Download Concerto Empire and Conflict Greeks and Persians

Empire and Conflict: Greeks and Persians
WHAP/Napp
“The Athenians believed in democracy, though not in equality. In their opinion,
people were born unequal and never would be equal. In a fighting speech in 330
BC, the orator Demosthenes directed disdain against a rival orator, Aeschines,
accusing him of coming from a humble background: ‘As a boy you were reared in
abject poverty, waiting with your father in his school, grinding the ink, sponging the
benches, sweeping the room, doing the duty of a menial rather than a freeborn
man.’ It was as if one’s humble past could never be forgiven.
An ability to speak grippingly – whether as a storyteller or poet, prophet or
persuader – had been prized by a thousand different tribal and illiterate societies
over the space of countless years. The Greeks called it oratory and converted it into
an art form. Oratory was also a tool of power, because the open-air assemblies of
rowdy and moody voters, sometimes numbering 6,000, could be swayed by a
magnetic speaker.
The celebrated orator of the ancient world was Demosthenes. The son of a
manufacturer of swords, he tried when young to turn his own tongue into a sword.
Frail in physique, not suited to the gymnastic and other sports favored by young
Greeks, he concentrated on law and on the art of delivering speeches. His early
attempts to speak must have been embarrassing. He stammered at first, but
exposing himself to the self-made obstacle of holding pebbles in his mouth, he
learned to speak each word slowly and firmly. Sometimes he stood before a mirror
and watched his mouth, eyes and expression at work, for orators had to be actors
too.” ~ A Short History of the World
Main Points of the Passage:
Notes:
I. The Persian Empire
A. Homeland lay on the Iranian plateau
B. Famous monarchs
1. Cyrus (reigned 557-530 BCE) and Darius (reigned 522-486 BCE)
C. Persian conquests reached from Egypt to India
D. A single state of some 35 million people/Cultural diversity
E. Centered on an elaborate cult of kingship
II. Administrative System
A. Persian governors (satraps) placed in each the 23 provinces
B. Lower-level officials drawn from local authorities
C. System of imperial spies
D. Respect for non-Persian cultural traditions
1. Cyrus allowed Jews who had been exiled in Babylon to return to
homeland and rebuild temple in Jerusalem in 539 BCE
E. Model for future regimes with its administrators, tax collectors,
record keepers, and translators/system of standardized coinage
F. Predictable taxes levied on each province
G. Newly dug canal linking the Nile with the Red Sea
H. A “royal road”, some 1,700 miles long
1. Facilitating communication and commerce
III. The Greeks
A. Small competing city-statesmountainous terrain (seas for trade)
B. Classical Greece emerged around 750 BCE and flourished for about
400 years
C. Fiercely independent city-states
1. Speaking the same language/Frequently in conflict
2. Called themselves Hellenes
D. Expansive people, but expansion took the form of settlement in distant
places
1. Greek traders in search of iron
2. Impoverished farmers in search of land
E. In Athens, direct democracy eventually developed
1. All citizens could directly participate in the affairs of government
2. However, women, slaves, and foreigners were not citizens
3. City-stategreater participationopposed to empire
4. Solon, reforming leader, in 594 BCEmore democratic direction
a) Debt slavery was abolished
b) Public office was opened to a wider group of men
c) All citizens were allowed to take part in the Assembly
5. Cleisthenes and Pericles, later reformers, extended rights further
6. By 450 BCE, all holders of public office were chosen by lot and
were paid-even the poorest could serve
F. But, in Sparta, extreme forms of military discipline and its large
population of helots or slaves led to a Council of Elders
IV. Greco-Persian Wars
A. Conflict grew out of patterns of expansions
B. Number of Greek settlements on the Anatolian seacoast, known to
Greeks as Ionia
1. By 499 BCE, some Ionian Greeks revolted against Persian
domination and found support from Athens
C. Outraged Persians launched major military expeditions, twice in ten
years (490 and 480 BCE) to punish Greeks
D. Against all odds, Greeks held them off, defeating the Persians
1. Triumphed in momentous Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE
2. Greeks viewed victory as triumph of their freedoms
3. Greeks also radicalized Athenian democracy
a) Poorer Greeks in a position for full citizenship
4. Fifty years or so afterwards – the Golden Age of Greek culture
a) built the Parthenon/Greek theater (Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides)/Socrates, the quintessential philosopher
V. Decline of Greeks
A. Athens led a coalition of Greek city-states but leadership led to imperialism
1. As Athenians tried to solidify dominant position, resentment ensued
B. Bitter civil war (431-404 BCE)
1. Sparta taking the lead in defending the independence of the city-states - known
as Peloponnesian War
C. Athens was defeated  Paving the way for Macedonian conquest of cities
VI. Alexander the Great
A. Alexander’s father, Philip II, conquered Greeks in 338 BCE
B. Continued conquests - Ten-year expedition (333-323 BCE)  Egypt,
Anatolia, Persia, Afghanistan, Arrived in Indian Subcontinent
C. Spread of Greek culture (Hellenism)
1. Buddha was depicted in human form due to Greek influence
2. After death, eventually Roman Empirevehicle Greek culture
Facts: Persians
Facts: Greeks
Conflict:
Causes/Outcomes
Strayer Question:
 How did Persian and Greek civilizations differ in their political
organization and values?

Why did semidemocratic governments emerge in some of the Greek citystates?

What were the consequences for both sides of the encounter between the
Persians and the Greeks?

What changes did Alexander's conquests bring in their wake?
1. In Greek society, women were treated
as
(A) equals to men, especially when it
came to voting
(B) gods
(C) inferior to men in both social and
political affairs
(D) slaves in every household
2. Which peoples developed the world's
first true alphabet?
(A) the Lydians
(B) the Phoenicians
(C) the Hebrews
(D) the Persians
3. What is diffusion?
(A) the assimilation of a minority ethnic
group into a larger, more homogeneous
population
(B) the splitting of the atom
(C) the conquering of one civilization by
a much more powerful one
(D) the spread of foods, trade goods,
concepts, norms, practices, and
inventions among different peoples
4. Which of the following prominent
Greeks exercised practical political
leadership?
(A) Aristotle
(B) Solon
5. Hellenistic culture brought together
the traditions of which of the following
regions?
A. Mediterranean, Mesoamerican, subSaharan African
B. Middle Eastern, Mediterranean,
Scandinavian
C. East Asia, South Asia, sub-Saharan
African
E. Middle Eastern, Mediterranean,
South Asian
6. Which prominent Greek individual
listed below was not part of a direct
teacher-student relationship shared by
the other four?
A. Alexander the Great
B. Socrates
C. Aristotle
D. Herodotus
E. Plato
7. Which region of the world had yet to
experience the Neolithic transition by
600 CE?
A. Mesoamerica
B. South America
C. Northern Europe
D. Australia
Note: Hellenistic culture epitomizes
Cultural Diffusion 