The purpose of this page is to give you a brief look
on major war in ancient Greece. Many historians wrote books on
the subject, most sourcefull one was Thucydides. I will try to
give you some reasons for surtain actions taken by Athens and
Sparta and their allies and explain them.
Background Information
As unfortunate as it may seem, war has played a large part in history. In classical Greek Civilization
this view remains consistent. This difference in exploring the wars of the Greeks is that many of
them were fought against one another. Greek vs. Greek. this is because, unlike many other
cultures, the Greeks did not first consider themselves Greeks as we consider ourselves Americans. They associated themselves more closely with the city-state in which they lived. They were first Athenians, Spartans, or Corinthians and they considered each of their city-states much like separate countries. If we can imagine being a Portlander, a New Yorker, or a Los Angeleno and that these cities were separate countries, then we can begin to understand how the Greeks thought of each other.
Of the Greek City-States, Athens and Sparta were the classic rivalry. Other city-states made war
with one another, but none equaled the scale of those fought between Athens and Sparta and each
others colonies. Each were considered leading City-States among all of the Greeks. Like other
city-states, they founded colonies across the Mediterranean and for the most part these colonies
remained loyal to their mother city-states.
The dominance of Athens and Sparta came to a climax
during the Peloponnesian Wars.