Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Part 1: Greece Part 2: Alexander the Great Lesson 20 Part 1: Greece Theme: The Decline of the City-states Lesson 20 ID & SIG • Delian League, Marathon, Peloponnesian War, Persian Wars, Thermopylae Persian Wars • Greek colonization brought the city states in conflict with the Persian Empire – Remember from Lesson 6 • Result was the Persian Wars (500-479 B.C.) Ionian Rebellion • As Persian emperors Cyrus and Darius tightened their grip on Anatolia, the Greek cities on the Ionian coast became increasingly restless • In 500 B.C., they revolted and expelled the Achaemenid administrators • Athens sent a fleet in support of their fellow Greeks and commercial partners • In 493, Darius repressed the rebellion Cyclades Islands Persian Wars • To punish the Athenians and discourage future interference, Darius attacked Athens in 490 • The Athenians repelled the invasion – Marathon Battle of Marathon • The Persians landed at the Plains of Marathon on September 9, 490 • For eight days, the two armies faced each other • On the ninth day, the Persians started to advance, forcing Miltiades, the commander in chief of the Athenian army, to deploy his army of 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans for battle Battle of Marathon • The Athenians surrounded the Persians in a double envelopment – Although the Athenians were outnumbered, their spears were superior to the Persians’ bows and short lances • The Persians fled to their ships • Persians lost 6,400 men and seven ships • Athenians lost 192 Battle of Marathon • However, Miltiades realized that the Persian fleet could sail and attack the undefended city of Athens • According to legend, he called upon Phidippides to run to Athens to tell them of the victory and warn them of the approaching Persian ships • Phidippides ran the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens in about three hours, successfully warning the Athenians who repelled the Persian invasion • Phidippides was exhausted from the fight at Marathon and the 26 mile run and died upon announcing the warning Miltiades Olympic Marathons • The marathon was part of the 1896 Olympics – The course was from Marathon to Athens (24.85 miles or 40 km) • At the London Olympics in 1908, the Olympic marathon course was set at 26 miles, 385 yards (42.195 km) to accommodate the Royal Family’s viewing • In 1921 the International Amateur Athletic Foundation made 42.195 km the official distance of a marathon Xerxes • Darius’s successor Xerxes tried to avenge the Persian losses by launching another attack in 480 – Thermopylae Thermopylae • The Greeks sent an allied army under the Spartan king Leonidas to Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass in northeastern Greece • The point was to stall the Persians long enough that the city states could prepare for later major battles after the Persians broke through Persians attempting to force the pass at Thermopylae Thermopylae • Twice the Greeks repelled the Persians • Then Ephialtes, a local farmer, traitorously led a force of Persian infantry through a mountain passage and the next morning they appeared behind the Greek lines • Leonidas ordered the rest of the army to withdraw and held the passage with just 300 Spartans • As true Spartans, they chose death over retreat – Remember Lesson 17 • All died but they did hold off the Persians long enough to ensure the safe withdrawal of the rest of the Greek army. Leonidas Thermopylae • “Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their laws.” – (Inscription carved on the tomb of Leonidas’s Three Hundred) Leonidas at Thermopylae by David After Thermopylae • The Persians captured and burned Athens but were defeated by the Athenian navy at Salamis • In 479 the Persians were defeated at Plataea and forced back to Anatolia Delian League • After the Persian threat subsided, the Greek poleis had conflicts among themselves • The poleis formed an alliance called the Delian League – Athens supplied most of the military force and the other poleis provided financial support – Sparta did not join the league – In the absence of the Persian threat, eventually the other poleis came to resent financing Athens’s bureaucracy and construction projects • The resulting tensions led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404) in which the poleis divided up into two sides led by Athens and Sparta The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) • The war went back and forth until 404 when the Spartans and their allies forced Athens to surrender • Conflicts continued however and the world of the poleis steadily lost power – Alexander the Great is going to step into this power vacuum (next lesson) “Failure of the Nerve” • Xenophon lamented that up to this point, “the City-state, the Polis, had concentrated upon itself all the loyalty and the aspiration of the Greek mind. It gave security to life. It gave meaning to religion.” • Then, however, “it was not now ruled by the best citizens. The best had turned away from politics.” • Intellectual and imaginative life of 4th Century Greece gave way to an atmosphere of defeat – Gilbert Murray explains it as “a failure of nerve” Part 2: Alexander the Great Theme: Advances in Warfare Lesson 20 ID & SIG • Alexander the Great, Darius, Gaugamela (Arbela), phalanx, Philip, siege, Tyre Philip II • Ruled Macedonia from 359336 B.C. and transformed it into a powerful military machine • Moved into northern Greece and met little resistance due to residual effects of Peloponnesian War – By 338 he had Greece under his control Macedonia Alexander the Great • Philip intended to use Greece as a launching pad to invade Persia, but he was assassinated before he could begin his plan • Instead the invasion of Persia would be left for Philip’s son Alexander who was just 20 when Philip was assassinated – “Alexander inherited from his father the most perfectly organized, trained, and equipped army of ancient times.” • J.F.C. Fuller, The Generalship of Alexander the Great Conquests of Alexander • • • • • • • • Ionia and Anatolia Syria, Palestine, Egypt Mesopotamia Persepolis King of Persia India Returns to Susa Dies (age 33) 333 332 331 331 330 327 324 323 Warfare in the Age of Alexander • Phalanx: A formation of infantry carrying overlapping shields and long spears, developed by Philip II and used by Alexander the Great Warfare in the Age of Alexander • Hoplite – The main melee warrior of the Macedonian army. – Worked mainly in the tight phalanx formation, creating impregnable lines that often left the enemy demoralized. Hoplites in Action Warfare in the Age of Alexander • Sieges involved the surrounding and blockading of a town or fortress by an army trying to capture it. • A variety of weapons were built to hurl projectiles over city walls, scale or batter the walls, and transport soldiers over them. Tyre • “… if Alexander deserves permanent commemoration as a general, then it is above all in his capacity as a besieger, and of all his sieges Tyre was his masterpiece.” – Paul Cartledge, Alexander the Great, 147 Tyrian Fire Ship Burns the Towers After Gaugamela • Darius’s escape frustrated Alexander because it prevented him from full claim to being king of Persia • Eventually Darius’s followers assassinated him • As Alexander became king of Persia and continued to advance east, he took on an increasingly Eastern attitude The End of the Empire • Alexander – Married Roxanna and had his men also intermarry – Adopted Eastern dress and habits – Publicly insisted upon his descent from the gods – Began giving key positions to Persians • The Macedonians were tired of campaigning and resented the changes in Alexander’s behavior and become mutinous • Alexander died in June 323, perhaps as a result of poisoning "The Marriage of Alexander the Great and Roxanna" by Ishmail Parbury After Alexander • After Alexander died, his generals jockeyed for power and by 275 they had divided up his kingdom into three large states – Antigonus took Greece and Macedon – Ptolemy took Egypt – Seleuces took the former Achaemenid empire • The period of Alexander and his successors is called the Hellenistic period to reflect the broad influence of Greek culture beyond Greece’s borders Next • Aztecs and Mongols