Ancient Greece: an Illustrated History

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ANCIENT GREECE
armor was heavier and provided
more protection than that of
the Persians, and the Greek
hoplites were a formidable
fighting force. There was a
standoff for several days,
with the two armies
backing off to sleep in
camp at night. Eventually,
the Persians decided to
sail around to the other
side of Attica and launch
an attack from there.
Once the Persian cavalry
was embarked, one of the
Greek generals, Miltiades, con-
vinced the overall commander of the
troops, Callimachus, to launch an attack.
This gold Lydian The two armies drew up in battle The Greek hoplites advanced at a run,
coin was made formation on the plain of Marathon.The engaging the Persian infantry with dev-
around 550 BCE. Persian forces consisted of archers, spear- astating results. After the two Persian
men, and cavalry, while the Greeks had wings were crushed, the Greeks and
only foot soldiers. However, the Greeks’ Plataeans wheeled in from the sides to
decimate the center. The Persians fled,
and many of them were cut down before
THE MARATHON RACE they could reach the ships.The Persians
left 6,400 soldiers dead on the field,
After the Athenian victory over the Persians at the while the Greeks lost only 192 men. It
Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, a Greek runner was was a resounding victory for the Greeks.
dispatched to run the 25 miles (40 km) to Athens to After the unexpected defeat at
bring the good news. Upon arrival, he collapsed from Marathon, the Persian fleet sailed around
exhaustion and died. Cape Sounion to make a second landing.
The Persians planned to march on
Centuries later, this feat inspired the marathon race. Athens, which they believed was unpro-
When the Olympic Games were revived in Athens in tected. However, the Athenian army
1896 CE, they included a long-distance foot race of quickly returned to the city in a forced
around that distance. It was called the marathon in march, reaching it within only seven
honor of the unknown runner.The marathon distance hours. To make matters worse for the
was later standardized at 26 miles, 385 yards (42.2 km). Persians, the Spartan army was rapidly
approaching Athens. Discouraged, the
The story of the athlete who ran from Marathon to Persian fleet retreated.
Athens has often been intertwined with a separate
story, told by Herodotus, of another runner, named The Second Persian War
Pheidippides, who ran from Athens to Sparta on the eve The next Persian attack did not come
of the war to ask the Spartans for help. Pheidippides until 10 years later.The delay was caused
would have run 150 miles (241 km) in two days. by Darius’s death in 486 BCE.The sub-
sequent domestic disturbances forced his
son Xerxes I (ruled 486–465 BCE) to


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THE PERSIAN WARS
wait until 481 BCE. According to instigation, to decide on the tactics to be
Herodotus, Xerxes was warned by his followed. It was decided to proclaim an
advisers against the consequences of a overall peace to end ongoing internal
new campaign, but the king continued conflicts. All states would enter into an
his preparations for what would become alliance against Persia, and none was to
the largest military undertaking in histo- consider making a separate peace. The
ry to that date. property of traitors would be confiscated
Athens had made good use of the 10- and given to the sanctuary in Delphi.
year calm. During that time, the city had
transformed itself into a naval power.The Wooden walls
events of the Ionian rebellion had Despite this friendly gesture, the prophe-
demonstrated the importance of having cies of the Delphi oracle were consis-
a strong fleet. This change of view tently unfavorable.The people of Delphi
was largely due to the foresighted states- were so well informed of the formidable
man Themistocles, who convinced the Persian war preparations that they dared
Athenian assembly to spend the major recommend nothing less than uncondi-
part of the profits gained from the newly tional surrender.The advice of the oracle
opened silver mines of Laurium on ship- The waters off the “to flee to the ends of the earth” was not
building. The number of Athenian Greek island of appreciated by the Athenians.They asked
triremes (warships; see box, page 109) Samos, shown here, the oracle for less defeatist counsel, and it
rose from 70 to 200. were the site of a replied that only “wooden walls” could
In 481 BCE, when the Persian prepa- naval battle protect Athens. Themistocles declared
rations for war were already under way, between the Greeks that this meant ships; because the ships
a conference of Greek states met and the Persians had already been built, the Athenians
in Corinth, probably at Themistocles’ in 494 BCE. were satisfied.
Athens was joined by
30 other Greek states.
They decided to meet the
Persian attack head on,
with Sparta in charge of
the entire military opera-
tion. The Greek strategy
was essentially to avoid
battles on the plains,
where the Persian superi-
ority in numbers, and in
particular their cavalry,
would almost certainly
overcome smaller Greek
forces. Instead, the Greeks
planned to try to engage
the Persians either in
mountain passes or at sea
in narrow channels.
On the Persian side,
Xerxes was personally in
charge of the new expe-
dition. The winter of


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481–480 BCE was devoted to prepara-
tions in Sardis. The Persian army, the
largest that had ever been assembled, was
too large to be transported by sea.
Equally, the army was too large to live off
the land it had to march through, so
arrangements had to be made to supply
the army with food by sea.

Into Greece
In the spring of 480 BCE, Xerxes led his
army north and crossed the Dardanelles
by means of a bridge constructed of
boats built by his engineers. He then
trekked into Europe, following the coast.
A large fleet of warships and freight ves-
sels accompanied the army. They were
ordered not to lose sight of each other,
since the land army could not function
without the fleet.
From Thessaly to central Greece,
the main road ran through the pass of
Thermopylae, between the sea and the
mountains.There the Greeks waited for
the Persians, and a historic three-day
battle was fought, which the Greeks
eventually lost.
At the same time that the Battle of
Thermopylae was happening on land,
the Greeks engaged with the Persians in
a naval battle at Artemisium, in a sea
channel only 6 miles (9.7 km) wide.
Although the Persian fleet had originally
numbered around 600 ships, it had lost a
number of them in recent storms, so it
did not greatly outnumber the 370
triremes of the Greeks.The Persians had
the advantage that many of their ships
were in fact Phoenician, sailed by
Phoenician crews, who were generally
acknowledged at that time to be the best
sailors in the world. However, in the
confined waters at Artemisium, superior

This relief depicts Darius I, the king of Persia
at the time of the outbreak of the Persian
Wars. Darius insisted that the Greek states
should recognize his sovereignty.


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This 17th-century-CE engraving depicts the THE PERSIAN WARS
THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE
Battle of Marathon, one of the key battles of
the Persian Wars.
The pass at Thermopylae was an obvious place for the
sailing tactics did not count for much. Greeks to intercept the Persians. It was hemmed in on
The Persians’ technique was to bring one side by tall cliffs and on the other by the sea.A
their ships alongside the Greek ships, so Greek force of 9,000 hoplites, under the command of
that infantrymen could board the enemy the Spartan king Leonidas, made camp in the pass to
ships.The Greeks had their own soldiers await the Persians.
aboard their vessels and fought back vig-
orously.The two fleets inflicted substan- The 200,000 strong Persian army poured into the pass,
tial damage on each other, and although but because it was so narrow, only a few could engage
the battle was nominally a victory for the with the Greeks at a time.The superior equipment of
Persians,the fact that they had performed the Greek hoplites gave them a crucial advantage and
so well was a great morale booster for the they were able to hold the pass for two days. On the
Greeks. On receiving the news of the third day, a local Greek guide treacherously showed the
defeat at Thermopylae, the Greek ships Persians a mountain path that enabled them to come
sailed south. down behind the Greek lines. Realizing that he was out-
flanked, Leonidas ordered most of his army to retreat
Campaign in Attica south, and with 300 Spartans and around 1,000 other
Following the battles at Marathon and troops, he made a heroic last stand.The Persians
Artemisium, central Greece and Attica attacked, and the Spartans were all killed.
lay open to the advancing enemy. On


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Themistocles’ advice, the population of information, claiming that there was dis-
Athens was evacuated to Salamis, an sension among the Greeks, that the
island in the Gulf of Aegina, and the Athenians wanted to defect to the
Peloponnese. This proved to be a wise enemy, and that the Persians should
decision, because Xerxes entered Athens attack right away if they wanted to take
and sacked it.From Salamis,Themistocles advantage of the situation.The Persians
was forced to watch the clouds of smoke were so confident of victory that Xerxes
billowing up from the burning temples had a golden throne built on a hill over-
on the Acropolis. looking the harbor of Salamis so he
could witness the destruction of the
The Battle of Salamis Greek fleet in comfort.
Meanwhile, the Persian fleet had sailed The ruse worked.The Persians, con-
south to Salamis, where the Greek fleet fident that victory would be theirs, sailed
was waiting. According to the poet into the Salamis narrows by night with
Aeschylus, who took part in the ensuing the intention of launching an attack at
battle, the Persian fleet made such an dawn, but first light brought an unwel-
impression that the Spartan leaders were come sight. The Greek fleet was drawn
all for retreating from the bay, assembling up in a semicircular formation, spanning
all land and naval forces by the isthmus of the width of the channel and forming a
Corinth, and building a wall to block the trap in which the Persian ships were This 14th-century-
Persians.Themistocles pointed out that a caught. In the ensuing battle, the Greek CE manuscript
wall would be useless if the Persian fleet ships rammed their Persian counterparts, illustration depicts
could sail past it. Only “wooden walls” which could not maneuver in the tight the Battle of
could help. situation and, because they were lighter Salamis, fought
Before the battle began,Themistocles than the Greek triremes,were susceptible between the Greeks
sent a messenger to Xerxes with false to this form of attack.The Persian ships and the Persians.





































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THE HISTORIAN HERODOTUS THE PERSIAN WARS



he most important source for the history of Greeks be given their due glory, and also to shed
Tthe Persian Wars is the historian Herodotus, light on the reason why they entered into conflict
who was born some time around 480 BCE in the with one another.”
Greek city of Halicarnassus in Anatolia. His date
of death is also unknown but probably Herodotus’s History is now divided into
lies sometime between 430 and nine separate books. It does not
420 BCE. Cicero, the Roman just tell the story of the Persian
statesman and philosopher Wars themselves; it also
(106–46 BCE), called attempts to place them into
Herodotus the father of context by giving a history
historiography, that is, the of the Persian Empire.
writing of history based Herodotus’s work was
on a critical examination based largely on
of sources. Herodotus information gathered on
attempted to interpret his travels throughout
the past, putting a human Anatolia, Egypt, Palestine,
face on it and infusing Phoenicia, Mesopotamia,
it with a moral and the Black Sea region.
understanding. His goal was to collect
information, separating
According to Herodotus, his what he had seen and
work was the fruit of heard from other
research and observations. Nevertheless,
inquiry. He his work is far from being
opened his a dry, historical account.
History, his He wrote in an easy-
account of the going, engaging style
Persian Wars, and mixed his
with the following accounts of the
words:“Here fol- wars with gossip,
lows an explana- descriptions of
tion of the study the personalities
that Herodotus of involved, and
Halicarnassus initi- stories of
ated with the the gods.
intention that the
deeds of the people This bust from
not be forgotten in the fourth
time and that the century BCE is
important and of Herodotus,
amazing feats of the the “father of
Greeks and non- historiography.”






