Ancient Greece (CYCLE OF WARFARE)
Persian and Peloponnesian War
and the Legacy of Alexander
Objectives
• Students will explore how Greeks won the Persian Wars.
• Students will discover what led to the outbreak of the
Peloponnesian War and the wars consequences.
• Students will investigate Alexander the Great and his
empire.
• Students will discover what life was like in the Hellenistic
world and their many cultural achievements.
The Persian Wars
In the early 400s BC, the Greek city-states came into conflict with the vast Persian
Empire, a larger, stronger opponent.
Causes of the Conflict
Revenge
• Roots of Persian Wars lay in region of
Ionia, in what is now Turkey
• Ionian Greeks asked fellow Greeks
for help
• Ionian city-states founded as Greek
colonies, fell under Persian rule, 500s
BC
• Athens sent aid, ships
– Ionian Greeks unhappy with
Persian rule
– Wanted independence
– Rebelled, 499 BC
• Persians put down revolt
– Revolt made Persian emperor
Darius angry enough to seek
revenge
– Planned to punish Ionians’ allies,
especially Athens, by attacking
Greek mainland
http://youtu.be/ka12FNcTwh4
First Invasion (Battle of Marathon)
The First Persian Invasion
• 490 BC, Persians set out to fulfill Darius’s plans for revenge
• Fleet carrying tens of thousands of Persian troops set out for Greece
• Came ashore near town of Marathon, not far from Athens
Persian Retreat
• Warned in advance, Greeks arrived at Marathon, caught Persians unloading ships, charged in
phalanx, tight rectangle formation
• Persians counterattacked, more Greeks closed in, Persians retreated
Preparations for a Second Invasion
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Greek victory at Marathon shocked both Greeks, Persians
Athenians could not believe they had defeated stronger foe
Persians humiliated, furious
Darius planned second invasion, but died before invasion launched
Son Xerxes vowed revenge, continued to plan attack on Greece
Xerxes
• 480 BC, 10 years after first invasion,
Xerxes set out for Greece
• Hundreds of thousands of soldiers,
sailors, animals, weapons, supplies
• Greek accounts say Persian army so
huge took week to cross bridge built
into Greece
Athenians
• Faced with invasion, Athenians called
on other Greek city-states to help fight
off Persians
• Athens, bitter rival, agreed to help
• Had recently built large navy, took
charge of Greek fighting ships
• Sparta took charge of Greek armies
Second Invasion and Aftermath
The Greeks worried that they would not have time to prepare their troops for battle.
To slow down the Persians, a group of Spartans and their allies gathered in a mountain
pass at Thermopylae, through which the Persians would pass to get into Greece.
The Second Persian Invasion
• Spartans held off entire Persian army
for several days
• Persians shown alternate path through
mountains; were able to surround, kill
Spartans
• Spartans’ sacrifice bought time for
Greeks’ defense
After Thermopylae
• Persians marched south to Athens,
attacked, burned city; needed fleet to
bring additional supplies
• Athenian commander lured fleet into
narrow strait at Salamis
• Greek warships cut them to pieces
Persian army with no supplies no longer a match for the Greeks; and within a year the
Greeks had won the Persian Wars.
The Golden Age of Athens
As leaders in the Persian Wars, Athens and Sparta became the two most powerful,
influential city-states in Greece. After the wars, Athens entered a golden age as the
center of Greek culture and politics.
Alliance
Delian League
• After Persian Wars citystates banded together
to defend each other,
punish Persia
• Alliance’s treasury kept
on islands of Delos
• Largest, richest of
alliance members was
Athens
• Alliance known as
Delian League
• Athens controlled ships,
money
• League grew in
membership, power
Increased Influence
• Some members
resented Athenian
dominance
• Members who tried to
quit attacked by league
fleet, forced back into
alliance
• League became
Athenian empire
The Age of Pericles
Much of the rebuilding of Athens was due to one man—Pericles, a skilled politician
and gifted public speaker.
Pericles
• 460s, elected one of Athens’
generals, became Athens’ most
influential politician
• Great champion of democracy
– Introduced payment for those
who served in public offices, on
juries
– Encouraged Athenians to
introduce democracy elsewhere
Patron of the Arts
• Commissioned building Parthenon,
other monuments
– Hired artists, sculptors to
decorate them
• Wanted Athens to be most glorious
city in Greece
– Believed it had best
government, noblest people,
monuments to prove superiority
• The Peloponnesian War was a protracted struggle, and
attended by calamites such as Hellas had never known
within a like period of time. Never were so many cities
captured and depopulated-some by barbarians, others
by Hellenes themselves fighting against one another;
and several of them after their capture were repeopled
by strangers. Never were exile and slaughter more
frequent whether in the War or brought about by civil
strife.
(Thucydides qtd. in Botsford 196)
The Peloponnesian War
As the leader of the Delian League, Athens was the richest, mightiest polis in Greece.
Being rich and mighty brought many powerful rivals, the greatest of which was
Sparta, which wanted to end its dominance.
