Peloponnesian War

Extract

Peloponnesian War of 431–404, fought between *Athens and its allies (see delian league) on the one hand and *Sparta and its allies (see peloponnesian league) on the other; most of it (down to 411) was recorded by the great historian *Thucydides (2) and that is the most interesting thing about it. The first ten years were the *Archidamian War, a title first used by *Lysias, as far as we know, for what Thucydides called the ‘ten-years war’, 5. 25. 1. This phase was ended by the inconclusive Peace of *Nicias (1). (Strabo 13. 600 subdivides yet further, referring to the ‘Pachetian’ part of the Peloponnesian War, i.e. the first half of the present book 3 of Thucydides, which deals with the revolt of *Mytilene; the name is from the Athenian commander Paches). The second main phase of the whole war, which Thucydides insisted on regarding as a unit, began with Athens' disastrous expedition to *Sicily (415–413) and continued with the ‘Ionian’ (cf.