peloponnesian war

noun

1. a war between Athens and Sparta, 431–404 b.c., that resulted in the transfer of hegemony in Greece from Athens to Sparta.

noun

1. a war fought for supremacy in Greece from 431 to 404 bc, in which Athens and her allies were defeated by the league centred on Sparta

A long war between the Greek city-states of Athens (see also Athens) and Sparta in the fifth century b.c. Sparta won the war.