Empire and Conflict: Greeks and Persians WHAP/Napp
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“When Darius I’s Persian Empire challenged the Greek city-states, Athens took the lead in forming a coalition against it…Persia was a huge, centrally governed empire; each Greek city-state was individually independent, although many had joined into regional confederations and leagues for mutual assistance and trade. A single emperor who set policies for the entire empire headed Persia; an assembly of all its adult, free male citizens, for the most part, governed each individual Greek city-state. These assemblies passed laws, judged criminal and civil cases, provided for administration and implementation of legislation, and arranged for military defense as the need arose. The Greek city-states were moving toward democracy; they understood their legal systems to be their own creation and responsibility, neither ordained by the gods nor imposed by a powerful external emperor.
Some of the Greek city-states in Anatolia [western lands of Turkey in Asia] had earlier fallen under Darius’ empire. Although they were permitted to retain their own form of local government as long as they paid their taxes to Persia, some of them revolted and called on the Greek cities of the peninsula for help. Athens tried, half-heartedly and unsuccessfully, to assist its overseas relatives with ships and soldiers. According to Herodotus, Darius was furious at this interference. He ordered one of his servants to remind him, every day at dinnertime, ‘Master, remember the Athenians.’ In 490 Darius I dispatched a naval expedition directly across the Aegean to punish Athens for its part in the revolt in Anatolia.
When the Persian fleet of 600 ships landed 48,000 soldiers at Marathon in 490 B.C.E., a force of some 10,000 Greek hoplite soldiers, joined by about 1000 soldiers from Plataea and another 1000 slaves, confronted them. The hoplite forces were deployed in solid phalanxes, columns of soldiers arrayed in tight lines, the left arm and shield of one man pressed against the right shoulder of the other, in row on row. If a soldier in the front row fell, one from the next line took his place. (In these hoplite formations, each individual soldier is crucial to the welfare of all. Many analysts have seen in this egalitarian military formation the rationale for Athenian political democracy.) The discipline of the Athenians defeated their enemy.” ~ The World’s History
1- How did the Persian Empire differ from the Greek city-states? ______
2- Describe democracy in Athens. ______
3- Identify one cause of the conflict between the Persian Empire and Greek city-states. ______
4- Why was the battle of Marathon significant? ______
5- Why do some analysts believe that hoplite formations gave rise to democracy? ______
6- How might world history have changed if the Persians had defeated the Athenians? ______
I. The Persian Empire (Homeland on the Iranian Plateau)A. Cyrus (reigned 557-530 BCE) and Darius (reigned 522-486 BCE)
B. Conquests from Egypt to India – 35 million people – cultural diversity
C. Centered on an elaborate cult of kingship
II. Administrative System
A. Persian governors (satraps) placed in each of the 23 provinces
B. Lower-level officials drawn from local authorities
C. System of imperial spies
D. Respect for non-Persian cultural traditions
1. Cyrus allowed Jews who had been exiled in Babylon to return to homeland and rebuild temple in Jerusalem in 539 BCE
E. Model for future regimes with its administrators, tax collectors, record keepers, and translators/system of standardized coinage
F. A “royal road”, some 1,700 miles long: communication/commerce
III. The Greeks
A. Small competing city-statesàmountainous terrain (seas for trade)
B. Fiercely independent city-states (called themselves Hellenes)
1. Speaking the same language/Frequently in conflict
C. Expansive people: took the form of settlement in distant places
1. Greek traders in search of iron or farmers in search of land
D. In Athens, direct democracy eventually developed
1. All citizens could directly participate in the affairs of government
2. However, women, slaves, and foreigners were not citizens
3. Solon, reforming leader, in 594 BCEàmore democratic direction
a) All citizens were allowed to take part in the Assembly
4. Cleisthenes and Pericles, later reformers, extended rights further
5. By 450 BCE, public officials were chosen by lot and paid
E. Sparta: extreme military discipline, helots or slaves, Council of Elders
