1.
First Peloponnesian War
–
This war consisted of a series of conflicts and minor wars, such as the Second Sacred War. There were several causes for the war including the building of the Athenian long walls, Megaras defection, at first the Athenians had the better of the fighting, winning the naval engagements using their superior fleet. They also had the better of the fighting on land, until 457 BC when the Spartans, the Athenians, however, counterattacked and scored a crushing victory over the Boeotians at the Battle of Oenophyta and followed this victory up by conquering all of Boeotia except for Thebes. Athens further consolidated their position by making Aegina a member of the Delian League, the Athenians were defeated in 454 BC by the Persians in Egypt which caused them to enter into a five years truce with Sparta. However, the war flared up again in 448 BC with the start of the Second Sacred War, in 446 BC, Boeotia revolted and defeated the Athenians at Coronea and regained their independence. The First Peloponnesian War ended in an arrangement between Sparta and Athens, which was ratified by the Thirty Years Peace, according to the provisions of this peace treaty, both sides maintained the main parts of their empires. Athens continued its domination of the sea while Sparta dominated the land, Megara returned to the Peloponnesian League and Aegina became a tribute-paying but autonomous member of the Delian League. The war between the two leagues restarted in 431 BC and in 404 BC, Athens was occupied by Sparta, a mere twenty years before the First Peloponnesian War broke out, Athens and Spartans had fought alongside each other in the Greco-Persian Wars. In that war, Sparta had held the hegemony of what scholars call the Hellenic League. Sparta grew wary of Athens strength after they had fought each other to disperse the Persians from their lands. When Athens started to rebuild its walls and the strength of its power, Sparta. Different policies made it difficult for Athens and Sparta to avoid going to war, since Athens wanted to expand its territory, Athens, meanwhile, had been asserting itself on the international scene, and was eager to take the lead in the Aegean. The Athenians had already rebuilt their walls, against the wishes of Sparta. In the winter of 479–8 BC they accepted the leadership of a new league, the Athenians rebuilt their walls in secret at the urging of Themistocles, who convinced the Athenians that this was the best way to protect themselves. After the completion of the walls Themistocles declared Athens independent of Spartan hegemony stating that Athens knew what was in its best interest and was now enough to defend itself. Modern scholars, although uncertain of the dating and reliability of this story, have cited it as evidence of the existence, even at this early date. For some time, however, friendly relations prevailed between Athens and Sparta, Themistocles, the Athenian of the period most associated with an anti-Spartan policy, was ostracised at some point in the early 470s BC, and was later forced to flee to Persia. In his place in Athens rose Cimon, who advocated a policy of cooperation between the two states, Cimon was Athens proxenos at Sparta, and so fond was he of that city that he named one of his sons Lakedaemonios, meaning Spartan
First Peloponnesian War
–
The Athenian long walls which connected Athens to Piraeus.
First Peloponnesian War
–
A map of the Delian League.
First Peloponnesian War
–
A Greek trireme, the main type of ships used by the Greek states.
2.
History of the Peloponnesian War
–
The History of the Peloponnesian War is a historical account of the Peloponnesian War, which was fought between the Peloponnesian League and the Delian League. It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian historian who also happened to serve as an Athenian general during the war and his account of the conflict is widely considered to be a classic and regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. The History is divided into eight books, analyses of the History generally occur in one of two camps. On the one hand, some view the work as an objective. Thucydides is considered to be one of the fathers of Western history. Thucydides also makes use of speeches in order to elaborate on the event in question. While the inclusion of long first-person speeches is somewhat alien to modern historical method and these include addresses given to troops by their generals before battles and numerous political speeches, both by Athenian and Spartan leaders, as well as debates between various parties. Of the speeches, the most famous is the funeral oration of Pericles, Thucydides undoubtedly heard some of these speeches himself while for others he relied on eyewitness accounts. Some of the speeches are probably fabricated according to his expectations of, as he puts it, despite being an Athenian and a participant in the conflict, Thucydides is often regarded as having written a generally unbiased account of the conflict with respect to the sides involved in it. In the introduction to the piece he states, my work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, there are scholars, however, who doubt this. Ernst Badian, for example has argued that Thucydides has a strong pro-Athenian bias, the work does display a clear bias against certain people involved in the conflict, such as Cleon. The gods play no role in Thucydides work. This is very different from Herodotus, who mentions the role of the gods. Instead, Thucydides regards history as being caused by the choices, despite the absence of actions of the gods, religion and piety play critical roles in the actions of the Spartans, and to a lesser degree, the Athenians. However, despite Thucydides lack of trust in information that was not experienced firsthand, such as Homers, he does use the poets epics to infer facts about the Trojan War. In fact, Thucydides claims that Troy could have conquered in half the time had the Greek leaders allocated resources properly. Except for a few short excursuses, the remainder of the History rigidly maintains its focus on the Peloponnesian War to the exclusion of other topics. While the History concentrates on the aspects of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War
–
10th-century minuscule manuscript of
Thucydides 's History.
History of the Peloponnesian War
–
P. Oxy. 16, fragment of a 1st-century manuscript
History of the Peloponnesian War
–
Illustration of a Greek
Trireme.
History of the Peloponnesian War
–
Title page to a translation by Thomas Hobbes
3.
Ancient Greece
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
Ancient Greece
–
The
Parthenon, a temple dedicated to
Athena, located on the
Acropolis in
Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks.
Ancient Greece
–
Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period,
c. 750 BC.
Ancient Greece
–
Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods
4.
Asia Minor
–
Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
Asia Minor
–
The traditional definition of Anatolia within modern Turkey
Asia Minor
–
The location of
Turkey (within the rectangle) in reference to the
European continent. Anatolia roughly corresponds to the
Asian part of Turkey, except the eastern parts historically known as the
Armenian Highlands
Asia Minor
–
1907 map of Asia Minor, showing the local ancient kingdoms
Asia Minor
–
Mural of
aurochs, a
deer, and humans in
Çatalhöyük, which is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date. It was registered as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.
5.
Sicily
–
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
Sicily
–
Mount Etna rising over suburbs of Catania
Sicily
–
Sicily Sicilia
Sicily
–
Sicilian landscape
Sicily
–
Location of the
Salso
6.
Delian League
–
Shortly after its inception, Athens began to use the Leagues navy for its own purposes. This behavior frequently led to conflict between Athens and the powerful members of the League. The Greco-Persian Wars had their roots in the conquest of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule, eventually settling for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city. While Greek states had in the past often been ruled by tyrants, by 500 BC, Ionia appears to have been ripe for rebellion against these Persian clients. The simmering tension finally broke into open revolt due to the actions of the tyrant of Miletus, attempting to save himself after a disastrous Persian-sponsored expedition in 499 BC, Aristagoras chose to declare Miletus a democracy. This triggered similar revolutions across Ionia, extending to Doris and Aeolis, after this, the Ionian revolt carried on for a further five years, until it was finally completely crushed by the Persians. The Ionian revolt had severely threatened the stability of Dariuss empire, Darius thus began to contemplate the complete conquest of Greece, beginning with the destruction of Athens and Eretria. In the next two decades there would be two Persian invasions of Greece, occasioning, thanks to Greek historians, some of the most famous battles in history. During the first invasion, Thrace, Macedon and the Aegean Islands were added to the Persian Empire, however, the invasion ended in 490 BC with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon. Between the two invasions, Darius died, and responsibility for the war passed to his son Xerxes I, Xerxes then personally led a second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, taking an enormous army and navy to Greece. Those Greeks who chose to resist were defeated in the simultaneous battles of Thermopylae on land. The following year,479 BC, the Allies assembled the largest Greek army yet seen and defeated the Persian invasion force at the Battle of Plataea, ending the invasion and the threat to Greece. The Allied fleet defeated the remnants of the Persian fleet in the Battle of Mycale near the islands of Salamis—on the same day as Plataea and this action marks the end of the Persian invasion, and the beginning of the next phase in the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek counterattack. After Mycale, the Greek cities of Asia Minor again revolted, the Allied fleet then sailed to the Thracian Chersonese, still held by the Persians, and besieged and captured the town of Sestos. The following year,478 BC, the Allies sent a force to capture the city of Byzantion, the siege was successful, but the behaviour of the Spartan general Pausanias alienated many of the Allies, and resulted in Pausaniass recall. After Byzantion, Sparta was eager to end its involvement in the war, the Spartans were of the view that, with the liberation of mainland Greece, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the wars purpose had already been reached. There was also perhaps a feeling that establishing long-term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible, in the aftermath of Mycale, the Spartan king Leotychides had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion. Xanthippus, the Athenian commander at Mycale, had rejected this, the Ionian cities had been Athenian colonies
Delian League
–
The Athenian Empire at its height, c. 450 BC
7.
Hegemony
–
Hegemony is the political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others. In ancient Greece, hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states, the dominant state is known as the hegemon. In the 19th century, hegemony came to denote the Social or cultural predominance or ascendancy, later, it could be used to mean a group or regime which exerts undue influence within a society. In contrast to authoritarian rule, cultural hegemony is hegemonic only if those affected by it also consent to and struggle over its common sense. From the post-classical Latin word hegemonia, from 1513 or earlier, or the Greek word ἡγεμονία, meaning authority, rule, political supremacy, likewise, the role of Athens within the short-lived Delian League was that of a hegemon. Ancient historians such as Xenophon and Ephorus were the first who used the term in its modern sense. In Ancient East Asia, Chinese hegemony existed during the Spring and Autumn period and they were appointed by feudal lord conferences, and thus were nominally obliged to uphold the imperium of the Zhou Dynasty over the subordinate states. 1st and 2nd century Europe was dominated by the peace of the Pax Romana. It was instituted by the emperor Augustus, and was accompanied by a series of military campaigns. From the 7th century to the 12th century, the Umayyad Caliphate and later Abbasid Caliphate dominated the vast territories they governed, with other states like the Byzantine Empire paying tribute. In 7th century India, Harsha, ruler of an empire in northern India from 606 to 647 AD. He preferred not to rule as a government, but left conquered kings on their thrones and contenting himself with tribute. From the late 9th to the early 11th century, the empire developed by Charlemagne achieved hegemony in Europe, with dominance over France, Italy and he lists several contenders for historical hegemony. Based on Portugals dominance in navigation, based on Dutch control of credit and money. Based on British textiles and command of the high seas, based on British industrial supremacy and railroads. To this list could be added the hegemony of Habsburg Spain in 16th century Europe, however, after an attempt by Phillip IV to restore it, by the middle of the 17th century Spains pretensions to hegemony had definitely and irremediably failed. This, in turn, made possible the Amsterdam stock market, in France, King Louis XIV and Napoleon I attempted French hegemony via economic, cultural and military domination of most of Continental Europe. However, Jeremy Black writes that, because of Britain, France was unable to enjoy the benefits of this hegemony, Britain also controlled the Indian subcontinent and large portions of Africa
Hegemony
–
Ancient Greece under the hegemony of
Thebes, 371–362 BCE
8.
Classical Athens
–
Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Isagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, the peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles. The radical politician of aristocratic background, Cleisthenes, then took charge, the reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four Ionic tribes with ten new ones, named after legendary heroes of Greece and having no class basis, which acted as electorates. Each tribe was in divided into three trittyes, while each trittys had one or more demes —depending on their population—which became the basis of local government. The tribes each selected fifty members by lot for the Boule, the public opinion of voters could be influenced by the political satires written by the comic poets and performed in the city theaters. Most offices were filled by lot, although the ten strategoi were elected, prior to the rise of Athens, Sparta, a city-state with a militaristic culture, considered itself the leader of the Greeks, and enforced a hegemony. In 499 BC Athens sent troops to aid the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor and this provoked two Persian invasions of Greece, both of which were repelled under the leadership of the soldier-statesmen Miltiades and Themistocles. In 490 the Athenians, led by Miltiades, prevented the first invasion of the Persians, guided by king Darius I, in 480 the Persians returned under a new ruler, Xerxes I. Simultaneously the Athenians led a naval battle off Artemisium. However, this action was not enough to discourage the Persian advance which soon marched through Boeotia, setting up Thebes as their base of operations. This forced the Athenians to evacuate Athens, which was taken by the Persians, subsequently the Athenians and their allies, led by Themistocles, defeated the Persian navy at sea in the Battle of Salamis. It is interesting to note that Xerxes had built himself a throne on the coast in order to see the Greeks defeated, spartas hegemony was passing to Athens, and it was Athens that took the war to Asia Minor. These victories enabled it to bring most of the Aegean and many parts of Greece together in the Delian League. He fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never return throughout its history and he executed a large number of public works projects and improved the life of the citizens. Hence, he gave his name to the Athenian Golden Age, silver mined in Laurium in southeastern Attica contributed greatly to the prosperity of this Golden Age of Athens. During the time of the ascendancy of Ephialtes as leader of the democratic faction, the conflict marked the end of Athenian command of the sea. The war between Athens and the city-state Sparta ended with an Athenian defeat after Sparta started its own navy, Athenian democracy was briefly overthrown by the coup of 411, brought about because of its poor handling of the war, but it was quickly restored. The war ended with the defeat of Athens in 404
Classical Athens
–
Early
Athenian coin, 5th century BC.
British Museum.
Classical Athens
–
Delian League ("Athenian Empire") shown in yellow, Athenian territory shown in red, situation in 431 BC, before the
Peloponnesian War.
