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Peloponnesian War

noun

  1. a war between Athens and Sparta, 431–404 b.c., that resulted in the transfer of hegemony in Greece from Athens to Sparta.


Peloponnesian War

noun

  1. a war fought for supremacy in Greece from 431 to 404 bc , in which Athens and her allies were defeated by the league centred on Sparta
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Peloponnesian War

  1. A long war between the Greek city-states of Athens (see also Athens ) and Sparta in the fifth century b.c. Sparta won the war.


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Notes

The historian Thucydides fought in the Peloponnesian War and later wrote a remarkable history about it.
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Example Sentences

Stop and chat with Paul, in other words, and you may walk away bruised of ego, wrinkled of nose and renewed in your determination to know as little as possible about the Peloponnesian War.

It was based on the ancient historian’s observation that the real cause of the Peloponnesian War “was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta.”

The Greek historian Thucydides described how this cycle of hatred convulsed city after city during the Peloponnesian War.

Or, to cite another famous example, Sparta fought the Peloponnesian War against Athens before the latter’s rise placed the former in a state of near-permanent inferiority.

"It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable," Thucydides noted in "The History of the Peloponnesian War."

From Salon

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