Peloponnesian League Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
... League The city-states of ancient Greece sometimes formed long-term multistate alliances, nowadays called “leagues.” The Peloponnesian League was one of the earliest of these, with Sparta as its leader or hēgemōn . It was essentially a military organization whose object was protection of Sparta and its allies from external and internal threats. The Peloponnesian League was not a federal state like the Boeotian and Achaean leagues, nor did it become an empire like the Athenian-led Delian League. Military service was the only obligation; there was no...
Peloponnesian League Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
... League , the earliest known and longest‐lasting Greek offensive and defensive alliance . The name is modern and inaccurate, since the alliance was neither all‐ and only Peloponnesian nor a league (the members were not all allied to each other, and when no League war was in progress, members were free to carry on separate wars even with other members); the usual ancient name was ‘the Lacedaemonians (Spartans) and their allies’. In the 6th cent. Sparta used personal ties of xenia ( see friendship, ritualized ) to negotiate treaties of alliance...
Peloponnesian League Reference library
Paul Anthony Cartledge
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
... League , the earliest known and the most long-lived Greek summachia or offensive and defensive alliance . The name is modern and strictly inaccurate, since the alliance was neither all- and only Peloponnesian nor a league (the members were not all allied to each other, and when no League war was in progress, members were free to carry on separate wars even against other members); the usual ancient name was ‘the Lacedaemonians (Spartans) and their allies’. In the 6th cent. Sparta used personal ties of xenia ( see friendship, ritualized ) to...
Peloponne'sian league Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (3 ed.)
... league The earliest and longest-lived Greek alliance, dating from the reign of Cleomenes I (sixth century bc ) when Sparta negotiated treaties with Peloponnesian states whereby she could expect the support of all members in war if a majority vote favoured such a course, each state having one vote. Chilon , one of the Seven Sages , is credited with its creation. The term is modern; ancient authors would refer to ‘the Spartans and their allies’. The league was dissolved in 366 bc...
Peloponnesian War Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
... 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 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’. This phase was ended by the inconclusive Peace of Nicias . The second main phase of the whole war, which Thucydides insisted on...
Peloponnesian War (431–404) Reference library
Simon Hornblower
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
... 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...
decarchies Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
...were juntas, lit. ‘ten‐man rules’, established under the aegis of Lysander in parts of the former Athenian empire ( see delian league ) following Sparta's victory in the Peloponnesian War . They were absolute dictatorships, sometimes supported by a garrison under a Spartan commander known as a harmost. They collected their city's share of the war‐tax levied by Sparta and in other ways functioned as instruments of Sparta's short‐lived Aegean...
alliance (Greek) Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
...follow Sparta's lead. The Peloponnesian League , built up by Sparta in the second half of the 6th cent. bc , was the first instance of a league of allies united for purposes of foreign policy. Such leagues tended to be formed with a dominant state as leader, influential through possession of executive power even if not formally privileged in decision‐making, and with a council which played a part in decision‐making and enabled representatives of the member states to express opinions and vote. Other examples were the Delian League , the Second Athenian...
Cleomenes (1) I Reference library
Paul Anthony Cartledge
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
...to his design, that the Peloponnesian League came formally into existence. He embroiled Thebes (1) with Athens and frustrated Thebes’ plans for a united Boeotian federation by referring Plataea to Athens for alliance (probably in 519 : Thuc. 3. 68). He intervened twice successfully in Athenian affairs, overthrowing the Peisistratid tyranny of Hippias (1) in 510 and expelling Cleisthenes (2) in favour of Isagoras in 508 . But his attempt to restore Isagoras by a concerted expedition of Sparta's Peloponnesian and central Greek allies in ...
Mantinea, Battle of Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
...a long time among the Greek states”—so Thucydides described the famous Battle of Mantinea of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides 5.74.1). The Peace of Nicias ended the war in 421 bce , but few combatants were satisfied. A diplomatic revolution followed as states sought new allies and opportunities. The result of this shuffling of alliances was the Battle of Mantinea in 418 , a Spartan move to suppress the defection of Mantinea, a member of its Peloponnesian League, to Athens. Not only one of the biggest battles fought by the Greeks, Mantinea also gives a...
Cleomenes I Quick reference
Paul Anthony Cartledge
Who's Who in the Classical World
...according to his design, that the Peloponnesian League came formally into existence. He embroiled Thebes with Athens and frustrated Thebes' plans for a united Boeotian federation by referring Plataea to Athens for alliance (probably in 519 : Thuc. 3. 68). He intervened twice successfully in Athenian affairs, overthrowing the tyranny of Hippias (son of Pisistratus ) in 510 and expelling Cleisthenes in favour of Isagoras in 508 . But his attempt to restore Isagoras by a concerted expedition of Sparta's Peloponnesian and central Greek allies in c. 506 ...
