Hellenic History Essentials
Bronze Age – 323 B.C.
By Ryan Vinson
Bronze Age Greece
1. Minoan Civilization – Named after King Minos, this Bronze Age civilization on Crete was known for
its huge palace complexes which lacked fortification walls. Also known for its art, which depicted no war.
The lack of walls & art suggests a peaceful civilization, and the Minoans spread far and wide as sea-faring
merchants exporting their culture across the Mediterranean and heavily influencing mainland Greece.
2. Four Minoan Palaces - Knossos, Malia, (Kata) Zakro, and Phaestos. Knossos was home to the mythical
labyrinth (means double axe-head) and Phaestos was home to the Phaestos disc, on which there is a spiral
of undeciphered symbols/writing
3. Thera - an island, modern Santorini, north of Crete, home to a volcano which erupted and is thought to
have led or helped lead to the downfall of the Minoans.
4. Mycenaean Civilization – Bronze Age mainland Greece, in which Mycenae seems to have been most
powerful. Heavily fortified centers like Mycenae brought in products from neighboring villages, then
redistributed to them. Very militaristic, and eventually moved into Crete. Met an interesting end by a cause
unknown to this day; perhaps a combination of earthquakes, Dorian invasions, plague, etc.
5. Tholos tombs – “Beehive” tombs, where a hill is made over a large domed tomb. Mycenae has two
examples, one called the Tomb of Agamemnon or the Treasury of Atreus. Tholos temples also exist, which
are simply circular shrines.
6. Dorians – the inhabitants of southern Greece, such as Sparta; believed to have invaded through the north
from the Black Sea, perhaps bringing an end to Mycenaean civilization. Settled in Southern Greece,
replacing local dialects with their own. As a people in the Classical age, they were conservative and
resistant to change, with little art produced. Typical Sparta.
7. Linear A vs. Linear B - Linear A, still undeciphered, was a script used on Minoan Crete; Linear B,
which has been deciphered and identified as early Greek, was used on mainland Greece and, by extension
via Mycenaeans, on later Minoan Crete. These were primarily used for records and taxes - no literature.
8. Fall of Troy - 1184 BC stands as the traditional date of the fall of Troy VIIa, Schliemann’s Troy and
supposedly Homer’s.
9. Dark Ages – a.k.a. Iron Age, Age of Tyrants/Kings, or Age of Colonization – period after the invasions
of the Dorians and carnage of the Sea Peoples when population, art, economics, and writing either fell
dramatically or disappeared altogether. Ended by a population explosion, colonization of the Mediterranean
and Black Seas, and the reintroduction of writing with the compilations of Homer.
Archaeologists of the Bronze Age
1. Heinrich Schliemann - dug Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns; “gazed on the face of Agamemnon”
2. Sir Arthur Evans - dug Knossos
3. Carl Blegen - dug Pylos, where many Linear B tablets were found
4. Michael Ventris & John Chadwick - deciphered Linear B
Archaic Age – The Times Are Changing.
1. Homer – composer of the Iliad & the Odyssey ca. 750 BC.
2. Draco - the harsh lawgiver of Athens, whose code made your punishments matched your crimes. Did
this in 621 BC and gives us the English word draconian.
3. Solon – 594 BC reformist and poet archon, who split Athens into four economic classes:
pentekosiomedimnoi (men who produced 500 bushels a year; the rich); hippies (men rich enough to own a
horse); zeugitai (men who could afford a yoke and oxen on their farm); and the poorest, the thetes.
4. Peisistratus – the tyrant of Athens in the mid-500’s BC, under whom the arts flourished
5. Hippias & Hipparchus - the sons of Peisistratus, who don’t keep everyone as happy as their father did.
Harmodius and Aristogeiton kill Hipparchus, becoming the tyrannicides. Hippias flees to Persia and aids
them against Greece in the 490’s, trying to have them reinstate him as a ruler of Athens for Persia.
6. Thespis – revolutionary actor in the court of the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus; thespian is a derivative.
