...centre of ancient Greek history and lead to Athens supremacy at sea could make it possibly the most important vehicle from the 7th century to the 4th century BC. Originally used as a transport vessel to ferry colonists to all parts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, could have very well been the most significant weapon in naval combat and gave the Ancient Greeks the defining edge in naval warfare to win battles such as Salamis (480 BC) against the much larger Persian fleet. But what was the Trireme and how did it contribute to Ancient Greek society? Origin of the Trireme Although there is much dispute about the exact origin of the Trireme all available evidence comes from written sources and depictions in pottery fragments, which unfortunately are open to misinterpretations. The famous historian Herodotus makes mention to the ancient Egyptians being the first to build and use Triremes, however this reference is disputed by modern historians and attributed to confusion and conjecture. The Greek state of Corinth which lies to the south was at one time a great commercial centre which was primarily seaborne. It was around this period that Corinth possessed the largest Navy in Greece which was only rivalled by Aegina. Corinth had been the first to build the Trireme, after improving upon vessels seen in Egypt. After years of modification, this Mediterranean galley became the predominant warship from 500 to 300BC. Controversy arises in trying to describe...
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...Thought Piece By IRLS500 Dr. 13 May 2012 Many great leaders emerged throughout the events of the Peloponnesian War, but it was Pericles who was most capable in understanding and reacting to the uncertainties of war. Other leaders and representatives who appeared during this period of time included Cleon and Archidamus II. Amidst the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, and the time in between while Athens was at its greatest, Pericles rose to an iconic role of statesman, orator and war general. His prevalence and demeanor to the issues and situations surrounding the time allowed Athens to rain supreme. His speeches were influential and achievements spoke as loud as his words. Pericles was the ultimate Athenian. To fully assess Pericles, all his characteristics and positions of power need to be considered. He was a political leader, a military leader and an orator. These three separate entities require a man of great following, prowess and the total embodiment of an Athenian. So where to start when evaluating Pericles? Was he a culmination of his leadership roles or was one aspect of his legacy the determining factor to his ascertation of one of history's greatest minds? One must induce that the situations surrounding himself, his countrymen and the overall goal of the state of Athens were decisions that were not easily made and required an exuberant amount of strategy to preserve all that he stood for. Pericles, according to Thucydides, was Athen's “first citizen”...
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...The Peloponnesian War By definition The Peloponnesian War was a Greek civil war between two Greek allies in the Persian war; Athens and Sparta. The Persian war was a war fought between the Persians and the Greeks; these two Greek city states fought together to successfully defeat Persia. Many believe tensions arouse between Athens and Sparta during the Persian war due to opposing war tactics; quite simply they did not trust one another. This led to Athens and Sparta forming allies after the Persian war, Athens formed the Delian league while Sparta formed the Peloponnesian league. The Delian league funded their own naval army to guard and protect the Aegean from invasions from the Persians; this ultimately created a very powerful Athenian navy and Athenian empire. The first undeclared flames of war was when Sparta’s main ally, Corinth invaded Attica. Athens then taking precautions formed what is known as the long walls, which enclosed and connected Athens capital to its ports, which meant land based armies had little chances of starting war on Athens soil. This action sent fear and suspicions to Greek city states especially Corinth. Corinth was very important in commercial trade because it linked northern and southern Greece. The first outbreak of real conflict was when the Athenian navy dispatched a fleet to assist Egyptian rebels escape the Persian Empire. Rebellions in Athens then broke out, which led to Sparta invading Attica. A treaty known as the Thirty Years Peace was...
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...called the Dorians penetrated the Peloponnesian peninsula in the south and founded Sparta. Another group of invaders called the Ionians settled in Attica (where Athens is located). Both of the Invaders settled in Greece. After the Dark Age ended, crafts, myths, art, and religion were adopted to the Greek culture. Expansions in trade and increase in population eventually led to the Greeks settling on the coast of Asia minor, the islands of Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, southern Italy, and to the west of Sicily. Settlements functioned as their own city states and also kept ties to homeland...
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...Athens and Sparta had cooperated during the Persian War, but relations between these powerful states declined throughout the years. The Athenian pursuit of equality in their city combined with their growing domination abroad allowed Athens to attempt to create a land and maritime empire. This was one of the main causes for the First Peloponnesian War. The Delian League was initially established as a naval alliance among the Greek nautical states. Overtime, the aggressive policies of Athens converted the voluntary allies of the Delian League into the involuntary subjects of an Athenian naval empire. When Athens tried to expand their kingdom to the Greek mainland they encountered a series of battles with Sparta and its allies, which started the First Peloponnesian War. After a succession of defeats for the Athenians, their land empire began to collapse and they agreed to a thirty year peace treaty with the Spartans. Athens began to use the Delian League as its own empire. They eventually increased their control over it by gaining power of its treasury. The Athenian Pericles was responsible for taking Delian League funds for various projects. He constructed the “long walls” with these reserves enclosing Athens as well as the port of Piraeus. The Spartans saw this piece of land as an important part of their defenses and believed this gave the Athenians an unfair military advantage. Athens did not allow members of the League to leave their alliance. Each ally was charged a fee for the...
