Download Empire and Conflict: Greeks and Persians WHAP/Napp “When

Empire and Conflict: Greeks and Persians
WHAP/Napp
“When Darius I’s Persian Empire challenged the Greek city-states, Athens took the lead
in forming a coalition against it. Persia was a huge, centrally governed empire; each Greek
city-state was individually independent, although many had joined into regional
confederations and leagues for mutual assistance and trade. A single emperor who set
policies for the entire empire headed Persia; an assembly of all its adult, free male citizens,
for the most part, governed each individual Greek city-state. The Greek city-states were
moving toward democracy; they understood their legal systems to be their own creation
and responsibility, neither ordained by the gods nor imposed by a powerful external
emperor.
Some of the Greek city-states in Anatolia [western lands of Turkey in Asia] had earlier
fallen under Darius’ empire. Although they were permitted to retain their own form of
local government as long as they paid their taxes to Persia, some of them revolted and
called on the Greek cities of the peninsula for help. Athens tried, half-heartedly and
unsuccessfully, to assist its overseas relatives with ships and soldiers. According to
Herodotus, Darius was furious at this interference. He ordered one of his servants to
remind him, every day at dinnertime, ‘Master, remember the Athenians.’ In 490 Darius I
dispatched a naval expedition directly across the Aegean to punish Athens for its part in
the revolt in Anatolia.
When the Persian fleet of 600 ships landed 48,000 soldiers at Marathon in 490 B.C.E., a
force of some 10,000 Greek hoplite soldiers, joined by about 1000 soldiers from Plataea and
another 1000 slaves, confronted them. The hoplite forces were deployed in solid phalanxes,
columns of soldiers arrayed in tight lines, the left arm and shield of one man pressed
against the right shoulder of the other, in row on row. If a soldier in the front row fell, one
from the next line took his place. (In these hoplite formations, each individual soldier is
crucial to the welfare of all. Many analysts have seen in this egalitarian military formation
the rationale for Athenian political democracy.) The discipline of the Athenians defeated
their enemy.” ~ The World’s History
Analyze similarities and differences in methods of political control of the Persian Empire
and the Greek city-states:
Write a thesis statement using the rule of three [two similarities and one difference or vice
versa].
Identify and explain the causes of the Persian Wars.
Describe the Greek military and why it may have fostered Athenian political democracy.
Key Words
/Questions
Reflections:
I. The Persian Empire (Centered in Iranian Plateau) - Achaemenid Empire
A. Cyrus (reigned 557-530 BCE) and Darius (reigned 522-486 BCE)
B. Conquests from Egypt to India; culturally diverse empire
C. Centered on an elaborate cult of kingship
II. Administrative System
A. Persian governors (satraps) placed in each of the 23 provinces
B. Lower-level officials drawn from local authority
C. System of imperial spies
D. Respect for non-Persian cultural traditions
1. Cyrus allowed Jews – exiled in Babylon – to return to homeland
E. Royal Road – some 1,700 miles long: communication/commerce
III. The Greeks
A. Small competing city-states due to mountainous terrain (seas for trade)
B. Fiercely independent city-states (called themselves Hellenes)
1. Speaking the same language but frequently in conflict
C. Expansive people: Traders in search of iron or farmers looking for land
D. In Athens, direct democracy eventually developed
1. All citizens could directly participate in government
2. However, women, slaves, and foreigners were not citizens
a) Under Solon, in 594 BCE: All citizens took part in the Assembly
b) Cleisthenes and Pericles extended rights further
E. Sparta: extreme military discipline, helots or slaves, Council of Elders
IV. Greco-Persian Wars
A. Number of Greek settlements on the Anatolian seacoast, known Ionia
B. By 499 BCE, Ionian Greeks rebelled with support from Athens
C. Persians launched military expeditions, twice in ten years (490/480)
1. Against all odds, Greeks held them off, defeating the Persians
2. Followed by the Golden Age of Greek culture
3. The Parthenon (columns), theater, philosophy (Socrates)
V. Decline of Greeks
A. Athens led a coalition of city-states but leadership led to imperialism
B. Bitter civil war (431-404 BCE)
1. Known as Peloponnesian War (Allies of Athens v. Allies of Sparta)
C. Athens was defeated  Paving the way for Macedonian conquest
VI. Alexander the Great
A. Alexander’s father, Philip II, conquered Greeks in 338 BCE
B. Continued conquests - Ten-year expedition (333-323 BCE): Egypt,
Anatolia, Persia, Afghanistan, arrived in Indian Subcontinent
C. Spread of Greek culture (Hellenism)
1. Buddha was depicted in human form due to Greek influence
1. All of the following are associated
with Classical Persia EXCEPT:
(A) the royal road
(B) Persepolis
(C) Zoroastrianism
(D) Upanishads
2. The Greek approach to science
was characterized by its:
(A) emphasis on human spirituality
(B) concentration on empirical
findings as opposed to theory
(C) design to find practical
applications for problems
(D) application of rational thought to
speculations about nature’s order
3. The image above best illustrates the
blending of Buddhism with which of the
following?
