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GREECE
CLASSICAL GREECE
When the Persians retreated from Greece, the Greek League began show
tensions. Although Sparta had contributed the most to the war and had fought
the deciding battle at Plataea, the victory over the Persians would not have been
possible without the Athenian navy, which remained powerful after the war.
All the Greek cities in Asia Minor lived under the direct threat of Persian
invasion and revenge; Sparta, being a land-based military, was in no position
to defend these city-states. So these city-states, and the city-states of the islands
in the Aegean, turned to Athens and her powerful navy for protection and
alliance. The city-states in the south of Greece, and some in the north, turned
to Sparta, which had led the Greek League in the war against the Persians.
Thus was set up the great rivalry between these two diametrically opposed
Greek states and cultures, a rivalry that would lift Athens to the height of empire
only to be finally defeated by an increasingly distrustful Spartan alliance.
This was the beginning of the Delian League.
The Persian Wars ushered in a century of Athenian dominance of Greek affairs. Athe
was the unchallenged master of the sea, and also the leading
commercial power, although Corinth remained a serious rival. The leading statesma
this time was Pericles, who used the tribute paid by the members
of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other great monuments of
classical Athens. By the mid 5th century the League had become an Athenian Empire
symbolized by the transfer of the League's treasury from Delos to the
Parthenon in 454 BC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece#Dominance_of_Athens
The wealth of Athens attracted talented people from all over Greece, and also created
a wealthy leisure class who became patrons of the arts. The Athenian state also
sponsored learning and the arts, particularly architecture. Athens became the centre
of Greek literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy) and the arts (see Greek theatre).
Some of the greatest names of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens
during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles,
the philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, the historians Herodotus, Thucydides,
and Xenophon, the poet Simonides and the sculptor Pheidias. The city became, in Pericles'
words, "the school of Hellas".
The other Greek states at first accepted Athenian leadership in the continuing
war against the Persians, but after the fall of the conservative politician Cimon in
461 BC, Athens became an increasingly open imperialist power. After the Greek
victory at the Battle of the Eurymedon in 466 BC, the Persians were no longer a
threat, and some states, such as Naxos, tried to secede from the League, but were
forced to submit. The new Athenian leaders, Pericles and Ephialtes, let relations
between Athens and Sparta deteriorate, and in 458 BC war broke out. After some
years of inconclusive war a 30-year peace was signed between the Delian League
and the Peloponnesian League (Sparta and her allies). This coincided with the las
battle between the Greeks and the Persians, a sea battle off Salamis in Cyprus,
followed by the Peace of Callias (450 BC) between the Greeks and Persians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece#Dominance_of_Athens
The
PELOPONNESIAN WAR
In 431 BC war broke out again between Athens and Sparta and its allies. The
immediate causes of the Peloponnesian War vary from account to account. However,
three causes are fairly consistent among the ancient historians, namely Thucydides
and Plutarch. Prior to the war, Corinth and one of its colonies, Corcyra (modern-day Corfu), got i
a dispute in which Athens intervened. Soon after, Corinth and Athens argued over control of
Potidaea (near modern-day Nea Potidaia), eventually leading
to an Athenian siege of the Potidaea. Finally, Athens issued a series of economic
decrees known as the "Megarian Decrees" that placed economic sanctions on the
Megarian people. Athens was accused by the Peloponnesian allies of violating the
Thirty Years Peace through all of the aforementioned actions, and Sparta formally
declared war on Athens.
It should be noted that many historians consider these simply to be the
immediate causes of the war. They would argue that the underlying cause was
the growing resentment of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over
Greek affairs. The war lasted 27 years, partly because Athens (a naval power) and
Sparta (a land-based military power) found it difficult to come to grips with each
other.
Sparta's initial strategy was to invade Attica, but the Athenians were able to
retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of plague in the city during the siege
caused heavy losses, including Pericles. At the same time the Athenian fleet
landed troops in the Peloponnese, winning battles at Naupactus (429 BC) and
Pylos (425 BC). But these tactics could bring neither side a decisive victory.
After several years of inconclusive campaigning, the moderate Athenian leader
Nicias concluded the Peace of Nicias (421 BC).
In 418 BC, however, hostility between Sparta and the Athenian ally Argos led
to a resumption of fighting. At Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies
of Athens and her allies. The resumption of fighting brought the war party, led
by Alcibiades, back to power in Athens. In 415 BC Alcibiades persuaded the
Athenian Assembly to launch a major expedition against Syracuse , a
Peloponnesian ally in Sicily. Though Nicias was a sceptic about the Sicilian
Expedition , he was appointed along Alcibiades to lead the expedition. Due to
accusations against him, Alcibiades fled to Sparta where he persuaded Sparta
to send aid to Syracuse. As a result, the expedition was a complete disaster
and the whole expeditionary force was lost. Nicias was executed by his captors.
Sparta had now built a fleet (with the help of the Persians) to challenge
Athenian naval supremacy, and had found a brilliant military leader in
Lysander, who seized the strategic initiative by occupying the Hellespont, the
source of Athens' grain imports. Threatened with starvation, Athens sent its
last remaining fleet to confront Lysander, who decisively defeated them at Aegospotam
(405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with
bankruptcy. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern
settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. Th
anti-democratic party took power in Athens with Spartan
support.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece#Dominance_of_Athens
THIS IS HOMEWORK!!!
Reflect and Analyze
Page 148
QUESTIONS: # 1, #2, & # 3 a
Look back through the textbook for answers please!!!
It's only really 2 pages, I'm sure you can handle it!!