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... i. Political alliance ii. Economic ties c. Ionia (coast of Asia Minor) d. Sicily iii. Both are major centers of colonization (magna graecia) Trade and commerce would produce tremendous wealth. Phoenicians They see themselves as monopolizing. Rivalry between Phoenicians and these new Greeks. 2. Alphabetic Writing Writing will return to the Greek world during this period. When it does it won’t be like Linear A or B. It will be based on an alphabet that the Greeks borrowed and modified the Phoenicians alphabet. Homer- iconic poet of Greek literature. He came from the region of Ionia. Produced famous epics of the Trojan War. Legends of the great Mycenaean heroes. Different traditions focused on different heroes. Responsible for two of the great monuments. The Iliad and the Odyssey. Achilles Agamemnon Odysseus Hector Ajax Paris Helen of Troy Penelope Important element- arête means excellence. Surpassing Excellence. Achievement, accomplishment. Exceed potential. Also mental. Ex. Odysseus is smarter than anyone else. He outwits Gods. Virtue of this society. Also is very competitive. Forever contending against one another. Individualistic quality. Have to be the best. Character trait that is the center of Greece. 3. Polis e. Polis literally means city. f. Greeks meant g. Oligarchic rule of Basileis Greece is made up of city-states. Each city will undergo its own political history. At...
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...the repulsion of the Persian invasion and the Peloponnesian war (431-404BC). During this period Athens became its most democratic and wealthiest; her navy was the envy of the entire classical world both in size and quality. Behind these achievements flourished both population and culture, tragedy and comedy from playwrights such as Aristophanes and Euripides whilst philosophy and medicine reached new heights under Socrates and Hippocrates respectively. Far more than just these sweeping general achievements happened but they set the filter through which Athenians saw themselves and their city. This is important in order to fully answer...
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...later Byzantine Empire and was relatively prosperous during the period of the Crusades (12th and 13th centuries), benefiting from Italian trade. Following a period of sharp decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent Greek state. Contents 1 Name 1.1 Geographical setting 2 Antiquity 2.1 Origins and early history 2.2 Reform and democracy 2.3 Classical Athens 2.3.1 Early Athenian military history 2.3.2 Artists and philosophers 2.3.3 Peloponnesian War 3 Athenian coup of 411 BC 3.1 Corinthian War and the Second Athenian League 3.2 Athens under Macedon 3.3 Hellenistic Athens 3.4 Roman Athens 4 Middle Ages 4.1 Byzantine Athens 4.2 Latin Athens 4.2.1 Burgundian period 4.2.2 Aragonese period 4.2.3 Florentine period 5 Modern history 5.1 Ottoman Athens 5.2 Independence from the Ottomans 5.3 Modern Athens 5.3.1 Population influx 5.3.2 Athens under the Nazis 5.3.3 Postwar Athens 5.3.4 Athens today 5.3.5 Recent historical population 5.4 Notable Athenians 5.5 Ancient sites in Athens 6 Notes 7 Further reading The contest of Athena and Poseidon. West Pediment of the Parthenon. The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier, Pre-Greek language.[1][verification needed] The etiological myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by...
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...The Two Great Speeches Throughout history many speeches have astonished humanity, two specifically, are very much alike and served the same purpose yet they occurred at different times in history. Pericles’ Funeral Oration, which happened between 431-404 BC, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which took place on November 19 1863, share several common aspects. Both speeches pertained to honor the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War and the United States Civil War. Due to the fact that both Pericles and Lincoln were politicians we can infer that they were experts in getting their point across to the masses. Pericles’ Funeral Oration happened thousands of years before Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, however the fact that both of them were meant to redefine war and its purpose made them very comparable. There is a reason these two speeches can be compared; by looking at the bigger picture, analyzing the similarities, and meaning of the dialogue it can be said the speeches were intended to portray both wars as a necessary method to reestablish the pillars for which each nation and/or city was founded upon. Both of these speeches are without a doubt, an important piece of history, as they tell the story of the aftermath of the battles that had taken place and the ones that were yet to come. The Funeral Oration by Pericles displays the difference those who had died in the battles made and how much Athenians valued them, enough to publicly honor them. According to...
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...contemporary writers like Larry Diamond have tried to explain Democracy from a purely 21st century point of view, trying as much as possible to bestow certain key elements on modern day Democracy (Diamond, 2004). Inherent in Democracy is the personality of a statesman. A statesman from a layman’s point of view is usually a politician, diplomat or other notable public figure that has had a long and respected career at the national and international level. Statesman as the term denotes (diplomat or other notable public figure), is prevalent in the 5th and 4th century history of Greece. Pericles and Alcibiades are considered by the Greeks (Athenians especially), as their most notable and praised statesmen who fostered the course of democracy. This write-up will therefore look at the roles of Pericles and Alcibiades (in the realm of democracy) in Greek (Athenian) history and also focusing on each party’s true statesmanship based on their achievements. I will like to state emphatically that sources on these two personalities are from Plutarch and Thucydides, as they are considered to have given accounts on them. In a more pressing and elaborative sense, other sources may come in handy. Pericles was born in Athens in about 495 BC to a family of wealth and position. His father, Xanthippus, was also a statesman, and his mother, Agariste, was a member of the politically powerful Alcmaeonid family. Pericles himself first gained fame in the spring of 472, when he provided and trained the chorus...
