A House Divided: Athens, Sparta, and the Inevitable Fall of Greece :: Essays Papers

A House Divided Athens, Sparta, and the Inevitable Fall of GreeceThe stunning Greek beating of the Persians, the specter of which lurks behind the events of the Peloponnesian Wars, was for Herodotus proof of the transcendency of Hellenic form of government and way of life, and Herodotus ends his history at this pinnacle of Greek history. Thucydides then accepts the working class of chronicling Greeces unraveling from a position as the ascendant precedent of the Mediterranean, and a center of cultural, technological, and political development to the final resultant role of the Peloponnesian Warsa fractured, demoralized, and hooklike Greece that lies wide open to foreign conquest. This result is, for Thucydides, sheer from the beginning of the conflict. Greece can only dominate when the balance of power between Athens and Sparta is maintained, and the destruction of all is tantamount to the destruction of the whole. An accurate to a lower placestanding of the bailiwick port ions of Athens and Sparta makes it clear which of the two will at long last be the victor of a long, arduous military struggle, but the same understanding of national voice makes it equally apparent that the one which can dominate militarily cannot lead Greece. The speeches made at the startle Lacedaemonian Congress emphasize not only the character of the two nations in conflict, but more broadly, the inevitability of Hellenic demise as a result of this conflict.Thucydides sets down the development of the relationship between the power of Athens and Sparta in the Archeology. Athens emerges from the Persian Wars as the undisputed commercial superpower in Greece. Where Sparta is rigid in the fertile Peloponnesus, and is thus able to make itself on agriculture alone, making trade unnecessary and allowing it to maintain its own laws and customs for more than cardinal hundred years (I.18.1), Athens infertile let down forces it to turn to olive oil for revenue, and it consequently develops a flourishing trade economy even forwards the Darius set his sights on Greece. The Persian invasion itself makes a sea power out of Athens, allowing it to establish a Mediterranean empire, and export its culture and government to the domicile of Greece (I.18.2, I.6.3). This serves to unify the scattered Ionian and Doric cities under the umbrella of the Hellenes culturally where the Spartan campaign to remove tyrants unifies it politically by giving Greeks relative exemption and subordinating it uniformly to the law, and the joint coalition against the Persians ultimately secured it militarily (I.A House Divided Athens, Sparta, and the Inevitable Fall of Greece Essays PapersA House Divided Athens, Sparta, and the Inevitable Fall of GreeceThe stunning Greek defeat of the Persians, the specter of which lurks behind the events of the Peloponnesian Wars, was for Herodotus proof of the superiority of Hellenic form of government and way of life, and Herodotus ends his histor y at this pinnacle of Greek history. Thucydides then accepts the task of chronicling Greeces unraveling from a position as the dominant power of the Mediterranean, and a center of cultural, technological, and political development to the final result of the Peloponnesian Warsa fractured, demoralized, and dependent Greece that lies wide open to foreign conquest. This result is, for Thucydides, apparent from the beginning of the conflict. Greece can only dominate when the balance of power between Athens and Sparta is maintained, and the destruction of either is tantamount to the destruction of the whole. An accurate understanding of the national characters of Athens and Sparta makes it clear which of the two will ultimately be the victor of a long, arduous military struggle, but the same understanding of national character makes it equally apparent that the one which can dominate militarily cannot lead Greece. The speeches made at the First Lacedaemonian Congress emphasize not only th e character of the two nations in conflict, but more broadly, the inevitability of Hellenic demise as a result of this conflict.Thucydides sets down the development of the relationship between the power of Athens and Sparta in the Archeology. Athens emerges from the Persian Wars as the undisputed commercial superpower in Greece. Where Sparta is located in the fertile Peloponnesus, and is thus able to sustain itself on agriculture alone, making trade unnecessary and allowing it to maintain its own laws and customs for more than four hundred years (I.18.1), Athens infertile land forces it to turn to olive oil for revenue, and it consequently develops a flourishing trade economy even before the Darius set his sights on Greece. The Persian invasion itself makes a sea power out of Athens, allowing it to establish a Mediterranean empire, and export its culture and government to the rest of Greece (I.18.2, I.6.3). This serves to unify the scattered Ionian and Doric cities under the umbrell a of the Hellenes culturally where the Spartan campaign to remove tyrants unifies it politically by giving Greeks relative freedom and subordinating it uniformly to the law, and the joint coalition against the Persians ultimately secured it militarily (I.