7. Cleisthenes – the “father of democracy” who in 508 BC reformed the Boule to the Council of 500.
8. Lycurgus - Spartan lawgiver of the 7th century BC who reformed the constitution with a Delphic
proclamation called the Great Rhetra. Led to the militaristic Sparta we all love.
9. Ostracism – process first utilized extensively after Cleisthenes. Each year Athenians would vote to kick
one person out of Athens for a ten-year exile as a way to check his power. He retained all his property and
could resume all social and political duties upon his return. At least 6,000 votes had to be cast; named
ostracism because a vote would be cast on an ostrakon, a shard of pottery.
10. Pithecusae - the first Greek colony in Italy, though it did not last. Technically on the island of Ischia.
11. Cumae - the first permanent Greek colony, and the first on the mainland, in Italy
12. Lelantine War - early war between Chalchis and Eretria on Euboea, named after the plains between
the cities. This war saw the development of the hoplite phalanx strategy. Lasted circa 710-590.
13. Hoplite - heavily armored infantry standard to most Greek forces.
14. Phalanx - a formation of hoplites shoulder-to-shoulder with spears and shields. Forms a wall of men
with varying width and depth of added rows. Traditionally kept in a straight line butting heads with the
enemy’s phalanx, though later tacticians staggered the lines and utilized more lightly armored troops.
Developed during the Lelantine War, used until Rome’s conquest of Greece.
15. Olympics - started in 776 BC, ran every four years; Olympiads served as a calendar. Held at Olympia
in Elis in honor of Zeus, organized by neighboring city of Elis.
16. Other Panhellenic games - Isthmian Games at Corinth in honor of Poseidon, Pythian Games at Delphi
in honor of Apollo, Nemean Games at Nemea in honor of Heracles. Called Panhellenic because any Greek
could participate, even from colonies across the world.
Government Institutions – Athens:
1. Archon – One of nine magistrates elected annually. The archon basileos (King Archon) was
symbolically the most powerful and in charge of religion; the Archon Eponymos gave his name to the year;
the Polemarch was the lead on military affairs.
2. Ecclesia – popular assembly open to all Athenian citizens over 18; opened to all by Solon. Voted on
archons, legislation proposed by the Boule, strategoi, war, and peace.
3. Areopagus – council of former archons, originally very powerful. Had its power broken by Ephialtes,
after which it was limited to a court for hearing murder trials, like in mythology.
4. Boule – Athenian popular council revised several times. Under Solon, it was composed of 400 men, 100
from each of the four traditional tribes (phylai). Cleisthenes split Attica into ten tribes, each of which
contributed 50 men, for a total of 500, with regions called demes being allotted a number of spots based on
population. 50 men led the 500, a group called the prytany, which changed each month. Members of the
Boule were chosen by lot annually by the Ecclesia.
5. Heliaea – court of Athens, 6,000 members strong so that bribing would be impossible. Jurors were called
dicasts.
6. Strategoi – Ten generals elected annually
7. Liturgy - Athenian tax on the rich: options for payment included money, supplying ships for the navy,
sponsoring festivals, etc.
Government Institutions – Sparta:
1. Spartan Kings - Sparta was ruled at once by two kings, one from the Agiad dynasty and one from the
Eurypontid dynasty. Duties included upholding the law and leading the Spartan army on campaign.
2. Ephors - five magistrates elected annually to uphold the will and authority of the kings (e.g. to act
during the kings’ absences)
3. Apella - popular assembly in Sparta, which every full citizen older than 30 could participate in; no
discussion, just voting. Elected gerousia and ephors.
4. Gerousia - oligarchic senate of Spartan elders - 28 men above the age of 60 plus the two kings, elected
by Apella for life, usually from the aristocratic families. Proposed bills (rhetrai) for the Apella to vote on,
could veto Apella’s approved rhetrai. Geriatrics – medicine for old people.
5. Helots - Messenians subjugated by Sparta, forced into serfdom. They consistently outnumbered true
Spartans, which coupled with their status as the real agricultural workforce of Laconia, made them a
constant threat to Spartan stability and supremacy.
