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What you looking at, punk?:
The History of Greek Warfare
Community House School
Winter 2015
Social Studies
The Trojan War
 More legend than fact, but a real war did occur between the
Greeks and the Trojans
 Not much is known about this enormous war but a writer
named HOMER-no not that one (the old guy)
 Homer told stories about ARETE which meant the Greek
ideal man (brave, strong, fast and smart-this broght glory to
Greek city states).
 Though his account was mainly fictional –it told the story of
the Trojan war that started when Paris (the trojan prince)
stole the love of a Greek King.
“Hey, look at that huge horse. Lets
bring it in. What’s the worst that
could happen?”
troy
 The ideal man was the Greek slodier, Achilles, who was
able to turn the tide for the Greeks until that darn Paris shot
him in the foot (Dooh!)
 The Greeks then besieged the city of Troy hoping that the
city would soon fall. It didn’t.
 Legend has it that the Greeks built a huge horse made out
of wood and soldiers hid inside
 The Greeks left it in front of the city walls like a gift and the
idiotic Trojans wheeled it in
 At night the Greeks burst out of the horse and took the city.
 Truth: a war was fought including a siege but it is doubtful
that a wooden horse was used.
Cyrus the (well, not so) Great
 Traditionally all the power wrested in Asia Minor though several
different groups had controlled the region power had always
centered around this region
 As Greek society grew and flourished, the area became ruled by
the Persians
 Persians began fanning out and spreading their empire to the
North including the area known today as Turkey
 Under the rule of Cyrus, Ionia (Turkey) was conquered –
Tyrants were given power and heavy taxes were levied – the
Ionians grew angry
Nice Toga, they sell men’s
clothes where you got that?
 Fearing that the Persians my soon take over Greece,
the Greeks encouraged the Ionians to rebel against
Persian rule and even supplied them with weapons
and invaded part of Turkey
 Eventually the Persians were able to quell (squash)
the Ionian revolt but the Persians were angry at the
Greeks for stirring up trouble
 The Persians decided then to attack Greece
Hey, who left the back door open?
You let the Persians in again!
 Persian ships, carrying the Calvary sailed over to Greece, looting
islands on the way
 Usually at this time people were pretty safe once they were
inside their walls. The Persians didn’t have any weapons that
could break down strong stone walls. But some of the Eretrians
were afraid of the Persians anyway, and one of them opened a
back door for the Persians in the middle of the night (jerk!)
 the Persians had a good base at Eretria (Greece), they sailed over
to Athens
 Athenians hearing of the Persian attack raised an army and went
out to meet them before the reached Athens
They don’t call 24 hours of
Modern Family marathon for
nothing.
 The two armies came together at Marathon (where have I heard
that name before?) –Sparta and other city states did not arrive
(100,000 Persians to 20,000 Greeks)
 At Marathon, the Greeks divided forces into three groups. They
had the center pretend to run – the Persians chased them only to
find themselves caught in a trap
 The Greeks locked their shields together and destroyed the
Persian force (6500 Persians dead to 192 Greeks)
 Because Athens was now undefended, many feared that it would
give in to the demands of the Persian Navy thinking the army
would soon be up on them, so one runner (Phidippides) ran 26
miles back to tell of the victory and died when he got there.
We are SPARTA!300
 Persians met a force of Greeks at Thermopylae
 This was a small mountain pass that controlled access to all of Greece
 For two days 7,000 Greeks held the Persians back, but A Greek traitor
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showed the Persians a secret passageway
This allowed the Persians to sneak up from behind and attack the
Greeks - Most of the Greek defenders ran away.
300 Spartans stayed behind and fought to their deaths
This allowed the other Greeks to escape capture or certain death
The Persians poured into Greece and burned Athens to the ground
As their city-state burned the Athenian people and the army escaped to
the island of Salamis
The Persians were quick to follow the retreating Greeks to Salamis
I didn’t know we were attacking.
Somebody just told me there was a
snow cone machine on the other boat
 The Persians then retreated but raised a huge Navy under
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Xerxes and sent it to Greece to conquer Athens
The Greek navy was small and clumsy – the boats were few but big
and maneuvered slowly so the Greeks decided to use this to their
advantage
The Greeks turned their boats into fighting platforms.
They filled their boats with soldiers who would jump to the other
boat and fight with the opposing boats in hand-to-hand combat
The Athenians managed to destroy the majority of the Persian fleet
at the Battle of Salamis. The Persians withdrew their army.
This made Greece the new world power and Athens the
unofficial leader of Greece and the world
The Peloponnesian War:
History’s jealous cat fight
 Ancient Greece was not all one united country but a bunch of divided
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city states that liked to bicker like Greek gods or …well you know
Athens headed the Delian League – taxed city states for protection
and spent the money on themselves
Sparta grew tired of the Athenian attitude and feared it was taking
over too many other city-states (yes it was a turf war…so to speak)
Athens felt it’s superior Navy would make it victorious – Sparta felt
the same about its army.
After 10 years of fighting, neither army had made any real headway so
they signed the Peace of Nicias which kept things as they were but
stopped the fighting (Maybe it would work in that car with…no,
probably not.)
Does this mean we can’t make
the gods argue anymore?
 After years of peace, Athens decide to gain power by trying to
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conquer the island of Sicily
Underestimating the force, Athens was beaten back and had to call on
more support from home.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Sparta and Persia both attacked Athens
simultaneously though not allied with each other
At the same time, a wave of plague ripped through Athens weakening
it and forcing it to surrender to Sparta
Athenians surrendered totally to the Spartans, who tore down the
walls of the city, barred them from ever having a navy, and installed
their own oligarchic (rule by a few) government-Golden Age? Over.