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ANCIENT GREECE
capsized, littering the sea with wrecks overall command of the Spartan king
and corpses. By evening, Xerxes could Leotychides, landed and confronted a
see that his fleet was crushed. Persian army twice their number.
However, the Persian force contained a
Xerxes returns to Asia large contingent of troops from the
Alarmed by the destruction of his fleet, Greek cities of Lydia. Once the fighting
Xerxes began the long march back started, a number of the Lydian troops
to Asia with the bulk of his land forces.
However, he left a formidable force This vase painting
of around 60,000 men behind under depicts Greek
the command of his brother-in-law hoplites with
Mardonius with instructions to continue prisoners of war.
the planned subjugation of Greece.
Mardonius spent the winter in
Thessaly. In the spring, he sent a delega-
tion to Athens offering to repair all the
damage and help in reconstructing the
city. He hoped by this means to negoti-
ate a settlement with the Athenians
excluding Sparta. All he asked in
exchange was that Athens should recog-
nize the sovereignty of the Persian king.
The Athenians rejected Mardonius’s
proposals and hastened to reassure the
concerned Spartans that they would
stand firm for “the Greek brotherhood,
the collective ancestry and language, the
altars and the sacrifices in which all
Greeks share,” as Herodotus put it.
Mardonius responded by ravaging
Attica and capturing Athens, but he
pulled back his troops when the Spartan
main force advanced northward. The
Greek forces assembled en masse on the
plain of Plataea (a few miles south of
Thebes) where the Persian army awaited
them. The Battle of Plataea ended in a
comprehensive victory for the Greek
forces and the death of Mardonius. The
Persian hopes of conquering Greece
were finally at an end.
Meanwhile, reputedly on the same
day that the Battle of Plataea was being
fought, another encounter took place
that completed the Persians’ humiliation
at the hands of the Greeks. This battle
took place at Cape Mycale in Ionia.
Some 4,000 Greek hoplites, under the


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THE BATTLE OF PLATAEA THE PERSIAN WARS



n the plain of Plataea in the summer of 479 around 12,000 Spartan hoplites, while another
OBCE, a Greek army under the command of was made up of 8,000 Athenians.At the time of
Pausanius, the Spartan regent, faced a Persian the Persian attack, these units were separated by
force under Mardonius. Pausanius had 38,000 around 1 mile (1.6 km), so the ensuing battle
heavily armed hoplites from Sparta,Athens, and really took place on two separate fronts.The
Corinth, with perhaps an equal number of lightly Spartans turned and formed up in battle order
armed soldiers, but he had no mounted troops. to face the onslaught of the Persian infantry, who
The Persians had the advantage of their were equipped with bows and arrows. Many of
formidable cavalry, whose technique against the Spartans fell under the rain of arrows, but
infantry was to charge them, release a hail of when the command came to charge, the hoplites
javelins and arrows, and then wheel away. proved their superior fighting prowess. In the
ensuing chaos, Mardonius was killed, and once
The two armies faced each other across the their general was dead, the Persians fled. On
Asopus River for almost two weeks, with a little the other side of the field, the Athenians were
daily skirmishing. Each general was reluctant to engaged with other Persian forces, but once
initiate an attack. Finally, with no access to fresh the Persians saw their comrades fleeing, they
water, Pausanius decided to withdraw to Plataea. also ran away.The battle was a resounding
When he saw the Greeks on the move, victory for the Greeks.
Mardonius ordered his troops forward to attack.
An undated modern illustration shows the Greek
In the retreat, the Greeks had become separated and Persian troops fighting at the Battle of Plataea
into several units. One of these units consisted of in 479 BCE.





































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This relief sculpture from the Persian capital
of Persepolis dates to the reign of Xerxes I.


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THE PERSIAN WARS
changed sides. Leotychides managed to
inflict a decisive defeat on the Persian
land forces and captured the Persian
fleet, which was moored nearby.

The end of the war
Even though the battles of Plataea and
Cape Mycale effectively ended the dan-
ger that the Persians posed to the Greek
mainland, sporadic fighting continued
for another 30 years. From this time on,
it was the Greeks who were on the
offensive. The Athenians attempted to
secure a complete dominance of eastern
Mediterranean trade by systematically
driving the Persians out of Ionia and
Cyprus. Eventually, in 449 BCE, a peace
treaty was negotiated between Persia
and Athens, and the Persian Wars were
finally at an end.

This seal depicts the type of Greek warship See also:
that would have been used at Salamis. Sparta and Athens (page 52)



THE GREEK TRIREME


The main type of warship used by the Greeks it.Alternatively, a ship could simply try to ram
during the Persian Wars was the trireme the enemy with the prow, which was specially
(known to the Greeks as a trieres).The triremes designed for that purpose. In order to execute
derived their name from the fact that they were this maneuver, one fleet had to outflank the
powered by oarsmen arranged in three separate other so the prows of at least some of the ships
banks, one above the other.This arrangement faced the sides of the enemy vessels.This tech-
came about as the solution to the problem of nique was known as the periplus.Various defen-
how to fit as many rowers into a ship as sive formations could be adopted to offer pro-
possible.The triple-deck system meant that tection. One was the kyklos, which was a simple
around 170 oarsmen could be fitted into a ship defensive circle where all of the ships had their
(as well as a number of foot soldiers).Although prows facing outward.
triremes also used sails, they were lowered
before the ships went into battle; the use of Greek triremes used ramming tactics to win
oars gave the ships greater maneuverability. victory in arguably the most famous naval battle
of ancient times—Salamis.The Greek fleet was
During a naval engagement, a commander could heavily outnumbered, but the quicker and more
adopt two different tactics.The ship could try to maneuverable Greek triremes managed to inflict
pull up alongside the adversaries, enabling Greek huge damage in the narrow channel where the
troops to board the enemy vessel and capture battle was fought.




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THE AGE


OF PERICLES





uring the fifth century BCE, the city of Athens was involved
TIME LINE
Din wars against two major adversaries—Persia and the fellow

c. 495 BCE Greek city of Sparta. However, the period was also a time when
Pericles born democracy and culture flourished.
in Athens.
480 BCE The Athenian statesman Pericles, who when he spoke in the assembly, he could
Greek victory lived from around 495 to 429 BCE, was generally convince his listeners of the
at Battle of so important to the development of merit of his proposals. By 460 BCE, he
Salamis marks
start of Athens that historians call the time he had virtually become head of state.
Athenian naval was in power the Age of Pericles. Under The Battle of Salamis, where the
supremacy. his guidance, Athens reached the Greeks routed the Persians in a sea battle
pinnacle of its influence. The city also in 480 BCE, marked the beginning of
477 BCE
became an unparalleled center of culture the rise of Athenian sea power.After the
Delian League
formed; Athens and learning, a process that culminated final defeat of the Persians at Plataea the
becomes alliance’s in the construction of the Parthenon on following year, Athens emerged as the
leading state.
the Acropolis. predominant city-state in Greece.
447 BCE The Athenians enjoyed a good life Up until this time, Sparta had been
Work begins under Pericles, as he himself described the greatest military power in Greece.At
on construction it in a speech:“We have feasts and cere- the end of the wars with Persia, howev-
of Parthenon, monies throughout the year.Life is pleas- er, the Spartans opted for isolation.They
temple to
Athena on ant in our homes, and with our noble returned to their austere lifestyle on the
Acropolis. behavior, we provide ourselves with Peloponnese peninsula, where their lands
pleasures that hinder sadness.The fame of had remained untouched by the Persian
443 BCE
our city brings us fruits from the entire Wars. Although they had ample ability
Pericles becomes Earth, so we can enjoy foreign and exot- and resources to establish military sover-
strategos for
first time. ic products… We are admirers of beauty, eignty throughout Greece,they preferred
but we remain simple.” to concentrate on domestic affairs.
431 BCE
Athens suffered heavily in the wars
Peloponnesian War The upbringing of Pericles with Persia, and it remained fearful of a
begins; Spartan
force invades Pericles was the son of Xanthippus, a new invasion. To reduce this threat, the
Attica, forcing general who led the Athenian contingent Athenians pursued a policy of offensive,
inhabitants to that contributed to the defeat of the expansionist action. After the battles of
shelter inside Persians at Cape Mycale in 479 BCE. Salamis and Cape Mycale, the Athenians
walls of Athens.
Although he came from an aristocratic had undisputed sea supremacy in the
429 BCE family, Pericles made his name in politics eastern Mediterranean region. However,
Pericles dies. as a reformer with left-wing leanings. maintaining a large fleet put a severe
With the support of the common peo- strain on the funds of Attica, so Athens
ple, he became leader of the popular needed to form alliances to continue
party. He was a persuasive orator, and military offensives against Persia.


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THE AGE OF PERICLES
The Delian League
In 477 BCE, Athens and most of the
Aegean city-states formed an alliance
against Persia called the Delian League. It
was named for the island of Delos, where
the meetings of the league were to be
held and the funds of the alliance were to
be kept.Athens headed the league, but all
the members had an equal vote, in prin-
ciple at least. As the leading member of
the league,Athens commanded a fleet of
200 ships, and every ally was required to
pay an annual fee to help maintain the
fleet.This fee could consist of ships, men,
equipment, or silver talents, all assessed
according to the resources of the mem-
ber state.
Between 476 and 466 BCE, a Greek
force, under the joint command of gen-
erals Cimon and Aristides, succeeded in
liberating the coasts of the Aegean from
Persian control. One notable success
came in 466 when a force led by Cimon
destroyed both the Persian fleet and the
Persian army near the mouth of the
Eurymedon River in Anatolia.

