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The Peloponnesian War

Results of the War

The war was a catastrophe for Athens. She lost her empire so thoroughly that she never regained it. The city continued to enjoy a level of wealth, and as a center of culture she still counted among the leading towns of Hellas. But her political influence was never again decisive.

Sparta won the war, but scarcely knew what to do with the fruits of victory. Her attempts to lead the Greeks were heavy-handed and soon called forth new champions of liberty. Chief among these was Thebes. But Sparta did not become a great city, nor did it build a new empire.

Did the war harm the Greeks as a whole? That's one I will not answer here, but rather will suggest two contrary interpretations. By the first, the war was detrimental because only Athens could have united the Greeks and only a united Greece could have withstood, first Alexander and, later, Rome. Athens' defeat was Greece's defeat.

By the second argument, Sparta's victory was Greece's victory. A united Greece was never a possibility. More to the point, it was contrary to what the Greeks themselves wanted. Theirs was the world of independent city-states, and Athens was a threat to that world. Sparta's victory preserved Greek liberty--as the Greeks themselves understood the word--for another 250 years.