CASE STUDY: ATHENS’ STRATEGY AT THE ONSET OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR - PERFECT IN THEORY, FLAWED BY DESIGN –
CASE STUDY: ATHENS’ STRATEGY AT THE ONSET OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR - PERFECT IN THEORY, FLAWED BY DESIGN –

Summary/Abstract: The author takes an approach to Athens’ strategy at the onset of the Peloponnesian War, starting from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. First, he writes about certain flawed assumptions on which Pericles based his strategy, also mentioning that its ends, ways and means were not clearly articulated. Then, he points out a series of features a successful strategy should have, features that were not particularly considered by Pericles, who also failed to take into account the importance and role of interaction among armed forces, government and people in waging war. The author also underlines the valuable elements of this strategy, concluding that one should refrain from assessing that Pericles’ strategy caused the final defeat of Athens, the purpose of the article being to show that this strategy was unbalanced, inflexible and based on some flawed assumptions.

• Details
• Contents