Greece

1. • To insure that its helots would remain uncontaminated by democratic ideas, Sparta
formed the SPARTAN LEAGUE of oligarchic states. When the Persians
conquered Lydia in 547 B.C., they also annexed Ionia.
• In 499 B.C., the Ionian cities revolted, established democratic regimes, and
appealed to the Athenians to help.
• The BATTLE OF MARATHON in 490 B.C. was a decisive victory for the
Athenian army, which was half the size of the Persians. (6400 Persians died as
opposed to 192 Athenians.)
• Ten years later, in the BAY OF SALAMIS, the Greek fleet (largely Athenian)
turned the tide of victory and forced the Persians to retreat.

2. • In 478 B.C., Athens invited the city-states bordering on the Aegean to form a
defensive alliance called the DELIAN LEAGUE.
• To maintain a 200 ship navy that would police the seas, each state was assessed
ships or money in proportion to its wealth.
• By 468 B.C., after the Ionian cities had been liberated and the Persian fleet
destroyed, various League members thought it unnecessary to continue the
confederacy.
• Motivated by fear of the Persians and by the need to protect free-trade, the
Athenians suppressed all attempt to secede and created an informal EMPIRE.
• By aiding in the suppression of local aristocratic factions within its subject states,
Athens emerged as the leader of a union of democratic states.
• However, its HUBRIS (excessive pride) proved to be its undoing.

3. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.)
Nearly all of Greece was polarized between two alliances.

4. • A compromise peace was reached in 421 B.C. During the succeeding period,
ATHENIAN IMPERIALISM manifested itself in its worst form.
• In 416 B.C., an expedition embarked for MELOS, A NEUTRAL AEGEAN
ISLAND, to force it to join the Athenian empire.
• Acting on the premise that "might makes right," the Athenians PUT ALL
MELIANS OF MILITARY AGE TO DEATH and SOLD THE WOMEN AND
CHILDREN INTO SLAVERY.
• This exhibition of HUBRIS was their downfall.
• In 404 B.C., ATHENS CAPITULATED after its last fleet was destroyed by a
Spartan fleet built with money received from Persia in exchange for the Greek cities
in Ionian.
• The once great city of Athens was stripped of its possessions and demilitarized.

5. MACEDONIA
• Largest region of all Hellenic states
• Barbarian, illiterate, vulgar

6. Philip II of Macedon
• 359- 336 BC
• conquered Greece
• died at 40

7. Alexander the Great (356 -323 BC)
• 20 yrs.
• Aristotle
• Violent temper
• 3 W's-wine, women, war
• 334 BC -Battle of Granicus River
• Gordian Knot Incident
• 332 BC -Egypt -"deified"
• 330 Bc -Achaemid Persia
• Persepolis
• 330 BC -Central Asia
• 327 BC -India- Mauryan Empire
• 324 BC -Babylon
• June 13,323 BC -died in Babylon at age 33.
DIADOCHI - successor

8. 1. Kingdom of Egypt -Ptolemy
• North Africa, Cyprus, Coast of Syria –Palestine
2. Kingdom of Syria –Seleucus
• Syria, Tigris -Euphrates valley, Medea, Anatolia,
Central Asia
3. Kingdom of Macedon -Antigonus
• Hellenic -city states, islands of the Aegean Sea

9. Map of Alexander the Great’s Empire

10. Major Results of the Conquest of
Alexander
• I. To open up the lands o f the Persian Empire
to the influence o f the West.
• 2. To break down the barriers that had isolated
the east from the Mediterrean

11. Greek Contribution to Civilization
1. Principles of democracy
2. Homeric Epics (Iliad and Odyssey)
3. Great Philosophers (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)
4. Ionian, Doric, Corinthian architectural styles
5. Parthenon of Athens
6. Hippocratic Oath

12. GREEK GODS
• Greek religion is characterized as Polytheistic;
their Gods are anthromorphic.
• Anthromorphic - their gods possesses human
qualities. They Can fall in love and bear
children.

13. • Zeus -King of the Gods of the Greeks.
-founded the polis-city of Sparta.
• Hera -Queen of the Gods of the Greeks; wife of Zeus
Queen of the Heavens; Goddess of power and riches
• Poseidon -God of the sea.
• Hades – god of the Underworld; Pluto
• Aprodite - Goddess of Beauty'
• Apollo -God of the Sun
• Demeter -Goddess of fertility and harvest
• Dionysus -God of wine and fertility (sexual aspect)
• Oracle -holy place at which ancient Greeks were
accustomed to consult the Gods for advice or prophecy.
• Delphi - oracle of Apollo
• Olympia -oracle of Zeus
-site of first Olympic games

14. HERA
Queen of the Gods
Goddess of Marriage,
Women and Birth
APHRODITE
Goddess of love,
beauty and sexuality
APOLLO
God of music, poetry,
plague, oracles, sun,
medicine, light and
knowledge

15. ZEUS
King of the Gods
God of the Sky, Thunder and
Lightning and Law, Order and
Justice
POSEIDON
God of the Sea, Earthquakes
and Horses
HADES
King of the underworld
God of the Dead and Riches

16. DEMETER
Goddess of the Earth,
Agriculture, Harvest, and
Forests
DIONYSUS
God of Wine,
Theatre, and Ecstasy

17. Temple of Zeus, Olympia
Delphi, Apollo’s sacred precinct

18. • Comedy – a play with a happy ending.
• Aristhophanes - famous comedian
- made the Greeks laugh and taught them a lesson through laughter
- wrote. "The Clouds”, the Frogs”
• Tragedy -a play with a sad ending
• Aeschylus (525-456 B.C. )
• Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) Greek Tragedians: writers of Tragedy
• Euripides 408 B.C. wrote "Medea", “The Trojan Women”.
• Aeschylus -wrote "Prometheus Bound”
• Sophocles "Oedipus Rex" , "Antigone".
• Herodatus – father of Greek History.
• Thucydides -Historian, wrote the account of the Pelopennesian
-War (Athens 'vs. Sparta)
• Iliad & Odyssey Greek epics