Classical Athens
–
The modern
National Academy in Athens, with Apollo and Athena on their columns, and Socrates and Plato seated in front.
Classical Athens
–
Map of the environs of Athens showing
Piraeus,
Phalerum, and the
Long Walls
9.
Sparta
–
Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece, given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious. Spartas defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartas prominent role in Greece, however, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC. It then underwent a period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages. Modern Sparta is the capital of the Greek regional unit of Laconia, Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates, mothakes, perioikoi, Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world. Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in the West following the revival of classical learning and this love or admiration of Sparta is known as Laconism or Laconophilia. At its peak around 500 BC the size of the city would have been some 20,000 –35,000 free residents, plus numerous helots, olliers theory of the Spartan mirage has been widely accepted by scholars. The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the location of the Spartans. The first refers primarily to the cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River. The second word was Lacedaemon, this was used sometimes as an adjective and is the name commonly used in the works of Homer. Herodotus seems to denote by it the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne and it could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it was not. It denoted the terrain on which Sparta was situated, in Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside, wide, lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken. The hollow suggests the Eurotas Valley, Sparta on the other hand is the country of lovely women, a people epithet. The name of the population was used for the state of Lacedaemon
Sparta
–
Territory of ancient Sparta
Sparta
–
Hollow Lacedaemon. Site of the Menelaion, the ancient shrine to Helen and Menelaus constructed in the Bronze Age city that stood on the hill of
Therapne on the left bank of the
Eurotas River overlooking the future site of Dorian Sparta. Across the valley the successive ridges of Mount
Taygetus are in evidence.
Sparta
–
Eurotas River
Sparta
–
The theater of ancient Sparta with
Mt. Taygetus in the background.
10.
Achaemenid Empire
–
The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
Achaemenid Empire
–
Standard of Cyrus the Great
Achaemenid Empire
–
Relief of
Cyrus the Great.
Achaemenid Empire
–
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus one of the
Seven wonders of the ancient world was built by Persian satrap of
Caria,
Mausolus (Scale model.)
11.
Pericles
–
Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age—specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful, Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as the first citizen of Athens. Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world and he started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis. This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist. Pericles was born c.495 BC, in Athens, Greece and he was the son of the politician Xanthippus, who, though ostracized in 485–484 BC, returned to Athens to command the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at Mycale just five years later. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, according to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles birth, that she had borne a lion. Interestingly, legends say that Philip II of Macedon had a dream before the birth of his son. Pericles belonged to the tribe of Acamantis and his early years were quiet, the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. His familys nobility and wealth allowed him to pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy and he enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras, Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras, in particular, became a friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have been in part products of Anaxagoras emphasis on emotional calm in the face of trouble and his proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as products of Anaxagoras influence. In the spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy, Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of leadership by the early 460s BC- in his early or mid-thirties, throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal, in 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens vital interests in Macedon. Although Cimon was acquitted, this proved that Pericles major political opponent was vulnerable. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes, the Ecclesia adopted Ephialtes proposal without opposition
Pericles
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Bust of Pericles bearing the inscription "Pericles, son of Xanthippus, Athenian". Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from c. 430 BC
Pericles
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Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to Pericles, Aspasia, Alcibiades and friends, by Sir
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1868,
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
Pericles
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Bust of Pericles after Kresilas,
Altes Museum,
Berlin
Pericles
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Aspasia of Miletus (c. 469 BC – c. 406 BC), Pericles' companion.
12.
Nicias
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Nicias, was an Athenian politician and general during the period of the Peloponnesian War. Nicias was a member of the Athenian aristocracy and had inherited a fortune from his father. Following the death of Pericles in 429 BC, he became the rival of Cleon. He was a moderate in his views and opposed the aggressive imperialism of the democrats. His principal aim was to conclude a peace with Sparta as soon as it could be obtained on terms favourable to Athens and he was regularly elected to serve as strategos for Athens during the Peloponnesian War. He led several expeditions which achieved little, nevertheless, he was largely responsible for the successful negotiations which led to the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC. Following the Peace, he objected to the plans of Alcibiades for advancing Athens interests. Despite this, Nicias was appointed to participate in the Athenian invasion of Sicily, the Athenian siege of Syracuse was nearly successful until the arrival of the Spartan general Gylippus, who turned the situation around so that the Athenians were themselves under siege. Nicias led his forces in a attempt to escape by land. However, they were cut off and he and his Athenian army were overwhelmed and defeated and his army was almost wiped out, but he reminded Gylippus of all the times Nicias had spared him, and was in turn spared. Nicias inherited from his father, Niceratus, a considerable fortune and it is said that Nicias had over 1000 slaves working in the mines. Plutarch states that Nicias was also generous with his wealth, using his money for charitable activities in Athens. Nicias rise to prominence occurred while Pericles was at the head of the Athenian government, after Pericles death in 429 BC, Nicias became an important Athenian politician with the aristocratic party looking to him as their leader. As such, Nicias became the rival of Cleons popular or democratic party, Nicias lacked the eloquence or charm to win popularity among Athenians, according to the later historian Plutarch. Instead, Nicias gained popularity through the use of his wealth and he funded and organized choruses for Athenian dramas, sporting events, public exhibitions, and new or restored statues and temples. Plutarch specifically refers to an example of Nicias generosity - his funding of the festival of Delos, Nicias funded the building of a bridge of boats between Delos and the Rhenean islands. The ships were decorated with garlands, gilding, and rich tapestry, then a richly dressed chorus walked across the boats. Nicias then provided a 10,000 drachma fund to the Delians so they would continue this event into the future, such instructions were engraved onto a pillar
Nicias
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Nicias
Nicias
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Nicias' expeditions, before the Sicilian campaign.
13.
Capital punishment
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Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The sentence that someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence, etymologically, the term capital in this context alluded to execution by beheading. Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment,103 countries have abolished it de jure for all crimes, six have abolished it for ordinary crimes. Capital punishment is a matter of controversy in various countries and states. In the European Union, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment, also, the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, prohibits the use of the death penalty by its members. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007,2008,2010,2012 and 2014, non-binding resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions. Although most nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the population live in countries where executions take place, such as China, India. Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime, in most countries that practise capital punishment it is reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, defection or as part of military justice. In many countries use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty, in militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny. The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history, most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishment for wrongdoing generally included compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning, banishment, usually, compensation and shunning were enough as a form of justice. The response to crime committed by neighbouring tribes or communities included a formal apology, a blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails or an arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the emergence of a system based on state or organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour, acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies that injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished. However, in practice, it is difficult to distinguish between a war of vendetta and one of conquest. Elaborations of tribal arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in a religious context, compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might include material compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, the person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of the crime because the system was based on tribes, not individuals
Capital punishment
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Anarchist
Auguste Vaillant guillotined in France in 1894
Capital punishment
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Hanged, drawn and quartered: the execution of
Hugh Despenser the Younger, as depicted in the
Froissart of Louis of Gruuthuse
Capital punishment
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The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883).
Roman Colosseum.
Capital punishment
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Giovanni Battista Bugatti, executioner of the
Papal States between 1796 and 1865,
carried out 516 executions (Bugatti pictured offering
snuff to a condemned prisoner).
Vatican City abolished
its capital punishment statute in 1969.
14.
Alcibiades
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Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, from the deme of Scambonidae, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mothers family, the Alcmaeonidae. He played a role in the second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military commander. During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance several times, in Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, however, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies, there he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall. He then served as an Athenian general for years. Once restored to his city, however, he played a crucial role in a string of Athenian victories that eventually brought Sparta to seek a peace with Athens. He favored unconventional tactics, frequently winning cities over by treachery or negotiation rather than by siege and his mother was Deinomache, the daughter of Megacles, and could trace her family back to Eurysaces and the Telamonian Ajax. His maternal grandfather, also named Alcibiades, was a friend of Cleisthenes, after the death of Cleinias at the Battle of Coronea, Pericles and Ariphron became his guardians. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades had several teachers, including Socrates. He was noted, however, for his behavior, which was mentioned by ancient Greek. It was believed that Socrates took Alcibiades as a student because he believed he could change Alcibiades from his vain ways, Xenophon attempted to clear Socrates name at trial by relaying information that Alcibiades was always corrupt and that Socrates merely failed in attempting to teach him morality. Alcibiades took part in the Battle of Potidaea in 432 BC, Alcibiades had a particularly close relationship with Socrates, whom he admired and respected. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades feared and reverenced Socrates alone, Alcibiades was married to Hipparete, the daughter of Hipponicus, a wealthy Athenian. According to Plutarch, Hipparete loved her husband, but she attempted to divorce him because he consorted with courtesans and she lived with him until her death, which came soon after, and gave birth to two children, a daughter and a son, Alcibiades the Younger. Alcibiades first rose to prominence when he began advocating aggressive Athenian action after the signing of the Peace of Nicias, disputes over the interpretation of the treaty led the Spartans to dispatch ambassadors to Athens with full powers to arrange all unsettled matters. He urged them to renounce their diplomatic authority to represent Sparta, the representatives agreed and, impressed with Alcibiades, they alienated themselves from Nicias, who genuinely wanted to reach an agreement with the Spartans. The next day, during the Assembly, Alcibiades asked them what powers Sparta had granted them to negotiate and they replied, as agreed and this ploy increased Alcibiadess standing while embarrassing Nicias, and Alcibiades was subsequently appointed General
Alcibiades
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Marble bust of Alcibiades, dating from the 4th century BC. The inscription translates "Alcibiades [son] of Cleinias Athenian".
Alcibiades
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Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904): Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia, 1861.
Alcibiades
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Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1754–1829):
Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual Pleasure, 1791.
Alcibiades
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Michele de Napoli (1808–1892): Morte di Alcibiade (Death of Alcibiades) (1839 circa),
Naples National Archaeological Museum.
15.
Archidamus II
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Archidamus II was a Eurypontid king of Sparta who reigned from approximately 476 BC to 427 BC. Zeuxidamus married and had a son, Archidamus, however, Zeuxidamus died before his father, Leotychidas. After the death of his son and heir, Leotychidas married Eurydame, while they had no male offspring, they did have a daughter, Lampito, whom Leotychidas gave in marriage to his grandson Archidamus. Archidamus later second marriage was to Eupoleia, to them were born a son, Agesilaus II, and a daughter, Cynisca. Archidamus ascended the Spartan throne after his grandfather, Leotychidas, was banished around 476 BC after being accused of bribery, Archidamus was one of the kings of Sparta in the years preceding the Peloponnesian War. His coolness and presence of mind are said to have saved the Spartan state from destruction on the occasion of the earthquake of 464 BC. In 446 BC he reached agreement with Pericles on the Thirty Years Peace between Athens and Sparta, bringing an end to the First Peloponnesian War, which had been raging since c.460 BC. During the negotiations that preceded the Peloponnesian War, he did his best to prevent, or at least to postpone, the inevitable struggle, but was overruled by the war party. He invaded Attica at the head of the Peloponnesian forces in the summers of 431 BC,430 BC and 428 BC and he died probably in 427 BC, certainly before the summer of 426 BC, and was succeeded on the Spartan throne by his son, Agis II. According to Thucydides in speeches attributed to Archidamus at the famous Debate at Sparta in 432 BC, if we begin the war in haste, well have many delays before we end it, owing to our lack of preparation
Archidamus II
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Lelegids
16.
Brasidas
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Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War. Brasidas was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, during the following year he seems to have been eponymous ephor, and in 429 he was sent out as one of the three commissioners to advise the admiral Cnemus. As trierarch he distinguished himself in the assault on the Athenian position at the Battle of Pylos, an attack on Eion was foiled by the arrival of Thucydides, the historian, at the head of an Athenian squadron. Brasidas refused to return Scione, and also accepted the revolt of Mende shortly afterwards, an Athenian fleet under Nicias and Nicostratus recovered Mende and blockaded Scione, which fell two years later. Meanwhile, Brasidas joined Perdiccas in a campaign against Arrhabaeus, king of the Lyncesti and this brought to a head the quarrel between Brasidas and Perdiccas. In April 422 the truce with Sparta expired, and in the same summer Cleon was dispatched to Thrace, when Cleon brought part of his army forward to probe the defenses, Brasidas recognized an opportunity to defeat his superior force in detail. Brasidas plan for his victory was typical of his campaigns in Thrace. Brasidas personally led the Spartans in a charge from Amphipolis. His allies sallied from the gate and attacked from the north. Edonian and Chalcidian cavalry and light infantry pursued the fleeing Athenians, killing 600 men, on the Spartan side only seven fatalities are reported, but one of them was Brasidas, who was mortally wounded at the head of his Spartan troops. He was buried at Amphipolis with impressive pomp, and for the future was regarded as the founder of the city and honored with yearly games and sacrifices. At Sparta a cenotaph was erected in his memory near the tombs of Pausanias and Leonidas, ch. Koukouli-Chrysanthaki in her three decade research at Amphipolis offers evidence of the recovery and identification of Brasidas burial at the ancient Amphipolis agora. Thucydides characterization of Brasidas suggests that Brasidas united in himself the stereotypical Spartan courage with those virtues in which regular Spartans were most signally lacking, Brasidas was apparently quick in forming his plans and carried them out without delay or hesitation. Furthermore, the rhetoric in the speech of Brasidas to the Acanthians is of higher quality than the other Spartan speeches recorded by Thucydides. See in particular Thucydides, what Diodorus xii. adds is mainly oratorical elaboration or pure invention, a fuller account will be found in the histories of Greece and in G. Schimmelpfeng, De Brasidae Spartani rebus gestis atque ingenio. Make no show of cowardice then on your part, seeing the greatness of the issues at stake, history of the Peloponnesian War Brasidas by Jona Lendering
Brasidas
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He became a target for every arrow
Brasidas
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Silver ossuary and gold crown of Brasidas in
Amphipolis
17.
