The Persian Wars

To gain control over Aegean Sea, Persian king Darius (521-486 B.C.E) sent an expedition to Athenian Empire.

A Persian victory would have destroyed Athenian culture and freedom, but Athenians won a decisive victory over Persians.

The defeat of Marathon did not stop Persians.

Persians, in 481 B.C.E., Darius’ successor gathered an army of at least 150 000 and a navy of more than 600 ships for conquest of Greece.

The fight harmed both side greatly and Persians burned Athens.

Though the war was indecisive.

After a-2-year or so of the fight, on and off, Persians fled the Aegean and Ionia. Greeks distanced the Persian threat for a while.

Athenian Empire Democracy  Athenians had the freest government the world had yet

seen.

In theory, everyone was equal.

There were jury services that everyone, including poor people could serve.

To benefit from the laws and given rights, someone would need to be citizen and citizenship was sharply restricted.

Those who had two citizen parents could be citizen.

Benefiting from democracy and engaging in political decisions was for citizens.

This made citizenship a valuable commodity.

Participation in government in all Greek states was denied to slaves, resident aliens, and women.

Direct democracy was the way to make decisions.

Popular majority would make the decisions, not the representatives.

Every court decision was subject to appeal.

The appeal court was consisting of 51 jurors chosen from annual panel representing Athenian male population.

Most officials were selected by the majority, regardless of their class.

The main elected official, such as the generals and the imperial treasurers, were generally nobles and almost always rich men, but the people were free to choose others.

All officials were subject to scrutiny before taking office and after leaving office.

There was no standing army, no police force in Athenian Empire.

Women of Athens

As it was normal back then, and still to some extent, Greek society was dominated by men.

Women were to do house chore and they could not participate in the political process including voting or being candidate for an office.

Marriages were arranged; the woman normally had no choice of husband.

Divorce was hard for woman. A male guardian should accept her divorce only then she could divorce.

The dowry is returned with her once she is divorced.

Male heirs were important and a woman’s job was to give her husband boys.

An unnoticed woman is always desirable. “The greatest glory of women is to be least talked about by men, whether for good or bad.”

Culture of Classical Greece

This, classical age was golden age of Athenian civilization, 4th and 5th century B.C.E.

The greatest achievements of this era were the philosophical works of Socrates (469-399 B.C.E), Plato, and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.).

Arts and sciences developed rapidly.

Plays, comedy plays, drama, poetry, architecture and sculpture gained momentum.

Emergence of the Hellenistic World

The term Hellenistic was coined in 19th century to describe a period of 3 centuries during which Greek culture spreaded from its natural homeland to Egypt and far into Asia, up to Indian frontier and Central Asia.

This culture was mix of Greek, Egyptian and Persian culture.

Its roots go back to dynasty in Macedonia whose armies conquered Greece, Egypt, Persia and inner Asia.

Macedonian Conquest

The Macedonians were the same stock as the Greek and spoke a Greek dialect.

Macedonian nobles thought of themselves as Greek.

They were allowed by Greeks to participate in the Olympic Games.

They were semi-barbaric. The ruler was a king and the government structure was different than those of Greek Poleis.

The throne was passed over from father to son, but there was a council of nobles who would check on the royal power and could reject a weak person to be king.

The Macedonian King Philip defeated the allied forces of Greece in 338 B.C.E. and took over Greece and ended the Greek freedom and autonomy.

Philip’s first son, Alexander III (356-323 B.C.E) succeeded his father at the age of 20.

He continued on his father’s plan to conquest Persia.

His army consisted of about 30 000 infantry and 5000 cavalry, without a navy force or enough funds started the journey to destroy Persia.

He was a brave and brilliant commander, considering his age. In 334 B.C.E. he defeated Persian army in the coast of Asia Minor.

He continued his march to Syria and defeated the main Persian forces in Syria in 333 B.C.E.

From there he took over Egypt.

Created the city of Alexandria there and was greeted as liberator and son of Egyptian god Re.

Alexander the Great marched into Mesopotamia in 331 B.C.E.

There, he defeated the Persian King Darius and took over the region.

In 330, he came to the capital city of Persia and burned it down.

From Persia, he made his way to frontier of India and Samarkand with a notion of conquering the world.

This great talent and bastion of bravery got fever and died in Babylon at the age of 33 in 323 B.C.E.

It is claimed that some worshiped him at the time and he asked people to do so. He never lost a battle or a siege.

There have been 70 cities established on trade routes by Alexander the Great.

Hellenistic culture spreaded after Alexander’s death.

New schools of philosophy, such as Epicureans and the Stoics emerged during Hellenistic times.

Epicureans were interested more in happiness than knowledge. An Athenian school of thought (342-271).

Happiness could be achieved through life based on reason.

This group of people believed that gods had nothing to do with human affairs and human body consists of atoms and they disperse after death and person has no existence and there will be no punishment after death.

They were considered atheists.

People should stay away from gods and supernatural powers if they like to be happy.

They advised people against marriage and children.

If they want to be happy and pain free they need to stay away from disturbing things.

Stoics School of Thought (335-263 B.C.E.) sought the happiness too, but they were more like a religion.

According to their philosophy the god and the nature are same and to achieve happiness people need to be in harmony with nature and with themselves.

The guiding reason is divine reason or fire.

Literature, Science and Art  During the Hellenistic time in 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.E.

the literary center was Alexandria, Egypt.

There was a great museum where scholars could do research and a library with half a million volume of books.

Those resources are source of our knowledge about those ancient times.

Sculpture and architecture were carrying the feature of mixture of cultures.

New temples and new cities were built and they created in a way that reflected characteristics of Hellenistic culture.

Greek science was spreaded by scholars to those areas conquered by Alexander the Great.

Romans were particularly impressed by Hellenistic culture and spreaded it across the Mediterranean world and transmitted it to later generations in the western world.