Brasidas and the Thracian Campaign: 424 - 422 BC

Role of Brasidas: The Spartans Change Tactics
Brasidas, the Spartan general, with a Peloponnesian force of 1700 hoplites (including 700 helots), marched north to Thrace in 424 BC at the request of Perdiccas of Macedonia and the Thracian towns, who were alarmed at Athenian success
Brasidas had already distinguished himself numerous times up to this point:

• He rescued the town of Methone from an Athenian sea raid in the first year of the war
• He was elected Eponymous Ephor (head of state) in 430 BC - likely as a result of his victory at Methone
• He led the Spartan assault upon the Athenian beach positions at Pylos, suffering a near-mortal wound in the process
• He saved Megara from an Athenian surprise attack that almost captured the entire city
• He planned a night raid on Piraeus and planned to sneak into Athens, but his plans were detected and instead he defeated Athenian forces on Salamis

Activity

Thucydides 4.80-81

1. What were the reasons for the Spartans sending Brasidas north into Thrace?
• "Largely because it was his own wish"
• They welcomed the opportunity to send away a bunch of helots
• Chalcidians were "eager to have him"
• Side note - they had the helots select their best men, convinced them that they were being freed, but then killed them all as they were the most dangerous
2. What personal strengths are identified in Brasidas? How did these become advantageous to the Spartans?
• "His upright and moderate conduct towards the cities which caused most of them to revolt and enabled him to take over by treachery"
• His reputation "left a conviction on both sides that the rest were like him" - suggesting that he helped to heal Sparta's reputation
• Said to have "gallantry"
• Created "pro Spartan feeling" in the Athenian allies
• "valuable to his country"

Initial Successes

• Brasidas won over the town of Acanthus by oratory and diplomacy
• He then took the important Athenian city of Amphipolis by offering moderate terms, guaranteeing the people full political rights and continued possession of their property
• Any who wished to leave were free to do so within five days
• Many more Athenian allies joined Brasidas, spurred on by the moderate terms he was offering
• He also always claimed he was there as a liberator, unlike the Athenians who had enslaved them through force

The Role of Thucydides

• Thucydides, who at the time was an Athenian general stationed at Thasos, was keeping an eye on Athens' interests in the north-west when Brasidas made his attempt on Amphipolis
• Thucydides failed to prevent this and the Athenians banished him, but his exile enabled him to write his great history of the Peloponnesian War
• Brasidas appealed for reinforcements and began building triremes. Torone went over to Sparta by treachery, but once Brasidas entered the city he guaranteed the citizens their civil rights, with no reprisals

Activity: The Fall of Amphipolis

Thucydides 4.108

1. Why did the fall of Amphipolis cause great alarm for the Athenians?
• The place was "useful" as it supplied timber for shipbuilding and brought in revenue
• The Spartans could travel no further than Strymon unless they controlled the bridge, due to Athenian triremes and the great lake they had to cross. "Now, however, the difficulties appeared to have been removed"
• They feared that their allies would revolt
2. How did Athenian allies in the region react to the fall of Amphipolis to Brasidas?
• They "eagerly embraced the idea of a change" and so wanted Brasidas to come into their territories
• They were excited at the thought of liberation
• "the excitement of the moment" the chance to see the Spartans act "with real energy"
• "They made overtures to him, begging him to march on into their territory, and vied with each other in being the first to revolt"
• Thucydides believed that their confidence that Athens would do nothing was "wishful thinking" due to the Athenians being defeated in Boeoti and an "untrue but attractive" claim from Brasidas that they had not dared to attack his army
3. Why did the Spartans not send reinforcements to Brasidas despite his successes?
• "Their leading men were jealous of him"
• "What they really wanted was to recover the prisoners made on the island and to end the war"