An Athenian empire
By 466 BCE,most of the members of the
league were paying their contributions in
silver talents rather than men or goods.
This was tantamount to paying tribute.
When some of the states started to
object, Athens responded ruthlessly. For
example, when Naxos objected to paying
the tribute and attempted to withdraw
from the league, Athens destroyed its
forts. Athens then annexed the lands of
other recalcitrant allies, distributing the
land to its own citizens.The league that
had started as a defensive alliance against
Persia had become a naval empire run by
Athens. It encompassed most of the large
islands of the Aegean Sea and many cities
to the north, either as equals or as sub-
This bust, created in the second century BCE, is believed to depict jected former allies.
the Athenian statesman Pericles, who dominated the politics of Following his famous success at the
Athens for more than 30 years. Eurymedon River, Cimon had become a


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ANCIENT GREECE
treaty with the Persians, which put an
end to the Persian Wars.To celebrate the
end of hostilities, Pericles embarked on
an ambitious building program that
resulted in the construction of the group
of buildings that are still seen on the
Acropolis today. With the Persian threat
gone, and Athens obviously in the ascen-
dancy, other city-states on the Greek
mainland lined up to join the league. In
the long run, however, the result
was that the members of the
Delian League simply became
the vassals of Athens.

The Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War that was to
devastate Greece between the years
431 and 404 BCE was sparked off by
growing tension between Athens and
the cities of Corinth and Sparta.
Corinth had developed from an ancient
settlement near the isthmus of Corinth
to become a thriving trading city by
1000 BCE. Benefiting from two harbors,
one on the Corinthian Gulf and one on
the Saronic Gulf, Corinth became the
major center of commerce in Greece by
650 BCE. As Athens increased both its
naval and commercial activity under
Pericles, the older city felt threatened.
The years leading up to 431 BCE also
saw relations between Athens and Sparta
deteriorate; Sparta saw the growing
Delian League as a threat to the stability
of the Greek mainland. In 431 BCE,
Women draw water leading politician. However, his reputa- Corinth joined with Sparta in forming
from a well in the tion was severely damaged when he took the Spartan Confederacy to counteract
illustration on this an Athenian contingent to assist Sparta in the rising power of the Delian League.
vase from the fifth quelling a slave rebellion. The Athenian Other members of the confederacy were
century BCE. expedition ended badly when the Thebes, Macedon, and Ambracia on the
Spartans rejected the offer of help. Ionian coast.These allies faced the might
Cimon was ostracized and banished from
Athens in 461 BCE. His exit left the The House of the Poseidoniasts stands
stage clear for Pericles to become the on the Greek island of Delos. Delos was
city’s leading statesman. the meeting place of the Delian League,
In 449 BCE, an Athenian diplomat an association of city-states dominated
named Callias succeeded in negotiating a by Athens.


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ANCIENT GREECE
of Athens,which was concentrated along hillside, where the citizens would debate
the northern and eastern coasts of the and vote on motions prepared by the
Aegean Sea, on most of the large Council in advance. The Council con-
Aegean islands, and in Byzantium. sisted of 500 members who were elected
Before long, the rivalry between Sparta each year, usually from families of the
and Athens finally erupted into the middle and upper classes.
Peloponnesian War. In earlier centuries, one of the most
In 431 BCE, the Spartans important political offices was that of
launched the first of a number archon, or magistrate. In 487 BCE, a
of raids against the country- change had been made in the way the
side surrounding Athens. As archons were selected. From that point
the army of the Spartan onward, the archons were appointed
Confederacy pillaged unim- by lot, rather than elected. The
peded through the rural change meant that the magistracy
regions of Attica, Pericles gath- lost much of its importance, as did
ered the residents of Attica inside the Areopagus, the old council of
the city walls of Athens for safe- the nobility to which ex-archons
ty. In the following year, 430 belonged. In 462 BCE, the judicial
BCE, plague decimated the function of the Areopagus was large-
overcrowded city. The angry ly taken over by jury tribunals, and its
and dying Athenians removed supervision of polis administrators was
Pericles from office, and he was relegated to the Council of 500.
tried and fined for misuse
of public funds. After a brief Farmers and politicians
reinstatement, he died in 429 Around the middle of the fifth century
BCE.The Age of Pericles was at BCE, it became possible for archons to
an end. be drawn from the zeugitai (farmers who
owned land). A system of attendance
Golden age of Athens fees, payable to magistrates and council
During the time of Athenian and jury members so they did not lose
ascendancy under Pericles, the financially because of their services,
government of Athens and its was introduced. At the beginning
culture can both be said to have of the fourth century BCE, the
enjoyed a golden age. In partic- payment was extended to cover
ular, the constitution was mod- attendance at the public assembly,
ified to extend the principles of which meant that all citizens
democracy, further weakening could exercise their political
the power of the aristocracy. rights without the worry of
The main body of the financial loss. The change was
Athenian political system was of particular benefit to the
the public assembly (the eccle- thetes (small landless farmers and
sia). In theory, all Athenians day laborers).
could attend the assembly, but in prac- This statue from The selection of magistrates by lot
tice, although there were something like the fifth century carried risks, because some aspects of the
30,000 to 40,000 citizens, only around BCE depicts role required a degree of specialized
6,000 actually attended meetings. The Athens’ patron knowledge not available to the ordinary
meetings were held around once a goddess Athena. man. In an effort to deal with this prob-
month in a natural amphitheater on a lem, the Athenians created 10 elected


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strategoi (commanders-in-chief), who in public speaking. In response to these The ruins of the
were appointed for one-year terms.They demands, a new class of orator-politi- ancient city of
could be reelected but were subject to cians, called rhetors, developed. These Corinth can still be
monitoring by their fellow strategoi.If rhetors were generally wealthy people, seen to this day.
necessary, they could be removed from and they played an essential role in Corinth was a major
office by popular vote in the assembly, political decision making. Pericles was rival of Athens in the
which meant there was little chance of a the most famous of the rhetors, and the fifth century BCE.
strategos becoming a tyrant. Pericles most important.
served as a strategos continuously from Rhetors spoke either on their own
443 to 430 BCE. behalf or on behalf of special interest
groups.They were not politicians repre-
The assembly senting specific political parties; political
Given the size of the assembly, there was parties did not exist in the modern sense.
only time for a few of those present to Athenian democracy allowed everyone,
speak. Because the issues discussed were from all classes and walks of life, to
often complicated, not everyone could participate in political life, but it was
be expected to speak with equal author- not until the second half of the fifth
ity. To address several thousand people century BCE that nonaristocrats were
and convince them to vote the way the called on as designated speakers in the
speaker wanted demanded special skills public assembly.


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ANCIENT GREECE
Pericles on democracy
A speech attributed to Pericles and
believed to have been given around 431
BCE encapsulates his beliefs on the ben-
efits of democracy. The speech praises
Athens for its power, strength, prosperity,
openness, and freedom, as well as the
equality of its citizens. He says: “Our
government is no imitation of our
neighbors’. On the contrary, we serve
as an example for them.We are a demo-
cracy, because the government is
in the hands of the people and not in the
hands of a small group. Our law states
that every citizen has equal rights. We
Athenians recognize the supremacy of
intelligence, and when a fellow citizen
distinguishes himself from the others, the
people appoint him to the highest posi-
tions. This is not the right of a gifted
man, but the reward for his great merits.
Lack of money is no obstacle to fulfilling
high office: any citizen can serve the
state.There are no privileges in our polit-
ical life, nor in our personal relationships;
we trust one another.”
He goes on to say: “Although there
are few among us who are extraordinary
enough to formulate proposals, we are all
good enough to make decisions. It is our
conviction that danger does not lie in
discussion, but in ignorance.We have the
special characteristic that we can think
before we act, even in the middle of
action. Others, however, are brave in
ignorance, yet hesitate as soon as they
begin to think!”
In other parts of the speech, Pericles
talks about the glorious history of
Athens, the great Athenian Empire, and
the courage of Athenian soldiers. He

This depiction of Artemis, the Greek goddess
of hunting, is part of a frieze that decorated
the Parthenon in Athens.The Parthenon was
a temple to another goddess,Athena. It
stood on the Acropolis, the fortified hill at
the heart of the city.


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THE AGE OF PERICLES










































paints an ideal picture of Athenian allowed to speak and sit on the council, The Temple of
democracy.There is no mention of slav- but only the best and most intelligent Athena Nike was
ery. Slaves were an accepted fact of life in citizens … how can such a low person just one of several
the Athenian state. Their lack of rights decide what is good for himself or for magnificent temples
was an issue ignored by all Greeks, the entire populace?” The main objec- erected on the
including Pericles. tion of the critics of democracy was that Acropolis in the fifth
effective government was impossible century BCE.
The perils of democracy when left to the less educated members
Not everyone was in favor of the idea of of society.
democracy. An anonymous political This was certainly the view of the
pamphlet from the Age of Pericles sum- Athenian philosopher Plato (c. 428–348
marizes a number of arguments against BCE). In his dialogue The Republic,he
democracy that were widespread in called democracy anarchy. He wrote:
Athens at the time. Although the pam- “Whenever a meeting must be held con-
phleteer argues against these opinions, he cerning matters of state, the one to stand
nevertheless offers a good impression of up and offer advice can be a carpenter,
the anti-democratic viewpoint. a smith, a shoemaker, a merchant, a
Against equal participation in gov- shipowner, a rich man, a poor man, of
ernment for all citizens, he writes:“One good family, or of no family at all, and no
can argue that not everyone should be one thinks of telling him that his


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ANCIENT GREECE
meddling is not justified by any knowl-
edge of matters, nor by the instruction of
a teacher.”
There were certainly other citizens in
democratic Athens who held such opin-
ions, and who favored an oligarchy (gov-
ernment by the few), even if they played
no significant political role. They were
admirers of Sparta, a state where, it was
said, everyone knew his place. Only in
the last quarter of the fifth century BCE,
when Athens was at war with Sparta,
did the supporters of oligarchy have
the opportunity to attempt to change
Athenian democracy. Their efforts came
to nothing, however.
The culture of the golden age
During its golden age, Athens was both
powerful and prosperous. The city’s
wealth came from the silver mines of
Attica and the harbor dues of Piraeus,
which was now the most important port
in the eastern Mediterranean region.
The Athenian golden age saw an
explosion of creativity in philosophy, art,
architecture, and science. For the first
time,Athens became an important center
for philosophy and science. Philosophers
gathered there from all corners of the
world, finding a warm welcome among
the richer citizens. Among the leading
figures who congregated in Athens were
Anaxagoras, Socrates, and Plato. This bronze statue
Athens was also visited by sophists— of a Greek warrior
traveling teachers who specialized in dates to the fifth
teaching intellectual skills, particularly century BCE.
rhetoric and disputation. One of these
sophists was Damon, who was also a
master of music. He had a special influ-
ence on Pericles, as did the Ionian
philosopher Anaxagoras.Throughout his
life, Pericles was noted for his eloquence,
wisdom, and patriotism, which won him
recognition from the majority of the cit-
izens of Athens. Although he remained
aloof from most Athenians, he had a
number of distinguished friends, includ-


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THE AGE OF PERICLES
the colony of Thurii on the Gulf of
Tarentum in southern Italy. Thurii was
intended to be a model colony, taking in
emigrants from all over Greece, the
Aegean islands, and Ionia and molding
them into an ideal community. Many
famous figures became involved. The
philosopher Protagoras of Abdera is said
to have written its laws, while the
famous architect and urban designer
Hippodamus of Miletus drew up city
plans for the colony. Hippodamus had
designed Piraeus, which featured a street
plan of straight streets crossing each other
to flank rectangular blocks of buildings.
Because of this connection, some histo-
rians believe that Thurii may have had a
similar plan, but this has not yet been
confirmed by archaeological excavation.
The literary arts flourished in Athens
under Pericles. In the theater, Greek
tragedy reached its peak, with the plays
of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
being performed. The great comedy
writer Aristophanes was also working at
this time.

