Download Athens and Sparta

Greek City-States:
Athens and Sparta
5/1/2017
Greek City-States
• Similarities
• Covered small areas of
land
• Athens (smaller than Rhode
Island)
• Sparta (smaller than
Connecticut)
• Large compared to others
• Small populations (most
fewer than 10,000)
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Sparta
• Sparta was an
isolated city-state
that was culturally
and politically
different from
Athens.
• Great military, army
feared by other
nations.
• Fighting Machines!
• During the
Peloponnesian War
Sparta sacked
Athens.
Spartan society
• 3 social groups
• Equals: descended from the invaders,
controlled Sparta
• Half-citizens: free, paid taxes and served
in the army but had no political power,
some farmed but others worked in the
city as traders or artisans
• Helots: slaves, greatly outnumbered the
other groups so Spartans used force to
control them, in large part this is why
Sparta became a military city-state
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• Sparta was an oligarchy: rule by the
few!
• Sparta was ruled by two kings
• Helots outnumbered Spartans 7 to 1! This
was the main reason for the strict war-like
society…
• Breakdown of Spartan Social Structure
Perioeci (Perioikoi)
Helots
Spartan Government
• Two kings led Sparta
• 1 king handled military
• 1 king took care of domestic matters
• A council of Elders
• Made up of 28 male citizens over the age of
60
• Proposed laws and served as a criminal
court
• An assembly
• Included all male citizens over 30
• Elected 5 ephors
• Made sure the kings stayed within the law
• Elected for a 1 year term
• Controlled the education of Spartans
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Sparta’s Military Society
• Goal was to make every male citizen a part of the
military machine
• Military worked to expand Sparta and control the
helots
• A group of officials examined new born babies and
those deemed unhealthy were left to die
• At 7 boys left home to join the barracks
• Mainly military training but they also learned how to read
and write
• From age 18-20 they learned specifically about warfare
• At 20 they could marry but could not live at home until
age 30
• Were available for military service until the age of 60
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Sparta’s Military Society (cont’d)
• Spartan women
• Received strict physical training
• Taught to be devoted to the city-state
• Their best value was seen as producing
Spartan soldiers
• Results of military society:
•
•
•
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Strong government
Almost unbeatable army
No individual freedom
Created almost no art or literature and
made almost no advances in science
Result of Militarism
• Succeeded in holding power over perioeci and helots
for 250 years
• Suspicious of new ideas and lagged behind other
cities in business
• Much poorer
• Lagged in intellectual development
• Exceptional athletes and best protector of Greece
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Athens was the first democracy.
• Democracy: type of government where people
vote.
• Athens was a direct democracy where people
vote on everything. However, only citizens
could vote
• Breakdown of Athenian Social Structure
Adult Male Citizens w
Women, childre
Non-citi
Athenian Society
• 3 class groups
• Citizens: extended to all those born in
Athens, only the men had political
rights
• Metics: born outside Athens, free and
had to pay taxes but had no political
rights and could not own land
• Slaves: captured in war, together with
metics made up more than half of
Athenian society
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M onarchy
Rule by a king or queen
A ristocracy
Rule by a small group of land owning elite
T yranny
Rule by one person, the Tyrant. Who takes power
Democracy
Rule in which people can vote.
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Early Athenian Government
• After the monarchy ended, an aristocracy took
its place
• All adult male citizens met in an assembly
• Elected generals in time of war
• Elected nine archons (rulers with a 1 year term)
• First written code created around 621
• Solon (archon in 594 B.C.)
• Outlawed selling people into slavery to pay their
debt
• Divided citizens into 4 groups based on wealth:
wealthiest 2 could hold office
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On its way from a Monarchy to Democracy Athens had
several people who made important reforms to develop
their government
Early Athens was ruled by a king after it became a
unified polis about 700 B.C.
Later Aristocrats took power as they controlled most of
the land.
Increased trade led to the development of a merchant
class, these merchants became the Tyrants
(Tyrants were not necessarily bad)
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Draco’s Law Code
• Draco issued an improved
code of written laws
• Aristocrats could no longer
dictate what was legal.
• Some of his laws were harsh:
e.g.,death for stealing cabbage.
• Over time, the term “draconian”
has come to mean something cruel
and severe.
• Positive side—the laws
were written down and
aristocrats could no langer
take advantage
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Solon’s Reforms
• Leader of Athens 594 B.C.
• Cancelled all debts and freed debtors from slavery
• Solon improved economic conditions, promoted trade,
fostered industry, and introduced political reforms
that moved Athens toward democracy
• Ordered fathers to teach sons a trade
• Established 2-house government for political equality
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Radical Reformers
• Peistratus (pih*SIHS*truh*tuhs)
• divided large estates among
landless farmers
• extended citizenship to men who
did not own land
• offered the poor loans and jobs.
