2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

Furthermore, this message to the Peloponnesians is further reinforced as the decree prepared

Athens for an imminent war with Sparta and the Peloponnesians in two ways. Stevenson reiterates,

that the Megarian Decree prepared Athens for war as it “reorganised the state’s finances … [and]

renewed Athens’ alliances with the towns of Leontini and Rhegium” (2015, 6-7). Pericles’

preparation for a war with Sparta is a clear indication that the decree was intended to threaten the

Peloponnesians as he believed that a war with Sparta was imminent. Moreover, Pericles’ willingness

to provoke Sparta and the Peloponnesian League into a state of war is further accentuated by his

refusal to rescind the decree despite the demands from Sparta to do so. Additionally, as Oxford

Tutor and Author - Dr Bernard Henderson writes, the more Athens defied Sparta “the more ready

Sparta grew for war [and] the more exorbitant her demands became. Pericles detected the fraud [in

Sparta’s demands, such as the withdrawal of the Megarian Decree] and [urged] the Athenians [to

stand firm]” (2015, 22,). This act of defiance and obstinacy against the Spartans further reflects the

Athenian imperialism which was prevalent in the mindset of both Pericles’ and the people of Athens,

which was expressed through the foreign actions of Athens.

In addition, American historian and Classicist at Yale University - Kagan suggests that Pericles also

passed the Megarian Decree to instil fear into the Peloponnesians as a form of psychological

warfare. Kagan writes that with the Megarian Decree “Pericles threw down the gauntlet before his

enemies: he wanted to show his enemies that Athens had not the slightest fear of them” (263,

2012). Pericles’ determination to instil fear into the Peloponnesians, who were labelled as enemies

of Athens, highlights the imperialistic supremacy desired by Athens against the Peloponnesian

League and Sparta which was an essential element instrumental in causing the Peloponnesian War.

Furthermore, member of the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia, J.E.

Lendon claims that the purpose of the decree was also to provoke the Megarians into initiating war

and violating the Thirty Years’ Peace between Athens and the Peloponnesians in the process. Lendon

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