Words for Board: Pericles, Acropolis, Parthenon, Delian League, Corcyra, Thucydides, Megarian Decrees, Trireme

Greece now enters what has been called the Age of Pericles (sometimes spelled "Perikles"). It was the high point of Greek culture. Pericles was the great democratic leader of Athens after the Persian Wars. The Greeks were proud of themselves for putting it to the Persians and developed their culture during this period, which ran from 445-431 BC. It was the high point of Athenian influence. During this time, the Athenians built a wall around the entire city. The Acropolis had been used for defense before the Persians burned it down. After the Persians left, Athens didn't need it for defense any more, so they built new buildings, like temples and neat stuff on top of it. These were built by Pericles as a work project for the people so they would keep voting him into office. They were built with funds stolen from the Delian League (more about the DL later). The buildings were really neat–the ruins of which you think of when somebody asks you about Greeks. They are kind of orange-y now cuz they've rusted over time. The columns are made of stacked drums of rock which are hollow and have a lead plug in the center to keep the columns standing. The Parthenon was the big temple built for Athene, patron deity of Athens. All the rest of the temples of Greece were razed and destroyed by a later religion that came along (Christianity) because they were to heathen gods. But the Parthenon was saved cuz somebody thought fast and stuck a cross on top of it, thereby converting it to the religion of the day. As a matter of fact, the Parthenon almost made it through time intact until about 200-300 years ago when somebody stored their gunpowder in it and it blew up. Since then, it's been stacked up again but it's not all complete yet. The floor actually curved up in the center so that when you stand on the side the floor looks straight. Actually, you eye is warped and when you look across a floor, it tends to sag in the middle. The Greeks knew this so they built the middle up. They also swelled the columns in the center to make them look straight (your eye would make them look bowed otherwise).

There are 3 basic column styles: 1. Doric is named after the Dorian people. They were the 1st wave of barbarians that came down and settled in Greece. Spartans are descended from them. They were plain, simple people and the columns are fat with a block (called a square capital) at the top. The Parthenon was built with Doric columns that were grooved. The grooves were a mistake the Greeks picked up from Egypt. See, if you're a Greek, where do you go for class? You go to Egypt and play tourist cuz they have neat stuff. The Greeks saw Egyptian buildings with columns that had grooves and decided that was the proper way. The Egyptians grooves are actually symbolic of papyrus bundles, which makes sense in Egypt, but there's no papyrus in Greece. 2. Ionic is named after the Ionian people (the Athenians and the islands). They had a base at the bottom and were thinner with scroll capitals. 3. Corinthian (named for Corinth, of course) had a base and a really flashy top (with feathers and the like). The Greeks for the most part didn't like Corinthian style much. But that was how Corinthians were–flashy.

The Greeks, who have never gotten along that well, are heading for a major conflict called the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between the city-states. It happened after the Age of Pericles and was a turning point cuz of the destruction to Greek city-states. There were 5 basic ingredients that set the stage for war: 1. There were 2 major leagues in Greece. Sparta headed the Peloponnesian League which was made up of southern with some northern city-states. There was also a brand-new Delian League headed by Athens, made up of Athens and the little islands around Greece. It was started to defend against another Persian attack. Athens was the greatest naval power and was to defend the islands. Athens took over the league and collected the money to run the army. Soon, the islands figured out there wasn't going to be any more Persians and wanted out of the League, but Athens was too big to go against. Besides, Athens needed the money to put all those fancy buildings up on the Acropolis. 2. Almost all the important city-states were in one of the two leagues. 3. The two leagues saw government differently. Cities in the Peloponnesian League were mostly oligarchies and the Delian League were mostly democracies. 4. There were old quarrels between the member states in both leagues. Of course, show me any 2 Greek cities and I'll show you an old quarrel. 5. Corinth was jealous and feared Athens. Before the Persian Wars, Corinth traded in the West and Athens in the East. After the war, Athens was moving in on Corinth's trade territory which was very pushy on Athens' part.

There were 4 little triggering events that, added all together, made war. #1 was called the Corcyrian Affair. Corinth had founded the colony of Corcyra on an island years ago. Corcyra had started out as an oligarchy but switched to democracy. Together, Corcyra and Corinth had founded a little colony on the coast north of Greece. In 436 BC, a civil war broke out in the colony between government styles. Both sides were pumping in aid to keep their half of the colony going. In 435 BC, Corinth sent her navy to chastise the colonies for causing a hassle. Corcyra (#3 Navy) beat Corinth (#2 Navy). Corinth was embarrassed and spent the next year building up a navy to go and get Corcyra. Corcyra knew they were coming and was worried cuz they knew they had won in the first place with a little luck and couldn't do it again. Corcyra needed help!! Corcyra wasn't in a league. So, where do you go for help against the #2 Navy? You go to the #1 Navy which happened to be Athens.

