Lendon Greek History 2

Cimon, son of Miltiades

strategos and politician. renowned for braverya at Salamis in 480. Played key role in shaping delian league in 478. 471, exile of Themistocles and Cimon’s rise to prominence; 467, battle of Eurymedon; defeated the Thasians in 465-3; 465, first expedition to Sparta, driving helots to mt. Ithome; 462 second expedition to Sparta and Spartans insolently send Athenians home, leading to Cimon’s ostracism in 461, and the rise of Pericles, and full-blown democracy under Ephialtes; 451, brought back from exile to negotiate 5-year peace treaty with Sparta; 450, dies fighting Persia in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Eurymedon River

When: 467 BC

Where: S Asia Minor

Who/What: River at the mouth of which a

naval battle took place between Gks and

Persians

Significance: Cimon and his men soundly

defeated the Persians, seeming to eliminate

the need for an expensive anti-Persian alliance

(source of resentment for allies when Athens

did not agree).

Pausanias

regent for Leonidas’ son, hero of Plataea; Greeks complained about him saying he was acting like an Eastern despot & writing treacherously to Xerxes, while they were at Byzantium in 478. The deposal of Pausanias led to the formation of the Delian league. Starved to death in the temple of Athena Chalkioikos in 477, an action that brought a curse upon the Spartans.

Delian League

When: 477-404 (end of Pel. War), 454 onwards referred to as Athenian Empire. Alliance under the leadership of Athens to keep fighting against the Persians. Cash tribute from alliance enabled Athens to have a democracy and build a massive fleet, as well as beautify Athens. Spartan fear of Athenian power was one reason for the Pelop. War.

Thasos

Conquered by Mardonius in 492. Part of the Delian league and contributed ships, rather than cash. Tried to rebel in 465 BC, were defeated by Cimon in 463. Island near Thrace. Athens made them destroy walls, hand over ships, and pay money annually. Revolted again in 411 and got a Spartan government. 407 Athens got it back, and after 405 reverted to Sparta. Important source of gold.

Carystus

Surrendered to Persia in 490. Celebrated for its marble. Refused to join the Delian league, but was forced by Athens in 472, along with Naxos.

Piraeus

Fortified by Themistocles in 480, moving the strategic center of Athens from Phelerum to Piraeus. In 459, Athens built the Long Walls linking Athens to Piraeus, to protect them from an invasion by Corinth and Aegina on land. Hippodamus designed the port area on a grid pattern, taking inspiration from Ionia. The main center of trade in Greece during the period of the Athenian empire. The Long walls made Athens an island, acc. to Pericles. Lysander demolished the walls in 404, as a conclusion to the Peloponnesian War.

Ephialtes

Passed reforms making Athens more democratic (e.g. constricting jurisdiction of Areopagus and passing many of its functions to the boule and ekklesia and heliaia). He was assassinated and Pericles assumed leadership. Wanted to break with Sparta. With the ostracism of Cimon, Ephialtes passed democratic reforms.

Aristides the Just

Athenian politician and strategos, put in charge of tributes to the Delian League. His conflict with Themistocles about naval policy led to ostracism in 482—Aristides advocated letting the citizens share the money from the silver strike, while Themistocles wanted to build a navy; the formation of the Hellenic League in 481 brought Aristides and many other exiles back home; helped Themistocles to trick Spartans and build the Long Walls.

Naxos

Made its contribution to DL in ships initially. Tried to leave DL but Athens forcibly prevented it, defeated it, tore down its walls, took its ships, and made their tribute in money not ships in 471. Shows problems emerging within DL: allies benefitted, but resented their status and powerlessness.

Athenian Tribute Lists

Beginning 454, Compendium that lists 1/60 of each contribution from members of DL that was given to the goddess Athena Polias.

Mt. Ithome

mountain where helots had stronghold after earthquake in Sparta. Rebellion there lasted from 464-455, when the Spartans agreed to let rebels depart, so long as they enver return to Peloponnesus. Athenians settled many at Naupactus, on the northern Corinthian gulf. In 369, Messenia gained independence with help of Thebes and other Boeotians. Resettling the Helots created hostility b/w Athenians and Corinth, providing another reason for them to ally with Aegina against Athens.

Delos

The initial site of the Delian league, until the treasury was moved to Athens in 454 (marking the beginning of the Athenian Empire). Island sanctuary of Delian Apollo (revered especially by Ionic Greeks).

Cleruchy

a system of colonizing, in which the colony was dependent on Athens (whereas Greek colonies had been up to this point autonomous and independent), and the inhabitants (called cleruchs) retained citizenship. Generally cleruchs were poor athenians, and each granted a kleros. This got out the disaffected element and created defensive garrisons.

Acropolis

Literally, the “upper city,” the citadel of a city or town. Many citadel hills had been the sites of Mycenaean palaces and remained as special places in polis life. The most famous is the Acropolis of Athens, the religious center of the city, which was magnificently adorned with temples in the fifth century. Pericles’ building program provided steady employment & fostered patriotism. Symbol of empire, but

Pindar

When: c. 522-443 BC

Where: Thebes, but traveled widely

Who/What: Greek lyric poet. Only his Odes survive intact, the rest are fragmentary.