6. Crypteia - the secret police force of Sparta, meant to keep the helots in check and prevent them from
rebelling.
Greco-Persian Wars
1. Achaemenids - Persian royal dynasty including Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes; includes all
important Persian rulers by these names, everyone we’ll need to know
2. Darius I ”the Great” – Persian Great King during the Ionian Revolt & first invasion of Greece, reigned
from 522-486.
3. Ionian Revolt - 499-494 BC; Revolt of Ionian Greeks against Persian rule, led by Aristagoras of
Miletus. Led to the burning of Sardis, Athenian and Eritrean support for the Ionians, and Persian desire for
revenge against the Greeks.
4. Sardis – Capital of the Persian satrapy of Lydia. Home to the richest man in the world, King Croesus, in
the 500’s BC before Cyrus the Great’s conquest. Burned down by Athens during the Ionian Revolt, which
earned all of Greece the wrath of Persia. Until then, it was one end of the Royal Road of Persia, the other
being Persepolis.
5. Mardonius – Persian general who led a failed invasion in 492, which crashed at Mt. Athos in the north
during a bad storm. Returned only to lose at Marathon.
6. Marathon - 490 BC; the major battle of the first Persian invasion, at which the Athenians and Plataeans
held off the Persian army and ended the invasion. Athenian commanders included Miltiades and the
Polemarch Callimachus.
7. Miltiades – Athenian general at Marathon, who was later convicted of treason. He died in prison,
passing his huge debt to his son Cimon.
8. Xerxes – Persian Great King during the second invasion of Greece. Extremely hubristic, or overly
arrogant, comparing himself to a god. Ultimate act of hubris – bridging the Hellespont with his ships.
Watched the disaster at Salamis from Cape Sounion. Reigned 485-465. Xerxes the Great or Xerxes I.
9. Medizing – submission to Persia by presenting the Great King with symbolic earth and water. Infamous
medizers – Thebans, who didn’t resist Persia’s invasion.
10. Themistocles – Athenian mastermind of the victory at Salamis. Correctly interpreted the Delphic oracle
to “place your faith in wooden walls” to mean building a fleet rather than fortifying Athens. Evacuated the
city to the island of Salamis, where the naval battle took place, although Athens was razed.
11. Thermopylae - 480 BC; Leonidas, his 300 Spartan bodyguards, 900 helots, and some other Greeks
held the pass here to delay the oncoming Persian army so that the Athenians could prepare their fleet for the
battle at Salamis. Happens simultaneously with the naval delay at Artemisium. The Greeks are betrayed by
a local named Ephialtes, and the Persians surround them.
12. Salamis - 480 BC; The most important naval battle of the Persian Wars, where Themistocles lures the
larger Persian ships into the narrow straits surrounding the island of Salamis. The Persian fleet is
effectively annihilated, and the army’s supply lines strained. Reportedly fought on the same day as Himera
in Sicily, though unrelated.
13. Plataea - 479 BC; Pausanias and the Spartans lead the Greeks to a land victory over the Persian
remnants left over in Greece, leading to a full-blown Persian withdrawal.
14. Cimon – Miltiades’s son and an influential leader in Athens after the Persian invasions. Winner at the
battle of Eurymedon River, though he died on campaign in Cyprus in 450.
15. Eurymedon River - 468, 467, or 466 BC; Cimon’s victory over Persia in southern Asia Minor, which
effectively ruled out Persia’s direct/military threat to Greece
16. Peace of Callias – 449 BC, official end to the Persian Wars, signed by all members of the Delian
League at the urging of Athens.
17. Herodotus – the father of history, who wrote about the Persian Wars in his Histories. More interest in
exaggeration and lore than cold facts, perhaps to make the Greeks’ achievements look better.
Athenian Politics and Empire
1. Alcmaeonids - Athenian dynasty including Megacles, Cleisthenes, Miltiades, Cimon, Pericles, and
Alcibiades.