Lysander
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Lysander was a Spartan admiral who commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405 BC. The following year, he was able to force the Athenians to capitulate, bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end, little is known of Lysanders early life. Lysanders father was Aristocleitus, who was a member of the Spartan Heracleidae and he grew up in poverty and he showed himself obedient and conformable. According to Plutarch he had a manly spirit, Lysander was appointed Spartan navarch for the Aegean Sea in 407 BC. It was during this period that he gained the friendship and support of Cyrus the Younger, Lysander then undertook the major project of creating a strong Spartan fleet based at Ephesus which could take on the Athenians and their allies. Alcibiades was appointed commander-in-chief with autocratic powers of the Athenian forces and left for Samos to rejoin his fleet and try, the Spartan navarch Lysander refused to be lured out of Ephesus to do battle with Alcibiades. However, while Alcibiades was away seeking supplies, the Athenian squadron was placed under the command of Antiochus, during this time Lysander managed to engage the Athenian fleet and they were routed by the Spartan fleet at the Battle of Notium in 406 BC. This defeat by Lysander gave the enemies of Alcibiades the excuse they needed to strip him of his command and he never returned again to Athens. He sailed north to the land he owned in the Thracian Chersonese, however, Lysander ceased to be the Spartan navarch after this victory and, in accordance with the Spartan law, was replaced by Callicratidas. Callicratidas ability to continue the war at sea was neatly sabotaged when Lysander returned all the funds to Cyrus when he left office. In 406 BC, Callicratidas assembled a fleet and sailed to Methymna, Lesbos and this move threatened the Athenian grain supply. Athens sent their admiral, Conon, to relieve the siege, when Callicratidas attacked him, Conon retreated to Mytilene, where he was blockaded by Callicratidas’ Spartan fleet. To relieve Conon, the Athenians assembled a new fleet composed largely of newly constructed ships manned by inexperienced crews, the blockade of Conon by the Spartans was broken, the Spartan force was soundly defeated and Callicratidas was killed during the battle. After this defeat, Spartas allies sought to have Lysander reappointed as navarch, however, Spartan law did not allow the reappointment of a previous navarch, so Aracus was appointed as navarch with Lysander as his deputy. Nonetheless, Lysander was effectively the commander of the Spartan fleet, Cyrus, being especially pleased, once again started to supply the Spartan fleet with funds, even allowing Lysander to run his satrapy in his absence. Once back in command, Lysander directed the Spartan fleet towards the Hellespont, the Athenian fleet followed him there. In 404 BC, the Athenians gathered their remaining ships at Aegospotami, the Athenian fleet under Admiral Conon was then destroyed by the Spartans under Lysander in the Battle of Aegospotami. Then, Lysanders forces went to the Bosporus and captured both Byzantium and Chalcedon, expelling the Athenians living in those cities, following the victory at Aegospotami, the Spartans were in a position to finally force Athens to capitulate
Lysander
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Lysander as a Renaissance duke, engraved 1553.
Lysander
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Most important geographical sites, during the life of Lysander
Lysander
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The multitude saluted him with loud acclamations
18.
Battle of Rhium
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In the battle, the Peloponnesian ships, hampered by the fact that many of them were equipped not as fighting vessels but as transports, circled together in a defensive posture. The Athenians then suddenly attacked, routing the Peloponnesians and capturing 12 ships, the summer of 429 BC was marked by a Peloponnesian offensive in the Greek northwest. The Spartans and their allies hoped to knock several Athenian allies such as Acarnania, Zacynthus, and Cephallenia out of the war, the Spartan Cnemus was placed in command of the campaign. He set out against Acarnania with 1,000 hoplites from Sparta, combining his forces with 2,000 troops sent from allied states, Cnemus moved against the city of Stratus, an Acarnanian ally. The Acarnanians appealed to Phormio for help, but he refused to leave Naupactus undefended, the Peloponnesian fleet, meanwhile, was charged with ferrying troops to the southern coast of Acarnania to prevent the residents of that area from supporting their allies inland. As the Peloponnesians moved westward along the south coast of the Gulf of Corinth and this ruse failed, as the Athenians noticed the move and gave chase, catching the Peloponnesians in the open water of the Gulf of Patras. Although the Peloponnesian fleet was superior to the Athenian, many of its ships were rigged out as transports instead of fighting vessels. Thus, as the Athenian fleet approached them, the Peloponnesian commanders ordered their 47 triremes to draw into a circle, prows outward, for defense. In the center of the circle were gathered the ships and the five fastest triremes. Phormio chose to attack this formation by using a risky and unorthodox tactic and he led his ships, in line, in a tightening circle around the Peloponnesians, darting inwards at times to drive the defending ships closer to each other. This tactic left the Athenians highly vulnerable to a swift attack, no such attack materialized, however, and the Peloponnesians were driven closer and closer together. At this point, Phormio was aided by his experience with the weather patterns. At this moment the Athenians rushed in to attack, the rout was instant and total, the Peloponnesians, in their short flight to the southern shore, saw 12 of their ships, with crews, captured by the pursuing Athenians. On the way back to their base at Corinth, the Peloponnesian fleet met up with Cnemus and this double defeat seriously embarrassed Cnemus, and was in general an embarrassing failure for the Spartans, their first attempt at an amphibious offensive had ended in ignominy. The victory did not, however, put an end to the Peloponnesian offensive in the Gulf, thus, Phormios 20 ships were forced to fight on their own, and only narrowly preserved Athenian dominance in the gulf at the Battle of Naupactus
Battle of Rhium
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Phormio's strategy: The Athenians (red) sail around the circled Peloponnesian ships (black). The Athenians risk a sudden attack by exposing their flanks to the enemy, but by compressing the Peloponnesian circle they cause confusion among the inexperienced Peloponnesian crews.
19.
Battle of Sphacteria
–
The Battle of Sphacteria was a land battle of the Peloponnesian War, fought in 425 BC between Athens and Sparta. Following the Battle of Pylos and subsequent peace negotiations, which failed, an Athenian force under Cleon and Demosthenes attacked and forced them to surrender. In the wake of the peace negotiations, Demosthenes initially attempted to starve out the Spartans on Sphacteria. In Athens there was concern that the approach of winter would necessitate abandoning the blockade, the politician Cleon took out reinforcements from Athens and joined forces with Demosthenes, and the Athenians launched an assault on Pylos. The capture of over 292 hoplites by Athens radically shifted the balance of power in the war, Athens threatened to execute its prisoners if Sparta invaded Attica, and the annual invasions which had occurred since the wars declaration were thus halted. Hostilities resumed immediately, with the Athenians guarding the island night, by offering freedom to Helots and monetary rewards to free men who would volunteer to carry food across to the island, the Spartans were able to bring in a small but critical stream of food. Some of these men reached the island by approaching from the side at night during rough weather. The Athenians, meanwhile, found themselves short on rations. In these adverse circumstances, the Athenians began to doubt that they could resolve the issue by siege before winter forced them to lift their blockade. This negative turn of fortunes was the source of concern at Athens. Noting this turn of popular opinion, Cleon, who had been the principal advocate of rejecting the peace offer, nicias countered this rhetorical thrust by offering to stand aside as a general, and allow Cleon to take command of an expeditionary force to Pylos. Although he had no authority to make this offer, the assembly, caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment, went along with him, the crowd, however, refused to permit this, and Cleon was eventually compelled to accept command. Reassuming the bold attitude he had taken at the start of the debate, Cleon proclaimed that, with the force he had been given, he would either kill or capture the Spartans within twenty days. Naming Demosthenes as his partner in command, he set out from Athens with a composed of Athenian sailors and ships carrying allied peltasts. Demosthenes had already been planning an attack on Sphacteria, as the difficulty of the circumstances his men were in had led him to doubt the viability of a prolonged siege. The Spartan garrison, thinking that the Athenian ships were only mooring in their usual nightly watch posts, was caught off guard and massacred. At dawn, the remainder of the Athenian force streamed ashore, unable to make any headway, the Spartans withdrew in some confusion to the northern end of the island, where they dug in behind their fortifications and hoped to hold out. A stalemate took hold for time, with the Athenians trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the Spartans from their strong positions
Battle of Sphacteria
–
Battle of Sphacteria
20.
Battle of Delium
–
The Battle of Delium took place in 424 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. It was fought between the Athenians and the Boeotians, who were allies of the Spartans, and ended with the siege of Delium in the following weeks, in 424 BC, the Athenian generals Demosthenes and Hippocrates planned to invade Boeotia. Demosthenes mistakenly sailed too early and landed at Siphae, where his plans were betrayed by a Phocian named Nicomachus, as Hippocrates had not yet arrived, Demosthenes could not attack and was forced to withdraw. Hippocrates eventually did arrive in Boeotia with an Athenian army and began to fortify the temple at Delium, after five days, the fortifications were complete, and Hippocrates set up a garrison and sent the rest of his army back to Athens. At the same time, the Boeotians gathered their army to challenge Hippocrates, Pagondas of Thebes, the commander of the Boeotian forces, urged them to attack anyway, because he knew the Athenians would eventually return and use Delium as a base for further invasions. Pagondas moved his army into position near the Athenians, although both armies were hidden from each other by a hill, the Boeotians had 7,000 hoplites,1,000 cavalry,500 peltasts, and 10,000 light troops. They were later joined by the Locrians, when Hippocrates learned of the Boeotian army, he joined the main Athenian force, leaving 300 cavalry behind at Delium. The Athenians had about the numbers of hoplites and cavalry. This unique deployment by the Theban general Pagondas explains the subsequent unfolding, the Boeotians charged unexpectedly while Hippocrates was giving a speech to his men. The centre lines saw the heaviest fighting, as Thucydides reports, the Boeotian left wing was surrounded and close to defeat, and only the Thespian contingent stood its ground. The victorious Athenian line got into confusion as it circled round the Thespian contingent, some of the Athenian hoplites fought and killed one another when they met at the other end, mistaking their countrymen for the enemy. This was historys first documented incident of friendly fire, in any case, Pagondas sent his cavalry to support the Boeotian left wing and the Athenians were defeated in turn. Meanwhile, the Boeotian right wing was also victorious, and the Athenians fighting there fled, about 500 Boeotians and 1,000 Athenians had been killed, including Hippocrates. One of the Athenian hoplites in the battle was the philosopher Socrates, the soldiers were then in rout, and while he and Laches were retreating together, I came upon them by chance. And as soon as I saw them, I at once urged the two of them to heart, and I said I would not leave them behind. I had an even finer opportunity to observe Socrates there than I had had at Potidaea, for I was less in fear because I was on horseback. Consequently, he went away safely, both he and his comrade, for when you behave in war as he did, then they just about do not even touch you, the Boeotians chased the Athenians until nightfall. Most of the Athenians returned to the fort at Delium, where a Boeotian herald announced that they were offending land sacred to the Boeotians and must leave
Battle of Delium
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Troop movements during the battle
21.
Battle of Amphipolis
–
The Battle of Amphipolis was fought in 422 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. It was the culmination of events began in 424 BC with the capture of Amphipolis by the Spartans. In the winter of 424–423, around the time as the Battle of Delium, the Spartan general Brasidas besieged Amphipolis. The city was defended by the Athenian general Eucles, who sent for help from Thucydides, in order to capture the city before Thucydides arrived, Brasidas offered to let everyone who wished to stay keep their property, and offered safe passage to those who wanted to leave. Amphipolis surrendered, despite protests from Eucles, Thucydides arrived at the nearby port of Eion on the same day the city surrendered, and defended it with help from those who had left Amphipolis. Meanwhile, Brasidas began to ally with more Thracian towns, as well as Perdiccas II of Macedon, the Athenians were afraid that their other allies would quickly capitulate, as the Amphipolitans had, if Brasidas offered them favourable terms of peace. Thucydides, who recounted the capture of Amphipolis in his History of the Peloponnesian War, is considered to be partially or entirely responsible for the fall of Amphipolis. Some have seen his actions as gross negligence, although he claimed he was unable to arrive in time to save the city and he was recalled to Athens where he was tried and exiled. In response to the fall of the city, Athens and Sparta signed an armistice, according to the terms of the truce, It is proposed that each side should remain in its own territory, holding what it now holds. The armistice is to last for one year. While the negotiations were going on, Brasidas captured Scione and refused to give it back when news of the treaty arrived, the Athenian leader Cleon sent a force to take it back, despite the treaty. When the armistice ended in 422, Cleon arrived in Thrace with a force of 30 ships,1,200 hoplites and he recaptured Torone and Scione, at Scione, the Spartan commander Pasitelidas was killed. He then took up position at Eion, while Brasidas took his position at Cerdylion, in the rout that followed, Brasidas was mortally injured, although the Athenians did not realize it. Cleon was also killed when he was attacked by troops under the Spartan commander Clearidas, the entire Athenian army fled back to Eion, although about 600 of them were killed before they reached the port. Only seven other Spartans were killed, Brasidas lived long enough to learn of his victory, and was honorably buried in the agora area of Amphipolis. The Amphipolitans began to regard him as a hero and the founder of the city, after the battle, neither the Athenians or the Spartans wanted to continue the war, and the Peace of Nicias was signed in 421 BC. This treaty was eventually broken. Thucydides was exiled for his failure to protect Amphipolis, thus ending the period of the war in which he directly participated, ch. Koukouli-Chrysanthaki in her three decade research at Amphipolis offers evidence of the recovery and identification of Brasidas burial at the ancient Amphipolis agora. London, J. M. Dent, New York, E. P. Dutton
Battle of Amphipolis
–
A 1825 map illustrating the battle arrangements according to
Thucydides
22.