We just happen to have the speeches used by the Corcyrian ambassador to request help from Athens and the speech by the Corinthian ambassador asking them to stay out of it. There was a historian named Thucydides who was an Athenian admiral who fought in the Peloponnesian War and wrote a history. You'd think his history would be a little biased, right? But good old Athens ostracized him in the middle of the war so his account is a little more fair than if he'd led Athens. He wrote down the speeches for us, cuz he was there. He didn't take shorthand, besides there were no Big Chief tablets then, so how do we know these speeches are accurate? The Greeks said they trained their minds to remember stuff like speeches. They speeches might not be word-for-word, but the ideas are there. Anyway, Corcyra said: They weren't big enough to beat Corinth (true) and are now asking to join Athens' league. Yes, they realized they were a little late, but better late than never. If Athens helped, they would be helping a country that was defending itself and was not the aggressor in the conflict. Corcyra would offer their undying gratitude. Besides, the #2 power would be joining Athens without having to fight them. He meant Corcyra, which was actually a lie cuz everybody knew Corinth was #2–he just said that cause he was a politician and they tend to lie a little bit. He said the decision would affect Athens, too, cuz if Corinth whipped them, they'd be against Athens. In summary, if Athens won't offer their help, Corcyra would just have to join Corinth. Corinth said: It was a case of a colony at war with the mother country and therefore none of Athens' business. Corcyra was just causing trouble cuz none of the other colonies rebelled against Corinth, cuz they treated their colonies well (true). Corcyra had offered arbitration in the matter before going to Athens, but they had offered only when they thought they could win and already had the colony in their control. Either Athens should be neutral or join Corinth against Corcyra. He said Corcyra was just trying to scare Athens with talk of a coming war. To dispel the bad feeling between Athens and Corinth, Athens should stay out and make honest deals with Corinth. So, what did Athens do? Athens knew that war was coning and didn't want to see Corcyra with Corinth. But they didn't want to openly push too hard. So, they sent a navy to Corcyra with the instruction to fight only if Corcyra was going down the tubes and then to only fight long enough that Corcyra would win, barely. That way, Corinth and Corcyra would weaken each other before the upcoming war.

Incident #2 was the Potidaean Affair. Potidaea was a Corinthian colony way up north on another strip of land but it was a member of the Delian League. Every year, Corinth elected an official to go up and manage the colony. Athens told Potidaea to refuse the next official and run themselves. Potidaea refused to listen to Athens instead and wanted Corinthian leadership, which they'd always had. Athens got upset and sent a small navy to close down the Potidaean harbor.

Incident #3 was the Megarian Decrees. Megera was a little city-state between Athens and Corinth. It was a member of the Peloponnesian League. Athens passed a series of decrees against Megarian shipping which closed off the Delian island trade to Megera. That choked off most of Megera's trade. Athens just did it to show off to the other city-states how powerful it was.

The 4th Incident took place at Plataea (remember the last battle of the Persian Wars?). It was located up in Boeotia (the county name for that part of northern Greece). Thebes was the big city up there and was trying to form a 3rd league in the area which it wanted to manage. The rest of the Boeotian cities didn't want Thebes in control. Thebes (oligarchy) was in the Peloponnesian League and Plataea was democratic. The oligarches in Plataea made a deal with Thebes to turn over the city to them. In the middle of the night, the oligarches opened the city gates of Plataea to let the Theban army in. But the democrats of Plataea moved fast enough to get the gates closed before Thebes got enough of the army in to do the job. There was no a small army of Thebans inside the gates of Plataea, which couldn't get out and couldn't take the city. What to do? Plataea offered to let them go if they threw down their weapons and went home. They threw in their weapons and the Plataeans slaughtered each one of them. Thebes was upset and Athens sent aid to Plataea.

In 432 BC, an emergency meeting of the Peloponnesian League took place. Everybody was upset and wanted to take on Athens. Corinth and Megera and Thebes all voted for war. Sparta voted for peace cuz they can't afford war cuz the Helots back home would rise up. Corinth said if Sparta couldn't lead the war, maybe Corinth had better. Sparta couldn't afford to lose the leadership of the league cuz that enabled them to order everyone else about and save themselves as a last resort. Sparta sent an ambassador to Apollo at Delphi to ask what the gods wanted. Apollo said that Athens was the cause of all the trouble in Greece and, if there was a war, Sparta would win. This is the same Apollo that always gave us the tricky answers and Stockmyer doesn't understand why this answer came out so straight and so hard on Athens. Athens said the Spartans bribed the priests cuz they don't want their own people believing the gods are against them. Then Sparta sent an ambassador to Athens demanding that, to avoid war, Athens do 3 things: 1. Repeal the Megarian Decrees, 2. Quit hurting Potidaea and open up their harbor, and 3. Give up the Delian League and make all the islands independent. Athens could have done #1 and #2 easily, but they needed the money from the islands. Athens refused to do any of them.

Athens was ready for war so she could afford to refuse Sparta's terms. She had 6,000 talents of silver in the treasury all saved up for war. In today's terms, that may have been a couple billion dollars. No one else had any money saved up. Athens had about 15,000 Hoplites which were pretty good soldiers. But Sparta could field 2-3 times that many so Athens didn't want land war. On the sea, Athens had 500 ships, 300 of which were the new style Triremes. There had been a revolution in ship-building and the new triremes had a deck that the rowers sat under so they wouldn't get hit by arrows and the oar locks were smaller. The new ships were expensive and no one else had any. Sparta and company had about 90 triremes. Besides that, Athens had the best defensive position in the world. They had just finished building a wall around the city and they built a couple of walls down to their harbor (about 3 miles away) called the "long walls." At that time, there was no effective siege equipment against walls except to starve out the people on the inside. But Athens had included their harbor and they controlled the sea so there was no way to starve them out.

Pericles was leading Athens. He said don't risk the navy and the army, but to fight a war of attrition. (See, there are 2 ways to win a war: 1 is war of total victory where you throw everything at the enemy who then surrenders unconditionally. It's a very satisfying war to win. 2 is a war of attrition which means to keep the war going as long as it's without great risk to yourself until somebody gets tired of fighting and they quit on terms.) The war was not in Sparta's best interests cuz they have all those helots waiting at home for the right chance to revolt. Athens figured they could keep the war going long enough that Sparta would have to get out of the League and it would collapse.