Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
warriors who turned back the Persian tide seemed to have fought in the same cause as
Homer's heroes at Troy. In thanksgiving and celebration the temples upon the
Acropolis that the Persians had destroyed were rebuilt - most notably with the building
of the
Parthenon
.
Yet Athens was still just one among numerous city-states, each ready to come together
during a common danger but reasserting its sovereignty as the foreign threat receded.
This was illustrated by the ten-year struggle from 461 BC onwards between Athens and
various
Peloponnesian states
, itself a warning of a yet greater war to come between
Athens and Sparta.
Pericles
In 461 BC,
Pericles
(c.495 - 429 BC) was first elected to Athens' most important
elected position, of
strategos
(general). The ten
strategoi
proposed the legislation that was
then voted on in the Assembly. Pericles was so brilliant at winning over audiences in a
society where the people were sovereign, that in practice he governed the state for
around thirty years; with only two exceptions, he was annually re-elected until his
death in 429 BC.
Among his early triumphs - in the face of conservative opposition - was to make
peace with Persia
in 449 BC, the better to turn his attention to
Sparta
. Pericles
believed that Athenian power was not only Greece's best defence against Persia but also
the best hope for the unification of Greece under enlightened rule.
Ultimately the jury remains out as to whether Pericles preserved Athens' greatness for
as long as possible, or hurried its demise. On the one hand many believe that it was
thanks to Pericles that Athens was able to avoid
war with Sparta
for as long as it did.
Thucydides, the historian of the Peloponnesian War, greatly admired Pericles for his
integrity and for the restraint he exercised over Athenian democracy. Others hold him
responsible for passing up the opportunity to create an institution more generous, and
more inclusive, than the city-state. Pericles supported the parochial and populist
demand that
Athenian citizenship
should not be extended to its allies, thereby stoking
up the flames of envy and foregoing the chance of creating a genuine and enduring
Greek confederacy.
The decline of the city-state: 431-338 BC
he
Peloponnesian War
that began in
431 BC
was really a continuation of earlier
conflicts between Athens and its principal commercial rivals, Corinth and Aegina and
their various allies in the Peloponnese. Sparta had earlier stood aside, but by 432 BC
when Corinth again agitated for war, the
Spartans
had become fearful of growing
Athenian power.
The Athenian empire was built on trade, and the city was a great sea power, with 300
triremes. The members of Sparta's
Peloponnesian League
, meanwhile, had powerful
armies but no significant navy. Just as Themistocles had sought to fight the Persians by
sea, so Pericles followed the same strategy against Sparta and its allies, avoiding major
battles against superior land forces. Athens and Piraeus were protected by their walls,
but the Peloponnesians and their allies were allowed to invade Attica with impunity
nearly every year, and Thrace saw constant warfare. On the other hand the
399 BC
380 BC
371 BC
362 BC
Socrates condemned to
death for corrupting the
minds of the youth of
Athens.
Plato establishes his
Academy in Athens.
Sparta defeated by
Thebes at the Battle of
Leuctra.
Epaminondas of Thebes
killed at the Battle of
Mantinea.
