Chapter 11 Ancient Greek Civilization Section 1 War in Ancient Greece

Background ● Greeks fought 3 major wars in the 400’s bc ● 2 wars against Persia as a united Greece ● Late 400’s bc was a destructive war amongst themselves

The Persian Wars Darius invades Greece ● Persians conquered Ionian city-states ● Ionians rebelled in 500 and with the help of Athens, burned Persian city of Sardis ● Darius was enraged and set out to conquer Greece

Darius Invades Greece ● Darius lands 20,000 Persian forces on the shores of Marathon near Athens ● Outnumbered 2:1, the Athenians attacked the Persians at Marathon at dawn the day after they landed ● Persians surprised/panicked and fled back to their ships and left

Xerxes Attacks ● Darius dies and his son, Xerxes gathers 100,000 soldiers ● Brought the Egyptian army, and used Phoenician ships because Persia controlled both countries

Xerxes Attacks ● Herodotus - “...There was not a nation in Asia that he did not take with him against Greece.” ● King Leonidas of Sparta held off Persian invaders for days at Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass, until a traitor showed the Persians a path through the mountains

Victory for Athens ● As Xerxes army advanced into Athens, they found the city mostly empty ● Athenian leader Themistocles convinced the people to flee to nearby islands ● Xerxes burned Athens and sent 1,200 warships to pursue the Greeks

Victory for Athens ● Themistocles had tricked the Persians into filling the Strait of Salamis while hiding Athenian ships ● Athenian ships then rammed into Persian ships, leaving 200 broken ships to clog the strait, after losing another land battle, Xerxes took his troops and returned home

Athens Rivals Sparta ● Athens enjoyed a golden age after the victory of Persia ● Athens = strongest navy ● Sparta = strongest army ● Not “enough room” in Greece for both

The Delian League ● Athens formed an alliance with other city states on the island of Delos (“Delian”) ● Purpose = protect each other from Persia, collect money to be stored on the island’s treasury ● 150 members

The Delian League ● Athens treated other countries poorly (stay or leave) ● Used funds to build up their navy and improve Athens ● Constructed the Parthenon, temple to Athena

The Peloponnesian League ● Sparta and other city-states on the Peloponnesian Peninsula formed the Peloponnesian League ● Mostly oligarchies who feared Athens and their style of government ● Both leagues came into conflict when Delian League put a trade ban on Megara, member of Peloponnesian League ● They prepared their armies for battle

The Peloponnesian War The Siege of Athens ● War lasted on/off about 27 years ● Siege - force enemy surrender by cutting off food and other supplies ● Sparta set up camp outside Athens ● Athenians had all people move inside its city walls ● Athenians built 2 large walls, four miles long, to the ports so that ships could bring supplies safely

The Peloponnesian War The Siege of Athens ● Athenians survived for about a year and then a plague broke out inside the crowded city walls ● Thousands of Athenians died ● Spartans left for fear of catching the disease ● Both Athens and Sparta couldn’t defeat each other and reached a truce in 421 bc

Athens Surrenders ● Athens broke the truce and attacked Sicily, Sparta helped destroy Greek forces ● Persia saw an opportunity and paid Spartans to build a navy, now with ships, Spartans could block Athenian supply ships and Athenians starved

Athens Surrenders ● Athenians had to surrender to Sparta ● Demolished long walls to port ● Lost democracy ● Cities destroyed throughout Greece, thousands slaughtered, government fell, trade dropped

Athens Surrenders ● Constant fighting continued as the threat of the powerful kingdom to the north, Macedonia, loomed over Greece ● Macedonia would soon unite Greek city- states by force