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123-402: In the classical period , Athens was a centre for the arts, learning, and philosophy , the home of Plato 's Academy and Aristotle 's Lyceum , Athens was also the birthplace of Socrates , Plato, Pericles , Aristophanes , Sophocles , and many other prominent philosophers, writers, and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization , and

246-554: A Malian Greek traitor named Ephialtes led the Persian general Hydarnes by a mountain track to the rear of the Greeks. At that point Leonidas sent away most of the Greek troops and remained in the pass with his 300 Spartans, 900 helots, 400 Thebans and 700 Thespians . The Thespians stayed entirely of their own will, declaring that they would not abandon Leonidas and his followers. Their leader

369-500: A Spartan force to overthrow Hippias, which succeeded, and instated an oligarchy. Cleisthenes disliked the Spartan rule, along with many other Athenians, and so made his own bid for power. The result was democracy in Athens , but considering Cleisthenes' motivation for using the people to gain power, as without their support, he would have been defeated, and so Athenian democracy may be tainted by

492-511: A brief peace came about; then the war resumed to Sparta's advantage. Athens was definitively defeated in 404 BC, and internal Athenian agitations mark the end of the 5th century BC in Greece. Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by a diarchy . This meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and

615-633: A chief advisor to the Spartans and began to counsel them on the best way to defeat his native land. Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to begin building a real navy for the first time—large enough to challenge the Athenian superiority at sea. Additionally, Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to ally themselves with their traditional foes—the Persians. As noted below, Alcibiades soon found himself in controversy in Sparta when he

738-556: A colony in Africa and, when this failed, sought his fortune in Sicily, where after initial successes he was killed. Leonidas' relationship with his bitterly antagonistic elder brothers is unknown, but he married Cleomenes' daughter, Gorgo , sometime before coming to the throne in 490 BC. Leonidas was heir to the Agiad throne (successor of Cleomenes I ) and a full citizen ( homoios ) at the time of

861-469: A declaration of war) would depend on their geographical position. The territory of the city was also divided into thirty trittyes as follows: A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one from each of the three groups. Each tribe therefore always acted in the interest of all three sectors. It was this corpus of reforms that allowed the emergence of a wider democracy in the 460s and 450s BC. In Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of Turkey ),

984-460: A hegemony, they decided after 403 BC not to support the directives that he had made. Agesilaus came to power by accident at the start of the 4th century BC. This accidental accession meant that, unlike the other Spartan kings, he had the advantage of a Spartan education. The Spartans at this date discovered a conspiracy against the laws of the city conducted by Cinadon and as a result concluded there were too many dangerous worldly elements at work in

1107-469: A lavishly decorated temple to the goddess Athena , was constructed under the administration of Pericles. Resentment by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to the Peloponnesian War in 431, which pitted Athens and her increasingly rebellious sea empire against a coalition of land-based states led by Sparta . The conflict marked the end of Athenian command of the sea . The war between Athens and

1230-463: A major power without regaining its former glory. This empire was powerful but short-lived. In 405 BC, the Spartans were masters of all—of Athens' allies and of Athens itself—and their power was undivided. By the end of the century, they could not even defend their own city. As noted above, in 400 BC, Agesilaus became king of Sparta. The subject of how to reorganize the Athenian Empire as part of

1353-562: A narrow passage between them and, furthermore, a wall to Phalerum on the east, 35 stadia long (4 miles, 6.5 km). There were therefore three long walls in all; but the name Long Walls seems to have been confined to the two leading to the Piraeus, while the one leading to Phalerum was called the Phalerian Wall . The entire circuit of the walls was 174.5 stadia (nearly 22 miles, 35 km), of which 43 stadia (5.5 miles, 9 km) belonged to

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1476-477: A number of island cities benefiting from Athens' maritime protection), and other states outside this Athenian Empire. The sources denounce this Athenian supremacy (or hegemony ) as smothering and disadvantageous. After 403 BC, things became more complicated, with a number of cities trying to create similar empires over others, all of which proved short-lived. The first of these turnarounds was managed by Athens as early as 390 BC, allowing it to re-establish itself as

1599-577: A number of victories. For most of the first years of his reign, Agesilaus had been engaged in a war against Persia in the Aegean Sea and in Asia Minor. In 394 BC, the Spartan authorities ordered Agesilaus to return to mainland Greece. While Agesilaus had a large part of the Spartan Army in Asia Minor, the Spartan forces protecting the homeland had been attacked by a coalition of forces led by Corinth. At

1722-513: A population of 120,000, though some writers make the inhabitants as many as 180,000. Athens consisted of two distinct parts: The city was surrounded by defensive walls from the Bronze Age and they were rebuilt and extended over the centuries. In addition the Long Walls consisted of two parallel walls leading to Piraeus , 40 stadia long (4.5 miles, 7 km), running parallel to each other, with

1845-560: A pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras . But his rival Cleisthenes , with the support of the middle class and aided by pro-democracy citizens, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, now supported by the Athenians. Through Cleisthenes' reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomic institutions—equal rights for all citizens (though only men were citizens)—and established ostracism . The isonomic and isegoric (equal freedom of speech) democracy

1968-460: A sceptic about the Sicilian Expedition , he was appointed along with Alcibiades to lead the expedition. However, unlike the expedition against Melos, the citizens of Athens were deeply divided over Alcibiades' proposal for an expedition to far-off Sicily. In June 415 BC, on the very eve of the departure of the Athenian fleet for Sicily, a band of vandals in Athens defaced the many statues of

