Did Pericles conservative and defensive strategy at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War doom Athens from its start?
Hanson: It doomed it to a tie, which Pericles thought in the long run might lead to eventual victory, given the fact that Athens was the more dynamic power, growing in influence while a parochial Sparta was in crisis and had to preempt to stop the natural processes underway. Athens’ problem was that it had no ability to deter Sparta from humiliating Athenians by crossing into their chôra and doing pretty much as it pleased, as we know from the gripping plays of Aristophanes. Now Pericles and his followers who stuck to his strategy could say all they wanted that such rope-a-dope strategy was working, given Spartan inability to either prompt battle or ruin the agriculture of Attica, coupled with the magnificent work of the fleet in keeping the empire intact. Still the psychological effects of an enemy at the gates, coupled with the plague, did terrible damage to the body politic of the city. After 421 B.C. it was clear that while Athens had a good chance of not losing, it could not reall