Battle of Melos
–
The Siege of Melos occurred in 416 BC during the Peloponnesian War, a war fought between Athens and Sparta. Melos is an island in the Aegean Sea roughly 110 km east of mainland Greece, at the time it was populated by Dorians. Though the Melians were of the ethnic group as the Spartans. Athens invaded Melos in 416 BC and demanded that the Melians surrender and pay tribute to Athens, the proud Melians refused, and after a siege the Athenians captured their city, slaughtered the men, and enslaved the women and children. This siege is best remembered for the Melian Dialogue, which is a dramatization of the negotiations between the Athenians and the Melians before the former launched the siege. It is taught as a case study in political realism to illustrate that selfish. The Peloponnesian War lasted from 431 to 404 BC, on one side was the Peloponnesian League, an alliance of Greek cities led by Sparta. On the other side was the Delian League, an alliance led by Athens. The people of Melos were Dorians, the ethnic group as the Spartans. In 427 BC the Melians donated at least twenty Aeginetan minae to the Spartan war effort, otherwise, the island remained neutral in the war. In 426 BC, Athens sent an army of 2,000 men led by Nicias to raid the Melian countryside, in 425 or 424 BC, Athens formally demanded of Melos a tribute of fifteen talents of silver. This sum could have paid the wages of a crew for 15 months, or bought 540 metric tons of wheat. Only the islands of Paros and Thasos were assessed for more at 30 and 60 talents respectively and this is evidence that Melos was a prosperous island. Melos had never paid tribute to Athens before, and they refused to pay now, the fleet that transported this army had 38 ships,30 from Athens,6 from Chios, and 2 from Lesbos. This expedition was led by the generals Cleomedes and Tisias, after setting up camp on the island, the Athenians sent emissaries to negotiate with the rulers of Melos. The emissaries demanded that Melos join the Delian League and pay tribute to Athens or face destruction, the Athenians laid siege to the city and withdrew most of their troops from the island to fight elsewhere. The Melians made a number of sorties, at one point capturing part of the Athenians lines, Athens sent reinforcements under the command of Philocrates. The Athenians also had help from traitors within Melos, Melos surrendered in the winter of 416 or 415 BC
Battle of Melos
–
Battle of Melos
23.
Sicilian Expedition
–
The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place during the period from 415 BC to 413 BC. From that point forward, however, as the Athenians ceded the initiative to their newly energized opponents and that last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior. The impact of the defeat was immense, two hundred ships and thousands of soldiers, an appreciable portion of the citys total manpower, were lost in a single stroke. Athenss enemies on the mainland and in Persia were encouraged to take action, the defeat proved to be the turning point in the Peloponnesian War, though Athens struggled on for another decade. Although Athens had never involved itself deeply in Sicilian affairs, it had ties there before the onset of the Peloponnesian War, to small Sicilian cities, Athens was a potential counter to the powerful city of Syracuse, which was strong enough to potentially dominate the island. To the Athenians, Sicily was a threat—an unencumbered Syracuse might send grain or other aid to the Peloponnesians—as well as a venue for possible conquests. In 427 BC, Athens had sent twenty ships, under the command of Laches, by the time that fleet reached Sicily in late summer, Athenss Sicilian allies had grown weary of stalemated warfare, and agreed to negotiate with Syracuse and its allies. At the Congress of Gela, the Sicilian cities made peace on the basis of Sicily for the Sicilians, in 415, Athens and Sparta had been formally at peace since 421, when the Peace of Nicias had brought the Archidamian War to a close. The terms of peace, however, had never been fulfilled, Sparta had never surrendered Amphipolis to Athens, as required by the treaty. That attempt, largely orchestrated by the Athenian nobleman Alcibiades, would have destroyed Spartas control over the Peloponnesian League had it succeeded, Alcibiades rebounded politically from this defeat, and was elected as a general in the spring of 417. Control of Athenss foreign policy remained divided between a party led by Nicias, and a war party led by Alcibiades. The peace established in Sicily at the Congress of Gela did not last long, shortly after the Congress, Syracuse intervened in an episode of civil strife between the democratic and oligarchic parties in Leontini, supporting the oligarchs. Before too long, the prospect of foreign domination had united the Leontinians, Athens had sent an emissary to Sicily in 422 to sound out the possibility of renewing the war against Syracuse, but achieved nothing. In 416, however, a second Sicilian conflict provided the invitation Athens had sought in 422, the city of Segesta—an Athenian ally in the 420s—went to war against Selinus and, after losing an initial battle, sent to Athens for help. At Athens, the Segestan ambassadors presented their case for intervention to the assembly, the assembly eventually approved an expedition composed of sixty triremes, without hoplite accompaniment, commanded by Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. Thucydides reports that Nicias had been appointed against his preference, five days after that first debate, a second assembly was held to arrange the logistics of the expedition. There, Nicias attempted to persuade the assembly to overturn its previous decision regarding whether to send an expedition at all, over the course of several speeches, Nicias raised a series of different arguments against the expedition. Nicias also attacked Alcibiadess credibility, claiming that he and his allies were inexperienced, in response, Alcibiades dismissed the attack on himself by pointing to the good he had done for Athens as a private citizen and public leader
Sicilian Expedition
–
Map of Athenian retreat from Syracuse
Sicilian Expedition
–
Sicily and the Peloponnesian War
24.
Battle of Cyzicus
–
The naval Battle of Cyzicus took place in 410 BC during the Peloponnesian War. In the battle, an Athenian fleet commanded by Alcibiades, Thrasybulus, the victory allowed Athens to recover control over a number of cities in the Hellespont over the next year. In the wake of their defeat, the Spartans made a peace offer, the Athenians, meanwhile, were unable to follow through on their victory, since the depletion of the Athenian treasury precluded any major operations. Thus, by the spring of 410 BC, Mindarus had built a fleet of eighty ships and this fleet, along with a force of land troops under Chaereas, set out to the Hellespont to challenge Mindarus. The Athenian force entered the Hellespont, and, passing the Spartan base at Abydos by night so as to conceal their numbers, established a base on the island of Proconnesus, the next day, they disembarked Chaereass force near Cyzicus. The Athenian fleet then divided, with 20 ships under Alcibiades advancing towards Cyzicus while two divisions under Thrasybulus and Theramenes lurked behind. Mindarus, seeing an opportunity to attack what appeared to be an inferior force. Alcibiadess force fled, and Mindaruss ships gave chase, when both forces had gotten well out from the harbor, however, Alcibiades turned to face Mindarus, and Thrasybulus and Theramenes appeared with their forces to cut off his retreat. Mindarus, seeing the trap, fled in the one direction, towards a beach south of the city. The Spartan fleet suffered losses in the flight, and reached the shore with the Athenians right behind them, alcibiadess troops, leading the Athenian pursuit, landed and attempted to pull the Spartan ships back out to sea with grappling hooks. The Persian troops under Pharnabazus, however, entered the fighting on the shore and began to drive the Athenians, seeing this, Thrasybulus landed his force as a diversion and ordered Theramenes to combine his troops with those of Chaereas and join the battle. All the Spartan ships were captured save for those of the Syracusan allies, in the wake of this dramatic victory, the Athenians had full control of the waters of the Hellespont. The next day, they took Cyzicus, which surrendered without a fight, an intercepted letter from the Spartan troops stranded near Cyzicus reads “The ships are gone. Demoralized by the devastation of their fleet, the Spartans sent an embassy to Athens seeking to make peace, at Athens, the oligarchic government that had ruled since 411 gave way to a restored democracy within a few months of the battle. An expeditionary force under Thrasyllus was prepared to join the forces in the Hellespont, largely, this was a result of financial inability, even after the victory, the Athenian treasury was hard pressed to support large-scale offensive operations. Meanwhile, the Spartans, with Persian funding, quickly rebuilt their fleet, Athens would win only one more naval battle in the war, at Arginusae, and their defeat at Aegospotami in 405 BC would bring the war to a close. The Peloponnesian War ISBN 0-670-03211-5 Xenophon
Battle of Cyzicus
–
A Greek trireme
25.
Battle of Aegospotami
–
The naval Battle of Aegospotami took place in 405 BC and was the last major battle of the Peloponnesian War. In the battle, a Spartan fleet under Lysander destroyed the Athenian navy and this effectively ended the war, since Athens could not import grain or communicate with its empire without control of the sea. In 405 BC, following the severe Spartan defeat at the Battle of Arginusae, Lysander, one of Lysanders advantages as a commander was his close relationship with the Persian prince Cyrus. Using this connection, he raised the money to begin rebuilding the Spartan fleet. When Cyrus was recalled to Susa by his father Darius, he took the step of appointing Lysander as satrap of Asia Minor. With the resources of this entire wealthy Persian province at his disposal and he then set off on a series of campaigns throughout the Aegean. He seized several Athenian-held cities, and attacked numerous islands and he was unable to move north to the Hellespont, however, because of the threat from the Athenian fleet at Samos. To divert the Athenians, Lysander struck westward, approaching quite near to Athens itself, he attacked Aegina and Salamis, and even landed in Attica. The Athenian fleet set out in pursuit, but Lysander sailed around them, reached the Hellespont, from there, he seized the strategically important town of Lampsacus. From here, the way was open to enter the Bosporus, if the Athenians were to avoid starvation, Lysander had to be contained immediately. The Athenian fleet caught up with Lysander shortly after he had taken Lampsacus, however, perhaps because of the need to keep a close watch on Lysander, they set up camp on a beach much nearer to Lampsacus. The location was less than ideal because of the lack of a harbor and the difficulty of supplying the fleet, every day, the fleet sailed out to Lampsacus in battle formation, and waited outside the harbor, when Lysander refused to emerge, they returned home. At this time, the exiled Athenian leader Alcibiades was living in a castle near the Athenian camp, coming down to the beach where the ships were gathered, he made several suggestions to the generals. First, he proposed relocating the fleet to the secure base at Sestos. Second, he claimed that several Thracian kings had offered to him with an army. If the generals would offer him a share of the command, he claimed, the generals, however, declined this offer and rejected his advice, and Alcibiades returned home. Two accounts of the battle of Aegospotami exist, diodorus Siculus relates that the Athenian general in command on the fifth day at Sestos, Philocles, sailed out with thirty ships, ordering the rest to follow him. In the event, the force was immediately defeated
Battle of Aegospotami
–
A Greek trireme
26.
Attica
–
Attica is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea, the modern administrative region of Attica is more extensive than the historical region and includes the Saronic Islands, Cythera, and the municipality of Troizinia on the Peloponnesian mainland. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It is naturally divided to the north from Boeotia by the 10 mi long Cithaeron mountain range, to the west, it is bordered by the sea and the canal of Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south, and the island of Euboea lies off the north, mountains separate the peninsula into the plains of Pedias, Mesogaia, and Thriasion. The mountains of Attica are the Hymettus, the portion of the Geraneia, the Parnitha, the Aigaleo. Four mountains—Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli and Hymettus —delineate the hilly plain on which the Athens-Piraeus metroplex now spreads, Athens water reservoir, Lake Marathon, is an artificial lake created by damming in 1920. Pine and fir forests cover the area around Parnitha, Hymettus, Penteli, Myrrhinous and Laurium are forested with pine trees, whereas the rest are covered by shrubbery. The Kifisos is the longest river of Attica, according to Plato, Atticas ancient boundaries were fixed by the Isthmus, and, toward the continent, they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes. The boundary line came down toward the sea, bounded by the district of Oropus on the right, during antiquity, the Athenians boasted about being autochthonic, which is to say that they were the original inhabitants of the area and had not moved to Attica from another place. The traditions current in the classical period recounted that, during the Greek Dark Ages, Attica had become the refuge of the Ionians, who belonged to a tribe from the northern Peloponnese. Supposedly, the Ionians had been forced out of their homeland by the Achaeans, supposedly, the Ionians integrated with the ancient Atticans, who, afterward, considered themselves part of the Ionian tribe and spoke the Ionian dialect. Many Ionians later left Attica to colonize the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, during the Mycenaean period, the Atticans lived in autonomous agricultural societies. The main places where prehistoric remains were found are Marathon, Rafina, Nea Makri, Brauron, Thorikos, Agios Kosmas, Eleusis, Menidi, Markopoulo, Spata, Aphidnae, all of these settlements flourished during the Mycenaean period. According to tradition, Attica comprised twelve small communities during the reign of Cecrops, strabo assigns these the names of Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia, and possibly Phaleron. These were said to have been incorporated in an Athenian state during the reign of Theseus. Modern historians consider it likely that the communities were progressively incorporated into an Athenian state during the 8th. Until the 6th century BC, aristocratic families lived independent lives in the suburbs, only after Peisistratoss tyranny and the reforms implemented by Cleisthenes did the local communities lose their independence and succumb to the central government in Athens
Attica
–
Cape Sounion
Attica
–
The port of
Laurium
Attica
–
Lake Marathon
Attica
–
The
Temple of Poseidon (c.440 B.C.) at
Cape Sounion, the southernmost point of Attica.
