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Battle Of Sphacteria
The Battle of Sphacteria was a land battle of the Peloponnesian War, fought in 425 BC between Athens and Sparta. Following the Battle of Pylos and subsequent peace negotiations, which failed, a number of Spartans were stranded on the island of Sphacteria. An Athenian force under Cleon and Demosthenes attacked and forced them to surrender. Overview In the wake of the failed peace negotiations, Demosthenes initially attempted to starve out the Spartans on Sphacteria, but was unable to blockade the island tightly enough. In Athens there was concern that the approach of winter would necessitate abandoning the blockade, unless the impasse was swiftly broken. The politician Cleon took out reinforcements from Athens and joined forces with Demosthenes, and the Athenians launched an assault on Sphacteria. Landing in great force on a weakly defended point, the Athenians swamped the beachfront defenses and moved inland, harassing the Spartans by using bows and spears whenever they att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek War Of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, Bourbon Restoration in France, Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which would be expanded to its modern size in later years. The revolution is celebrated by Greek diaspora, Greeks around the world as Greek Independence Day, independence day on 25 March. All Greek territory, except the Ionian Islands, the Mani Peninsula, and mountainous regions in Epirus, came under Ottoman rule in the 15th century. During the following centuries, there were Ottoman Greece#Uprisings before 1821, Greek uprisings against Ottoman rule. Most uprisings began in the independent Greek realm of the Mani Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of The Peloponnesian War/Book 4
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as a social science, while others see it as part of the humanities or consider it a hybrid discipline. Similar debates surround the purpose of history—for example, whether its main aim is theoretical, to uncover the truth, or practical, to learn lessons from the past. In a more general sense, the term ''history'' refers not to an academic field but to the past itself, times in the past, or to individual texts about the past. Historical research relies on primary and secondary sources to reconstruct past events and validate interpretations. Source criticism is used to evaluate these sources, assessing their authenticity, content, and reliability. Historians strive to integrate the perspectives of several sources to develop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battles Of The Peloponnesian War
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force commitment. An engagement with only limited commitment between the forces and without decisive results is sometimes called a skirmish. The word "battle" can also be used infrequently to refer to an entire operational campaign, although this usage greatly diverges from its conventional or customary meaning. Generally, the word "battle" is used for such campaigns if referring to a protracted combat encounter in which either one or both of the combatants had the same methods, resources, and strategic objectives throughout the encounter. Some prominent examples of this would be the Battle of the Atlantic, Battle of Britain, and the Battle of France, all in World War II. Wars and military campaigns are guided by military strategy, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Crawley
Richard Crawley (26 December 1840 – 30 March 1893) was a Welsh writer and academic, best known for his translation of Thucydides's ''History of the Peloponnesian War''. Life Crawley was born at a Bryngwyn rectory on 26 December 1840, the eldest son of William Crawley, Archdeacon of Monmouth, by his wife, Mary Gertrude, third daughter of Sir Love Jones Parry of Madryn, Carnarvonshire. From 1851 to 1861 he was at Marlborough College. He matriculated at University College, Oxford, as an exhibitioner on 22 May 1861, and graduated with a B.A. in 1866, having taken a first class both in moderations and in the school of Literae Humaniores. In 1866, he was elected to a fellowship at Worcester College, Oxford, which he held till 1880. Called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 7 June 1869, Crawley never practised; in poor health, he lived abroad for many years. In April 1875, he became director of a life assurance company, and that business largely occupied him until his death ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Kagan
Donald Kagan (; May 1, 1932August 6, 2021) was a Lithuanian-born American historian and classicist at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. Kagan was considered among the foremost American scholars of Greek history and is notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War. Early life and education Kagan was born in Kuršėnai, Lithuania, on May 1, 1932, to a Jewish family. His father, Shmuel, died before Kagan turned two years old, and his mother, Leah (Benjamin), subsequently emigrated to the United States with Kagan and his sister. He grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School, where he played football, before becoming the first person in his family to go to college. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1954, received a master's degree in classics from Brown University in 1955, and a Ph.D. in history from the Ohio State University in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Mantinea (418 BC)
The first Battle of Mantinea was fought in 418 BC during the Peloponnesian War. In this battle, Sparta and its Peloponnesian allies defeated an allied army of Argos, Athens, Mantinea and several others. Background In 421 BC, after ten years of war, Athens and Sparta made peace; the Peace of Nicias. Several years later an alliance of democraties arose in the Peloponnese, threatening Sparta's hegemony over the peninsula. After the alliance between the Argives, Achaeans, Eleans, and Athens, the Spartans were defeated in the Olympic Games of 420 BC After the invasion of Epidaurus by Athens and its allies, Sparta chose to retaliate, fearing their potential alliance with Corinth. The army that was amassed was, according to Thucydides, "the best army ever assembled in Greece to that time". The Spartan king Agis concluded the first campaign with a truce, without explaining his actions to the army or his allies. Soon after the Argives denounced the truce and resumed the war, capturi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peace Of Nicias
