The Greeks at War!
Between 500 and 400 B.C. the Greeks
fought several wars.
One was against the powerful Persian
Empire to the east of Greece. The Greeks
temporarily united, and won.
About 50 years later, a war broke out
between Athens and Sparta. Sparta
eventually won, but both cities were
weakened by the struggle.
Why did the Persians invade Greece?
The Persians conquered the
Greek colonies on the coast of
Asia Minor.
AGH!
Those Greeks
will pay for
this
In 499 B.C. these Greeks
asked the mainland Greeks
to help them rebel against
the Persians.
We’re on
the way
Help!
Athens sent warships to help
them, but they were not strong
enough to defeat the Persian
army.
The made the Persian King, Darius, very angry
with Athens.
In 490 B.C. Darius sent 600 ships and thousands of soldiers to invade
Greece. He wanted to punish the Athenians for helping the rebels.
The Persian army landed at
Marathon, north of Athens,
in 490 B.C.
The Persians greatly
outnumbered the Greeks.
The Persians were
amazed at the strong
will of the small
Athenian force.
They had no horses or
archers, only fierce
foot soldiers.
The Athenians formed a
phalanx and ran at the
Persians. The Athenians
won!
Persian
Empire
Athens
Sparta
Marathon
Marathon
The Greeks sent their fastest runner Pheidippides
to carry home news of the victory.
He sprinted 26.2 miles from the battle site to the
city-state of Athens.
He arrived and said, “Victory!,” and died from
exhaustion
The Marathon race is named after this event.
The Persians returned home. Meanwhile, the
Athenian statesman Themistocles kept warning
the Athenians that the Persians would return. He
urged them to build up their navy.
What Happened at Thermopylae?
The Greek ruler Themistocles knew this was a temporary victory.
He encouraged the Athenians to build up their fleet and prepare for
battle with the Persians.
In 480 B.C. the new Persian King Xerxes sent a
larger force to conquer Greece.
He sent about 100,000 soldiers and nearly 1,000
ships.
By this time Athens had convinced Sparta to join
them in battle. Twenty Greek city-states joined
together to meet the Persian invaders.
Sparta took charge of the army.
There were about 7000 Greeks from other cities, and a Spartan force of
about 300 men commanded by King Leonidas, guarding the mountain pass of
Thermopylae.
They held out heroically against he enormous Persian force for three
days.Then a traitor told the Persians about another pass that would lead
them around and behind the Greek army.
The Spartans under King Leonidas told the rest of the Greeks to escape
while they continued to hold the pass for as long as possible.
All the Spartans were killed, but their heroism inspired Greece to unite and
fight the Persians.
Who won at Salamis?
The Persians marched
south after their
victory at
Thermopylae. The
frightened Athenians
asked the Delphic
oracle for advice.
She told them they
would “find safety
behind their wooden
walls”. Themistocles
convinced the
Athenians that these
wood walls were their
ships. The Athenians
evacuated their city,
and the men boarded
their triremes and
prepared to fight the
Persian navy.
Thermopylae
Salamis
Athens
Themistocles came up with a trick. The Athenians lured the
Persians into the narrow bay of Salamis, where the Athenian
triremes would have an advantage. .
SALAMIS
The Athenian Themistocles used
trickery to lure the Persian navy into
the narrow bay of Salamis, where
the Athenians would have an
advantage. The Athenian triremes
rammed the Persian ships. The
Athenians also used fire ships. The
Athenians destroyed much of the
Persian navy.
PLATAEA
• Now the Persian army in Greece had
no way to get supplies.
• Winter came. Many Persians deserted
the Persian army during the winter.
• Fighting resumed in the spring. The
Greek army, consisting of men from
many Greek city-states, faced the
weakened Persian army at the final
battle, Plataea. The Greeks won, and
the Persian survivors went home.
AFTER THE PERSIAN WARS
The Greeks felt great self confidence.
Athenians began to rebuild their city, and entered a
period of great cultural achievement. The “Golden Age
of Greece” began.
The Greeks had won the Persian Wars, and kept their
independence. However, the Persian Empire was still
strong, and the Greeks feared that Persia would try
to conquer them again.
.
The Delian League
Athens emerged as the most powerful city-state in
Greece.
Athens organized the Delian League, which at first
was a voluntary alliance of Greek city states, with the
purpose of maintaining a common navy to be ready in
case the Persians returned.
At first, the Delian League was a good thing for all
the city states that belonged to it. Over time, it
changed into something that was good only for
Athens.
How the Delian League changed
1) At first, all members contributed ships, and the
treasury was kept on the neutral, sacred island of
Delos
2) Then Athen said that since the Athenians built the
best ships, Athens should build all the ships, and
the other members of the Delian league should
contribute money.
3) Next, Athens said that the treasury should be
moved from Delos to Athens, and the money should
be sent straight to Athens
How the Delian League changed
4) Next, Athens began using the Delian League money
for its own purposes, such as building fine building
in Athens, including the Parthenon.
