in the Kidipede website. It also mentioned their main reason for war and as you can see a pro-Spartan supporter by underlining that Athens was a greedy nation and wanted to take over Greece.
The last source interpreter was Victor Davis Hanson who described when the war began, a few brief notes on the war as well as the fact that Sparta not Athens was the one that started the war. He also said that the war lasted for 27.5 years and gave the statistics that eighty thousand Athenian got caught with the plague. Last but not least he made reference to the type of power both Sparta and Athens had in that time and their comparisons. Victor Davis Hanson was more biased against Sparta because he believed that they had started the war at first not the Athenians.[10]
In results the Peloponnesian war was one of the most historically legendary ancient wars I have ever read. As you can see through the information which I have spoken about and the different accounts these are all evident to finding out the reliability of Thucydides account compared to every one elses account. So in this case it is both something exciting to learn and historical.
[1] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206
[2] http://www.livius.org/di-dn/diodorus/siculus.html
[3] http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Families/Family/1001
[4] http://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/aristophanes_001.html
[5] Encyclopedia Britannica 2008
[6] http://www.warhorsesim.com/epw_hist.html
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_war
[8] http://www.laconia.org/gen_info_literature/Peloponnesian_war.htm
[9] http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=3372
[10] http://www.squidoo.com/peloponnesianwar
