THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
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THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 5 th Century – Athenian dominance leads To war
Transcript of THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
THE ATHENIAN
EMPIRE
5th Century –
Athenian dominance leads
To war
SOURCES
THUCYDIDES
455-399 BCE
ATHENIAN
PELOPONNESIAN
WAR CORRUPTED
ATHENIAN VALUES
Athenian Tribute Lists
fragments
acropolis
records of annual payments made by
league members
PLUTARCH
Greek in Roman
empire
wrote for Roman
audience
moral improvement
entertainment
Themistocles
Fortification of Piraeus
Ostracism c. 472 BCE
CIMON
Son of Miltiades
Delian League against Persia 476 – 467
BCE
465 BCE – Revolt of Thasos
Thracian mines
Impeached and exiled
Contributed to rise of Athenian Empire and
repression of rebellion
PERICLES
Introduced pay for
jury duty
Increased political
power of poorer class
Using Delian League
funds, beautified
Athens
Events under Pericles
459 BCE Long walls
454 BCE transfer of Delian League treasury
451 BCE Citizenship
446-445 BCE Treaty with Sparta
431-404 BCE War
Strategy sea battles, financial resources, empire
430-426 BCE Epidemic
429 BCE Death
Long Walls
PARTHENON
ACROPOLIS
PELOPONNESIAN WAR
431-404 War -- 431 BCE
Death Of Pericles 429 BCE
415-413 BCE -- Alcibiades -- Spartan Allies In Sicily
Sparta -- Athenian Countryside
Persia -- Money For Spartan Fleet
404 BCE Athens Surrenders; Humbled
404-403 BCE –30 tyrants; Democracy Restored
Peloponnesian War
431-404 Athens and Sparta
Open society
Closed, rigid society
Culmination of the Golden Age of Athens
Subject of first great history written by an
eyewitness
History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides
Democracy on trial
Causes
Corcyra and Corinth
Allies of Athens and Sparta
Sparta voted for war
Archidamos warns of its difficulty
Advised preparation for sea war –
• Advice not taken
Pericles gathers rural dwellers into the city
430
Athens choked with refugees
Plague arrives at Piraeus
Athenian Plague
430-429; 428; 427
25-30% dead
1050 of one detachment of 4000 hoplites
Short term
Athens is weakened
Pregnant women especially susceptible
Explanations and responses
Spartans poisoned the water
Gods displeased
No effective remedy
Rituals and rites ineffective
Burial transgressions
Spending and crime sprees
Death of Pericles
Followed by non-aristocratic leaders
Pandered to popular will
Encouraged war
Peace of Nikias
421
50 year truce
Lasted about a year
418 – war on again
Alcibiades
415
Fleet to Sicily
Accused of sacrilege and fled to Sparta
Advised Sparta against Athenians
End of the war
Help from Persia
Built a fleet
End of war in 404 at Aegisthopotami
Athenian politics
411
400 tyrants
30 tyrants
Aristocratic, ambitious
Overturned and Athens now democracy again
Other aspects of war
Melos in 416
Was this democracy run wild?
A test for Greek culture?
Compare Rome and Greece
Decline of Sparta
Spartans -- poor leaders -- alienated many
Greed and population decline
Leuctra 371 BCE
Thebes -- Epaminondas
Mantinia 362 BCE
Thebes wins, Epaminondas falls, helots free
And the result
Weakened and vulnerable Greece
