1. Two Wars; Two Turning Points in Greek History

2. Herodotus: Persian Wars and … Thucydides: Peloponnesian Wars
Herodotus - The “Father of History”
Described the Persian invasions of Greece…
He embellished facts with fable, superstition and hearsay.
Thucydides- the “first scientific historian” – he wrote an accurate and impartial account of the Peloponnesian Wars

5. Over 600 poli made up the Hellenic world
Sparta (Grk. Σπάρτη) was an ancient city in Greece, the capital of Laconia and the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. The city lay at the northern end of the central Laconian plain, on the right bank of the river Eurotas. The site is strategically sited, guarded from three sides by mountains, and controls the routes by which an army can penetrate Laconia and the southern Peloponnessus and the Langhda Pass over Mt Taygetus connecting Laconia and Messenia. At the same time its distance from the sea—Sparta is 27 miles from its seaport, Gythium—made it difficult to blockade.

6. Spartan warriors, c. 450 BC
Settled by Dorian invaders, Sparta conquered neighboring Messenia, forcing the people to work as farm laborers or helots.
The Spartan aim was to produce strong-bodied, fearless men and women to maintain their power
Spartan boys left home at age 7 and spent the next 23 years in military barracks ready for battle at a moments notice.
In all of Greece, there were no braver warriors than them.
Admired by other Greeks for their courage, discipline, respect for law, physical training and military prowess

7. The ruins of Ancient Sparta
The dual kingship of Sparta, a phenomenon unique in history, was explained in Sparta by the tradition that on Aristodemus's death he had been succeeded by his twin sons, and that this joint rule had been perpetuated. Modern scholars have advanced various theories to account for the anomaly. Some suppose that it must be explained as an attempt to avoid absolutism, and is paralleled by the analogous instance of the consuls at Rome. Others think that it points to a compromise arrived at to end the struggle between two families or communities, or that the two royal houses represent respectively the Spartan conquerors and their Achaean predecessors: those who hold this last view appeal to the words attributed by Herodotus (v. 72) to Cleomenes I: "I am no Dorian, but an Achaean."

8. Athens, cradle of democracy

9. The polis developed into a self-governing community that expressed the will of free citizens, not the desires of gods, hereditary kings or priests.

10. The great Greek contribution to political life:
Individual members shared a sense of belonging to and participating in the polis.
Community problems are caused by human beings and require human solutions.
Laws expressed the rational mind of the community to insure its will and needs are met.

11. Draco Solon 620’sBC ’sBC
Pisistratus,
540’s BC
Cleisthenes,
500’s BC

13. Divided into 20 provinces (satrapies)
Cyrus the Great and his sons after him effectively administered their large empire by:
Divided into 20 provinces (satrapies)
Special agents who answered only to the king
Use of an official language (Aramaic)
Network of roads and postal system
Common system of weights and measures
Empire wide coinage
Fusion of Near Eastern cultural traditions
Promoted one religion: Zoroastrianism (Ahura Mazda & Ahriman) .

14. Cyrus the Great, was the world’s first world emperor to openly declare and guarantee the sanctity of human rights and individual freedom.
The Greek warrior-historian Xenophon, spoke highly of Cyrus in his Cyropaedia. Cyrus is described as being void of deceit, arrogance, guile or selfishness. Cyrus is the first “one world hero” in history, namely the ruler who sought to unite all the peoples into one empire while according full respect to all languages, creeds and religious practices. Alexander the Great, who greatly admired Cyrus, adopted his mantle of the “world hero” after his conquests of Persia in BC.

16. The Ionian Revolt, BC
The Ionian Revolts were triggered by the actions of Aristagoras, the tyrant of the Ionian city of Miletus at the end of the 6th century BC and beginning of the 5th century BC. They constituted the first major conflict between Greece and the Persian Empire. Most of the Greek cities occupied by the Persians in Asia Minor and Cyprus rose up against their Persian rulers in a war lasting from 499 BC to 493 BC. The Ionians had early success with the sack of Sardis, but the ensuing Persian counterattack by both the army and navy was too strong: the Ionians were decisively defeated at the Battle of Lade off the coast of Miletus in 494 BC.

