Why Athens Lost the Peloponessian War

“They were beaten at all points and altogether; all that they suffered was great; they were destroyed as the saying is with total destruction, their fleet, their army; everything was destroyed and few out of many returned home.” (Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, 481) The Sicilian military campaign of Athens proved to be one of the most disastrous military campaigns in ancient times. The loss of thousands of soldiers and sailors, hundreds of vessels and vast amounts of money from the treasury reduced tremendously the Athenian ability to wage war; however, even in spite of such a loss, Athens was still able to prolong the war for nine more years until the Spartans defeated Athens in 404 B.C. The downfall of Athens came as a result of Spartan military operations, which destroyed the Athenian navy and cut off Athens from the supply of grain from Ionia. The decisive battle at Aegospotami in 405 B.C put an end to the Athenian empire and Athenian military power. There were many reasons for the demise of Athens, ranging from bad leadership and preparation for war to a lack of overall strategic concept for conducting the war against Sparta and its allies. All of these reasons contributed to the downfall of Athens in the Peloponnesian War; however, this paper will focus only on the failure of Athens to execute Pericles’s strategy. Athens lost the Peloponnesian War because of a failure to follow the strategy of Pericles, which ultimately led to reckless expeditions, ill-advised war decisions and loss of allies.
Pericles was an Athenian politician and general during the time when tensions between Sparta and Athens were rapidly escalating. The two city-states were constantly feuding over interests and were unable to compromise on several issues such as the siege of Potidaea, Megarian decree, and allowing Aegina become independent. This unwillingness of both sides in turn, pushed the rival poleis into a war against each other, which marked the start of the first Peloponnesian