The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War pitted Athens and its allies against a league of city-states headed by Sparta. The ancient Greek historian Thucydides captured this drama with matchless insight in his classic eyewitness account of what was arguably the greatest war in the history of the world up to that time.

These 36 half-hour lectures draw on Thucydides' classic account as well as other ancient sources to give you a full picture of the Greek world in uneasy peace and then all-out war in the late 5th century B.C. Professor Kenneth Harl of Tulane University plunges you into the thick of politics, military strategy, economics, and technology.

Professor Harl's engaging teaching style makes the ancient Greek world come alive as you explore the war debates at Athens and Sparta, the devastating plagues that swept through Athens, the Revolt of Mytilene, the Battle of Pylos, the disastrous Athenian and Spartan expedition to Sicily against Spartan allies. Ironically, the Peloponnesian War was fought against the backdrop of Greece's Golden Age, epitomized by Athens and its astonishing innovations in government, architecture, oratory, philosophy, and the dramatic arts. One of the most remarkable aspects of this era is that culture flourished side-by-side with the politics of war. You'll experience the thick of action and consider lively scholarly debates that continue to this day.

All Lectures:
Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War
The Greek Way of War
Sparta - Perceptions and Prejudices
Sparta and Her Allies
The Athenian Democracy
Athens and the Navy
Victory over Persia, 490 - 479 B.C.
Athens or Sparta - A Question of Leadership
Cimonian Imperialism
Sparta after the Persian Wars
The First Peloponnesian War
The Thirty Years' Peace
Triumph of the Radical Democracy
From Delian League to Athenian Empire
Economy and Society of Imperial Athens
Athens, School of Greece
Crisis in Corcyra, 435 - 432 B.C.
Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War
Strategies and Stalemate, 431 - 429 B.C.
Athenian Victory in Northwest Greece
Imperial Crisis - The Chalcidice and Mytilene
Plague, Fiscal Crisis, and War
Demagogues and Stasis
Pylos, 425 B.C. - A Test of Leadership
New Leaders and New Strategies
The Peace of Nicias
Collapse of the Peace of Nicias
From Mantinea to Sicily, 418 - 415 B.C.
Sparta, Athens, and the Western Greeks
The Athenian Expedition to Sicily
Alcibiades and Sparta, 414 - 412 B.C.
Conspiracy and Revolution, 411 B.C.
Alcibiades and Athens, 411 - 406 B.C.
The Defeat of Athens, 406 - 404 B.C.
Sparta's Bitter Victory
Lessons of the Peloponnesian War