Dr. Owen Rees

You know, the sort of the main player early on is the commander Lysander, who is pretty much installing pro-Spartan governments anywhere he can liberate.

So we do have that spread of Spartan authority, that spread of Spartan influence throughout.

So

In a sort of a Persian perspective, it makes sense that they need to stem this tide.

The easiest way to stem this tide has always been to encourage internal strife with the Greeks.

The fleet is just an extension of that kind of policy, continuing on, as we've already seen in the Peloponnesian War, continuing on further.

So once Sparta has taken control, brought an end to the Peloponnesian War, it has won its battle, it has put Athens under siege, and then they finally have their accord agreement as rules talked us through.

There is a bit of a debate, what do we do with Athens?

Athens during the Peloponnesian War was rather notoriously brutal with cities that opposed it.

So there was something of a conflict.

Do we destroy Athens?

Do we wipe it off?

Do we try and control it?

Do we turn it into a tiny version of what it once was?

And the agreement in the end, there was a lot of internal conflict within Sparta about this.

And the agreement was that they would take down the walls, as we've mentioned.

They'd take the fleet away.

from them and would install a tyranny of 30 pro-Spartan Athenian elites.

So an oligarchy, this idea, is it?

That's exactly what this is, yeah.