History of the Peloponnesian War · Chapter
The Peace of Nicias and the End of the First War explained
After the death of Cleon and Brasidas, both Athens and Sparta, exhausted by war and facing internal and external pressures, turn towards peace.
What happens
After the death of Cleon and Brasidas, both Athens and Sparta, exhausted by war and facing internal and external pressures, turn towards peace. The Peace of Nicias is negotiated, establishing a fifty-year alliance and a framework for the return of prisoners and territories. However, several allied states, particularly in Thrace, refuse to accept the terms, and Clearidas delays handing over Amphipolis. The chapter concludes with the formal alliance between Athens and Sparta, marking the end of the first ten years of the Peloponnesian War.
Themes in this chapter
War and Its Consequences
The chapter details the exhaustion and devastation on both sides after ten years of war, including Athenian defeats, Spartan losses at Pylos, and the plundering of Spartan territory, which directly drive the desire for peace.
Leadership and Strategy
The contrasting motivations of leaders like Nicias (seeking to secure his reputation through peace) and the deceased Cleon and Brasidas (who opposed peace for personal gain) highlight how individual leadership shapes strategic decisions.
Alliance and Betrayal
The refusal of Spartan allies (e.g., the Chalcidians) to accept the peace terms and Clearidas's defiance of Spartan orders to hand over Amphipolis illustrate the fragility of alliances and the tension between central authority and local interests.
Characters to notice
- Nicias
The most fortunate general of his time, Nicias ardently desires peace to secure his good fortune and reputation, and to avoid further risks.
- Cleon
One of the principal opponents of peace, Cleon's death at Amphipolis removes a major obstacle to negotiations.
- Brasidas
The other principal opponent of peace, Brasidas's death at Amphipolis, along with Cleon's, paves the way for the peace process.
- Clearidas
Brasidas's lieutenant at Amphipolis, Clearidas refuses to hand over the city to Athens as per the treaty, citing the will of the Chalcidians, and travels to Sparta to defend his actions.
- Pleistoanax
King of Lacedaemon, Pleistoanax is eager for peace to counter accusations from his enemies regarding his restoration and to stabilize Sparta's position.
- Ramphias
Leads a reinforcement of heavy infantry to Thrace but turns back upon learning of Brasidas's death and the shift in Spartan opinion towards peace.
- Hagnon
Listed among the Athenian officials who swear the oaths for the treaty and the subsequent alliance.
- Lamachus
Listed among the Athenian officials who swear the oaths for the treaty and the subsequent alliance.
Key passages
“The main cause however of their return was because they knew that when they set out, Lacedaemonian opinion was really in favour of peace.”
The primary reason for their withdrawal was their awareness that, by the time they departed, the prevailing sentiment in Sparta was strongly in favor of peace.
Explains why Ramphias and his troops turned back from Thrace after Brasidas's death.
“Now, however, after the Athenian defeat at Amphipolis, and the death of Cleon and Brasidas, who had been the two principal opponents of peace on either side—the latter from the success and honour which war gave him, the former because he thought that, if tranquillity were restored, his crimes would be more open to detection and his slanders less credited—the foremost candidates for power in either city, Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of Lacedaemon, and Nicias, son of Niceratus, the most fortunate general of his time, each desired peace more ardently than ever.”
After Athens' defeat at Amphipolis and the deaths of Cleon and Brasidas—who had each opposed peace for selfish reasons (Brasidas for war's glory, Cleon to avoid scrutiny for his misdeeds)—the leading figures in both cities, King Pleistoanax of Sparta and the successful general Nicias of Athens, became even more eager for peace.
Highlights the removal of key war advocates and the rise of peace proponents as a turning point.
“This treaty was made in the spring, just at the end of winter, directly after the city festival of Dionysus, just ten years, with the difference of a few days, from the first invasion of Attica and the commencement of this war.”
The treaty was concluded in the spring, right after the winter ended and immediately following the Athenian festival of Dionysus, almost exactly ten years (within a few days) after the first invasion of Attica and the start of the war.
Thucydides marks the precise timing of the Peace of Nicias, emphasizing the ten-year duration of the first phase of the war.
