PELOPONNESIAN WAR:

LAND AND NAVAL WARFARE

Delivered By:

DESTRIANA CHANTIKADEWI
REPUBLIC INDONESIA DEFENSE UNIVERSITY
HENDRA
HISTORY OF WAR
IMELDA BERWANTY PURBA
SINGGIH WIRYONO
Lecturer :
SUSPADA SISWOPUTRO
MAYJEN TNI (PURN) DR. I GEDE SUMERTHA KY, PSC, M.Sc.

TOTAL WAR STRATEGY PROGRAM

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REFERENCES
1. Clausewitz, Carl Von, and Makmur Supriyatno. 2016. Tentang Perang, Terjemahan Buku I, II, III “on War”/ Carl Von
Clausewitz; On War, Penerjemah Makmur Supriyatno. 1st ed. Jakarta: CV. MAKMUR CAHAYA ILMU.
2. Fathun, Laode Muhamad. 2020. “PEMAKNAAN PERTAHANAN DAN KEAMANAN WILAYAH PULAU NATUNA Prespektif
Teori Mandala THE MEANING OF DEFENSE AND SAFETY OF NATUNA ISLANDS Mandala Theory Perspective.”
(September):11–20.
3. Jablonsky, David, J. Boone Bartholomees, Harry R. Yarger, James F. Holcom, Frank L. Jones, G. K. Cunningham, and R.
Craig Nation. 2008. Theory of War and Strategy. Vol. I. 3rd ed. edited by J. B. Bartholomees. Pennsylvania: US Army
War College.
4. Kasih, Ekawahyu. 2018. “Pelaksanaan Prinsip- Prinsip Demokrasi Dalam Sistem Politik Di Indonesia Guna Mewujudkan
Keadilan Sosial Bagi Seluruh Rakyat Indonesia.” Jurnal Kajian Lemhannas RI 34(4):1–87.
5. Morley, Neville. 2021. “Thucydides Legacy in Grand Strategy.” Pp. 41–56 in The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy,
edited by T. Balzacq and R. R. Krebs. Oxford University Press.
6. Platias, Athanassios, and Constantinos Koliopoulos. 2000. “Thucydides on Grand Strategy : Spartan Grand Strategy
during the Peloponnesian War.” 50.
7. Strauss, Barry S. 2014. Athens After the Peloponnesian War: Class, Faction and Policy 403–386 B.C. New York:

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Routledge a Taylor & Francis Group.
 CHAPTER OF PRESENTATION
by:
1.INTRODUCTION Imelda
2.PHASE OF WAR Destriana
3.MILITARY ANALYSIS Suspada
4.POLITICAL ANALYSIS Hendra
5.VALUABLE LESSON Singgih

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 INTRODUCTION

The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greece war fought between Athens and Sparta assisted
by their allies (Strauss 2014), .
Peloponnesian
League led by Sparta (leader: Archidamus II, Brasidas, Lysander, and Alcibiades)
Delian League led by Athens (leader: Pericles, Cleon, and Demosthenes)
Period of war (431 - 404 B.C.)
Location Mainland Greece, Asia Minor, and Sicily Island
Objective of war hegemony over Greece
End of war April 25, 404 B.C.
Support allies Persian Empire (Prince Cyrus son of Darius II)
Result Peloponnesian League victory, dissolution of Delian League, and Spartan
hegemony over Athens and its allies
History source book of "The History of the Peloponnesian War” by Thucydides
Analysis Center of Gravity Theory by Carl Von Clausewitz, and
Grand Strategic Theory according to Sir Liddell Hart

