Download THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE

THE ATHENIAN
EMPIRE
5th Century –
Athenian dominance leads
To war
SOURCES

THUCYDIDES

455-399 BCE

ATHENIAN

PELOPONNESIAN
WAR CORRUPTED
ATHENIAN VALUES
Athenian Tribute Lists
 fragments
 acropolis
 records
of annual payments made by
league members
PLUTARCH

Greek in Roman
empire

wrote for Roman
audience

moral improvement

entertainment
Themistocles
 Fortification
 Ostracism
of Piraeus
c. 472 BCE
CIMON
 Son
of Miltiades
 Delian League against Persia 476 – 467
BCE
 465 BCE – Revolt of Thasos
 Thracian mines
 Impeached and exiled
 Contributed to rise of Athenian Empire and
repression of rebellion
PERICLES

Introduced pay for
jury duty

Increased political
power of poorer class

Using Delian League
funds, beautified
Athens
Events under Pericles

459 BCE
Long walls

454 BCE
transfer of Delian League treasury

451 BCE
Citizenship

446-445 BCE Treaty with Sparta

431-404 BCE
War

Strategy
sea battles, financial resources, empire

430-426 BCE Epidemic

429 BCE
Death
Long Walls
PARTHENON
ACROPOLIS
PELOPONNESIAN WAR
431-404

War -- 431 BCE

Death Of Pericles 429 BCE

415-413 BCE -- Alcibiades -- Spartan Allies In Sicily

Sparta -- Athenian Countryside

Persia -- Money For Spartan Fleet

404 BCE Athens Surrenders; Humbled

404-403 BCE –30 tyrants; Democracy Restored
Peloponnesian War
431-404
 Athens


and Sparta
Open society
Closed, rigid society
 Culmination
of the Golden Age of Athens
 Subject of first great history written by an
eyewitness



History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides
Democracy on trial
Causes
 Corcyra

Allies of Athens and Sparta
 Sparta


and Corinth
voted for war
Archidamos warns of its difficulty
Advised preparation for sea war –
• Advice not taken
 Pericles
gathers rural dwellers into the city
430
 Athens
choked with refugees
 Plague
arrives at Piraeus
Athenian Plague
 430-429;
428; 427
 25-30% dead
 1050 of one detachment of 4000 hoplites
 Short


term
Athens is weakened
Pregnant women especially susceptible
Explanations and responses
 Spartans
 Gods
 No
poisoned the water
displeased
effective remedy
 Rituals and rites ineffective
 Burial transgressions
 Spending and crime sprees
Death of Pericles
 Followed
by non-aristocratic leaders
 Pandered
to popular will
 Encouraged
war
Peace of Nikias
 421
 50
year truce
 Lasted
 418
about a year
– war on again
Alcibiades
 415
 Fleet
to Sicily
 Accused

of sacrilege and fled to Sparta
Advised Sparta against Athenians
End of the war
 Help
from Persia
 Built
a fleet
 End
of war in 404 at Aegisthopotami
Athenian politics
 411
 400
 30


tyrants
tyrants
Aristocratic, ambitious
Overturned and Athens now democracy again
Other aspects of war
 Melos
 Was
A
in 416
this democracy run wild?
test for Greek culture?
 Compare
Rome and Greece
Decline of Sparta

Spartans -- poor leaders -- alienated many

Greed and population decline

Leuctra 371 BCE

Thebes -- Epaminondas

Mantinia 362 BCE

Thebes wins, Epaminondas falls, helots free
And the result
Weakened and vulnerable Greece