Significance: Worldview diametrically opposed to that of democrats in Athens and elsewhere. Celebrates values & achievements of aristocrats.Deeply held belief in old-fashioned heroism assuming men of worth spring from illustrious families.

Aristophanes

When: c. 446-386 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: Old Comedic playwright

Significance: Plays important historical documents on life and politics in 5 th /4th C Athens. Plays often express pride in older generation, and staunchly opposed to the war with Sparta. Particularly scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently

Pericles’s Citizenship Law

During the first half of the fifth century, boys with at least one Athenian parent would be enrolled in their demes as citizens at the age of eigh- teen, but in 451, for reasons that are uncertain, Pericles persuaded the Athenians to limit citizenship to those whose parents were both Athenians. Citizenship was important for girls as well as boys: Though Athenian women could not vote or hold offices, they were now the only women who could bear Athenian children. The consequences of this legislation were both wide and deep. Throughout Greece, the discouragement of marriage between citizens and aliens increased the jingoistic tendencies of the polis. The insistence that people marry citizens of their own state eliminated a powerful source of connectedness among poleis and fostered a sense of separateness that frequently led to war. Social problems were also created within the polis. Limited in their choice of marriage partners to Athenian women, married Athenian men frequently opened the door to domes- tic tensions by maintaining sexual relationships with the exotic “foreign” women whom they could not marry if they wanted their descendants to be citizens.

When: 451-450 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: Limited citizenship to those children w/ both parents Athenians. Evidently anti-aristocratic measure aimed at affluent men who made marriage alliances w/ nobles from other states.

Significance: Eliminated powerful source of connectedness among poleis and fostered sense of separateness, leading to wars.

Phidias

When: c. 480-430 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: Sculptor, painter, and architect

responsible for designing statue of Zeus and

Olympia and the statues of the goddess

Athena on Athenian Acropolis (Athena

Parthenos inside the Parthenon and the

Athena Promachos)

Significance: Commonly regarded as the

greatest sculptor of Classical Greece

Aeschylus

When: 525-456 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What:

1st of the famous tragedians of 5th C Athens. Oresteia greatest surviving

achievement

Significance: Added second actor to respond

to chorus in order to make real conflict

possible, moving tragedy beyone tableau into

realm of drama. Oresteia only surviving full

Attic trilogy.

dokimasia

The scrutiny Athenian citizens had to undergo before assuming a position in the government. Political enemies often used this procedure as a means of keeping a man out of public office.

erechtheion

The Erechtheion, sacred to Poseidon Erechtheus, was the chief purely Ionic monument on the Acropolis. The building consisted of three Ionic porches. To support the roof, the south porch that faced the Parthenon employed six figures of maidens, called Caryatids (instead of columns). The building was begun in 421 BC. May never have been completed due to Pelop. War. Associated with most ancient &

holy relics of Athenians: Palladion (Athenia

Polias); marks of Poseidon’s trident & salt

water well; sacred olive tree; burial place of

Cecrops & Erechtheus; sacred precincts of

Cecrops’ 3 daughters...etc. When: begun c. 421 BC

pnyx

When: Used as early as c. 507 (Cleisthenes’

reforms), Site of political struggles of 5th/4th c.

Where: Athens

Who/What: Hill where the assembly

(ekklesia) of Athens met in the open air

Significance: Meeting place of the world’s

first ever democratic legislature. Physical

embodiment of the principle of isegoria

(“equal speech”)

The ekklesia met in the open air on the hill known as the Pnyx. In the early decades of the fifth century it convened only about a dozen times a year, but the number of meetings soon expanded, and in Pericles’ time ten days rarely went by without at least one meeting. Throughout the fifth century, citizens sat either on cushions or directly on the rocky ground that sloped from south to north, filling an area of 15,000 square feet. Around 400 BC the meet- ing place was evened out and enlarged, and benches seem to have been added.

banausic labor

Term begins 5th c. Unlike farming, to which a certain nobility was al- ways attached, manual work performed indoors was despised by many wealthier Greeks and known by the name “banausic” labor, which means literally work per- formed over a hot furnace, and distinctions between skilled and unskilled labor were often ignored. Powerful obstacles pre- vented the poor from participating in politics—especially the nonfarming poor, who did “banausic” labor, arduous jobs that compromised the mind along with the body.

hetaira

Term meaning literally “female companion” and normally used for courtesans in Classical Athens. Hetairai usually came from the metic class. Often more cultivated than citizen women, they were trained to be entertaining and in- teresting rather than to be thrifty managers of households. Since Pericles’ citi- zenship laws of 451–450 made it impossible for a man to marry a metic woman, many Athenian men formed long-term associations with hetairai simultaneously with their legal marriages to Athenian women. Although some hetairai functioned as entrenched mistresses or even common-law wives, others were essentially prostitutes.

