Quick Rebounds and Brutal Sieges: The First Peloponnesian, Second Sacred, and Samian Wars

The First Peloponnesian War (460–445 BC) and its Annoying Raids

The Athenians lost a big battle at Tanagra, but they didn’t stay down for long. Just a couple of months later, they came back and won a huge victory at Oenophyta. That single win gave them control over the entire region of Boeotia for almost ten years. But the Athenians also used a different kind of tactic that drove the Spartans crazy. The Athenian general Tolmides took a fleet and sailed right around the Peloponnese, Sparta’s home turf. He didn’t try to fight a big battle. He just hit and burned Spartan coastal towns and shipyards. It was a kind of warfare Sparta hated because they couldn’t just meet it on a field and crush it.

Find out about the first historical mentions of the First Peloponnesian War

The Second Sacred War (449–448 BC) and the Fight for Delphi

This wasn’t a war with huge battles, but it was a big political power play. It was all about who controlled the sacred site of Delphi. First, the Spartan army marched in and declared that Delphi was “independent,” which really meant they took it away from their rivals, the Phocians. But as soon as the Spartans left, the Athenian leader Pericles marched his own army in and did the exact opposite. He gave control of Delphi right back to the Phocians. It was a military tug-of-war over who got to manage one of the most important religious sites in the Greek world.

See the earliest records detailing the Second Sacred War

The Samian War (440–439 BC) and the Grind of a Siege

When the powerful Athenian fleet came to blockade the island of Samos, the Samians didn’t just hide behind their walls. Their general, a philosopher named Melissus, actually led their fleet out, broke through the Athenian line, and won a naval victory. It gave the city a brief taste of freedom. But the Athenian leader Pericles had a simple, brutal strategy. He used the siege. He knew he didn’t need one big, heroic battle. The Athenians just brought in more ships, built siege walls, and slowly cut the city off from everything until it was starved into surrender.

Discover when the Samian War was first documented in ancient texts