Allies Revolt

• In 423 an armistice was signed between Athens and Sparta
• 'The Athenians calculated that in this way Brasidas would not be able to win over any more of their dependencies before they had had time to take measures for their security'
• However, while these negotiations were in progress, the people of Scione revolted against Athens. Brasidas praised them for their courage and resolution and assured them that as such loyal friends of Sparta, he would honour them in every way
• When news of the truce arrived Brasidas refused to give up to Scione, even though it had been taken after the armistice was signed. The Athenians were furious; Cleon proposed that it should be recaptured and the death penalty be imposed upon the inhabitants

Cleon's Failure

• Mende also revolted against Athens and Brasidas accepted the citizens as allies, despite the infringement of the truce. The Athenians made preparations, under Nicias, to attack both cities. Mende was retaken (the Athenian troops had to be restrained from slaughtering the inhabitants) and Scione was placed under siege
• After the armistice, Cleon sailed out with a force of 1500 against the Thracian towns. During Brasidas' absence, he took Torone and made slaves of the women and children, while the men were sent to Athens
• In 422 BC Cleon attempted to besiege the city of Amphipolis, but when he marched in front of the walls he realised his position was too exposed and turned his phalanx to retreat - Brasidas, who was waiting in ambush nearby, launched a surprise attack on Cleon's flank with his picked Spartan forces
• The battle for Amphipolis was lost by Cleon and the Athenians, who were disorganised, panic-stricken and thrown off balance by the audacity of Brasidas. Both Brasidas and Cleon died - one in battle and the other, according to Thucydides, fleeing from the scene. Now "Cleon and Brasidas were dead - the two people who on each side had been most opposed to peace"

The Peace of Nicias 421 BC

• The disaster at Amphipolis completely changed Athenian public opinion on the war, and with Cleon dead, the main proponent of continuing the war was gone from Athenian politics
• The Athenians also suffered defeat at Delium against the Boeotians, in a battle that recorded the the first instances of friendly fire and a flamethrower in history
• Soon after delegates from Sparta arrived in Athens, and talks for peace began
• Within a few months, peace was agreed upon, named the "Peace of Nicias" after the Athenian general and politician Nicias, who had led the "peace faction" in Athens during Cleon's time in power, and who now negotiated the peace with Sparta

Activity

Thucydides 5.13-17

1. Outline the reasons why both Athens and Sparta desired peace at this stage of the war
• Athens:
• As Brasidas had died, reinforcements "turned back home, thinking that the time for action had passed"
• "They themselves were not capable of carrying out the plans which Brasidas had had in mind"
• The Athenians had suffered a "serious blow" at Delium, and another at Amphipolis
• "They no longer possessed the same confidence in their strength which had induced them to reject previous offers of peace"
• "They were also apprehensive about the allies, fearing that they might be encouraged by these defeats to revolt on a more serious scale"
• Sparta:
• Sparta was collapsing from the inside, as more and more Helots deserted them
• The Spartans "had found that the war had gone very differently from what they had imagined" - they had thought that they could have destroyed the power of Athens in a few years, simply by laying waste her land
• The Thirty Years Peace Treaty between Sparta and Argos was expiring. The Spartans suspected that some of the states in the Peloponnese would switch sides.
• They didn't want to fight both Athens and Argos at once
• They were "desperate" to get their men back who had been captured at Pylos

1. Why did both Brasidas and Cleon wish for the war to continue?
• Brasidas:
• "because of the success and honour which had come to him through war"
• Cleon:
• "because he thought that in a time of peace and quiet people would be more likely to notice his evil doings and less likely to believe his slander of others"
2. What were the motives of the two new leaders Nicias and Pleistoanax behind desiring peace?
• Nicias:
• Had an "unblemished" career and wanted to keep it that way, but could only do that by "leaving as little to fortune as possible" which was only possible in peace time
• "to find immediate release from toil and trouble both for himself and his fellow citizens, and to leave behind the name of one whose service to the state was successful from start to finish"
• Pleistoanax:
• Was being accused and slandered constantly and believed that in peace time such accusations would stop and that with the prisoners back, his opponents wouldn't be able to blame him for their captivity
• "enemies would have no bases from which to attack him"
• He had taken a bribe from Pericles years previously and had been exiled because of it.