Parthenon

the temple erected by Pericles on the Acropolis, to Athena under the (probably previously unknown attribute) Parthenos . . . it seems like a great excuse to show off Athenian wealth, and to provoke Sparta, which did not build temples and thus could not compete with Athens in this arena.

When: construction c. 447-432 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What:

Temple to Athena Parthenus

built on Acropolis under Pericles

Significance: Enduring symbol of ancient

Greece and of Athenian democracy, and one

of the world’s greatest cultural monments.

Held treasury of Athens, but in 454 Pericles

moved DL treasury there, signaling beginning

of Athenian Empire.

Thucydides son of Melesias

When: 5

th C BC, ostracized 442

Where: Athens

Who/What: Relative of Cimon and after his

death became Pericles’ political rival and

leader of conservatives

Significance: Thucydides developed a new

and effective political tactic by having his

supporters sit together in the assembly,

increasing their apparent strength and giving

them a united voice.

liturgy

When:

5

t

h

C

Where: Athens

Who/What: Indirect system of taxation

whereby the rich were required to spend their

own money in the service of the state. E.g.

financing training of chorus, sending a delegation to a relig. Fest, maintaining a trireme & its crew for a year

Significance: Financed Athens’ fleet + a healthy sphere for domestic competition

Oresteia

When: 458 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: Only surviving Attic trilogy by

Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers,

and Eumenides), about the curse of Atreus.

Significance: Point of departure was

Ephialtes’ curtailment of powers of

Areopagus. Aeschylus supported reforms and

trilogy reassures conservatives that trying of

homicide cases was its ancient role.

Pericles

When: c. 495-429 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: Prominent and influential

statesman, orator

, and general of Athens

between Persian and Peloponnesian

Wars

Significance: “First citizen of Athens”

according to Thuc., turned DL into an Ath.

Empire; Promoted democracy and Ath. Emp. Resp. for rebuilding of Acropolis.

most prominent Athenian politician from 461-death in 429. Took over the democratic “party” from Ephialtes, who had taken over for Themistocles. Led Athens through first two years of Peloponnesian War. Introduced citizen law. Delivered the famous funeral speech

Athena promachos

In front of the Parthenon on the west stood a huge bronze statue of Athena Promachos (“Athena the Warrior who fights in the front”). The goddess was portrayed standing, with her left hand holding her shield and her right arm holding her spear. The statue was nearly 30 feet tall: sailors rounding Cape Sounion could see the welcome glint of sunlight off the tip of the spear. Like the statue inside the temple, it was the work of the sculptor Phidias. Viewed by his contemporaries as the greatest sculptor of gods, Phidias also created a huge gold and ivory statue of Zeus at Olympia that was consid- ered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

When: c. 456 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: 30 ft. bronze statue of Athena

that stood between Propylaea and the

Parthenon on the W side. Crafted by Phidias.

Significance: One of Phidias’ earliest works

made from Persian spoils from Battle of

Marathon. Along w/ Parthenon & rest of

acropolis, symbol of Athens’ growing wealth

and power.

“First” Peloponnesian War

Undeclared war between Athens and Sparta lasting from 460-445, ending with the Thirty Years’ Peace. During this time, Sparta helped Corinth and Aegina against Athens, who, by settling Helots on Naupactus and accepting Megara into the Delian League, had provoked them both. Sparta led Athens to take control of most of Boeotia (with the exception of Thebes). But, around the time that Cimon died while on expedition in Cyprus, a revolt in Euboeia led to a major setback for the Athenian empire, reducing them to having the same amount of land that they had possessed at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. They established a “thirty years’ peace” with Sparta, along with Argos. But only one would actually last for thirty years (Argos’s).

When: 460-445 BC

Where: Greece

Who/What: Undeclared war between

Athenian and Spartan leagues that was really

a series of battles often punctuated by

considerable intervals of peace.

Significance: Ended with “30 Years’ Peace”

because Athens’ land empire collapsed with

loss of Euboea; Athens had to surrender most

of land empire; unstable peace.

metics

Many rich residents of Athens, however, did not own land, since it was illegal for them to do so without special dispensation. These were the resident aliens known as metics, and they played a key role in the economy. Craftspeople and entrepreneurs who had come from all over the Greek world to conduct business in Athens, metics accounted for a significant proportion of the Athenian population. They could not vote or hold office; neither could their children or their chil- dren’s children. They were forced to live in rented homes. But rented homes can be quite lovely, and metic families mingled comfortably with citizen families and suffered no social disabilities. A number of the central characters in Plato’s works were metics, and the most famous Platonic dialogue, The Republic, was set at the home of the rich metic Cephalus, whom Pericles had invited to Athens from Syra- cuse. Citizens, metics, and slaves often worked side by side, sometimes for the same pay; a list of workers at one construction site included eighty-six laborers whose status can be determined—twenty-four citizens, forty-two metics, and twenty slaves. In a crisis, metics could be drafted into the armed forces.

