Specific Key Sources

Thucydides 1.115

30 Year Peace between Athens and the Peloponnese in 446 BC

Athens to give up Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen and Achaea

Thucydides 1.40

Corinth saying they prevented the Peloponnese from helping Samos fight Athens

Thucydides 1.35

Corcyra says that as a neutral state they can join either side

Thucydides 5.14

Argos excluded from the 446 treaty but was allowed to be at peace with Athens

Thucydides 1.140

Athens and the Peloponnese had to settle differences through arbitration

Thucydides 1.67

Aegina was to have its independence from the 446 treaty

Thucydides 1.115-117

The Samos Crisis

Thucydides 1.23

‘the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta’

Thucydides 1.32-36

The Corcyraean speech to the Athenians in 433 BC

Said they were neutral, they have the second best navy, and that war was coming so Athens should prepare for it

Thucydides 1.37-43

The Corinthian speech to the Athenians in 433 BC

Said helping Corcyra goes against the 446 treaty, they didn’t interfere in the Samos crisis so Athens shouldn’t here

Thucydides 1.55

‘this gave Corinth her first cause for war against Athens…Athens had fought against her with Corcyra although the peace treaty was still in force’

Thucydides 1.56

Athenian requests to Potidaea in 432 BC

Destroy fortifications, send hostages to Athens, banish Corinthian magistrates, stop receiving Corinthian magistrates

Thucydides 1.60

Volunteers from Corinth and mercenaries from the Peloponnese come to Potidaea

Thucydides 1.140

Pericles saying that they can’t revoke the Megarian Decree as this is the stepping stone to making even greater sacrifices

Aristophanes’ Acharnians 524-539

Says that the war in 431 started because of the kidnapping of prostitutes

Aristophanes’ Acharnians 524-539

Says that Pericles was responsible for the Megarian Decree

Thucydides 1.140

Sparta demands that Athens gives Aegina her independence

Thucydides 1.67

The Aeginetans supported Corinth speaking against Athens, but couldn’t send formal delegates out of fear of Athens

Thucydides 4.102

Hagnon establishing an Athenian settlement at Amphipolis

Plutarch Pericles 20

Says Pericles took control of Sinope

Thucydides 2.68

Athens helping the Acarnanians and Amphilocians to fight against the Ambraciots

An inscription

Says that there was an Athenian colony in Leontini (Sicily) and Rhegium (Southern Italy)

Diodorus

Athens making a pan-Hellenic settlement at Thourio (base of Italy)

Thucydides 1.67

Corinth sending delegates to the Peloponnese to complain about Athens

Thucydides 1.68-71

Corinth’s speech at the Spartan Assembly

Complains about Corcyra and Potidaea, says that Sparta’s inactivity is helping Athens

Thucydides 1.73-78

The Athenian speech at the Spartan Assembly

Thucydides 1.80-85

King Archidamos’ speech at the Spartan Assembly

Against war

Thucydides 1.86

The Ephor Sthenelaidas’ speech at the Spartan Assembly

Pro-war

Thucydides 1.87

Sthenelaidas puts forward the vote to the Spartans

Thucydides 1.88

Sparta summons other allies to tell them that they decided for war

Thucydides 1.120-124

The Corinthian Speech to the Peloponnesian League in 432 BC

Thucydides 1.126

‘drive out the curse of the goddess’

Thucydides 1.128

‘drive out the curse of Taenarus’

Thucydides 1.139

The second embassy and Sparta’s demands:

Abandon the siege of Potidaea, give Aegina her independence, repeal the Megarian Decree

Thucydides 1.139

Spartan Ultimatum

‘Sparta wants peace. Peace is still possible if you give the Hellenes their freedom’

Thucydides 1.140-144

Pericles strongly opposing the Spartan demands and convincing Athens to go to war

Thucydides 1.22

Says that all the speeches are reconstructed by his imagination