17. King Darius I, BC
Decided to punish the city of Athens for assisting the rebels during the Ionian Revolt of 499 BC.
The beginning of the Fifth Century BC in Greece was marked by the Persian Wars which started in 499 and continued on and off until 480.  Persia at this time had an empire which spread across half of known Asia (the area that was under its control was actually even larger than that of Rome at its peak).  It also had a huge multi-national army that it used to conquer neighboring states.  Although for some time Greek colonies bordering the Persian empire had been paying tributes to Persia, in 499 they began to rebel.  The city of Athens agreed to assist those cities that were fighting the Persians, going so far as to destroy Sardis, an important Persian city.  Once rebellion had been quelled in the colonies, the ruler of Persia, Darius the Great, decided to turn his attention to those Greeks cities on the mainland that had defied him.  In 490, he landed a large force at Marathon, a bay only 26 miles from Athens.  Despite being confronted by the much larger Persian army, Athens eventually won the battle, killing 6,400 Persians and losing only 192 of its own soldiers.

18. Marathon
Darius launched his second attempt, again by sea but with a more southernly route. This expedition resulted in the Battle of Marathon. During the two year interval he sent heralds to the Greek city-states. The heralds, as was the custom, asked for "earth and water" as a token of submission. Many of the Greek city-states acquiesced but many did not, including the two most important, Sparta and Athens. The Athenians threw the heralds off the Acropolis and the Spartans threw them down a well where there was plenty of "earth and water". The Athenians even executed the unfortunate translator of the Persian demand for defiling the Greek language. War was now certain.

19. The Hoplite: Greek footsoldiers
Miltiades attacked at dawn. The Athenians charged at a run. The Persians waited, not really believing that anyone could run that far and still fight well. They routed the Greek weak center and charged up the valley. The Greeks retreated, pulling the Persians forward and extending their lines. Then the Greek wings fell upon the Persian flanks while the center suddenly stood firm. The Persians broke ranks and began to retreat. As the Greeks pressed, the retreat became a rout. The Greeks harried them all the way to the beach and followed them into the water, swimming out after the boats and capturing seven Persian ships.

20. Battle of Marathon, 490 BC
Darius’ plan was to burn Athens to the ground as they had done to his city of Sardis during the Ionian revolt.. On the war to Greece, the Persian army of 30,000 had conquered a number of islands, included Eritrea??- burned down the city and sent its inhabitants back to Persia as slaves. The 10,000 Athenians must have been scared as the battle approached. Miltiades had sent Phaedipides to Sparta, asking for their support. They were in the middle of a religious festival and Athens would have to wait.
Miltiades, the leader of Athenian forces, when the battle began, ordered his men to charge double time. This reduced the amount of time Persian archers could reload their bows. Also Miltiades focused his main strength on the flanks thus attacking the weaker, less experienced men, who were driven back into a marsh. The flanks then turned around to attack the main Persian army from the rear.

21. Battle of Marathon, 490 BC – Phaedippas brings the news to Athens
The Athenians had won at Marathon but they certainly had not destroyed the Persian army. They had made plans before the battle that if they won, they would get word back to Athens as soon as possible because they knew that the Persian fleet was sure to sail around Attica and attempt to take the city while it was undefended. The citizens were to man the walls and make it appear that Athens was strongly defended. Miltiades sent a young soldier (probably Phaedippas) to take word back to Athens. He ran the entire distance, kms, shouted "We have won!" and fell dead of exhaustion. In memory of this event the Marathon Run was included among the contests since the first contemporary Olympic Games.
The Persians did indeed sail around Attica hoping to find the city helpless but when they met with resistance, they hesitated. Not long after, the Greek army arrived. The Persians decided they had enough of these Greeks and sailed home. The Battle of Marathon is perhaps the single most important battle in Greek history. Had the Athenians lost, Greece would have eventually come under the control of the Persians and all the subsequent culture and accomplishments of the Greeks would probably not have taken the form they did. However, the Persian were not finished. In 481 BC, Darius I's son, Xerxes, gathered together an army of some one hundred fifty thousand men and a navy of six hundred ships. He was determined that the whole of Greece would be conquered by Persia.
A Sad Sequel  The  Battle of Marathon immortalized the name of Miltiades; but in a few years' time he fell from his high estate, for he failed in an expedition against the island of Pa'ros. The Greeks had no pity for failure. As they hooted against unsuccessful atheletes in their games, so they jeered at Miltiades. In spite of all the honors they had recently heaped upon him, the people hearkened to his enemies when they said his failure was due to criminal conduct of some kind. He was called up for trial, though he was wounded and forced to appear before his judges on a couch, he was fined fifty talents of silver, and when he could not pay the debt he was cast into prison to die. So ended the life of Miltiades. Such was the gratitude shown by the Greeks to the hero of Marathon.

