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Peloponnesian War Joint Crisis: Peloponnesian League Peloponnesian War Joint Crisis: Peloponnesian League “Return with your shield or on it.” —Spartan mothers Dear Delegates, Welcome to WUMUNS 2018! We are Graham Webb and Will McClellan. As your directors, we are honored that you are joining us for the Peloponnesian War Joint Crisis Committee. As delegates, you will be representing characters from a variety of city-states in either the Peloponnesian or Delian League. The Peloponnesian War was a brutal, bloody war that pitted polis against polis and ideology against ideology. Whether you are a fierce general or an accomplished politician, your choices will irrevocably shape the futures of the Greek city-states. Will you marshal your forces and march to war or use diplomacy to construct alliances and consolidate power? The choice is yours. I, Graham Webb, am currently a junior majoring in Systems Science and Engineering and Chinese Language and Culture. Despite my choice in majors, I have always been fascinated with history and its application in today’s world. I will be leading the Peloponnesian League (Spartan) committee, a group of mighty warriors and veteran generals who were instrumental in shaping Greece. I have participated in Model United Nations since my sophomore year of high school and have seen countless battles, revolutions, trials, and betrayals. I cannot wait to see what you can accomplish together as delegates. Molon labe! I, Will McClellan, am currently a sophomore majoring in Political Science and Economics. I am interested in why democracy came about and the major influences that it had. Antiquity is where it all began; we would not have modern democracy if it were not for the brave Greeks who stood up for the right of representation for all people. I will be leading the Delian League (Athenian) committee, a group of established politicians and dealmakers who were incredibly influential in shaping Greek democracy. I have been involved with Model United Nations since my freshman year, and I guarantee that you will have an amazing time. There will be chaos, fighting, trials, and bonding with the many members of your committee. May Athena’s blessings be with you! If you have any concerns, please feel free to email both of us at [email protected] and [email protected]. Good luck! Respectfully, Graham Webb and Will McClellan Contents Committee Mandate……………….…………..……………………… 5 Historical Background…….……………………………...…………. 5 480 BCE: Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis…………….……. 5 479 BCE: Creation of the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League…………..…….…………….……………………. 7 457–432 BCE: Golden Age of Athens……………………………….. 8 460–445 BCE: First Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens…………………..….…….…….…….…….………………….......…. 9 Topic A: The Athenian Threat………….………………………… 10 Topic B: Military Alliances Abroad................................. 11 Topic C: Helot Rebellions…………………………………………… 12 Topic D: Survival of the League…………………………………. 12 City-state Profiles………………………………………………….……. 13 Delegate Positions………………………………………………………. 14 Committee Mandate Fellow Spartans! The year is 431 BCE. A fragile peace from the First Peloponnesian War hangs over Greece. However, the treacherous Athenians have little respect for the treaty. Their radical democracy constantly challenges our hegemony over Boeotia. Every day the Athenian navy grows stronger and their empire grows larger. At home, the Helots grow restless. Athenian propaganda continuously attempts to incite rebellion, and a solution to the problem must be found. Moreover, in a blatant act of aggression, the Athenians have sided with the remote city of Corcyra, a colony of our valuable ally Corinth, deploying their fleet against the Corinthians. With fighting sure to break out, the fate of Sparta and all of Greece rests in your hands. As members of the Gerousia, you are a collection of Spartan oligarchs from throughout Laconia, many with elite Spartan hoplites pledged to your service. Drilled from an early age, they are vastly superior to the Athenian hoplites and surely will be the key to your victory. As warriors and diplomats, you look to further your power, often at the expense of the Helots or the opposing Athenians. As Spartans, it is your primary duty to expand Spartan power and glory across Greece, but who is to say you cannot enhance your own? Historical Background 480 BCE: The Battle of Thermopylae was one of the most iconic battles in the Battles of entirety of military history. When notified that the Persians were amassing a massive force, King Leonidas of Sparta marshaled around six thousand hoplites Thermopylae from allied nations along with three hundred Spartan hoplites to face them. and Salamis Because they were outnumbered sixty-two to one and would be annihilated instantly if they allowed the Persians to outflank and surround them, the king marched his troops up to the narrow pass of Thermopylae to try to hold off the Persians. 