Many of Athens’ most distinguished intellectuals were metics, such as the philosopher Aristotle. Pericles’ common-law wife Aspasia belonged to the metic class, and it was for this reason that he required a decree of the assembly to grant citizenship to their children.

Egyptian expedition

When: ended 453

Where: Cyprus and Egypt

Who/What: Athenian campaign to Cyprus

and Egypt against Persia

Significance: In the end, all the Athenians

were killed on the island of Prosopitis and the

relief force was also destroyed. Catastrophic

in terms of loss of life and morale.The disastrous consequences of the expedition led to the relocation of the treasury from Delos to Athens, leading to the Athenian empire (from the Delian League), in 454.

Thirty years’ peace

When: 445-431 BC

Where: Sparta, Athens, & Allies

Who/What: truce between Athens & Sparta

Significance: Athens surrendered land empire

except Naupactus and Plataea (though also

kept Aegina). Maritime empire was secure,

allies not supposed to switch sides. Ultimately

unstable and did not last even a decade.

Epidamnus

colony that revolted in corcyra and appealed to Corinth (“grandmother colony”) for aid, provoking the Corcyrans to appeal to Athens, who sent an expedition in 433. This was one of a few factors provoking an end to the thirty years’ peace between Athens and Sparta.

Samian Revolt

a revolution against the Delian league in 440; Athens besieged it, confiscated navy, established democracy.

Significance: Threw terror into the

Athenians, since it seemed to threaten the

very continuation of their Aegean empire

(oligarchy quarreled with democratic

government Athenians had established in

Miletus)

Megarian Decree

Athens put an embargo against the Megarians ~432, thus provoking Sparta without technically violating the thirty years’ peace. Corinth denounced Athens to assembly, provoking Sparta to war. Pericles responsible.

Megara

When: 460-445, 431-404

Where: Isthmus

Who/What: Pelop. city, played important

role in Pel. Wars.

Significance: in 1

st Pelop. War allied with

Athens for protection from Corinth, important

for trade, Corinth and Aegina in 459

combined against Athn. Athens won and built

Long Walls. In 2

nd Pel. War. Megarian

Decrees a source of tension.

Peace of Callias

445: between the Delian League (led by Athens) and the Achaemenid Empire and ended the Greco-Persian Wars. The peace would then be the first compromise treaty between Achaemenid Persia and a Greek city. If it existed, the Peace of Callias gave autonomy to the Ionian states in Asia Minor, prohibited the encroachment of Persian satrapies within three days march of the Aegean coast and prohibited Persian ships from the Aegean. Athens also agreed not to interfere with Persia's possessions in Asia Minor, Cyprus, Libya or Egypt.^[1]

Potidaea

The third factor (along with Corcyra and Megara) provoking an end to the thirty years’ peace: Athens required Potidaea (a Corinthian colony and member of the Delian league) to effectively cut ties with Corinth, dismissing Corinthian magistrates, tear down defenses, and give hostages. Potidaea refused; Athens besieged for two years, while Corinth and Macedonian king Perdiccas assisted Potidaea

When: 433/2 BC

Where: Chalchidic peninsula

Significance: Athenains ordered Pot. to

dismiss Corinthian magistrates, reject future

officials, tear down walls, give hostages.

Sparta promised to invade Attica if Athens

attacked Pot., & Mac. Perdiccas encouraged

everyone to attack Athens. Costly to Ath.

Amphipolis

Spartans encouraged revolt in Amphipolis, which may have chafed aagainst Athenian rule. Brasidas took Amphipolis in 422, killing Cleon, and leading to the peace of Nicias.

Archidamus

Spartan king who oversaw Peloponnesian war from 431 to his death in 427. tried to prevent or postpone the war but was overruled. Invaded Attica at the beginning of the war.

Long walls

Walls constructed by Athens linking the city to the Piraeus, constructed near the beginning of the “First” Peloponnesian War (~460), when competition with Corinth was heating up. Made Athens, in essence, an island. Accomplished through deception of Themistocles.

Hegemon

A state or individual who headed an organization of states. Athens, for example, was the hegemon of the Delian League, Sparta of the Peloponnesian League. A hegemon was said to exercise hegemony, hence the period of Theban ascendancy in the 360s BC is known as the Theban hegemony. The question of hegemony within Greece led to the conflict between the leaders of the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues known as the Pel. Wars.

Thurii

panhellenic colony founded in the insteps of Italy by Pericles in 443. Moved away from Athens over time.

Symbolic gesture, as Athens

was claiming the ability to lead Panhellenic

ventures (hegemonic power), increasing

tensions between Athens and Sparta. Became

home to Greeks from all over, including

Herodotus.

Sybota

The island chain off of which Athens attacked Corinth (over Epidamnus and Corcyra) in summer of 433.

Plataea

State belonging to Athenian empire — when Thebans attacked Plataea, it ended the pentakontaetia, and the thirty years’ peace, bringing on the Peloponnesian war.

