Imperial Democracy in
Classical Athens
An Impressionistic History
Persian Wars
499-479 BCE
“So, as it stands now, a man who declares that
the Athenians were the saviors of Greece
would hit the very truth.”
~ Herodotus, 7.139
Achaemenid Persian Empire
Apadana Staircase
Persepolis
Xerxes’ Gate
Persepolis
Darius’ Empire
Ionian Revolt (499/8-494 BCE)
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Asia Minor Greeks as part of Yauana Satrapy
The Burning of Sardis and Athenian Naval
Support (Herodotus 5.105)
Darius and the Burning of Sardis
Herodotus, 5.105
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“When King Darius was informed that Sardis had been
captured and burned by the Athenians and the Ionians…he
first (so the story goes), when he heard the news, made no
account of the Ionians--for he knew well that they would surely
not get off scot-free for their rebellion--but he put the question,
“Who are the Athenians?” and, having his answer, asked for a
bow. He took it, fitted an arrow to it, and shot it into the sky,
and as he sent it up he prayed, “Zeus, grant me the chance of
punishing the Athenians.” Having said that, he ordered one of
his servants that, as often as a meal was set before him, the
man should says three times, ‘Master, remember the
Athenians’.”
First Persian Expedition Against Greece:
Battle at Marathon (490 BCE)
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Modern estimations of the size of the Persian
expedition around 20,000 troops
Darius attempts to form “fifth columns” among
the aristocracies in the Greek poleis (cf.
Herodotus 6.48)--medizing
Objectives: Eretria on Euboea and Athens
September 490: Battle at Marathon (Attica)-Herodotus 6.112; casualties = 6,400 Persians; 192
Athenians (Herodotus 6.117)
Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)
Marathon--Phases of Battle
Xerxes (486-465/4 BCE) and the Second
Persian Invasion of Greece (480-479 BCE)
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Interim: Egyptian revolt (486/5-484 BCE); Laurium silver
mines discovered (482 BCE); Themistocles and the
construction of the Athenian naval fleet
The Fleet, the thetes, and the Development of Athenian
Democracy
June, 480 BCE: Second Persian Expedition (50,000-175,000
troops); Autumn, 481 BCE = Defensive Alliance of Greek
states headed by Sparta and Athens
King Leonidas, the 300 Spartans, and Thermopylae
September, 480 BCE: Sack of Athens, 9/20/480 BCE:
Salamis and the Athenian trireme
Bust of Themistocles
Athenian Trireme Reproduced
Xerxes’ Route
Greeks on the Offensive
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Battle at Mycale (479 BCE)
Ionians stage rebellion against Persia
Athenians capture Sestos (end of winter
479/8 BCE)
Foundation of Delian Confederacy (477
BCE)
Cimon captures Eion on the Strymon river
(Persian stronghold)--476/5 BCE
Creation of the Persian Wars Myth
“Indeed upon the Asian land
no longer are they subject to the Persians
nor do they yet pay tribute
through the master’s crushing necessity
nor are they ruled falling prostrate before the king.
For the kingly strength has perished”
~Aeschylus, Persians, lines 584-97, produced 472 BCE
Creation of the Persian Wars Myth
“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by
that here obedient to their words we lie.”
Inscription at Thermopylae
Reported by Herodotus, 7.228
Some Modern Thinkers
on the Persian Wars
“[The Persian Wars] live immortal not in the historical records of Nations only,
but also of Science and of Art--of the Noble and the Moral generally. For these
are World-Historical Victories; they were the salvation of culture and spiritual
vigor and they rendered the Asiatic principle powerless”
~ G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History
“The battle of Marathon, even as an event in English history, is more important
than the battle of Hastings. If the issue of that day had been different, the
Britons and the Saxons might still have been wandering in the woods”
~J.S. Mill, Discussions and Dissertations
From Alliance to Empire
Thucydides 1.89-117
Pentekontaitia: From Defensive Alliance to
Athenian Empire (Thuc. 1.89-117)
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Athens rebuilt and fortified; Piraeus (Thuc.
1.90-93)
The Pausanias affair and Athenian allied
leadership (Thuc. 1.126-138)
Delian Confederacy and the First Assessment
 Aristides’ First Assessment (460 talents);
treasury at Delos (Thuc. 1.96)
 Allied contributions: money or ships
 Hellenotamiae (“Hellenic treasurers”)
Athens Fortified: The Long Walls
Pentekontaitia: From DefensiveAlliance to
Athenian Empire (Thuc. 1.89-117)
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Allied Military Actions
 Persia--470s: Eion (Persian stronghold);
Scyros (pirate lair); Carystus (medizer)
 Cimon’s Eurymedon campaign in
Pamphylia (469/8? 466?); destruction of
200 Phoenician war-ships
 Expedition to Egypt (ends in disaster):
459-454 BCE
 Internal Policing (Naxos, 470; Thasos, 465)
Delian League
Bust of Pericles
Cimon, Pericles, and the Reorientation of
Athenian Foreign Policy
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Cimon’s Outmoded Policy (Sparta and Athens as the
“yoke-fellows” of Greece against Persia)
Ephialtic Reforms of 462/1 BCE (archons by lot, pay
for jury duty, stripping of Areopagus)
Ostracism of Cimon (ca. 462); obsolescence of
Cimonian policy; “Peace of Callias” in 449?
Pericles and Sparta
SUMMARY
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Persian Wars and Creation of Athenian Naval
Empire
Athenian Allies Become Athenian Tribute-Paying
Subjects
Imperial Profits Underwrite Democracy at Athens
Reorientation of Athenian Foreign Policy from
Persia to Sparta
Peloponnesian War against Sparta (431-403 BCE):
Thucydides
Parthenon: Symbol of Periclean Democracy