12 The Thirty Years Peace

In 446 B.C., Pericles and King Pleistoanax negotiated the Thirty Years’ Peace, which should have settled outstanding questions between Athens and Sparta. The peace was based on political realities, and each side made significant concessions. The Athenians acknowledged the loss of Megara and Boeotia, which returned to their Spartan alliance. Pericles had already initiated the construction of the Long Walls linking Athens to the port of Piraeus so that the population could be evacuated to safety in any future Peloponnesian invasion. The Spartans conceded Athenian control of Aegina and the integrity of the Athenian Empire. To the Athenians, the peace was premised on parity between the two great states; the Spartans interpreted the treaty differently. With the return of Megara, the Spartans believed that, in the event of any future crisis, they could invade Attica; to Sparta, the treaty enshrined their primacy in the Greek world. Most Spartans took seriously their oaths to uphold the peace, but few were reconciled to Athens. Sparta, too, had learned that Megara was vital to its own hegemony. Given their political and economic interests, Athens and Sparta were not likely to clash. In 441–439 B.C., Samos rebelled from Athens, and the Spartans declined to aid Samos. But the Spartans acted because of the reluctance of their allies to intervene rather than out of a commitment to the peace. Hence, the success of the peace rested far more on the perceptions of the signatories than on the substance of its provisions.