When: c. 431-427 (siege of)

Where: SE Boeotia

Who/What:

Significance: Theban attack in 431 the

effective beginning of the Pel. War. After an

initial Theban attack failed, it was besieged by

the Spartans and eventually fell and was

razed, with most of the inhabitants fleeing to

Athens. Rebuilt after the war but seized by

Thebes. Philip restored it after Chaeronea.

demagogue

word first appears in the surviving literature in Aristophanes’ Knights, produced in 424 BC. betrays class and political tensions between demos and oligarchic “parties.” Cleon a good example. could refer to a calculating politician who manipulated the voters for his own ends rather than letting himself be guided by patriotism and principle, but no way to know motives.

Demosthenes of Alcisthenes

Athenian general who established a base in Pylos to provoke the Spartans in 427 BC. Sparta withdrew army from Attica. Skirmishes led to 420 Spartan hoplites being trapped on island of Sphacteria. Spartans sued for peace; Athens refused. Cleon insisted that Athens should besiege the hoplites. Finally, he did it himself, with help of Demosthenes; Spartan hoplites surrendered, to the shock of Greece — leading to massive loss of prestige for Sparta.

herm

a religious statue of hermes. Alcibiades’ escapade (415) led to his being recalled from Sicilian expedition . . .

Syracuse

Egesta, an old ally, appealed to Athens for help against Selinus (supported by Syracuse, a Corinthian colony). Alcibiads, the war-mongerer, supported it as an end to the peace of Nicias. Nicias opposed it.

When: 415-413 BC (expedition)

Where: Sicily

Who/What: site of the final defeat of

Athenians in the unfortunate Sicilian

Expedition

Significance: Sicilian Expedition was the

beginning of the end for the Athenians and

their empire, particularly from the loss of their

fleet.

epipolae

a plateau to the west of Sicily that Nicias and Lamachus secured during the desperate final stages of the Sicilian expedition. Lamachus died fighting there.

When: 415-413 BC

Where: Sicily, cliff above Syracuse

Who/What: Plateau W of Syracuse, Nicias

and Lamachus occupied and began building a

N-S wall hoping to blockade Syracuse

Significance: Gylippus and Spartan

reinforcements scaled cliff through an

unguarded pass (which Ath. originally used to

take the cliff). Beginning of the end in Sicily.

hetaireiai

When: 415 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: social clubs of young Athenian

men wth political overtones, often of an

antidemocratic nature

Significance: Mutilation of herms in 415

rumored to be the work of such a hetaireia,

and subversive activity of hetaireai probably

played a role in oligarchic revolutions of 411

and 404.

Mytilene

the Mytilenean debates form the occasion for Cleon’s first appearance. Mytilene was one of several cities on the isle of Lesbos that rebelled. A debate took place in 427 as to whether to be gentle or harsh (or, rather, whether to stick to the original plan of being harsh, or to change it in favor of leniency). Cleon advocated sticking to the plan; Diodotus argued against it.

Sphacteria

The island on which 420 Spartan hoplites surrendered, in early 420s.

Peace of Nicias

Established in 421. Named for Cleon’s political rival, Nicias. Essentially a victory for Athens. Ended the “Arcidamian war.” Terms were to be observed for fifty years (they were not). Sparta was to return Amphipolis; Athens would return Pylos and Cythera, and release prisoners. A victory for Athens. A betrayal to Spartan allies: Corinth refused to sign it, as did the Boeotians. Amphipolis did not want to be returned, and began to venerate Brasidas as their founder. In retaliation, Athens refused to surrender Pylos.

Delium

When: 424

Where: Delium

Who/What: Battle between Athenians and

Boeotians

Significance: Thebes fought, innovative

battle formation, Athens defeated.

Gylippus

Spartan responsible for finally repulsing the Athenians by breaching the N-S wall constructed by Nicias and Lamachus, using the unguarded steep cliffs which Athenians had used to take the plateau (called Epipolae). Led Spartan reinforcements that arrived in Syracuse. From new class known as mothakes (offspring of a Spartan father and helot mother). His arrival in Syracuse changed the situation dramatically and led to Athens’ defeat. Prosecuted for owning private money.

Lamachus

When: 415-413 BC. An experienced strategos accompanying Alcibiades and Nicias on the Sicilian expedition, to moderate Alcibiades’s ambition, as a bizarre political compromise. Died fighting at Epipolae.

Alcibiades

Lived 450-404 BC. Prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. Last famous man of Alcmaeonidae. Played a major role in 2nd half of PP War as strategic advisor, military commander, and politician. Strategos in 420. educated by Pericles. instigated destruction of Melos. war-mongerer who provoked Sicilian expedition. After being recalled from Sicily for incident with the herms, he escaped and joined the spartans. Following the defeat in Siciliy, he cruised around fomenting rebellion among Athenian colonies, subject states, and allies. Seduced Agis’s wife, got himself into trouble there and went to join the Persians. Fruitlessly tried to canvass for support for Athenians from Persians. Ended up returning after the more oligarchic 400 recalled exiles in 411/10. Became strategos during final phase of the war, and even won a striking victory at Cyzicus. Looted Caria. Still afraid of stepping foot on Athenian soil, though. After a naval defeat was resoundingly ousted, and established himself in his fortress in Gallipoli. Was killed by Persia at the behest of Sparta, after PW.