Architecture
After the destruction of the Acropolis by
the Persians in 480 BCE, the Athenians
had vowed never to build there again.As
they regained confidence and power
during the fifth century BCE, this view-
point gradually changed. To mark the
peace with Persia of 449 BCE, Pericles
initiated a great building program on the
Acropolis, both to restore the temples
destroyed by the Persians and to con-
struct new buildings.
The years between 447 and 406 BCE
This jug, made in ing the playwright Sophocles, the histo- saw the completion of some of the most
Athens in the fifth rian Herodotus, the sculptor Phidias, and outstanding examples of Greek architec-
century BCE, is the sophist Protagoras. Pericles never ture. Among the buildings constructed
illustrated with a married, but he had a mistress, Aspasia. during that period were the Propylaea,
picture of a woman She was a hetaira, a sophisticated, highly the Erechtheum, and the Temple of
spinning thread. educated type of prostitute. Athena Nike.The most famous product
One project that had personal inter- of this construction program, however,
est for Pericles was the development of was the Parthenon.


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ANCIENT GREECE
MARRIAGE IN ANCIENT ATHENS



n ancient Athens, marriage was seen as a they were categorized into four groups by their
Ipractical rather than a romantic arrangement; ability to bear children.These groups were the
citizens were expected to marry and to young, sexually immature girl; the marriageable
procreate. Usually, the fathers of the bride virgin; the sexually active, fertile wife and mother;
and groom made a contractual agreement and the elderly, infertile woman. Outside of this
for a dowry to be paid by the bride’s family classification, and essentially outside of society, fell
to the groom, although the agreement could unmarried women who had lost their virginity,
occasionally be between the groom himself infertile women, and prostitutes.
and the bride’s father.
A marriage could be ended by divorce. For the
The main purpose of a marriage was to husband, this was a simple matter of just
produce legitimate children, who would be banishing his wife from the house.The wife could
citizens of Athens. So, an Athenian citizen had also leave, but she would probably be unable to
to marry another Athenian citizen; otherwise, obtain the return of her dowry. For this, she
the children of the marriage would not be would have to go to the courts, which, like so
deemed citizens.The wedding was celebrated many other things in Greece, were dominated by
by a wedding feast, held in the house of the men and would be unlikely to find in her favor.
bride’s family.After the feast, the bridegroom
led his veiled wife to his own house, followed
by well-wishers who usually sang outside the
bridal chamber.

The bride was generally much younger than
her bridegroom. In classical Athens, she
would typically be around 14, and he might
be in his late twenties. Greek society was
strictly patriarchal, and the young wife had a
subordinate position. Her place was in the
home, and in theory, she would leave it only
rarely to attend funerals and religious
celebrations. In practice, however, there were
many religious events in which women played
an important role.


In Greek society, women were generally
thought to be inferior beings. Men viewed
women largely in terms of their bodies—

A man is shown leading his bride in this
illustration of a wedding scene on a Greek
pyxis (jewelry box). In ancient Athens, women
married when they were very young.





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THE AGE OF PERICLES
A marble temple dedicated to The Athenian building program pro-
Athena, the Parthenon took its name vided employment for many of the
from one of the goddess’s titles, Athena city’s poorer citizens, while making
Parthenos, meaning Athena the Virgin. Athens the most magnificent city of
Work began on the building in 447 the ancient world. This blossoming
BCE, yet it was not completed until 438 of culture, art, and architecture in the
BCE. The building works were carried fifth century BCE is evidence of the
out under the direction of the sculptor preeminent position Athens held in
Phidias. He was also responsible for one Greece at that time.
of the most imposing features of the
temple, a statue of the goddess that stood See also:
40 feet (12 m) high. Made of gold and The Birth of Drama (page 88) • From Tyranny
ivory, it was one of the most admired to Democracy (page 64) • The Peloponnesian
pieces of art of the ancient world. It is War (page 138) • The Persian Wars (page 96)
believed to have been destroyed by fire. • Sparta and Athens (page 52)












































The Parthenon is
the most famous
of all the temples
built during the Age
of Pericles.


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THE GREAT


PHILOSOPHERS





rom the sixth century BCE, Greece was home to a number of
TIME LINE
Ffamous philosophers. Men such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,

c. 575 BCE Pythagoras, and Diogenes came up with ideas that were to shape
Thales establishes the history of Western thought.
school of
philosophy in
Miletus. He is Like most ancient peoples, the Greeks BCE. People who lived there were more
first of three worshipped a variety of gods, who they open to influences from other lands and
great philoso-
phers of School of believed could influence human affairs. cultures than the citizens of the city-
Miletus, other However, from the sixth century BCE states of mainland Greece. They would
two being onward, there was also a general growth have been aware of intellectual accom-
Anaximander and of secular thinking. The fifth-century- plishments such as the discoveries of the
Anaximenes.
BCE physician Hippocrates searched Babylonian astronomers.These new ideas
c. 530 BCE for a natural, rather than a supernatural, opened the way for discussions about
Pythagoras sets explanation for disease, while the histori- natural phenomena and gave rise to the
up school in an Thucydides made no allowance for birth of philosophy and science.
Croton. He the actions of the gods in his account of These new “natural philosophers”
establishes
number of events of the past. The philosopher tried to describe and explain the origin
mathematical Protagoras,also of the fifth century BCE, and existence of heaven and earth in a
principles, including claimed that there was no absolute rational manner, rather than through
famous theorem.
“right” and “wrong”—only what human myths involving the various gods. The
399 BCE opinion determined was so.This idea was philosophers were searching for basic
Socrates charged expressed in his famous saying “Man is rational principles that could explain the
with heresy; the measure of all things.” entire universe.
found guilty Some thinkers, such as Diagoras of
and sentenced The School of Miletus
to death. Melos (c. fifth century BCE), went so far
as to doubt the existence of the gods. The center of the explosion of new ideas
387 BCE
However, even for people who did not was Miletus, a city on the southwest
Plato establishes possess such extreme views, the relation- coast of Ionia.The first of these thinkers
Academy in
Athens. Among ship between the gods, fate, and man’s (now considered to be the founder
greatest works own responsibility became increasingly a of Greek philosophy) was Thales of
are Laws and matter for debate in the fifth and fourth Miletus, who lived from around 610 to
Republic.
centuries BCE, which contributed to the 540 BCE. In the first half of the sixth
c. 335 BCE growth of Greek philosophy. century BCE, Thales rejected a mytho-
Aristotle, student
of Plato, establishes Ionian philosophy The School of Athens, painted by Raphael
Lyceum. Greek philosophy had its origins in the in 1510 CE, depicts some of ancient Greece’s
sixth century BCE in Ionia. Ionia was a greatest philosophers, including Plato (center
region in western Anatolia that had been left),Aristotle (center right), and Diogenes
occupied by Greeks since around 1000 (bottom right).


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ANCIENT GREECE
the east and possibly also from Egypt in
the south. Thales is said to have visited
Egypt, where he calculated the height of
a pyramid. He subsequently introduced
geometry to the Greek world, using
Egyptian examples and applications.
Because of his practice of making careful
observations in order to draw conclu-
sions about the physical nature of the
world,Thales has sometimes been called
the first scientist. He formulated a theo-
ry that the original principle matter of
the cosmos was water,from which every-
thing proceeds and into which every-
thing is eventually resolved.

Anaximander
Anaximander of Miletus (c. 611–546
BCE) was, if anything, even more bril-
liant than Thales, his teacher, was.
Anaximander recorded his theories
about the nature of the cosmos in a trea-
tise called About Nature. Much of this
work is now lost, although the substance
of it is referred to by later writers.
According to Anaximander,the entire
cosmos was created and derived from
something that he called the apeiron,
which can be translated as “the indeter-
minate” or “the unlimited.” Everything
originated from the apeiron, which he
defined as the first element, and every-
thing would return to it.Anaximander is
credited with having produced a sundial
and the first Greek map of the world. He
is also believed to have introduced a
number of hypotheses about astronomy.
Thales of Miletus, logical explanation of the universe and According to Roman writers of the third
shown in this attempted to explain it in rational terms. century CE, Anaximander also came up
undated modern Thales left no writings of his own, but with a remarkable theory about the
illustration, is his beliefs are discussed in Aristotle’s development of life on earth. He
considered to be Metaphysics, a work written in the fourth believed that humans developed from
the father of century BCE. Thales was noted for his embryos that were once found inside of
Greek philosophy. knowledge of astronomy. He is reputed fish, a theory that predated the evolu-
to have predicted the solar eclipse of May tionary theories of Charles Darwin by
28, 585 BCE. To make this calculation, more than 2,300 years.
Thales would have used mathematical Anaximenes of Miletus, a student of
techniques borrowed from Babylon in Anaximander, was active in the second


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half of the sixth century BCE.The last of THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
the three great scholars of the School of
Miletus, Anaximenes proposed a system
of philosophy based on the idea that a
primary element was the origin of all
things and beings, including the gods.
This primary element was air. Air, he
argued, could be transformed into water,
earth, and fire.This theory explained the
origins of the four elements that were
seen as being basic to nature—earth,
water, air, and fire. A saying of his sums
up his concept: “As the soul, which is
breath, holds us together, so does air hold
the whole world together.”