2091-486: A significant dynamic that was occurring in Greece. While Athens and Sparta fought each other to exhaustion, Thebes was rising to a position of dominance among the various Greek city-states. Leonidas Leonidas I ( / l i ə ˈ n aɪ d ə s , - d æ s / ; Ancient Greek : Λεωνίδας , Leōnídas ; born c.  540 BC ; died 11 August 480 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta . He

2214-674: A successful naval expedition against the Aegean islands. In 490 BC, Darius the Great , having suppressed the Ionian cities, sent a Persian fleet to punish the Greeks. (Historians are uncertain about their number of men; accounts vary from 18,000 to 100,000.) They landed in Attica intending to take Athens, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army of 9,000 Athenian hoplites and 1,000 Plataeans led by

2337-477: A throne on the coast in order to see the Greeks defeated. Instead, the Persians were routed. Sparta's hegemony was passing to Athens, and it was Athens that took the war to Asia Minor. The victories enabled it to bring most of the Aegean and many other parts of Greece together in the Delian League , an Athenian-dominated alliance. Pericles – an Athenian general, politician and orator – distinguished himself above

2460-465: A war in which Thebes allied with its old enemy Athens. Then the Theban generals Epaminondas and Pelopidas won a decisive victory at Leuctra (371 BC). The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of Theban dominance, but Athens herself recovered much of her former power because the supremacy of Thebes was short-lived. With the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea (362 BC)

2583-664: Is known as the Peloponnesian League. However, unlike the Hellenic League and the Delian League, this league was not a response to any external threat, Persian or otherwise: it was unabashedly an instrument of Spartan policy aimed at Sparta's security and Spartan dominance over the Peloponnese peninsula. The term "Peloponnesian League" is a misnomer. It was not really a "league" at all. Nor was it really "Peloponnesian". There

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2706-482: The Second Greco-Persian War , Leonidas led the allied Greek forces in a last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC), attempting to defend the pass from the invading Persian army, and was killed early during the third and last day of the battle. Leonidas entered myth as a hero and the leader of the 300 Spartans who died in battle at Thermopylae. While the Greeks lost this battle, they were able to expel

2829-458: The agoge , Leonidas was unlikely to have been referring to his royal blood alone but rather suggesting that, like his brother Dorieus, he had proved himself superior in the competitive environment of Spartan training and society, thus making him qualified to rule. Leonidas was chosen to lead the combined Greek forces determined to resist the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 481 BC. This

2952-508: The Antonine era (2nd century AD). Leonideia (λεωνιδεῖα) were solemnities celebrated every year in Sparta in honour of Leonidas and only Spartans were allowed to take part. The contest was held opposite the theatre at Sparta where there were the two sepulchral monuments of Pausanias and Leonidas. A bronze statue of Leonidas was erected at Thermopylae in 1955. A sign, under the statue, reads simply: " ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ " ("Come and take them"), which

3075-455: The Battle of Coronea , Agesilaus and his Spartan Army defeated a Theban force. During the war, Corinth drew support from a coalition of traditional Spartan enemies—Argos, Athens and Thebes. However, when the war descended into guerilla tactics, Sparta decided that it could not fight on two fronts and so chose to ally with Persia. The long Corinthian War finally ended with the Peace of Antalcidas or

3198-481: The Battle of Marathon . In 480 the Persians returned under a new ruler, Xerxes I . The Hellenic League led by the Spartan King Leonidas led 7,000 men to hold the narrow passageway of Thermopylae against the 100,000–250,000 army of Xerxes, during which Leonidas and 300 other Spartan elites were killed. Simultaneously the Athenians led an indecisive naval battle off Artemisium . However, that delaying action

3321-713: The Battle of Sepeia against Argos (c. 494 BC). Likewise, he was a full citizen when the Persians sought submission from Sparta and met with vehement rejection in 492/491 BC. His elder half-brother, king Cleomenes, had already been deposed on grounds of purported insanity, and had fled into exile when Athens sought assistance against the First Persian invasion of Greece , that ended at Marathon (490 BC). Plutarch wrote, “When someone said to him: 'Except for being king you are not at all superior to us,' Leonidas son of Anaxandridas and brother of Cleomenes replied: 'But were I not better than you, I should not be king.'" The product of

3444-489: The Battle of Thermopylae . The Persians left Greece in 479 BC after their defeat at Plataea . Plataea was the final battle of Xerxes' invasion of Greece. After this, the Persians never again tried to invade Greece. With the disappearance of this external threat, cracks appeared in the united front of the Hellenic League. In 477, Athens became the recognised leader of a coalition of city-states that did not include Sparta. This coalition met and formalized their relationship at

3567-534: The Greek Dark Ages and Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period . This century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than any of the other ancient Greek states . From the perspective of Athenian culture in classical Greece, the period generally referred to as the 5th century BC extends slightly into

3690-510: The Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor , who were rebelling against the Persian Empire (see Ionian Revolt ). That provoked two Persian invasions of Greece, both of which were repelled under the leadership of the soldier-statesmen Miltiades and Themistocles (see Persian Wars ). In 490 the Athenians, led by Miltiades , prevented the first invasion of the Persians, guided by king Darius I , at

3813-603: The King's Peace , in which the "Great King" of Persia, Artaxerxes II , pronounced a "treaty" of peace between the various city-states of Greece which broke up all "leagues" of city-states on Greek mainland and in the islands of the Aegean Sea . Although this was looked upon as "independence" for some city-states, the effect of the unilateral "treaty" was highly favourable to the interests of the Persian Empire. The Corinthian War revealed