5) Finally, Athens said other members could not quit
the Delian League, even if they wanted to. The
other members had to remain in the Delian League,
and had to keep sending Athens money. In effect,
the Delian League was now an Athenian Empire!
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE
OF GREECE
Pericles was a general, an orator
and statesman who held public
office and was active in public life
from about 461BC-429BC.
He was the most important leader
of Athens at this time. The wise
and skillful leadership of Pericles
brought about a Golden age in
Athens.
Pericles was not a “tyrant”. He
was a democratic leader.
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE
OF GREECE
.
As you already know, under the leadership
of Pericles, Athens paid its citizens the
average wage of an Athenian workman for
each day spent participating in government.
This allowed even the poorest men to take
part in government.
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE OFGREECE
Pericles took the lead in the rebuilding the Acropolis
of Athens, which had been burned by the Persians.
.
This was the greatest
building project of the time.
The magnificent new Parthenon was built to replace
the one that had been burned by the Persians. This,
and other new buildings, were built with Delian League
money.
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE OF
GREECE
. in sponsoring the rebuilding of
Pericles took the lead
the Acropolis and the Parthenon.
Pericles supported the democratic system of Athens.
Pericles helped turn Athens in the cultural center of
Greece. Art, literature and philosophy poured out of
Athens.
Pericles was also instrumental in changing the Delian
League from a voluntary alliance into an Athenian
Empire.
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE
OF GREECE, also called: The
Age of Pericles
.
While Athens was a democracy, the
Delian League clearly was not.
The Athenian historian Thucydides warned
his fellow Athenians: “Our empire is a
tyranny over subjects who do not like it
and who are always plotting against us. .
Our leadership depends on superior
strength and not on any goodwill of
theirs.
Greek against Greek
Peloponnesian War
Many Greeks resented the Athenian
domination. The Greek world split
into rival camps.
To counter the Delian League,
Sparta and other cities, including
Corinth, feared the growing power
of Athens and formed the
Peloponnesian League.
Greek against Greek
Peloponnesian
War
.
A relatively small incident sparked the war: In
431BC, when Athens refused to let a smaller
city quit the Delian League. Sparta the
Peloponnesian League declared war on Athens
and the Delian League.
Greek against
Greek
.
Peloponnesian War
• The causes of the Peloponnesian War were not
simple.
• The Greek historian Thucydides wrote the
history of this war. He thought deeply about
the underlying causes of the war. He said that
one cause of the war was “fear of the growing
power of Athens”. He also said that “Athens
and Sparta were full of young men whose
inexperience of war made them eager to take
up arms.
Greek against
Greek
.
Peloponnesian War
• Athens and its allies, fought Sparta and its
allies.
• It lasted 431BC-404BC, with two periods of
truce.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• Sparta was primarily a land power and its
strength was in its army. Sparta was located
inland, so the Athenian navy was useless against
them.It had no navy.
• Athens was primarily a sea power and its
strength was in its navy, and in its economy.
It had strong walls. If Sparta attacked by
land, Athens could withdraw inside its walls and
get its food and other supplies by sea.
However, its army was not as strong as
Sparta’s.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• When Sparta invaded Athens, Pericles brought
all the people from the countryside inside the
city. In 429BC, overcrowding led to an epidemic
that killed a third of the people, including
Pericles himself, but this didn’t stop the war.
• Sparta attacked Athens by land many times,
but Athens was safe within its walls as long as
food and supplies could be obtained by sea.
• The war went on for 27 years, with several
periods of truce.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• In 415BC, Athenians made a disastrous decision
to attack and try to take Syracuse, a city on
the island of Sicily, because it was an ally of
Sparta. This was called the Sicilian Campaign.
• Because of a crazy series of events, most of
the Athenians who went on this expedition died.
The Athenians didn’t even know what had
happened until about 6 months later. From
that point, the tide of the war turned against
Athens.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• Finally, Persia approached Sparta and offered
to loan them ships and money. Sparta made an
alliance with their old enemy Persia.
•
With Persian help, Sparta blockaded the port
of Athens. Since Athens could not get food,
the people began to starve, and in 404BC,
Athens finally surrendered.
• Sparta did not take bloody revenge. Sparta
just stripped Athens of its fleet and empire,
and made them tear down their walls.
The Aftermath of War
The Peloponnesian war ended Athenian greatness.
In Athens Democratic government suffered: Corruption
and selfish interests replaced order.
Neither Athens nor Sparta was ever as strong again.
Soon Sparta itself suffered defeat at the hands of
Thebes, another Greek city-state.
Macedonia and
Alexander the Great
In 338 B.C. King Phillip II of Macedonia
led his army from the north and
conquered Greece.
After his death his son, Alexander the
Great, went on to conquer the entire
Greek world.