Megarian Decree
In the winter of 433/2 BC, or perhaps slightly earlier, Pericles proposed, and the Assembly accepted, a law now known as the Megarian Decree banning the Megarians from the harbours and marketplaces throughout the Athenian Empire, in order to stifle Megarian trade. The official reason for the decree was that it was provoked by the Megarians’ cultivation of sacred land claimed by the Athenians and the harbouring of fugitive slaves. More probably it was to punish Megara for supplying ships to Corinth in the battles at Leucimne and Sybota, and to deter other Peloponnesian states from helping Corinth in future conflicts. Megara was allied with Sparta so this ban, which seems to have been designed to isolate Corinth, in fact strengthened the resolve of those members of the Spartan Alliance who actually wanted war.
Battle of Potidaea (432 BC)
In 433 BC Athens allied themselves with two opponents of Perdiccas II of Macedon (r.c.454-c.413 BC), his brother Philip and King Derdas (1) of Elimea, probably looking to them as allies to provide Athens with timber and cavalry for the pending war with Sparta. Perdiccas responded by inciting cities in Chalcidice and Bottiaea to rebel against Athens. He urged their residents to leave their coastal settlements which were too weak to face Athens individually, and gave them lands in farther Mygdonia. He also advised them to move to inland Olynthus, where the Athenians’ maritime advantage would be less telling, and thereby inaugurated the Chalcidian League (432-348 BC). Among the cities that Perdiccas courted was the fortified and strategically important city of Potidaea.
Potidaea was a colony of Corinth on the Chalcidice Peninsula, but was a member of the Delian League and paid tribute to Athens. As the Corinthians sent a senior magistrate each year, Potidaea was inevitably involved in the conflicts between Athens and Corinth. In 433 BC, following Corinth’s frustration at Sybota, Athens, suspecting that the Potidaeans were being encouraged to revolt, demanded they tear down the seaward wall (which would leave Potidaea defenceless against an Athenian fleet), expel the Corinthian ambassadors and send hostages to Athens.
The Potidaeans sent envoys to Athens to ask for a reconsideration of the matter. In spring 432 BC Athens sent a naval force led by Archestratus to seize hostages at Potidaea and raze the southern defences of the town. Meanwhile, the Potidaeans, suspecting Athens’ intentions, sent envoys to Sparta where they received an undertaking that if Athens attacked Potidaea, Sparta would invade Attica.
When the Athenian fleet arrived at Chalcidice in summer 432 BC, finding that Potidaea and other cities had revolted, Archestratus directed his attention to Macedonia where he campaigned with Philip and the brothers of Derdas. Now that Athenian ships were on the coast of Macedonia, the Corinthians sent sixteen hundred hoplites under the command of Aristeus, son of Adeimantus, to reinforce the defenders of the town. In response, Athens sent out another two thousand hoplites under the command of Callias (2), son of Calliades. In September 432 BC Aristeus and his forces were defeated on the isthmus between Potidaea and Olynthus by the Athenians, who invested Potidaea from the north.
Corinth complained to Sparta that Athens’ aggression had violated the Thirty Years’ Treaty. Sparta called its Assembly, before which the representatives of Corinth, Megara and other states formally accused Athens of aggression. When the representatives had withdrawn, the Assembly debated the issue and then put it to the vote: the majority voted that Athens had broken the terms of the treaty. In October or September 432 BC the Congress of Allies met and when the question was put the majority voted for war.
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