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3936-464: The Persian general Mardonius led a campaign through Thrace and Macedonia . He was victorious and again subjugated the former and conquered the latter, but he was wounded and forced to retreat back into Asia Minor. In addition, a fleet of around 1,200 ships that accompanied Mardonius on the expedition was wrecked by a storm off the coast of Mount Athos . Later, the generals Artaphernes and Datis led

4059-508: The military party, led by Alcibiades . Thus, in 415 BC, Alcibiades found support within the Athenian Assembly for his position when he urged that Athens launch a major expedition against Syracuse , a Peloponnesian ally in Sicily , Magna Graecia . Segesta, a town in Sicily, had requested Athenian assistance in their war with another Sicilian town—the town of Selinus. Although Nicias was

4182-515: The protagonist of Frank Miller 's 1998 comic book series 300 . It presents a fictionalised version of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae, as does the 2006 feature film adapted from it . In cinema, Leonidas has been portrayed by: Richard Egan in the 1962 epic The 300 Spartans ; Gerard Butler in the 2006 film 300 , inspired by the graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley ( Tyler Neitzel portrayed Leonidas as

4305-717: The "Protectress of the State", the Erechtheion proper, or sanctuary of Erechtheus , and the Pandroseion , or sanctuary of Pandrosos , the daughter of Cecrops. Between the Parthenon and Erechtheion was the colossal Statue of Athena Promachos , or the "Fighter in the Front", whose helmet and spear was the first object on the Acropolis visible from the sea. The lower city was built in the plain around

4428-629: The 400 to overthrow democracy in Samos failed. Alcibiades was immediately made an admiral ( navarch ) in the Athenian navy. Later, due to democratic pressures, the 400 were replaced by a broader oligarchy called "the 5000". Alcibiades did not immediately return to Athens. In early 410, Alcibiades led an Athenian fleet of 18 triremes against the Persian-financed Spartan fleet at Abydos near the Hellespont . The Battle of Abydos had actually begun before

4551-570: The 6th century BC. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this century occurs in 508 BC, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant and Cleisthenes ' reforms. However, a broader view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at the Ionian Revolt of 500 BC, the event that provoked the Persian invasion of 492 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC. A second Persian attempt , in 481–479 BC, failed as well, despite having overrun much of modern-day Greece (north of

4674-741: The Acropolis, but this plain also contained several hills, especially in the southwest part. On the west side the walls embraced the Hill of the Nymphs and the Pnyx , and to the southeast they ran along beside the Ilissos . Among the more important streets, there were: The period from the end of the Persian Wars to the Macedonian conquest marked the zenith of Athens as a center of literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy ) and

4797-539: The Aegean Sea, defeating their fleet decisively in the Battle of Mycale ; then in 478 BC the fleet captured Byzantium . At that time Athens enrolled all the island states and some mainland ones into an alliance called the Delian League , so named because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of Delos . The Spartans, although they had taken part in the war, withdrew into isolation afterwards, allowing Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power. In 431 BC war broke out between Athens and Sparta . The war

4920-410: The Athenian general Miltiades . The Persian fleet continued to Athens but, seeing it garrisoned, decided not to attempt an assault. In 480 BC, Darius' successor Xerxes I sent a much more powerful force of 300,000 by land, with 1,207 ships in support, across a double pontoon bridge over the Hellespont . This army took Thrace, before descending on Thessaly and Boeotia, whilst the Persian navy skirted

5043-463: The Athenian-controlled island of Samos . Alcibiades felt that "radical democracy" was his worst enemy. Accordingly, he asked his supporters to initiate a coup to establish an oligarchy in Athens. If the coup were successful Alcibiades promised to return to Athens. In 411, a successful oligarchic coup was mounted in Athens, by a group which became known as "the 400". However, a parallel attempt by

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5166-488: The Battle of Haliartus the Spartans had been defeated by the Theban forces. Worse yet, Lysander, Sparta's chief military leader, had been killed during the battle. This was the start of what became known as the " Corinthian War " (395–387 BC). Upon hearing of the Spartan loss at Haliartus and of the death of Lysander, Agesilaus headed out of Asia Minor, back across the Hellespont, across Thrace and back towards Greece. At

5289-517: The Eurypontid dynasty. According to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles , twin descendants of Hercules . They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War . In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias , son of Peisistratos . Cleomenes I , king of Sparta, put in place

5412-566: The Eurypontid king as Agesilaus II , expelled Leotychidas from the country, and took over all of Agis' estates and property. The end of the Peloponnesian War left Sparta the master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role. Within a few years the democratic party regained power in Athens and in other cities. In 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens , Argos , Thebes , and Corinth,

5535-452: The Greek cities, which included great centres such as Miletus and Halicarnassus , were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of the Persian Empire in the mid-6th century BC. In 499 BC that region's Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt , and Athens and some other Greek cities sent aid, but were quickly forced to back down after defeat in 494 BC at the Battle of Lade . Asia Minor returned to Persian control. In 492 BC,

5658-473: The Greek city-states against the danger of another Persian invasion. The coalition that emerged from the first congress was named the "Hellenic League" and included Sparta. Persia, under Xerxes, invaded Greece in September 481 BC, but the Athenian navy defeated the Persian navy. The Persian land forces were delayed in 480 BC by a much smaller force of 300 Spartans, 400 Thebans and 700 men from Boeotian Thespiae at

5781-451: The Greeks would disperse. Finally, on the fifth day the Persians attacked. Leonidas and the Greeks repulsed the Persians' frontal attacks during the fifth and sixth days, killing roughly 10,000 of the enemy troops. The Persian elite unit known to the Greeks as " the Immortals " was held back, and two of Xerxes' brothers (Abrocomes and Hyperanthes) died in battle. On the seventh day (August 11),