5 For the first two days of battle, the Spartans managed to hold off wave after wave of Persian infantry using their heavy armor and shields while continuously switching out exhausted hoplites for fresh ones. One particularly effective strategy the Greeks used was to feign retreat, and when the Persians broke formation to chase them, the Spartans would reform and inflict heavy casualties. On the next day, however, a Greek traitor showed King Xerxes of Persia a secret pass to outflank the Spartans. At dawn of the next day, Leonidas realized the betrayal and used his remaining Spartans to fight to the death while the other hoplites escaped. Even though they were defeated, the Greeks managed to inflict twenty thousand casualties and hold off the Persians for three days, managing to buy enough time for the rest of Greece to marshal their troops against the invaders. In addition, the bravery of the Spartans rallied many soldiers to the Greek cause. 6 The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle that pitted a Greek coalition navy led by the Athenians against a much larger Persian fleet. After the battle of Thermopylae, the Athenians were forced to evacuate Athens and retreat to the island of Salamis. On the eve of the battle, the Spartans wanted to retreat farther and seal off the Isthmus of Corinth with a giant wall to halt Persian land forces. Themistocles, the Athenian commander, thought differently. Basing his actions off a prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi stating that “Salamis will be the death of women’s sons,” he argued that the Athenians should make their stand there, despite the fact that the Persians’ 1,207 triremes outnumbered their 371. To compensate for this, Themistocles ordered the naval vanguard to lure the Persians into the Strait of Salamis on the morning of the battle, where their vast numbers would switch from an advantage to a hindrance. Finally, after the Persians had been baited, the Greeks launched their attack, slamming into the Persian ships and boarding them with their heavily armored hoplites. Using these tactics, the Athenians scored a massive victory, sinking at least two hundred Persian ships. The victory at Salamis by the Greek navy was considered a major turning point in the war and caused the Persians to retreat to Asia Minor. 479 BCE: Even though the Greeks had beaten back the Persian forces, Spartan and Athenian leaders realized that in the end the Greek victory was largely due to luck Creation of the rather than superior strength. With this in mind, the Greeks started to develop Delian League ways to protect themselves from ever allowing the Persians to invade so far into and the Greek territory again. Peloponnesian League 7 The creation of the Delian League by Athens was a way of protecting the majority of the eastern Greek city-states more directly threatened by the Persians. Working as a centralized pseudo-empire with member states paying tribute to Athens, the league was formed after the failed Spartan expedition to Byzantium. Athens, believing that the Spartans had lost their right to dominate all military matters in the region, formed alliances with many smaller states to help protect against the Persians. After the Persians retreated back to Asia Minor, however, the league formed a general symbiotic relationship with the various nation-states pledging protection to each other until the Golden Age of Athens. The Peloponnesian League was created by Sparta as a series of bilateral military alliances with weaker cities that allowed it to effectively cement its power and control the Helots. Originally created in the sixth century BCE, the Peloponnesian League was the result of many small factors. Perhaps the main one was that Sparta needed to be assured that its Helots, citizens of conquered kingdoms in Messenia, would receive no outside help and thus would not be able to rise up and overthrow the Spartans. Helots were an essential cog in the Spartan economy. Because of the ability to use Helots in agriculture, Sparta was able to keep a full-time professional army with warriors that did not have to go back to their farms every summer. In addition to the need to control the Helots, Spartan aggression and military power caused many smaller states to either be forced into the league or join willingly in order to protect themselves. Smaller states in the arrangements lost most of their political freedoms while larger cities like Corinth retained lots of autonomy. 457–432 The Golden Age of Athens, the Age of Pericles, was an age of growth and BCE: expansion for Athens after the defeat and expulsion of the Persians. With the Golden Age Persians gone and the city of Athens burned to the ground, many of the eastern city-states realized that the only way they could hope to match the might of the of Athens Persians would be through cooperative alliances. As the time went on, Athens (Pericles, assumed more and more leadership of the league, demanding money from its 461–429 allied city-states to build ships that would then be placed under Athenian control.
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