The Archidamian War (first phase of the Peloponnesian War)

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Was the first phase of the Peloponnesian War and consisted in Sparta's invasion of the territories of Athens. The phase is known as the Archidamian War (431-421 BC) after Sparta's king Archidamus II.

Chronology

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January 429 BC: In 430 BC an outbreak of a plague hit Athens. The fear of plague was so widespread that the Spartan invasion of Attica was abandoned, their troops being unwilling to risk contact with the diseased enemy.

January 423 BC: The Spartan general Brasidas raised an army of allies and helots and marched the length of Greece to the Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace, which controlled several nearby silver mines. An Athenian force arrived too late to stop Brasidas capturing Amphipolis.

January 430 BC: The Spartan strategy during the first war, known as the Archidamian War, was to invade the land surrounding Athens. The Spartans also occupied Attica for periods of only three weeks at a time.Iin the tradition of earlier hoplite warfare the soldiers were expected to go home to participate in the harvest. Moreover, Spartan slaves, known as helots, needed to be kept under control, and could not be left unsupervised for long periods of time. The longest Spartan invasion, in 430 BC, lasted just forty days. We assume, however, that Sparta controlled Attica.