23. Themosticles: Rushed the construction of 200 triremes
Organized Greek city-states into a defensive alliance that included Sparta

24. He sought to avenge his father’s defeat.
King Xerxes, BC
He sought to avenge his father’s defeat.
In 480 BC, his army of 360,000 foot soldiers and 800 ships marched over a bridge across the Dardanelles
Xerxes I ruled from B.C., presiding over ancient Persia's decline from mighty power to fading empire. His father Darius was defeated by the Greeks at the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.), and 10 years later Xerxes assembled a vast army to invade Greece and avenge his father's defeat. (The best-known reports on the invasion come from the historian Herodotus.) Xerxes crossed the Hellespont (now called the Dardanelles) and methodically overran Greece. He won a costly victory at Thermopylae -- the famous battle which ended with 300 Spartan warriors defying the entire Persian army in a last battle to the death -- and finally reached Athens and sacked the deserted city. But the invasion ended in disaster when the Persian navy was routed by the Greek fleet at Salamis (480 B.C.). Xerxes retreated to his palace in Persepolis, leaving behind an occupying army which was defeated by the Greeks shortly thereafter. Persia remained a formidable nation but Xerxes withdrew from active life, devoting himself to what Herodotus called "the intrigues of the harem." 15 years later Xerxes was stabbed to death, probably by his subordinate Artabanus, and was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes. XERXES I AND THE INVASION OF GREECE Xerxes went to conquer the Greeks with an army of approx. 360,000 men and 800 ships. Herodotus says it was 5,000,000 troops out of 50 nations, but you can't always take the good man literally. Fact is, it was a huge army.
The march from what is today Turkey to Greece was a major operation. A bridge was built over what is today's Dardanelles Strait and an important victory was won at the Battle of Thermopylae in mid-August 480 BC.
Later that year, on September 21, Xerxes sacked Athens. However, the huge size of his army showed its drawback: logistics. The Greeks had major difficulties supplying their troops and, after a defeat in the naval Battle off the island of Salamis near Athens on September 29, Xerxes was eager to get back home ASAP.
Here is more about the Greco-Persian Wars.
Back home in Persia, Xerxes launched a huge construction program. Court intrigues finally found Xerxes himself a victim. Xerxes was murdered by the chief of his guard, Artabanus. Xerxes's son Artaxerxes I succeeded him to the throne.

26. Thermopylae

27. King Xerxes & the Second Persian War, 480-479 BC
Darius died in 486 and he was succeeded by his son Xerxes.  Gathering together an even larger force than his father had (approximately 300,000 soldiers and 600 ships), Xerxes decided to pick up where his father had left off and invaded Greece in 480.   "I will bridge the Hellespont and march an army through Europe into Greece, and punish the Athenians for the outrage they committed upon my father and upon us.  As you saw, Darius himself was making his preparations for war against these men; but death prevented him from carrying out his purpose.  I therefore, on his behalf, and for the benefit of all my subjects, will not rest until I have taken Athens and burnt it to the ground, in revenge for the injury which the Athenians without provocation once did to me and my father....If we crush the Athenians and their neighbors in the Peloponnese, we shall extend the empire of Persia so that its boundaries will be God's own sky, so that the sun will not look down upon any land beyond the boundaries of what is ours" (Histories 7.8).
On the way to Athens, however, the Persian army was bottled up at the pass of Thermopylae by the Spartans under the leadership of King Leonidas.  Although the Spartans were able to hold the Persians off for some time, eventually Leonidas and all his men were killed in battle.  Xerxes proceeded to Athens, only to discover the city deserted and the Greek army and navy removed to Salamis.  In retaliation, he had the city of Athens burnt to the ground and the Acropolis destroyed.  The Greeks eventually scored another major victory against the Persians at Salamis, where under the leadership of Themistocles they decisively defeated the Persian navy in battle on September 23, 480.

