Transcript Delian League

Classical Greece
510 BCE-323 BCE (Death of Alexander the Great)
The Delian League - Formation
• 480 BCE – Greeks took a part of land from the coast of Asia
Minor and expected the Persians to attack again
• Sparta refused to participate in affairs outside the
Peloponnese but Athens needed support and strength
• Aristeides (Athens) organized the Delian League to defend the
Greek states in the event of an attack
• “Aristeides the Just”  He acted fairly towards all members in
organizing their pay and contributions
• Meetings were held at the Apollo sanctuary on the island of
Delos (hence the Delian name)
The Delian League – In Action
• Kimon, son of Miltiades (who
won the Battle of Marathon)
moulded the League into a
fighting force
• 467 BCE – Kimon beat the
Persians to avoid further
attacks in the Aegean Sea
• Pericles – now leader of the
League tried to free the Greeks
on the island of Cyprus and
lead another revolt
• 450 BCE- Egyptian Expedition
wiped out a Greek fleet
• Delian league moved to Athens
Delian League Treasury
Pericles
• Leader of Athens for ~30 years
• Greatest period of wealth and power
• Key figure in the reforms of the Athenian
democracy system
• Believed that any man, regardless of wealth or social class, should
be able to participate in the state if he is capable
• “We judge the man who takes no part at all [in public affairs] a
useless, not just a quiet person.”
• Women, slaves, foreigners  NO citizenship
• Men whose parents had been born of citizen fathers  citizenship
Sparta vs. Athens
• 462 BCE – Sparta asked Athens for help, but were turned away
upon arrival
• Kimon, who was the leader at the time, was ostracized
• Pericles rose to power
• 450s BCE – Athens tried to build a land empire which
threatened Sparta’s power base
• 445 BCE – Sparta & Athens sign a 30-year peace treaty
• Didn’t work, because they still had an all-out war
Sparta
• Land power
• Conservative, oligarchic
government
• Few advances in Greek
culture
• Backward regarding
trade and wealth
• Goal: protect self and
narrow interests
Athens
• Sea power
• Radical democracy
• Forefront of advances in
culture
• Wealthy trading nation
• Goal: maintain and
expand empire for
power and income
Literature
• 5th century BCE – Athenian culture reached its peak
• Sophocles (playwright) & Phidias (sculptor) expressed Greek
ideals through art
• Aeschylus & Euripides aimed to improve the world through
justice and the status of women
• Aristophanes used humour to make fun of the world in order to
bring about change
Aristophanes
Architecture
• Parthenon
• Built during Pericles time
• Showpiece of wealth
• Dominated as the acropolis
(‘high city’)
• Designed by Phidias
• Inspired by Greek victories
over the Persians
• Temple for Athena – grand
statue in the centre
• Blocks carved with hand tools
Hellenistic Greece
323 BCE (Death of Alexander the Great) – 31 BCE
Alexander’s Death & A New Era
• Greek culture shifts from the Aegean sea to the culture of the
countries in the Near East (as a result of conquest)
• Everyone emigrates to new
areas and spreads the Greek
culture
• Greek became the language
of the educated class and art/
literature were models of
perfection
• Stability for the Greek people
in the governments of their polis – democracy continued to
function
Citizens, Slaves, Metics
• 317 BCE Athens
• 21 000 citizens
• 10 000 metics
• 400 000 slaves
• Women only had protection under the family structure
• Metics had to pay taxes and contribute to the city but had no
rights like women
• Slaves had zero rights
• Abusing them was not a crime
Greek Culture
Aspects that developed throughout Classical &
Hellenistic Greece
Philosophy
• Thought about the beginnings of life
• What can we really know for certain when our information is
gathered through our senses which can be deceived?
• Socrates – left nothing behind in writing, ridiculed in his time
• Socratic method
• Plato – The Academy (own school)
• Wrote about love, beauty, justice, and “the Good”
• Aristotle – The Lyceum (own school)
• Biology, zoology, astronomy, meteorology, psychology, political
science, ethics, rhetoric
Art & Architecture
• Created statues based on how an
ideal figure should look
• Life-like statues, but Gods often
seemed larger than life
• Theatres
• Stadiums
• Gymnasiums
• Stoas (long colonnaded buildings)
• Private architecture for some to
display their wealth
• Tombs
• Tomb at Halicarnassus (353 BCE) –
King Mausolus & Queen Artemisia
Medicine & Sexuality
• Greek medical facilities – located at sanctuaries of the
healing God Asclepius
• Started at Epidaurus and moved to Corinth, Athens, and
other places
• Greek doctors learned potions, ointments, surgery
• Hippocrates – first to study how parts of the body work in
relation to the body as a whole
• Homosexuality was responded to favourably
• Literature & vase paintings depict homosexual love
• Common theme in Greek poetry
• Sacred Band – Theban army made up of homosexual
lovers
• Less common among women except island of Lesbos
and the poetry of Sappho
Science & Technology
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Pythagoras & Euclid – geometry, algebra, trigonometry
Aristotle – progressed the field of biology
Scientific Method not yet developed
Greeks developed devices based on the pulley, lever, and
plane machines
Archimedes Screw
Greek Religion
• Many special days dedicated to honouring the gods
• Alters, shrines, temples, and statues of gods everywhere
• Didn’t wait for a holy day to pay their respects
• Gods for all aspects and stages of life
• Most thought to reside on Mount Olympus
• Festivals, honey-cakes, terracotta figurines, and sacrificed
animals were given to honour the gods
Temples, Oracles, and Curses
• Temples – houses built for the gods
• Symbols of wealth and power of the community
• Altars – surrounding the temples where worship took place
• Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi – famous because the oracle
(prophet) there was reliable
• Curses – could be put on people
• Removal: write the enemy’s name and curse in a sheet of lead,
scrambling up the letters, then drive a bronze nail through it and
bury it in a grave
Trade and Coinage
• Trade by distance occurred via small ships (4-5 person crew)
• Merchants and ship owners worked together to ship:
• Grain from South Asia, Sicily, Egypt for Greek olive oil and wine
• Glass, perfumes, and ivory from Phoenicia and Egypt for Greek
marble
• Traders were the major force for spreading Greek culture
abroad
• Arguments over fair compensation  realized small amounts
of metal like copper, bronze, and silver would be accepted
• 7th century BCE – chunks of metal weighed and stamped with
a symbol
• Governments started regulating coinage and mints developed
throughout the trading cities of Greece