Scione Reference library
Simon Hornblower
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
...the tip of the western (Pallene) peninsula of Chalcidice , south-east of modern Nea Skioni. Chance finds include coins and walls. Thucydides (2) (4. 120) says it was a settlement of Peloponnesians from Pellene in Achaea , but there was also a tradition that Protesilaus was the founder. Scione normally paid 6 talents tribute to Athens in the time of the Delian League . Its most famous hour was its enthusiastic but unwise reception of the Spartan Brasidas in 423 bc (Thuc. 4. 121. 1); this led to harsh Athenian reprisals instigated by Cleon (Thuc....
Dyme Reference library
Catherine A. Morgan
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
...Helladic fortification and settlement has been excavated at Teichos Dymaion (mod. Kalogria). Dyme's Archaic and Classical history remains obscure (the city survives chiefly in its Hellenistic and early Roman form). The Peloponnesian fleet took refuge there after its defeat in 429 bc , and the city was liberated from its Peloponnesian League garrison by Epaminondas in 367 . In c. 280 Dyme joined Patrae in reviving the Achaean Confederacy after its dissolution by Macedon. In 208 it was sacked by P. Sulpicius Galba Maximus as punishment for its...
Pausanias Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
... 2, grandson of Pausanias (1) , Agiad king of Sparta 445–426 and 409–395 bc : his first reign was as a minor during the temporary deposition of his father Pleistoanax . In 403 he undermined Lysander 's dominance in Athens by obtaining command of a Peloponnesian League expedition against the democratic resistance at Piraeus , promoting reconciliation between them and the Three Thousand in Athens, and securing a treaty which restored democracy and brought Athens into Sparta's alliance. Back in Sparta he was prosecuted but acquitted. In 395 ...
alliance (Greek) Reference library
P. J. Rhodes
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
...Sparta's lead. The Peloponnesian League , built up by Sparta in the second half of the 6th cent. bc , was the first instance of a league of allies united for purposes of foreign policy. Such leagues tended to be formed with a dominant state as leader ( hēgemōn ), influential through possession of executive power even if not formally privileged in decision-making, and with a council which played a part in decision-making and enabled representatives of the member states to express opinions and vote. Other examples were the Delian League , the Second Athenian...
Megara Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
...the flocks of the rich’. Salamis was disputed with Athens until Pisistratus established Athenian control. Megara joined the Spartan alliance ( see peloponnesian league ) towards 500 and fought in the Persian Wars , but Corinthian aggression c. 460 caused her to join the Athenians, who helped to erect the first known Long Walls , between the city and Nisaea; the First Peloponnesian War soon followed. Another change in Megarian allegiance enabled Sparta to invade Attica in 446 , and the Thirty Years Peace was agreed, under which Athens...
Corinth Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
...participated in the Hellenic League formed to meet the threat of Persian invasion in the 480s, contributing forty ships to the major naval engagements at Thermopylae and Salamis, the second-largest contingent after that of Athens, and five thousand troops to the Spartan-led army at Plataea. Corinth and the other Peloponnesian League states withdrew from the Hellenic League as the Persian threat receded, leaving Athens a clear field to pursue the war into Persian territory and organize the liberated Greek poleis into the Delian League. By the 460s, Corinth began...
Pericles (c.495–429) Reference library
Arnold Wycombe Gomme and P. J. Rhodes
The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (2 ed.)
...430s, which led to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 bc ), are presumably his: Aristophanes represents him as being particularly obstinate over the decree imposing sanctions on Megara, and the historian Thucydides gives him a speech claiming that a policy of appeasement will not work. According to Thucydides his strategy for the Peloponnesian War was to stay inside the walls when the Peloponnesians invaded, and to rely on Athens’ sea power and superior financial resources to outlast the Peloponnesians; but there are indications in the scale...
Megara Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
...territorial conflicts with Corinth also continued until both joined the Peloponnesian League in the late sixth century. Megara expected Sparta to arbitrate her disputes with Corinth from this point forward. Classical Megara. Megara participated in the defense of Greece during the invasion of Xerxes as a member of the Hellenic League, contributing twenty triremes and three thousand hoplitai (hoplites). The middle and late fifth-century wars between Athens and the Peloponnesians were frequently fought on Megarian territory. Megara periodically switched...
Peloponnesus Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
...prospered through its ability to exploit both eastern and western trade routes. For most of the Archaic and Classical periods the Peloponnesus was united by the Spartan alliance known as the Peloponnesian League. After the league dissolved as a consequence of the Battle of Leuctra in 371 bce , the Peloponnesus was controlled by the Macedonians, then the Achaean League, and finally the Romans ( 146 bce ). The most famous site in the Peloponnesus was Olympia; the Olympic games continued to attract visitors until they were abolished in 393 ce by the emperor...