Xenophanes
Two other main thinkers who con-
tributed to Ionian natural philosophy
were Xenophanes and Heraclitus.
Xenophanes was a poet-philosopher
who lived from around 580 to 480 BCE. learned man could be of benefit in the This 15th-century-
He was born in Colophon, not far from managing of the polis, and wise counsel CE illustration
Miletus, but left his place of birth when could even bring money. Xenophanes’ depicts Anaximenes,
it came under Persian rule. He settled in criticisms were based on his conviction one of the three
the Greek city of Elea in southern Italy, that sensory perceptions were always great philosophers
where he is believed to have founded the deceptive and, consequently, could not from the School
school of philosophy that was later made lead to sure knowledge. Sure knowledge of Miletus.
famous by Parmenides. could only reside in the divine—an
Xenophanes roamed through south- invisible and omnipresent god.
ern Italy, Sicily, and probably the Greek
mainland until old age, reciting his poet- Heraclitus
ry, through which he criticized the opin- Heraclitus of Ephesus, who probably
ions of his contemporaries. He was par- lived from around 560 to 480 BCE,
ticularly scathing about the accepted expressed his ideas in a series of proverbs.
mythical explanations of the world and His main theory was that the entire cos-
the fact that people believed the gods mos is organized and directed by a single
resembled humans. In attacking how principle, called the Logos in Greek.The
human beings worshipped gods that material embodiment of this Logos was
looked like themselves, he suggested that fire, which Heraclitus considered to be
if cows or horses could draw, they would the essential form of matter.The logos is
portray their gods as cows or horses. He the directing force that ensures equilibri-
also spoke out against wealth, soothsay- um in the world by balancing change in
ing, the drinking parties of the nobility, one area with an equivalent and opposite
and the idolization of the winners of the change elsewhere. One of Heraclitus’s
Olympic Games. In the last case, he best-known sayings, attributed to him by
emphasized that it was better to honor a the later philosopher Plato (c. 428–348
scholar than an athlete because, he said, a BCE), was that “all things are in flux.”


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ANCIENT GREECE
Anaxagoras with Pericles, but the Athenian statesman
One result of the Persian drive into was unable to help Anaxagoras when he
Anatolia in the fifth century BCE was was charged with impiety for insisting
the emigration of Ionian scholars to the that the stars, including the sun, were
Greek mainland and its colonies. glowing masses of red hot stone and that
Anaxagoras (c. 500–428 BCE), who was the moon received its light from the sun.
born in Clazomenae in Ionia, moved to For these ideas—far ahead of their
Athens around 480 BCE. In contrast to time—Anaxagoras was sentenced to
earlier thinkers who looked to earth, air, death, but he managed to escape to
fire, and water for the origin of ultimate Lampsacus in Anatolia.
reality, Anaxagoras formulated the doc-
trine of nous (meaning eternal intelli- Pythagoras
gence, from the Greek for “mind” or Thinkers leaving Ionia set up schools of
“reason”). In a work entitled On Nature, philosophy in southern Italy and Sicily as
only portions of which survive, he sug- well as in Athens. One of these thinkers
gested that all matter existed in a state of was Pythagoras (c. 580–500 BCE), who
chaos as infinitely numerous and small was born on the island of Samos off the
In ancient Greece, particles called “seeds.”These seeds were coast of Anatolia. In his late twenties,
solar eclipses were brought into order by the animating apparently unhappy with the policies of
mysterious events. force of nous. the Samian tyrant Polycrates, Pythagoras
Thales of Miletus Anaxagoras taught in Athens for 30 left Samos for Croton, a Greek colony in
is believed to be years, during which time his students southern Italy, where he settled around
the first person included the dramatist Euripides and 530 BCE.
to predict one possibly also the philosopher Socrates In Croton, Pythagoras established a
successfully. (469–399 BCE). He was also friends philosophical sect that had two main






































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THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
Helios the sun god
rides across the sky
in his chariot in this
vase painting.The
philosopher
Xenophanes
ridiculed people
who believed that
the gods looked
like humans.



















teachings. One idea was that the study of Unjust behavior also pollutes the soul,
mathematics and numbers could reveal which is then not capable of achieving
the hidden order of the universe. The sophia (wisdom or insight).
other idea was the doctrine of metempsy- According to Pythagoras’s followers,
chosis, which stated that at death the soul someone’s conduct in life could affect his
passes into another body, either that of a or her eternal fate.An immoral life could
human or that of an animal. lead to reincarnation as an animal.
The fact that the Pythagorean move- Pythagoreans believed that the main goal
ment was a sect was important. It was the in life is to attain as much sophia as pos-
first time in the history of Greek religion sible, so the soul rises toward a better
that a group had distinguished itself in body in the next life.
this way. At first, the Pythagoreans had
great influence in Croton, but the resi- Music and mathematics
dents of the city came to distrust the sect After Pythagoras’s death, his disciples
so much that around 500 BCE they set continued to develop his ideas. In math-
fire to the Pythagorean building. The ematics, they searched for patterns,
embittered Pythagoras left the city for believing that the essence of all things lay
another Greek colony close by called in numbers and that all relationships
Metapontion, where he died within a could be expressed numerically. Music,
short time. in particular, could be explained by
An important part of Pythagoras’s mathematical formulas. Pythagoras’s fol-
teaching was the concept of purity and lowers discovered that if a string of a
ascesis (training or exercise). He asserted stringed instrument is stopped halfway
that anyone who does not succeed in along its length, it will produce a note
keeping his body pure by following the one octave higher than the note of the
rules of life also contaminates his soul. whole string.


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ANCIENT GREECE
whom was Parmenides of Elea. Elea was
a small Greek colony on the southwest
coast of Italy, and it was there that
Parmenides was born in 515 BCE.
Growing up in a wealthy and pow-
erful family, he became a politi-
cian before founding a school of
philosophy in his home town.

An ideal world
The heart of the philosophy
of Parmenides was that the
material world is unreal; reality
only subsists in a timeless
“ideal world,” an idea that
may have owed something to
the Pythagoreans. Parmenides
expressed his ideas in a poem,
large parts of which have
survived. He believed that all
movement is nothing other
than outward appearance.
Only “being” exists; there
is no “not being.” The
“being” is like a sphere—perfect
and indivisible.
Anaxagoras, shown In geometry, the Pythagoreans estab- The radical nature of Parmenides’
in this 15th-century- lished the famous theorem that the philosophy is evident when compared to
CE illustration, was square of the hypotenuse (the longest that of the great Ionian philosophers of
one of the first side) of a right-angled triangle is equal to the seventh and sixth centuries BCE.
astronomers to the sum of the squares of the other two They supposed that all things were
believe that the sides. This theorem is still taught in derived from a basic element—whether
moon received its schools today. water, fire, air, or earth—and assumed
light from the sun. The Pythagoreans were among the that the contraction of that element
first to teach that the Earth is a spherical brought about changes in nature. When
planet that revolves around a fixed point. an element assumes a material form,
They also saw a numerical scheme however, it must necessarily occupy a
behind the arrangement of the heavenly place that was originally empty—a vacu-
bodies. Pythagoras’s followers believed um. This vacuum is what Parmenides
that these bodies were separated from called “not being.” Because he believed
each other by intervals corresponding to that such a vacuum could not exist, he
the harmonic length of strings.The very considered the entire philosophy of the
movement of the heavenly bodies, they Ionian school invalid.
contended, produced music—the “har-
mony of the spheres.” Pythagoras, shown in this 17th-century-CE
The teachings of Pythagoras had a illustration, is identified with the theorem
considerable influence on many Greek about the lengths of the sides of a right-
thinkers of the fifth century BCE, one of angled triangle.


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In this 15th-century-CE woodcut, Pythagoras Parmenides also believed it was
demonstrates the relationship between music impossible to explain motion in a philo-
and mathematics. sophical manner.When an object moves
from one place to another, he believed,
something must be moved that was there
ACHILLES AND THE TURTLE before, or the object has to move to a
place where there was nothing. Even
One of Zeno’s famous paradoxes is the story of Achilles when the object is initially moved to a
and the turtle.Achilles, the fastest runner among the place where it replaces another object,
Greeks, challenges a turtle, the slowest of animals, to a there must come a time when the moved
race.Achilles gives the turtle a head start of a certain object comes to a stop on a place where
distance, and then they start to run at the same time. there was nothing—a vacuum.A vacuum
When Achilles comes to the place where the turtle (a “not being”) cannot exist, so conse-
started, the turtle has run a certain distance and is quently, neither can motion, from
ahead of Achilles.Achilles keeps running, but every time Parmenides’ viewpoint.
he arrives at the place where the turtle was, the turtle Zeno (c. 495–430 BCE), a student of
has also run a certain distance farther.As fast as Achilles Parmenides, tried to prove his teacher’s
runs, and as slow as the turtle crawls, there will always theory of the “indivisibility of being” by
be a distance for Achilles yet to cover. In other words, means of a number of paradoxes, the
Achilles can never catch up with the turtle.This paradox most famous of which is that of Achilles
rests on the assumption of infinite divisibility. On the and the turtle. In spite of all their logic,
basis of such clever absurdities, which appealed enor- these stories led their readers to conclu-
mously to the Greeks, Zeno attempted to demonstrate sions that seemed totally absurd. For
the truth of the “indivisibility of being”—and thus that this reason, the stories exercised the
Parmenides was right. minds of Greek thinkers for lengthy
periods of time.