Map of Peloponnesian War

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 INTRODUCTION
• The primary factor in the Peloponnesian War was Sparta's fear of Athens' growing power
and prosperous economy.
• Athens controlled most of the Mediterranean along with Greece/Hellas, 50 years before
the war. According to Thucydides, that after Athens became the leader of the Delian
allies, they had supreme power known as the Athenian Empire.
• They almost drove the Persians from their areas in the Aegean and supremacy of more
occupied territories. Athens' naval power was also growing day by day and endangering
the border countries (Morley 2021).
• The Peloponnesian War changed the ancient Greece world. Athens, the strongest city-
state in Greece before the start of the war, was almost completely subservient, while
Sparta became the main Greek power.
• The Peloponnesian War ended on April 25, 404 BC after Athens was defeated.
• The economic impact of the war was felt throughout Greece: poverty was widespread in
the Peloponnese, After the war, Sparta became the ruler of Greece. The Athenian
Empire became a slave to Sparta (Strauss 2014).

The Peloponnesian War was divided into three phases, namely:

1. The Archidamian War,

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2. The Sicilian War, and
Books of the Peloponnesian War
written by Thucydides 3. The Ionian War (Decelean).
 PHASE OF WAR

The Archidamian War (431 – 421 B.C.),

The Archidamian War began with the Stratus war, where Athens unleashed its naval strength
by sending 100 ships and succeeded in destroying the cities of Elis and Laconia. Then the
Thebans, allies of Sparta who attacked the Boeotian city of Plataea, allies of Athens in April 4,
431 BC. In mid-June, the Peloponnesians led by Archidamian II invaded Attica.

The famously tough Spartan troops were able to control it in just three weeks. This happened
quickly because Pericles used the wrong war strategy, the strategy used by Pericles was a
frontal and open attack even though the Spartan troops had been trained from an early age to
be able to deal with it easily.

After the death of Pericles, who died due to a plague, an opposition figure emerged from
Pericles, namely Cleon. Athens achieved victory over Sparta at Spachteria, they managed to
capture around 300 - 400 Spartan troops and took them as hostages

General Brasidas from Sparta gathered his troops and marched to Amphipolis, the Athenian
colony, which was a city that produced silver as the main source of war funds for Athens. And
in the Battle of Amphipolis, the two leaders of Sparta and Athens, namely Brasidas and Cleon,
died.

After this, both parties agreed to enter into a peace treaty, the condition of which was that the
city of Amphipolis was exchanged for Spartan troops who had been captured by Athens, the
agreement was called the Peace of Nicias (421 BC) which maintained the status quo for 5

Bust of Pericles
years. And this was the end of the Archidamian War (Morley 2021).
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 PHASE OF WAR

The Sicilian War (415 – 413 B.C.)

Elsewhere, namely in Sicily, Athens' allies were attacked by people from Syracuse. The
Syracuse nation was of Dorian ethnicity (the same ethnicity as the Spartans) so Alcibiades
ordered to help his ally by sending troops to sail to Sicily. In the expedition there were 134
ships, more than 500 infantries, and 30 cavalries. After arriving in Sicily a number of cities
there began to join the Athenian troops. In just an instant, Syracuse was able to be destroyed
by the superior numbers of the Athenian troops.

However, they were hindered by the arrival of

winter/snow, therefore the Athenian troops
waited and spent their time planning how to
completely destroy Syracuse. It turned out that
the delay in the attack by the Athenian troops
was able to be exploited by the Syracuse party
by trying to ask Sparta for help, and finally
Sparta sent troops under the leadership of
Gylippus. It turned out that with this help,
Syracuse could be defended and defeat the
Athenian troops.
Trireme, Athenian Ship
After this defeat, the Athenian troops in Syracuse also asked for help from the center and
General Demosthenes was sent. After experiencing several more battles, the Athenian troops

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continued to experience defeat, therefore Demosthenes recommended retreating even though
Destruction of the Athenian army Nicias initially refused but finally agreed. With only a few troops able to return home.
at Syracuse
 PHASE OF WAR

The Ionian War (413 – 404 B.C)

Following the defeat in Sicily, Athens faced yet another setback.
Seeking recovery, Athens swiftly exploited Sparta's military delays in
the Aegean and the inefficiency of Spartan diplomats. Athens, despite
its wealth, grappled with internal challenges, including an oligarchic
revolution.