5904-496: The Isthmus of Corinth ) at a crucial point during the war following the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Artemisium . The Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens' instrument. Athens' successes caused several revolts among the allied cities, all of which were put down by force, but Athenian dynamism finally awoke Sparta and brought about the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC. After both forces were spent,

6027-510: The Laurion (a small mountain range near Athens), and the hundreds of talents mined there were used to build 200 warships to combat Aeginetan piracy. A year later, the Greeks, under the Spartan Pausanias , defeated the Persian army at Plataea . The Persians then began to withdraw from Greece, and never attempted an invasion again. The Athenian fleet then turned to chasing the Persians from

6150-729: The Megarian people. The Peloponnesian League accused Athens of violating the Thirty Years Peace through all of the aforementioned actions, and, accordingly, Sparta formally declared war on Athens. Many historians consider these to be merely the immediate causes of the war. They would argue that the underlying cause was the growing resentment on the part of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over Greek affairs. The war lasted 27 years, partly because Athens (a naval power) and Sparta (a land-based military power) found it difficult to come to grips with each other. Sparta's initial strategy

6273-598: The Peloponnese Peninsula. In the 7th century BC Argos dominated the peninsula. Even in the early 6th century the Argives attempted to control the northeastern part of the peninsula. The rise of Sparta in the 6th century brought Sparta into conflict with Argos. However, with the conquest of the Peloponnesian city-state of Tegea in 550 BC and the defeat of the Argives in 546 BC the Spartans' control began to reach well beyond

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6396-400: The Peloponnesian War vary from account to account. However three causes are fairly consistent among the ancient historians, namely Thucydides and Plutarch . Prior to the war, Corinth and one of its colonies, Corcyra (modern-day Corfu ), went to war in 435 BC over the new Corcyran colony of Epidamnus . Sparta refused to become involved in the conflict and urged an arbitrated settlement of

6519-422: The Persian invaders in the following year. According to Herodotus , Leonidas' mother was not only his father's wife, but also his father's niece and had been barren for so long that the ephors , the five annually elected administrators of the Spartan constitution, tried to prevail upon King Anaxandridas II to set her aside and take another wife. Anaxandridas refused, claiming his wife was blameless, whereupon

6642-485: The Persian invasion, Sparta consulted the Oracle at Delphi . The Oracle is said to have made the following prophecy in hexameter verse: For you, inhabitants of wide-wayed Sparta, Either your great and glorious city must be wasted by Persian men, Or if not that, then the bound of Lacedaemon must mourn a dead king, from Heracles' line. The might of bulls or lions will not restrain him with opposing strength; for he has

6765-521: The Persians to dominate the Greek peninsula. Among the war party in Athens, a belief arose that the catastrophic defeat of the military expedition to Sicily in 415–413 could have been avoided if Alcibiades had been allowed to lead the expedition. Thus, despite his treacherous flight to Sparta and his collaboration with Sparta and later with the Persian court, there arose a demand among the war party that Alcibiades be allowed to return to Athens without being arrested. Alcibiades negotiated with his supporters on

6888-556: The Spartan Empire provoked much heated debate among Sparta's full citizens. The admiral Lysander felt that the Spartans should rebuild the Athenian empire in such a way that Sparta profited from it. Lysander tended to be too proud to take advice from others. Prior to this, Spartan law forbade the use of all precious metals by private citizens, with transactions being carried out with cumbersome iron ingots (which generally discouraged their accumulation) and all precious metals obtained by

7011-513: The Spartan army (the rule of the Thirty Tyrants ). In 403, democracy was restored by Thrasybulus and an amnesty declared. Sparta's former allies soon turned against her due to her imperialist policies, and Athens's former enemies, Thebes and Corinth , became her allies. Argos , Thebes and Corinth, allied with Athens, fought against Sparta in the Corinthian War of 395–387 BC. In 378,

7134-449: The Spartan navy was after the Battle of Abydos, the Persian navy directly assisted the Spartans. Alcibiades then pursued and met the combined Spartan and Persian fleets at the Battle of Cyzicus later in the spring of 410, achieving a significant victory. With the financial help of the Persians, Sparta built a fleet to challenge Athenian naval supremacy. With the new fleet and new military leader Lysander , Sparta attacked Abydos , seizing

7257-478: The Spartan state. Agesilaus employed a political dynamic that played on a feeling of pan-Hellenic sentiment and launched a successful campaign against the Persian empire. Once again, the Persian empire played both sides against each other. The Persian Court supported Sparta in the rebuilding of their navy while simultaneously funding the Athenians, who used Persian subsidies to rebuild their long walls (destroyed in 404 BC) as well as to reconstruct their fleet and win

7380-399: The action of the vandals would have weakened Alcibiades and the war party in Athens. Furthermore, it is unlikely that Alcibiades would have deliberately defaced the statues of Hermes on the very eve of his departure with the fleet. Such defacement could only have been interpreted as a bad omen for the expedition that he had long advocated. Even before the fleet reached Sicily, word arrived to

7503-511: The allies planned to do likewise, for the Olympiad coincided with these events. They accordingly sent their advance guard, not expecting the war at Thermopylae to be decided so quickly." Many modern commentators are dissatisfied with this explanation and point to the fact that the Olympic Games were in progress or impute internal dissent and intrigue. Whatever the reason Sparta's own contribution