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THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
Atomic theory men in intellectual skills such as public
Another of Parmenides’ students was speaking. The Greek word sophistes
Leucippus (c. fifth century BCE), the originally meant “expert” or “man of
founder of the theory of atoms. In wisdom,” but it gradually acquired a
Greek, the word atomos means “some- different connotation.
thing that is not divisible.” Leucippus The negative image of the sophists
argued that all matter consists of count- arose because they excelled at rhetoric
less tiny particles, or atoms, and that the and taught would-be public speakers how
diversity of matter depends on the way in to look at a question from both sides and
which these atoms are combined. The defend both viewpoints. Consequently, a
point over which Leucippus stumbled sophist came to be regarded as someone
was that he had to allow for empty who was very clever with words and
space, or a vacuum, between the could convince an unsuspecting
atoms, which brought him listener of just about anything.
into conflict with the ideas Good or bad, the sophist
of his master. could make a good argu-
The work com- ment for it.
menced by Leucippus Initially, the sophists
was continued by his were quite popular in
student Democritus Athens,but they even-
of Abdera, who per- tually drew fire from
fected the theory of Socrates, Plato, and
atoms. Democritus Aristotle, as well as
maintained that visi- the state itself, for
ble reality is made up their indifference to
of atoms, which are in morality. Plato and
eternal motion in end- Aristotle also criticized
less space. Atoms are the sophists for taking
unchangeable but infinitely money,even though,as itin-
varied, and by joining togeth- erant educators, that was how
er, they form all living and non- they earned their living.
living matter. The term sophist came to acquire
Greek thinkers of the sixth and fifth a derogatory meaning, and the word
centuries BCE were obsessed with ques- An artist’s sophistry was defined as “deceptive or
tions that were actually unsolvable by impression of the false reasoning.” On one occasion,
philosophers. However, while seeking inside of an atom. Socrates compared the sophist to a fish-
answers to these questions, some of the The Greek erman:Both try to fish—one to catch his
philosophers discovered mathematical philosopher meal, the other to catch people to cheat
and scientific truths that were way ahead Leucippus was them out of their money in exchange for
of their time. responsible for false teachings.
one of the
The sophists world’s earliest Socrates
In spite of their importance in the devel- atomic theories. The philosopher Socrates was of seminal
opment of Western thought, the early importance to the development of
philosophers did not have the same social Western thought. Unlike most Greek
influence as the fifth-century sophists. philosophers, he came from humble ori-
The sophists were teachers who traveled gins, being the son of Sophroniscus, a
from city to city, offering to tutor young sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife. It is


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ANCIENT GREECE
From a relatively early age, Socrates
wanted to be a philosopher and to guide
the moral and intellectual improvement
of Athens.In order to do so,he turned an
otherwise normal life into one of public
dialogue in the marketplaces and squares
of Athens. However, Socrates wrote no
books and established no formal school
of philosophy.What is known about him
and his thinking comes primarily from
the works of his student Plato and, to
a lesser extent, from the historian
Xenophon. It is through the writings of
these two men that Socrates has been
able to exert his profound influence on
all later Western thinking.
A matter of ethics
Socrates rejected the conflicting ideas of
the “one,”the “indivisible,”and the “eter-
nally changeable.” He also refused to
become involved in the search for the
“core of things” or “basic matter.” His
interest was in ethics and in the objective
definition of love, justice, and virtue,
achieved through rational argument. He
argued that all vice is the result of igno-
rance and that no one is intentionally
wicked. Because those who know what
is right will act rightly, virtue is the result
of knowledge.
Socrates, shown in not known who his teachers were,but he Sophocles despised rhetoric and long-
this 20th-century-CE seems to have been acquainted with the winded arguments about nothing.
illustration, is doctrines of Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Consequently, he ridiculed the sophists
considered to be Anaxagoras. However, far from pursuing and rhetoricians. He was relentless in
one of the greatest their ideas, he was more interested in employing logic as a weapon in his philo-
philosophers of ethical matters, such as how a man sophical duels. In these “battles,” clarity
all time. His should conduct himself in life. and simplicity had the highest priority,
teachings survive There is no clear indication as to how and in his arguments, he used expressions
through the work Socrates supported himself.He apparent- and terms derived from daily life. Plato
of his pupil Plato. ly worked as a sculptor for a while; his recorded how Socrates managed to
statue of the Three Graces stood near the embarrass Gorgias, one of the most
entrance to the Acropolis until the sec- famous sophists of Athens, simply by ply-
ond century CE. It is also known that he ing him with question after question.
fought as a hoplite for Athens in the Plato also recorded an encounter
Peloponnesian War, serving with distinc- between Socrates and the two great
tion in the campaign of Potidaea in philosophers of Elea, Parmenides and
432–430 BCE. Zeno. The two Elean philosophers had


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THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
traveled to Athens to attend the Socrates’ attitude toward the two
Panathenaea and were staying at the philosophers from Elea illustrates his
home of Plato’s stepbrother. One morn- manner of disputation. He typically pre-
ing, Socrates visited the famous guests sented himself as someone who needed
and subjected them to his relentless things explained to him.This profession
questioning. Parmenides kindly attempt- of ignorance, given his brilliance and
ed to answer Socrates’ questions, while extraordinary sharpness of mind, is called
Zeno did his best to get the troublesome Socratic irony. By constantly questioning
visitor out of the door. his interlocutor and forcing him to
Socrates then summed up his impres- define his terms, Socrates’ aim was to
sions of the two philosophers:“I under- encourage people to think for themselves
stand that Zeno is actually a second and seek eternal truths.
Parmenides, even though he says things
in a totally different manner. You, The pursuit of knowledge
Parmenides, want to convince us that Socrates started from the basic principle
everything is one, and Zeno says, on the that only the good can guide the behav- The Death of
other hand,that diversity cannot exist.So ior of man, and man must strive toward Socrates was
you argue in two different manners to knowing that good. When man has painted by Jacques-
express the same truth: one of you claims found that out, he will pursue it—no Louis David in 1787
something, and the other repudiates the one will ever go deliberately against the CE. Socrates was
opposite. Something like this demands a good. Socrates’ philosophical enquiries condemned to death
mental effort that far exceeds my moder- took the form of a conversation or dia- for heresy and died
ate abilities.” logue—starting from the specific, he by taking hemlock.

















































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ANCIENT GREECE
sought general truths through an endless
game of question and answer. Even
though his method was based on logic
and rationality, Socrates also accepted
that there was something like “the
voice of one’s own conscience”—an
instinctive,nonrational sense of high-
er values that could keep a man from
committing wrongful actions.
Unlike the sophists, Socrates
refused to gather paying students
around him. Instead, he would present
questions to anyone who talked to him
at any time. He elicited answers that,
after subjecting them to acute analysis
mixed with mild derision, he rejected as
inadequate or incorrect. He then
attempted to reach a logical and correct
conclusion, encouraging his “victim”
to formulate clear-cut defini-
tions. This goal was hardly
ever achieved, but the value
of the discussion lay in the
enlightenment of both
people involved.
By the end of the
fifth century BCE,
Socrates had made a lot
of enemies in Athens.
His criticism of the
sophists and of the
institution of democ-
racy did not endear
him to the general public.
In the drama The Clouds, Aristophanes style and his simple dialectic. Socrates Plato, originally a
made fun of him as the director of a disputed the Athenian judges’ authority pupil of the great
“thinking shop.” Eventually, Socrates’ to sentence him to death, as his accusers philosopher
enemies managed to get their revenge. In wished, and pointed out great gaps in the Socrates, eventually
399 BCE, he was charged with religious official accusation. However, he had became an
heresies and corrupting the morals of clearly determined that if the jury took important figure
Athenian youths. offense at his life and work, then they in his own right.
had to condemn him.He refused to deny
The trial of Socrates what he had asserted for so many years.
In accordance with Athenian law, the It is possible that Socrates could have
accused had to defend himself by means avoided his heavy sentence by using a
of a public speech. Plato’s Apology gives different defense, based less deeply on
an account of Socrates’ defending argu- principle. Had he done so, he might have
ments, which exhibited both his ironic got off with a fine; there were plenty of


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his students who would have been happy Plato’s Academy THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
to pay it for him. Instead, he was sen- Socrates’ student Plato (c. 428–348 BCE)
tenced to death, although at first only by went on to become a distinguished
a small majority.As allowed by Athenian philosopher in his own right. He came
law, Socrates replied to the sentence— from a noble, wealthy family and grew
with an ironic proposition that it should up during the time of the Peloponnesian
be changed to a small fine because his War. Plato contemplated a political
importance to the state was also small. career when he was young, but he
Enraged by his stance, the jury voted became disillusioned with politics, and it In this 19th-century-
again.The result was an increased major- was then that he became a follower of CE illustration,
ity for the death penalty. Socrates. Plato was greatly influenced by Alexander the
Socrates could easily have fled the Socrates’ method of question and answer Great visits the
city; his friends even planned his escape. in the pursuit of truth. philosopher
However, he preferred to comply with In 387 BCE, Plato founded his Diogenes in his tub.
the verdict. Plato’s Phaedo describes the Academy, a school devoted to the pursuit As part of his
final day of Socrates’ life. In the evening, of philosophical knowledge, and it was austere lifestyle,
in accordance with the usual method of there that he refined his own philosoph- Diogenes lived in
execution, he drank a fatal cup of the ical ideas. He considered that only “the a tub in the streets
poisonous herb hemlock. idea” was real and rejected the view that of Athens.
























































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ANCIENT GREECE
THE CYNICS



ome students of Socrates attempted to carry These ideas were carried to the extreme by
Son the work of their master, in particular Diogenes (c. 400–325 BCE), who was born in
by practicing asceticism (giving up material Sinope on the coast of the Black Sea. In middle
pleasures). One of those students was age, he went to Athens, where he became a stu-
Antisthenes, who founded the movement that dent of Antisthenes. Diogenes rejected all social
was later known as the Cynics.Antisthenes had conventions and completely embraced poverty
been a sophist until he came under the influence and austerity. Homeless and sleeping outdoors, he
of Socrates, after which he started to protest traveled from city to city expounding his belief in
against the material interests of established socie- the simple life to all who would listen. His brutish
ty. He contended that any form of luxury or lifestyle earned him the abusive name of kuon
pleasure made people slaves, and therefore (“dog”), and from this, his followers came to be
unhappy. Instead, people should free themselves called kunikoi, or Cynics. Diogenes welcomed the
from all needs and strive toward the good; only nickname, arguing that if humans lived like dogs,
that approach could offer a happy life. they would be far happier.




























Diogenes was famous for
his austere lifestyle. He
believed that human
society was hypocritical
and that it was better to
live like a dog with no
material possessions.This
engraving is based on a
17th-century-CE drawing
by Joachim von Sandrart.