27.
Peloponnese
–
The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea, the peninsula is divided among three administrative regions, most belongs to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica regions. In 2016, Lonely Planet voted the Peloponnese the top spot of their Best in Europe list, the Peloponnese is a peninsula that covers an area of some 21,549.6 square kilometres and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It has two connections with the rest of Greece, a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth. The peninsula has an interior and deeply indented coasts. The Peloponnese possesses four south-pointing peninsulas, the Messenian, the Mani, the Cape Malea, mount Taygetus in the south is the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, at 2,407 metres. Οther important mountains include Cyllene in the northeast, Aroania in the north, Erymanthos and Panachaikon in the northwest, Mainalon in the center, the entire peninsula is earthquake prone and has been the site of many earthquakes in the past. The longest river is the Alfeios in the west, followed by the Evrotas in the south, extensive lowlands are found only in the west, with the exception of the Evrotas valley in the south and in the Argolid in the northeast. The Peloponnese is home to spectacular beaches, which are a major tourist draw. Two groups of islands lie off the Peloponnesian coast, the Argo-Saronic Islands to the east, the island of Kythera, off the Epidaurus Limera peninsula to the south of the Peloponnese, is considered to be part of the Ionian Islands. The island of Elafonissos used to be part of the peninsula but was separated following the quake of 365 AD. Since antiquity, and continuing to the present day, the Peloponnese has been divided into seven regions, Achaia, Corinthia, Argolid, Arcadia, Laconia, Messinia. Each of these regions is headed by a city, the largest city is Patras in Achaia, followed by Kalamata in Messinia. The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times and its modern name derives from ancient Greek mythology, specifically the legend of the hero Pelops, who was said to have conquered the entire region. The name Peloponnesos means Island of Pelops, the Mycenaean civilization, mainland Greeces first major civilization, dominated the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age from its stronghold at Mycenae in the north-east of the peninsula. The Mycenean civilization collapsed suddenly at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, archeological research has found that many of its cities and palaces show signs of destruction. The subsequent period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, is marked by an absence of written records
Peloponnese
–
The
Corinth Canal separates the Peloponnese from mainland Greece.
Peloponnese
–
Landscape of
Arcadia
Peloponnese
–
Map of the Peloponnese of
Classical Antiquity.
28.
Syracuse, Sicily
–
Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture and this 2, 700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, the city was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and Teneans and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth and exerted influence over the entirety of Magna Graecia, described by Cicero as the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all, it equaled Athens in size during the fifth century BC. It later became part of the Roman Republic and Byzantine Empire, after this Palermo overtook it in importance, as the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually the kingdom would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860, in the modern day, the city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the Necropolis of Pantalica. In the central area, the city itself has a population of around 125,000 people, the inhabitants are known as Siracusans. Syracuse is mentioned in the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles book at 28,12 as Paul stayed there, the patron saint of the city is Saint Lucy, she was born in Syracuse and her feast day, Saint Lucys Day, is celebrated on 13 December. Syracuse was founded in 734 or 733 BC by Greek settlers from Corinth and Tenea, there are many attested variants of the name of the city including Συράκουσαι Syrakousai, Συράκοσαι Syrakosai and Συρακώ Syrako. The nucleus of the ancient city was the island of Ortygia. The settlers found the fertile and the native tribes to be reasonably well-disposed to their presence. The city grew and prospered, and for some time stood as the most powerful Greek city anywhere in the Mediterranean, colonies were founded at Akrai, Kasmenai, Akrillai, Helorus and Kamarina. The descendants of the first colonists, called Gamoroi, held power until they were expelled by the Killichiroi, the former, however, returned to power in 485 BC, thanks to the help of Gelo, ruler of Gela. Gelo himself became the despot of the city, and moved many inhabitants of Gela, Kamarina and Megera to Syracuse, building the new quarters of Tyche, the enlarged power of Syracuse made unavoidable the clash against the Carthaginians, who ruled western Sicily. In the Battle of Himera, Gelo, who had allied with Theron of Agrigento, a temple dedicated to Athena, was erected in the city to commemorate the event. Syracuse grew considerably during this time and its walls encircled 120 hectares in the fifth century, but as early as the 470s BC the inhabitants started building outside the walls. The complete population of its territory approximately numbered 250,000 in 415 BC, Gelo was succeeded by his brother Hiero, who fought against the Etruscans at Cumae in 474 BC. His rule was eulogized by poets like Simonides of Ceos, Bacchylides and Pindar, a democratic regime was introduced by Thrasybulos
Syracuse, Sicily
–
Ortygia island, where Syracuse was founded in
ancient Greek times.
Mount Etna is visible in the distance.
Syracuse, Sicily
–
A Syracusan
tetradrachm (c. 415–405 BC), sporting
Arethusa and a
quadriga.
Syracuse, Sicily
–
Decadrachme from Sicile struck at Syracuse and sign d'Évainète
Syracuse, Sicily
–
The siege of Syracuse in a 17th-century engraving.
29.
Achaemenid Dynasty
–
The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
Achaemenid Dynasty
–
Standard of Cyrus the Great
Achaemenid Dynasty
–
Relief of
Cyrus the Great.
Achaemenid Dynasty
–
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus one of the
Seven wonders of the ancient world was built by Persian satrap of
Caria,
Mausolus (Scale model.)
30.
Aegean Sea
–
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas, i. e. between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles, the Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea was known as Archipelago, but in English this words meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally. In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean, a possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = waves, hence wavy sea, cf. also αἰγιαλός, hence meaning sea-shore. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago, in some South Slavic languages the Aegean is often called White Sea. The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres in area, the seas maximum depth is 3,543 metres, east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos, many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows, On the South. In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles, the dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of 23–30 metres, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5–15 cm/s. The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to 200–300 metres with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C. Aegean Sea Bottom Water – occurring at depths below 500–1000 m with a uniform temperature. The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC, before that time, at the peak of the last ice age sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large well-watered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared c.7000 BC, with post-ice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after that, the subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term Aegean civilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese, later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks living round the Aegean like frogs around a pond, the Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of the democracies, and its seaways were the means of contact among several diverse civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays, in ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland
Aegean Sea
–
Map of the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
–
Topographical and
bathymetric map
Aegean Sea
–
Panoramic view of the
Santorini caldera, taken from Oia.
31.
Ionia
–
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements, never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian tribe who, in the Archaic Period, settled mainly the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea. Ionian states were identified by tradition and by their use of Eastern Greek and it was bounded by Aeolia to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south. The cities within the region figured large in the strife between the Persian Empire and the Greeks, according to Greek tradition, the cities of Ionia were founded by colonists from the other side of the Aegean. Their settlement was connected with the history of the Ionic people in Attica, which asserts that the colonists were led by Neleus and Androclus, sons of Codrus. So intricate is the coastline that the voyage along its shores was estimated at four times the direct distance. A great part of area was, moreover, occupied by mountains. None of these mountains attains a height of more than 1,200 metres, the geography of Ionia placed it in a strategic position that was both advantageous and disadvantageous. Ionia was always a maritime power founded by a people who made their living by trade in peaceful times, the coast was rocky and the arable land slight. The native Luwians for the most part kept their fields further inland, the coastal cities were placed in defensible positions on islands or headlands situated so as to control inland routes up the rift valleys. The people of those valleys were of different ethnicity, the populations of the cities came from many civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean. Ancient demographics are available only from literary sources, Herodotus states that in Asia the Ionians kept the division into twelve cities that had prevailed in Ionian lands of the north Peloponnese, their former homeland, which became Achaea after they left. These Asian cities were Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Erythrae, Clazomenae and Phocaea, together with Samos and Chios. Smyrna, originally an Aeolic colony, was occupied by Ionians from Colophon. These cities do not match those of Achaea, moreover, the Achaea of Herodotus time spoke Doric, but in Homer it is portrayed as being in the kingdom of Mycenae, which most likely spoke Mycenaean Greek, which is not Doric. If the Ionians came from Achaea, they departed during or after the change from East Greek to West Greek there, Mycenaean continued to evolve in the mountainous region of Arcadia. Miletus and some other cities founded earlier by non-Greeks received populations of Mycenaean Greeks probably under the name of Achaeans, the tradition of Ionian colonizers from Achaea suggests that they may have been known by both names even then. In the Indian historic literary texts, the Ionians are referred to as yavanar or yona, in modern Turkish, the people of that region were called yunan and the country that is now Greece is known as Yunanistan
Ionia
–
Mount Mycale, site of the
Panionium
Ionia
–
One of the earliest
electrum coins struck in
Ephesus, 620-600 BC. Obverse: Forepart of stag. Reverse: Square incuse punch.
Ionia
–
Northern Ionia, view from space.
Ionia
–
The site of
Miletus, once coastal, now inland. The plain was a bay in
Classical Greece.
32.
Corinth
–
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Corinth, of which it is the seat and it is the capital of Corinthia. It was founded as Nea Korinthos or New Corinth in 1858 after an earthquake destroyed the settlement of Corinth. Corinth derives its name from Ancient Corinth, a city-state of antiquity, in 1858, the old city, now known as Archaia Korinthos, located 3 kilometres SW of the modern city, was totally destroyed by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. Nea Korinthos or New Corinth was then built a few kilometers away on the coast of the Gulf of Corinth, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 1928 devastated the new city, which was then rebuilt on the same site. It was rebuilt again after a fire in 1933. The Municipality of Corinth had a population of 58,192 according to the 2011 census, the second most populous municipality in the Peloponnese Region after Kalamata. The municipal unit of Corinth had 38,132 inhabitants, of which Corinth itself had 30,176 inhabitants, placing it in place behind Kalamata. The municipal unit of Corinth includes apart from Corinth proper the town of Archaia Korinthos, the town of Examilia, the municipal unit has an area of 102.187 km2. Corinth is an industrial hub at a national level. Corinth Refineries are one of the largest oil refining Industrial complex in Europe, copper cables, petroleum products, leather, medical equipment, marble, gypsum, ceramic tiles, salt, mineral water and beverages, meat products, and gums are produced nearby. As of 2005, a period of deindustrialization has commenced as a large complex, a textile factory. Corinth is a road hub. The A7 toll motorway for Tripoli and Kalamata, branches off the A8/European route E94 toll motorway from Athens at Corinth, Corinth is the main entry point to the Peloponnesian peninsula, the southernmost area of continental Greece. KTEL Korinthias provides intercity bus service in the peninsula and to Athens via the Isthmos station southeast of the city center, local bus service is also available. The city has connected to the Proastiakos, the Athens suburban rail network, since 2005. The port of Corinth, located north of the city centre and close to the northwest entrance of the Corinth Canal, at 3756. 0’ N /2256. 0’ E, serves the needs of industry. It is mainly a cargo exporting facility and it is an artificial harbour (depth approximately 9 metres, protected by a concrete mole
Corinth
–
Corinth Κόρινθος
Corinth
–
Pegasus Square in New Corinth.
Corinth
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Pegasus - the symbol of New Corinth.
Corinth
–
A street in Corinth
33.
Thebes, Greece
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Thebes is a city in Boeotia, central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, Thebes was the largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a rival of ancient Athens, and sided with the Persians during the 480 BC invasion under Xerxes. Theban forces ended the power of Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC under the command of Epaminondas, the Sacred Band of Thebes famously fell at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC against Philip II and Alexander the Great. Prior to its destruction by Alexander in 335 BC, Thebes was a force in Greek history. During the Byzantine period, the city was famous for its silks, the modern city contains an Archaeological Museum, the remains of the Cadmea, and scattered ancient remains. Modern Thebes is the largest town of the unit of Boeotia. Thebes is situated in a plain, between Lake Yliki to the north, and the Cithaeron mountains, which divide Boeotia from Attica and its elevation is 215 metres above mean sea level. It is about 50 kilometres northwest of Athens, and 100 kilometres southeast of Lamia, motorway 1 and the Athens–Thessaloniki railway connect Thebes with Athens and northern Greece. The municipality of Thebes covers an area of 830.112 square kilometres, the unit of Thebes 321.015 square kilometres. In 2011, as a consequence of the Kallikratis reform, Thebes was merged with Plataies, Thisvi, and Vagia to form a larger municipality, the other three become units of the larger municipality. Five main cycles of story may be distinguished, The foundation of the citadel Cadmea by Cadmus, the building of a seven-gated wall by Amphion, and the cognate stories of Zethus, Antiope and Dirce. See Theban pederasty and Pederasty in ancient Greece for detailed discussion, the immolation of Semele and the advent of Dionysus. The Greeks attributed the foundation of Thebes to Cadmus, a Phoenician king from Tyre, Cadmus was famous for teaching the Phoenician alphabet and building the Acropolis, which was named the Cadmeia in his honor and was an intellectual, spiritual, and cultural center. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed cist graves dated to Mycenaean times containing weapons, ivory, *Tʰēgʷai in LHIIIB lost contact with Egypt but gained it with Miletus and Cyprus. In the late LHIIIB, according to Palaima, *Tʰēgʷai was able to pull resources from Lamos near Mount Helicon, and from Karystos and Amarynthos on the Greek side of the isle of Euboia. As a fortified community, it attracted attention from the invading Dorians, and this centralizing policy is as much the cardinal fact of Theban history as the counteracting effort of the smaller towns to resist absorption forms the main chapter of the story of Boeotia
Thebes, Greece
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Remains of the Cadmea, the central fortress of ancient Thebes
Thebes, Greece
–
Theban workshop (Oinochoe type), 7th century BC.