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7626-474: The arrival of Alcibiades, and had been inclining slightly toward the Athenians. However, with the arrival of Alcibiades, the Athenian victory over the Spartans became a rout. Only the approach of nightfall and the movement of Persian troops to the coast where the Spartans had beached their ships saved the Spartan navy from total destruction. Following Alcibiades' advice, the Persian Empire had been playing Sparta and Athens off against each other. However, as weak as

7749-418: The arts (see Greek theatre ). Some of the most important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus , Aristophanes , Euripides and Sophocles , the philosophers Aristotle , Plato , and Socrates , the historians Herodotus , Thucydides and Xenophon , the poet Simonides and the sculptor Phidias . The leading statesman of this period

7872-514: The attempt of the Spartan commander Sphodrias to capture Piraeus by surprise triggered Athens to establish the Second Athenian League . Finally Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 in the Battle of Leuctra . However, other Greek cities, including Athens, turned against Thebes , and its dominance was brought to an end at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) with the death of its leader, the military genius Epaminondas . By mid century, however,

7995-509: The basis of local government. The tribes each selected fifty members by lot for the Boule , the council that governed Athens on a day-to-day basis. The public opinion of voters could be influenced by the political satires written by the comic poets and performed in the city theaters . The Assembly or Ecclesia was open to all full citizens and was both a legislature and a supreme court, except in murder cases and religious matters, which became

8118-456: The battlefield. The soldiers who stayed behind were to protect their escape against the Persian cavalry. Herodotus believed that Leonidas gave the order because he perceived the allies to be disheartened and unwilling to encounter the danger to which his own mind was made up. He therefore chose to dismiss all the troops except the Thebans, Thespians and helots and save the glory for the Spartans. Of

8241-425: The birthplace of democracy , largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then-known European continent. Hippias , son of Peisistratus , had ruled Athens jointly with his brother, Hipparchus, from the death of Peisistratus in about 527. Following the assassination of Hipparchus in about 514, Hippias took on sole rule, and in response to

8364-405: The borders of Laconia . As the two coalitions grew, their separate interests kept coming into conflict. Under the influence of King Archidamus II (the Eurypontid king of Sparta from 476 BC through 427 BC), Sparta, in the late summer or early autumn of 446 BC, concluded the Thirty Years Peace with Athens. This treaty took effect the next winter in 445 BC Under the terms of this treaty, Greece

8487-468: The capture of Euboea , bringing most of mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth under Persian control. However, the Athenians had evacuated the city of Athens by sea before Thermopylae, and under the command of Themistocles , they defeated the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis . In 483 BC, during the period of peace between the two Persian invasions, a vein of silver ore had been discovered in

8610-399: The city becoming state property. Without the Spartans' support, Lysander's innovations came into effect and brought a great deal of profit for him—on Samos, for example, festivals known as Lysandreia were organized in his honour. He was recalled to Sparta, and once there did not attend to any important matters. Sparta refused to see Lysander or his successors dominate. Not wanting to establish

8733-503: The city lost its greatest leader and his successors blundered into an ineffectual ten-year war with Phocis . In 346 BC the Thebans appealed to Philip II of Macedon to help them against the Phocians, thus drawing Macedon into Greek affairs for the first time. The Peloponnesian War was a radical turning point for the Greek world. Before 403 BC, the situation was more defined, with Athens and its allies (a zone of domination and stability, with

8856-434: The city, 75 stadia (9.5 miles, 15 km) to the long walls, and 56.5 stadia (7 miles, 11 km) to Piraeus, Munichia, and Phalerum. There were many gates, among the more important there were: The Acropolis , also called Cecropia from its reputed founder, Cecrops , was a steep rock in the middle of the city, about 50 meters high, 350 meters long, and 150 meters wide; its sides were naturally scarped on all sides except

8979-442: The city-state Sparta ended with an Athenian defeat after Sparta started its own navy. Athenian democracy was briefly overthrown by the coup of 411 , brought about because of its poor handling of the war, but it was quickly restored. The war ended with the complete defeat of Athens in 404. Since the defeat was largely blamed on democratic politicians such as Cleon and Cleophon , there was a brief reaction against democracy, aided by

9102-458: The coast and resupplied the ground troops. The Greek fleet, meanwhile, dashed to block Cape Artemision . After being delayed by Leonidas I , the Spartan king of the Agiad Dynasty, at the Battle of Thermopylae (a battle made famous by the 300 Spartans who faced the entire Persian army), Xerxes advanced into Attica, and captured and burned Athens. The subsequent Battle of Artemisium resulted in

9225-504: The common enemy of the Persian Empire, which was conquered within 13 years during the wars of Alexander the Great , Philip's son. In the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece , the Classical period corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC (the most common dates being the fall of the last Athenian tyrant in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC). The Classical period in this sense follows

9348-405: The death of Agis II, Leotychidas attempted to claim the Eurypontid throne for himself, but this was met with an outcry, led by Lysander, who was at the height of his influence in Sparta. Lysander argued that Leotychidas was a bastard and could not inherit the Eurypontid throne; instead he backed the hereditary claim of Agesilaus, son of Agis by another wife. With Lysander's support, Agesilaus became

9471-545: The democracy and appointed in its place an oligarchy called the " Thirty Tyrants " to govern Athens. Meanwhile, in Sparta, Timaea gave birth to a child. The child was given the name Leotychidas, after the great grandfather of Agis II—King Leotychidas of Sparta. However, because of Timaea's alleged affair with Alcibiades, it was widely rumoured that the young Leotychidas was fathered by Alcibiades. Indeed, Agis II refused to acknowledge Leotychidas as his son until he relented, in front of witnesses, on his deathbed in 400 BC. Upon

