Ep. 0288: ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ Pt. II

About this episode

CJ continues the exploration of the Peloponnesian War, focusing on key events and figures from the conflict.

Here it is — the 2nd installment of CJ’s already-epic mini-series, ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ set in the Peloponnesian War in 5th-century BC Greece. Join CJ as he shares an overview of some of the events of the first half of the Peloponnesian War, including: Spartan-led Peloponnesian invasions of Attica (the countryside around Athens), which used the traditional Greek tactic of ‘ravaging’ farms in order to try to provoke the Athenians to confront them in a decisive hoplite battle Athens’ refusal to do so, as they followed Pericles’ strategy of being purely defensive on land while waging naval & amphibious warfare against the coastal strongholds of the Peloponnesian League The horrific plague that afflicted Athens for the first few years of the war, which likely killed 20-30% of Athens, including, eventually, Pericles himself The leadership void left by Pericles, which was filled by men of much less competence, none of whom ever enjoyed the supermajority support that Pericles had The ‘Peace of Nicias,’ concluded in 421 BC, which was never fully adhered to & wouldn’t last long The growing political feud…

People in this episode

Host: CJ

Topics covered

• Peloponnesian War
• Athenian strategy
• Spartan invasions
• leadership in Athens
• political feuds
• naval warfare
• historical analysis

Keywords

• Peloponnesian War
• Athens
• Sparta
• Pericles
• Nicias
• Alcibiades
• Peace of Nicias
• plague
• Syracuse
• Athenian Assembly

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Athens, Syracuse, Peloponnesian League, Sicilian poleis

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