Thucydides and the Relationship between Sparta and Athens in the Early Years of the Pentecontaetia.

This paper analyses Thucydides' account of the deterioration in relations between Sparta and Athens that ultimately led to the dissolution of their alliance around 462 BC. According to Thucydides, the war was an inevitable consequence of Athens' growth, to which Sparta failed to react in time due to its inertia. In his account, he includes episodes of early hostility recounted in the Athenian oral tradition, which was shaped by the subsequent animosity between the two cities. Consequently, the symptoms of the crisis in relations between the allies emerge very early on, even if they do not come to a head until some time later. This is because Thucydides presented these events as part of a coherent narrative of escalation. By deconstructing this crisis narrative, the paper argues that the Greek alliance was more resilient than we realise, due to their hatred of the Medes, and that the rupture between Sparta and Athens occurred much more abruptly than is generally thought.