1. Peloponnesian War: 431-404 B.C. map

A. Background

i. Athenian behavior in the empire and toward Sparta's allies

ii. the ultimata: pretexts for war: "let the Greeks be autonomous"

iii. Spartan propaganda: "freedom of the Greeks"

B. Land vs. Naval Warfare

Pericles and the long walls

Spartan strategy

C. Key Events

i. the First Ten-Year War: 431-421

the Plague in Athens

revolt of Lesbos (Mytilene) (cf. the "Mytilenean Debate" )

Spartan surrender at Sphacteria (Pylos)

ii. Peace of Nicias: 421-414

siege and destruction of Melos (cf. the "Melian Dialogue")

Disaster in Sicily (the "Sicilian expedition"): 415-413

maps: Greece and Sicily

iii. Last Ten-Year War

The Alcibiades Factor

The Persian Factor

404: Athens surrenders 

 

2. Thucydides (b. 450s) and the development of history

a. the utility of history and human nature: Thucydides' pessimism

b. causation: human, not divine (cf. Herodotus)

similarity to Herodotus (hybris): power and wealth lead to greed, overextension, destruction

c. generalization from particular

d. the genre begins to develop: e.g., Thucydides on speeches (cf. Herodotus); rejects free invention