Monday -
Persian Wars (499 BCE)
Fought between Persian Empire and Greek city-states
Persia wanted Greece because of wealth and resources, increase in power for the king, wanted to stop revolts
Ionians led a revolt against the Persians after Cyrus the Great died, led by Athenian General Miltiades, Ionia asked Athens to help, Darius (Persian leader) was very mad at Greeks for helpung the Ionians
Miltiades escaped back to Athens and told Athens that the Persians were cominh to burn down Athens
Darius sent a letter to the Greek cities asking to submit to the Persians, Athens killed the envoys which really started the war, Darius responded with a naval invasion of 600 ships and 25,000 men
Persia was the largest empire at the time, Grece was about 500,000 total people
Athens and Sparta had been enemies but they decied to unite and fight for Greece
Battle of Marathon (Greeks won)
90,000 persians and 10,000 Greeks (Greeks won) Greeks had longer spears, heavier swords, better armor, better formations
Pheidippides (After battle he ran from Marathon to Athens to tell the Athenians of the victory over Persia)
Battle of Thermopylae (Persians won)
Ten years after the battle orf Marathon, Persia once again invaded Greece, Darius's son made it a goal to destroy Athens, The persians won the Battle, the Spartan troops held out for several days to allow the other cities to prepare
The Persians moved into Greece and looted Athens
Battle of Salamis 480 BC (Greeks won)
The Greek navy destroyed the Persians, The persians were driven out of Greece, The Delian League was established setting up an alliance between the Greeks, 470 BC Greece and Athens eneter a golden age
The Peace Treaty 449 BCE
All Greek cities of Asia were to be free (Persians had to stay a certain distance from Greece, Persian warships could not sail west, if Persia folowed these terms then the Greeks would not send troops to Persia)
Tuesday -
Democracy and Greece's Golden Age (After Persian war, Life was flourishing, also known as "Age of Pericles", led into the Peoloponnesian War)
Pericles' Plan for Athens
Three goals:
Strengthen the democracy of Athens (Increased the number of paid government jobs which benefitted people who were not wealthy, Instituted direct democracy where citizens rule directly and not through elected representatives
Strengthen the Empire (Helped establish and eventually led the Delian League after Persian Wars, Grew Athens navy, Started dominating other city-states which led to conflicts)
Glorify Athens (Used money from the Delian League to buy gold, marble and ivory, Used money from Delian League to hire artists, architects and workers to build buildings and sculptures, Athens became the bad guy
Wednesday -
Talked Politics
Thursday -
Greek Drama-Tragedy and Comedy
Tragedy - a serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, or betrayal (a hero was an important person and often gifted with extraordinary abilities, a tragic flaw usualy caused the hero's downfall, usually excessive pride)
Comedy-Contained scenes filled with humar (often made fun of politics and respected people and ideas of the time, Aristophanes was a famous writer of comedies, The fact that Athenians could listen to criticism of themselves showed the freedom that existed in democratic Athens)
The start of History
Herodotus pioneered the accurate reporting events
Thucydides believed that certain types of events and political situations recur over time-History repeats itself (peloponnesian war)
Peloponnesian (Attic) War (431-404 BCE)
Fought between Athens and Sparta
Started because sparta did not like how athens was growing and athens thought they were better then everyone, athens was bullying others (sparta had a better army, athens had a better navy)
Sparta won, the plague that hit Athens helped
*Stage 1*
Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica starting in 431 BCE their goal was to take over their land and eventually starve the Athenians if they would not meet them in battle, Spartans would only occupy Attica for around three weeks at a time as they had to go back and harvest crops, Spartans also had to worry about helot revolts, so they needed to be supervised constantly
Athens plan
Wanted to avoid land battles with sparta, get behind athens wall, use the long walls almost 4 miles long to access the sea in order to trade and get resources, use the Athenian navy to invade cities in the Peloponnese
The plague
In 430 BCE a plague hit Athens, the plague wiped out over 30,000 citizens, sailors and soldiers, including Pericles and his sons, Roughly one third to two thirds of the Athenian population died, the fear of the plague was so widespread that the spartan invasion of Attica was abandoned
Friday -
Peace of Nicias-first stage peace treaty
Ended the war in 421 BCE, said both sides would give back most everything that they took from the other, temples would be open to anyone from all cities, Athens would contnue to collect tribute from the states from wich it had recieved, Athens agreed that if spartans slaves revolt then athens would help sparta
Peace treaty was abandoned by 414 BCE
Stage 2 (silician exhibition , in 415 BC athens invaded syracuse, sicily, 100 ships 5,000 soldiers, 30 horses, wanted to help ethnic allies that were on the island, Athens enemy were the syracusans and spartans, athens wanted to take control of the entire island for resources, An athenian generak defected to sparta and told them that athens wanted sicily so they could launch an invasian of italy, carthage and the peloponnese, the attack failed badly
State 3 (known as the decelian war 413-404 BCE, the spartans moved into attica and eventually took over the city of Decelia and fortified it, Their goal was to take over the land and prevent athens from getting supplies into the city over land, this would force athens to rely on supplies via the sea, Due to this, sparta started focusing on attacking the places where the athens got a lot of their supplies, Sparta was now getting help from the syracusans and persians, Athens followed the spartans with their navy as the spartans went to attack their strongholds, in 405 BCE the athenians were defeated in the naval battle of Aegospotami, the athenians surrendered, ending the peloponnesian war
Aftermath of the peloponnesian war 405 BCE (Sparta took over the athens empire, Sparta got all the riches from the war and spartans allies got little to nothing, For a short time athens was ruled by sparta and the thirty tyrants, the tyrants killed 5 percent of the athens, in 403 BC the thirty tyrants were overthrown and a democracy was restored, the corinthian war 395-382 BCE was a war between sparta and athens, corinth and many other city states, Sparta was soundly beat by thebes at the battle of leucta in 371 BCE ending sparta's dominance in the areas
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