The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - 5 - Failed Peace
Book Five
Quote
" ... questions of justice only arise when there is equal power to compel: in terms of practicality, the dominant exact what they can and the weak concede what they must."
Notes
After the year's truce expires, Cleon leads more expeditions with the Athenians to take back the cities that Brasidas stole from them. He has a few victories and then meets with Brasidas for a major battle. Cleon tries to flee and he gets killed. Brasidas is wounded and dies soon after the battle is over.
After this battle, both Sparta and Athens find themselves interested in making peace. Athens regrets not making a peace deal after their capture of Pylos when Sparta was offering it then (back in Book Four), which Sparta also warned them would happen. Sparta, for their part, wants their men back who were made prisoner at the Pylos battle. They also have a 30-year treaty with Argos expiring, and they don't want to be caught facing two major enemies at once.
It also helps that the two main opponents of peace, Cleon and Brasidas, are both dead. So Athens and Sparta negotiate a deal. Sparta agrees to return some of the cities they captured, and Athens agrees to return the Spartan prisoners.
However, many of the cities allied to both sides are not happy with the deal and feel like they've been left out. And there's a lack of mutual trust between Sparta and Athens to faithfully implement the terms of the deal. So while the deal helps to pause some of the fighting, it isn't strong enough to hold, and fighting still continues around the edges. Thucydides argues that this interlude can hardly be called peace at all and is really just another phase in the war.
Many of Sparta's allies want to leave and join up with Argos now. Sparta's been weakened by the war and Argos looks to them much stronger since they've stayed out of it until now. Argos happily invites any Greek city to ally with them, anyone except for Sparta and Athens.
This complex series of negotiations continues. New leaders in Sparta think they should ally with Argos and go back to fighting the Athenians. There is still the issue of Athens' base at Pylos which they could use some help in dealing with. Athens wants to join with Argos, too. Since Argos is currently also a democracy, some in Athens believe there is a natural alignment. After more negotiation, Argos and Athens do make an alliance.
Amidst all this, Sparta sends out an army to attack Argos. But, once they meet on the battlefield, both sides decide to make a treaty with each other instead. This is done without any consultation with their allies or their commanders back home, and so a lot of people are really pissed off.
The truce is only temporary and the fighting eventually continues. Sparta wins a major battle at Tegea. This puts them in a much better position and they begin new negotiations for an alliance with Argos. They have friends inside Argos who are against the democrats there and make plans to help them take over from the inside, too. Argos agrees to a deal with Sparta and renounces their deal with Athens, which sets off a major shift in the balance of power.
Athens sets out a new wave of attacks against the island of Melos. They enter into talks with them, not for an alliance, but for their surrender and subjugation. The Melians try to argue their case for neutrality and friendship. But Athens believes they are only following the natural law of power by exerting their dominance: "We believe it of the gods, and we know it for sure of men, that under some permanent compulsion of nature wherever they can rule, they will. We did not make this law; it was already laid down, and we are not the first to follow it; we inherited it as a fact, and we shall pass it on as a fact to remain true for ever; and we follow it in the knowledge that you and anyone else given the same power as us would do the same."
Key Takeaways
The belief that power is still up for grabs makes a peace treaty hard to keep. This whole section of the story is filled with different parties negotiating with each other, forming new alliances, renouncing old ones, changing sides, and full out warring with each other. Even though both Athens and Sparta are ready to negotiate peace, they've both been so weakened by the war they no longer have the influence or the ability to keep their allies in line. The balance of power is still very unstable.
But who knows what needs to happen to get that balance back? Maybe it's for one state to win absolute dominance in the region. Or maybe if Athens had agreed to that treaty with Sparta when they offered it back in Book Four, perhaps the conditions were better then and would have led to more stability and a more lasting peace.
As the Spartans described it: "While the war is still undecided, while you [Athens] stand to gain enhanced reputation and our friendship besides, and we to avoid any dishonour by resolving our predicament on reasonable terms — let us be reconciled. Let the two of us choose peace instead of war, and so bring relief from their pain to the rest of the Greeks."
But since that didn't happen then still no state, or alliance of states, has enough power to end the war.
Athens has a very bleak understanding of the nature of power. During their negotiations with the island of Melos, the Melians make the best case they can for neutrality and friendship. But Athens believes they really have no choice. If they didn't use their power to rule over Melos, everyone else would see it as weakness. Plus, for Athens, this is just how power works. Whoever has power uses it to rule whoever and wherever they can. "We did not make this law; it was already laid down, and we are not the first to follow it."
Sparta seems to understand power a bit differently. One reason Brasidas was so popular and successful was because of his reasonable and moderate approach. He was offering at least a modicum of friendship and mutual benefit, as opposed to sheer dominance by force alone. And from their peace offer to Athens from Book Four, Sparta argued that when one party is too dominant over the other that creates bitterness and resentment, whereas generosity and friendship is better for both parties. Though who knows, maybe they were just saying that then because Athens was winning.