Thebes, Greece
–
Map of the Topography of Ancient Thebes.
Thebes, Greece
–
Silver
stater of Thebes (405-395 BC). Obverse: Boeotian shield, reverse: Head of bearded
Dionysus.
34.
Thucydides
–
Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC and his text is still studied at both universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue remains a work of international relations theory while Pericles Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history. More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians. In spite of his stature as a historian, modern historians know relatively little about Thucydidess life, the most reliable information comes from his own History of the Peloponnesian War, which expounds his nationality, paternity and native locality. Thucydides informs us that he fought in the war, contracted the plague and was exiled by the democracy and he may have also been involved in quelling the Samian Revolt. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, telling us that his fathers name was Olorus and he survived the Plague of Athens that killed Pericles and many other Athenians. He also records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle, because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides wrote, he was sent as a strategos to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424–423 BC, the Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, eucles, the Athenian commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help. Thus, when Thucydides arrived, Amphipolis was already under Spartan control, Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, and news of its fall caused great consternation in Athens. It was blamed on Thucydides, although he claimed that it was not his fault, using his status as an exile from Athens to travel freely among the Peloponnesian allies, he was able to view the war from the perspective of both sides. During his exile from Athens, Thucydides wrote his most famous work History of the Peloponnesian War, because he was in exile during this time, he was free to speak his mind. This is all that Thucydides wrote about his own life, but a few facts are available from reliable contemporary sources. Herodotus wrote that the name Olorus, Thucydidess fathers name, was connected with Thrace, Thucydides was probably connected through family to the Athenian statesman and general Miltiades, and his son Cimon, leaders of the old aristocracy supplanted by the Radical Democrats. Cimons maternal grandfathers name was also Olorus, making the connection exceedingly likely, another Thucydides lived before the historian and was also linked with Thrace, making a family connection between them very likely as well. Finally, Herodotus confirms the connection of Thucydidess family with the mines at Scapté Hýlē, in essence, he was a well-connected gentleman of considerable resources who, by then retired from the political and military spheres, decided to fund his own historical project. The remaining evidence for Thucydidess life comes from rather less reliable later ancient sources, pausanias goes on to say that Thucydides was murdered on his way back to Athens. Many doubt this account, seeing evidence to suggest he lived as late as 397 BC, Plutarch claims that his remains were returned to Athens and placed in Cimons family vault
Thucydides
–
Plaster cast bust of Thucydides (in the
Pushkin Museum). From a Roman copy (located at
Holkham Hall) of an early 4th Century BC Greek original.
Thucydides
–
The ruins of Amphipolis as envisaged by E. Cousinéry in 1831: the bridge over the Strymon, the city fortifications, and the acropolis
Thucydides
–
Bust of Pericles
Thucydides
–
The Acropolis in Athens
35.
Democracy
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Democracy, in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as rule of the majority, Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where political representatives were chosen by a jury from amongst the male citizens, rich and poor. The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French, in the 5th century BC, to denote the political systems then existing in Greek city-states, notably Athens, the term is an antonym to aristocracy, meaning rule of an elite. While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically, the political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In 1906, Finland became the first government to harald a more inclusive democracy at the national level. Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is held by an individual, as in an absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek philosophy, are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have mixed democratic, oligarchic, and monarchic elements. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders, No consensus exists on how to define democracy, but legal equality, political freedom and rule of law have been identified as important characteristics. These principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law, other uses of democracy include that of direct democracy. In some countries, notably in the United Kingdom which originated the Westminster system, in the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute. In India, parliamentary sovereignty is subject to the Constitution of India which includes judicial review, though the term democracy is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles also are applicable to private organisations. Majority rule is listed as a characteristic of democracy. Hence, democracy allows for political minorities to be oppressed by the tyranny of the majority in the absence of legal protections of individual or group rights. An essential part of a representative democracy is competitive elections that are substantively and procedurally fair, i. e. just. It has also suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of all voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. While representative democracy is sometimes equated with the form of government. Many democracies are constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom, the term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from demos, common people and kratos, strength, led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally held as the first democracy in 508–507 BC
Democracy
–
A woman casts her vote in the second round of the
2007 French presidential election.
Democracy
–
Cleisthenes, "father of
Athenian democracy ", modern bust.
Democracy
–
Magna Carta, 1215, England.
Democracy
–
The establishment of
universal male suffrage in France in 1848 was an important milestone in the history of democracy.
36.
Ancient Greek warfare
–
Warfare occurred throughout the history of ancient Greece, from the Greek Dark Ages onward. The Greek Dark Age drew to a close as a significant increase in population allowed urbanized culture to be restored and these developments ushered in the period of Archaic Greece. They also restored the capability of organized warfare between these Poleis, the fractious nature of Ancient Greek society seems to have made continuous conflict on this larger scale inevitable. Along with the rise of the city-state evolved a new style of warfare, Hoplites were armored infantryman, armed with spear and shield, and the phalanx was a formation of these soldiers with their shields locked together and spears pointed forward. The chigi vase, dated to around 650 BC, is the earliest depiction of a hoplite in full battle array, with this evolution in warfare, battles seem to have consisted mostly of the clash of hoplite phalanxes from the city-states in conflict. Since the soldiers were citizens with other occupations, warfare was limited in distance, season, neither side could afford heavy casualties or sustained campaigns, so conflicts seem to have been resolved by a single set-piece battle. The scale and scope of warfare in Ancient Greece changed dramatically as a result of the Greco-Persian Wars, 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, 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 powers of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos. Persia switched sides, which ended the war, in return for the cities of Ionia, the Spartan hegemony would last another 16 years, until, at the Battle of Leuctra the Spartans were decisively defeated by the Theban general Epaminondas. The Thebans acted with alacrity to establish a hegemony of their own over Greece, however, Thebes lacked sufficient manpower and resources, and became overstretched. Following the death of Epaminondas and loss of manpower at the Battle of Mantinea, the losses in the ten years of the Theban hegemony left all the Greek city-states weakened and divided. The city-states of southern Greece were too weak to resist the rise of the Macedonian kingdom in the north, with revolutionary tactics, King Phillip II brought most of Greece under his sway, paving the way for the conquest of the known world by his son Alexander the Great. The rise of the Macedonian Kingdom is generally taken to signal the beginning of the Hellenistic period, along with the rise of the city-state evolved a brand new style of warfare and the emergence of the hoplite. The hoplite was an infantryman, the element of warfare in Ancient Greece. The word hoplite derives from hoplon meaning an item of armor or equipment, Hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of the Ancient Greek City-states. They were primarily armed as spear-men and fought in a phalanx, Hoplite armor was extremely expensive for the average citizen, so it was commonly passed down from the soldiers father or relative
Ancient Greek warfare
–
Reconstruction of a Hoplite Phalanx formation
Ancient Greek warfare
–
A hoplite armed with an
aspis and a doru. nb: it is usually agreed that the doru could not be used two-handed with the aspis.
Ancient Greek warfare
–
The key actions of each phase
Ancient Greek warfare
–
Agrianian peltast holding three javelins, one in his throwing hand and two in his
pelte hand as additional ammunition
37.
City-states
–
A city-state is a sovereign state that consists of a city and its dependent territories. A great deal of consensus exists that the term applies to Singapore, Monaco. A number of small states share similar characteristics, and therefore are sometimes also cited as modern city-states. Occasionally, other states with high population densities, such as San Marino, are also cited. Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a degree of autonomy, and are sometimes considered city-states. Hong Kong and Macau, along with independent members of the United Arab Emirates, most notably Dubai, scholars have classed the Viking colonial cities in medieval Ireland, most importantly Dublin, as city-states. In Cyprus, the Phoenician settlement of Kition was a city-state that existed from around 800 BC until the end of the 4th century BC. The success of regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy and Greece. However, such small political entities often survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states, thus they inevitably gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation-state. In the history of Mainland Southeast Asia, aristocratic groups, Buddhist leaders, the system existed until the 19th century when colonization by European powers, and Thailands resulted in the adoption of the modern concept of statehood. In the Holy Roman Empire the Free Imperial Cities enjoyed a considerable autonomy, some, like the three Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, pooled their economic relations with foreign powers and were able to wield considerable diplomatic clout. Under Habsburg rule the city of Fiume had the status of a Corpus separatum, a later city-state, though lacking sovereignty, was West Berlin, being a state legally not belonging to any other state, but ruled by the Western Allies. They allowed – notwithstanding their overlordship as occupant powers – its internal organisation as one state simultaneously being a city, though West Berlin maintained close ties to the West German Federal Republic of Germany, it was legally never part of it. But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received, the war, and especially conscription, was nevertheless often unpopular in the city, sparking the deadly New York Draft Riots. The neighboring City of Brooklyn, in contrast, was staunchly Unionist, the Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 under the terms of Article 100 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. Its territory of 28 km2 comprised the city of Fiume and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy, the Shanghai International Settlement was an international zone with its own legal system, postal service, and currency. The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors
City-states
–
Monaco, an example of a city-state.
City-states
–
The
Republic of Ragusa, a maritime city-state, was based in the
walled city of
Dubrovnik.
City-states
–
Overview of Singapore's financial district
38.
Delos
–
The island of Delos, near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece. Delos had a position as a sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo. Established as a center, Delos had an importance that its natural resources could never have offered. Investigation of ancient stone huts found on the island indicate that it has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE, thucydides identifies the original inhabitants as piratical Carians who were eventually expelled by King Minos of Crete. By the time of the Odyssey the island was famous as the birthplace of the twin gods Apollo. Indeed, between 900 BCE and 100 CE, sacred Delos was a cult centre, where Dionysus is also in evidence as well as the Titaness Leto. Eventually acquiring Panhellenic religious significance, Delos was initially a religious pilgrimage for the Ionians, a number of purifications were executed by the city-state of Athens in an attempt to render the island fit for the proper worship of the gods. The first took place in the 6th century BC, directed by the tyrant Pisistratus who ordered that all graves within sight of the temple be dug up and the bodies moved to another nearby island. In the 5th century, during the 6th year of the Peloponnesian war and under instruction from the Delphic Oracle, immediately after this purification, the first quinquennial festival of the Delian games were celebrated there. The island had no capacity for food, fiber, or timber. Limited water was exploited with a cistern and aqueduct system, wells. Strabo states that in 166 BCE the Romans converted Delos into a free port, Roman traders came to purchase tens of thousands of slaves captured by the Cilician pirates or captured in the wars following the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire. It became the center of the trade, with the largest slave market in the larger region being maintained here. The island was attacked in 88 BCE by the troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus, an enemy of Rome. Another devastating attack was by pirates in 69 BCE, before the end of the 1st century BCE, trade routes had changed, Delos was replaced by Puteoli as the chief focus of Italian trade with the East, and as a cult-centre too it entered a sharp decline. Due to the history, Delos - unlike other Greek islands - did not have an indigenous. As a result, in times it became uninhabited. Since 1872 the École française dAthènes has been excavating the island, in 1990, UNESCO inscribed Delos on the World Heritage List, citing it as the exceptionally extensive and rich archaeological site which conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port
Delos
–
General view of Delos
Delos
–
The island of Delos,
Carl Anton Joseph Rottmann,1847.
Delos
–
The theatre.
Delos
–
Column with phallus at the
Stoivadeion
39.
Greco-Persian Wars
–
The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to rule the cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of trouble for the Greeks. This was the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, which would last until 493 BC, Aristagoras secured military support from Athens and Eretria, and in 498 BC these forces helped to capture and burn the Persian regional capital of Sardis. The Persian king Darius the Great vowed to have revenge on Athens, the revolt continued, with the two sides effectively stalemated throughout 497–495 BC. In 494 BC, the Persians regrouped, and attacked the epicentre of the revolt in Miletus, at the Battle of Lade, the Ionians suffered a decisive defeat, and the rebellion collapsed, with the final members being stamped out the following year. In 490 BC a second force was sent to Greece, this time across the Aegean Sea, under the command of Datis and this expedition subjugated the Cyclades, before besieging, capturing and razing Eretria. However, while en route to attack Athens, the Persian force was defeated by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. Darius then began to plan to completely conquer Greece, but died in 486 BC, in 480 BC, Xerxes personally led the second Persian invasion of Greece with one of the largest ancient armies ever assembled. Victory over the allied Greek states at the famous Battle of Thermopylae allowed the Persians to torch an evacuated Athens, however, while seeking to destroy the combined Greek fleet, the Persians suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Salamis. The following year, the confederated Greeks went on the offensive, defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea, the allied Greeks followed up their success by destroying the rest of the Persian fleet at the Battle of Mycale, before expelling Persian garrisons from Sestos and Byzantium. The Delian League continued to campaign against Persia for the three decades, beginning with the expulsion of the remaining Persian garrisons from Europe. At the Battle of the Eurymedon in 466 BC, the League won a victory that finally secured freedom for the cities of Ionia. However, the Leagues involvement in an Egyptian revolt resulted in a disastrous defeat, a Greek fleet was sent to Cyprus in 451 BC, but achieved little, and when it withdrew the Greco-Persian Wars drew to a quiet end. Some historical sources suggest the end of hostilities was marked by a treaty between Athens and Persia, the Peace of Callias. Almost all the sources for the Greco-Persian Wars are Greek. By some distance, the source for the Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus
Greco-Persian Wars
–
Greek
hoplite (right) and Persian soldier (left) depicted fighting, on an ancient
kylix, 5th century BC
Greco-Persian Wars
–
Herodotus, the main historical source for this conflict
Greco-Persian Wars
–
Thucydides continued Herodotus's narrative
Greco-Persian Wars
–
Persian (and Median) warriors
40.
