The ancient Greek historian Thucydides called it "a war like no other"—arguably the greatest in the history of the world up to that time. The Peloponnesian War pitted Athens and her allies against a league of city-states headed by Sparta. Thucydides's eyewitness account of the war has been a classic for 24 centuries and is still studied for its profound truths about the nature of human strife. In The Peloponnesian War, Professor Kenneth Harl draws on this masterpiece and other ancient sources to give you a full picture of the Greek world in uneasy peace and then all-out war in the late 5th century BCE.
The Peloponnesian War
Explore the first truly global conflict—a 200-year-long clash between a mighty empire and the world's most powerful city-state in this gripping course that covers the Greek and Persian wars from their earliest beginnings to Alexander the Great's total destruction of Persia.
Overview Course No. 3372
About
Dr. Kenneth W. Harl is Professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he teaches courses in Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader history. He earned his B.A. from Trinity College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. Recognized as an outstanding lecturer, Professor Harl has received numerous teaching awards at Tulane, including the coveted Sheldon H. Hackney Award. He has earned Tulane's annual Student Body Award for Excellence in Teaching nine times and is the recipient of Baylor University's nationwide Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers. In 2007, he was the Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professor in History at Wofford College. An expert on classical Anatolia, he has taken students with him into the field on excursions and to assist in excavations of Hellenistic and Roman sites in Turkey. Professor Harl has also published a wide variety of articles and books, including his current work on coins unearthed in an excavation of Gordion, Turkey, and a new book on Rome and her Iranian foes. A fellow and trustee of the American Numismatic Society, Professor Harl is well known for his studies of ancient coinage. He is the author of Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East, A.D. 180-275 and Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700.
01: Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War
In his eyewitness account of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides set a standard for writing history that endures to this day. We explore his influence on modern historians and the enduring value of studying this war.
32 min
02: The Greek Way of War
This lecture examines the Greek approach to land battles, showing how the institution of the polis led to the use of citizen soldiers called hoplites - a style of fighting that underwent major changes during the Peloponnesian War.
30 min
03: Sparta—Perceptions and Prejudices
The disciplined city-state of Sparta headed one side in the war. Ancient sources have created the modern impression of Sparta as an authoritarian and soulless society. This lecture offers a more balanced view.
30 min
04: Sparta and Her Allies
We continue our background exploration of Sparta with a look at the Peloponnesian League, a powerful alliance headed by Sparta that extended even beyond the peninsula of the Peloponnesus.
30 min
05: The Athenian Democracy
Sparta's rival was Athens, whose most distinctive political institution was democracy. Remarkably for that era, all male citizens over 18 had the right to vote, without property qualifications.
30 min
06: Athens and the Navy
From 505 to 480 B.C., Athens built the greatest fleet in the Greek world, an effort that bolstered its democratic institutions: Thousands of citizens of the lower classes, vital to the city's defense because they rowed the ships, were rewarded for naval service with enhanced legal and social privileges.
29 min
07: Victory over Persia, 490–479 BCE
Sparta and Athens were reluctant allies against Persia, which sought to conquer the Greek homeland in 490 B.C. and again in 480 B.C. Athens won glory at the battles of Marathon and Salamis, as did Sparta at Thermopylae.
31 min
08: Athens or Sparta—A Question of Leadership
As Persian power waned, Greek cities under Persian control revolted, looking to Sparta for leadership. Rebuffed, they turned to Athens. The resulting alliance led to the foundation of the Delian League.
30 min
09: Cimonian Imperialism
Fresh from victories over Persia, the Athenian general Cimon converted the naval alliance of the Delian League into the Athenian Empire.
30 min
10: Sparta after the Persian Wars
Thucydides is surprisingly silent about events in Sparta in the 50 years between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. We weigh the view that Sparta preferred isolation, lest its citizens be morally corrupted by overseas service.
30 min
11: The First Peloponnesian War
In 461 B.C., Spartans and Athenians clashed in what has sometimes been called the First Peloponnesian War, which lasted until 446 B.C.
30 min
12: The Thirty Years' Peace
This lecture examines the Thirty Years' Peace that ended the First Peloponnesian War. Despite differences in how each party understood the treaty, there were reasons to believe peace would last.
30 min
13: Triumph of the Radical Democracy
We investigate the reforms sponsored by Pericles that transformed Athens into a full participatory democracy. Pericles established a standard of democratic leadership that later Athenian political figures failed to attain.
29 min
14: From Delian League to Athenian Empire
The emergence of Athenian power in the Aegean and the creation of its naval empire completely changed the political dynamics of Greece.
29 min
15: Economy and Society of Imperial Athens
Athens was the first state to monetize its markets and base its wealth on seaborne commerce. How did the economies of Sparta and its allies compare?
