History of the Peloponnesian War · Chapter
XVI explained
After the ten years' war and the Peace of Nicias, tensions persist as the Corinthians and other Peloponnesian states seek to undermine the Spartan-Athenian alliance.
What happens
After the ten years' war and the Peace of Nicias, tensions persist as the Corinthians and other Peloponnesian states seek to undermine the Spartan-Athenian alliance. Argos, seeing an opportunity to gain supremacy in the Peloponnese, forms a league with Mantinea, Elis, and eventually Athens, spurred by Alcibiades' machinations. The Lacedaemonians, under King Agis, attempt to suppress the rebellion but face internal dissent and strategic setbacks, culminating in the Battle of Mantinea. The chapter also details Thucydides' reflections on the entire 27-year war, his exile, and the fragility of the peace.
Themes in this chapter
Alliance and Betrayal
The chapter details shifting alliances among Greek city-states, with Corinth inciting Argos against Sparta, Alcibiades betraying Spartan trust to secure an Athenian-Argive alliance, and the fragile peace repeatedly broken by mutual suspicion.
Leadership and Strategy
Contrasts the cautious, peace-oriented leadership of Nicias with the ambitious, manipulative strategy of Alcibiades; also examines Agis' military decisions and the Spartan response to internal dissent.
War and Its Consequences
Thucydides reflects on the entire 27-year war, noting the instability of the armistice and the cumulative destruction; the chapter shows how unresolved grievances lead to renewed conflict.
Characters to notice
- Alcibiades
Opposes the Peace of Nicias due to personal pique and distrust of Sparta; secretly encourages Argos, Elis, and Mantinea to seek alliance with Athens; uses stratagem to discredit Spartan envoys and secure the Argive alliance.
- Nicias
Supports maintaining peace with Sparta; persuades the Athenians to send another embassy to Lacedaemon to clarify intentions, advocating for delay to preserve Athenian prosperity.
- Agis
King of Sparta; blamed for failing to subdue Argos and for the loss of Orchomenos; nearly punished by the Spartans but promises to atone; leads the army to Mantinea but withdraws without engaging.
- Laches
Mentioned as one of the negotiators of the treaty with Sparta, alongside Nicias, which contributed to Alcibiades' resentment.
- Philocharidas
Sent as an envoy from Lacedaemon to Athens to prevent an Argive alliance and to negotiate the return of Pylos and other issues.
- Leon
Sent as an envoy from Lacedaemon to Athens alongside Philocharidas and Endius to mend relations with Athens.
- Endius
Sent as an envoy from Lacedaemon to Athens as part of the embassy to prevent an Argive alliance.
Key passages
“I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them. It was also my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis; and being present with both parties, and more especially with the Peloponnesians by reason of my exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat particularly.”
Thucydides states that he was old enough to understand the war and carefully studied it to learn the truth. He was exiled for twenty years after his command at Amphipolis, which allowed him to observe events from both sides, especially the Peloponnesian perspective.
Thucydides explains his personal involvement and unique vantage point as an exile, lending credibility to his historical account.
“Alcibiades thought the Argive alliance really preferable, not that personal pique had not also a great deal to do with his opposition; he being offended with the Lacedaemonians for having negotiated the treaty through Nicias and Laches, and having overlooked him on account of his youth, and also for not having shown him the respect due to the ancient connection of his family with them as their proxeni.”
Alcibiades favored an alliance with Argos, partly because he was personally offended that the Spartans negotiated the peace through Nicias and Laches, ignoring him due to his youth and failing to honor his family's traditional role as Spartan proxeni.
Alcibiades' personal grievances drive his political maneuvering against the Peace of Nicias.
“The Lacedaemonians, as time went on, became suspected by the Athenians through their not performing some of the provisions in the treaty; and though for six years and ten months they abstained from invasion of each other’s territory, yet abroad an unstable armistice did not prevent either party doing the other the most effectual injury, until they were finally obliged to break the treaty made after the ten years’ war and to have recourse to open hostilities.”
Over time, the Athenians grew suspicious of the Spartans for failing to fulfill treaty terms. Although they avoided invading each other's lands for nearly seven years, the unstable truce allowed both sides to harm each other indirectly, eventually leading to open war again.
Thucydides describes the fragile nature of the peace that followed the ten years' war.
