The Rise of the Golden Age of Greece despite the lack of natural resources By: Channing Schoneberger

Questions: What contributed to the rise of the Golden Age of Greece? What contributed to the fall of Greece or the end of its Golden Age?

Ancient Greece

Greece

Contributing Factors: Geographical Districts or City-States were separated from the next by mountains or the sea. – Hard to subject a large population to a single ruler and function in a unified system. The people were force to be not specialists in his trait or profession, but a master of a wide range of crafts and accomplishments.

A Time Line to the Golden Age 776 BCE – First Olympic Games 594 BCE - Solon (Statesman, Lawmaker, and Poet) replaces the Draconian law in Athens and lays the foundation for Democracy. He introduced to Athens the first coinage and a system of weights and measures 510 BCE - Alcmaeonid family (Pericles) and Spartans free Athens from tyranny. Introduction of Democracy.

The Golden Age 508 BCE - Kleisthenes begins reforming Athenian code of laws, and establishes a democratic constitution 499 BCE – Ionian Revolt 494 BCE – Ionian revolt defeated by Persians 497-479 BCE – Persian Wars 490 BCE - Battle of Marathon, Athenians defeat Darius and his Persian army 480 BCE - Xerxes marches on Greece, Battle of Thermopylae, Persians burn the Acropolis, Athens and allies defeat Persian fleet at naval battle of Salamis 477 BCE - Delian league (Association of Greek City-States) lead by Athens

The Golden Age 461-445 BCE – First Peloponnesian War 449 BCE - Acropolis and other major building projects begin in Athens, Construction of Parthenon (449-432), Sophocles produces the tragedy "Ajax” 446 BCE - Thirty-year peace treaty signed between Athens and Sparta in winter 446/445 431BCE - Peloponnesian War (431-404) resumes Euripides produces "Medea" in Athens 430 BCE - Plague epidemic in Athens 429 BCE - Death of Pericles 420 BCE - Construction of Temple of Athena (420-410)

The Golden Age 418 BCE - Athenians resume hostilities Spartans defeat Athens at Mantinea 416 BCE - Athens razes Melos 415 BCE - Athens expedition to Syracuse Alcibiades defects to Sparta 413 BCE - Syracuse defeats Athens 404 BCE - Athens surrenders to Sparta 403 BCE - Democracy restored in Athens 399 BCE - Trial and execution of Socrates 380 BCE – Plato establishes The Academy 371 BCE - Sparta defeated in Leuctra 362 BCE - Thebes defeats Sparta at Mantinea (Sparta Falls) 338 BCE - Macedonian army defeats Athens and its allies at Chaeronea League of Corinth founded

The Golden Age 336 BCE - Phillip II Assassinated. Alexander the Great becomes king of Macedonia 334 BCE - Alexander the Great defeats Persian army at Granicus river in Anatolia 333 BCE - Alexander the Great defeats Persians at Issus 331 BCE - Alexander invades Egypt, City of Alexandria founded in Egypt, Alexander defeats Persians at Gaugamela 329 BCE - Alexander's army reaches Bactria (Afghanistan) 326 BCE - Alexander's army reaches India The End of the Golden Age 323 BCE – The death of Alexander the Great

The End of the Golden Age Sparta was militaristic and xenophobic Athens was dynamic and open to the world. These ideological differences between the two Greek superpowers, it was inevitable that mutual mistrust would start a civil war. The Death of Alexander the Great

Resources Sakoulas, Thomas. maps; history; timeline. n.d. April 2013. <http://www.ancient-greece.org/>. Cartledge, Paul, et al. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece. Ed. Paul Cartledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. de Souza, Philip. The Greek and Persian Wars 499-386 BC. Botley : Routledge, 2003. the Spartans. Dir. Melanie Archer. Perf. Bettany Hughes. Prod. Tim Kirby. 2004. Time Inc. Classical Greece. Canada: Rhett Austell, 1965.