Download Greece 60-80 - Copley-Fairlawn City Schools

Pericles
•Pericles also stressed
intellectual achievement
•Anaxagoras - first to realize
that the moon was lit by
reflected sunlight
•Herodotus - the world’s first
historian
Pericles
•Aeschylus, Euripides,
Sophocles - Three best Greek
playwrights
•“Our whole city is an
education, for our citizens
excel all men in versatility,
resourcefulness, & brilliance.”
- Pericles
Pericles
•Pericles’s partner, Aspasia,
was a foreigner
•Had divorced his wife
•Aspasia was a hetaira - a
companion (prostitute)
•Considered scandalous
•Pericles treated her as an
equal - had her participate in
political conversations
Pericles
•Pericles’s qualities that made
him so great also became his
downfall
•Wanted to make Athens the
undisputed leader of the
Mediterranean
Peloponnesian
War
•431 BCE: Peloponnesian War
began
•Pericles took the podium of
the pnyx and proposed his
most daring plan yet
•War with their oldest enemy:
•Sparta
Peloponnesian
War
•The only other city-state that
could rival Athens’s power
•“It is from the greatest
dangers that the greatest
glory is to be won.” - Pericles
•They accepted his plan
•This was risky because while
the Athens navy was far
superior, Sparta could easily
defeat them on land
Peloponnesian
War
•He proposed that they all
abandon Athens to go to the
harbor at Piraeus
•It was going to be an offensive
attack from the sea based on
guesswork & assumptions
•Figured it would take up to 2
years
•Spartans invaded territory
surrounding Athens & burned
farmland
•Athenians watched from the city
walls & could do nothing
Peloponnesian
War
•Pericles remained confident
•One year into the war, the
grain boats that were
supplying the Athenians-inexile also brought...
•plague.
•Pericles did not anticipate this
•The overcrowded harbor
town crumpled.
•It spread like wildfire
Peloponnesian
War
•“The body was suddenly
seized, first with violent heats
around the head & redness &
inflammation of the eyes. And
then the disease descended
into the bowels producing
violent ulceration &
uncontrollable diarrhea. The
sufferings of individuals
seemed almost beyond the
capacity of human nature.” Thucydides (Athenian
historian)
Peloponnesian
War
•1/3 of Athenians died
•429 BCE: Pericles died of
plague
•Without a single strong
statesman, many squabbled
for the top spot
•They simply followed the
mood of the population with
a horrifying potential - mob
rule
Peloponnesian
War
•About this time there was a
naval victory against the
Spartans.
•Generals returned to Athens
expecting a hero’s welcome.
•They were thrown into prison
instead.
•A storm during the battle
forced the ships to sail straight
for Athens instead of
searching for soldiers who
had fallen overboard during
the battle.
Peloponnesian
War
•Protesters said the generals
should be tried & executed
•Socrates was the only one
that tried to calm down the
mob & said that an execution
would be wrong
•It didn’t work - 1 man was not
enough
•The generals were sentenced
to death by drinking hemlock
poison
Peloponnesian
War
•The war against Sparta
dragged on over a decade
•Neither side was able to win
•415 BCE: Sicily had asked
Athens for protection from a
Spartan ally, Syracuse
•Could we help Sicily &
conquer it at the same time?
•They would need 10,000 men
& a new fleet of ships
Peloponnesian
War
•6 months into it they needed
reinforcements
•Then news stopped coming utter silence
•413 BCE: Sparta signed an
alliance with Persia
•1 sailor arrived back in
Athens
•Just some random man who
needed a haircut
•Started telling his barber
about the battle
Peloponnesian
War
•The invading army was
pinned down exactly where it
landed
•Leaders argued amongst
themselves about strategy
•Food & water ran out
•Tried & failed to cross a river
to escape, but most died
(heavy armor)
Peloponnesian
War
•This was the tale of one of the
greatest defeats of ancient
history
•Over 50,000 died or
imprisoned
•2 fleets of Triremes were
destroyed
Peloponnesian
War
•The Athenians went in for all
the wrong reasons completely selfish interest and they paid for it
•Athens was now militarily
powerless
Peloponnesian
War
•Persians came back (50 years
after their defeat) for revenge
•They approached the Spartans
for help
•Sparta accepted
•Persia paid for a new navy
build-up
•Sparta now blockaded
Athenian harbors
•Athenians began to starve to
death
Peloponnesian
War
•404 BCE: Athens surrendered
to Spartan commander
•Lysander
•First thing they did was
destroy the Athenian fleet
•Only allowed 12 ships to
remain
•The Athenians searched for a
scapegoat
•They found Socrates
Legacy
•399 BCE: Socrates was
convicted of “convicting the
youth” & sentenced to death.
•Had to drink hemlock
poison
•337 BCE: Formal end of
Athenian democracy
•Athens would never become
a world power again
•But it would never again fall
into mob rule either
Legacy
•Became a haven for
intellectual pursuits
•Socrates’ students would
continue his dreams & build
their own schools
•Plato: Tried to formulate an
ideal society
•Aristotle: Studied nature &
developed the fields of
biology & zoology