Classical Greece or golden age (480 to 380 BCE)
- Developed because of contats with Egyptians and Persians that inspired a blossoming in the arts and sciences (including stories, ideas of designs of temples, techniques for fine metal work, crafts, etc)
- This was a time of great thinkers, poets, artists
- Athens develops the most democratic government of all the city states
- Athens assumes leadership of the Delian league
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Sparta decided to expand its empire; and by middle of 6th century BCE it dominated most of the Peloponnese
- When Athens tried to expand its empire in central Greece, it threatened Sparta’s power base
- This caused the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war (431 BCE)
- Sparta defeats Athens, and city states struggle for power, opening the way for invasion from Mecedonia
- Herodotus and Thucydides (historians) produce their works
Hellenistic period
- Philip ii of Macedonia defeats independent greek city states at Chaeronea
- After his assassination, his song Alexander becomes king of Macedonia
- Alexander beings his campaign of conquest into Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia, and as far east as the Indus River in India. And after his death, his generals still fight to control his empires
- Greek, Persian, Indian and Egyptian cultures mix during the Hellenistic age
- Geometry (mathematics) is systemized and physics advance
- Aristarchus formulates view that the earth revolves around the sun
Helots
- The helots were people captured by Spartans and forced to work as slaves
- They were significant because they made majority of Spartan population. They were all foreigner captures of Sparta and could never become a citizen. They allowed actual Spartan citizens and men to focus on military work and training, while they did rest of the work.
- They were also significant because the revolt of the Helots is what sparked the Peloponnesian war (Sparta kicked them out but Athens helped them)
Phalanx: ancient Greek expression to signify an organized, dense line of battle. In the phalanx formation, densely packed lines of foot soldiers armed with long lances created a formidable obstacle, even to armed cavalry
Hoplites were known as the heavily armed infantry soldiers. They were Greek warriors who were formed when the middle class bought arms. The hoplite was a foot soldier equipped with bronze body-armour, shield, helmet and spear. They were power bases for tyrants .
Trireme: was a bow used during the battle of Salamis.
Oligarchy: A form of government in which power rests with a few people (i.e. Sparta)
Direct democracy: A form of government in which the people participate directly rather than through representatives
Tyrant (tyranny): A cruel or unjust ruler, usually with absolute power. Tyranny is when a person seizes power unconstitutionally and takes control over people
Ostracism: In ancient Greece, a method of banishing a citizen by popular vote, without trial or formal accusation. Such as, when they expel you by writing on pottery
Delian league
- It was initiated by Athens and was a defensive league which built a navy (in Athens), in order to get protection for further Persian attacks. Member had to receive permission to withdraw from the Delian league
- It was significant because it gave a large amount of power – Athens receiving money and ownership of a powerful navy while Athenian currency was spreading all over Greece. It was also significant because the Delian league sparked the formation of the Peloponnesian league. These leagues were one of the main reasons for the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war (Sparta was alarmed by Athenian power)
Peloponnesian league
- Sparta suggests the formation due to Doric invasions from the North
- More of a loose network of allies compared to the Delian league
- Members would serve as soldiers under Spartan command
- Sparta, in turn, protected them and also granted them their autonomy (independence)
- Few gatherings
- Corinth & Thebes were Sparta’s strongest allies
- It was significant because it fortified the alliance between Sparta, Corinth and Thebes and gave Sparta more power
- It was also significant because it was one of the main reasons of the cause of the Peloponnesian war
PELOPONNESIAN WAR
Short / long term causes
- The formation of the delian league and Sparta not joining them caused tension
- More tension was caused when Sparta sensed Athens becoming more powerful (“the growth of power of Athens and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta made war inevitable”
- Athens tried to expand its empire in central Greece, threatening Spartan empire
- Also, Athens blocked some cities from trading at Athenian controlled ports, and some members of Delian league opposed to this; and to solve problems Athens asked Sparta for help and they refused, which resulted in the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war
- Helots revolt
Affects:
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dominance of the Greek world was shattered. It lost its empire and the tribute it exacted therefrom, so its financial superiority and consequently maintain the largest war fleet collapsed. In the short term it went through a period of internal political instability.
- Sparta became the dominant power for three decades until this was broken by Thebes, after which is was not a major player.
- The Greek world suffered great destruction, which allowed Persia to have a dominating say in Greek affairs.
- Macedonia progressively improved its position until it became dominant, with Philip and then his son Alexander becoming Hegemon of Greece. From this platform, the destruction of the Persian Empire was launched, and Hellenisation was extended in the east.
- After Alexander's death most of the Greek and Persian worlds were partitioned between Alexander's generals as Hellenistic kingdoms which spread Greek culture through the Middle East. These kingdoms lasted until absorbed into the expanding Roman Empire in the 2nd and 1st Centuries BCE.
