Download File

Section 3
Athens
Athenian Background
Located NE of Sparta, on the Aegean Sea
 Had different philosophy than Spartans

Athenian Government
First ruled by kings then by working people
 Oligarchy- form of government in which a
few people have ruling power
 Upper-class Athenians made reforms to
settle disputes over land ownership
 Draco, a noble, first to attempt
to change government but his
punishments were too harsh

Solon's Constitution
594 B.C., Solon prepared a
constitution, a set of principles and
rules for governing
 Broke governing power of the rich
 Set land ownership limit
 Landowners could vote in the
Assembly
 Assembly could pass laws
 Freed people who were enslaved
because of debt
 Offered citizenship to non-Athenian
artisans

Peisistratus





560 B.C. government taken
over by Peisistratus
Supported the lower classes
Divided large estates
among farmers who owned
no land
Stated a person no longer
had to own land to be a
citizen
Encouraged sculpture and
other arts
Cleisthenes
508 B.C. Spartans
overthrown by a noble
named Cleisthenes
 Cleisthenes created world’s
first democratic constitution
 Democracy- favors the
equality of all people

Cleisthenes' Reforms
The political reforms made by Cleisthenes
lasted for over 300 years
 Opened Assembly to all males over 20
 Chief Magistrates- judges elected to run
army and navy
 One commander-in-chief
 Council of Five Hundred handled the daily
business of Athens


Athenians preferred choosing members by
lot rather than by voting
– Didn’t want rich to have advantage and
believed everyone was smart enough
Athenian Education
Citizens required to educate sons
 Boys- tutored or went to private school
 Studied writing, math, and music
 Practiced sports
 Memorized works by Homer and other
Greek poets
 Age 18- Athenian boys went to temple of
Zeus and took an oath of citizenship

Greece vs. Persia
545 BC- Persians conquered Ionia
 525 BC- Ionians revolted
 Ionians asked mainland Greece to help
 520 BC- Persians put down Ionian Revolt
 Darius, Persian king, won and decided to
punish mainland Greece for helping Ionians

490-479 BC- The Persian Wars
490 BC- Battle of Marathon
Won by Greeks
 A runner ran 26 miles to Athens to tell of
victory and shouted, “NIKE,” the Greek
goddess of victory, then died


Started to build triremes, warships that
had three levels of rowers on each side
480 BC- Battle of Thermopylae

Darius’s son, Xerxes, conquered northern
Greece
– Started south to take over all of Greece

20 city-states banded together
– Sparta led army, Athens led navy

Narrow pass 100 miles away from Athens
7,000 Greeks held off 250,000 Persians for
three days
 300 Spartans and 700 Greeks stayed to defend
the pass

– Athenians fled city to Salamis
Persians, helped by a traitor, found a way
around the pass and killed every soldier
 Persians then continued on to Athens

480 BC- Battle of Salamis
Persians burned Athens to the ground
 Greeks tricked Persians to sail into strait
between Salamis and Athens
 Persian ships were too big for the narrow pass
 Greeks defeated the Persian fleet
 Xerxes left some fleet behind and retreated to
Asia
 479 BC-Battle of Plataea-end of The Persian
Wars

The Delian League
Persians still ruled Ionia
 Greek city-states formed a defensive
league, a protective group
 Met on island of Delos

– Sparta did not join

Athens gained too much power and Delian
League turned into Athenian Empire
460-429 BC- Pericles:
"First Citizen” of Athens
Wanted Athens to be
the most beautiful and
perfect city
 Rebuilt temples and
palaces on Acropolis
 Had the Parthenon and
the Long Walls built


Parthenon, temple of goddess Athena,
took 11 years to build
– Built with Delian League money

The Long Walls- 5 miles long, connected
Athens to its seaport of Piraeus
431-404 BC- Peloponnesian War

Athens and Spartan-led city-states
– Began decline of Athens
404 B.C.-Athens surrendered to Sparta
 The war and a plague left Athens in ruins

– Thousands of young Athenians became
mercenaries, hired soldiers, in Persian army
Athens revolted and set up a democracy
 Athens would never match its power before the
Peloponnesian War

Section 4:
Decline of the City-States
After Peloponnesian War, Greeks lost their
sense of community
 Bitterness between upper and lower classes
 Sparta ruled Greece too harshly
 371 B.C.- Thebes leads group in overthrowing
Spartan rule


338 B.C.- Philip II of Macedonia conquers
Greece