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knowledge was based on sensory experi- THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
ence.The object of knowledge (the idea)
had to be something fixed, permanent,
and unchangeable—it was based on
reason, not sensory perception. This
approach countered the ideas of most
previous philosophers, who had sought
to explain reality in terms of the materi-
al world.Plato maintained that reality did
not reside in the material world but in
another world of eternal phenomena
that he called Forms. All objects in the
material world are merely representa-
tions of the eternal Forms.
Applying his theory of knowl-
edge to social philosophy, Plato
wrote the Republic and the Laws.
These described an ideal city-
state, which could serve as a blue-
print for a state on earth. In this
state, the philosopher-rulers
would exercise control over the
two lower classes—peasant-arti-
sans and soldiers. Because the leaders
would have true knowledge, there
would be no room for dissent. In 367
BCE, Plato tried to persuade the tyrant
Dionysius II of Syracuse to put his ideas
into practice but did not succeed.

Aristotle
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was Plato’s biology and physics were studied in This bust depicts the
most important student. He spent 20 addition to philosophy and logic. Greek philosopher
years at Plato’s Academy, but while he Aristotle taught at the school but also Aristotle, a former
was strongly influenced by Plato’s ideas, had time to pursue his own research. He pupil of Plato.
his own philosophy developed in a dif- wrote major works on zoology, geogra-
ferent direction. Aristotle preferred an phy, history, mathematics, and astronomy,
experimental and deductive approach which were to be highly influential in
based on the reasoning of the mind, medieval times. He also drew up an
insisting that the observation of visible inventory of all political systems of the
reality was of prime importance. His time and described an ideal polis that
major contribution to philosophy was to would combine the best elements of
establish a system of logic that was to existing systems.
influence philosophical reasoning for
more than two thousand years. See also:
In 335 BCE, Aristotle established his The Age of Pericles (page 110) • The
own school in Athens, called the Greek Legacy (page 174) • Greek Religion
Lyceum, where scientific subjects such as (page 80)


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THE PELOPONNESIAN


WAR





he Peloponnesian War was a mammoth struggle between
TIME LINE
TSparta and Athens that took place toward the end of the fifth

446 BCE century BCE.The war lasted for 27 years, from 431 to 404 BCE,
Athens and Sparta and tore the Greek world apart.
sign pact known
as Thirty Years’
Peace. The roots of the conflict between Athens Sparta’s side was the Peloponnesian
and Sparta lay in their cultural differ- League, a group of city-states located in
431 BCE
ences. By the middle of the fifth century the Peloponnese (the southern part of
War breaks out
between Athens BCE, Athens had become the undisput- mainland Greece).
and Sparta; ed artistic and intellectual center of In the middle of the fifth century
Spartan forces Greece. It was an “open” society, engag- BCE, there were occasional skirmishes
invade Attica ing in many commercial transactions between Athens and Sparta. The skir-
and lay waste
to farmland. with the outside world and depending mishes ended in 446 BCE,when the two
on large-scale imports of food to feed its parties signed a peace agreement. The
430 BCE
population.Athens was a progressive and pact was supposed to hold for three
Plague breaks out democratic state, and an expansive naval decades. In fact, the Thirty Years’ Peace
in Athens.
power. Sparta, on the other hand, was an lasted only until 431 BCE, when full-
421 BCE isolated, agrarian, and largely self-suffi- scale war broke out.
Peace of Nicias cient closed society with an oligarchic
signed; lasts for government (one dominated by a small The origins of the war
three years only.
elite).While the militaristic Sparta expe- The immediate cause of the war was the
415 BCE rienced only stagnation, Athens became fact that Athens assisted the island of
Athenians launch increasingly self-confident and more Corcyra (present-day Corfu) in its con-
naval attack aggressive in its foreign affairs. flict with Corinth, an ally of Sparta.
on city of Corcyra had long been a colony of
Syracuse in Alliances
Sicily; campaign Corinth and, in turn, had founded its
ends in failure. Both Athens and Sparta had many allies. own colony, called Epidamnus, on the
Athens was backed by the member states Adriatic coast of what is now Albania.
404 BCE
of the Delian League, an alliance that had When a dispute erupted between
Peloponnesian
War ends with been set up in 477 BCE to protect the Epidamnus and Corcyra, Epidamnus
defeat of Athens, Greek cities of Ionia (an area of south- called on Corinth for help. Corcyra, feel-
which surrenders western Anatolia) and the nearby islands ing threatened by Corinth, decided to
after long siege.
against possible Persian attack. As the join the powerful Delian League. Athens
371 BCE Greeks defeated the Persians in succes- was happy to welcome the island into the
Thebes defeats sive battles, Athens, with its powerful coalition, particularly because the addi-
Sparta at Battle navy, gradually came to dominate the
of Leuctra. league, which soon became more of an This vase painting depicts a Greek hoplite of
Athenian empire than a voluntary con- the fifth century BCE. He is armed with the
federation of independent city-states. On long spear that was typical of the period.


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ANCIENT GREECE
tion of Corcyra’s fleet of 120 war vessels campaign would not be short of finance,
to its own fleet would greatly strengthen while the Long Walls gave the Athenians
the naval power of Athens. A joint force a secure route to the vital port of Piraeus,
of Athenian and Corcyrean ships clashed where there lay a fleet of 200 warships.
with the Corinthian fleet in 433 BCE. Pericles made the decision not to
The following year, Athens laid siege to defend Attica on land; his plan was to
Potidaea, a Corinthian colony. Incensed, defeat Sparta at sea. In 431 BCE, the
the Corinthians demanded that Sparta Spartans invaded unopposed, destroying
should declare war on Athens. the harvest, cutting down olive trees and
Archidamus II, king of Sparta, made a grapevines, and demolishing buildings.
final attempt to avoid a confrontation The raid lasted perhaps a month—his-
with Athens. As commander-in-chief of torically campaigning seasons were short
the Peloponnesian League, he urged its because soldiers had to return home to
The island of Corfu, members to review the situation before tend to their farms. However, the raids
shown here, was acting precipitously. His urging was in became an annual occurrence over the
known as Corcyra in vain, however. In 432 BCE, the League following five years. Pericles retaliated
ancient Greece.A voted for war.The following year,Athens with attacks on Megara and Epidaurus.
dispute between in turn declared war on Sparta.
Corcyra and the city- The leading Athenian statesman, Plague
state of Corinth was Pericles, was confident that Athens was In 430 BCE, a deadly epidemic broke
the catalyst for the the stronger power. Money collected out in Athens, which was overcrowded
Peloponnesian War. from the Delian League meant that any with refugees from Attica.The historian



















































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This vase painting Thucydides provided a very graphic THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
depicts a Greek account of the illness (see box,page 142), THE LONG WALLS
warship. Naval which killed around 50,000 people.The
power was a major psychological effects of this sudden mass
factor in the death were as serious as the physical con- Some 30 years before the outbreak
Peloponnesian War. sequences of the epidemic. Believing of the Peloponnesian War, the
they might be struck down and die with- Athenian statesman Pericles
in days, people began to live for the initiated the building of two walls to
moment, squandering their wealth and safeguard the route between Athens
committing many acts without regard for and its port Piraeus. Between 461
the law. According to Thucydides, “they and 456 BCE, two great walls were
did not believe they would live long constructed, enclosing a roadway
enough to be prosecuted and punished around 600 feet (183 m) wide.The
by the judiciary.” Long Walls turned the whole
Athens-Piraeus complex into a sin-
A change of leadership gle fortress, ensuring that Athens
When Pericles fell victim to the epidem- had unrestricted access to the fleet
ic in 429 BCE, the leadership of Athens at Piraeus.When Attica was invaded
fell to Cleon, the major representative of by the Spartans during the
the pro-war party. Together with the Peloponnesian War, its citizens took
general Demosthenes, Cleon spearhead- refuge in Athens, and many were
ed several victories, notably the crushing crammed between the Long Walls.
of Spartan forces at the Battle of Pylos in The difficult and unsanitary
425 BCE. However, in 422 BCE, Cleon’s conditions greatly contributed
luck changed abruptly. In a battle to to the catastrophic outbreak of
recapture the Athenian colony of the plague in 430 BCE.
Amphipolis, which had fallen to the


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THUCYDIDES’ ACCOUNT OF THE PLAGUE


When the plague broke out in Athens in 430 became labored. Hoarseness, pain in the chest,
BCE, the historian Thucydides was living in the and a mucous cough were followed by painful
city. He wrote extensively about the plague, contractions and convulsions, which lasted
noting that it claimed more victims than all of longer with some than with others.The skin
Sparta’s campaigns combined. He went on:“I swelled up and turned red and became covered
want to discuss this illness so that able physicians with small blisters of pus. Some died after seven
may determine whence this evil came and which or nine days as a result of a burning pain in
causes may have produced such a calamity. If this their intestines.Those still living after this time
illness returns, everyone shall be warned and take were struck with stomach pains.After severe
measures. I speak of this epidemic as someone diarrhea and cramps, most succumbed from
who knows it intimately, for I too was affected total exhaustion.
and I saw many fall ill and die.
“Generally, the contagion appeared first on the
“That year had been extraordinarily healthy and head and subsequently spread over the entire
free of all other disease. But if someone sus- body. Some were blinded or paralyzed; others
tained a wound or became ill, it immediately went mad and did not recognize friends or rela-
turned into this pestilence.The healthy were tives.Although there were many unburied
suddenly afflicted, without there being any corpses lying out in the open, the vultures and
evident reason for their illness. First they felt a other scavengers did not come near them, and
severe headache; their eyes turned red, their when they did eat the diseased human flesh,
throat became inflamed and their breathing they also died.”