30 min
16: Athens, School of Greece
From the Persian to Peloponnesian Wars, Pericles presided over a golden age in architecture, visual arts, and literature, making Athens the school of Greece and defining Classical civilization for ages to come.
30 min
17: Crisis in Corcyra, 435–432 BCE
General war loomed after a revolt broke out at a remote colony in northwest Greece, inciting a clash between the two rivals Corcyra and Corinth. Athens sided with Corcyra, enraging Corinth, which was allied with Sparta.
30 min
18: Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War
The Corcyra crisis put Athens on a collision course with Sparta. We explore whether the chain of events leading to war could have been halted.
30 min
19: Strategies and Stalemate, 431–429 BCE
Pericles aimed to avoid a land battle with Sparta, while harassing Spartan interests by sea to force a negotiated peace. By the third year of the war, a stalemate had developed and Pericles was dead from plague.
30 min
20: Athenian Victory in Northwest Greece
In a change of strategy, Athens escalated operations in northwest Greece - a region dominated by Corinth and vital to the Peloponnesians. By 426 B.C., Athens had won an important victory there.
30 min
21: Imperial Crisis—The Chalcidice and Mytilene
This lecture looks at fighting in northern Greece, a strategically vital area for Athens. When unrest spread to the island of Lesbos, Athens put down the rebellion and was on the verge of brutal reprisals, but relented.
30 min
22: Plague, Fiscal Crisis, and War
We investigate how the war changed the population and prosperity of the Greek world. Athens suffered most, from plague and the despoiling of agricultural land.
30 min
23: Demagogues and Stasis
The war transformed the democratic institutions of Athens and ignited "stasis" (civil war) in city-states on both sides. In Athens, demagogues such as Cleon wielded the power once held by the democratic leader Pericles.
30 min
24: Pylos, 425 BCE—A Test of Leadership
By 425 BCE, Sparta and Athens were locked in a deadly struggle, without prospects of either victory or negotiation. Then Athens achieved a breakthrough at Pylos, trapping Spartan troops and forcing their surrender.
29 min
25: New Leaders and New Strategies
The deaths in 422 B.C. of the Athenian Cleon and the Spartan Brasidas removed the two most senior commanders in favor of continuing the war.
30 min
26: The Peace of Nicias
During the winter of 422-421 B.C., the Athenian statesman Nicias negotiated what was to have been a 50-year peace treaty with Sparta. But peace would not last.
29 min
27: Collapse of the Peace of Nicias
The period from 421 to 418 B.C. saw the disintegration of the Peace of Nicias and the emergence of Spartan and Athenian leaders who were eager to renew the conflict.
29 min
28: From Mantinea to Sicily, 418–415 BCE
This lecture analyzes events surrounding the Battle of Mantinea, which involved shifting alliances aimed at isolating Sparta.
30 min
29: Sparta, Athens, and the Western Greeks
Athens had good strategic reasons for trying to outflank Sparta in this theater. We explore the importance of Sicily and southern Italy in the wider Greek world.
30 min
30: The Athenian Expedition to Sicily
An ill omen preceded the sailing of the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 415 B.C. Thucydides's account of the unfolding disaster is the most dramatic and tragic episode of his history, culminating in the campaign at Syracuse.
31 min
31: Alcibiades and Sparta, 414–412 BCE
After the Athenian attack on Syracuse, Sparta declared that the Peace of Nicias had been violated, and renewed war. Sparta now had the invaluable advice of Alcibiades, an exiled Athenian leader.
30 min
32: Conspiracy and Revolution, 411 BCE
In 411 BCE, Athenian aristocrats staged a coup, suspending the democracy and setting up a council of 400 to draw up a new constitution. Their secret plan to turn over the city to Sparta was thwarted when the coup collapsed.
31 min
33: Alcibiades and Athens, 411–406 BCE
Under the generalship of the returned exile Alcibiades, Athens enjoyed a string of victories against Sparta. But the strategic situation changed with the arrival of a new Spartan ally: the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger.
30 min
34: The Defeat of Athens, 406–404 BCE
The years 406-404 B.C. saw a dramatic turn of events leading to the decisive sea battle at Aegospotami, where the Spartan commander Lysander surprised and captured the entire Athenian fleet, ending the war.
31 min
35: Sparta's Bitter Victory
We review the immediate aftermath of the war and explore what Spartan victory meant for Greece. In a surprisingly short time, Athenian democracy was restored and the city regained much of its former economic position.
31 min
36: Lessons of the Peloponnesian War
What is the historical significance of the Peloponnesian War? How has it been studied by both scholars and popular historians? And what are the real lessons to be learned from this epic conflict of 24 centuries ago?
32 min
