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Name: Instructor’s name:Course:30 November 2016 “The Peloponnesian War” Introduction The war was a wide-ranging conflict between the rival Greek cities. It began in 431 BC and ended in around 404 BC. The ancient Greeks did not have any ruling empire or central government. Instead, the nation was composed of small, autonomous communities known as city-states. This type of system bred rivalry, political disintegration, and finally led to war. Corinth, Thebes, Athens, and Sparta were some of the most famous city-states of the war period and were also the leading participants in the "Peloponnesian War" (Lazenby 16). These city-states practiced self-governance and exhibited a lot of competition among each other when it came to politics, trade, sports, and even cultural influence. The tensions that existed between the city-states culminated into a full-blown war between the two top city-states of Athens and Sparta in 431 BC. Soon after the war began, the other famous city-states of Greece found themselves joining the war for various reasons. The conflict is named after Peloponnesus; the southern Greek peninsula where the better part of the war took place. Most of the information that people have about the war today originated from Thucydides, a Greek historian who survived the war and later wrote about it. This article will discuss the history of the war, as well as some of its probable causes as narrated by Thucydides. Causes of the Conflict Many top class historians have given their interpretations of what might have caused the Peloponnesian war, and many are still likely to throw their ideas into the debate. However, Thucydides, one of the most prominent Greek
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