Aristophanes’s Acharnians

When: 425 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: 3

rd play, and earlies of 11

surviving plays of Aristophanes. Protagonist

(Dikaiopolis) miraculously obtains a private

peace treaty with Spartans & enjoys the peace

in spite of opposition from fellow Athenians

Significance: Pelop. War & Aristo.’s feud

with Cleon key issued underlying the play.

Arist. accused of slandering Athens earlier.

Cleon

A demagogue with a cultivated aristocratic persona. - one of the few who replace Pericles in the demagogical arena. First appears in thuc. in the Mytilenean debate. advocates for the siege at Sphacteria, against the moderate Nicias. Died fighting against Brasidas at Amphipolis in 422. Brasidas also died there.

Nicias

Wealthy and religious - spent a great deal on religious festivals. moderate politician who negotiated for a peace with Sparta. opponent of Cleon and Alcibiades. Together with Alcibiades, conspired to get Hyperbolus ostracized before the Sicilian expedition. Went on Sicilian Expedition as a check to Alcibiades. Contracted liver disease and requested to be brought home - a request that was refused. Fortified Epipolae, but it was taken over by Gylippus. Fled on foot with Demosthenes, but the two were eventually separated and overtaken by Spartans.

Brasidas

charismatic general who took the lead of Peloponnesian War after the death of Archidamus. After the disaster at Sphacteria, he won more prestige for Sparta during campaigns in Chalcidice (424-22), where he convinced Athenian citizen states to revolt. Died at the battle of Amphipolis. Venerated by residents of Amphipolis as original founder, out of spite towards the Athenians.

Aristophanes’s Peace

a play celebrating the peace of Nicias. performed

just days before ratification of Peace of Nicas

in 421

Significance: Notable for joyous anticipation

of peace and celebration of a return to an

idyllic life. Still, somewhat cautionary with

some bitterness in memory of lost

opportunites, + not a universally happy end.

When: 425 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: 3

rd play, and earlies of 11

surviving plays of Aristophanes. Protagonish

(Dikaiopolis) miraculously obtains a private

peace treaty with Spartans & enjoys the peace

in spite of opposition from fellow Athenians

Significance: Pelop. War & Aristo.’s feud

with Cleon key issued underlying the play.

Arist. accused of slandering Athens earlier.

Melos

a city that Athens brutally destroyed, probably at the instigation of Alcibiades, in 416. When: 416 BC

Where: Island in Cyclades

Who/What: Tried to stay out of DL, but

Athens besieged Melos and killed all men of

fighting age and sold the women and children,

replacing them w/ a colony of 500 Athenians

Significance: Destruction of city and

slaughter of males by Athens highlights

increasingly totalitarian and despotic nature of

DL. Also shows you couldn’t opt out of DL.

Hyperbolus

The poor fool who got ostracized because of Nicias’s and Alcibiades’s conspiracy, 417-15. Not worthy of his fate. Led to development of graphe paranomon, instead of ostracism, as a way of punishing politicians.

Battle of Mantinea

decisive spartan victory against new Athenian allies in 418, another factor leading to re-escalation during the peace of Nicias. When: 418 BC

Where: Mantinea

Who/What: Spartans vs. Athens with Argos

leading army. Spartans win.

Significance: Spartan victory restored Sp.

morale and prestige after the disaster at Pylos,

revitalizing their mythos of invincibility.

Argives forced to renounce their alliance with

Elis and Athens and joined the Spartans in

evicting the Athenians from Epidaurus.

Egesta

When: 415 BC

Where: Sicily

Who/What: Old ally who requested aid from

Athens against Syracusan supported Selinus.

Alcibiades advocated full support of Egesta

against Nicias.

Significance: Start of Sicilian expedition

debacle and beginning of Alcibiades’s exiles

and switching of sides.

Decelea

City in Boeotia occupied by Sparta (per Alicibiades’s advice) at the end of the Pelop. War. Gave Sparta access to silver mines and a strategic vantage point. When: 415 Alcibiades

helped to fortify for Sparta

Where: Attica

Who/What: Town seized by Sparta to use as

a base to hold Attica

Significance: Sparta used to control rural

Attica, hurting the grain trade and silver from

Laurium for Athens. Much more effective

than the symbolic burnings from the previous

phase of the war.

B. of Notium

The naval battle in which Lysander conquered, due to Antiochus’s stupidity, leading to Alcibiades’s departure from the public scene and putting an end to the burgeoning Athenian comeback near the end of the war. 407 BC.

