Hellenic and Hellenistic Greece - Assignment Example

Darius has got a great chance to expand his territory so he did this capturing the islands of East Aegean and the Propontis. Darius appointed his son-in-law to Mardonius to resettle the cities, which had been destroyed during the war.  As Darius wanted the Greek states to surrender themselves to them he adopted a civil attitude. A democratic system was introduced and the burden of heavy taxes was reduced. In spite of his civil attitude, the Greek states of Sparta and Athens didn’t surrender.

Athens was one of the supreme power in its time becoming the leader of the Delian League known as the “Athenian Empire”. Due to their supremacy, Persians were forced out of their regions of Aegean and a number of other Persian states were also occupied. The main reason, which led to the Peloponnesian War, was the fear of Sparta that Athens is becoming stronger day by day and is making progress in no time. Their naval power also became stronger and the bordering states felt themselves in danger and the Peloponnese city found that the food supply to their state would be highly affected.

  Athens's power increased tremendously during the Persian war in 480 B.C and it continued to attack the states of Ionia and Aegean. Moreover, Athens also constructed walls outside their empire in order to protect itself from Sparta. Spartans were seeing all this quietly but did not do anything at that time but their anger took heights when Athens in 459 B.C. took the side of Megara against Corinth in the Megara Corinth war. This in turn led to the war, which was known as the “Peloponnesian War”.

This war was fought between Athens and Sparta, Corinth, Aegean, and many other states. The Spartans were encouraged by the Corinth’s to use the arms and were supported by Megara and Aegean who were forced to become allies with Athens. After the war, Athens lost its power and Sparta then became the strongest state of Greece.