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The Greeks at War!
Between 500 and 400 B.C. the Greeks
fought several wars.
One was against the powerful Persian
Empire to the east of Greece. The Greeks
temporarily united, and won.
About 50 years later, a war broke out
between Athens and Sparta. Sparta
eventually won, but both cities were
weakened by the struggle.
Why did the Persians invade Greece?
The Persians conquered the
Greek colonies on the coast of
Asia Minor.
AGH!
Those Greeks
will pay for
this
In 499 B.C. these Greeks
asked the mainland Greeks
to help them rebel against
the Persians.
We’re on
the way
Help!
Athens sent warships to help
them, but they were not strong
enough to defeat the Persian
army.
The made the Persian King, Darius, very angry
with Athens.
In 490 B.C. Darius sent 600 ships and thousands of soldiers to invade
Greece. He wanted to punish the Athenians for helping the rebels.
The Persian army landed at
Marathon, north of Athens,
in 490 B.C.
The Persians greatly
outnumbered the Greeks.
The Persians were
amazed at the strong
will of the small
Athenian force.
They had no horses or
archers, only fierce
hoplites.
The Athenians formed a
phalanx and ran at the
Persians. The Athenians
won!
Persian
Empire
Athens
Sparta
Marathon
Marathon
The Greeks sent their fastest runner Pheidippides
to carry home news of the victory.
He sprinted 26.2 miles from the battle site to the
city-state of Athens.
He arrived and said, “Victory!,” and died from
exhaustion
The Marathon race is named after this event.
The Persians returned home. Meanwhile, the
Athenian statesman Themistocles kept warning
the Athenians that the Persians would return. He
urged them to build up their navy.
What Happened at Thermopylae?
The Athenian statesmanThemistocles knew this was a temporary
victory.
He encouraged the Athenians to build up their fleet
and prepare for battle with the Persians.
In 480 B.C. the new Persian King Xerxes sent a
larger force to conquer Greece.
He sent about 100,000 soldiers and nearly 1,000
ships.
.
There were about 7000 Greeks from other
cities, and a Spartan force of about 300
men commanded by King Leonidas, guarding
the mountain pass of Thermopylae.
They held out heroically against he
enormous Persian force for three
days.Then a traitor told the Persians
about another pass that would lead them
around and behind the Greek army.
The Spartans under King Leonidas told the
rest of the Greeks to escape while they
continued to hold the pass for as long as
possible.
All the Spartans were killed, but their
heroism inspired Greece to unite and fight
the Persians.
The Spartans under King Leonidas told the
rest of the Greeks to escape while they
continued to hold the pass for as long as
possible.
All the Spartans were killed, but their
heroism inspired Greece to unite and fight
the Persians.
Who won at Salamis?
The Persians marched
south after their
victory at
Thermopylae. The
frightened Athenians
asked the Delphic
oracle for advice.
She told them they
would “find safety
behind their wooden
walls”. Themistocles
convinced the
Athenians that these
wood walls were their
ships. The Athenians
evacuated their city,
and the men boarded
their triremes and
prepared to fight the
Persian navy.
Thermopylae
Salamis
Athens
Themistocles came up with a trick. The Athenians lured the
Persians into the narrow bay of Salamis, where the Athenian
triremes would have an advantage. .
SALAMIS
The Athenian Themistocles used trickery to lure the
Persian navy into the narrow bay of Salamis,
where the Athenians would have an advantage.
The Athenian triremes rammed the Persian ships.
The Athenians also used fire ships. The Athenians
destroyed much of the Persian navy.
PLATAEA
• Now the Persian army in Greece had no way to get
supplies.
• Winter came. Many Persians deserted the Persian army
during the winter.
• Fighting resumed in the spring. The Greek army,
consisting of men from many Greek city-states, faced the
weakened Persian army at the final battle, Plataea. The
Greeks won, and the Persian survivors went home.
AFTER THE PERSIAN WARS
The Greeks felt great self confidence.
Athenians began to rebuild their city, and entered a
period of great cultural achievement. The “Golden Age
of Greece” began.
The Greeks had won the Persian Wars, and kept their
independence. However, the Persian Empire was still
strong, and the Greeks feared that Persia would try
to conquer them again.
.
The Delian League
Athens emerged as the most powerful city-state in
Greece.
Athens organized the Delian League, which at first
was a voluntary alliance of Greek city states, with the
purpose of maintaining a common navy to be ready in
case the Persians returned.
At first, the Delian League was a good thing for all
the city states that belonged to it. Over time, it
changed into something that was good only for
Athens.
How the Delian League changed
1) At first, all members contributed
ships, and the treasury was kept
on the neutral, sacred island of
Delos
2) Then Athens said that since the
Athenians built the best ships,
Athens should build all the ships,
and the other members of the
Delian league should contribute
money.
How the Delian League changed
3) Next, Athens
said that the
treasury should be
moved from Delos
to Athens, and
the money should
be sent straight
to Athens
How the Delian League changed
4) Next, Athens
began using the
Delian League
money for its
own purposes,
such as building
fine building in
Athens,
including the
Parthenon.