Tissaphernes

Persian satrap (of Sardis) who was interested in Hellenic politics. Inclined towards Sparta, but Alcibiades tried to court his favor and thought that he could win some money for the Athenians (though his chances were slim). When: 412 got Ionia

Where: Persia/Ionia

Who/What: Commander of Persian army in

Asia Minor

Significance: in alliance with Sparta against

Athens, gave them money to build a fleet in

exchange for Ionia.

Theramenes

A moderate politician who managed to survive the political wranglings between oligarchs and democrats in Athens after the PW war. Killed by Critias in 404-3.

Agis

one of the longest-running spartan kings, serving for nearly the entire PW war. His wife may have slept with Alcibiades and possibly gave Agis an illegitimate son, Leotychides. Fortified decalea.

Cleophon

When: Pel. War (431-404)

Where: Athens

Who/What: Athenian politician

Significance: Influenced Athens in restored

democracy to refuse peace in 410. A good

financial planner, turned temple properties

into money for the poor. Again before

Aegospotami advised Athens to refuse peace

and after passed a motion forbidding anyone

to propose dismantling walls. Killed by 30.

decarchy

governments instituted by Sparta after the PW war to establish their Spartan empire. The false taste of freedom offered to the greeks. Ranged from brutally tyrannical to relatively friendly and acceptable to local cultures. boards of ten. Set up by Lysander. When: 404 BC Sparta began to distrust, owing to allegiance to Lysander among the decarchies.

Euripides

When: c. 485-406

Where: Athens → Macedonia

Who/What: tragic playwright

Significance: critiques of Greek values? Went

to Macedonian court (Bacchae), evidence of

how Philip was bringing Greek culture to

Macedonian court.

nomos

Custom or law. Sometimes it corresponds to the English word “mores,” connoting a way of doing things that is deeply embedded in a value system. It can also be used, however, in a legal context; thus, for example, the rules laid down by Solon were called his nomoi. Custom or law. Sometimes it corresponds to the English word “mores,” connoting a way of doing things that is deeply embedded in a value system. It can also be used, however, in a legal context; thus, for example, the rules laid down by Solon were called his nomoi.

The Old Oligarch

Writer of a pro-oligarchic pamphlet during the domestic feuds in the last stages of the PW in Athens. used to be identified with Xenophon. Shows internal working of

Athenian democracy, while being hostile to it.

Contrasts with Thucydides’ Pericles’ view in

his funeral oration.

the 400

Oligarchic faction that took over during the feuds near end of PW. Soon replaced by hoplite democracy. Only lasted a few months. When: 411 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: a council of 400

Significance: the democratic assembly voted

itself out of existence, war had undermined

confidence in democracy. Vote only possibly

because fleet was at Samos so oligarchs tried

to seize control. Didn’t work, and eventually

killed itself. Reversed many of the previous

constitutional reforms

the 5000

Hoplite democracy that simialrly lasted only a few months. When: Sept. 411- June 410

Where: Athens

Who/What: Oligarchy that replaced the 400

Significance: Recalled Athens’ exiles

including Alcibiades. Thucydides praised.

The victories in the East were because of the

cooperation between the 5000 and the forces

at Samos. Some leaders of the 5000 remained

powerful under the renewed democracy.

B. of Cyzicus

Battle remarkably won by Alcibiades during his Athenian comeback. Memorable for laconic dispatch. First major battle not reported by Thucydides. Mindarus (Spartan admiral in chief) died. Spartans sued for peace, were refused. 410

Cyrus the Younger

Persian king near the end of PW war who negotiated with Lysander to fund Spartan victor. When: 407 BC

Where: Persia

Who/What: Not the elder son of Darius, but

hoped to become king (first son since Darius

took the throne)

Significance: He and Lysander became

friends (spelled doom for Athens, since it

meant Persian money went to Sparta).

Xenophon and the 10,000 fought on his behalf

and were stranded when he died.

Lysander

Chief admiral of Spartan navy near end of PW war. Most powerful man in the PW war. Won at battle of Notium. Won battle of Aegospotami. First historical Greek to be revered as a god. Won PW war through friendship w Cyrus the Younger. Set up Decarchies. Advocated for having currency in Sparta, tried to open up kingship to not Heraclides. Basically trying to make political machinations possible for himself, to become most powerful man in Sparta. Began to be looked upon with distrust by Spartans, for his arrogance and ambitions especially kings Agis and Pausanias. Betrayed by Pharanabazus, who accused him to the Spartans of alienating the Persians. Died in the Corinthian War. Was a mothax.

B. of Arginusae

Major win for Athenians near end of PW war. However, because they were not able to recover the dead (due to storm), the eight were condemned to deeth (only 6 came to the trial). Proceedings highly irregular and foolish. Socrates on the jury, objected. When: 407 BC

Where: Islands in Aegean

Who/What: Naval battle Athens v. Pelop.

