3. Athens (Delian League) vs
Sparta (Peloponnese League)
Deep suspicion and fear between two powers (Sparta= land; Athens = navy)
431 BCE: Peloponnesian War
Pericles: plan to take aggressive action against Sparta’s allies sailing troops to coast and away
from Athenian lines
Plague in Athens; death of Pericles
10 years later= stalemate
50 year peace signed: Peace of Nicias
Athenian named Alcibiades- 415 BCE convinced Athenians to attack Greek city states on island of
Sicily
413 BCE Athenians defeated and fleet destroyed in Syracuse leaving Athens powerless
Sparta attacked Athens and Persia attacked Athens (revenge from Persian Wars)
405 BCE- Athenian navy destroyed in a surprise attack
404 BCE- Athens totally surrendered to the Sparta who instilled oligarchic government
Age of Athens, Age of Pericles, the Classical Age and the Athenian Empire- came to and end
4. Peloponnesian War
• After Peloponnesian
War, Sparta’s military
strength in Greece did
not last long, as Sparta
had trouble controlling
other Greek city states
under their brutal rule
• by 371 BCE, Sparta
lost its position as
Greece’s leading
military power
• Thebes became
leading power, but only
temporarily as
Macedonia was gaining
power
5. Rise of Macedonia
CULTURE: similar to Greeks
(army, gods, resources, language,
culture)
PHILIP II: Macedonia leader who
was first to unify all of northern
Greece under his command and
to rule it from the capital city of
Pella
Wanted to unite all Greeks (who
constantly feuded) against the
barbarians (north) and Persians
(east)
23 year rule= conquered much of
mainland Greece due to
successful PHALANX formation
By 338 BCE, was had become the
master of Greece but was
murdered by a traitor in his own
bodyguard.
6. •Men had spears that were 4 metres long
•Rows of 16 deep, soldiers marched, front rows with spears pointed forward and
rear with spears pointed upwards
•Three phalanx formations would trap the enemy by closing in from all sides
•Cavalry and shield bearers supported phalanxs
7. Alexander:
Rise to Greatness
Alexander ruled at age of 20 after his father’s death
student of Aristotle and learned of ancient legends and
always carried with him a copy of Homer’s Iliad
Conquered Thebes and set out to rule all of Greece,
Persia, Near East (Babylon), Egypt, India (army marched
over 17 000 km)
Great victory at Issus (Asia Minor) against Persian King
Darius and won against Persians who had 3x the size of
his army but Darius escaped… story of death of Darius…
Attempted to spread Greek culture, knowledge and
language as a common uniting force but also showed
respect for peoples’ customs as he learned of geography
and culture of conquered lands
Alexander’s death in 323 BCE (malaria ?) marks the end
of an Classical Age and beginning of Hellenistic Age
8. Conquests of Alexander the
Great
•Within 13 years, Alexander had established the largest empire the world had ever
seen
• upon his death, his empire fell apart as quickly as Alexander had built it (empire split
between his family and his generals who rivaled each other for power)
• founded more than a dozen new cities (“Alexandria) = most famous is Cairo, the
capital of Egypt
Hinweis der Redaktion
Suspicious and fearful of Athenian power and wealth, the Spartans were not happy with the thirty year peace they had agreed to. The Athenians themselves had become chauvinistic and power hungry, and seemed ready to begin to reassert their power on the mainland of Greece. In 431, spurred on by a relatively trivial event in a distant part of the Greek mainland, Sparta and Athens fell into another war which is simply called, The Peloponnesian War. The Spartans wished to fight a land war, which they were very good at. They outnumbered the Athenians two to one, odds they believed the Athenians could stand up to only for a very short time. At the outbreak of the war, then, they invaded Attica and began burning crops in order to starve the Athenians into submission. The Athenians, however, had a harbor and a powerful navy. Pericles knew that they could hold out against the Spartans for several years on the tribute money from the Empire. He also knew that he could take the war right to the doorsteps of Spartan allies, by sailing troops along the coast of Greece and landing them far from Athenian lines. Although Pericles died in the second year of the war in a plague that devestated Athens, the Athenians, nevertheless, kept to the Periclean strategy of prosecuting the war. Both sides believed that their strategy would wear down the other side and force a surrender. However, this really didn't happen. After ten years of fighting and some disastrous events among allied cities, the situation was no different than it was at the beginning of the war. Both sides had become worn down, so Sparta and Athens signed a fifty year peace called the Peace of Nicias, after the Athenian politician and general who was leading Athens at the time. Essentially similar in view and ability to Pericles, Nicias was a brilliant and cautious man who managed to pull off an effective truce. Everyone was allowed to go home, and the territorial status as it stood at the time of the peace, was allowed to remain in place. Athens kept its continental territories and allies, and Sparta got to keep all the territories it had acquired. Nicias, however, had rivals in the democratic assembly. Perhaps the most talented of these rivals was a young, brilliant follower of the philosopher Socrates named Alcibiades. With creativity, energy, and immense oratorical ability, Alicibiades in 415 BC convinced the Athenians to attack the Greek city-states on the island of Sicily and bring them under the glove of the Athenian Empire. Although the expedition was in part under the leadership of Nicias, it soon turned into a disaster. In 413 BC, the entire army was defeated and captured and a large part of the great, powerful fleet of the Athenians was destroyed in the harbor of Syracuse. Athenian power since the Persian Wars had rested solely on the power of the navy; the disastrous Sicilian expedition left Athens almost completely powerless. Knowing a good thing when they saw it, the Spartans soon attacked Athens and—worse news piled on top of bad news—they were soon joined by the Persians who were still smarting from the war Athens had so vigorously prosecuted in the first half of the fifth century. For awhile the Athenians hung on, even enjoying tremendous victories when the war was shifted to the Aegean Sea. But in 405, the rest of their navy was destroyed in a surprise attack, and by the next year the situation was hopeless. In 404 BC, the Athenians surrendered totally to the Spartans, who tore down the walls of the city, barred them from ever having a navy, and installed their own oligarchic government, the Thirty. The Age of Athens, the Age of Pericles, the Classical Age, the Athenian Empire, had come to an end.
Climate different than Greece= cooler, less natural resources for crops but had other natural resources such as wood and gold= became the chief provided of these items to Greek city states in return for oil and figs
Philip of Macedonia= first to unify all of northern Greece under his command and to rule it from the capital city of Pella
Similar culture to Greeks (army, gods, resources, language, culture)
Wanted to unite all Greeks (who constantly feuded) against the barbarians (north) and Persians (east)
During Philips 23 year rule= he conquered much of mainland Greece due to successful PHALANX formation
By 338 BCE, was had become the master of Greece but was murdered by a traitor in his own bodyguard.
Great victory at Issus (Asia Minor) against Persian King Darius and won against Persians who had three times the size of his army but Darius escaped… story of death of Darius…
Alexander went to Mesopotamia- fought Darius again and defeated Darius (but he escaped again). But shortly after, Darius was murdered by some of his own soldiers. When the Macedonian army found the body of Darius, Alexander lay down his cloak over hit, out of respect for his enemy. He then had the assasins of Darius tracked down and executed.Alexander continued campaign in east, taking Persia’s capital and its treasures at Persepolis and burnt down the city in revenge for Persia burning the city of Athens a century before
