"History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides (Book 5.89)

This web site is dedicated to the facts and figures of the battles involving ancient Greece, and breaks it down even further with people, places and names; and their relationships with one another as well as tactics, alliances and historical events that were happening at the time.  More for us to make sure we understand the whole of the events than anything else. It should be informative, entertaining and a bit motivating, while staying true to the events.

To go in chronological order start with the Lelantine War.

Our sources are many, and where relevant they have been added to the 'References' page of this web site. Where we can, sources have been credited.

To fully understand the war-like nature of the time it would be beneficial to read 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey', or even understanding their gods. These stories were well known in this era and savagely taught, even though there would have been little or no paper available until around c200 B.C., it was past down orally and many could recite both stories verbatim. The stories probably had their origin around c.800 B.C. The reason for their importance is simple, the heroes of the stories are their heroes, handed down from generation to generation, As a testament to their near universal knowledge the stories have survived to this day, some 2,800 thousand years later, it wasn't just known by a few, but by most, parents, grandparents and children.

Men grew up and wanted to be a hero, just like Achilles, they wanted glory (klaos). This can be seen in Cleisthenes reason for awarding Athenian democracy, Miltiades pursuit for war, Themistocles jealousy of Miltiades' success, the Spartan draconian laws, Leonidas' reason for his stand at Themopylae and Alexander's dogged ambition to annihilate Persia and his reckless abandon on the battle field of his own safety. Each one was after his version of immortality, just as Achilles had decided upon, even to the forfeit of self preservation.

We won't go too much more into these books here, but it is important to note that underlining all these stories is the stories they heard as children that drove them to perform outstanding achievements.

To understand behind the reasoning of the battles there is a detailed history of Athens, Sparta and Persia...on this site we start with the Lelantine War.

This web site covers the following periods;
-The Archaic Period : 700-480 BC
-The Classical Period : 480-323 BC
-The Hellenistic Period : 323- 30 BC.

Web pages of general interest include:
-Our definition of Ancient Greece
-History of the phalanx formation
-To look for a specific event try the Web Index

Macedonian

Egyptian

Corinthian

Ionian

Phoenician

Thracian