During the period from 477 to 431 BC, Athens experienced a cultural and intellectual golden age under the leadership of Pericles. Pericles strengthened Athenian democracy and used the wealth of the Athenian Empire to fund magnificent architecture projects, such as the Parthenon. However, the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 404 BC weakened Athens and ended the Golden Age. After the war, Athenian philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle sought philosophical truths through logic and reason.

1. Classical
Greece
Outcome:
The Athenian Golden Age

2. The Athenian Golden Age
1. Setting the Stage
a. The Greek Civilization was a collection of city-states
b. Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful cities for different reasons

3. Athens Today

4. Ancient Athens

5. Ancient Athens

6. The Athenian Golden Age
2. Athens
a. From 477 to 431 B.C., Athens experienced a growth in intellectual and
artistic learning. This was known as the Golden Age of Athens.
b. Pericles: held power in Athens for 32 years
i. Goals:
1. Strengthen Athenian Democracy
2. To hold and strengthen the empire
3. Glorify Athens-
a. Architecture: The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis
b. Direct Democracy was introduced under Pericles
c. Head of Delian League, an alliance system created after
the defeat of the Persians

7. Athenian Acropolis

8. The Parthenon

9. Sparta

13. The Athenian Golden Age
3. Sparta
a. Sparta was a military city-state
b. Sparta had a better army than Athens; Athens had the better navy
c. Weren’t Builders
d. Due to its inland location, Sparta could not be attacked by sea
e. Many men in Sparta were soldiers for life

15. The Persian Wars
1. Greece v The Persian Empire (King Darius)
Battle of Marathon
The Phalanx
2. Greece v Persian Empire (King Xerxes)
Battle of the 300 at Thermopylae
Battle of Salamis

17. start at minutes 8-approx 23

18. The Athenian Golden Age
4. Peloponnesian War: Athens vs. Sparta
a. As Athens grew, city-states viewed it with hostility
b. Sparta declared war in 431 B.C.
c. Sparta marched to Athens and burned food supply
d. Plague hits Athens in 2nd year of the war- 1/3rd die including Pericles
e. 421 B.C. a truce is signed but doesn’t last long
f. In 413 B.C Athens’ navy is decimated at Syracuse (Spartan ally)
g. Athens survives for 9 more years but surrenders to Sparta in 404 B.C.

19. Peloponnesian War

20. The Athenian Golden Age
5. Philosophers
a. After the Peloponnesian War, many Athenians lost confidence in democracy
b. Great thinkers known as philosophers began to seek truth
c. Philosophers (lovers of wisdom) had two assumptions
i. The universe is put together in an orderly way, and subject to absolute
and unchanging laws
ii. People can understand these laws through logic and reason

21. The Athenian Golden Age
d. Important philosophers
i. Socrates
1. “The unexamined life is not worth living”
2. In 399 B.C. brought to trial for “corrupting the youth of Athens”
3. Jury condemned him to die: drank hemlock (poison)

22. The Athenian Golden Age
ii. Plato
1. Student of Socrates
2. Wrote “The Republic” –perfectly governed society
3. Pupil- Aristotle

23. The Athenian Golden Age
iii. Aristotle
1. Questioned the nature of the world
2. Invented method of arguing according to rules of logic
3. His work provides basis of the scientific method today
4. Pupil- Alexander the Great

24. The Athenian Golden Age