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11/1/2011 Lecture 17 The Peloponnesian War pt. 1 HIST 225 Fall 2011 Chronology of Athenian Imperialism 478 Delian League forms • trouble with Allies of League • trouble with Sparta’s League 461 Age of Pericles begins – “Long Walls” construction begins (461-445) 460-46 The “First” Peloponnesian War – Thucydides born (460) – Delos treasury moved to Athens (454) – Parthenon construction begins (447-432) 446-32 Thirty Year Peace The “Long Walls” of Athens 1 11/1/2011 Delian League (478 BCE) • offensive/defensive alliance of Greek city-states – Sparta did not join – Athens controlled the decision process • deliberations and treasury at Delos – Aristides “the Just” • Some poleis could contribute ships, not money – Chios – Lesbos • all take a binding oath Delian & Peloponnesian League ca. 460 From Voluntary League to Empire 460s Delian League has 200 members • led by Cimon Over time fiscal burdens onerous • some island poleis ask to leave Delian League – Athens refuses to allow them • Rebellions forcibly put down 468 Naxos – enslaved, forced to tear down its walls, lose its fleet and its vote in the League 465 Thasos – After two years Thasos surrendered to the Athenian leader Cimon – fortification walls were torn down 2 11/1/2011 Athens Takes Advantage 460 war between Megara and Corinth • both members of Peloponnesian League Change in Athenian foreign policy • Athens neglects alliance with the Spartans and instead ally with her enemies: – Megara defects to Delian League – Argos also joins Athens 454 Athens moves Delian treasury to Athens – facade of equity between members broken Origins of war with Sparta 464 Earthquake helot revolt in Sparta • Spartans summoned forces from all of their allies to help suppress the revolt – including Athens • Athens sent out a sizable contingent (4,000 Hoplites) – on arrival, Sparta dismisses Athenian force permitting the other allies to remain According to Thucydides, the Spartans feared the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots • The offended Athenians repudiated their alliance with Sparta – Athenians settled dispossessed helots at a strategic city of on the Corinthian Gulf Peloponnesian War (431-21) 3 11/1/2011 Chronology of Peloponnesian War 431-404 Peloponnesian War Phase 1: Archidamian War (431-21) – Plague hits Athens (431/0) Peace of Nicias (421-416) Phase 2: Sicilian Expedition (416-413) Phase 3: Ionian War (413-404) – Oligarchic coup of 400 (411) – Athens defeated (404) 403 30 Tyrants 402 Athens “liberated” by Thebes 399 Socrates executed by the state Thucydides (460-395 BCE) History of the Peloponnesian War – down to 411 BCE Considered the “First Historian” • objective methods – archaeology – inscriptions • preserves speeches – could not have been present – “If I didn’t write down what they said, I wrote down what they meant” Marble, Roman copy of Greek original Metro Museum, New York Differences in Strategies and Strengths Athens democratic polis • sea-based power • quick naval raids • could hit anywhere in Spartan territory • defensive walls and harbor • considered themselves the “best” in Greece Sparta oligarchic polis • land-based power • could only fight late from late Spring to early Fall • needed to get home to farms • territory was their defense • considered themselves the “best” in Greece 4 11/1/2011 5 11/1/2011 Olympias, a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme sea trials in 1987, 1990, 1992 and 1994 The bronze bow ram weighed 200 kg. The ship was built from Oregon pine and Virginia oak Trireme as a weapon Three banks of oars • same length – lower through ports in hull – upper through gunwale – middle through “rowing apparatus” parexeresia • 9 knots sprint; 4 knots cruising • execute 180° turn in less than a minute and no wider than 2.5 ship-lengths • Athenian contingent of triremes a Salamis: • 34,000 oarsmen – mostly Thetes (become powerful political force in Athens) – paid a dracma a day The Trireme • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWlgxhU H3JQ • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Dd5v_ NHCs&playnext=1&list=PLFE7DA3B248C5D17 D 6 11/1/2011 • Sparta wants decisive hoplite battle to finish the war quickly – besiege Athens for the summer, go home winter • Athens under Pericles refuses to meet them in land; fight by sea – 23 battles land troops for quick skirmishes – “Long Walls” key to this strategy 2nd Peloponnesian War: Phase 1 (431-421) 430s series