Ancient Greece, Early Classical Period, First Peloponnesian War (c.460-446 BC): Early Battles

Angered and feeling insulted by the dismissal of its army at Ithome, the Athenians broke the alliance with Sparta. In 462/1 BC the Athenians made an alliance with Argos, Sparta’s long-standing enemy; with Thessaly, the northern neighbour of Boeotia, whose southern border with the Athenians was the subject of several disputes; and with Megara (c.460 BC), at war with Corinth over boundaries. Corinth, Aegina and Epidaurus now lay between Argos and the states of the Delian League. The Athenians garrisoned Megara and its western port of Pegae, and secured the provision of the city by sea by building long walls between Megara and its eastern port of Nisaea. In 459 BC Athens began building their own fortifications, known as the Long Walls, connecting the city to its main port at Piraeus. The Corinthians, not the Spartans, were mostly affected by these new alliances and it was they who fought Athens hardest in the war that now broke out.

Early Battles

In 460 BC Argos rose against Sparta. The small force sent by Sparta to quell this was defeated by a joint Athenian and Argos’ force at Oenoe in west Attica. In c.459 BC Athens campaigned against Argos’ enemy in Argolis, Epidaurus, which was supported by Corinth and Sicyon, and was defeated on land at Halieis in Argolis but victorious against a Peloponnesian fleet off Cecryphalea, between Epidaurus and Aegina.

Alarmed by this Athenian activity in the Saronic Gulf, Aegina entered the war against Athens. In 458 BC in a great sea battle the Athenians captured seventy Aeginetan and Peloponnesian ships, landed on the island, and laid siege to the town of Aegina. With substantial Athenian forces being tied down in Egypt and Aegina, Corinth judged it was a good time to invade the Megarid. The Athenians scraped together a force of men too old and boys too young for ordinary military service and sent it under the command of Myronides to relieve Megara. The resulting battle was indecisive, but the Athenians held the field at the end of the day. About twelve days later the Corinthians returned to the site but the Athenians issued from Megara and routed them.