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...occurred in 499 B.C.. The Athenians also helped the Ionian cities revolt. The Ionian Revolt upset King Darius, the Persian ruler a lot. He wanted to punish the Ionian city along with Athens for this revolt. King Darius already had the desire to expand his empire even more so to punish the Ionian Greek cities and Athens he attacked mainlands in Greece. First the Persians captured the city of Eretria. In response the Athenians attacked the Persians. The Athenians were greatly outnumbered even though they fought along side with the Plataeans. Some weaknesses of the Plataeans and Athenians included that they relied on spear thrusts at close ranges. This hindered them greatly in battle while the Persians...
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...closer to aspiring back to the great city we once were as the antagonist Socrates is dead. The seventy-one year old was sentenced to death by the Athenian courts days ago on charges of impiety and corruption of youth. A native of Athens, he was born the son of the stonemason Sophroniscus and Phainarete. The spouse of Xanthippe and father of three he lived a rather abusive home life. This is possibly due to another relationship in which he cared for the concubine Myrto. Initially a prosperous infantry man in the athenian army he left Athens in order to fight in the Peloponnesian War. Distinctive in war, he fought in many battles, notably the battle of Delium in 424 (B.C.E.) where he was remarkable in the field despite the loss. Socrates was an adamant citizen and believed all people should follow the law and abide by their duties to the state. He was later scrutinized by the popular assembly when he was the only person to vote against trying the Athenian commanders, who left survivors at sea, as a whole instead of individually as the law directed. After the war he sept through the cracks of society as he started to practices his own techniques of philosophy and teaching. Through personal experience and the knowledge of others he developed a method of deciphering the practical and moral understandings of life. Socrates was a prototype teacher in that he did not charge pupils for his services. Most notably, he helped mold the ideas of the great philosophers Plato and Xenophon...
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...To fight the enormous armies of the Achaemenid Empire was effectively beyond the capabilities of a single city-state. The eventual triumph of the Greeks was achieved by alliances of many city-states, on a scale never seen before. The rise of Athens and Sparta during this conflict led directly to the Peloponnesian War, which saw diversification of warfare. Emphasis shifted to naval battles and strategies of attrition such as blockades and sieges. Following the defeat of the Athenians in 404 BC, and the disbandment of the Athenian-dominated Delian League, Ancient Greece fell under the Spartan hegemony. But this was unstable, and the Persian Empire sponsored a rebellion by the combined powers of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos, resulting in the Corinthian War (395-387 BC). Persia switched sides, which ended the war, in return for the cities of Ionia and Spartan non-interference in Asia Minor. The Spartan hegemony would last another 16 years, until, at the Battle of Leuctra (371) the Spartans were decisively defeated by the Theban general...
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...is a universal experience which has occurred since the birth of the human race. It is also the muse of historians around the world. In early Greek society war provided a gateway to heroes, glory, and gods. The famous Trojan War described in Homer’s Iliad epic gave descriptions of Achilles, Hector, Paris and Helen of Troy which were intertwined with the gods Athena, Apollo and Hephaestus. Homer entertained the populace with the “actions of gods and the deed, passions, glories, and defeats of a few heroes,” but also cataloged a few historical significant items. Subsequent the Great Persian War (in 490 and 480/79 BC) inspired Herodotus in writing his Histories migrating from heroes and gods to a more common cultural history. His descriptions still held a dramatic flair which was pleasing to the populace but held a more chronological account of events. Following the Great Persian War was the Peloponnesian War (430-404 BC) and brought forth Thucydides. His accounts of the war provided an analytical view on events and identified sources to actions and political structure. Nevertheless historiography developed over the growth of Greek society and to better understand this each war and historian should be discussed further. Let us begin with the Trojan War. The area between the Black...
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...Introduction: The period of Greek history from the last years of the Persian Wars until the beginning of the first Peloponnesian War, the strong influence of Sparta started to decline while Athens was gaining popularity and influence amongst Greece. Athens was a place that had heavy emphasis on arts, architecture, and literature. The Athenians are responsible for building thousands of temples and statues that embodied their culture and style of art. The economy of Athens was also very productive based upon farming, manufacturing and trade. Athens made a lot of wealth in the trade of wool, grapes, olive oil and wheat with the other Geek city-states. And where there is trade there is a need for shipbuilding and finances, this led to Athens becoming a spotlight for financial business such as loans and investments. The role and wealth increase of the trade market led to the change of the Athenian society and politics. Slaves became a big part of Athenian life; slaves were found everywhere usually made up of non – Greek foreigners captured in...
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