Download Athens vs. Sparta

• How did Persia’s empiric rise impact
ancient Greece?
• What was the general outcome of the
Persian Wars?
• How did Greece respond after the end
of the Persian Wars?
• What was the immediate causes of the
Peloponnesian Wars?
• Greeks spent great deal of time fighting
one another
• At the same time, Persia was growing in
power
• By 520 BCE Persian Empire encircled
Greek city-states & have conquered
former Greek colonies
– Zoinks!
• 507 BCE: Athenians sent
ambassador to Persian King
Darius I to create
protective alliance against
Sparta
– Ambassador made alliance
– BUT Athenian assembly
eventually rejected deal
– Why would the Athenian
process confuse the Persians?
We’ll vote on
it and get
back to you!
WHAT?!
?
Me so
angry
• 499-493 BCE: Greek
cities throughout Asia
Minor rise up against
Persian rule.
• 498 BCE: After pleading
for an alliance with the
Persians, the Athenians
back the Ionian Revolt
– Help Ionians to sack Persian
city of Sardis
– Result: Persians are
ANGRY!!!
AGH!
Those Greeks will
pay for this
We’re on
the way
Help!
• 490 B.C. - King Darius sent 600 ships and
20,000 soldiers to invade Greece; wanted to
punish Athenians for helping Ionian rebels
• Persian army landed at Marathon, north of
Athens
– Athenian force had no horses or archers, only
fierce foot soldiers (hoplites; 10,000)
– Athenians bravely (or stupidly) lined up their men
and attacked (after 4 day standoff)
– Center of the line breaks, but the flanks engulf
the Persians
• Casualties – Persians 6,400, Athenians 192
• Key Individuals:
– King Darius I of Persia
– Overthrown king of
Athens, Hippias who fled
to Persia after he was
ousted
– Miltiades led Athenian
troops against the
Persians at Marathon
• After standoff, the remaining Persians
decided to attack Athens by sea
• While they were preparing their ships,
Athenians attacked and defeated them
• Persians retreated…holla!
• Greeks sent their fastest runner
Pheidippides to carry home news of
victory.
– Sprinted 26.2 miles from battle site to
Athens
• Arrived and said, “Rejoice, we conquer,”
and died from exhaustion
• This is where we get the 26.2 miles in
the contemporary marathon race!
Finish like
somebody
else!
• Explain the causes of the Persian Greco
War.
• Who was the King of Persia in 480 BCE?
• Describe the “match-up” between the
Persian army and the Greek army at
Marathon.
• What fatal flaw did the Persians make
leading to their loss at Marathon?
• What is the “Myth of Marathon”?
• The Greek ruler Themistocles knew Marathon was
a temporary victory. He encouraged the Athenians
to build up their naval fleet and prepare for battle
with the Persians.
• In 480 B.C. Darius’ son Xerxes sent a larger force
to conquer Greece.
• He sent 200,000 soldiers and nearly 1,000 ships.
• By this time Athens had convinced Sparta to join
them in battle along with 30 other Greek citystates
– Sparta took charge of the army.
• Persian moved through northern Greece
easily
• Came to narrow mountain pass called
Thermopylae where 300 Spartans
waited for the Persians led by King
Leonidas
– The only road between Thessaly and
Central Greece
• Spartans held out heroically against the
enormous Persian force for 3 days.
• Spartans betrayed when someone
(Ephialtes) told the Persians how to get
in behind the army.
• Spartans defeated, but won valuable
time for the rest of the Greeks.
• Persians march south after victory at
Thermopylae; destroyed city of Athens
• But REWIND… in 483 Athens suddenly
became very rich when a large vein of
silver was discovered in the mines it
owned
– They use this money to build a new fleet of
100 war-ships in a new style, "triremes"
with 200 men rowing 150 oars arranged in
three tiers
• Knowing the Persians were en route to
crossing the isthmus to Peloponnese the
Athenian fleet moved and was lying in
wait behind the island of Salamis
• More than 800 Persian ships attacked
Athenian navy near the island, but the
large Persian ships could not maneuver
the water; smaller Greek ships destroy
them
Thermopylae
Marathon
Salamis
• The Greek sense of uniqueness was
increased
• Athens emerged as most powerful citystate in Greece
• Athens organized the Delian League, an
alliance with other Greek city-states
• Ironically, Athens did not support
democracy in other city-states
• Forces other city-states to pay tribute
for protection
• Moved the Delian League treasury from
Delos to Athens and begin to abuse the
access to the Leagues’ money
• Many Greeks resented Athenian domination
• Greek world split into rival camps.
– Result: Sparta forges an alliance with the other
city states and forms the Peloponnesian League
– Declares war on Athens, which eventually leads to
the down fall of Athens
• Athens at a disadvantage:
– Geography
– Navy = no good against Spartans located
inland
– After Spartan invasion, Pericles allows
people from countryside to move inside city
• Result: Overcrowding leads to a plague ; killed
1/3 of the people
– Internal struggles undermined Democratic
government
• Sparta allied with Persia, their old
enemy, against the Delian League.
• 404 B.C., with the help of the
Persian navy, the Spartans captured
Athens and stripped it of its fleet
and empire
• The Peloponnesian war ended Athenian greatness
• In Athens Democratic government suffered:
corruption and selfish interests replaced order
• Fighting continued to disrupt the Greek world
• Sparta itself suffered defeat at the hands of
Thebes, another Greek city-state
• Greece was left vulnerable to invasion (hello
Alexander the Great…we’ll meet you soon!)
• Cultural development was halted