The Athenian “Empire?

”
(& the Peloponnesian War)
AFTER THE PERSIAN WARS THE QUESTION IS WHO WILL
DOMINATE GREEK LIFE? SPARTA OR ATHENS?
 The Delian League
After the Persian War the
poleis create Delian League
478 BC to guard against a
future Persian threat
Led by Athens (best navy)
◦Massive payments to
Athens -“Athenian Empire”
grows… (irony?)
 Athenian Democracy

Assembly (ecclesia)
--all Athenian male citizens
--met about every 10 days (40 times a year)
all business of city went before it for debate,
decision
--met on hillside outside Athens, called the
Pnyx
-- Council of 500 (chose by lot) deals with daily
issues

--trial by jury of peers, no judges

--Annual practice of ostracism
Strengths and weaknesses of
Athenian democracy
●the first participatory government – gave the people
(the demos) the right to govern themselves
●excluded everyone but male citizens
●could be very emotional
●may not get a good outcome (don’t know what they’re doing)
●those with wealth, status still dominated
●no individual rights or ability to
overturn Assembly
(no right to fair trial or habeas corpus).
●Athenian democracy took a lot of time
 Pericles the “first citizen of Athens”
(460-429 BC)
--politician and general- How does he get
so much influence if he only has 1 vote?

--great patron of the arts- must rebuild

Athens after Persian War

--”radicalizes” democracy- turns Delian

League into an Athenian empire (Will
eventually cause a civil war…)

--used ostracism to eliminate

enemies
--gave even lower classes access
to political office with direct democracy
& payment for civil service (benefit?)
Phidias (architect) showing the frieze of the Parthenon to Pericles
 Daily Life in Athens
•--By 5th cen.- population explosion to
300,000 people --Only native born
males could participate in gov. but
adult foreign-born males still expected
to provide military service and pay
taxes for the “privilege” of living in
Athens
•--Women and slaves had NO public
life- had to have a chaperone when in
public.
--Economy largely based on
farming (grapes and olives )and
trade
-- But, had to import 50-80% of
their grain (large population and
not great soil for grain)
◦ --Trade extremely impt.- would
starve without it.
 The Peloponnesian War 431-404 BC
Civil war in Greece, Sparta vs.
Athens
◦ Athens strategy? Stay put behind
“long walls”…. Plague!
◦ Athens forced to surrender
◦ But conflict continued between
Sparta and other poleis (Thebes)
◦ Led to a weakening of Greece to
outsiders….
◦ Ultimately it contributed to the
death of the polis-based lifestyle
altogether…