The Peace of Nicias was a peace treaty signed between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta in March 421 BC that ended the first half of the Peloponnesian War. Background In 425 BC, the Spartans had lost the battles of Pylos and Sphacteria, a severe defeat resulting in the Athenians holding 292 prisoners. At least 120 were Spartiates, who had recovered by 424 BC, when the Spartan general Brasidas captured Amphipolis. In the same year, the Athenians suffered a major defeat in Boeotia at the Battle of Delium, and in 422 BC, they were defeated again at the Battle of Amphipolis in their attempt to take back that city. Both Brasidas, the leading Spartan general, and Cleon, the leading politician in Athens, were killed at Amphipolis. By then, both sides were exhausted and ready for peace. The treaty was signed with the agreement of both Sparta and Athens, considering the disadvantages faced by both polis during the first Peloponnesian War. The Athenians were motivated afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athenian Empire
The Delian League was a confederacy of Polis, Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 330, founded in 478 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Classical Athens, Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Second Persian invasion of Greece. The League functioned as a dual –offensive and defensive– alliance (''Symmachia (alliance), symmachia'') of autonomous states, similar to its rival association, the Peloponnesian League. The League's modern name derives from its official meeting place, the island of Delos, where congresses were held within the sanctuary of the Temple of Apollo; contemporary authors referred to the organization simply as "the Athenians and their Allies". While Sparta excelled as Greece's greatest power on land, Athens turned to the seas becoming the dominant naval power of the Ancient Greece, Greek world. Following Sparta's withdrawal from the Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spartiate
A Spartiate (, ''Spartiátēs'') or ''Homoios'' (pl. ''Homoioi'', , "alike") was an elite full-citizen men of the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Spartiate-class men (including boys) were a small minority: estimates are that they made up between 1/10 and 1/32 of the population, with the proportion decreasing over time; the vast majority of the people of Sparta were helots (slaves). Spartan citizenship was restricted to adult men without metic ancestry, as in most Greek poleis. Spartiate-class women could not hold citizenship but were eligible to marry Spartiates, and their sons could become Spartiates. After the First Messenian War, the mass enslavement of the Messenian population created a slave society (60-79% slaves; by contrast, US slave states generally had 30-65%). This society was recognized as unusual by both modern historians and contemporary non-Spartans. Spartiate-class people came to be barred from work by law and strong social norms and were supported by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toxotai
Toxotai (; singular: , ) were Ancient Greek and Byzantine archers. During the ancient period they were armed with a short Greek bow and a short sword. They carried a little pelte (or pelta) () shield. ''Hippotoxotai'' (ἱπποτοξόται) were mounted archers and rode ahead of the cavalry. The term ''toxotes'' was used to describe the mythic Sagittarius, a legendary creature thought to be a centaur. Unlike cavalry or hoplites, toxotai tended to come from the lower classes of citizens, at least in Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe .... They were viewed with prejudice by both the elite and the non-elite in Greek society, many of their contemporaries thought of them as cowards. Classical Athenians usually defined courage in terms of hoplites remaining s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psiloi
In Ancient Greek warfare, Ancient Greek armies, the ''psiloi'' (Ancient Greek , singular ψιλός, ''psilos'', literally "bare, stripped") were the light infantry who usually acted as skirmishers and missile troops, and who were distinguished from the armored ''hoplites, hoplitai'' (heavy infantry) by their light weapons and lack of armor. In Classical Antiquity and Late Antiquity and throughout the existence of the Byzantine Empire, the lightest-armed troops, typically equipped with ranged weapons, and which fought irregularly in a loose formation, were deemed 'the ''psiloi. Numbered among the ''psiloi'' were archers, the ''toxotai'' armed with a bow (''toxa''), and Sling (weapon), slingers, the (''sphendonetai'') who hurled stones or metal bullets with slings (''sfendonai''). Others, the ''akontistai'', used the throwing javelin (''akontia''). Some ''psiloi'' simply threw stones at the enemy and were referred to as ''lithoboloi''. The ''psiloi'' were the least prestigious mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peltast
A ''peltast'' (, ) was a type of light infantry originating in Thracians, Thrace and Paeonia (kingdom), Paeonia and named after the kind of shield he carried.Williams, Mary Frances. "Philopoemen's special forces: Peltasts and a new kind of greek light-armed warfare (Livy 35.27) " ''Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte'' H. 3 (2004): 257-277. Thucydides mentions the Thracian peltasts, while Xenophon in the Anabasis (Xenophon), Anabasis distinguishes the Thracian and Greek peltast troops. The peltast often served as a skirmisher in Hellenistic period, Hellenistic armies. In the Middle Ages, the same term was used for a type of Byzantine Empire, Byzantine infantryman. Description ''Pelte'' shield ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
