SECTION 3: VICTORY AND DEFEAT IN THE GREEK WORLD

Ancient Athens

• By 500 B.C

Athens was the

wealthiest Greek

city-state

• But this power

was soon

threatened by the

mighty Persian

Empire

Athens was the wealthiest

Greek city-state by 500 B.C.

GREEK GEOGRAPHY

•Persia ruled over the Greek city-states of Ionia

•Unhappy with Persian rule, the Ionians rebelled

•Athens sent ships in support of the rebellion,

•severely angering

the Persian

Emperor Darius

• Darius crushed the Ionian rebellion.

• He then sent a huge force across the Aegean to punish Athens.

• The Athenians called upon all of their own citizens to defend their city-state.

• The Athenian force was not nearly large enough to compare to the enormous Persian army.

• So they called out to their neighbors

for help . . .

Marathon

• So, without the help of their fellow greeks the Athenians were forced to battle the Persians on their own

• With a suicidal surge up the middle of the Persian line, the Athenians were able to break the formation and drive the Persian Army back to their boats.

Darius dies before he can exact his revenge on Athens, however his son Xerxes takes up his fathers cause.

Real Xerxes Graphic Novel Xerxes The Movie Xerxes

•The Persian Army, lead by Xerxes, now marches on towards Greece.

Revenge of Xerxes

• While the Athenians, Spartans, and other Greek city-states got their act together, King Leonidas and his vaunted 300 make their heroic stand at the hot gates –

Thermopylae

Thermoplyae The Hot Gates

King Leonidas

Real Leonidas Graphic Novel Leonidas Movie Leonidas

Herodotus writes that when Dienekes, a Spartan soldier, was told that Persian arrows

would be so numerous as "to blot out the sun", he responded with a characteristically Spartan-esque remark, "So much the better,

we shall fight in the shade."

The fierce resistance of the Spartan-led army offered Athens the invaluable time to prepare for a decisive naval battle that would come to determine the outcome

of the war.

Athenian Trickery at Salamis

The Battle of Salamis • The Athenians lured the Persians into the

strait of Salamis

• Unable to retreat and caught off guard, the

Athenian Navy smashed the Persian fleet

• The following year, the Greeks defeated

the Persians on land, ending the Persian

threat.

In a brief moment of unity, the Greek city-states

had saved themselves from the Persian threat

They formed the Delian League to protect them

from future Persian threats

AGE OF PERICLES

• This was the Golden

Age of Athens.

• Athenians had a

direct democracy, or a

government in which

a large number of

male citizens took part

in the day to day

governmental affairs.

AGE OF PERICLES

• Athens prospered economically through trade.

• They also prospered culturally, rebuilding the Acropolis and becoming the cultural center of Greece.

• The Age of Pericles lasted from 460 to 429 B.C.

PELOPONNESIAN WAR

• In 431 B.C. war broke out between

Sparta and Athens. This led to the

Peloponnesian War, which lasted 27

years and involved all of Greece.

•Though Athens had a strong navy,

they faced a geological

disadvantage because Sparta was

land-locked

PELOPONNESIAN WAR •As the war dragged on, each

side committed savage acts

against one another.

•In 404 B.C. Sparta ended up

siding with the Persians to

finally defeat Athens.

What if?

•What if … Athens would have won the war?

Answer…

• The world may have been a

“freer” place.

• With the defeat of Athens,

democracy was lost to the

civilized world

• Replaced with corruption and

selfish interest

Groovy Greeks