War and peace

Athenian: Alex Isabelle Spartan: Laura Beltrami The Archidamian War, first of the Peloponnesian wars, ends in 422 BC, after another 6 years of conflicts. This second part of the war opened with a long-prepared maneuver: Athens decided to raise taxes on the tributaries. The reaction was not long in coming: after a few seasons Cnidus, Eritre, Sesto and Cyzicus, that is all the tributary cities that during the previous three years had not been occupied by the Athenian navy, rebelled en masse, proudly proclaiming their allegiance to the cause of the Spartan rebels. Their money, however, served some purpose: Athens strengthened the army, and then sent it to occupy Thebes, which after a particularly harsh winter saw the fall of most of the troops defending it. The following spring, traitors threw open the doors of the Theban walls to the Athenian militia, a fact which did not translate into real strategic contributions, but which certainly constituted a moral support to the cause of the besi...

Athenian: Alex Isabelle Spartan: Laura Beltrami The year is 431 BC, and the Spartans break the tie: without thinking twice they gather their troops from Corinth and besiege Plataea. It is the beginning of the Peloponnesian Wars. Their troops, which popular tales want to be very numerous, do not scare the Athenians, who put together a variegated and very angry dream team and proceed to engage the besieging army. The resulting clash is the first battle of the Peloponnesian Wars: a no-holds-barred brawl that ends with a head-to-head of the hoplitic phalanxes of the two cities. The Spartans, unprepared for such aggression, flee, abandoning the battlefield and reorganizing further south, in the territories adjacent to Corinth. In truth, the war had already begun far to the north, in Potidea, a rebel tributary city to Athenian power, where Spartan troops had barricaded themselves hoping for reinforcements from the south. Reinforcements had in fact arrived, but not for their faction: a large ...