The Siege of Athens was the final action of the Peloponnesian War, occurring in March 404 BC. The Spartan general Lysander and the kings Agis II and Pausanias besieged the city of Athens itself, and, cut off from both land and sea, Athens was starved into surrender, ending the war. While Corinth and Thebes demanded Athens' destruction, the Spartans remembered Athens' leading role in the victory over the Persian Empire in the Greco-Persian Wars and instead imposed moderate terms. The city's strong "Long Walls" and the walls of the port of Piraeus were demolished, a Spartan garrison was temporarily kept in the city, and Athenian democracy was replaced by the pro-Spartan oligarchic "Thirty Tyrants" until their overthrow a year later in 403 BC.
Background[]
At the start of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC, the Athenian leader Pericles decided to avoid land combat with Sparta. While he lost a large portion of Attica, he saved Athens and its port of Piraeus, holding the Greater Athens region from behind its powerful "Long Walls" and supplying the city by sea. While the Spartan army dominated land warfare, the Athenian navy dominated the seas, and the Athenians thus ensured a survival mechanism whilst refusing to fight a pitched battle against the Spartans. The Spartans first laid siege to Athens in 431 BC, but they were forced to abandon their siege in 429 BC due to the outbreak of the disastrous Plague of Athens, which severely weakened the city. In 413 BC, during the second phase of the war, the Spartan army - advised by the former Athenian general Alcibiades - fortified Decelea, near Athens, to prevent the shipment of supplies overland to Athens. This sapped the Athenian treasury and its emergency reserve of 1,000 talents, and Athens soon became unpopular among its Delian League subjects when it started to demand higher tribute payments. The disastrous Sicilian Expedition in 413 BC destroyed Athens' main field army, and Athens was now bankrupt, its docks were depleted, and many of their youth were dead or imprisoned in Sicily. The Spartans kept up their pressure on Athens as their Ionian League allies and other subjects rose in revolt against them, but Alcibiades' return to Athens led to a string of Athenian victories from 410 to 406 BC. However, the Persian Empire joined the war in 408 BC as a Spartan ally, providing manpower for Spartan galleys and building projects and financing the creation of a Spartan navy. This Spartan navy was commanded by the nobleman Lysander, who planned to starve Athens into surrender by cutting off its grain supply through the Dardanelles. In 405 BC, the Spartan navy sailed into the Dardanelles, forcing the starving Athenians to send a fleet to stop them. This fleet was decimated at the Battle of Aegospotami, and the bankrupted Athenians were unable to raise another fleet. Now, they could only wait as Lysander sailed westward across the Aegean Sea towards their city.
Siege[]
The "Long Walls" of Athens
Athens could expect little to no outside help at this point, and the fall of the city seemed inevitable. The Athenian civilians were put to work on blocking the harbors and improving the walls, which had repelled several Spartan attacks over the previous years. Lysander's fleet slowly approached Athens, capturing several cities along the way, only meeting resistance at Samos; the Athenians, who were without a fleet, were powerless to resist him. Lysander left a besieging force at Samos as he continued on his voyage towards Athens.
Meanwhile, Athens was already threatened by two Spartan armies. King Agis II had an army at Decelea in Attica, and he was already close to the city. His co-ruler Pausanias raised a new army in the Peloponnese and marched on Athens, and, finally, Lysander and his fleet of 200 ships arrived, threatening Athens from three sides. Fearing Spartan retribution, the Athenian people were resolved to hold out against the Spartan siege, but their cause was hopeless. Without access to supply routes either overland or by sea, the Athenians began to starve, and many even died in the streets. The Athenian leader Theramenes negotiated with Lysander and offered to surrender if Sparta would allow for Athens to keep its defensive fortifications. Sparta rejected this first peace offer, as the terms were too lenient. However, ignoring Corinth and Thebes' demands for Athens to be destroyed, the Spartans offered more moderate terms: Athens would destroy the Long Walls and the walls at Piraeus, its fleet would be limited to 12 ships, all exiles would be allowed to return to the city, and a pro-Spartan oligarchic government would be installed. Although some members of Athens' Assembly favored holding out, the majority voted to accept Sparta's peace terms, and Lysander and his fleet landed at Piraeus before occupying Athens. The Long Walls were torn down and the besieging soldiers returned to their homes, and the Peloponnesian War came to an end after 28 years.
Aftermath[]
A Spartan garrison remained in Athens to oversee the demolition of the city walls, while Sparta took Athens' place as the leading imperial power in Ancient Greece. Sparta inherited Athens' Delian League tributaries and installed a puppet government in Athens, while Sparta's fellow Peloponnesian League members got nothing. The reactionary "Thirty Tyrants" of Athens remained in power until their overthrow in 403 BC; they had even betrayed their former ally Theramenes and forced him to drink poison due to his opposition to their rule. Athens lost its dominance in Ancient Greece to Sparta until both were conquered less than a century later and made part of the kingdom of Macedon.