In the eyes of
empire builders
men are not men
but instruments.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Empire
“a major political unit having a territory of great
extent or a number of territories or peoples under
a single sovereign authority; especially : one
having an emperor as chief of state “
~ Merriam-Webster Dictionary
The Persian Empire
Homeland lay on the Iranian plateau
 Famous monarchs
-Cyrus (reigned 557-530 BCE)
-Darius (reigned 522-486 BCE)
 Persian conquests reached from Egypt to India
 A single state of some 35 million people
 Cultural diversity and religious tolerance

Effective administrative system



Satraps - Persian governors were placed in each
of the empire’s twenty-three provinces
Respect for non-Persian cultural traditions
-Cyrus allowed Jews who had been exiled in
Babylon to return to their homeland and
rebuild their temple in Jerusalem in 539 BCE
Model for future regimes with its administrators,
tax collectors, record keepers, and translators
System of standardized coinage
 Predictable taxes levied on each province
 Newly dug canal linking the Nile with the Red
Sea
 Royal Road - some 1,700 miles long
-Facilitating communication and commerce

The Greeks
Classical Greece – emerge 750 BCE and
flourished for about 400 years
 Small competing city-states due to mountainous
terrain (seas allowed for trade)
 Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, etc.
 Calling themselves Hellenes
 Fiercely independent city-states
-Speaking the same language
-Frequently in conflict

Lack of natural resources led to settlements in
distant places
-Greek traders in search of iron
-Impoverished farmers in search of land
 Athens:
 Direct Democracy
-All citizens could directly participate in the
affairs of government
-However, women, slaves, and foreigners were
not citizens
 The city-state facilitated greater participation as
opposed to centralized state of empire

Solon - 594 BCE pushed Athens in a more
democratic direction
-Debt slavery was abolished
-Public office was opened to a wider group of
men
-All citizens were allowed to take part in the
Assembly – free born men only!
 Cleisthenes and Pericles - extended the rights
of citizens even further – Strengthen Democracy
 By 450 BCE, all holders of public office
were chosen by lot and were paid
-Even the poorest could serve

Sparta –
 extreme forms of military discipline
 large population of helots or slaves
 Council of Elders- political authority
-twenty-eight men over the age of sixty
-served for life and provided political
leadership

Greco-Persian Wars:
Conflict grew out of patterns of expansions
 Ionia - Greek settlements on the Anatolian seacoast
-499 BCE - some Ionian Greeks revolted
against Persian domination and found support
from Athens
 Outraged Persians launched major military expeditions,
twice in ten years (490 and 480 BCE) to punish Greeks
 Against all odds, Greeks held them off, defeating the
Persians on both land and sea

Aeschylus – Great Greek playwright


Considered Marathon victory his greatest triumph, not
his plays. His tomb:
Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθειμνῆμα
καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας·ἀλκὴν δ’ εὐδόκιμον
Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἂν εἴποικαὶ βαθυχαιτήεις Μῆδος
ἐπιστάμενος
“This tomb the dust of Aeschylus doth hide,
Euphorion's son and fruitful Gela's pride.
How tried his valor, Marathon may tell,
And long-haired Medes, who knew it all too well.”
The wars were a source of enormous pride for the
Greeks
-Battle of Marathon - 490 BCE – decisive victory
 Greeks viewed victory as triumph of their freedoms
-Persia represented despotism (East/West divide)
 Greeks also radicalized Athenian democracy
-poorer Greeks in a position for full citizenship
 Golden Age of Greek
-built the Parthenon
-Greek theater (Aeschylus,
Sophocles, Euripides)
-Socrates, the quintessential
philosopher

Decline of Greeks
Athens led a coalition of Greek city-states
 But leadership led to imperialism
 As Athenians tried to solidify dominant position,
resentment ensued
 Peloponnesian War- Bitter civil war (431-404 BCE)
-Sparta taking the lead in defending the independence
of the city-states
Athens was defeated
 Paving the way for Macedonian conquest of cities

Alexander the Great
Alexander’s father, Philip II, conquered Greeks in
338 BCE
 At death of father, Alexander, continued
conquests
 Ten-year expedition (333-323 BCE)
-Conquered Egypt and Anatolia
-Conquered Persian Empire
-Conquered Afghanistan
-Arrived in Indian subcontinent
(Soldiers insisted on returning home)
 Alexander died on the returning journey

Spread of Greek culture (Hellenism)
-Particularly in many cities that Alexander and
later Hellenistic rulers established
-Greek monuments, theaters, and markets
-Greek learning flourished (library in
Alexandria of some 700,000 volumes)
-Indian ruler, Ashoka, published some of his
decrees in Greek
-Buddha was depicted in human form due to
Greek influence
 Cultural influence disappeared as Hellenistic
kingdoms weakened
 Replaced in western part with Roman Empire
that became a vehicle for the spread of Greek
ideas

Themes of AP World History
 Theme
1: Interaction Between Humans
and the Environment
 Theme 2: Development and
Interaction of Cultures
 Theme 3: State-Building, Expansion,
and Conflict
 Theme 4: Creation, Expansion, and
Interaction of Economic Systems
 Theme 5: Development and
Transformation of Social Structures
A Theme of World History
 Interaction between humans and the
environment
Demography and disease
 Migration
 Patterns of settlement
 Technology

How did the interaction between humans and the
environment impact the development of Greek
culture?
Another Theme of World History
 State-building, expansion, and conflict





Political structures and forms of governance
Empires
Nations and nationalism
Revolts and revolutions
Regional, transregional, and global structures and
organizations
Compare the political structure of the Persian Empire
to that of Greece.
The Persian Empire was
also known as the Achaemenid
Empire.
Discuss the reasons for political and social
fragmentation in classical Greece.
Questions from Strayer:
 How did Persian and Greek civilizations differ in
their political organization and values?
 Why did semidemocratic governments emerge in
some of the Greek city-states?
 What were the consequences for both sides of the
encounter between the Persians and the Greeks?
 What changes did Alexander's conquests bring in
their wake?
Aristotle on a “Good Wife”
“A good wife should be the mistress of her home, having
under her care all that is within it, according to the
rules we have laid down. She should allow none to
enter without her husband's knowledge, dreading
above all things the gossip of gadding women, which
tends to poison the soul. She alone should have
knowledge of what happens within. She must exercise
control of the money spent on such festivities as her
husband has approved---keeping, moreover, within
the limit set by law upon expenditure, dress, and
ornament---and remembering that beauty depends
not on costliness of raiment. Nor does abundance of
gold so conduce to the praise of a woman as selfcontrol in all that she does. This, then, is the province
over which a woman should be minded to bear an
orderly rule; for it seems not fitting that a man should
know all that passes within the house. But in all
other matters, let it be her aim to obey her husband;
giving no heed to public affairs, nor having any part
in arranging the marriages of her children.”

Compare the class and gender systems of the
Persian Empire and Athens.