Peloponnesian War

A Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 404 BC.

The First Athenian Maritime League (the so-called Delian League), which was established in 478/477 BC during the Persian Wars in the early 5th century BC, was the product of Athens' "policy of power" against the Peloponnesian League, which had been established since the late 6th century BC with Sparta as its leader. The emergence of these two major camps brought about a significant change in the traditional Greek international political environment, and from the beginning, it contained factors that could amplify the local problems of weak countries outside the camps into international conflicts. This type of conflict between the two camps in the middle of the 5th century BC was averted from a full-scale head-on collision by the "Thirty Years' Peace" in 446 BC, but Athens sent a navy to support Corcyra in 433 BC, and the following year sent troops to Potidaea, provoking a strong reaction from Corinth, a powerful member of the Peloponnesian League, which became the fuse that led the Peloponnesian League to go to war with Athens in 431 BC.

At the beginning of the same year, Thebes intervened militarily in the internal conflict of Plataea, and when a frontal clash between the two camps was inevitable, the Athenian leader Pericles forced the rural residents to evacuate inside the city walls, based on a strategy of using naval power to launch an offensive, even at the cost of the devastation of the country. Sure enough, in the early summer of that year, when the grains were ripening, the Peloponnesian League army led by Spartan King Archidamus invaded Athenian territory, and the war began. The following year, the enemy army continued to invade, and immediately afterwards, an epidemic began to spread among the Athenian people, who had been forced to live an unsanitary life in a small city area due to the forced evacuation. In 429 BC, Pericles himself died of the disease, and it is said that one-third of the entire population fell victim to the disease. Athens, unable to abandon its control over the empire, had no choice but to continue Pericles' strategy even after his death, and in that sense Cleon, a notorious demagogue, was Pericles' faithful successor. In 425 BC, Cleon's aggressive strategy was successful, forcing the Spartan army to surrender at Sphacteria, a small island on the coast of Pylos Bay in the southwest of the Peloponnese. Fearing a recurrence of the Helot rebellion, a fundamental weakness of the Spartan state system, Sparta desired peace and stopped its repeated invasions of Athenian territory, which it had been doing for years. However, Athens launched an even more aggressive offensive, including the capture of the island of Quithera, so the Spartan general Brasidas launched a campaign in northern Greece to split off the Athenian allies, and achieved considerable success. In 422 BC, both Cleon and Brasidas were killed in battle at the Battle of Amphipolis, and the following year a truce known as the "Peace of Nicias" was signed between the two sides.

However, this peace did not last long, and as wars and diplomatic strategies unfolded, Athens, following Alcibiades' aggressive expansion policy, launched an expedition to Sicily in 415 BC, but the expeditionary force was annihilated two years later. After that, the Peloponnesian League army constantly occupied a corner of Athenian territory, and with military funds provided by Persia, they strengthened their naval power and marched into the Ionian seas, inviting Athens' allied countries to defect. Athens, whose imperial rule had already become mere name, lost control of the seas in the Battle of Aegospotamii in 405 BC, and surrendered to Sparta the following year. Despite the wishes of Corinth and Thebes, which demanded the complete destruction of the city of Athens, Sparta set the conditions for surrender as the removal of the long wall, the handover of most of the warships, and the dissolution of the Delian League.

[Keiji Baba]

"The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, translated by Masaaki Kubo, 3 volumes (Iwanami Bunko)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

紀元前431～前404年、ギリシアのアテネ陣営とスパルタ陣営との間に戦われた戦争。

　前5世紀初めのペルシア戦争の過程で前478/477年に成立した第一次アテネ海上同盟（いわゆるデロス同盟）は、前6世紀後半以降スパルタを盟主として成立していたペロポネソスPeloponnesos同盟に対抗するアテネの「力の政策」の所産であった。このような二大陣営の出現は、従来のギリシア国際政治の環境に重大な変化をもたらし、陣営外にある弱小国の局地的問題を国際紛争にまで増幅させる要因を当初からはらんでいた。前5世紀なかばにおける両陣営のこのような形の対立は、前446年の「30年和約」によって、本格的な正面衝突を回避することができたが、前433年にアテネがコルキラ支援の海軍を派遣し、その翌年にはポテイダイアに出兵してペロポネソス同盟の有力メンバーであるコリントの激しい反発を誘ったことが導火線となって、ペロポネソス同盟は前431年アテネとの開戦に大きく傾いた。

　同年初め、テーベがプラタイアイの内紛に武力介入して両陣営の正面衝突が必至となるや、アテネの指導者ペリクレスは国土荒廃の犠牲を賭(と)しても海軍力による攻勢をとる戦略から、田園の住民を市域の城壁内部に強制疎開させた。はたして同年初夏の穀物が実るころ、スパルタ王アルキダモスの率いるペロポネソス同盟軍がアテネの領土に侵入して戦端が開かれた。翌年も続いて敵軍の侵入を受けた直後、強制疎開で狭い市域に人口が集中して非衛生な生活を余儀なくされていたアテネ住民の間に悪疫が流行し始め、前429年にはペリクレス自身も病没するなど、全市民の実に3分の1がその病魔の犠牲となったといわれる。帝国支配を放棄できないアテネとしてはペリクレス没後も彼の戦略を継承するほかなく、民衆扇動家として悪名高いクレオンはそうした意味でペリクレスの忠実な後継者であった。前425年にこのクレオンの積極作戦が奏功して、ペロポネソス半島南西部ピロス湾岸の小島スファクテリアでスパルタ軍を投降させ、スパルタはその国家体制の体質的弱点であるヘイロタイの反乱の再発を恐れて平和を望み、連年繰り返してきたアテネ領侵入も中断するに至った。だがアテネはキテラ島攻略など、なおいっそう積極攻勢に出たので、スパルタの将ブラシダスはアテネ陣営同盟諸国の切り崩しをねらって北ギリシアに作戦を展開、相当の成功を収めた。前422年アンフィポリスの戦いでクレオン、ブラシダスがともに戦死して、翌年「ニキアスの平和」とよばれる休戦条約が両陣営間に結ばれた。

　だが、この平和は長くは続かず、交戦と外交戦略が展開されるなかで、アテネはアルキビアデスの積極拡大政策をいれて前415年にシチリア遠征を敢行したが、2年後に遠征軍は壊滅した。その後はペロポネソス同盟軍が恒常的にアテネ領の一角を占領するとともに、ペルシア提供の軍資金で海軍力を増強してイオニア方面の海域に出動し、アテネ陣営同盟諸国の離反を誘った。帝国支配がすでに有名無実と化していたアテネは、前405年のアイゴスポタモイの戦いに敗れて制海権を完全に失い、翌年スパルタに降伏した。アテネ市の徹底破壊を主張するコリント、テーベの意向を抑えて、スパルタは長城の撤去、大半の軍船の引き渡し、デロス同盟の解体を降伏の条件とした。

［馬場恵二］

『トゥーキュディデース著、久保正彰訳『戦史』全3冊（岩波文庫）』

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