2. Ephialtes the politician - Pericles’s mentor, who broke the power of the Areopagus and limited it to
murder trials, and was assassinated 461 BC
3. Pericles – elected strategos from 460-429, led Athens at its height of power, commissioned the building
of the Parthenon, brought the Delian League treasury to Athens to effectively form the Athenian Empire.
The only prominent Athenian never to be ostracized. In Thucydides’s history he gives the annual Funeral
Oration, in which he calls Athens the “school of Hellas (Greece)”. Also secures payment for jurymen, so
that they can afford not to be working on the farm while serving. Dies during the plague that hits during the
Peloponnesian War, in 429, along with 1/3rd of Athens’s population.
4. Delian League – an alliance of Greek city-states (poleis) for mutual protection against Persia, begun in
477 BC. Each member paid with ships, supplies, etc. and the treasury was kept on Delos. Aristides the
Just/Good judged how much each polis owed. Pericles moved the treasury to Athens in 453, beginning the
Athenian Empire, as Athens was easily the most powerful polis involved. Sparta and others opted not to
join; weaker poleis were forced into joining to support Athens and punished if they tried to revolt or deny
payment. Eventually, paying the Delian League was the same as paying Athens.
5. Callicrates & Ictinus – the architects of the Parthenon; Callicrates of the Ionian order, Ictinus of the
Doric order.
6. Phidias – sculptor of Athena Nike in the Parthenon and the statue of Zeus at Olympia, a Wonder of the
Ancient World.
7. Aspasia – Pericles’s hetaera, or foreign lady.
Peloponnesian War
1. Corcyra and Epidamnus – Corinth founded Corcyra, which founded Epidamnus. Corcyra and
Epidamnus got into a fight, and Corinth sided with Epidamnus. Athens sided with Corcyra. Corinth saw
this as unwarranted and a threat to their dominance of the western coast of Greece, and gave them a reason
to urge Sparta to war with Athens. Other reasons exist, but this is a major one; Athens does very little to
anger Sparta, but angers other Greeks very much, and those other Greeks get Sparta on their side.
2. Piraeus - the port of Athens, connected to Athens by the Long Walls so Athens could survive land sieges
by importing from its colonies safely. This becomes Pericles’s strategy to survive the Peloponnesian War,
but a plague strikes the crowded city and kills 1/3rd of its population in 429.
3. Sphacteria - 425 BC; the Athenians blockaded the Spartans on the small island near Pylos, cornering
them and eventually leading to the surrender of 121 Spartans.
4. Cleon the Tanner – demagogue of Athens, aggressive in military policy. Led Athens’s second attempt
to recapture Amphipolis in 422, but died there.
5. Amphipolis - 422 BC; An Athenian expedition to recapture Amphipolis, its largest and most important
colony in Thrace, from the Spartans, who captured it in 424. Led by Cleon, the Athenians failed miserably,
and both Cleon and the Spartan king Brasidas were killed. The Spartans only lost eight men, while the
Athenians lost about 600. This defeat led to the Peace of Nicias.
6. Peace of Nicias – 421-415 BC peace during the Peloponnesian War, named after the Athenian who
engineered it. Suggested by Athens then because they had just been devastated at Amphipolis. A weak
peace, during which both sides recovered for more fighting. This ends the Archidamian War, the first 10
years of the Peloponnesian War.
7. Alcibiades – prominent Athenian general who proposed the Sicilian Expedition and set out to lead it.
However, charges of mutilating the herms (cutting off the genitalia of sacred statues) and mocking the
Eleusinian Mysteries in front of non-initiates, who could not know of the rituals, came back to haunt him,
and he fled to Sparta before he could be and arrested tried. He helped Sparta against Athens before fleeing
from Sparta due to an affair with the king’s wife, went back to helping Athens, then ran to Persia.