Pericles
- He was the first citizen of Athens; he was an Athenian general who led Athens into the Peloponnesian war
- He was significant because he created/built many beautiful palaces and structures in Athens and his reign was known as the “golden age”. He was also significant because he led the Athenians into the Peloponnesian war but died from the plague. He formed their defensive strategy
- He was also significant because he had a lot of power in the Athenian democracy – elected tribe leader for the longest time (anchron)
- Long wall: Pericles strategy to defend Athens at the Peloponnesian war was to use his forces to guard the long walls that surrounded the city; and he ordered all the attican people inside the walls for protection
- He didn’t realize that too many people lived in confined quarters in bad and unhygienic conditions; and a plague struck Athens killing a third of the population, including himself
Thucydides
- He was the son of an Athenian aristocrat; he fought in the Peloponnesian war, as the commander of Athenian squadron
- He felt that the Peloponnesian war was the greatest event in history; and he believed history should be more based on storytelling, unlike Herodotus
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Speeches were very important in Thucydides work and represent the rise of rhetoric (the art of persuasion) in 5th century Greece
- Speeches allowed him to illustrate motives and purposes (rhetoric) as well as helped him embellish the work as literature
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Sophism: sophists were professional educators who prepared students for a political life. ‘they taught a man to reason dialectically, to argue back and forth all sides of a case, to discover the more effective arguments for which side he needed to present, and then to convert this into a persuasive speech’
- Thucydides speeches were heavily influenced by sophist philosophy
- In the history of the Peloponnesian war, Thucydides differentiated between stated and given reasons for the war and the actual cause
- “The real cause, however, I consider to be was the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable”
Prometheus
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PROMETHEUS was the of forethought and crafty counsel who was entrusted with the task of moulding mankind out of clay. His attempts to better the lives of his creation brought him into direct conflict with .
- He was significant because he is the one that played on earth and created things with mud that came into life, such as the first humans and animals
- He was also significant because he gave wise advice to Zeus, which was to bring out the monsters from Tartarus – which ultimately helped him conquer Cronus and put him in Tartarus
- He also stopped zeus from fighting with his brothers in a war to compete and see who would be the king; he advised them to spread the power
12 Olympians
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Zeus: King of the gods; god of sky/heaven
- Poseidon: God of sea
- Aphrodite: Goddess of love and beauty
- Apollo: the sun god
- Ares: god of war
- Artemis: goddess of moon
- Athena: Goddess of wisdom and skills
- Dionysus: god of wine and party
- Hades: god of death
- Hephaestus: the god of fire
- Hera: Queen of gods and goddesses; women and motherhood
- Hermes: Messenger
- Hestia: goddess of hearth and marriage
- Demeter: goddess of vegetation
Phillip ii of Macedon
- King Philip II ruled Macedonia from 359 to 336 BC
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Philip II was a hostage of the Greeks at Thebes, between 368 and 365 BC. But while in captivity there, he observed the military techniques of then the greatest power in Greece. When he returned to Macedonia he immediately set forth in helping his brother Perdiccas III, who was then king of Macedonia, to strengthen and reorganize the Macedonian army
- He could be considered important for a number of reasons, but probably the most popular is that he is the father of Alexander the Great. Philip's own military conquests were quite notable
- He assembled one of the greatest fighting forces the world had ever seen when he earned money from the discovery of gold
- he conquered most of Greece
- He creates the strong army called the Phalanx that made his country so strong.
- he influenced his son, Alexander the great
Alexander the great
- He was the son of Phillip II, who became the king of Macedonia when his father was assassinated. He led a campaign of conquest
- He was significant because he was able to obtain and overtake powers of many empires –for example the Persian empire, where it had such a strong and undefeatable army during the early classical period
- He was also significant because once campaign was finished, he introduced the combination of greek, Egyptian, Persian and Indian cultures and traditions during the Hellenistic age, , while respecting the laws of each independent city. He began the Hellenistic age.
- The Persians crumbled under his rule. Athens and Sparta united and Egypt gave up on attempting to be of impirial status. Alexander is found on reliefs and stellas throughout Egypt from Thebes to Memphis and aside from Cleopatra he was the only Mesopotamian ruler to truly rule all of his empire.
- Alexander was succeeded after his death by three rulers, the most notable was Ptolemy who ruled Egypt until his death and was the first lover of Cleopatra. Mark Antony and Octavian Caesar came after Ptolemy. Alexander was the man who defeated the Persians. He died in the persuit of finding the mythical tribe of women warriors known as the Amazons who were said to reside in India. At the time it was uncharted and to them, the end of the Earth.
- He provided a model for the series of Hellenistic kings that followed (3 kingdoms dominated eastern Mediterranean until the Romans came)
- Egypt; Ptolemy, who was granted Egypt after Alexander’s death, succeeded in founding a dynasty which ruled the country until his most famous descendant, Cleopatra, was defeated. The Ptolemies also controlled lands outside of Egypt
- Seleucid territory; the capture of Babylon by seleucus marked the foundation fo the Seleucid dynasty. Its kingdom was the largest of any other Hellenistic kingdom. However, it lost both its territories in east and west; in the east Afghanistan turned into an independent greek kingdom and there also merged the non-greek kingdom of Parthia. In the west the new greek kingdom of the Attalids formed.
- Mecedon; Alexander’s dynasty was exterminated, and possession of the land was fiercely contested, until Antigonus Gonatas succeeded in establishing himself securely in power (The Antigonic dynasty ruled the country until it was conquered by Rome)