Significance: Big win for Athens, but they

had to decide whether to rescue Conon at

Mytilene or the sailors in the water. But a

storm arose making rescue impossible, and as

a result the generals were executed at Athens.

harmost

When: 404 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: Spartan garrison commander

Significance: To protect themselves from

popular uprisings, the 30 requested from

Lysander 700 soldiers and a harmost similar

to those in Aegean states (tyranny/reign of

terror)

sophist

When: 2

nd half 5

th C BC

Where: Greece, especially Athens

Who/What: teachers of rhetoric (speaking

and reasoning)

Significance: taught students how to dissect

arguments of political opponents (important in

democracy). Some had unconventional ideas

about society and religion, and the word was

often used derogatively especially for the idea

of dressing up lies as truth.

Plato

428-348

Conon

Athenian admiral. During Arginusae, he was blocked at Mytilene. While debating whether to save him or recover bodies, Ath. generals were overcome by a storm, preventing them from saving bodies, leading to the execution of 6 of 8. Lost at battle of Aegospotami, but scored victory at Cnidos during Corinthian war.

B. of Aegospotami

final battle, 405. Lost through Athenian carelessness, though Alc tried to warn them. Significance: Lysander beats Athenians while

beached, cuts off Athenian grain. By the

terms, Athens became Sparta’s ally, destroyed

her long walls and fortifications of the Piraeus

and surrendered all but 12 ships. Exiles

recalled, pro-Spartan oligarchies est. in

Athenian allied cities.

Critias

one of the thirty tyrants. Relative of Plato. Student of Socrates. Very brutal. Killed Theramenes. Died fighting an Athenian revolution in Thebes under commander Thrasybulus.

the 30

the oligarchy established by Sparta (really by Lysander). Turned out to be brutal and bloodthirsty, alienating themselves from Sparta and allies. Dismantled by Pausanias and Agis. Abolished organs of democratic government

such as popular courts and appointed a new

boule of 500 antidemocrats. Execution of

enemies headed by Critias and his clique.

Ultimately undone by exiles they created. 404-3.

Thrasybulus

Appointed general at Samos. Together with Theramenes, a trierarch at battle of Arginusae. 407-4, led 70 exiles during rule of the 30, seizing Phyle and waiting until they were 700 at which point they seized Piraeus. led Athenian uprising in Thebes, killed Critias. After Agis and Pausanias dismantled the 30, Thrasybulus led army to the Acropolis and sacrificed to Athena, to re-establish Athenian democracy.

Phyle

When: 403

Where: On Mt. Parnes (Athenian side of

Attica/Boeotia)

Who/What: Stronghold of 70 exiles during

30

Significance: Thrasybulus led to seize Phyle,

waited until they were 700, moved to Piraeus,

joining dissidents there and est. themselves on

the hill of Munychia. Critias died trying to

dislodge them.

Socrates

When: 470-399 BC

Where: Athens

Who/What: philosopher, mentor of Plato

Significance: Teacher, or at least associated

with, many of the 30 and the oligarchic

faction in Athens, possibly causing his trial

and execution after the restoration of the

democracy.

Sophocles

When: c. 496-406

Where: Athens

Who/What: tragic playwright

Significance: reverence for the gods + human

dimension; decree of autocrat as law vs what

people want (Antigone)

Second Athenian Confederacy

A confederacy of poleis, including Corinth, Thebes, and Athens, to defend against growing Spartan Power in the early 300s. Ruled by the Athenian ekklesia and the confederation of allies, called the synedrion. Included many former members of Dephic league. When: 378-355 BC

Where: Athens & Aegean Islands

Who/What: Maritime confederation of

Aegean city-states headed by Athens for

self-defense against (1) Sparta, (2) Persia

Significance: Response after invasion of

Attica by Sphodrias of Sparta and Sparta’s

refusal to prosecute him for his actions. Very

popular at first, but much less effective and

powerful than the DL (struggled with revolts)

Epaminondas

410-362. Led thebes in 370s, with Pelopidas. Highly charismatic. Formed the sacred band. Emphasized left wing of battle, unconventionally. Diminished spartan strength at Leuctra, against Spartans, destroying forever myth of Spartan dominance in hoplite battle. Could not take Sparta but did take Laconia, freed Messenia and helots. Est. capital on MT. Ithome. Made capital for Arcadian league, called megalopolis. Became meeting place for various amicable confederacies, pointing to powerful greek unification against sparta. Through his work, Thebes became a dominant power in Greece, causing sparta to wane. However, states then allied against Thebes. Epaminondas died at Mantinea, fighting them, in 362. Died asking for peace among Greeks. All he ultimately did was prepare the way for Macedonian ascendancy.

Xenophon’s anabasis

When: 378-355 BC

Where: Athens & Aegean Islands

Who/What: Maritime confederation of

Aegean city-states headed by Athens for

self-defense against (1) Sparta, (2) Persia

Significance: Response after invasion of

Attica by Sphodrias of Sparta and Sparta’s

refusal to prosecute him for his actions. Very

popular at first, but much less effective and

powerful than the DL (struggled with revolts)