Sparta saw the alliance Athens had formed with Corcyra as an act of aggression against Sparta and her allies, the Peloponnesian league. Also the Athenian alliance was seen to be a violation of the peace treaty of 445 BC between Athens and Sparta. However Corcyra argued against this due to it being a neutral colony and allowed to join either side.
This alliance and the way it was viewed by the Peloponnesian league is one of the many factors that lead up to the peolponnesian war and according to Thucydides it “gave Corinth her first cause for war against Athens.”
Humiliated and angry, Corinth wanted to find a way of involving the whole of the Peloponnesian league in a war against Athens and did this by creating a further feud between the two in 432 BC over the old Corinthian colony of Potidaea.
Although Potidaea was a member of the Delian League, Athens and her allies, it had maintained the right to receive magistrates from its mother city every year. Tired of paying tribute to Athens and resentful of Athenian rule the citizens of Potidaea supported a revolt to expel Athenian power.
Both sides sent forces to Potidaea and once again Athenians were battling with Corinthians. Due to aiding the people of Potidaea, Corinth faced an embargo by Athens which enraged Sparta. Any appeals to Athens to stop the embargo were ignored, forcing the Spartans to coviene the Peloponnesian council and lead the two cities one more step closer to war.
Thucydides wrote “the growth of the power of Athens and the alarm which this inspired (in Sparta) made war inevitable.” This comment shows another element that contributed to the cause of the Peloponnesian war.
After the Persian wars, there was a development of Athenian control when the Delian league was formed which was an alliance of cities based around Athens. Each city contributed funds to help maintain the vast navy but over time Athens dominated the Delian league and these “allied” cities came under direct Athenian control. The growth of Athenian empire was a considerable worry for Sparta due to Athenian navel power tightening its grip on neighbouring waters enclosing Sparta’s peninsula. Being on a peninsula caused Sparta to be vulnerable to navel attack and the possibility of losing sea-borne trade.
An extract from my research says “The Athenian custom of establishing in every city democracies dependent upon the Empire seemed to the landowning oligarchy of Sparta a threat to aristocratic government everywhere. For a time the Spartans contented themselves with supporting the upper classes in every city, and slowly forging a united front against Athens.” This statement shows by forging a united front against Athens was Sparta’s reaction to threat of the Athenian empire and that they clearly feared the growth of it.
Athens and Sparta worshipped the same gods, spoke the same language and were related by religion however there was a drastic difference between the cultures in the two cities.
“Everything in this (Spartan) civilization was subordinated to the art of war; the sole aim of the state was to create a race of invincible warriors.” This statement shows that Sparta’s goal was to have military perfection through maintaining discipline and class distinction and also resisting any type of change social expansion.
However Athenian culture stood in stark contrast to that of strict oligarchy in Sparta. Athens had a much more democratic system than Sparta and was eager to expand through trade and willing to consider new ideas. Also due to their being no specific slave class, every citizen was allowed to vote on public matters.
Wary of foreign influence, Sparta stood still whilst Athens moved forward and embraced any new knowledge. The two superpowers had a natural distrust between them and the radical differences in their cultures caused an inevitable conflict, a conflict that could have been another element that began the Peloponnesian war.
Overall when looking for a cause of the Peloponnesian war it is impossible to conclude that a one specific reason was to blame due to there being many different factors involved. These include cultural differences between Sparta and Athens, the growth of Athens Empire and the disputes over Epidamnus and Potidaea.
However, in my pinion I think that the growth of Athens was on e of the main underlying causes because its growth was one of Sparta’s greatest fears and it made the war inevitable. This was also the final judgement of Thucydides as he said “The Spartans voted that the treaty had been broken and that war should be declared not so much because they were influenced by the speeches of their allies as because they were afraid of the further growth of Athenian power, seeing, as they did, that already the greater part of Hellas was under the control of Athens.”