The final battle occurred in 406 BC, Athens won the naval battle at
Arginusae, where Sparta lost many ships and experienced a decline
in morale. Sparta led by General Lysander. He was neither a member
of the Spartan royal family nor a strategist, but he was a diplomat who
had good relations with the Persian prince, Cyrus (son of Darius II). It
turned out that Lysander had learned a lot from the defeat at
Arginusae in the battle in the Aegospotami Sea (404 BC).

Victory belonged to Sparta by being able to destroy 168 ships and

capture around 3000 Athenian troops with Persian help. And was able
Sturdy Wall surrounding Athens
to enter the city center after breaking through a very sturdy wall.

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 MILITARY ANALYSIS
• The Peloponnesian War actually was a contest between land
forces and sea forces. Sparta, which had a weakness in sea
power, quickly understood the need to match Athens' naval
strength, through an alliance.
• This is much more accurate to view war as a struggle between 2
great strategic designs, namely: annihilation strategy and
Von Clausewitz Sir Liddell Hart
exhaustion strategy.
• Annihilation strategy aims to destroy the enemy's armed forces
through decisive battle (adopt by Sparta and Athens later);
• Exhaustion strategy, the fight goes hand in hand called
maneuvers; through economic damage that originating from
methods such as territorial occupation, destruction of crops, naval
blockade, and so on (adopt Athens).
• Classic example of an annihilation strategy was Napoleon
Bonaparte's. Clausewitz emphasized the direction of one's war
effort primarily against the principal opponent or the “Center of
Gravity” of the enemy's war effort, and the need to destroy the
enemy's armed forces.
• According to Liddell Hart, policy in execution of war, in which all the
resources of the nation, or coalition, are coordinated and directed
towards the attainment of the political object of the war.

Center of Gravity 8
 POLITICAL ANALYSIS
ATHENIAN polity being the archetypal
democracy. The most important decision-making
body was the citizen assembly (Ecclesia) where all
Athenian citizens were eligible for participation.
Although the political organization of direct
democracy often resulted in erratic decision-
making, this was more than counterbalanced by the
feeling of energetic participation in the city affairs
that every citizen experienced.
This feeling ensured enthusiastic citizen support in
the formulation and implementation of state policy,
as well as mobilization of all available means for the
achievement of the various ends set by that policy.
SPARTAN polity consisted of monarchical elements (2
hereditary kings), oligarchic (a council of elders, the so-
called Gerousia, or senate, consisting of 28 members
elected for life plus 2 kings) and democratic ones (a
citizen assembly). Another institution with immense
powers and steadily increasing importance was that of
the five ephors, or overseers. The ephors were elected
for a year, presumably with no right to re-election.
Sparta was basically an oligarchic polity. The Spartans
had built a reputation for disdaining luxury, and devoted
their whole life from the age of seven onwards to military
training. The outcome of this long and intensive training
was to turn the Spartans into the best soldiers in the
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 VALUABLE LESSON

A Case Study
One of the threats of protection and security for Indonesia is
emergence China's aggressiveness in the South China Sea in the
northern part of the Natuna Sea. Assertive China tries to make
claims the region unilaterally of course contrary to international law.

From the history of the Peloponnesian war, we must be able to take

valuable lessons from this war. Where quick decisions must be
taken immediately and properly to face dynamic and unpredictable
situations even though all that can be done now is just diplomatic
efforts and alliances with others country in order to create balance
of power. It must be thought about and decided quickly by an
appropriate policy.

Even though every political decision in Indonesia currently goes

through a democratic mechanism, but if each people's
representatives who sit in DPR understand the importance of the
spirit of defending the country in maintaining territorial integrity, and
state sovereignty, we must remain optimistic that Indonesia will be

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South China Sea
able to overcome all threats and challenges, in current and future.
THANK YOU