IV. Greco-Persian Wars
A. Number of Greek settlements on the Anatolian seacoast, known Ionia
1. By 499 BCE, Ionian Greeks rebelled with support from Athens
B. Persians launched military expeditions, twice in ten years (490/480)
C. Against all odds, Greeks held them off, defeating the Persians
1. Followed by the Golden Age of Greek culture
a) The Parthenon (columns), theater, philosophy (Socrates)
V. Decline of Greeks
A. Athens led a coalition of Greek city-states but leadership led to imperialism
B. Bitter civil war (431-404 BCE)
1. Known as Peloponnesian War (Allies of Athens v. Allies of Sparta)
C. Athens was defeated à Paving the way for Macedonian conquest of cities
VI. Alexander the Great
A. Alexander’s father, Philip II, conquered Greeks in 338 BCE
B. Continued conquests - Ten-year expedition (333-323 BCE) à Egypt, Anatolia, Persia, Afghanistan, Arrived in Indian Subcontinent
C. Spread of Greek culture (Hellenism)
1. Buddha was depicted in human form due to Greek influence
1- Why did the Persian Empire serve as a model for future regimes? ______
2- What was the “heartland” of the Persian Empire? ______
3- Define satrap. ______
4- What was the royal road and why was it significant? ______
5- How did geography affect the Greeks? ______
6- Why were the Greeks an “expansive” peoples? ______
7- Describe Athenian democracy (Be sure to include who was excluded). ______
8- What was a cause of the Persian Wars? ______
9- What was an effect of the Persian Wars? ______
10- Identify significant facts about the Golden Age of Greece. ______
11- Identify a cause of the Peloponnesian War. ______
12- How did the Peloponnesian War affect the Greeks? ______
13- What did Alexander the Great spread? ______
14- What impact did Greek culture have on India as a result of Alexander’s conquests? ______
1. All of the following are associated with Classical Persia EXCEPT:(A) the royal road
(B) Persepolis
(C) Zoroastrianism
(D) Upanishads
2. The Greek approach to science was characterized by its:
(A) emphasis on human spirituality
(B) concentration on empirical findings as opposed to theory
(C) design to find practical applications for problems
(D) application of rational thought to speculations about nature’s order
5. The image above best illustrates the blending of Buddhism with which of the following?
(A) Greco-Roman culture
(B) Christianity
(C) Confucianism
(D) Egyptian culture
6. After the Peloponnesian War, the Macedonians took control of Greece and spread Greek culture throughout much of the known world under the leadership of
(A) Alexander the Great
(B) Julius Caesar
(C) Hannibal
(D) Pericles
(E) Socrates / 3. During the classical era:
(A) Empires were more prominent than in earlier eras
(B) Long distance trade was minimal
(C) Most societies were founded on secular belief systems
(D) Most societies were distinctly egalitarian
4. A historian of ancient Greece would probably find Athenian dramas to be most useful as a source of information about which of the following aspects of Greek society?
(A) Life expectancies in ancient Greece
(B) Greek religious beliefs and moral values
(C) Military tactics of ancient Greek armies
(D) Agricultural productivity in ancient Greece
7. “Romantic glorifications of Greece create the impression that the Greeks sought rational solutions…actually, far from being devoted to the risks of rationality, the vast majority of the Greeks sought always the safe haven of superstition and the comfort of magic charms.”
~ Finley Hooper, historian of ancient Greece, 1967
“I do not believe that the ‘Sacred Disease’ [epilepsy] is any more divine or sacred than any other disease, but, on the contrary, I believe it has specific demonstrable characteristics and a definite cause.”
~ Hippocrates of Kos, Greek physician, circa 350 B.C.E.
The passage by Hippocrates weakens Hooper’s claim in the first passage by
(A) Suggesting that medicine was a thriving discipline in ancient Greece
(B) Expressing a mistrust for supernatural causes of medical conditions
(C) Seeking to understand a disease that does not have an obvious external cause
(D) Implying that Greek physicians did not have effective treatments for some diseases
Comparative Essay Practice:
Compare methods of political control in the Persian Empire and in Athens.
Make a list of facts pertaining to political control in the Persian Empire and in Athens.
Persian Empire / Athens:Then write a thesis statement using elements of the prompt and identifying one specific similarity and one specific difference.