The Greeks An Introduction to Their Culture, 3rd edition

The Athenian empire, secured by the navy, was centred upon the Aegean and
the maritime states of northern and western Greece. Spartan power, secured by the
Spartiate army (Sparta had only a small navy and little naval expertise), was centred
upon the Peloponnesian League, a loose non-tributary federation of all states south
of the isthmus of Corinth except Argos (an age-old rival) and Achaea. Sparta also had
alliances with states such as Thebes north of the isthmus. The policy of the Athenian
democracy in mid-century was expansionist, and her ambitions on land brought
Athens into conflict with Sparta. In 460 Athens made an alliance with Argos and in
459, Megara, strategically situated on the northern side of the isthmus of Corinth,
withdrew from the Peloponnesian League to make an alliance with Athens. The
Athenians intervened in conflicts between states north of the isthmus, but did not
have the military means to sustain their power on Iand, so that, after fifteen years of
intermittent hostilities, the Thirty Year Peace treaty was signed between Sparta and
Athens in 446, in which Athens gave up her ambitions on land in return for Spartan
recognition of Athenian naval hegemony.
During the period between 463 (and particularly after 447) and his death in 429,
the most influential figure in Athens was Pericles, who has lent his name to the whole
era, which is regarded as the high-water mark of Athenian power and influence.
Though born into the aristocracy and nicknamed the Olympian because of the

64 THE GREEKS

S a r o n i c G u l f

Cantharus

Harbour

Munychia

Harbour

Zea Harbour

Bay of

Phalerum

Wall of Themistocles

(built after Persian Wars)

Wall to Pha

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(re- forti

fied by

Peric

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round

445

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ATHENS

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North L ong

Wall

Inner roadway

South L

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FIGURE 18 Piraeus and the Long Walls after the Persian Wars

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