Second Persian invasion of Greece
–
The second Persian invasion of Greece occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece at the Battle of Marathon, after Dariuss death, his son Xerxes spent several years planning for the second invasion, mustering an enormous army and navy. The Athenians and Spartans led the Greek resistance, about a tenth of the Greek city-states joined the Allied effort, most remained neutral or submitted to Xerxes. The invasion began in spring 480 BC, when the Persian army crossed the Hellespont and marched through Thrace and Macedon to Thessaly. At the famous Battle of Thermopylae, the Allied army held back the Persian army for seven days, before they were outflanked by a mountain path and the Allied rearguard was trapped and annihilated. The Allied fleet had also withstood two days of Persian attacks at the Battle of Artemisium, but when news reached them of the disaster at Thermopylae, after Thermopylae, all of Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persian army, which captured and burnt Athens. However, a larger Allied army fortified the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, both sides thus sought a naval victory that might decisively alter the course of the war. The following spring, the Allies assembled the largest ever hoplite army, at the ensuing Battle of Plataea, the Greek infantry again proved its superiority, inflicting a severe defeat on the Persians and killing Mardonius in the process. On the same day, across the Aegean Sea an Allied navy destroyed the remnants of the Persian navy at the Battle of Mycale, with this double defeat, the invasion was ended, and Persian power in the Aegean severely dented. The Greeks would now move to the offensive, eventually expelling the Persians from Europe, the main source for the Great Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus. Herodotus, who has called the Father of History, was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus. He wrote his Enquiries around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, Herodotuss approach was entirely novel, and at least in Western society, he does seem to have invented history as we know it. Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, nevertheless, Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off, and therefore evidently felt that Herodotuss history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe, however, since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds that have repeatedly confirmed his version of events. The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a job in his Historia. Nevertheless, there are some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story. This account is consistent with Herodotuss. The Greco-Persian wars are also described in detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias
Second Persian invasion of Greece
–
The pass of Thermopylae
Second Persian invasion of Greece
–
Second Persian invasion of Greece
Second Persian invasion of Greece
–
Greek Trireme
Second Persian invasion of Greece
–
The
Serpent Column, a monument dedicated by the victorious Allies
41.
Pentecontaetia
–
The term originated with a scholiast on Thucydides, who used it in their description of the period. The Pentecontaetia was marked by the rise of Athens as the dominant state in the Greek world, since Thucydides focused his account on these developments, the term is generally used when discussing developments in and involving Athens. Shortly after the Greek victory of 479 BC, Athens assumed the leadership of the Delian League and this league experienced a number of successes and was soon established as the dominant military force of the Aegean. The later years of the Pentecontaetia were marked by increasing conflict between Athens and the traditional powers of Greece, led by Sparta. Between 460 BC and 445 BC, Athens fought a coalition of mainland powers in what is now known as the First Peloponnesian War. During the course of conflict, Athens gained and then lost control of large areas of central Greece. The conflict was concluded by the Thirty Years Peace, which lasted until the end of the Pentecontaetia, the eventual breakdown of the peace was triggered by increasing conflict between Athens and several of Spartas allies. Athens alliance with Corcyra and attack on Potidaea enraged Corinth, and these disputes, along with a general perception that Athenian power had grown too powerful, led to the breakdown of the Thirty Years Peace, the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC. 479—Rebuilding of Athens, Although the Greeks were victorious in the Persian War and this led Athens to rebuild its long walls that were razed by the Persian Army during the occupation of Attica in 480. 478—Formation of the Delian League, Athens and other city states form a coalition against Persia, 477—The Conquest of Eion, Cimon, the son of Mitiades of Marathon fame, led Athens to numerous victorious campaigns and war profits. In 477, he led an army against Persian-occupied Eion in northern Greece, Athens was able to benefit from this invasion since the region was rich in timber, which was critical to building Athens burgeoning naval fleet. 476—The Conquest of Scyros, The invasions continued with success on a par with Cimons prior campaigns, in 476, Athens fought against the pirates of Scyros, as the Delian League wanted to reduce piracy around the region and capture the important materials for itself. 469—Operation in Asia Minor and the Battle of Eurymedon, From the beginning of 469 to 466, Cimon persuaded Greek settlements on the Carian and Lycian coast to rebel against Persia. This led the Persian army to mobilize a force to fight Cimon in the Battle of Eurymedon in Pamphylsia, Cimon was able to swiftly defeat the Persian army and the war profits were used to finance Athens city walls. 465—Operations in Northern Greece, Athens powers and desire for expansion grow, in 465, after cleruchizing the Chersonese, they tried to gain control of Thasos. Thucydides wrote that Sparta contemplated an invasion of Attica in order to help free Thasos, however, in the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake and subsequent helot uprising in Sparta, no attack—if indeed such was projected—was launched. 461—The Debate in Athens over Helping Sparta, With a legion of Helots rebelling against Sparta, According to Thucydides, Sparta decided to dismiss Cimons Athenian Army, because they felt that Athens would convince the Helots on Ithome to form a coalition and besiege Sparta. Spartans did not feel comfortable with such a large Athenian force inside their city, if the Athenians were to turn their backs on Sparta, the city would not be able to protect itself
Pentecontaetia
–
The
Delian League before the outbreak of the
Peloponnesian War in 431 BC.
42.
Athenian Empire
–
Shortly after its inception, Athens began to use the Leagues navy for its own purposes. This behavior frequently led to conflict between Athens and the powerful members of the League. The Greco-Persian Wars had their roots in the conquest of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule, eventually settling for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city. While Greek states had in the past often been ruled by tyrants, by 500 BC, Ionia appears to have been ripe for rebellion against these Persian clients. The simmering tension finally broke into open revolt due to the actions of the tyrant of Miletus, attempting to save himself after a disastrous Persian-sponsored expedition in 499 BC, Aristagoras chose to declare Miletus a democracy. This triggered similar revolutions across Ionia, extending to Doris and Aeolis, after this, the Ionian revolt carried on for a further five years, until it was finally completely crushed by the Persians. The Ionian revolt had severely threatened the stability of Dariuss empire, Darius thus began to contemplate the complete conquest of Greece, beginning with the destruction of Athens and Eretria. In the next two decades there would be two Persian invasions of Greece, occasioning, thanks to Greek historians, some of the most famous battles in history. During the first invasion, Thrace, Macedon and the Aegean Islands were added to the Persian Empire, however, the invasion ended in 490 BC with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon. Between the two invasions, Darius died, and responsibility for the war passed to his son Xerxes I, Xerxes then personally led a second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, taking an enormous army and navy to Greece. Those Greeks who chose to resist were defeated in the simultaneous battles of Thermopylae on land. The following year,479 BC, the Allies assembled the largest Greek army yet seen and defeated the Persian invasion force at the Battle of Plataea, ending the invasion and the threat to Greece. The Allied fleet defeated the remnants of the Persian fleet in the Battle of Mycale near the islands of Salamis—on the same day as Plataea and this action marks the end of the Persian invasion, and the beginning of the next phase in the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek counterattack. After Mycale, the Greek cities of Asia Minor again revolted, the Allied fleet then sailed to the Thracian Chersonese, still held by the Persians, and besieged and captured the town of Sestos. The following year,478 BC, the Allies sent a force to capture the city of Byzantion, the siege was successful, but the behaviour of the Spartan general Pausanias alienated many of the Allies, and resulted in Pausaniass recall. After Byzantion, Sparta was eager to end its involvement in the war, the Spartans were of the view that, with the liberation of mainland Greece, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the wars purpose had already been reached. There was also perhaps a feeling that establishing long-term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible, in the aftermath of Mycale, the Spartan king Leotychides had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion. Xanthippus, the Athenian commander at Mycale, had rejected this, the Ionian cities had been Athenian colonies
Athenian Empire
–
Delian League, before the
Peloponnesian War in 431 BC.
43.
Hoplites
–
Hoplites were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers utilized the phalanx formation in order to be effective in war with fewer soldiers, the hoplites were primarily represented by free citizens—propertied farmers and artisans—who were able to afford the bronze armour suit and weapons. Hoplites were not professional soldiers and often lacked sufficient military training, although some states did maintain a small elite professional unit, hoplite soldiers were relied on heavily and made up the bulk of ancient Greek armies of the time. In the 8th or 7th century BC, Greek armies adopted a military innovation known as the phalanx formation, the formation proved successful in defeating the Persians when employed by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC during the First Greco-Persian War. The phalanx was also employed by the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. The word hoplite derives from hoplon, the name for the type of shield used by the soldiers, however, the shield was more commonly known as an aspis, so the word hopla may refer to the soldiers weapons or even their full armament. In the modern Hellenic Army, the word hoplite is used to refer to an infantryman, the fragmented political structure of Ancient Greece, with many competing city-states, increased the frequency of conflict, but at the same time limited the scale of warfare. Limited manpower did not allow most Greek city-states to form armies which could operate for long periods because they were generally not formed from professional soldiers. Most soldiers had careers as farmers or workers and returned to these professions after the campaign, all hoplites were expected to take part in any military campaign when called for duty by leaders of the state. This inevitably reduced the duration of campaigns and often resulted in the campaign season being restricted to one summer. Armies generally marched directly to their destination, and in cases the battlefield was agreed to by the contestants in advance. Battles were fought on ground, and hoplites preferred to fight with high terrain on both sides of the phalanx so the formation could not be flanked. An example of this was the Battle of Thermopylae, where the Spartans specifically chose a narrow pass to make their stand against the massive Persian army. The vastly outnumbered Greeks held off the Persians for seven days, when battles occurred, they were usually set piece and intended to be decisive. The battlefield would be flat and open to facilitate phalanx warfare and these battles were usually short and required a high degree of discipline. At least in the classical period, when cavalry was present, its role was restricted to protection of the flanks of the phalanx, pursuit of a defeated enemy. Light infantry and missile troops took part in the battles but their role was less important, before the the opposing phalanxes engaged, the light troops would skirmish with the enemies light forces, and then protect the flanks and rear of the phalanx. The military structure created by the Spartans was a phalanx formation
Hoplites
–
Hoplites on an
aryballos from Corinth, c. 580–560 BC (
Louvre)
Hoplites
–
Crouching warrior,
tondo of an
Attic black-figure kylix, c. 560 BC (
Staatliche Antikensammlungen)
Hoplites
–
Hoplites shown in two attack positions, with both an overhand and underhand thrust
Hoplites
–
Phalanx fighting on a black-figure
amphora, c. 560 BC
44.
Naupactus
–
Nafpaktos is a town and a former municipality in Aetolia-Acarnania, West Greece, Greece, situated on a bay on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth,3 km west of the mouth of the river Mornos. It is named for Naupaktos, an important Athenian naval station in the Peloponnesian war, as a strategically crucial possession controlling access to the Gulf of Corinth, Naupactus changed hands many times during the Crusades and the Ottoman–Venetian Wars. It was under Venetian control in the 15th century, and came to be known by the Venetian form of its name, excepting a brief period of Venetian control in 1687–1699, Lepanto remained under Ottoman control until Greek independence in 1829. The modern municipality was incorporated in 1946, but merged into the larger Nafpaktia municipality in the 2010 reform, Nafpaktos is now both the name of a municipal unit within Nafpaktia and of the town proper within the Nafpaktos unit. The municipal district has an area of 159,947 square kilometres, the town is 9 km northeast of Antirrio,18 km northeast of Patras,35 km east of Missolonghi and 45 km southeast of Agrinio. The Greek National Road 48/E65 passes north of the town and it is the second largest town of Aetolia-Acarnania, after Agrinio. The ancient name Naupaktos means boatyard and it was later Latinized as Naupactus. By the late period, the local name had been corrupted to Nepahtos, Epaktos or Epahtos. By the Franks it was called Neopant, Nepant or Lepant, french sources of the 14th century give Nepant or Neopant, Venetian sources have Nepanto or Lepanto. The name was adapted in Ottoman Turkish from Greek Νέπαχτος as Aynabahti or İnebahtı, the ancient name was revived in modern Greece in the 19th century. In Greek legend, Naupactus is the place where the Heraclidae built a fleet to invade the Peloponnese, two major battles were fought here. In 404 it was restored to the Locrians, who subsequently lost it to the Achaeans, Philip II of Macedon gave Naupactus to the Aetolians, who held it till 191 BC, when after an obstinate siege it was surrendered to the Romans. It was still flourishing about 170, the Roman playwright Plautus mentions Naupactus in his comedy Miles Gloriosus as the destination of an Athenian master who is on a diplomatic mission to the city. In 551/2, during the reign of Justinian I, the city was destroyed by an earthquake, the town and its hinterland were hit by an epidemic coming from Italy in 747/8 and almost deserted. From the late 9th century, probably the 880s, it was capital of the Byzantine thema of Nicopolis, at the same time, its bishopric was elevated to a metropolis. During the 9th–10th centuries, the town was an important harbour for the Byzantine navy, a rebellion of the local populace, which led to the death of the local strategos George, is recorded during the early reign of Constantine VIII. In 1040, the town did not take part in the uprising of Peter Delyan, St. Nicholas of Trani is recorded as having departed for Otranto in 1094 from the port. The history of the town over the two centuries is obscure, during the visit of Benjamin of Tudela in 1165, there was a Jewish community of about 100 in the town
Naupactus
–
Nafpaktos; view from the fortress.