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THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
Still a bustling commercial center today, treaty, and he sought to stir up some
Piraeus has been the port of Athens since trouble for Sparta by playing on the
ancient times. During the Peloponnesian dissatisfaction that some members of the
War,Athens and the port were connected by Peloponnesian League felt with the con-
fortified walls. ditions set forth in the recent peace
agreement. He persuaded Athens to join
Spartan general Brasidas, Cleon was with the disaffected cities of Argos,
killed. Brasidas also died. Mantinea, and Elis in confronting Sparta
With the leading proponent for war at the Battle of Mantinea in 418 BCE.
on either side dead, the stage was clear The result was a resounding victory for
for peace negotiations. On Cleon’s the Spartans.
death, the Athenian general Nicias Undaunted by this setback,Alcibiades
became the leading Athenian politician, sought to revive the policies of Pericles,
and he negotiated a peace agreement who had aspired to found an empire
with Sparta and the Peloponnesian in the west with Thurii, in southern
League. The Peace of Nicias was Italy, as its center. The Athenian fleet
intended to last for 50 years. In fact, it already controlled the Aegean Sea,
broke down in less than three. the Dardanelles, and the Bosporus, so
Alcibiades argued that if Athens could
Alcibiades extend its dominion to the western
Alcibiades (c. 450–404 BCE) was basin of the Mediterranean, Sparta
a young, ambitious nobleman would be completely isolated on
who, having lost his father at an the Peloponnese.
early age,had been reared by his
uncle, Pericles. Spoiled but Sicilian campaign
handsome, Alcibiades used his The primary objective of
charm to secure great person- Alcibiades’ plan was to gain
al popularity. Contemporary control of Sicily, which he con-
sources describe his great sidered a bridgehead to both
appetite for power as well southern Italy and Africa. A
as his sexual and other large number of Athenians
excesses. enthusiastically supported
In 420 BCE, when he this scheme, but several
was around 30 years old, cautious men, including
Alcibiades was called on Nicias and Socrates, opposed
by the Athenian people to the enterprise. A decision in favor of
act as one of the ten strat- war was made after a delegation from
egoi (chief military com- Sicily visited Athens. The party
manders). It was not a consisted of representatives of sev-
good decision. Alcibiades eral Sicilian cities, who claimed
was keen to win honors that they felt threatened by the
on the battlefield, even powerful Dorian city of Syracuse,
though the Peace of an ally of Sparta, that dominated
Nicias had only just
been negotiated. This statue depicts the
Alcibiades was a Athenian nobleman Alcibiades,
staunch political who defected to Sparta when
opponent of the he was accused of sacrilege.


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In this undated the island. Alcibiades’ plan encountered sold supplies at monstrously inflated
modern illustration, little further resistance from the Athe- prices.The cities of Tarentum and Locris
the Greek nian assembly. Nicias, Lamachus, and even refused to supply fresh water.
military commander Alcibiades were appointed leaders of a In spite of such setbacks, the Athe-
Alcibiades returns military expedition to Sicily to capture nians succeeded in taking the city of
to Athens after a Syracuse.A fleet of around 260 ships was Catana, which was strategically impor-
military defeat. fitted out. On board were more than tant because it lay between Syracuse and
5,000 heavily armed hoplites, in addition Messina and could be used to command
to thousands of support troops. the strait between Sicily and southern
Italy.The aim was to isolate Syracuse and
Disaster in Sicily enable the Athenians to find allies among
From the moment the fleet reached the discontented cities on the other side
Sicily in 415 BCE, everything went of the strait.
wrong.The island’s Greek colonies were By this point, Alcibiades was no
not willing to participate in the cam- longer involved in the campaign, how-
paign against Syracuse. Nor did they ever, because he had been recalled to
want to bear the heavy cost of provision-
ing the Athenian troops, which forced The Temple to Apollo in Syracuse.The
the expedition’s leaders to look outside Athenians unsuccessfully tried to capture
the city walls, where makeshift markets the city in the Peloponnesian War.


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Athens on a charge of sacrilege. The men and warships was wiped out.The
accusation was that he had “mocked the Athenian spirit was undaunted,
goddesses of Eleusis and ridiculed their however. The war on the Greek
mysteries.” On the return voyage to mainland, in the Aegean, and in
Athens, he escaped his captors and Ionia was to continue for another
fled to Sparta, where he became nine years.
a counselor to the enemies
of his native city. The end of Alcibiades
Alcibiades established a niche for
Syracuse himself in Sparta as a strategic
In the spring of advisor on the Syracuse
414 BCE, the aging campaign. However, his
Nicias took com- position there became
mand of the Athenian much less secure once
troops on Sicily and the Athenian expe-
started a siege of Syracuse.The Athenians ditionary force was
attempted to isolate the city by building destroyed. He fled to
a siege wall on land while their fleet kept Anatolia and settled in the
the Syracuse warships confined to the court of the Persian governor,
harbor. However, the arrival of a where he tried to persuade the
Spartan general, Gylippus, with a Persians to conclude an alliance
Peloponnesian force put an end to with Athens against Sparta. This
Athenian hopes of a swift victory. plan failed, driving the distrustful
Suddenly, the Athenians were on the Persians into the arms of Sparta
defensive. Nicias was forced to send a instead. In 411 BCE, following
desperate message to Athens for more some political unrest in Athens,
troops. Athens responded with a second Alcibiades was reinstated as an
army and support fleet, but neither was Athenian army commander and
able to salvage the expedition. won some victories for Athens in
When, in September of 413 BCE, the Aegean.Toward the end of the
Nicias finally decided to abandon the war, however, he lost the trust of
siege of Syracuse, the retreat degenerated the Athenian people for a second
into a debacle.The Athenian troops were time. He once again fled to the
surrounded and either massacred or Persians, who killed him.
taken prisoner.The commanders, includ-
ing Nicias, were summarily executed. The defeat of Athens
The other prisoners either became After the disastrous Sicilian cam-
forced laborers in the mines of Syracuse, paign, the war continued,
where they died slow deaths, or were being mainly fought in the
sold into slavery. Aegean and Ionia. Because
The Sicilian campaign was a dis- so many Athenian ships
aster for Athens.The campaign had had been destroyed at
been immensely expensive, and the Syracuse, Sparta’s sea power
whole expeditionary force of both now more than equaled that
of Athens. To make matters
This Greek sculpture from the sixth century worse for Athens, Persia lent financial
BCE depicts a hoplite. Hoplites still formed support to Sparta and helped it to build
the backbone of Greek armies 200 years later. a new fleet. In 404 BCE, the beleaguered


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uch of what is known about the the characters of the leading personalities
MPeloponnesian War is derived from the involved. He had the advantage of firsthand
work of the historian Thucydides (c. 460–400 knowledge of many of the events, and indeed
BCE). Born into a wealthy Athenian family, took part in the war himself at one point. In
Thucydides lived through the war, and from 424 BCE, he was elected as a strategos, given the
its beginning, he set out to document it as command of the Athenian fleet, and ordered to
objectively as possible. Unlike his predecessor go to the assistance of Amphipolis, which was
Herodotus,Thucydides recorded events in under siege by the Spartans. However, he arrived
chronological order without reference to the too late to save the city from being taken, and for
work of fate or the meddling of the gods. this blunder, he was banished from Athens. He
spent the next 20 years in exile, but he used the
Thucydides took the view that events were the time to travel extensively around the Greek
result of both the circumstances of the time and region, gathering material for his great History of
the Peloponnesian War.

Thucydides visited Sparta, which he compared
unfavorably with Athens in the following words:“If
the city of Sparta were to be depopulated so that
only the temples and public buildings remained,
then I believe that in due course someone visiting
the city would not be able to believe that Sparta
had been as powerful a state as it currently is. But
if the city of Athens were to have the same fate, a
person visiting it later would think that it had
been even greater and more powerful than it
actually is today—just from seeing the ruins and
the enormous space they occupy.”

Thucydides’ comparison was prophetic.Anyone
traveling to Sparta today will find an insignificant
rural town without many monuments.Athens,
on the other hand, still boasts numerous ruins
of temples, theaters, marketplaces, and other
great monuments, despite its eventful and
sometimes violent history.


This bust depicts the Greek historian
Thucydides. His History of the
Peloponnesian War is the main source of
knowledge about the military struggles
between Athens and Sparta in the fifth
century BCE.




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This 19th-century- and isolated Athens was forced to surren-
CE engraving der.The Delian League was dissolved,the
depicts the Athenian fleet was destroyed, and the
playwright walls of Athens were razed.
Aristophanes. Many
of his works The aftermath of the war
ridiculed warlike At the end of the war,Athens was occu-
politicians. pied by the Spartan general Lysander,
who proposed that in place of the former
democracy, the city should be ruled by
an oligarchy. Thirty Athenians were
appointed to govern the city. With
Lysander’s approval, they proceeded to
seize absolute power. Backed by Spartan
troops,the Thirty Tyrants immediately set
about settling accounts with their
former political opponents. All demo-
cratic institutions were abolished, and
with the help of their own police force,
the tyrants confiscated property, arrested



ARISTOPHANES AND THE WAR


The atmosphere of war appears to have no Spartans. In Knights (424 BCE), he attacks Cleon,
detrimental effect on the art of theater in the radical democrat, who is portrayed as a
Athens.With the city under siege,Attica in scheming slave outwitted by a sausage seller.The
flames, and the Athenian fleet threatened with warlike Cleon was a frequent target of ridicule
destruction, dramatists such as Euripides and in Aristophanes’ plays. Clouds (423 BCE) is an
Aristophanes (c. 450–388 BCE) continued to attack on the sophists and Socrates, while
produce tragedies and comedies. Wasps (422 BCE) satirizes the Athenian love of
litigation. Peace (produced shortly before the
Aristophanes’ plays enjoyed great popularity. Peace of Nicias was signed in 421 BCE) sees a
They were biting satirical comedies in which he farmer flying to heaven to find the goddess of
mocked both politicians and society.As a the title, while the farcical Lysistrata (413 BCE)
comedy writer, his goals were to entertain his depicts the women of Athens going on sex
audience and to win the annual prize at the strike, declaring they will withhold their favors
festival of Dionysus. His plays about the war from their husbands until the men end the war
describe the atmosphere of the time—firewood and make peace.
is scarce and olive oil expensive, while traitors,
defectors, defeatists, and war profiteers abound. In all, 11 of Aristophanes’ plays have survived.
It is clear from their content that he enjoyed
In Acharnians (425 BCE),Aristophanes mocks great freedom of speech to mock whatever
the war and makes a plea for peace, portraying he disliked in Athenian society and politics,
a peasant concluding his own peace with the even in a time of war.






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This 19th-century-
CE colored
lithograph shows
the Spartan general
Lysander outside the
walls of Athens.

citizens on flimsy charges, and carried ed them.The triumphant Athenians then
out summary executions. entered the city and executed most of
The rule of the Thirty Tyrants was so the remaining Thirty, after which,
unbearable that, after only one year, the democracy was restored. Surprisingly,
Athenians rebelled. Opponents of the Sparta did nothing to stop this turn of
regime who had fled the city gathered events. It seems that the Spartan king,
under the exiled Athenian soldier Pausanias, disagreed with Lysander’s
Thrasybulus, and this makeshift army ruthless treatment of the Athenians and,
met the forces of the Tyrants and defeat- rather than send out an army to reverse


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