He stated that Athens perform as an island and to not meet Sparta in any type of open battle but rather stay inside the city. The wall went from the harbor all the way into Piraeus, a city in the region of Attica. It was a strong stoned, no getting in wall. The corridor they built allowed them to still securely manage to get food and resources through the passage. Athens had a strong belief that they would all survive for however long behind the walls and they were somewhat right because Sparta could not manage to get past that wall. Instead of battling Sparta head on, the Athens plan was to attack with their strong navy at sea and let the Spartans come to them, doing so made the Athenians and Pericles believe that this would make the Spartan army weak and tired since the Spartans did not have that much strong of a navy. Stated in the Peloponnesian War article written by Jona Lendering, she states “Pericles' strategy was to abandon the countryside to the Spartans and concentrate all Athenians in the city itself, which could receive supplies from across the sea. As long as the "Long walls" connected the city to its port Piraeus, as long as Athens ruled the waves, and as long as Athens was free to strike from the sea against Sparta's coastal allies, it could create tensions within the Spartan alliance” (Lendering, Livius.) Pericles’s plan could’ve worked although nobody knew an outbreak of a plague disease would
He stated that Athens perform as an island and to not meet Sparta in any type of open battle but rather stay inside the city. The wall went from the harbor all the way into Piraeus, a city in the region of Attica. It was a strong stoned, no getting in wall. The corridor they built allowed them to still securely manage to get food and resources through the passage. Athens had a strong belief that they would all survive for however long behind the walls and they were somewhat right because Sparta could not manage to get past that wall. Instead of battling Sparta head on, the Athens plan was to attack with their strong navy at sea and let the Spartans come to them, doing so made the Athenians and Pericles believe that this would make the Spartan army weak and tired since the Spartans did not have that much strong of a navy. Stated in the Peloponnesian War article written by Jona Lendering, she states “Pericles' strategy was to abandon the countryside to the Spartans and concentrate all Athenians in the city itself, which could receive supplies from across the sea. As long as the "Long walls" connected the city to its port Piraeus, as long as Athens ruled the waves, and as long as Athens was free to strike from the sea against Sparta's coastal allies, it could create tensions within the Spartan alliance” (Lendering, Livius.) Pericles’s plan could’ve worked although nobody knew an outbreak of a plague disease would