How Much Peloponnesian Was the Peloponnesian War?

Summary In the opening of his “Histories”, Thucydides portrays the Peloponnesian War as a conflict between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. However, modern scholars tend to view the war from either an Athenian or a Spartan perspective. This article assesses the involvement of Sparta’s Peloponnesian allies in the Peloponnesian War, and argues that, despite the efforts of Spartan propaganda to portray the conflict as a war inter alia in defence of the Peloponnese, at least some Peloponnesians did not fully identify with this perspective. This was reflected in their limited participation in joint military operations and, in some cases, even their attempts to disengage from the conflict and adopt a neutral stance towards the warring parties.