(A) Greco-Roman culture
(B) Christianity
(C) Confucianism
(D) Egyptian culture
4. After the Peloponnesian War, the
Macedonians took control of Greece and
spread Greek culture throughout much of
the known world under the leadership of
(A) Alexander the Great
(B) Julius Caesar
(C) Hannibal
(D) Pericles
(E) Socrates
5. To govern a far-flung empire consisting of
more than seventy distinct ethnic groups,
the Achaemenid rulers
(A) Established lines of communication
and centralized administration.
(B) Forced the peoples to speak only
Persian and believe only in the Persian
religion.
(C) Used imperial spies to control the
conquered masses.
(D) Decentralized their administration.
(E) All these answers are correct.
6. A historian of ancient Greece would
probably find Athenian dramas to be most
useful as a source of information about
which of the following aspects of Greek
society?
(A) Life expectancies in ancient Greece
(B) Greek religious beliefs and moral values
(C) Military tactics of ancient Greek armies
(D) Agricultural productivity in ancient
Greece
7. The “Persian Wars” (500-479 B.C.E.)
refers to
(A) The rebellions of Mesopotamia and
Egypt against the Achaemenid overlord.
(B) The rebellions of the Greek city-states,
fighting for their independence.
(C) The wars between Alexander of
Macedon and the Achaemenid empire.
(D) The series of civil wars that occurred
within the Achaemenid empire.
(E) None of these answers is correct.
8. Zarathustra was
(A) An emperor.
(B) A prophet.
(C) A magi.
(D) A monotheist.
(E) None of these answers is correct.
9. Which of the following was NOT a
Zoroastrian teaching?
(A) the cosmic conflict between Ahura
Mazda and Angra Mainyu
(B) the idea that individual souls would
undergo future judgment
(C) ascetic renunciation of the world in
favor of a future heavenly existence
(D) the idea that the forces of good would
ultimately prevail
(E) a belief in six lesser deities
10. From the mid-seventh century,
Zoroastrianism lost its popularity because
A) Zoroastrians were converting to Islam.
B) It was outlawed by the Persian
government.
C) It was outlawed by Islamic conquerors.
D) More and more people turned to belief
in Christianity.
E) None of these answers is correct.
11. From the mid-seventh century,
Zoroastrianism lost its popularity because
(A) Zoroastrians were converting to Islam.
(B) It was outlawed by the Persian
government.
(C) It was outlawed by Islamic conquerors.
(D) More and more people turned to belief
in Christianity.
(E) None of these answers is correct.
12. “Romantic glorifications of Greece
create the impression that the Greeks
sought rational solutions…actually, far from
being devoted to the risks of rationality, the
vast majority of the Greeks sought always
the safe haven of superstition and the
comfort of magic charms.”
~ Finley Hooper, historian of ancient
Greece, 1967
“I do not believe that the ‘Sacred Disease’
[epilepsy] is any more divine or sacred than
any other disease, but, on the contrary, I
believe it has specific demonstrable
characteristics and a definite cause.”
~ Hippocrates of Kos, Greek physician,
circa 350 B.C.E.
The passage by Hippocrates weakens
Hooper’s claim in the first passage by
(A) Suggesting that medicine was a
thriving discipline in ancient Greece
(B) Expressing a mistrust for
supernatural causes of medical
conditions
(C) Seeking to understand a disease that
does not have an obvious external
cause
(D) Implying that Greek physicians did
not have effective treatments for
some diseases
Comparative Essay Practice:
Compare methods of political control in the Persian Empire and in Athens.
Make a list of facts pertaining to political control in the Persian Empire and in Athens.
Persian Empire
Athens:
Then write a thesis statement using elements of the prompt and identifying one specific
similarity and one specific difference.