Greece in 431 B.. at the start of the Peloponnesian War Based on The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923. . Importance of the Peloponnesian War Fought between the allies of Sparta and the empire of Athens [see Delian League] , the crippling Peloponnesian War paved the way for the Macedonian takeover of G reece [see Philip II of Macedon] and Alexander the Great's empire. Earlier -- th at is, before the Peloponnesian War -- the poleis of Greece had worked together to fight off the Persians. During the Peloponnesian War, they turned on each oth er. Map of Greece at the Start of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides on the Causes of the Peloponnesian War In the first book of his history, participant observer and historian Thucydides records the causes of the Peloponnesian War. Here is what Thucydides says on the causes, from the Richard Crawley translation: "The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sig ht. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lace daemon, made war inevitable." I.1.23 History of the Peloponnesian War While Thucydides may have thought he settled the causes of the Peloponnesian War for all time, historians continue to debate the causes of the war. The main sug gestions are: Spartan jealousy and desire for more for itself, Spartan unhappiness at no longer having all the military glory, Athenian bullying of its allies and neutral cities, and conflict between competing political ideologies. Donald Kagan has been studying the causes of the Peloponnesian War for decades. I am relying chiefly on his analyses, mainly from his 2003 The Peloponnesian War . Here is a look at the situations and events that caused the Peloponnesian War. Athens and the Delian League Mention of the earlier Persian Wars doesn't just put the later events in a time frame. As a result of the wars [see Salamis], Athens had to be and was rebuilt. It came to dominate its group of allies politically and economically. The Atheni an empire started with the Delian League, which had been formed to allow Athens to to take the lead in war against Persia, and wound up providing Athens with ac cess to what was supposed to be a communal treasury. Athens used it to build up its navy and therefore its importance and power. Sparta's Allies Earlier, Sparta had been the military leader of the Greek world. Sparta had a se t of loose alliances by means of individual treaties that extended to the Pelopo nnese, excepting Argos and Achaea. The Spartan alliances are referred to as the Peloponnesian League. Sparta Insults Athens When Athens decided to invade Thasos, Sparta would have come to the aid of the n orth Aegean island, had Sparta not suffered a timely natural disaster. Athens, s till bound by alliances of the Persian War years, tried to help the Spartans, bu t was rudely asked to leave. Kagan says that this open quarrel in 465 was the fi rst between Sparta and Athens. Athens broke off the alliance with Sparta and all ied, instead, with Sparta's enemy, Argos. Athens Zero-Sum Gain: 1 Ally + 1 Enemy When Megara turned to Sparta for help in its boundary dispute with Corinth, Spar ta, allied with both poleis, declined. Megara suggested that it break the allian ce with Sparta and join up with Athens. Athens could use a friendly Megara on it s border since it provided gulf access, so it agreed, although doing so set up l asting enmity with Corinth. This was in 459. About 15 years later, Megara joined back up again with Sparta. Thirty Years' Peace In 446/5 Athens, a sea power, and Sparta, a land power, signed a peace treaty. T he Greek world was now formally divided in two, with 2 "hegemons". By treaty, me mbers of one side could not switch and join the other, although neutral powers could take sides. Kagan says that for probably the first time in history, an atte mpt was made to keep the peace by requiring both sides to submit grievances to b inding arbitration. Fragile Balance of Power A complicated partially ideological political conflict between Spartan-ally Cori nth and her neutral daughter city and strong naval power Corcyra led to Athenian involvement in Sparta's realm. Corcyra's offer included the use of her navy. Co rinth urged Athens to remain neutral. Since Corcyra's navy was powerful, Athens did not want it to fall into Spartan hands and disrupt whatever fragile balance of power there was. Athens signed a defense-only treaty and sent a fleet to Corc yra. Intentions may have been good, but fighting ensued. Corcyra, with Athens' a id, won the Battle of Sybota against Corinth, in 433. Athens now knew battle with Corinth was inevitable. Spartan Promises to Athens' Ally Potidaea was part of the Athenian empire, but also a daughter city of Corinth. A thens feared a revolt, with good reason, since the Potidaeans had secretly acqui red a promise of Spartan support (actually, to invade Athens), in violation of t he 30 years treaty. Megarian Decree Megara had recently helped Corinth at Sybota and elsewhere, so Athens put a peac etime embargo on Megara. The decree would only make Megara uncomfortable, althou gh possibly put it on the brink of starvation (Aristophanes Acharnians) without being an act of war, yet Corinth took the opportunity to urge all allies disaffe cted with Athens to pressure Sparta now to invade Athens. There were enough hawk s among the ruling bodies in Sparta to carry the war motion. And so the full-fledged Peloponnesian War began. For more details, please read this forum post on the Causes of the Peloponnesian War. This forum post uses the term "aitia", which is Greek for 'cause' or 'grie vance'. Also see: "The Causes of the Peloponnesian War," by Raphael Sealey. Classical Philology, V ol. 70, No. 2 (Apr., 1975), pp. 89-109.This article is about a character in Greek mythology. For other uses, see Agamem non (disambiguation). The 'Mask of Agamemnon' which was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at M ycenae (whether it represents an individual, and if so, whom, remains unknown) In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (Ancient Greek: ; modern Greek: , "very ste g Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope; the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought t o be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was ab ducted by Paris of Troy, Agamemnon was the commander of the Greeks in the ensuin g Trojan War. Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy he was murdered (according to the fullest vers ion of the oldest surviving account, Odyssey Book 11, l.409f.) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. In old versions of the story: "The scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not ta ken up residence in Agamemnon's palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon's followers too".[1] In some later versions Clytemnestra herself d oes the killing, or they do it together, in his own home. o Historical prototype Hittite sources mention URUAkagamuna, ruler of URUAhhiyawa (land of Achaeans) in the 14th century BC.[2][3] This is a possible prototype of the Agamemnon of myth ology. [edit] Early life Atreus, Agamemnon's father, murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes a nd fed them to him after discovering Thyestes' adultery with his wife Aerope. Th yestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, and this son vowed gruesome rev enge on Atreus' children. Aegisthus successfully murdered Atreus and restored his father to the throne. Aegisthus took possession of the throne of Mycenae and r uled jointly with Thyestes. During this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menela us, took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta. There they respectively married Tyndareus' daughters Clytemnestra and Helen. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysot hemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother 's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Gre ece. Agamemnon's family history had been marred by rape, murder, incest, and treacher y, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by their ancestor, Tantalus, an d then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans and gods. [edit] Trojan War Main article: Trojan War Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. Preparing to dep art from Aulis, which was a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis. There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrat h: in Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis' equal in hunting. Misfor tunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. F inally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only b e propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. Classical dram atisations differ on how willing either father or daughter were to this fate, so me include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles, but Agam emnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeased Artemis, and the Gr eek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, claim that Agamemnon was prepared to kill his daughter, but that Artemis accepted a de er in her place, and whisked her away to Taurus in Crimea. Hesiod said she becam e the goddess Hecate. Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and 15 other Trojan soldiers.[4] Agamem non's teamster, Halaesus, later fought with Aeneas in Italy. The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the wa r. Agamemnon took an attractive slave, Briseis, one of the spoils of war, from A chilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in reve nge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war. Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of kingly authority. As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle. He took the field himself, and performed many heroi c deeds until he was wounded and forced to withdraw to his tent. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks. After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam, f ell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. Orestes slaying Aegisthus After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra either landed in Argolis, or were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus' country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wi fe, had taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover When Agamemnon came home he was slain by either Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story) or Clytemne stra. According to the accounts given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon wa s slain in a bath by his wife alone, a blanket of cloth or a net having first be en thrown over him to prevent resistance. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. He r jealousy of Cassandra, and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia and at Agam emnon's having gone to war over Helen of Troy, are said to have been the motives for her crime. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then ruled Agamemnon's kingdom for atime, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Agamemnon's father Atreus havi ng fed Thyestes his own children (Thyestes then crying out "So perish all the ra ce of Pleisthenes!",[5] thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his fa ther's curse). Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenged his father's murder, with t he help or encouragement of his sister Electra, by murdering Aegisthus and Clyte mnestra (his own mother), thereby inciting the wrath of the Erinyes (English: th e Furies), winged goddesses who tracked down egregiously impious wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drove them to insanity.