28. The Athenians fled the city which was sacked and burned to the ground by the Persians
But, the Athenians had a plan…

29. Battle of Salamis
The Athenians had fled to Salamis after the Battle of Thermopylae in August, 480 BC, while the Persians occupied and burned their city. The Greek fleet joined them there in August after the indecisive Battle of Artemisium. The Spartans wanted to return to the Peloponnese, seal off the Isthmus of Corinth with a wall, and prevent the Persians from defeating them on land, but the Athenian commander Themistocles persuaded them to remain at Salamis, arguing that a wall across the Isthmus was pointless as long as the Persian army could be transported and supplied by the Persian navy. His argument depended on a particular interpretation of the oracle at Delphi, which, in typical Delphic ambiguity, prophesized that Salamis would "bring death to women's sons," but also that the Greeks would be saved by a "wooden wall". Themistocles interpreted the wooden wall as the fleet of ships, and argued that Salamis would bring death to the Persians, not the Greeks. Furthermore some Athenians who chose not to flee Athens, interpreted the prophecy literally, barricaded the entrance to the Acropolis with a wooden wall, and fenced themselves in. The wooden wall was overrun, they were all killed, and the Acropolis was burned down by the Persians. The Greeks had 371 triremes and pentekonters (smaller fifty-oared ships), effectively under Themistocles, but nominally led by the Spartan Eurybiades. The Spartans had very few ships to contribute, but they regarded themselves the natural leaders of any joint Greek military expedition, and always insisted that the Spartan general would be given command on such occasions. There were 180 ships from Athens, 40 from Corinth, 30 from Aegina, 20 from Chalcis, 20 from Megara, 16 from Sparta, 15 from Sicyon, 10 from Epidaurus, 7 from Eretria, 7 from Ambracia, 5 from Troizen, 4 from Naxos, 3 from Leucas, 3 from Hermione, 2 from Styra, 2 from Cythnus, 2 from Ceos, 2 from Melos, one from Siphnus, one from Seriphus, and one from Croton.
The much larger Persian fleet consisted of 1207 ships, although their original invasion force consisted of many more ships that had since been lost due to storms in the Aegean Sea and at Artemisium. The Persians, led by Xerxes I, decided to meet the Athenian fleet off the coast of Salamis Island, and were so confident of their victory that Xerxes set up a throne on the shore, on the slopes of Mount Aegaleus, to watch the battle in style and record the names of commanders who performed particularly well.

30. The enormous fleet was consisted from 200 Egyptian triremes, 150 Cyprians, 300 from Phoenicia and Palestine, 100 ships have contributed the Ionian cities, 100 the Celicians, 100 from Hellispontians and the rest from many other cities. Totaling 1207 and supported from about 3000 smaller vessels. The fighting men on the triremes were about 36,000 and with their rowers 240,000. The Greeks along the coast of Thrace and  islands were contributing 120 ships. When the Persian fleet anchored on the coast of Magnesia, a vicious storm lasting for three days, destroyed 400 ships and almost all the smaller vessels. This incident gave courage to the Greek fleet

32. The Persian Wars were decisive in the history of the West
The Persian Wars were decisive in the history of the West. Had the Greeks been defeated, the cultural and political vitality we associate and inherit from the Greeks would never have evolved.
The confidence and pride from these victories propelled Greece and Athens, in particular, to its “Golden Age.”

34. Pericles was the central figure in Athens during its Golden Age
Pericles, BC
Pericles was the central figure in Athens during its Golden Age
Pericles was the central figure in Athens during its golden age. Although he was extremely influential, and had tremendous influence with the masses, he thought it wise to spend much of his extraordinary career as a "behind the scenes" influence. Athens was notorious for its fickle treatment of leaders who became to powerful, and ostracization was best avoided by maintaining a quiet demeanor. None the less, Pericles effectively controlled the democratic party, and in this position is much credited for making Athens a great cultural center. He was very influential in the development of public works, including the famous Parthenon, and the strategically important Long Walls that enclosed the entire city, and ran all the way to the port of Athens. It was under Pericles that Athens became the cultural center of the Mediterranean, and produced much of the artistic and literary masterpieces for which it is still renowned.

35. The creation of the Delian League, 478 BC
Island of Delos in 478 BC
Athens regarded as leader and agreed to maintain a navy
Members would contribute “dues” to pay costs for navy

36. The corruption of the Delian League
Athens prevented states from withdrawing & punished states who did not pay their dues
In 454 BC treasury was moved to Athens, Athens took 1/60th as tribute
In 435 BC Athens aided Corcyra in its revolt against Corinth.
In 433 BC Athens ordered the city of Potidaea to demolish its walls and send hostages to Athens

37. The Spartan king Achidimus invaded Attica and destroyed farms and crops In 431 BC, - The Achidamian War BC. Sparta, with support of Corinth and Thebes, invaded Athenian territory. Pericles told Athenians to abandon the homes and fields and find safety behind the walls. Some thought this was cowardice. But Pericles planned to attack Sparta by sea using the great navy. The Athenian navy was the best. With money from the Delian League, crews were paid to train longer and harder. They also had the largest fleet of Tri-remes (no examples have survived) The front of a trireme had a bronze ram that turned the ship into a guided missile. Enemy ships were hit head-on, making a hole in the hull and sinking the ship. Each oar weighed about 13 pounds and with 200 men rowing at 10 MPH, the results were impressive.
In addition to its striking capability, a trireme carried a hoplite army. The strategy was to sail up to a port, in a lightning strike, destroy as much as possible, then sail away.

