Brasidas biography channel

The Archidamian War

Brasidas was the son of a Spartiate named Tellis, who may have been a man of some influence but is not really well-known.

His son became famous during the conflict between the Spartan alliance (the Peloponnesian League) and the Athenian alliance (the Delian League) that is known as the Peloponnesian War and started in the spring of 431. The first ten years are often called the Archidamian War, after the Spartan king Archidamus II, whose strategy was to lay waste Attica and force the Athenians to fight an infantry battle.

However, the Athenians refused to play this deadly game.

One of their politicians, Pericles, convinced them that they should retreat behind the Long walls, and use their navy to attack the Peloponnesian coast. This would sooner or later create a rift in the Spartan alliance, because the people of the coastal towns would suffer,