9594-418: The early defining mathematics, science, artistic thought ( architecture , sculpture), theatre , literature , philosophy , and politics of Western civilization derives from this period of Greek history , which had a powerful influence on the later Roman Empire . Part of the broader era of classical antiquity , the classical Greek era ended after Philip II 's unification of most of the Greek world against

9717-536: The economic growth of the Athenian Empire . Concentration on the Athenian Empire, however, brought Athens into conflict with another Greek state. Ever since the formation of the Delian League in 477 BC, the island of Melos had refused to join. By refusing to join the League, however, Melos reaped the benefits of the League without bearing any of the burdens. In 425 BC, an Athenian army under Cleon attacked Melos to force

9840-531: The ephors agreed to allow him to take a second wife without setting aside his first. This second wife, a descendant of Chilon of Sparta (one of the Seven Sages of Greece ), promptly bore a son, Cleomenes . However, one year after Cleomenes' birth, Anaxandridas' first wife also gave birth to a son, Dorieus . Leonidas was the second son of Anaxandridas' first wife, and either the elder brother or twin of Cleombrotus . Leonidas' name means "descendant of Leon", and he

9963-471: The fact its creation served greatly the man who created it. The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four Ionic "tribes" ( phyle ) with ten new ones, named after legendary heroes of Greece and having no class basis, which acted as electorates. Each tribe was in turn divided into three trittyes (one from the coast; one from the city and one from the inland divisions), while each trittys had one or more demes , depending on their population, which became

10086-441: The fleet that Alcibiades was to be arrested and charged with sacrilege of the statues of Hermes, prompting Alcibiades to flee to Sparta. When the fleet later landed in Sicily and the battle was joined, the expedition was a complete disaster. The entire expeditionary force was lost and Nicias was captured and executed. This was one of the most crushing defeats in the history of Athens. Meanwhile, Alcibiades betrayed Athens and became

10209-423: The god Hermes that were scattered throughout the city of Athens. This action was blamed on Alcibiades and was seen as a bad omen for the coming campaign. In all likelihood, the coordinated action against the statues of Hermes was the action of the peace party. Having lost the debate on the issue, the peace party was desperate to weaken Alcibiades' hold on the people of Athens. Successfully blaming Alcibiades for

10332-435: The holy city of Delos. Thus, the League took the name "Delian League". Its formal purpose was to liberate Greek cities still under Persian control. However, it became increasingly apparent that the Delian League was really a front for Athenian hegemony throughout the Aegean. A competing coalition of Greek city-states centred around Sparta arose, and became more important as the external Persian threat subsided. This coalition

10455-430: The island to join the Delian League. However, Melos fought off the attack and was able to maintain its neutrality. Further conflict was inevitable and in the spring of 416 BC the mood of the people in Athens was inclined toward military adventure. The island of Melos provided an outlet for this energy and frustration for the military party. Furthermore, there appeared to be no real opposition to this military expedition from

10578-455: The issue of joining the Delian League is presented by Thucydides in his Melian Dialogue . The debate did not in the end resolve any of the differences between Melos and Athens and Melos was invaded in 416 BC, and soon occupied by Athens. This success on the part of Athens whetted the appetite of the people of Athens for further expansion of the Athenian Empire. Accordingly, the people of Athens were ready for military action and tended to support

10701-468: The latter two former Spartan allies, challenged Sparta's dominance in the Corinthian War , which ended inconclusively in 387 BC. That same year Sparta shocked the Greeks by concluding the Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia. The agreement turned over the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus, reversing a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Sparta then tried to further weaken the power of Thebes, which led to

10824-525: The loss of his brother, became a worse leader who was increasingly disliked. Hippias exiled 700 of the Athenian noble families, amongst them Cleisthenes ' family, the Alchmaeonids. Upon their exile, they went to Delphi, and Herodotus says they bribed the Pythia always to tell visiting Spartans that they should invade Attica and overthrow Hippias. That supposedly worked after a number of times, and Cleomenes I led

10947-575: The magnificent Propylaea , "the Entrances", built by Pericles , before the right wing of which was the small Temple of Athena Nike . The summit of the Acropolis was covered with temples, statues of bronze and marble, and various other works of art. Of the temples, the grandest was the Parthenon , sacred to the "Virgin" goddess Athena ; and north of the Parthenon was the magnificent Erechtheion , containing three separate temples, one to Athena Polias , or

11070-443: The might of Zeus. I declare that he will not be restrained until he utterly tears apart one of these. In August 480 BC, Leonidas marched out of Sparta to meet Xerxes ' army at Thermopylae with a small force of 1,200 men (900 helots and 300 Spartan hoplites ), where he was joined by forces from other Greek city-states, who put themselves under his command to form an army of 7,000 strong. There are various theories on why Leonidas

11193-470: The moderate Athenian leader Nicias concluded the Peace of Nicias (421). In 418 BC, however, conflict between Sparta and the Athenian ally Argos led to a resumption of hostilities. Alcibiades was one of the most influential voices in persuading the Athenians to ally with Argos against the Spartans. At the Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. Accordingly, Argos and

11316-459: The northern Greek kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs. In 338 BC the armies of Philip II defeated Athens at the Battle of Chaeronea , effectively limiting Athenian independence. During the winter of 338–37 BC Macedonia, Athens and other Greek states became part of the League of Corinth . Further, the conquests of his son, Alexander the Great , widened Greek horizons and made

