The Athenian Government's Involvement In The Melian War

During the time of the Peloponnesian War, there was much turmoil in the city states of Greece. The two Greek main powers of the time, Athens and Sparta, were caught in a power struggle to be the main polis in control of the region. The turmoil sprung from the mutual distrust between the army centered Spartans and the naval centered Athenians: neither one wanted to lose to the other (Cartwright). Both powers were reaching to expand their empires in order to have a greater chance at defeating one another. The government of Athens, in particular, had their focus on adding the island of Melos into their alliance; however, the Melian government refused to break their non-involvement in the matter.
There are several theories as to why the Athenian …show more content…
The government of the island of Melos tried to persuade the Athenian government multiple times to not invade them and argued several reasons for the Athenians to abandon their pursuit. The Melians begged the Athenians to let them remain neutral as the Melians were already aware that they were weak compared the strong Athenians: they knew they stood no chance in battle. The Athenians countered that if they were ‘to allow the weaker Melians to remain free, that it would reflect negatively on the Athenian power” (Crawley). After the Athenians still rejected their offer of neutrality, the Melians claimed that they would have the gods and the Lacedaemonians on their side since the Athenian fight was unjustly because the Melians were so much weaker than the Athenians. The Athenians mocked them and retorted that they “show great blindness of judgement, unless, after allowing us to retire you can find some counsel more prudent than this” (Crawley), The Athenians also claimed that the gods will not save the people of Melos since “the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they want,” implying that the gods will not take pity on them just because they are not as strong as them …show more content…
Ignoring the Melians pleas to remain neutral, the Athenians prepared for war. The results of the Melian defeat were devastating: all of the adult males were put to death and the women and children were sold as slaves. The Athenian also sent five hundred colonists to settle in the island of Melos, turning it into an Athenian colony, which disrupted and altered the original Melian culture