Classical Greece

Delian League

Athens had built an alliance of Greek city-states. City could join only by paying taxes or supplying soldiers. City-states were not allowed to leave and if they refuse to pay taxes then their walls will be destroyed and their ships confiscated

Pericles

Athenian General and Politician who transformed the Delian League into the Athenian Empire by forcing all members of state to pay taxes and moved the Delian treasury to Athens. Used the money to rebuild Athens, strengthened democracy by having more paid public offices. The poorest people will be able willingly participate

Herodotus vs Thucydides

Thucydides - Wrote about the Peloponnesian war, he wanted to write only the facts.

Herodotus - wrote about the Persian Wars, he wanted to write about the facts but when he didn't know, he blamed it on the gods.

Tyrants

Solon (594 BCE)

Ended debt slavery

Organized Athens into 4 social classes

Top 3 could hold public office

All Athenian citizens, regardless of class, could participate in the Assembly

Any citizen could bring charges against a criminal

Draco (621 BCE)

Developed a legal code based on the idea that all Athenians were created equal

Death was punishment for almost all crimes

Kept debt slavery

Cleisthenes (approx. 500 BCE)

Organized citizens according to where they lived, not wealth

Allowed any citizen to propose a law

Created council of 500 to advise assembly

Council made up of citizens chosen at random

Life in Athens

Boys:

Goal: to produce good citizens

Sons of wealthy families receive formal education

Study: reading, grammar, poetry, history, math, music, logic, public speaking

Physical education

When older, boys attend military school

Girls:

Girls educate at home

Taught how to be good wives and mothers, and how to manage a household

Some learned to read and write

Most had little to do with life outside the home

Who is allowed to vote?

Athenian citizens (free adult, property-owning males born in athens)

Democracy- rule by citizens/the people

Life in Sparta

Oligarchy - a small group of people having control

Agora

Sparta very different from Athens

Valued duty, strength, discipline

Did not value arts, literature, philosophy

Role of women in Spartan culture

Treated very well compared to other city-states

Had more freedom

Ran households completely when husbands away at war

Boys:

Focused on military training

Expected to stay in army until age 60

Spent most of their days marching, exercising, and fighting

Girls

Taught that service to Sparta mattered above all else, even family

Some military training

Physical fitness important, so played a lot of sports

Greco-Persian War causes and battle outcomes

King Darius ruled over Greek cities in Turkey which Greek revolted

Outcomes: Sparta and Athens are most powerful, created ideas of united greece, greeks believe their culture to be superior to everyone else

Peloponnesian War

Athens controlled the Delian League which meant by forcing other city-states to use the coinage system. This caused city-states became resentful and angry. Sparta won resulting in city-states being so weak that they were destroyed. Philip of Macedon was able to conquer those city-states and his son Alexander the Great, conquered all of Greece and the middle east.