HIS101 Test 1 Notes Antiquity Homer The Iliad Story of the Trojan War o War sparked by Paris a prince of Troy o Paris kidnapped Helen wife of the king of the Greek state Sparta outraging the Greeks o Under the leadership of the Spartan king s brother Agamemnon of Mycenae the Greeks attacked Troy o The Greeks win 10 years later and sacked the city Achilles rage undermines the Greek s efforts against the heroic Trojans o The wrath of Achilles led to disaster Defines the hero warrior ideal Personal honor perseverance strength The gods interfere The Odyssey Story of Odysseus s return from Troy to his wife Penelope after the Trojan War The Trojan horse the Cyclops the land of the Lotus Eaters Circe Calypso Scylla and Charybdis Defines the crafty hero ideal Familial bonds loyalty perseverance hospitality wit cleverness The gods are in the background of the action Homer s Influence The Greeks regarded the Iliad and the Odyssey as authentic history These works give Greeks an ideal past with a cast of heroes and came to be used as standard texts for the education of generations of Greek males The values Homer taught were essentially the aristocratic values of courage and honor o A hero strives for excellence arete won from a struggle or contest Through his willingness to fight the hero protects his family and friends preserves his own honor and that of his family and earns his reputation Women were also expected to pursue excellence E g Penelope in Odyssey who remains faithful to her husband and displays great courage and intelligence in preserving their household during his long absence Gained power in 508 B C E with the backing of the Athenian people after the rule of Pisistratus His reforms laid the foundations for Athenian democracy Cleisthenes and Hippa 1 HIS101 Test 1 Notes Antiquity His Reforms Reorganized all Athenians into 10 tribes not based on family lines Divided all of Attica s citizens into 139 demes o This made the 10 tribes contain a cross section of the population and reflected all of Attica o It gave local areas a basic role in the political structure Expanded the council from 400 to 500 50 from each familial tribe The council of 500 was responsible for the administration of both foreign and financial affairs and prepared the business that would be handled by the assembly 201 5001 citizens were jurors decided trials The Persian War At least some Greeks saw the struggle with the Persians as a contest between freedom and slavery o To the Greeks a person was a citizen of the state not a subject The Ionian Greek cities in S W Asia Minor had fallen subject to the Persian Empire in mid 6th century They had an unsuccessful revolt in 499 B C E assisted by the Athenian navy led the Persian ruler Darius to seek revenge by attacking the mainland Greeks in 490 B C E o Darius may have also wished to expand his empire westward The First Persian Attack The Persians sailed across the Aegean captured Eretria had aided the Ionian rebels on the island of Euboea across from Attica and then transferred their army to the plain of Marathon 26 miles from Athens The Athenians with the help of Plabtaeans from Boeotia confronted the Persians The Persian Army light armor more mobile and flexible relied heavily on missiles The Greek Army heavy armor heavy shields relied on spear thrusts at close range The Greek Army was led by Miltiades who insisted on attacking forcing the Greeks to charge across the plain of Marathon and eventually crushed the Persian forces The Grace Period Athens acquired a new leader Themistocles o He lacked in aristocratic connections but strongly favored by Athenian merchants and highly skilled in speaking in the democratic assembly o He persuaded his citizens to pursue a new military policy especially the development of a navy By 480 B C E Athens had produced a navy of about 200 vessels Xerxes became the new Persian monarch and was bent on revenge and expansion 2 HIS101 Test 1 Notes Antiquity The Second Persian Attack The Invasion of Xerxes The Persians mounted their invasion in 480 B C E A Greek force close to 9 000 led by Spartan king Leonidas and his contingent of 300 Spartans held off the Persian army at Thermopylae for 2 days o A traitor told the Persians of a mountain path to flank the Spartans The Persians won The Athenians decided to abandon Athens and evacuated the population to the island Salamis Themistocles threatened to withdraw the Athenian ships if a fight was not made forced ships to remain at Salamis rather than go to Peloponnesus Despite being outnumbered the Greek forces were able to defeat the Persians o Xerxes was frightened at the thought of another Ionian revolt and returned to Asia Mino leaving the Persian forces in Thessaly The Defeat of the Persian Army Early 479 B C E the Greeks formed the largest Greek army seen up to that time The Athenians forced the Spartans to move north of the Peloponnesus and take on the Persians at Plataea where the Greek forces defeated the Persian army At the same time the Greeks destroyed much of the Persian fleet in a naval battle at Mycale in Ionia The Delian League Formed in 478 477 B C E by Athens to provide new leadership against the Persians It was dominated by the Athenians Its headquarters was on the island of Delos sacred to the Ionian Greeks The League pursued the attack against the Persian Empire Virtually all of the Greek states in the Aegean were liberated from Persian control and the Persian fleet and army were defeated in 469 B C E in southern Asia Minor Naxos withdrew from the league in 470 B C E and Thasos withdrew in 465 B C E o Athenians attacked both states destroyed their walls took over their fleets eliminated their liberty and forced them to pay tribute It was seemingly the beginning of Athenian imperialism and empire Athens embarked on a policy of expanding democracy at home while severing its ties with Sparta and expanding its new empire abroad The assembly consisted of all male citizens over 18 years old The meetings were held on the hillside of the Pnyx east of the Acropolis o They passed all laws and made final decisions on war and foreign policy o The Council of 500 prepared the agenda for the assembly and made recommendations for actions Pericles 3 HIS101 Test 1 Notes Antiquity Magistrates handled routine administration of public affairs were chosen without regard to class and served only 1 year terms Strategoi was a board of 10 officials elected by public vote to guide affairs of state o