Greek Golden Age

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Greek Golden Age
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Archaic Literature

• Hesiod Works and Days
• Sappho love poems
• Theognis elegiac poetry

3
Greek Religion

• Social, functional
• Temples were the major buildings
• Ritual, not doctrine
• 12 Olympian Gods
• Zeus
• Athena
• Apollo
• Aphrodite
• Poseidon

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Greek Religion (2)

• Each city had a patron god/goddess.
• Major festivals Olympics (776)
• Oracles and divination
• Delphi
• Mystery cults
• Search for life after death
• Eleusinian cult

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Athenian Empire

• Constructed after Persian Wars
• Delian League
• Smaller states contributed money, not ships
• Kept in force after Persian threat receded

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Age of Pericles

• Tribute money made Athens rich.
• Shipbuilding
• Public works
• 461 Pericles comes to power, remains until 429

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Athenian Democracy

• Democracy expanded under Pericles
• Lower-class citizens could hold office.
• Public offices became salaried.
• Practice of ostracism
• Is democracy good?
• Pericles Funeral Oration
• Plato and Aristotle

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Peloponnesian War (431-404)

• Expansion of Athenian empire provokes Sparta
• Sicilian Expedition (415)
• 404 Athens surrenders, loses empire

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Decline of the City-States

• Athens recovers after 404, but is never dominant
  again
• Sparta attempts to unite Greeks against Persia
  but fails
• 371 Thebes defeats Sparta
• Sporadic intercity warfare and civil war
  continues until 338

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Macedonia

• Philip II (359-336)
• Admired Greek culture
• Strengthened Macedonian forces
• Demosthenes and the Philippics
• Battle of Chaeronea (338)
• 336 Philip is assassinated

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The Greek Dilemma

• Decentralized poleis versus empires
• Problems of democracy
• Ineffective without strong civic spirit
• Prone to demagoguery
• Temptation of imperial overreach

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The First Historians

• Historia researches
• Herodotus (c. 484 c. 425)
• Father of History
• Recounted the Persian Wars and background
• Records myths and hearsay, but is critical of
  sources

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The First Historians (2)

• Thucydides (c. 460 c. 400)
• Greatest ancient historian
• Covered the Peloponnesian War
• Rational view of history and causes
• Commented on human nature