38. . Pericles believed an attack would happen, given the tension with Sparta and its league. The strategy of Pericles: use its power, the sea. Protection of access to the port was essential for Athens’ survival.
The Wall: While there already was two wall from Athens to the port of Piraeus. Pericles built a 3rd, reducing the space between them, but fortifying it to make it impenetrable. Today, nothing remains, but it was 8- ½ miles long, 16 feet wide and 30 feet high. It was manned by a Rapid Response Force of mounted troops. This cavalry was a major innovation in Greek warfare. Entrances were protected by archers who used a new bow, which could reach yards (introduced from the northern regions of the Black Sea.) In addition, slingshot snipers could fire a lead bullet that could kill a man. Athenians felt secure.
The Peloponnesus war has been likened to two big kids on the block, but there was only room for one. The causes for the war: aggressive behavior by Athens.
435 Athens interfered with Corinth after its colony Corcyra asked for help
433 The City of Potidaea was told to tear down its wall, send hostages to Athens
Sparta attacked Athens 5 times in ten years ( BC) but failed to breach the walls. However, gradually, Athens began to wear down. What really did them in however, ironically, was the result of their trade, their strength. Returning ships brought typhoid fever for which no cure was known. One-quarter of the population died- the decaying corpses must have created a terrible smell. Pericles died in 429.

39. 429 BC Plague strikes down Athens
When Sparta, the great land power, and Athens, the great naval power, finally came to blows, everybody knew what the scenario was going to be. The Athenians let the Spartans conquer their territory in Attica while they took refuge behind their city walls, which extended to the port of Piraeus. With all the people concentrated in the city, a plague broke out that killed about one third of the people, about 30,000 citizens, soldiers and sailors, including their leader Pericles. The historian Thucydides himself was afflicted by the plague and gives a famous account of its symptoms.

40. The Final Blow to Athens…
The Spartan admiral, Lysander captured the Athenian fleet in the Dardanelles …cutting of its food supplies
Athens was required to tear down its walls and agreed to be ruled by a government appointed by Sparta

41. Effects of the Peloponnesian Wars, 431-404 BC
Despite the restoration of democratic government, Athens never returned to its former power…
A spirit of pessimism and disillusionment prevailed among intellectuals & the young
Constant warfare among other states continued…
In 371, Sparta lost its first war to Thebes
The loss of manpower on both sides weakened all of Greece .

42. Philip II of Macedon 359-336 BC
An ambitious and resourceful ruler of Macedonia who built up his army and planned to conquer the Greeks and the Persians.

43. A series of fiery speeches by Demosthenes
“The Philippics”
A series of fiery speeches by Demosthenes
In 338 BC, Philip defeated Athens and its allies and created “The League of Corinth”
Demosthenes negotiated an alliance with Thebes but the two were defeated by Philip at Chaeronea in 338 BC. Dem gave the funeral speech but it is lost. Antipater, the Macedonian governor of Greece ordered the execution of Demosthenes who took poison.

44. Alexander the Great, r 336-323 BC
Succeeded his father
Destruction of Thebes
Alexander the Great, r BC
Alexander the Great was the son of Philip II. His mother was Olympias. She told Alexander he was the son of a Greek god, and he seemed to think of himself as divine..
He was a pupil of Aristotle , one of the foremost philosophers* of his time. He studied literature and learned to play the lyre* . He was fearless and strong as a young man.
Alex succeeded his father- some historians believe he and his mother had something to do with the assassination-
Destruction of Thebes- 335, a rumor that he was dead prompted a revolt in Thebes. Alex marched on Thebes, destroying every building except temples and the house of the poet Pindar.
Alexander became one of the greatest generals in history. When he conquered the Persians he honored their soldiers and commander who had died in battle. When he had won a battle, he combined the remaining soldiers of the enemy with his army to form a greater army. He usually did not allow his soldiers to mistreat the conquered people. He suffered along with his soldiers when they were at war. If they didn't have water or food, he would not accept food or drink either. When the soldiers were walking, he walked also and refused to ride or be carried. He set an example for his troops. Once he was trying to capture a city which was on an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It was near the land, so he decided to build a bridge to it. His soldiers put down trees, reeds, and rocks and they began to build a peninsula* out to the island. The people of Tyre did everything they could to stop the soldiers, but in seven months Alexander's troops had built a bridge to the island and conquered the city.