The Peloponnesian War: The Corinth War

“He would charge both the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians with utter madness, not only because we risk our lives fighting as we do over trifles when we might enjoy in security a wealth of possessions, but also because we continually impoverish our own territory…” This was the warning cry of one of the great Athenian rhetoricians Isocrates. It was his belief that the unification of the Greek city-states would be the only prosperous route. Their current state of disarray made them willing targets to invading forces and would lead them to their ultimate destruction. So why is it that the Greeks were never able to unify despite the urgings of rhetoricians and the impending doom that was waiting for them? One of the only prominent times that the Greek city-states found a particular unification was during the time of the Persian Wars. Athens and Sparta were able to put aside their differences and unite for the common cause of defeating the Persian armies. Yet as time progressed they were unable to allow one to have more power than the other, ultimately leading to the Peloponnesian Wars in the years 431 - 404 BCE. Sparta gained control of much of the power after this war, …show more content…
The Corinth War appears as one of the first conflicts that would further drive Sparta away from other members of Greece. Sparta and the Peloponnesian League faced Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos. Due to Athenian successes the Persians feared they would once again become too powerful so they pulled away and gave aid to the Spartans. This abrupt switch led to the King’s Peace in 387/6, which outlined numerous stipulations, though the one that would most affect Greek unification was “eleutheria kai autonomia” or the free and autonomous clause. The Greek cities were prohibited from uniting lest they incur the wrath of the Persians or their new muscle