Peace of Nicias

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Peace of Nicias
The treaty is named for Athenian Statesmen and General Nicias.
TypePeace treaty
SignedMarch 421 BC
SignatoriesNicias
King Pleistoanax
PartiesAthens
Sparta
LanguageAncient Greek

The Peace of Nicias was a peace treaty signed between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta in March 421 BC that ended the first half of the Peloponnesian War.[1]

In 425 BC, the Spartans had lost the battles of

Spartiates, who had recovered by 424 BC, when the Spartan general Brasidas captured Amphipolis. In the same year, the Athenians suffered a major defeat in Boeotia at the Battle of Delium, and in 422 BC, they were defeated again at the Battle of Amphipolis in their attempt to take back that city. Both Brasidas, the leading Spartan general, and Cleon
, the leading politician in Athens, were killed at Amphipolis. By then, both sides were exhausted and ready for peace.

The negotiations were started by

opposed the treaty.

Seventeen representatives from each side swore an oath to uphold the treaty, which was meant to last for fifty years. The Spartan representatives were the kings Pleistoanax and Agis II, Pleistolas, Damagetus, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus, Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas, Antiphus, Tellis, Alcindas, Empedias, Menas, and Laphilus. The Athenian representatives were Lampon, Isthmonicus, Nicias, Laches, Euthydemus, Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thrasycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, Iolcius, Timocrates, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes. However, Athens's chief goal, the restoration of Amphipolis, was denied when Clearidas obtained from the Spartans a clause in the treaty negating the transfer. The treaty was broken from the start and, after several more failures, was formally abandoned in 414 BC. The Peloponnesian War resumed the second stage.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5, 13–24.
  2. ^ Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 2004, 197–209.

External links