8. Sicilian Expedition - 415-413 BC; Athenian decision during the peace in the Peloponnesian War to aid
the colony of Segesta against Syracuse. Proposed by Alcibiades, who abandoned it due to charges placed
against him. Effectively led by Nicias, who resisted the idea in the first place. A terrible failure, and the
Athenians sent the general Demosthenes to save the fleet. Nicias refused to leave then because of
superstition, and both were killed along with the majority of the Athenian military. A crippling blow from
which Athens would never truly recover.
9. Arginusae - 406 BC; Eight Athenian strategoi save the blockaded forces at Mytilene in a pitched naval
battle, but a fierce storm prevents them from rescuing the survivors. For this, 6 of the 8 strategoi were
executed, despite their victory.
10. Aegospotami - 405 BC; Lysander ambushes the Athenian fleet when they land to hunt/camp, crushing
their main force and ending the Peloponnesian War. Only Conon and his ship escape for the Athenians.
Aegospotami means “Goat’s River”
11. Lysander – Spartan general who won at Aegospotami in 405, forcing Athens to surrender. Dies during
the ensuing Corinthian War.
12. Thirty Tyrants – oligarchic group imposed on Athens by Sparta after the Peloponnesian War, in 404.
Led by Critias and Theramenes, they oppressed the citizens’ rights, imprisoned, exiled, and killed political
opponents, until the exiled general Thrasybulus returned with Theban support and drove them out a year
after their installment. Democracy was reinstated.
13. Thucydides – the historian of the Peloponnesian War, who only wrote about things he was alive to
experience or things other living people had experienced. More technical and scientific than Herodotus.
Struggles for Power
1. Xenophon – general and historian – after the Persian King Darius II’s death, his son Cyrus the Younger
raised an army of Greek mercenaries to overthrow his older brother Artaxerxes II. Xenophon was part of
this army, which won at Cunaxa in 401 BC. Cyrus died, however, leaving the Greeks stranded in Persia.
Artaxerxes tricked the Greek generals into a meeting where they were killed, and Xenophon was selected
as a new general. He led the remaining Greeks home through Persian territories, writing about this March
of the Ten Thousand in his Anabasis.
2. Corinthian War – Sparta soon lost favor with its allies and Persia following the Peloponnesian War,
being too aggressive. Thebes, Corinth, Athens, and Argos declared war on Sparta at Persia’s suggestion. A
stalemate ensued on land, but Persia annihilated Sparta’s navy. Athens used this as an opportunity to
reclaim Ionian cities from Sparta, which Persia disliked, so Persia switched to support Sparta. Losing their
financial support, the allies asked for peace with Sparta. Several new tactics were experimented with, as
Iphicrates of Athens defeated a force of hoplites with the lightly-armored peltasts.
3. King’s Peace – 387 BC, ended the Corinthian War. Named King’s Peace because the Great King of
Persia dictated the terms. Alternatively called the Peace of Antalcidas, the Spartan diplomat. Persia claimed
all of Ionia as a result of this.
4. Epaminondas - Theban general who led Thebes during its hegemony (supremacy), along with the lesser
Pelopidas. Pioneered the use of the staggered and unbalanced phalanx, overwhelming one side of the
enemy’s forces first, then wrapping around them with the first side as the second side finally hit the
enemy’s second side.
5. Leuctra - 371 BC; Epaminondas’s greatest victory, which secured Theban hegemony over Sparta.
6. Mantinea - 362 BC; Another victory for Thebes, but Epaminondas dies, telling Pelopidas to make
peace, since Thebes would lose without Epaminondas’s command.
Macedonian Supremacy
1. Philip II – Macedonian king and a shrewd politician and general, who consolidated Macedonian power
in the north through political alliances and marriages, then looked south to Greece. Eventually wiped out
Thebes and Athens, the only resistance, at the battle of Chaeronea in 338, and set up the Corinthian League
of Greeks to submit to Macedon. Assassinated in 336, leading to his son Alexander’s rise to power.
