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Section IV (Historical Periods): The Greek World 500 to 440 BC
Quick questions on The First Peloponnesian War and the Thirty Years' Peace: HSC Ancient History
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the drift to war (461 to 460 BC)?Show answer
The dismissal at Mount Ithome (462 BC) and Cimon's ostracism (461 BC) ended the Athenian-Spartan alliance against Persia that had won the Persian Wars. Athens immediately:
What is the long walls?Show answer
In the late 460s and early 450s BC the Athenians built the long walls connecting the city to the Piraeus, around 7 km away. Two parallel walls (the North and the Phaleric, later replaced by the Middle or South wall) enclosed the road. The system made Athens, in effect, a fortified island: even a Spartan land invasion of Attica could not force surrender as long as the navy controlled the sea and supplies came in through the Piraeus.
What is the First Peloponnesian War (460 to 446 BC)?Show answer
A series of campaigns rather than a single war. Thucydides covers them briefly in the Pentecontaetia (1.103 to 115).
What is the Thirty Years' Peace (446 BC)?Show answer
Athens and Sparta negotiated a thirty-year peace in the winter of 446/5 BC. The terms:
What is the Samian revolt as the test of the peace (440 to 439 BC)?Show answer
The Samian revolt of 440 to 439 BC was the first test of the Thirty Years' Peace. Samos was one of the few remaining ship-providing allies. It revolted after Athenian intervention in a Samian dispute with Miletus. Pericles led the suppression in person.
What is the end of the period (440 BC)?Show answer
By 440 BC the Greek world had been reshaped:
What is the significance of the period?Show answer
Military. Greece checked the largest empire of its time. The wars produced the conviction that the polis system could resist any external threat.
What is the sources?Show answer
Thucydides, Pentecontaetia (1.89 to 117). The major source.
What is historiography?Show answer
Russell Meiggs, The Athenian Empire (1972). Standard reconstruction.
What is strategic logic?Show answer
The long walls embodied Themistocles's vision: Athens as a sea power independent of land control. They made the Pericles strategy of the Peloponnesian War (435 to 421 BC) possible.
What is spartan reaction?Show answer
Spartans regarded the long walls as confirmation of Athenian ambition. They would not be permanently destroyed until 404 BC after Athens's defeat.
What is the Egyptian expedition?Show answer
A Delian League fleet of 200 triremes was diverted to Egypt to support the revolt of Inaros against Persia. After initial successes the expedition was destroyed in 454 BC; 250 ships and 8,000 men lost.
What is halieis?Show answer
Athenian forces defeated by Corinthians and Epidaurians.
What is cecryphaleia?Show answer
Athenian naval victory off the Argolid.
What is aegina?Show answer
Athens besieged and reduced Aegina, the historic naval rival in the Saronic Gulf. Aegina was forced into the Delian League and made a tribute-payer.