Transcript Persia, the Greeks and Alexander

Persia, the Greeks, and Alexander
• “Persians” began in Central Asia as farmers and
nomadic horse and sheep breeders.
• “Iranic” tribes:
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Persians
Medes
Parthians
Bactrians
Scythians
• “Iran” translates as “Aryan”
Cyrus II, “The Great”
(c. 590–530 BCE)
• Cyrus II of the Achaemenids
– vassal of Medes until taking power in 550 BCE.
• Expanding into
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Anatolia
Afghanistan
Mesopotamia
Syria
Egypt.
• Conquests achieved with lightly armed mounted archers and
heavily armored horsemen known as cataphracts.
• Military included Greek hoplites, or foot soldiers, from Anatolia.
Persian navy included galleys . . .
Ancient scatological humor:
"Something which has never
occurred since time
immemorial; a young woman
did not fart in her husband's
lap.“
Sumerian, c 1900 BCE
Persian Empire
• Large and culturally diverse empire.
– limited central bureaucracy.
– 30 largely autonomous provinces.
– Satraps (provincial governors)
• enforced Persian law
• collected taxes and tribute
• sent troops to the royal army as required.
• The Persian Emperor
– shahinshah, or “king of kings.”
Cyrus the Great’s official title:
“The Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan,
King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and
Akkad, King of the four corners of the World.”
Key to Persian government . . .
• Communication network.
– Royal roads linked capital of Persepolis to Anatolia
and Mesopotamia.
– Marked and protected by satraps
• distance markers
• Inns
– Allowed for quick troop movements and
facilitated trade.
Of the Persian courier system . . .
• “It is said that as many days as there are in the
whole journey, so many are the men and
horses that stand along the road, each horse
and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and
these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor
heat nor darkness from accomplishing their
appointed course with all speed.”
Of the Persian courier system . . .
• “It is said that as many days as there are in the
whole journey, so many are the men and
horses that stand along the road, each horse
and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and
these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor
heat nor darkness from accomplishing their
appointed course with all speed.”
Greece
• Politically divided
– Independent city-states -- polis
• Culturally united
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Language
History
Oracles
Olympic games.
• Two largest cities:
– Athens (200,000 people)
– Sparta (140,000 people).
Athens
• Economy based on agriculture
– wine
– olive oil
– nuts and fruit
• Agricultural goods traded for grains and metals.
• Reforms in under Solon (594 BCE) and
Cleisthenes (508 BCE)
– created alliance between elite landowners and small
farmers.
Sparta
• Athens’s main rival
– Larger land area and thus more agriculture.
• Citizenship limited to landowners.
– Council of Elders (30 members)
– Board of Overseers (5 members)
– 2 hereditary kings
• Society = Army
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All male citizens
Began training at age 7
Lived with army until age 30
Allowed to marry and have families.
• Women also given physical training.
• Farming class made up of helots, essentially slaves
Athens’ “Golden Age”
• Reforms Pericles, c. 450 BCE, led to Golden
Age of democracy.
– Voting limited to male citizens ( 1/3 of the
population)
– Comparable to unban assemblies in Mesopotamia
or India
• War between Greece and Persia,
– 499 BC - 449 BC
• Ionian Revolt -- 499 BCE to 493 BCE
• Darius vows to punish the Greeks
– Athens and Eretria
• 492 BCE
– Thrace conquered
– Macedon becomes a client kingdom
• 491 BCE –
– Most Greek cities submit to the Persians
– Athens and Sparta execute the Persian emissaries
• 490 BCE - Persians land at Marathon
11,000 Greeks
25,000+ Persians
Pheidippides runs to Sparta (130 mi.) -- Spartans can’t come for 10 days.
Greeks defeat the Persians -- 200 Greeks & 6,400 Persians dead.
Athenians march back to defend Athens
Persian fleet sails away.
“Phase II”
• 486 BCE - Egypt revolted against Persian rule.
– Darius dies, succeeded by Xerxes
– Xerxes suppresses the Egyptian revolt
– Begins to prepare for total conquest of Greece
• 481 BCE - Xerxes asks for “earth and water” from the
Greeks, except Athens and Sparta
• 480 BCE - A number of cities unite with Athens and
Sparta
• Athens (Themistocles) commands the Greek
fleet.
• Other Greeks block the pass at Thermopylae
– 300 Spartans (Leonidas)
– 1,000 Phoceans
– 4,000+ Greeks from other cities
Early sources: 5,200 – 11,200
Xerxes’ army
“The number, then, of those whom Xerxes son
of Darius led as far as . . . Thermopylae was
5,283,220.”
-- Heroditus
Modern estimates:
70,000 – 300,000
Greek dead: 4,000
Persian dead: 20,000
“Go tell the Spartans,
thou who passeth by,
that here, obedient to their laws,
we lie.”
“ Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι. ”
"O Stranger, send the news home to the people
of Sparta that here we
Are laid to rest: the commands they gave us
have been obeyed."
“Obedience in its highest form is not obedience to a
constant and compulsory law, but a persuaded or
voluntarily yielded obedience to an issued
command.”
- John Ruskin (1819 – 1900)
But the Greeks could not maintain their unity.