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| 1. The Archidamian War |
| 432–431 |
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| The winter was taken up by fruitless negotiation between the Spartans and Athenians. | 1 |
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| 431 |
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| Fighting began when the Thebans unsuccessfully attacked Plataea. The strategy of the Peloponnesians was to march through Attica annually, burning the fields, in order to lure the Athenians into a land battle, as well as to encourage the revolt of the allies from the Delian League. The Athenian strategy in the war, developed by Pericles, was to remain within the city and allow the countryside to be ravaged by the Peloponnesian army. Siege warfare was not sufficiently developed for the Spartans to break down Athens' walls or surmount them with a siege ramp. As long as the Athenians controlled the sea, the Long Walls connecting the city to the port at Piraeus prevented the city from being starved out. Athens hoped to wear down the Peloponnesians by coastal raids and interference with their trade. | 2 |
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| 430 |
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| A plague (perhaps smallpox) broke out in Athens. It spread rapidly due to the crowded conditions in the city and about 25 percent of Athens' population died. The plague spread to the army besieging Potidaea, but that city fell toward the end of the year. | 3 |
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| 429 |
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| Pericles died of the plague. Despite the mounting death toll, Athens continued to win victories: Phormio defeated two Peloponnesian fleets off Naupactus. | 4 |
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| 427 |
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| The Athenians crushed a revolt in Lesbos, and the Spartans had their first success: the capture of Plataea. | 5 |
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| 427–424 |
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| A general war broke out in Sicily. Naxos, Catana, Leontini, Rhegium, Camarina, and most of the Sicels opposed Syracuse, Gela, Messana, Himera, Lipara, and Locri. Gorgias of Leontini went to Athens and appealed for aid, which was granted. After indecisive fighting, the aristocrat Hermocrates of Syracuse persuaded the warring cities to make peace at the Conference of Gela. | 6 |
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| 425 |
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| A fleet under Demosthenes captured Pylos, on the west coast of the Peloponnese. When reinforcements arrived under Cleon, the Athenians defeated the Spartans. Athens captured 120 Spartiates, who were held as hostages to prevent another invasion of Attica. The Spartans sued for peace. Over the objections of Nicias, leading the antiwar party, Cleon convinced the assembly to reject the Spartan peace overtures. | 7 |
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| 424 |
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| Nicias led an expedition which captured Cythera, an island off the coast of Laconia. The Athenians then sent an army to aid a democratic revolution in Megara, but they were outmaneuvered by the Spartan general Brasidas. Megara remained a Peloponnesian ally. Brasidas led a small force overland to Thrace and encouraged the revolt of a number of Athenian allies. The Athenians attempted to invade Boeotia but were defeated at the Battle of Delium. Brasidas took the important Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace. | 8 |
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| 423 |
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| The Athenians and Spartans made a year's truce, but Brasidas continued operations in Thrace. The Athenians broke off peace negotiations. | 9 |
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| 422 |
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| Cleon led a force to Thrace, and both he and Brasidas were killed at the Battle of Amphipolis. | 10 |
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| 421 |
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| With the main prowar figures on both sides dead, the Spartans and Athenians negotiated the Peace of Nicias. It was to last 50 years, but the terms of the peace were never carried out. | 11 |
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