How the Delian League changed
5) Finally, Athens said
other members could not
quit the Delian League,
even if they wanted to.
The other members had
to remain in the Delian
League, and had to keep
sending Athens money.
In effect, the Delian
League was now an
Athenian Empire!
Send your Delian
League dues or else!
Someone must pay
for my new temple
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE
OF GREECE
Pericles was a general, an orator
and statesman who held public
office and was active in public life
from about 461BC-429BC.
He was the most important leader
of Athens at this time. The wise
and skillful leadership of Pericles
brought about a Golden age in
Athens.
Pericles was not a “tyrant”. He
was a democratic leader.
I’m Pericles. I
love
democracy
and I love
Athens
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE
OF GREECE
All Athenian
.
As you already know,
under the leadership
of Pericles, Athens
paid its citizens the
average wage of an
Athenian workman
for each day spent
participating in
government. This
allowed even the
poorest men to take
part in government.
citizens, rich or
poor, should
participate in
government
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE OFGREECE
Pericles took the lead in the rebuilding the Acropolis
of Athens, which had been burned by the Persians.
.
This was the greatest
building project of the time.
The magnificent new Parthenon was built to replace
the one that had been burned by the Persians. This,
and other new buildings, were built with Delian League
money.
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE OF
GREECE
I love:
Democratic
.
Pericles
Athens, the
Parthenon,
• Took the lead in sponsoring the
rebuilding of the Acropolis and the Athenian
culture.
Parthenon.
• Suppported the democratic system
of Athens.
• Helped turn Athens in the cultural
center of Greece. Art, literature
and philosophy poured out of
• Helped change the Delian League
from a voluntary alliance into an
Athenian Empire.
Too
bad
about
every
one
else
Athens in the GOLDEN AGE
OF GREECE, also called: The
Age of Pericles
.
While Athens was a
democracy, the Delian League
clearly was not.
The Athenian historian
Thucydides warned his fellow
Athenians: “Our empire is a
tyranny over subjects who do
not like it and who are always
plotting against us. . Our
leadership depends on superior
strength and not on any
goodwill of theirs.
I’m Thucydides. I’m
here to tell you that
the other Greek
cities don’t like us!
Greek against Greek
Peloponnesian War
Many Greeks resented the Athenian
domination. The Greek world split
into rival camps.
To counter the Delian League,
Sparta and other cities, including
Corinth, feared the growing power
of Athens and formed the
Peloponnesian League.
Peloponnesian
War
.
A relatively small incident sparked the war:
In 431BC, when Athens refused to let a
smaller city quit the Delian League. Sparta
the Peloponnesian League declared war on
Athens and the Delian League.
Greek against
Greek
.
Peloponnesian War
• The causes of the Peloponnesian War were not
simple.
• The Greek historian Thucydides wrote the
history of this war. He thought deeply about
the underlying causes of the war. He said that
one cause of the war was “fear of the growing
power of Athens”. He also said that “Athens
and Sparta were full of young men whose
inexperience of war made them eager to take
up arms.
Greek against
Greek
.
Peloponnesian War
• Athens and its allies, fought
Sparta and its allies.
• It lasted 431BC-404BC, with
two periods of truce.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• Sparta
– Primarily a land
power
– Strong army; no
navy
– located inland
– Athenian navy was
useless against
them.
• .
• Athens:
–
–
–
–
Primarily a sea power
Strong navy
Near the coast
Strong walls that
encircled the city &
port
– Could get food &
other supples by sea if
necessary
Peloponnesian
War
.
• When Sparta invaded Athens, Pericles
brought all the people from the countryside
inside the city. In 429BC, overcrowding led
to an epidemic that killed a third of the
people, including Pericles himself, but this
didn’t stop the war.
•
.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• Sparta attacked Athens
by land many times, but
Athens was safe within
its walls as long as food
and supplies could be
obtained by sea.
• The war went on for 27
years, with several
periods of truce.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• In 415BC, Athenians made a disastrous decision
to attack and try to take Syracuse, a city on
the island of Sicily, because it was an ally of
Sparta. This was called the Sicilian Campaign.
• Because of a crazy series of events, most of
the Athenians who went on this expedition died.
The Athenians didn’t even know what had
happened until about 6 months later. From
that point, the tide of the war turned against
Athens.
Peloponnesian
War
.
• Finally, Persia approached Sparta and offered
to loan them ships and money. Sparta made an
alliance with their old enemy Persia.
•
With Persian help, Sparta blockaded the port
of Athens. Since Athens could not get food,
the people began to starve, and in 404BC,
Athens finally surrendered.
• Sparta did not take bloody revenge. Sparta
just stripped Athens of its fleet and empire,
and made them tear down their walls.
The Aftermath of War
The Peloponnesian war ended Athenian greatness.
In Athens Democratic government suffered: Corruption
and selfish interests replaced order.
Neither Athens nor Sparta was ever as strong again.
Soon Sparta itself suffered defeat at the hands of
Thebes, another Greek city-state.
Macedonia and
Alexander the Great
In 338 B.C. King Phillip II of Macedonia
led his army from the north and
conquered Greece.
After his death his son, Alexander the
Great, went on to conquer the entire
Greek world.