AH Challenge: Spartan-Athenian Alliance

Instead of fighting the Peloponnessian Wars, make Sparta and Athens become solid allies to make a single Greek Empire, or as close to it as possible (as cooperative as the city-states got during the Persian Wars), without ASBs. Then, what would happen next? With the Spartan army and the Athenian science, navy, and economy, who knows...
 
Tricky to manage without a looming external threat. Sparta and Athens had no issues with making common cause when they had common enemies like Persia or Thebes, but keeping that alliance together when there's no immediate enemy to bring the two cities together is problematic.

Your best bet is probably for Persia to continue meddling in and trying to conquer Greece.
 
Lucky for me that this is a major aspect of my Athenian Empire timeline!:D

Step 1: Athens needs to either avoid the Pelo War or manage to score a major land victory BEFORE the plague hits Athens. The latter will bring the cities back to semi-equal terms and reduce that famous Lacadaemonian hubris.

Step 2: (in my TL at least) Have Sparta call upon Persia as per OTL, but have the Shahanshah attempt to conquer the weakened and war-weary states of Greece instead. This will force some measure of Pan-Hellenic cooperation and an alliance between the Peloponnesian and Delian(Imperial Athenian) Leagues(with a large measure of Athenian rhetoric and pathos harking back to Atheno-Spartan cooperation at Marathon and Thermopylae no doubt ;)).

Step 3: Add a couple of barbarian invasions to keep the alliance (which was hopefully more centralized and fair than previous 'Hellenic leagues') intact for a century or so. With Athens and Sparta working aside each other so closely, it's likely that Thebes will be successfully kept under heel and that the Alliance will prove profitable for both Poleis.

Step 4: Read my timeline: The Lance of Poseidon: An Athenian Empire Timeline :).

(Yes, I know that was a shameless plug!)
:D

Thanks for the question and I hope that I proved useful.
Sincerely,
~Ash
 
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