The Greeks

Minoan Crete

• Named after King Minos

• Knossus

• 1450 BC Catastrophic collapse

• Survivors fled to mainland Greece

Mycenaeans 1600-1100 BC

• Warrior people• Lived in or near

fortified cities• King Agamemnon

Trojan War 1260-1250 BC

• Prince Paris of Troy• King Menelaus of Sparta• Gods choose sides• Siege warfare continued

for 10 years• Odysseus and the horse• Troy destroyed• Aftermath of war

Greek Dark Age c. 1100-750 BC

• Population decline

• Migration

• Phoenician alphabet

• Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

Polis c. 750-500 BC

• City-state• Acropolis• Agora• Citizenship

Warfare

• Hoplites• Phalanx• Citizen soldiers• Seasonal warfare• Bitter rivalries

Hoplites

Tyranny 750-550 BC

• Coup de tat

• Initially popular

• Replaced by oligarchy or democracy

Sparta

• Peloponnesus• Conquest of Laconia

and Messenia• Periokoi• Helots• Military state• Infanticide• Education of boys

and girls

Sparta

• Dual kingship

• Ephors

• Rejected outside influences

Athens

• Founded 700 BC• Land reform• Reforms of Solon 594

BC• Tyranny of Pisistratus

560-556 & 546-527 BC

• Hippias 527-510 BC• Cleisthenes 508-

501BC

Athens

• Democracy

• Demos “people” Kratia “power”

• New political divisions

• Assembly

Persian Wars 499-448 BC

• 499-494 BC Ionian Greek rebellion

• Sept. 12, 490 BC Battle of Marathon

• Themistocles (524-459 BC)• Aug. 9-12, 480 BC Battle of

Thermopylae• Athens burned• Sept. 20, 480 BC Battle of

Salamis• Aug. 27, 479 Battle of Plataea• Treaty in 448 BC

Age of Pericles

• Delian League• Severed ties with

Spartans• Expanded democracy• Foreign expansion• Allowed all males

over 18 to join the Assembly

First Peloponnesian War 460-445 BC

• Caused by mutual mistrust between the Peloponnesian League and Delian League

• City of Megara, a Spartan ally defected to Athens.

• Despite initial success, Athens entered a 30 year treaty with Sparta

Second Peloponnesian War 431-404 BC

• Crisis in Corcyra • Strategies• 429 BC Plague• Athenian victories in

northwest Greece• Cleon (d.422 BC)• 422 BC Battle of

Amphipolis• Nicias (470-413 BC)• 421 BC Treaty

Second Peloponnesian War

• 415 Alcibiades• 415-413 Sicilian

Expedition• Sacrilege and

defection• Persian alliance• Defection again• Victories at sea• Banishment

Second Peloponnesian War

• Peace rejected• 406 Battle of Notium• 406 Battle of

Arginusae• Peace again rejected• 405 Lysandar and the

Battle of Aegospatami• 404 Defeat• Thirty Tyrants

Greek Architecture

• Ionic• Doric• Corinthian

Greek Drama

• Tragedy• Comedy• Sophocles• Euripides• Aeschylus

Philosophy

• Love of wisdom• Sophists• Socrates (469-399)• Plato (424-327)• Aristotle (384-322)