The Peloponnesian War was fought between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 404 B.C. It was a long, brutal conflict that ended with the defeat and humiliation of the Athenians: the Long Walls that connected their city to its harbor were torn down to the music of flute-girls while the enemy rejoiced.
During the twenty-eight years of the war, cities loyal to both sides were razed, the lives of the men, women, and children within surrendered to the mercy of their armor-clad victors. Combatants were captured as well, those lucky warriors who escaped death on the battlefield but who, hindered by the weight of their shields and slipping in the muck of blood and churned-up earth, could not outrun the enemy. "Prisoners of the Peloponnesian War" takes a look at what became of the combatants and noncombatants who were captured during the war—whether they were executed or imprisoned, for example, enslaved or ransomed. The article also considers the means by which prisoners of war sometimes regained their freedom after a period of captivity.
(ARTICLE: 4600 words. “Prisoners of the Peloponnesian War” is a revised version of an article originally published in MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History.)