Naupactus
–
The Venetian fortress.
Naupactus
–
The Battle of Lepanto,
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich/London.
Naupactus
–
View of the port.
45.
Corinthian Gulf
–
The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. The gulf is in tectonic movement comparable to movement in parts of Iceland and Turkey, in medieval times, the gulf was known as the Gulf of Lepanto. Shipping routes between the Greek commercial port Pireus to western Mediterranean and hemisphere ports pass along this gulf, a further crossing in the form of ferry links Aigio and Agios Nikolaos, towards the western part of the gulf. Length,130 km Width,8.4 to 32 km Max Depth 935 m The gulf was created by the expansion of a tectonic rift due to the movement of the Anatolian Plate. The surrounding faults can produce earthquakes up to magnitude 6.8, cetaceans such as fin whales or dolphins are known to come into the Corinthian gulf occasionally
Corinthian Gulf
–
The Peloponnesos, seen from space rotated to conventional map orientation. The seas are dark around the peninsula, reflecting their depth and the top-centre wide inlet is the Gulf of Corinth
Corinthian Gulf
–
Gulf of Corinth from Acrocorinth
Corinthian Gulf
–
Corinth Canal
Corinthian Gulf
–
Rio-Antirio Bridge
46.
Megara
–
Megara is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four sons of King Pandion II. Megara was also a port, its people using their ships. Megara specialized in the exportation of wool and other products including livestock such as horses. It possessed two harbors, Pegae, to the west on the Corinthian Gulf and Nisaea, to the east on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. In historical times, Megara was a dependency of Corinth, in which capacity colonists from Megara founded Megara Hyblaea. Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards founded Chalcedon in 685 BC, Megara is known to have early ties with Miletos, in the region of Caria in Asia Minor. According to some scholars, they had built up a “colonisation alliance”, in the 7th/6th century BCE these two cities acted in concordance with each other. Both cities acted under the leadership and sanction of an Apollo oracle, Megara cooperated with that of Delphi. Miletos had her own oracle of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in Didyma, also, there are many parallels in the political organisation of both cities. In the late 7th century BC Theagenes established himself as tyrant of Megara by slaughtering the cattle of the rich to win over the poor, during the second Persian invasion of Greece Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such as Salamis and Plataea. Megaras defection from the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League became one of the causes of the First Peloponnesian War, by the terms of the Thirty Years Peace of 446-445 BC Megara was returned to the Peloponnesian League. In the Peloponnesian War, Megara was an ally of Sparta, the Megarian decree is considered to be one of several contributing causes of the Peloponnesian War. Athens issued the Megarian decree with the aim of choking out the Megarian economy, the decree banned Megarian merchants from territory controlled by Athens. The Athenians claimed that they were responding to the Megarians desecration of the Hiera Orgas, arguably the most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was Byzas, the legendary founder of Byzantium in the 7th century BC. The 6th-century BC poet Theognis also came from Megara, in the early 4th century BC, Euclid of Megara founded the Megarian school of philosophy which flourished for about a century, and which became famous for the use of logic and dialectic. In 243 BC Megara expelled its Macedonian garrison and joined the Achaean League, the Megarians were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples
Megara
–
Megara Μέγαρα
47.
Ancient Corinth
–
Corinth was a city-state on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta. The modern town of Corinth is located approximately 5 kilometres northeast of the ancient ruins, for Christians, Corinth is well-known from the two letters of Saint Paul in the New Testament, First Corinthians and Second Corinthians. Corinth is also mentioned in the Book of Acts as part of the Apostle Pauls missionary travels, in addition, the second book of Pausanias Description of Greece is devoted to Corinth. Ancient Corinth was one of the largest and most important cities of Greece, the Romans demolished Corinth in 146 BC, built a new city in its place in 44 BC, and later made it the provincial capital of Greece. According to Hellenic myth, the city was founded by Corinthos, however, other myths suggest that it was founded by the goddess Ephyra, a daughter of the Titan Oceanus, thus the ancient name of the city. There is evidence that the city was destroyed around 2000 BC, some ancient names for the place are derived from a pre-Greek Pelasgian language, such as Korinthos. It seems likely that Corinth was also the site of a Bronze Age Mycenaean palace-city, like Mycenae, Tiryns, according to myth, Sisyphus was the founder of a race of ancient kings at Corinth. It was also in Corinth that Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, during the Trojan War, as portrayed in the Iliad, the Corinthians participated under the leadership of Agamemnon. In a Corinthian myth recounted to Pausanias in the 2nd century AD, Briareus and his verdict was that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth belonged to Helios. Thus, Greeks of the Classical age accounted for the cult of the sun-titan in the highest part of the site. The Upper Peirene spring is located within the walls of the acropolis, the spring, which is behind the temple, they say was the gift of Asopus to Sisyphus. The latter knew, so runs the legend, that Zeus had ravished Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, Corinth had been a backwater in 8th-century Greece. The Bacchiadae were a tightly-knit Doric clan and the kinship group of archaic Corinth in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. In 747 BC, an aristocratic revolution ousted the Bacchiad kings and they dispensed with kingship and ruled as a group, governing the city by annually electing a prytanis, probably a council, and a polemarchos to head the army. During Bacchiad rule from 747 to 650 BC, Corinth became a unified state, large scale public buildings and monuments were constructed at this time. In 733 BC, Corinth established colonies at Corcyra and Syracuse, by 730 BC, Corinth emerged as a highly advanced Greek city with at least 5,000 people. Aristotle tells the story of Philolaus of Corinth, a Bacchiad who was a lawgiver at Thebes and he became the lover of Diocles, the winner of the Olympic games. They both lived for the rest of their lives in Thebes and their tombs were built near one another and Philolaus tomb points toward the Corinthian country, while Diocles faces away
Ancient Corinth
–
Apollo Temple has been built in Doric style on the ruins of earlier temple, being a good example of peripteral temple, supported by 38 columns, only 7 of which are still in place.
Ancient Corinth
–
Archeological site located close to Temple of Apollo.
Ancient Corinth
–
Archeological site of Ancient Theater first built in Corinth in 5th c. BC. The Theater could seat around 15000 spectators.
Ancient Corinth
–
Temple of
Apollo, Ancient Corinth.
48.
Isthmus of Corinth
–
The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word isthmus comes from the Ancient Greek word for neck, the Isthmus was known in the ancient world as the landmark separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. In the first century CE the geographer Strabo noted a stele on the Isthmus of Corinth, to the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of Corinth, to the east the Saronic Gulf. Since 1893 the Corinth Canal has run through the 6.3 km wide isthmus, today, two road bridges, two railway bridges and two submersible bridges at both ends of the canal connect the mainland side of the isthmus with the Peloponnese side. Also a military emergency bridge is located at the west end of the canal, the idea for a shortcut to save boats sailing all round the Peloponnese was long considered by the Ancient Greeks. The first attempt to build a canal there was carried out by the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC and he abandoned the project owing to technical difficulties, and instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland stone ramp, named Diolkos, as a portage road. Remnants of Diolkos still exist today next to the modern canal, when the Romans took control of Greece, a number of different solutions were tried. Julius Caesar foresaw the advantages of a link for his newly built Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis, by the reign of Tiberius, engineers tried to dig a canal, but were defeated by lack of modern equipment. Instead they built an Ancient Egyptian device, boats were rolled across the isthmus on logs and this was in use by AD32. In AD67, the philhellene Roman emperor Nero ordered 6,000 slaves to dig a canal with spades, historian Flavius Josephus writes that the 6000 slaves were Jewish pirates, taken captive by Vespasian during the Jewish wars. According to Pliny the Elder, the work advanced four stadia, the following year Nero died, and his successor Galba abandoned the project as being too expensive. In the modern era, the idea was first seriously proposed in 1830, soon after Greeces independence from the Ottoman Empire, near the canal runs an ancient stone trackway, the Diolkos, once used for dragging ships overland. There are major concerns about preservation of this path, Greek campaigners are calling for greater effort by the Greek government to protect this archaeological site. The Hexamilion wall is a Roman defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth guarding the land route into the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece
Isthmus of Corinth
–
Aerial photography of the isthmus of Corinth.
Isthmus of Corinth
–
Sailing through the isthmus of Corinth, using the
Corinth Canal.
Isthmus of Corinth
–
The submersible bridge at the Aegean side of canal
Isthmus of Corinth
–
The Peloponnese seen from space, with the Isthmus of Corinth at upper right
49.
Aegina
–
Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf,27 kilometres from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina the mother of the hero Aeacus, during ancient times Aegina was a rival of Athens, the great sea power of the era. The municipality of Aegina consists of the island of Aegina and a few offshore islets and it is part of the Islands regional unit, Attica region. The municipality is subdivided into the five communities, Aegina Kypseli Mesagros Perdika Vathy The capital is the town of Aegina. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a vacation place during the summer months. The province of Aegina was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture and its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Aegina and Agkistri. Aegina is roughly triangular in shape, approximately 15 km from east to west and 10 km from north to south, with an area of 87.41 km2, an extinct volcano constitutes two thirds of Aegina. Economically, the fisheries are of notable importance. The southern volcanic part of the island is rugged and mountainous and its highest rise is the conical Mount Oros in the south, and the Panhellenian ridge stretches northward with narrow fertile valleys on either side. The beaches are also a popular tourist attraction, hydrofoil ferries from Piraeus take only forty minutes to reach Aegina, the regular ferry takes about an hour, with ticket prices for adults within the 4–15 euro range. There are regular bus services from Aegina town to destinations throughout the island such as Agia Marina, portes is a fishing village on the east coast. Aegina, according to Herodotus, was a colony of Epidaurus and its placement between Attica and the Peloponnesus made it a site of trade even earlier, and its earliest inhabitants allegedly came from Asia Minor. Minoan ceramics have been found in contexts of ca.2000 BC, the famous Aegina Treasure, now in the British Museum is estimated to date between 1700 and 1500 BC. It is probable that the island was not doricised before the 9th century BC. e. not later than the half of the 7th century BC. Its early history reveals that the importance of the island dates back to pre-Dorian times. It is usually stated on the authority of Ephorus, that Pheidon of Argos established a mint in Aegina, the first city-state to issue coins in Europe, one stamped stater can be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. It is an electrum stater of a turtle, a sacred to Aphrodite. The fact that the Aeginetic standard of weights and measures was one of the two standards in use in the Greek world is sufficient evidence of the early commercial importance of the island
Aegina
–
View of Aegina's seafront
Aegina
–
A panorama of the island of Aegina, from the Mediterranean sea.
Aegina
–
Silver
stater of Aegina, 550-530 BC. Obv.
Sea turtle with large pellets down center. Rev. incuse square with eight sections.
Aegina
–
Silver
drachma of Aegina, 404-340 BC. Obverse: Land
tortoise. Reverse: inscription ΑΙΓ(INA) "Aegina" and dolphin.
50.
Boeotia
–
Boeotia, sometimes alternatively Latinised as Beotia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece and it was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its largest city is Thebes, Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It also has a coastline on the Gulf of Euboea. It bordered on Megaris in the south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in the northeast, Opuntian Locris in the north and Phocis in the west. The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and its longest river, the Cephissus, flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found. Lake Copais was a lake in the center of Boeotia. It was drained in the 19th century, lake Yliki is a large lake near Thebes. The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia, associated with the city of Orchomenus, were called Minyans, pausanias mentions that Minyans established the maritime Ionian city of Teos, and occupied the islands of Lemnos and Thera. The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans, also, according to legend the citizens of Thebes paid an annual tribute to their king Erginus. The early wealth and power of Boeotia is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its cities, especially Orchomenus, the origin of the name Boeotians may lie in the mountain Boeon in Epirus. Some toponyms and the common Aeolic dialect indicate that the Boeotians were related to the Thessalians and they moved south and settled in another rich plain, while others filtered across the Aegean and settled on Lesbos and in Aeolis in Asia Minor. Others are said to have stayed in Thessaly, withdrawing into the hill country, many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their form during the Mycenean age when the Mycenean Greeks established themselves in Boeotia. Many of them are related to the myths of Argos, and others indicate connections with Phoenicia, Boeotia was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at Lebadea. Graea, an ancient city in Boeotia, is thought to be the origin of the Latin word Graecus, from which English derives the words Greece. The major poets Hesiod and Pindar were Boeotians, on the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development. The importance of the legendary Minyae has been confirmed by archaeological remains, the Boeotian population entered the land from the north possibly before the Dorian invasion
Boeotia
–
Mount Helicon
Boeotia
–
Municipalities of Boeotia
Boeotia
–
18th century map of ancient Boeotia.
Boeotia
–
Ruins of the Cadmeia, the central fortress of ancient
Thebes.
_-_Thucydides.jpg)
"Peloponnesian War". Encyclopædia Britannica. 21 (11th ed.). 1911.
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