Losses through Spartan invasions
The difficulty in carrying out
Pericles1'
strategy2 for winning the war was that it
required the many Athenians who resided outside the urban center to abandon their
homes and fields to the depredations of the Spartan army during its regular invasions
of Attica. As Thucydides reports, people hated coming in from the countryside where
“most Athenians were born and bred; they grumbled at having to move
their entire households [into Athens] ... , abandoning their normal way of life and
leaving behind what they regarded as their true city.”3 When in 431 B.C. the Spartans invaded Attica for the first time and began to
destroy property in the countryside, the country dwellers of Attica became enraged as,
standing in safety on Athens' walls,
they watched the smoke rise from their
property as the Spartans put it to the torch.4 Pericles only barely managed to stop the citizen militia from rushing out
despite the odds to take on the Spartan hoplites.
The Spartan army returned home
after about a month5 in Attica because it lacked the structure for resupply over a longer period
and could not risk being away from Sparta too long for fear of
helot6 revolt. For these reasons, the annual invasions of Attica
that the Spartans sent in the early years of the war never lasted longer than forty
days. Even in this short time, however, the Spartan army could inflict losses on the
Athenian countryside that were felt very keenly by the Athenians holed up in their
walled city.
