During the Persian invasions of the fifth century BC, Sparta had shown its might when 300 warriors and an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas, had fought the Persian army at the battle of Thermopylae.įighting had raged for decades before the Peloponnesian War, as Athens and Sparta got involved in the conflicts of other states or exploited circumstances to further their own advantage. This turned them into a fiercely disciplined and highly trained fighting force, feared across all Greece.
Their constant and brutal training began at the age of seven, when boys would be sent from their families to undergo the ritual of agoge, a form of boot camp. The lives of Spartan men were consumed by military service and commitment to winning glory in battle. Why were the Spartans such great warriors? While Athens ruled the seas, Sparta had long headed its own alliance of states from the Peloponnese and central Greece – the Peloponnesian League – which commanded a stronger army thanks to much-feared and respected Spartan warriors. Athens also planned to rebuild the ‘Long Walls’ – miles of fortifications connecting the city to the harbour of Piraeus – so as to offer a link to the sea even at times of siege, making it yet more powerful. Sparta grew alarmed at Athens’ hegemony, which continued to expand due to regular tributes pouring in from across the empire. Circling the Aegean Sea, the Athenian Empire built a huge navy of triremes – galleys, more than 30 metres long and with three lines of rowers down the length of each side, capable of great speeds – making Athens the dominant maritime power in Greece. Hundreds of states joined the Delian League, but it came to be so dominated by Athens that the Athenians effectively turned the alliance into an empire. In the aftermath, in 478 BC, an alliance of Greek states called the Delian League was formed as protection against any future Persian attacks. Allied Greeks defeated them first at Marathon and then at the battles of Salamis, Mycale and Plataea, crushing the invasions. Yes, Athens and Sparta had fought side by side against the Persian invasions of Greece by Darius and then his son Xerxes in the early fifth century BC.
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