Causes of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides' Thoughts on the Causes of the Peloponnesian War

By Nicholas Mason

         
         Thucydides believed there were multiple reasons the Peloponnesian War occurred. He believed that there was no way the war just happened for one sole purpose so he looked back at the people that were involved and came up with some immediate and long term causes for the war. Some of the long term causes of the Peloponnesian War, according to Thucydides, was the invasions over the rich soils of Hellas, the change of societies when it came to citizens carrying weapons, the growth of walled cities and older style cities in Hellas, and the rising number of tyrants. Thucydides told that these small walled cities may have not have looked powerful compared to their neighbors but in reality they were very strong societies that knew how to fight and defend their land. The immediate reason for the Peloponnesian War, according to Thucydides, was the rapid growth of Athens' power. Throughout his writings, Thucydides is very descriptive and tries to include all the details that effect the situation at hand. These details show that he does persuasively illustrates his claim.
         The rich soils of Hellas made invasion very tempting for neighbors and because the people that lived on the land would flee at the sign of danger it made expansion easier for invaders. A possible reason why the soil was so rich and fertile may be because the people that lived there would never settle down permanently, their societies were more nomadic but they still considered the land theirs even though they were not permanently settled. The people that fled from these invasions went to Athens but Athens became so crowded and large that the refugees had to leave again. Thucydides wrote these details down in order for people to understand some of the early dealings between the Hellenes and the Athenians.          
         Thucydides hinted that due to the past invasions and lack of communication, the people of Hellas were always armed. This made them ready for any physical conflict that may arise not just at the local level but throughout all of Hellas even though there was poor communication. The people of Hellas were not protected by walls or a constant presence of a military so the people were always armed even when resting in their own homes they had to always be ready for any kind of conflict. Thucydides states that the Athenians laid down their weapons first to become a more relaxed and easy going society when in reality this made them easier to be taken over by invaders. Since the Athenians had a more laid back society and they ceased carrying weapons, they saw the Hellenic people as primitive and slightly savage. This created great tension between the Athenians and the Hellenic people. The details of these societies by Thucydides adds to the persuasive nature of his claims that these long term causes led to the Peloponnesian War.
         The rising number of tyrants throughout Greece made trust between societies hard to come by. Thucydides wrote that because of the great number of tyrants alliances were rare and societies were almost always in a constant state of rivalry between each other. There may have been a large amount of tyrants but there was no great battles or much glory to be gained, the only conflicts that occurred were more on the local level between neighbors so this led to just the unusually large number of tyrants in the history books and not their battles. According to Thucydides, these tyrants did not rule forever because great deal of them were taken down by Lacedaemon. Lacedaemon did this because they knew what it was like to be ruled by tyrants that only looked after themselves and they did not want anyone's freedom to be stripped away by one lone man.
         The immediate cause of the Peloponnesian War, according to Thucydides, was the rapid growth of Athenian power. The difference in ideals between Athens and Lacedaemon along with the growing power of Athens, made war practically inevitable. If anyone is to lay blame to who truly started the war then it should be placed on both Athens and Lacedaemon due to both societies having such different ideals that they feel the need to go to war.
         Thucydides persuasively illustrates his claims of the causes of the Peloponnesian War because he gives as many details as possible while leading up to the conflict. He tells the backstory of the people and lands involved in the conflict and tries his best to only use relevant information by not using many names that may be unnecessary. He does an amazing job describing all of the events that eventually led up to the Peloponnesian War and without a doubt persuasively illustrates his claims in his writings by including the necessary information of events and the viewpoints of different societies.

Work Cited Page

Thucydides, and Richard Crawley. The History of the Peloponnesian War. London: H. Milford, Oxford UP, 1943. Print.