Persian War
- War between Greece and Persian Empire
- began in ionia
- greeks were settled there but persians conquered it around 546BC
- Ionian Greeks revolted
- Athens sent soldiers to help the revolt
- Darius the Great defeated the revolt and then vowed to destroy athens
- 490 BC the Persian fleet of 25000 men landed in an area ccalled marathon
- 10000 Athenians meet them there
- After several hours of fighting
- Persians fled the battlefield
- 6000 persian lives were lost
- 200 or less Athenians lives were lost
- The athenians were using this new fighting formation, Phalanx
- Persians were not well trained in this tyope of land fighting
- The Persians also wore very light armor compared to that of the Athenians
- Athenians were fighting on their homeland
Marathon
- Athenians had won, but they left their city without much of an army
- army leaders would send a runner to alert Athens of the battle
- Pheidippides was that runner
- He ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens
- Persians tried to quickly attack athens after their defeat at marathon but the athenians had already returned, so they fled once again
Ten years later
- Xerxes, Darius the Great's son, had become the successor of the Persian army.
- He brought an enormous army with him to complete the job that his father once vowed
Greek Issues
- the greeks were very divided on how to handle the persian situation.
- some city-states thought that they should fight them and defend their city of athens
- some city-states thought it was't worth it and they should just allow them to burn it
- some even fought with the Persians
Thermopylae
- a narrow mountain pass was the setting of this battle
- 7000 Greeks and 300 Spartans stood in the way of Xerxes and his huge army on this push to get to athens
- Xerxes underestimated the Greeks and Spartans, however, they stood up for three days to them
300
- a traitor went to Xerxes and informed him of a secret path around the pass.
- Fearing the defeat, the spartans fought the persians so that the greeks could flee to fight another day
- all 300 were killed including Leonidas
Lasting Effects of Spartan Sacrifice
- made a great impression on the greeks
- allowed the remaining greeks to retreat and fight the persians again
- Showed Xerxes what he was up against
Slamis
- greeks abandoned athens, because they thought fighting at sea was their best chance
- they were right, Xerxes watched as 1/3 of this fleet was sunk. (Diminished his army)
Lasting effects of Persian war
- The Delian League was created. (An alliance of Greek city-states to continued to pust the Persians out of all Greece
- Athenians wash the head of the league and moved the head quaters to athens
- this gave athenians a lot of power and helped push them into their golden age
Technology
- the Dorian age, only rich could afford to buy bronze weapons and armor
- Iron later replaced bronze, allowed common man to fight
- new formation was formed in battle called the phalanx, spear in one hand, shield in other
During the Dorian Period
- Dorian and Mycenaean people started to identify less with culture of their ancestors and more with the local area
- Gov't made the transition from tribal or clan control to more formal gov'ts called city-states
- A polis was made up of a city and its surrounding countryside, which would include numerous villages.
- Citizens of the polis would come together to meet at an acropolis to discus their city gov't
- Not all city-states had the same form of gov't
- Monarchy-state ruled by king, rule is hereditary, some rulers claim that they have a divine right (picked by God to lead and govern the people) to rule, practiced in Mycenae by 2000 BC
- Aristocracy-state ruled by nobility, rule is hereditary and based on ties, social rank, and wealth, social status and wealth support rulers' authority, practiced in Athens prior to 594 BC
- Oligarchy-state ruled by a small group of citizens, rule is based on wealth and/or ability, ruling group controls the military, practiced in Sparta by 500 BC
- Direct Democracy-state ruled by citizens, rule is based on citizenship (not if you live there, there are requirements), majority rule decides vote, practiced in Athens by 500 BC
- Athens-about the 600 BC, Athens was taking steps toward a democracy, there were major reforms for the next 100 years that would eventually lead to a democracy starting around 500 BC
- Draco
- Developed a legal code based on the idea that all Athenians, rich and poor, were equal under law
- He had very harsh punishments for nearly and crime
- He believed in debt slavery
- The word "draconian" has come to mean "extreme cruelty or severity"
- Solon
- Stated that no citizen should own another
- Organized Athens into four social classes based on wealth
- Only top three classes could hold political office
- However, all four could participate in the Athenian assembly
- Cleisthenes
- Broke Athens up based on region that the citizens lived instead of wealth (10 groups)
- Increased the power of the assembly by allowing all citizens to submit laws for debate and passage.
- Created the Council of Five Hundred
- Proposed laws
- Counseled the assembly
- Members were chosen at random
- Draco
- Limited Democracy
- The reforms allowed for a limited democracy, but all people were citizens
- Requirements of Citizenship
- Free
- Adult
- Property owner
- Born in Athens
- Sparta, located in the southern part of Greece, and was cut off from the rest o Greece by the Gulf of Corinth
- Government-several branches
- assembly, all citizens, elected officials and voted on major issues
- council of elders, 30 older citizens, proposed laws on the assembly to vote on
- 5 elected officials that carried out the laws that were passed by the assembly
- 2 kings that ruled over Sparta's military
- Government-several branches
- Athens vs. Sparta
- Compare and contrast
- my topic was responsibilities of citizens and non-citizens
Classical Greece
Sea
- allowed opportunity for trade and travel
- allowed Greece to get natural resources that it lacked: timer, precious metals, usable farmland
Land
- Rugged mountains covered about 3/4% of ancient Greece
- Mountains were often the divider for different regions.
- Played big role in wars, Hard to move through mountains with large army.
Climate
- Upper 40s in winter
- lower 80s in summer
- allowed for many outdoor activities
Classical Greece
- Minoan-created an elegant civilization that had great power that started around 3000 bc
- Minoans culture influenced the Mycenaeans
- Writing, language
- Design
- Trade
- Ships to trade goods
- Mycenaeans-influenced by minoans
- came from Indo-European migrants
- Dominated Greece from 1600 BC to 1100 BC
- Dorian
- spoke a kind of greek
- Not as advanced as the others, no writing system
- focused more on story telling
-best is Homer
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