Transcript Pericles and peloponnesian war

Pericles:
Leader of Athens in its
Golden Age
Pericles the Man
• No real friends
• Stayed at home unless he was on official business
• Mom= niece of Cleisthenes (who??)
• Dad=Aristocratic; Fought in Persian Wars (Salamis);
Led Assembly
Then why learn about
this guy??
Pericles
• Statesman, general, orator-led Athens in Golden
Age for 32 years (461-429 B.C.)
• Had three goals for Athens:
1. Strengthen Athenian democracy
2. Hold and strengthen the empire
3. Glorify Athens
How Pericles Achieved his Goals
1. Strengthen Athenian Democracy
•
Increased # of paid public officials (used to be unpaid,
which made only the rich able to hold office)
•
Direct Democracy: citizens ruled directly and not
through representatives
Do we have a direct
democracy in the United
States?
Stoa of Athalos: Where Athenians would discuss important issues
Our institution is called a democracy
because power is in the hands not of a
minority but of the whole people. When it is
a question of settling private disputes,
everyone is equal before the law; when it is
a question of putting one person before
another in positions of public responsibility,
what counts is not membership in a
particular class, but the actual ability which
the man possesses. No one, so long as he
has it in him to be of service to the state, is
kept in political obscurity because of
poverty.
What is Pericles saying
here?
How Pericles Achieved his Goals
2. Hold and Strengthen the Empire
•
Lead polis in Delian League (after Persian Wars).
• Used Delian
League’s money to
build strong navy to
Strengthen control
over colonies and
bring in grain and
raw materials
How Pericles Achieved his Goals
3. Glorify Athens
•
•
Used Delian League’s money to buy gold, ivory,
marble, pay artists, architects, workers.
Parthenon (temple to
honor Athena)
But Athens makes some pretty
fierce enemies…can you tell me
why?
And this will lead to the Spartans
forming their own league with their
very own allies. They call this new
league the Peloponnesian League
(clever, huh?)…
The Peloponnesian War
Causes
1. Competition: for control of the Greek world
–
Athens and Delian League vs. Sparta (and the
Peloponnesian League)
2. Domination:
Athens dominates
other city-states
3. Money: Athens
Used Delian League’s
Money.
Trireme
170 oarsmen
Maneuverable
Rammed
into
enemies’
ships.
The Main Events
• 431 BCE: start fighting for ten years
• 430: Plague hits Athens (primary source reading)
• 421 (truce)
• 413: Athens attacks colony on Sicily. Colony was
defended by Sparta, and the war restarts
• 411: Athens in political turmoil; end democracy,
start oligarchy
• 410: Athens’ democracy restored
• 404: treaty signed; Sparta wins
Consequences
1. Defeat: Athens ends its maritime empire.
2. Vulnerability: Weakening of all the city-states
(culturally and politically)
– Made them vulnerable to a takeover by Macedonia
several decades later.