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Radical Reformers
• Cleisthenes came to power in 508
B.C.
• Introduced laws that established
democracy
• Sought to
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•
•
•
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End local rivalries
Break power of aristocracy
Extend guarantees to more citizens
Reorganize central government
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Greek Military
• This is a hoplite,
a Greek infantry
soldier.
• Hoplites were
middle class
freemen who had
to pay for their
own weapon and
shield.
Greek Military: Phalanx
• Soldiers get in a
tight box. They each
have a large shield
and a 9 foot long
spear.
• Was used in the
Battle of Marathon in
490 BC. The
Athenians defeated
the Persians with
this tactic.
The Persian Wars
• In 546 B.C., Persia, led by Cyrus II, conquered the
Greek city-states in Ionia
• Ionians disliked them
• Considered them to be barbarians
• Ionians revolted against the Persians
• Athens and others helped, but Darius and his Persians
defeated them
• Darius decided to punish the Greeks
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Battle of Marathon
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• Darius sent his fleet directly
across the Aegean Sea north of
Athens.
• The Athenians were
outnumbered 20,000 to 10,000.
• The Persians decided to pack up
and attack Athens directly, but
at the moment of loading their
ships back up, the Athenians
attacked.
• As the Persian army was
standing in knee deep water
waiting to board the ships, the
Athenians attacked downhill
and it was a rout—Persians lost
6,400 men; Athenians lost 192
John men.
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Salamis
• The Persians returned 10 years later and leading the
army was Xerxes, son of Darius with 200,000
soldiers. Off shore supply ships accompanied them.
• The Greeks faced the Persians again, this time under
Spartan leadership
• The Oracle at Delphi, a few years earlier, had said
Greece would be shielded by a wooden wall
• Athenian general Themistocles believed that meant
ships
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Salamis
• To challenge the Persians at sea, a
delaying action had to be established
• The Greek army set up a delaying
action on land, led by King Leonidas of
Sparta; knowing that a traitor had
showed the Persians a way to attack
the Greeks and realizing that he would
soon be surrounded, Leonidas
neverthelsss stayed to face his death.
• The Athenians, led by Leonidas, held
off the Persians for three days with his
7,000 Athenian soldiers.
• Leonidas sent most of the soldiers to
escape to fight another day but put in
a delaying action using 300 Spartans
Thermopylae—
The Mountain Pass
• The site where King Leonidas chose to make his
stand.
• The pass was narrow allowing the Greeks to have the
advantage against the large force of the Persians.
• King Leonidas chose to fight to the death—as their
polis law called for
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Themistocles—The Battle
Near the Island of Salamis
• The delaying action by King Leonidas allowed another
spartan general, Themistocles, to defeat the Persians in the
Salamis Strait.
• He destroyed almost the entire Persian fleet near the island
of Salamis.
• Themistocles judged his faster, smaller ships could defeat
the Persians in the narrow Strait of Salamis
• After the battle of the Island of Salamis, the Persians
returned to Asia Minor for good, and Athens emerged a
powerful and self-confident city-state.
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The Peloponnesian War
• With the ongoing threat of the
Persians, Athens formed the
Delian league of city-states for
protection…Sparta would not
participate.
• The treasury was kept on the
sacred island of Delos.
• The League freed the Ionians from
Persian rule, cleared the seas of
pirates, and fostered (promoted
and helped) trade.
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The Athenian Empire
• Athens transformed the Delian
League into an Athenian empire.
• Athens began to dominate other
city-states
• The empire required the use of the
same coins and made other
changes that were for all citystates to adopt
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The Conflict
• The Peloponnesian War lasted from
431 B.C. to 404 B.C.
• Sparta formed an alliance against
Athens.
• They didn’t have a navy but used
money the Persians gave them for
giving Ionia back to the Persians to
buy ships and prep for war.
• The Spartan-led alliance eventually
destroyed the Athenian fleet and laid
siege to Athens itself. The Athenians
surrendered in 404 B.C.
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The Conflict
• Athens developed many problems
• A disease—probably typhus--killed
a third of its population
• Pericles died from the disease
• Athens couldn’t come to a decision
about making peace with Sparta
• Athenian allies switched sides and
joined the Spartans
Effects of the War
• The Peloponnesian War brought
disaster to the Greek city-states,
both victors and vanquished
• Populations declined, much land
was destroyed, and unemployment
caused many men to become hired
soldiers in the Persian army
• The Greeks also lost faith in
democracy.
• The length of the war caused
people to think only of making
money.
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Effects of the War
• Feelings between aristocrats and
commoners became more
strained. People began to look
down on free political discussion.
• Rulers came and went. City-states
were unable to join together for
ultimate power. Then came the
Macedonians—and someone called
Alexander the Great