Ancient Greece (CYCLE OF WARFARE)Persian and Peloponnesian War

and the Legacy of Alexander

Objectives• Students will explore how Greeks won the Persian Wars.

• Students will discover what led to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War and the wars consequences.

• Students will investigate Alexander the Great and his empire.

• Students will discover what life was like in the Hellenistic world and their many cultural achievements.

In the early 400s BC, the Greek city-states came into conflict with the vast Persian Empire, a larger, stronger opponent.

• Roots of Persian Wars lay in region of Ionia, in what is now Turkey

• Ionian city-states founded as Greek colonies, fell under Persian rule, 500s BC

– Ionian Greeks unhappy with Persian rule

– Wanted independence

– Rebelled, 499 BC

Causes of the Conflict• Ionian Greeks asked fellow Greeks

for help• Athens sent aid, ships • Persians put down revolt

– Revolt made Persian emperor Darius angry enough to seek revenge

– Planned to punish Ionians’ allies, especially Athens, by attacking Greek mainland

Revenge

The Persian Wars

http://youtu.be/ka12FNcTwh4

The First Persian Invasion• 490 BC, Persians set out to fulfill Darius’s plans for revenge• Fleet carrying tens of thousands of Persian troops set out for Greece• Came ashore near town of Marathon, not far from Athens

Persian Retreat• Warned in advance, Greeks arrived at Marathon, caught Persians unloading ships, charged in

phalanx, tight rectangle formation• Persians counterattacked, more Greeks closed in, Persians retreated

First Invasion (Battle of Marathon)

• Greek victory at Marathon shocked both Greeks, Persians• Athenians could not believe they had defeated stronger foe• Persians humiliated, furious• Darius planned second invasion, but died before invasion launched• Son Xerxes vowed revenge, continued to plan attack on Greece

• 480 BC, 10 years after first invasion, Xerxes set out for Greece

• Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, animals, weapons, supplies

• Greek accounts say Persian army so huge took week to cross bridge built into Greece

Xerxes • Faced with invasion, Athenians called

on other Greek city-states to help fight off Persians

• Athens, bitter rival, agreed to help• Had recently built large navy, took

charge of Greek fighting ships• Sparta took charge of Greek armies

Athenians

Preparations for a Second Invasion

Persian army with no supplies no longer a match for the Greeks; and within a year the Greeks had won the Persian Wars.

The Greeks worried that they would not have time to prepare their troops for battle. To slow down the Persians, a group of Spartans and their allies gathered in a mountain pass at Thermopylae, through which the Persians would pass to get into Greece.

• Spartans held off entire Persian army for several days

• Persians shown alternate path through mountains; were able to surround, kill Spartans

• Spartans’ sacrifice bought time for Greeks’ defense

The Second Persian Invasion

Second Invasion and Aftermath

• Persians marched south to Athens, attacked, burned city; needed fleet to bring additional supplies

• Athenian commander lured fleet into narrow strait at Salamis

• Greek warships cut them to pieces

After Thermopylae

As leaders in the Persian Wars, Athens and Sparta became the two most powerful, influential city-states in Greece. After the wars, Athens entered a golden age as the center of Greek culture and politics.

• After Persian Wars city-states banded together to defend each other, punish Persia

• Largest, richest of alliance members was Athens

Alliance • Alliance’s treasury kept

on islands of Delos• Alliance known as

Delian League• Athens controlled ships,

money• League grew in

membership, power

Delian League • Some members

resented Athenian dominance

• Members who tried to quit attacked by league fleet, forced back into alliance

• League became Athenian empire

Increased Influence

The Golden Age of Athens

Much of the rebuilding of Athens was due to one man—Pericles, a skilled politician and gifted public speaker.

• 460s, elected one of Athens’ generals, became Athens’ most influential politician

• Great champion of democracy

– Introduced payment for those who served in public offices, on juries

– Encouraged Athenians to introduce democracy elsewhere

Pericles • Commissioned building Parthenon,

other monuments

– Hired artists, sculptors to decorate them

• Wanted Athens to be most glorious city in Greece

– Believed it had best government, noblest people, monuments to prove superiority

Patron of the Arts

The Age of Pericles

• The Peloponnesian War was a protracted struggle, and attended by calamites such as Hellas had never known within a like period of time. Never were so many cities captured and depopulated-some by barbarians, others by Hellenes themselves fighting against one another; and several of them after their capture were repeopled by strangers. Never were exile and slaughter more frequent whether in the War or brought about by civil strife.

(Thucydides qtd. in Botsford 196)

As the leader of the Delian League, Athens was the richest, mightiest polis in Greece. Being rich and mighty brought many powerful rivals, the greatest of which was Sparta, which wanted to end its dominance.