Peloponnesian League
• Sparta head of
Peloponnesian League,
allied city-states
• Formed 500s BC, to
provide protection,
security for members
Tension Built
• Tensions built between
Delian, Peloponnesian
Leagues
• Mutual fear led to war
between Athens, Sparta
War
• Athens feared military
might of another
league
• Sparta feared loss of
trading
• 431 BC, the two
declared war
• Lasted many years
The Course of War
War in Greece
• Initially neither side gained much advantage
• Sparta, allies dominated land; Athens, allies dominated sea
• Athenians avoided land battles; neither side won more than minor victories
Plague and Peace
• 430, 429 BC, plague struck Athens, changed course of war
• Pericles, Athens’ leader through beginning of war, among dead
• After plague, fighting heated up until truce in 421 BC
Sparta’s Victory
• 415 BC, war broke out again; Sparta took to sea as well as land, destroyed Athenian
fleet; Athens surrendered 404 BC
• Peloponnesian War almost destroyed Athens; Sparta also exhausted by war
That the Long Walls and
Fortifications of Piraeus should
be destroyed; that the Athenian
fleet, with the exception of 12
vessels should be surrendered;
that the exile should be
restored; and lastly, that the
Athenians should acknowledge
the headship of Sparta in
Peace and War, leaving her the
choice of friends and foes, and
following her lead by land and
sea. (235)
Cycle of Warfare
After victory, Sparta’s army tried to act as Greece’s dominant
power
• Sparta’s wealth, resources badly strained, power worn down
• Spartans could not keep control of Greece
• City-state of Thebes defeated Sparta, could not maintain control either
• Struggle for power led to long cycle of warfare that left all Greece
vulnerable to attack
• 340s BC, Macedonia, Greek-speaking kingdom to north, swept in, took
control of all Greece led by Phillip II
Rise of Macedonia
Macedonia rose to power and took control of Greece in the years that followed the
Peloponnesian War.
The Rise of Macedonia
• Most Greeks considered
Macedonians backward
– Lived in villages, not cities
– Spoke form of Greek
unintelligible to other Greeks
• 359 BC, Macedonia’s fortune changed
when Philip II took throne
Army Reorganization
• One of Philip’s first actions as king
• Adopted phalanx system, but gave
soldiers longer spears
• Included larger bodies of cavalry and
more archers
• Set out to conquer Greece
– Faced little opposition
– Quickly crushed armies
– Conquered all but Sparta
Philip II turned to Sparta; he sent
them a message: "If I win this war,
you will be slaves forever.“
the Spartans' iconic reply was one
word: "If"
Alexander Becomes King
• Philip’s conquests might have continued, but he was assassinated
• Title, plans for conquests fell to son, Alexander the Great
• Alexander only 20, but had been trained to rule almost from birth
• Learned warfare and politics from father, mother, and Aristotle
Alexander’s Conquests
• Alexander faced almost immediately with revolts in Greece
• Set out to reestablish control
• Used harsh measures to show rebellion not tolerated
• Crushed Theban army and sold people into slavery, burned city
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Conquered – Persia, Phoenicia, Egypt
Led army to the Indus River where his
troops forced in him to turn back
End of the Empire
Death at Early Age
• Alexander’s empire largest world had
ever seen
• Did not rule very long
• 323 BC, Alexander fell ill while in
Babylon
Power Struggle
• Generals fought each other for power
• In the end, the empire was divided
among three most powerful generals
• Called themselves kings
– Antigonus became king of
Macedonia and Greece
• Died a few days later at age 33
– Seleucus ruled Persian Empire
• Alexander died without naming heir
– Ptolemy ruled Egypt
The Hellenistic World
By bringing together a number of diverse peoples in his empire, Alexander helped
create a new type of culture. It was no longer purely Greek, or Hellenic, but
Hellenistic, or Greek-like.
New Cities
• Appointed officials
from various cultures to
help rule
• Built dozens of new
cities, encouraged
Greek settlers to move
into them
• Most new cities named
Alexandria
Most Famous City
• Alexandria, Egypt
• Located at mouth of
Nile, where it met
Mediterranean
• Ideal location for trade
• Harbor once busiest in
world
Life in the Hellenistic World
Drastic Changes
• Shift from Hellenic Greece to Hellenistic world brought drastic changes to lives
• Most obvious change, how people were governed
• City-state no longer main political unit, replaced by kingdom
• Traditional Greek democracy gave way to monarchy
Science and Technology
• Tremendous advances in science, technology during this period
• Among great Egyptian scholars, Euclid formulated many ideas about geometry we
still learn about today
• Egypt also home of Eratosthenes, who calculated size of the world
• Other Hellenistic scientists studied the movement of the stars; the makeup and
inner workings of the human body
Inventors
• Archimedes, one of world’s greatest
inventors, used knowledge of math,
physics to create devices
• Developed compound pulley to lift
heavy loads; also invented mechanical
screw to draw water out of ship’s hold,
out of deep well
Mechanics
• Other inventors not as ambitious as
Archimedes, but clever in own right
• One built tiny steam engine, used to
power mechanical toys
• Such devices representative of
Hellenistic fascination with mechanics,
technology