Download Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek Warfare
Persian Wars,
Peloponnesian War, and
Alexander the Great
Greek Warfare
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Hoplite – armed men
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Large 3 foot shield (Hoplon)
protected his left side
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The other side was protected by the
hoplite’s shield to the right.
Thrusting spear 6 – 8 ft long (2
sided)
Battle Formations
Phalanx –
line of
hoplites 8
men deep
Shields
interlock,
march
forward
Greek Phalanx
Phalanx holding the line at Thermopylae
Persian Wars 499 – 479 BCE
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Written by the first Greek historian, Herodotus
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Allies – States that agree to help each other
against a common enemy
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Defined the word History = Investigation
Stories are embellished
Athens, Sparta and other Greek city-states
Persians – Iranian tribe that conquered
Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and parts of
India and Europe.
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Excellent archers
Persian Empire: 525 B. C.
Ionian Revolt
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546 BCE, Persians conquered Greek
settlements in Ionia (Turkey)
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Forced to pay taxes and serve in the Persian
army
499 BCE, Ionians asked Greeks for help.
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Tattooed a secret message in a slave’s head
and sent him to Greek mainland.
Sparta refuses, Athens helps briefly, then leaves
 Persians destroy Ionian city of Miletus
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Post Ionian Revolt
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Persian King Darius decides to conquer
Greek mainland.
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Sends messengers to ask for submission
Asked for Greek earth and water
 Athenians and Spartans threw them into pits and
wells telling them to, “take what they wanted.”
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This meant war.
Battle of Marathon
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King Darius sails an army of 20,000 +
cavalry (crash at Mt. Athos)
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Land on the plain of Marathon.
Facing 10,000 Athenians led by Miltiades.
 Miltiades attacks while horses are out to pasture
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Dead: 192 Athenians vs. 6,400 Persians
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Persians sail to Athens
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Messenger runs 26.2 miles to Athens to prepare
for Persians. Tells them, “Nike!” then drops dead
Athens ready for Persians
Battle of Thermopylae
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Darius’ son, Xerxes gets
180,000 troops to invade
Greece.
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Army marched over floating
bridge over the Hellespont
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10,000 troops dig canal for
Navy to avoid Mt. Athos
Greeks debate defensive
strategies
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Athens – navy
Spartan King Leonidas led the
army
Battle Sight Today
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In ancient times the coastline was where
the modern road lies, or even closer to the
mountain
Battle of Thermopylae (cont.)
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Thermopylae is a narrow pass between
the mountains and the sea north of
Delphi
6,000 Greeks drove back 180,000 Persians
 Greek traitor, Ephialtes tells Xerxes the
back route to surround Greeks
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Leonidas knows its over, sends army home
300 Spartans stay to delay the Persians
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Fight to the death
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“Arrows will blot out the sun.” “We will fight in
the shade”
Animated View of Thermopylae
Illustration of the Battle
Post Thermopylae
Athenians heard of slaughter and fled.
 Athens destroyed.
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Battle of Salamis
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Athenian Navy set a battle site at Salamis
Again, narrow channels
 Greeks sent a loyal slave to Xerxes. Told him
an Athenian general wanted to change sides.
Convinced him to attack immediately.
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Greeks retreated, before attacking
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Led them into the channel.
Greek ships armed with rams in the front
sunk 300 Persian ships.
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Greeks lost 40 ships
End of the Persian Wars
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Xerxes attacked next spring
Spartans feared Athenians would make peace
after the destruction of their home.
 Athens declared “common brotherhood with
Greeks.” They would fight!
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479 BCE Battle of Plataea
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80,000 Greek hoplites destroyed the Persian
army. No more threat!
Greeks lost thousands, city of Athens, but
they rebuilt.
Golden Age of Athens
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479 – 431 BCE Athens was the artistic
and cultural center of Greece.
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Parthenon was pinnacle of architecture
Theatre of Dionysus
The Agora was the home of philosophers
such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
Olympic Games to honor Zeus
All funded by The Delian League
Alliances Between City-States
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After the Persian
War, Sparta and
Athens started to
mistrust each other.
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The Delian League included
Athens and other city-states
on the Aegean coast and on
islands in the Aegean Sea.
The Peloponnesian League,
led by Sparta, included most
of the Peloponnesus
peninsula and Macedonia.
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Peloponnesian War
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The rivalry between
the two city-states
erupted in the
Peloponnesian
War, which Sparta
won.
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Fighting made the
Greeks weak and
vulnerable.
Macedonia
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Philip II of Macedonia sees weakness in
Greeks.
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Philip conquers most of Greek mainland
His son, Alexander takes throne at age
20
Studied under Aristotle as a youth.
 Alexander wants to fulfill Philip’s goal of
conquering the Persians
 Invades Asia Minor first
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If they fight, their city is destroyed. If they
surrender, they get to keep gov’t and leaders
Alexander the Great
Philip's son Alexander (later called “the
Great”) combined the Greek and Macedonian
armies into a massive fighting force
 In 334, he crossed into Asia Minor. In the next
10 years he conquered the entire Persian
Empire, which included eastern Mediterranean
countries as far as Egypt and extended inland
as far as India.
 After Alexander died in 323 B.C. his empire
was divided—but he had planted Hellenistic
culture throughout the eastern Mediterranean
region.
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Alexander’s Empire 323 B.C.E.
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=1037&rendTypeId=4
Hellenistic Kingdoms
Egypt under the Ptolemies
(323–30 B.C.),
 Syria under the Seleucids
(312–64 B.C.)
 Macedonia and Greece under
the Antigonids (276–168 B.C.).
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http://www.topsfieldschools.org/PROCTOR/P_SS/Ancient%20Greece/taranto.jpg
Greek culture
flourished in the new
Hellenistic cities such
as Antioch in Syria,
and Alexandria in
Egypt.