Column errs historically

Editor,

Sari Krosinsky wrote in her Tuesday column that the Battle of Thermopolae was part of the Peloponnesian War.

Actually, that battle was one of several wars between the Greeks and the Persians and occurred many years before the Peloponnesian War, which was a civil war between Athens and Sparta, which led to the decline of both city-states as powers and set the stage for conquest by the Macedonians, northern peoples on the frontier led by Phillip, the father of Alexander the Great.

It was under Alexander that the Hellenistic Empire came to materialize around approximately 330 BC, when the Macedonian and Greek forces combined to invade Persia.Prior to this coalition, there really was no Hellenistic Empire under any cohesive, unitary leadership; rather, Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and the island of Crete were separate city-states, with their own leaders and own systems of law, government, etc. Sometimes, these city-states would fight each other (Athens and Thebes, Athens and Crete) and other times, they would join forces such as the numerous battles against the Persians that took place on Greek soil.

Brandon D. Curtis

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