2. Sarissa - a longer spear introduced by Philip II as one of his military reforms. 16 to 18 feet long rather
than the usual 8-9 feet. This added range made the Macedonian phalanx vastly superior to the other Greeks’
3. Demosthenes - the greatest Greek orator, who flourished in Athens in the 340’s when he delivered
speeches supporting war with Macedon. Fled when the war actually came. The speeches against Philip
were called the Philippics, a name Cicero copies. Demosthenes had a speech disability, and practiced by
speaking against the waves with stones in his mouth.
4. Chaeronea - 338 BC; Philip & Alexander wipe out the only Greek resistance, from Athens and Thebes,
consolidating Macedonian power. Alexander defeats the powerful Sacred Band of Thebes.
5. Alexander III “the Great” – Macedonian king who followed his father Philip and lived from 356-323.
He conquered Asia Minor, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, modern Afghanistan and into the
Punjab region of Pakistan, initially as a campaign to reclaim Ionian cities and exact revenge on Persia. Cut
the Gordian knot, which was prophesied to be untied by the future ruler of Asia. Claimed descent from
Zeus Ammon, founded dozens of cities (most called Alexandria), and brought Greek culture to the East,
creating Hellenistic cultures from combination with local cultures. His army mutinied in India, and he died
on the way home, from fever in Babylon in 323, at the age of 32.
6. Darius III – Persian Great King deposed by Alexander’s invasion. Fled from the battles at Issus and
Gaugamela, only to be betrayed and killed by the nobleman Bessus.
7. Granicus River - 334 BC; Alexander’s first battle in Persian territory near Troy; frees Ionian Greeks
8. Issus River - 333 BC; Alexander & Darius III meet on the battlefield for the first time; Darius flees,
marking the beginning of the end for Persia
9. Tyre - 332 BC; Alexander successfully besieges the island fortress by building a bridge out of debris;
takes 7-8 months, but Alexander secures the Levant coast (Turkey south to Israel)
10. Gaugamela - 331 BC; the decisive battle where Alexander defeats the main Persian force and Darius
flees again, only to be betrayed. Alexander becomes King of Asia. Can also be referred to as the Battle of
Arbela.
11. Hydaspes River - 326 BC; Alexander fights King Porus on behalf of his ally, King Taxiles, in modern
Pakistan; Porus uses elephants, resulting in Alexander’s most costly victory. After this his army mutinied.
12. Four Capitals of Persia – Persepolis, Susa, Babylon, Ecbatana. Alexander burns Persepolis down.
The Groupies
1. Bucephalus - Alexander’s horse, which only Alexander could tame, despite being a child. Sustained
fatal injuries while saving Alexander’s life at Hydaspes, and had the newly founded city of Bucephala
named after him.
2. Parmenio & Philotas – Parmenio was a general for Philip & Alexander – their best general. His son
Philotas served under Alexander before being executed for suspicions of treason. Before Parmenio could
learn of this and take revenge, he was killed as well.
3. Black Cleitus - An officer and friend of Alexander, whom he saved at Granicus. Alexander’s repayment
was to kill him later during a drunken brawl.
4. Hephaestion - Alexander’s special friend, whose death likely contributed to Alexander’s (depression,
hopelessness).
5. Ptolemy – general and scholar of Philip’s and Alexander’s, who took Egypt after Alexander’s death and
started the Ptolemaic dynasty.
6. Olympias - Alexander’s mother, an Epiran princess and one of Philip’s wives. A possible suspect in
Philip’s assassination by his bodyguard Pausanias, so that she could secure the throne for Alexander.
7. Barsine – one of Alexander’s women, a Phrygian, more of a political marriage when she was captured
from the court of Darius III.
8. Roxane - Alexander’s wife, a Bactrian princess, whom he met while besieging a Sogdian fortress. More
romantic.
9. Stateira – another wife of Alexander; Darius III’s daughter, married after her father’s death.
10. Diadochi - Successors of Alexander, who bequeathed his kingdom “to the strongest” at his death.
Ptolemy claimed Egypt, Seleucus grabbed Syria, and Antigonus controlled Greece - these are the primary
3, though dozens of Hellenistic kingdoms formed.