Download 3. Thermopylae and Salamis a. Darius was succeeded by his son

3. Thermopylae and Salamis
a. Darius was succeeded by his son, Xerxes
b. Xerxes assault down the east coast of Greece was halted at the narrow
mountain pass of Thermopylae
1. 7000 Greeks blocked the way
2. Xerxes was stifled for 3 days until a traitor told him about at way
Around the cliffs
3. Fearing defeat, the Greeks retreated except for 300 Spartans who
Fought to the death to guard the retreat
c. Athenians evacuated their city and parked their fleet near the island of Salamis
1. Xerxes burned the city and blocked the channel
2. the channel was too narrow for Persian war ships to manueuver; 1/3 of the
Persian ships were destroyed
d. the Spartan army defeated the rest of the Persian army at Plataea
4. Consequences of the Persian Wars
a. Greeks felt confidence
b. Athens became the leader of the Delian league (confederation of city-states)
c. Persia was driven away from “Greek” territories
d. Athens began to dominate Greece and entered its “Golden Age”
III. Democracy and Greece’s Golden Age
A. Pericles had 3 goals for Athens
1. Stronger democracy through direct democracy
2. Strengthen the empire by using money from the Delian League to build Athens’ Navy and
Therefore insure Athenian protection and trade
3. Glorify Athens—Pericles used Delian League money to decorate Athens and build the
Parthenon
B. Greek styles in art—Classical art tried to portray idealism and serenity
C. Greek Drama
1. Greeks invented drama and created the world’s first theaters
2. Tragedy—a serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, and war
3. Comedy—filled with slapstick and crude humor
D. Spartans and Athenians go to war—the Peloponnesian War
1. Sparta was superior on land; Athens at sea
2. Sparta invade Athens in 431 B.C.; Pericles retreated within the city walls (he could be
reinforced and provisioned by sea)
3. Plague hit Athens killing 1/3-2/3 of the population including Pericles
4. The Athenian navy suffered defeat against Syracuse who was an ally of Sparta
5. Athens surrendered in 404 B.C.
E. Philosophers search for Truth
1. Philosopher means “lover of wisdom”
2. Greeks organized philosophy around 2 assumptions:
a. The universe is put together in an orderly way and is subject to absolute and unchanging
law
b. People can understand these laws through logic and reason
3.
The Sophists
a. Questioned people’s unexamined beliefs (like in the Greek gods)
b. Claimed that there was no universal standard of truth (relativism)
4. 3 Key Greek philosophers
a. Socrates
1. Believed in absolute truths
2. “the unexamined life is not worth living”; “know thyself”
3. Tried for “corrupting the youth of Athens” and sentenced to die of hemlock
poisoning
4. Socratic Method
b. Plato
c.
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Aristotle
1.
Student of Socrates
Wrote down conversations with Socrates
Wrote the Republic about a well-governed society
The Academy
Created a method for arguing according to rules of logic that provides the basis
for the scientific method
2. Summarized nearly all of the knowledge that existed at his time
3. The Lyceum
4. Tutor of Alexander