The Shaping of a Civilization

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The allies under the Athenians were known as the Delian league, and the impact of the war changed the circumstances and requirements of alliances. At first, allies of Athens were known as “a voluntary alliance of greek states” (8), but soon seemed to become an entire empire under Athenian command that was mostly for the advancement of the Athenians, considering how much of a burden the Athenians found giving military assistance to their allied city-states until the war started. The alliance soon became an involuntary decision as Athens suppressed any state trying to leave the alliance, for example the Samos rebellion. Due to the financial burden of the Peloponnesian war, Athens also began to further exploit their allies. In the summer of 428, they announced an increase in tribute demanded from the allies even though a fair amount didn’t want to be in the alliance because they didn’t feel threatened by an outside force. The Athenians even went on an excursion months before it was due to collect. They also began to seek territories such as Chalcidian and Thracian territory because they were crucial pieces of land and essential for the exploitation of timber.

The Athenian government, politics, and policy were all heavily influenced by the war. During this time, Athens saw an emergence of new politicians as well as new policies that governed the civilization. Politicians were originally aristocrats, but after the death of Pericles it became individuals from families that were rich because of trade and industry and were equally as educated and qualified. In politics, party membership and loyalty became the highest virtue, and oaths became meaningless. If your beliefs didn’t align with the unity of the party than you were hurting the unity of the party and would face consequences. Policies were also implemented by individuals such as Alcibiades and Cleophon. Due to the increase in poverty because of the war, Cleophon instituted diobelia which gave two obols to needy citizens. The democratic political system suffered a harsh downfall during the Peloponnesian wars. Originally with Pericles as the leader of Athens, there was no desire to alter the democratic constitution, but things changed after his death and the outlook of the war became bleak. Due to growing dislike for democracy in Athens, Alcibiades started a movement to create an oligarchy hopefully to change the fate of the war and this created a group of 400 men that rose to oligarchic power. The leaders of the 411 were Peisander, Phrynichus, Antiphon, and Theramenes. The men were made up of moderates who planned for the oligarchy to be temporary until the aftermath of the war, where they would elect an assembly of five thousand, and there were extremists who wanted to keep oligarchy forever and narrow the leadership down to four. Eventually the ruling changed into the rule of the five thousand, which is thought to be the best time of rule for Athens has ever had due to the balance in leadership, but it was soon restored to the full democracy. There were positives and negatives to the changes made to the civilizations of Sparta and Athens, but overall the conformity to new ways of life from the governing of the society to the foreign policies were necessary for survival during the Peloponnesian Wars.

Works Cited

Kagan, Donald. Peloponnesian War, The. Penguin Group, 2003.

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