Pericles became the leader of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War and was responsible for the rebuilding and reconstructing of this city. He became very powerful and well known through out the age of the 5th century, so powerful that this became known as the age of Pericles. He was the son of Xanthippus and Agariste. His father, Xanthippus was a military leader during the Peloponnesian Wars and was the victor at the Battle of Mycale. He would later ostracize himself in the spring of 484. Pericles came from a line of royalty which made it all the more easier for him to come to power. The helots revolt in Sparta and the current leader of Athens, Cimon lead troops to aid Sparta which the people…
In the distressed world of the fifth century BC, Athenians struggled against a series of tyrants and their greatest rival to create a new form of government. After rule of tyrants of the aristocratic class and a struggle for power, Cleisthenes sided with the common people of Athens and brought the first democracy to existence. From then, democracy developed and flourished. As Athens was building the foundation of government, they had to live with the threat of war from Sparta, their greatest rival, and the Persian Empire. But since democracy had already taken route, it was soon to prove that in the long run, it could defeat the strongest forces.…
The Peloponnesian War was the clash between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta that commenced in 431 BCE and ended in 404 BCE. Athens began gaining too much power due to the Delian league and Sparta became concerned with their growing power. In 433 BCE, Athens concluded an alliance with Corcyra, and started to besiege Potidaea due to it threatening the position of Corinth. The fact that Corcyra was one of the few city states with their own navy made the Spartans view the alliance in an attacking manner.…
He risked greece being overthrown by a tyranny. There were many things that could have gone wrong with his plan. What if the Persians were faster? What if the persians had already thought of the idea? So many more thing could have gone wrong. We do not know if he even had thought through enough to have a backup plan. The people were correct to exile him because he already had much power and other than the victory he lead, he had not done much to help the democracy. Pericles had brought Athens to its best years. A blossom of education and arts had occurred and that advanced civilization globally. Themistocles could have never been able to do what Pericles had accomplished. Pericles had a vision for what he wanted Athens to look like and he went and achieved it. Pericles did not have as many enemies as Themistocles, because if he did he would have too been voted out of the democracy. Overall the better fit to rule over Athens was Pericles. Themistocles may have not been a bad choice, but he was not the best. The people of Athens where correct to chose…
Few city-states of Greece hold the same historical importance as Athens. In an age of conflict between the giant Persian empire and Greeks, the commercial giant of Athens was the focus of the struggle in the lengthy, violent Persian War. In these times, effective and ambitious political figures were the key to the defense and success of a state. Themistocles, a young, bright individual of Athens devoted his life to the success of the state and proved himself to be a worthy leader by developing a fortified naval fleet that made Athens the dominant naval power of Greece. For these reasons, Themistocles had an influential role in the salvation of Greece in post-Marathon Athens.…
Pericles was the leader of Athens and was born in 495 BC and died in 429 BC. His father, Xanthippus was a political leader and military commander for Athens who grew up in the family of the Alcmaeonids. His mother, Agariste provided Pericles with political value and a religious background. Growing up Pericles was very bright, his family was wealthy which meant he had access to the best teachers in the whole of Athens. This meant he was able to fully pursue his education. As a young man, Pericles used much of his wealth to support the arts, at school he studied politics, ethics, philosophy and music. He learnt music from the masters of the time, Damo or Phyhocleides and was considered to be the first politician to have such a great influence…
Athens had lost their entire empire, and title for being the most powerful city-state in Ancient Greece. Athens even had lost their own farmland, after being taken over by Sparta. Worst of all, Athens had lost their navy fleets. Although, Sparta had some changing affects also. They had gained many enemies from other city-states, and lost leading power. Sparta eventually fought with Persia for many years after. In all, Greece’s city-states lost all trust with one another. The economy was weakened and lots of people ended up in poverty. Most of all, Greece lost their peace and harmony, and all was left was tragic ruins from the Peloponnesian War.…
Democracy has evolved over thousands of years of use. Democracy is a form of government that the people vote on who leads them. This form of government started over three thousand years ago by ancient civilizations. We still use democracy here in America, but it has changed over time. Ancient Athens was the first civilization to use democracy.…
The Archaic period saw (800 – 500 B.C) the rise of the Tyrant as a result of the social, political and economic discontent of the polis and the Greek colonies. Initially the Tyrant “in the ancient Greek sense was a man who, without any hereditary or official right to rule, seized control of his city” and was viewed favourably amongst the Greeks. (Estensen –get booklet for foot note) The rise of the Tyrant was due to the widespread dissatisfaction that came from the oppressive aristocratic rule coupled with the results of colonisation and economic expansion. It was not until the tyrants became cruel and oppressive in their rule that the modern conations of the word were adopted by the Greeks, Herodotus captures the later formed opinion well in his histories when he states: “There is nothing in the whole world so unjust, nothing so bloody, as tyranny...” (Herodotus, The history, Book V, “92) Many Tyrants are accounted for during this period the most notable being Cypeslus, Cleisthenes of Sicyon and Pisistratus within the scopes of these Tyrants are the achievements of both themselves along with their predecessors and successors.…
Sparta was originally made up of four small villages in Laconia, an area in the southwestern Peloponnesus, until 730 B.C., which is when Sparta began to take over Messenia. Laconians either became periokoi, a name for free people who were not citizens and who were required to pay taxes and perform military service for Sparta, or helots, who were forced to work on farms and as servants of the Spartans. The Messenians became helots by the 7th century, when Sparta took full control of Messenia.…
Our idea of democracy was derived from ancient Athens. Ancient Athens was very important in history because it was the first government to run as a democracy. Without their ideas, many other countries would not have a democracy. In Athens, women did not have a lot of freedom and spent most of their days in the house as a housewife. They were considered only one class above slaves and were practically an object that their husband owned. The role of women has improved a lot from Ancient Athens to modern American society.…
Pericles comes to power, undisputed political leader. Acropolis you see today was built by Pericles…
The transformation of Athens from an aristocratic state to a democracy involved an economic shift, and a political transformation to maintain the built democratic culture. The monarchy was replaced by rule of nobles. Draco was the first recorded legislator of Athens. He published harsh law-codes that enforced and limited the punishment under the jurisdiction of Athens’ aristocratic court. One of the laws was one that distinguished the punishments for intentional and accidental murder. His law was too severe and harsh; therefore, the people of Athens turned to Solon.…
The 8th century BC witnessed Greece's emergence from the Dark Age and a simultaneous growth in prestige of the Greek cities. These cities would come to dominate political life and regional administration. The Polis, or city-state, perhaps developed first on the Greek coast of Asia Minor, in places such as Smyrna. The situation of the cities, surrounded by non-Greeks, would naturally focus on the urban centers. Such places were walled for defense. On the Greek mainland many of the cities were former Mycenaean strongholds. Most focused on the citadel, which was the temple area and a place of refuge in times of trouble. However, the polis was more than simply the buildings. It was the citizenship, housing those residing in the town and surrounding countryside. The early development of the classical polis is unclear, but it has been assumed that there was a period of strife between the elite families who were the main landholders, and other social groups such as the peasantry and owners of smaller farms.…
That is the rise of democracy. The Old Mycenaean culture was strictly hierarchical, both politically and socially. And when it was forgotten, in 5th BCE, the rise of the democracy was possible in Athens. Before democracy, from the 8th to the 6th century B.C., Athens was prosperous economically but no more significant than many other city-states in Greece. Athens began as a small, Mycenaen community and grew to become a city that epitomized the best of Greek virtues.…