of crises brought Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues into conflict • Sparta wants decisive hoplite battle to finish the war quickly – besiege Athens for the summer, go home winter • Athens under Pericles refuses to meet them in land; fight by sea – 23 battles land troops for quick skirmishes – “Long Walls” key to this strategy 7 11/1/2011 Athens becomes an Island • Pericles – safe within the “Long Walls” – Funeral Oration (431/0) “you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling of honor in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive their country of their valor, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer.” Plague ravages Athens 430/29 • Entire Attic population behind Long Walls • virulent epidemic (bubonic plague?) kills 35% of Athenian population • Thucydides describes the scene as horrific – abandon all morals – let passions run wild • Ultimately kills Pericles • radical Cimon takes control of city Fall of Pericles • Plague may have killed over 30,000 Athenians and affected even Pericles. • Disobeying Pericles, some Athenians sought a separate peace with Sparta that was rejected. • Pericles returned from a botched naval battle at Epidaurus. He was suspended as strategos and audited. 430 judges convicted him of misappropriating five talents – He was fined fifty talents. 429 Later reinstated, Pericles dies leaving a huge void in Athenian leadership. 8 11/1/2011 Major Battles Phase 1 428 Mytilenaean Revolt 427 Corcyra Massacre 425 Battle of Sphacteria • near Mycenaean Pylos • Athenians built a fort • Spartan force get trapped on island – They surrender (never happened before) 424-422 Battle of Amphipolis • stalemate 421 Peace of Nicias • Athens wanted time to fortify bases around Aegean • Sparta wanted prisoners taken at Sphacteria Revolt of Mytilene • Island of Lesbos was a “free ally” of Athens and big naval partner. • Largest city Mytileneled a revolt to unify island against Athens when oligarchy took over—disliked restraints on their navy. 428 Mytilene pleaded their case at the Olympic games. • Spartans promise aid, but never come. Instead they invade Attica again. Athenians invade Lesbos and put down revolt. 427 Athenians execute main leaders then under Cleon’s influence, in 427, vote to execute ALL the men. • Diodotus calls for a second reflection; Execution order is rescinded. 427 Corcyraean Revolt Athens' ally Corcyra fell victim to internal strife – commons, allies of Athens – oligarchs, who were eager to enlist the support of the Spartans • Revolution began when Corinth, an ally of Sparta, released Corcyraean prisoners with the promise that the former prisoners would work to convince Corcyra to abandon its ally Athens and join the Peloponnesian side. • These men brought Peithias, a pro-Athenian civic leader, to trial on charges of “enslaving Corcyra to Athens” • He was acquitted and took revenge by charging five of them in turn. However, these men burst in upon the senate and killed Peithias and sixty other people. 9 11/1/2011 427 Corcyraean Revolt After naval engagement • Spartan fleet left under fear of the approach of a larger Athenian fleet. • demos took this opportunity to slay as many of their enemies as they could get their hands upon – slayed some of the men who had appealed to Hera as suppliants. – others committed suicide or killed each other • beginning of the chaos in Corcyra and – “the Corcyraeans were engaged in butchering those of their fellowcitizens whom they regarded as their enemies: and although the crime imputed was that of attempting to put down the democracy, some were slain also for private hatred, others by their debtors because of the monies owed to them.” Battle of Sphacteria (425 BCE) • 420 Spartans trapped on Sphacteria • blockade seems to fail – help by Helots • Athenians circumvallate Spartans • Messenians travel “impassable” terrain to surprise Spartans • 120 Spartiates surrender Peace of Nicias (421-16 BCE) • Athens wanted time to fortify bases around Aegean • Sparta wanted prisoners taken at Sphacteria Unknown Athenian general Vatican Museum 10 11/1/2011 An Uneasy Peace • Sparta’s unilateral peace with Athens leads to dissolution of the Peloponnesian League…for a time. • Argos, an old rival of Sparta, joins with disaffected poleis Mantinea and Elis to forge a separate alliance. • Then, at both Athens and Sparta there was a triumph of war “hawks.” In Athens, the wisdom and restraint of Pericles was sorely missed. 11