Transcript document

Rise of Persia
 Anatolia, Asia Minor
 Cyrus (559-530)
 Took over surrounding peoples
 Conquered Lydian king Croesus, taking control of the entire Asia Minor
territory and turning it into an Empire – unification
 Benevolent and talented ruler
 Darius (521-489)
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Seized power
Centralized government and moved capital
Divided into provinces
Absolute power
Paid taxes, gave king gifts, and paid him tribute for his protection
Forced labor and mandatory military service
Considered subjects slaves
Beginning of Persian War
 Ionian Revolt (499 BC)
 Greeks on coast of Asia Minor
 Conquered by Persians
 Set up puppet tyrants
 Resented them and revolted
 Revolt suppressed
 Darius invades Greece
 First expedition, conquers Thrace, Thasos, and
Macedonia
Battle at Marathon (490 BC)
 Darius returns to Greece
 Athens meets them at Marathon
 Asks for Spartan aid, but they cannot come
until end of a religious festival
 Miltiades leads Athenians
 2:1, but Athenians win
 Herodotus reported that 192
Greeks
were killed, and 6,400
Persians died
 Darius leaves Greece
Aftermath of Marathon
 Xerxes
 Successor of Darius
 Had heralds came to Greece demanding earth and water
to show submission – many complied
 Marches on Greece
 Rise of Themistocles in Athens
 Building of Triremes in Athens
 Light, fast, maneuverable warships with three banks of oars
 Hellenic League
 31 city-states
Battle at Thermopylae (480 BC)
 Leonidas, one of the two kings of Sparta
 Marched in with 7000 men to Thermopylae
 Greek traitor revealed the existence of a hidden
road over mountain pass
 Leonidas dismissed most of his troops
 300 Spartans, 100 Thebans and Thespians
 Act over heroism, but victory for the Persians
(opening up central Greece for the enemy)
 Delayed Persians some
Battle of Salamis (479)
 Persians march on Athens
 Athenians have already fled city
 Persians burn the city
 Themistocles tricks Xerxes into attacking the
Greeks awaiting in the narrows at Salamis
 Greeks use smaller, faster ships to their advantage
 Destroy 200 Persian ships - win the battle
Initial Aftermath
 Xerxes leaves and returns to Persia
 He left Maridonius in Greece
 Later that year the Persians faced the largest Greek army
yet
 Greeks are led by Spartan, Pausanias
 Persians are defeated and leave Greece
After the Persia War
 Hellenic identity formed in Greece
 Athens
 Ship rowers (the lowest class) are now important, so hard
for aristocrats to keep power away from them
 More democratic reforms
 Equality among men of Athens
 Became a major cultural center
 Drama in Athens
Delian League
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To prevent a 3rd invasion of the Persians
Led by the Athenians
Located at the island of Delos
Annual contributions in ships or money
Athenian controlled the treasury
Goals:
 a) containment of Persia
 b) gathering of booty as compensations
 c) simple revenge
 Fought Persians for 25 years
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Led by Cimon (Miltiades’ son)
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Against more democratic reforms, pro-Sparta
 Expelled Persians from Europe and Ionia
Athenian Empire
 Athens began forcing cities to join the League
 When Naxos wanted to leave, Athens forcibly
prevented them from withdrawing
 Revolt of 465
 Tensions rising against Sparta
 Pericles rose to power in Athens
 Elected one of the ten strategoi (military leaders) repeatedly
 Full-blown democracy in Athens
 Treasury transferred to Athens
 Use money for building programs (Parthenon)
First Peloponnesian War (460-445)
 Athens builds long walls
 Athens fighting against Corinth, Sparta (ally) joins in
 Cimon returns from exile
 negotiates 5 year truce (451)
 Athens abandoned alliance with Argos
 30 Years Peace (445)
 neither state was to interfere with the allies of the other
 neutrals were free to join either side
 no allies were permitted to switch sides
Peloponnesian War (431-404)
 Source: Thucydides’ History
 Tensions began to rise again
 Athens was the aggressor
 Sparta declares war
Beginning of the War (431-421)
 Pericles refused to engage Spartans in hoplite war
 Had all of the farmers living outside of the walls to come
into the city
 Spartans ravaged the land outside of Athens
 Athens thought the Spartans would get tired of ravaging,
and Spartans thought the Athens would not stand for their
land being ravaged, would become frustrated and either seek
Peace or overrule Pericles and come out and fight
 Both sides were wrong
 Next year – horrible plague in Athens (1/3 died),
including Pericles
 Spends next years rebuilding strength in Athens
Invasion of Sicily (415-413)
 Three generals: Nicias, Alcibiades, Lamachus
 Neither could agree
 Alcibiades was called to trial (Herms incident), Lamachus
was killed, leaving Nicias in charge
 Nicias suffered from kidney disease and asked to be
recalled, instead they sent another commander,
Demosthenes (who advocated immediate withdraw once
arriving)
 Syracusans took Nicias’ army
 Athenians lost 10,000s men
War in the Aegean (413-411)
 Athenian naval superiority shattered after Sicily
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Subjects began revolting
20,000 slaves left Athens for Sparta
Athens began swinging back to Oligarchy (411)
Council of 400 in Athens (turns into the 5000),
democratic fleet (the assembly) stationed at Samos
 Athens recalls Alcibiades
 Wins battles with the fleet  democracy restored
 Spartans loose their admiral-in-chief
War in Aegean continues
 Sparta
 set about building a new naval force and negotiating for
Persian support
 Sold out the freedom of the Greek cities of Ionia for Persian
gold
 Spartans offer peace, on the basis of status-quo
 Athens refuses
Final Years of the War (407-404)
 Alcibiades puts Antiochus in charge with orders not to
engage the Spartans
 He does and they loose
 Alcibiades’ career in Athens is finished for good
 Battle of Arginusae (405)
 Athenians offered freedom to slaves who would join the
navy
 Huge naval battle which they sunk 75 Peloponnesian ships
 20,000 Greeks lost their lives
 Sparta again offer peace on the basis of status-quo
 Athens declined
Final Years continued
 Battle of Aegospotami (405)
 Decisive Spartan victory
 Captured 171 ships
 Cut Athens off from their source of grain near the black sea
 Lysander accepts surrender of allies of Athens
 replace democracies with oligarchies
 Athens agree to treaty
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Destruction of Long Walls
Surrender all but 12 ships
Exiles would be recalled (oligarchy friendly)
Sparta’s ally
 30 Tyrannts
 30 delegated by Sparta to run Athens as an oligarchy
After the War in Athens
 30 Tyrants
 Spartan-friendly oligarchic body
 Critias is one of the most important of them
 Murdered hundreds democratic supporters
 3000, friendly to the oligarchy who they protected
 Many went into exile - dangerous group building
outside of Athens
 March on Athens and over throw the city
 Sparta intervened, got rid of the 30 and gave
amnesty to all others
 Socrates’ trail – found guilty and forced to drink
Hemlock