11439-486: The only remaining functions of the Areopagus. Most offices were filled by lot, although the ten strategoi (generals) were elected. The silver mines of Laurion contributed significantly to the development of Athens in the 5th century BC, when the Athenians learned to prospect, treat, and refine the ore and used the proceeds to build a massive fleet, at the instigation of Themistocles . In 499 BC, Athens sent troops to aid

11562-519: The other king was from the Agiad Dynasty. With the signing of the Thirty Years Peace treaty, Archidamus II felt he had successfully prevented Sparta from entering into a war with its neighbours. However, the strong war party in Sparta soon won out and in 431 BC Archidamus was forced to go to war with the Delian League. However, in 427 BC, Archidamus II died and his son, Agis II succeeded to the Eurypontid throne of Sparta. The immediate causes of

11685-523: The other personalities of the era, men who excelled in politics , philosophy , architecture , sculpture , history and literature . He fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never return throughout its history. He executed a large number of public works projects and improved the life of the citizens. Hence, this period is often referred to as "Age of Pericles." Silver mined in Laurium in southeastern Attica contributed greatly to

11808-518: The peace party. Enforcement of the economic obligations of the Delian League upon rebellious city-states and islands was a means by which continuing trade and prosperity of Athens could be assured. Melos alone among all the Cycladic Islands located in the south-west Aegean Sea had resisted joining the Delian League. This continued rebellion provided a bad example to the rest of the members of the Delian League. The debate between Athens and Melos over

11931-465: The prosperity of this Athenian Golden Age. During the time of the ascendancy of Ephialtes as leader of the democratic faction, Pericles was his deputy. When Ephialtes was assassinated by personal enemies, Pericles stepped in and was elected general, or strategos , in 445 BC; a post he held continuously until his death in 429 BC, always by election of the Athenian Assembly . The Parthenon ,

12054-479: The rest of the Peloponnesus was brought back under the control of Sparta. The return of peace allowed Athens to be diverted from meddling in the affairs of the Peloponnesus and to concentrate on building up the empire and putting their finances in order. Soon trade recovered and tribute began, once again, rolling into Athens. A strong "peace party" arose, which promoted avoidance of war and continued concentration on

12177-453: The small Greek force, which was attacked from both sides, all were killed except for the 400 Thebans, who surrendered to Xerxes without a fight. When Leonidas was killed, the Spartans retrieved his body after driving back the Persians four times. Herodotus says that Xerxes' orders were to have Leonidas' head cut off and put on a stake and his body crucified . This was considered sacrilegious . A hero cult of Leonidas survived in Sparta until

12300-514: The strategic initiative. By occupying the Hellespont , the source of Athens' grain imports, Sparta effectively threatened Athens with starvation. In response, Athens sent its last remaining fleet to confront Lysander, but were decisively defeated at Aegospotami (405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with bankruptcy. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. Lysander abolished

12423-492: The struggle. In 433 BC, Corcyra sought Athenian assistance in the war. Corinth was known to be a traditional enemy of Athens. However, to further encourage Athens to enter the conflict, Corcyra pointed out how useful a friendly relationship with Corcyra would be, given the strategic locations of Corcyra itself and the colony of Epidamnus on the east shore of the Adriatic Sea. Furthermore, Corcyra promised that Athens would have

12546-430: The traditional Greek city state obsolete. Antipater dissolved the Athenian government and established a plutocratic system in 322 BC (see Lamian War and Demetrius Phalereus ). Athens remained a wealthy city with a brilliant cultural life, but ceased to be an independent power. Athens was in Attica , about 30 stadia from the sea, on the southwest slope of Mount Lycabettus , between the small rivers Cephissus to

12669-447: The use of Corcyra's navy, the third-largest in Greece. This was too good of an offer for Athens to refuse. Accordingly, Athens signed a defensive alliance with Corcyra. The next year, in 432 BC, Corinth and Athens argued over control of Potidaea (near modern-day Nea Potidaia ), eventually leading to an Athenian siege of Potidaea. In 434–433 BC Athens issued the " Megarian Decrees ", a series of decrees that placed economic sanctions on

12792-634: The west end. It was originally surrounded by an ancient Cyclopean wall said to have been built by the Pelasgians . At the time of the Peloponnesian war only the north part of this wall remained, and this portion was still called the Pelasgic Wall ; while the south part which had been rebuilt by Cimon , was called the Cimonian Wall . On the west end of the Acropolis, where access is alone practicable, were

12915-486: The west, Ilissos to the south, and the Eridanos to the north, the latter of which flowed through the town. The walled city measured about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) in diameter, although at its peak the city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. The Acropolis was just south of the centre of this walled area. The city was burnt by Xerxes in 480 BC, but was soon rebuilt under the administration of Themistocles , and

13038-413: Was Demophilus , son of Diadromes, and as Herodotus writes, "Hence they lived with the Spartans and died with them." One theory provided by Herodotus is that Leonidas sent away the remainder of his men because he cared about their safety. The King would have thought it wise to preserve those Greek troops for future battles against the Persians, but he knew that the Spartans could never abandon their post on

13161-511: Was Pericles , who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. The city became, in Pericles's words, an education for Hellas (usually quoted as "the school of Hellas [Greece].") 37°58′N 23°43′E  /  37.97°N 23.72°E  / 37.97; 23.72 Classical Greece Classical Greece

13284-586: Was Leonidas' laconic reply when Xerxes offered to spare the lives of the Spartans if they gave up their arms. Another statue , also with the inscription ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ, was erected in Sparta in 1969. Leonidas was the name of an epic poem written by Richard Glover , which originally appeared in 1737. It went on to appear in four other editions, being expanded from 9 books to 12. He is a central figure in Steven Pressfield 's novel Gates of Fire , and appears as