• Tensions built between Delian, Peloponnesian Leagues

• Mutual fear led to war between Athens, Sparta

Tension Built

• Athens feared military might of another league

• Sparta feared loss of trading

• 431 BC, the two declared war

• Lasted many years

War

The Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian League

• Sparta head of Peloponnesian League, allied city-states

• Formed 500s BC, to provide protection, security for members

War in Greece• Initially neither side gained much advantage• Sparta, allies dominated land; Athens, allies dominated sea• Athenians avoided land battles; neither side won more than minor victories

Sparta’s Victory• 415 BC, war broke out again; Sparta took to sea as well as land, destroyed Athenian

fleet; Athens surrendered 404 BC• Peloponnesian War almost destroyed Athens; Sparta also exhausted by war

Plague and Peace• 430, 429 BC, plague struck Athens, changed course of war• Pericles, Athens’ leader through beginning of war, among dead• After plague, fighting heated up until truce in 421 BC

The Course of War

That the Long Walls and Fortifications of Piraeus should be destroyed; that the Athenian fleet, with the exception of 12 vessels should be surrendered; that the exile should be restored; and lastly, that the Athenians should acknowledge the headship of Sparta in Peace and War, leaving her the choice of friends and foes, and following her lead by land and sea. (235)

Cycle of WarfareAfter victory, Sparta’s army tried to act as Greece’s dominant

power • Sparta’s wealth, resources badly strained, power worn down

• Spartans could not keep control of Greece

• City-state of Thebes defeated Sparta, could not maintain control either

• Struggle for power led to long cycle of warfare that left all Greece vulnerable to attack

• 340s BC, Macedonia, Greek-speaking kingdom to north, swept in, took control of all Greece led by Phillip II

Macedonia rose to power and took control of Greece in the years that followed the Peloponnesian War.

• Most Greeks considered Macedonians backward

– Lived in villages, not cities

– Spoke form of Greek unintelligible to other Greeks

• 359 BC, Macedonia’s fortune changed when Philip II took throne

The Rise of Macedonia• One of Philip’s first actions as king• Adopted phalanx system, but gave

soldiers longer spears• Included larger bodies of cavalry and

more archers • Set out to conquer Greece

– Faced little opposition– Quickly crushed armies– Conquered all but Sparta

Army Reorganization

Rise of Macedonia

Philip II turned to Sparta; he sent them a message: "If I win this war, you will be slaves forever.“

the Spartans' iconic reply was one word: "If"

Alexander’s Conquests• Alexander faced almost immediately with revolts in Greece• Set out to reestablish control• Used harsh measures to show rebellion not tolerated• Crushed Theban army and sold people into slavery, burned city

Alexander Becomes King• Philip’s conquests might have continued, but he was assassinated• Title, plans for conquests fell to son, Alexander the Great• Alexander only 20, but had been trained to rule almost from birth• Learned warfare and politics from father, mother, and Aristotle

• Conquered – Persia, Phoenicia, Egypt• Led army to the Indus River where his troops forced in him to turn back

• Generals fought each other for power

• In the end, the empire was divided among three most powerful generals

• Called themselves kings– Antigonus became king of

Macedonia and Greece

– Seleucus ruled Persian Empire

– Ptolemy ruled Egypt

Power Struggle• Alexander’s empire largest world had

ever seen

• Did not rule very long

• 323 BC, Alexander fell ill while in Babylon

• Died a few days later at age 33

• Alexander died without naming heir

Death at Early AgeEnd of the Empire

By bringing together a number of diverse peoples in his empire, Alexander helped create a new type of culture. It was no longer purely Greek, or Hellenic, but Hellenistic, or Greek-like.

• Appointed officials from various cultures to help rule

• Built dozens of new cities, encouraged Greek settlers to move into them

• Most new cities named Alexandria

New Cities• Alexandria, Egypt• Located at mouth of

Nile, where it met Mediterranean

• Ideal location for trade• Harbor once busiest in

world

Most Famous City

The Hellenistic World

• Shift from Hellenic Greece to Hellenistic world brought drastic changes to lives

• Most obvious change, how people were governed

• City-state no longer main political unit, replaced by kingdom

• Traditional Greek democracy gave way to monarchy

Drastic ChangesLife in the Hellenistic World

The most influential new school was Stoicism, with emphasis on reason, self-discipline, emotional control and personal morality. Stoics believed people should find their proper role in society and fulfill it.

• Blending of cultures brought significant changes • Exchange of ideas from different cultures• New advances in philosophy, literature and science

• New schools of philosophy developed in Alexander’s empire

• One called Cynicism; students rejected pleasure, wealth, social responsibility

• People live according to nature

Philosophy

Hellenistic Achievements

• People should seek pleasure, considered good; try to avoid pain, considered evil

• To find pleasure, develop close friendships with people who share similar ideas

Epicureans

• Tremendous advances in science, technology during this period• Among great Egyptian scholars, Euclid formulated many ideas about geometry we

still learn about today• Egypt also home of Eratosthenes, who calculated size of the world• Other Hellenistic scientists studied the movement of the stars; the makeup and

inner workings of the human body

• Archimedes, one of world’s greatest inventors, used knowledge of math, physics to create devices

• Developed compound pulley to lift heavy loads; also invented mechanical screw to draw water out of ship’s hold, out of deep well

Inventors • Other inventors not as ambitious as

Archimedes, but clever in own right• One built tiny steam engine, used to

power mechanical toys• Such devices representative of

Hellenistic fascination with mechanics, technology

Mechanics

Science and Technology