13407-596: Was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece , marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture (such as Ionia and Macedonia ) gaining increased autonomy from the Persian Empire ; the peak flourishing of democratic Athens ; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars ; the Spartan and then Theban hegemonies ; and the expansion of Macedonia under Philip II . Much of

13530-435: Was a struggle not merely between two city-states but rather between two coalitions, or leagues of city-states: the Delian League , led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta. The Delian League grew out of the need to present a unified front of all Greek city-states against Persian aggression. In 481 BC, Greek city-states, including Sparta, met in the first of a series of "congresses" that strove to unify all

13653-499: Was accompanied by such a small force of hoplites. According to Herodotus , "the Spartans sent the men with Leonidas on ahead so that the rest of the allies would see them and march with no fear of defeat, instead of siding with the Persians like the others if they learned that the Spartans were delaying. After completing their festival, the Carneia , they left their garrison at Sparta and marched in full force towards Thermopylae. The rest of

13776-498: Was accused of having seduced Timaea, the wife of Agis II, the Eurypontid king of Sparta. Accordingly, Alcibiades was required to flee from Sparta and seek the protection of the Persian Court. In the Persian court, Alcibiades now betrayed both Athens and Sparta. He encouraged Persia to give Sparta financial aid to build a navy, advising that long and continuous warfare between Sparta and Athens would weaken both city-states and allow

13899-408: Was adorned with public buildings by Cimon and especially by Pericles , in whose time (461–429 BC) it reached its greatest splendour. Its beauty was chiefly due to its public buildings, for the private houses were mostly insignificant, and its streets badly laid out. Towards the end of the Peloponnesian War , it contained more than 10,000 houses, which at a rate of 12 inhabitants to a house would give

14022-435: Was first organized into about 130 demes , which became the basic civic element. The 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of the assembly ( ἐκκλησία , ekklesia ), headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random. The city's administrative geography was reworked, in order to create mixed political groups: not federated by local interests linked to the sea, to the city, or to farming, whose decisions (e.g.

14145-486: Was formally divided into two large power zones. Sparta and Athens agreed to stay within their own power zone and not to interfere in the other's. Despite the Thirty Years Peace, it was clear that war was inevitable. As noted above, at all times during its history down to 221 BC, Sparta was a "diarchy" with two kings ruling the city-state concurrently. One line of hereditary kings was from the Eurypontid Dynasty while

14268-520: Was just 300 Spartiates (accompanied by their attendants and probably perioikoi auxiliaries), the total force assembled for the defence of the pass of Thermopylae came to something between four and seven thousand Greeks. They faced a Persian army who had invaded from the north of Greece under Xerxes I. Herodotus stated that this army consisted of over two million men; modern scholars consider this to be an exaggeration and give estimates ranging from 70,000 to 300,000. Xerxes waited four days to attack, hoping

14391-537: Was named after his grandfather Leon of Sparta . The Doric Greek suffix -ίδας, with corresponding Attic form -ίδης, mainly means "descendant of". But literally his name can also mean "son of a lion", as the name Leon means "lion" in Greek. King Anaxandridas II died in c. 524 BC, and Cleomenes succeeded to the throne sometime between then and 516 BC. Dorieus was so outraged that the Spartans had preferred his half-brother over himself that he found it impossible to remain in Sparta. He made one unsuccessful attempt to set up

14514-417: Was no equality at all between the members, as might be implied by the term "league". Furthermore, most of its members were located outside the Peloponnese Peninsula. The terms "Spartan League" and "Peloponnesian League" are modern terms. Contemporaries instead referred to " Lacedaemonians and their Allies" to describe the "league". The league had its origins in Sparta's conflict with Argos , another city on

14637-415: Was not a reflection on Spartan arms. Sparta's military reputation had never stood in higher regard, nor was Sparta less powerful in 478 BC than it had been in 481 BC. This selection of Leonidas to lead the defence of Greece against Xerxes' invasion led to Leonidas' death in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. Upon receiving a request from the confederated Greek forces to aid in defending Greece against

14760-440: Was not enough to discourage the Persian advance, which soon marched through Boeotia , setting up Thebes as their base of operations, and entered southern Greece. That forced the Athenians to evacuate Athens, which was taken by the Persians, and seek the protection of their fleet. Subsequently, the Athenians and their allies, led by Themistocles , defeated the Persian navy at sea in the Battle of Salamis . Xerxes had built himself

14883-426: Was not simply a tribute to Sparta's military prowess: The probability that the coalition wanted Leonidas personally for his capability as a military leader is underlined by the fact that just two years after his death, the coalition preferred Athenian leadership to the leadership of either Leotychidas or Leonidas' successor (as regent for his still under-aged son) Pausanias . The rejection of Leotychidas and Pausanias

15006-407: Was the son of king Anaxandridas II and the 17th king of the Agiad dynasty , a Spartan royal house which claimed descent from the mythical demigod Heracles . Leonidas I ascended to the throne in c.  489 BC , succeeding his half-brother king Cleomenes I . He ruled jointly along with king Leotychidas until his death in 480 BC, when he was succeeded by his son, Pleistarchus . At

15129-429: Was to invade Attica , but the Athenians were able to retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of plague in the city during the siege caused many deaths, including that of Pericles . At the same time the Athenian fleet landed troops in the Peloponnesus, winning battles at Naupactus (429) and Pylos (425). However, these tactics could bring neither side a decisive victory. After several years of inconclusive campaigning,

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