Greek History

perioikoi

"Dwellers-around" in Laconia - in between helots and Spartiates. LAconian reduced in 9th century BCE. Pay tribute to Sparta and serve in the Spartan army, but do not decide when and where Sparta goes to war. Participate in mourning at funerals of important Spartiates - showing political/social domination is as important as economic domination.

hekatompeda

"Hundred-footers." Built in the eight century, stone with roof tiles by the seventh century, sculpture in the 6th. Common with tyrants. Temple of Olympian Zeus under Peisistratus started 530.

pelatai and hektemoroi

"dependents" and "sixth-parters." Described in Ath. Pol. discussion of seventh century Athens. Failing farmers approach the rich and are made debt-slaves

Pelasgians

"peoples of the sea" - pre-Greek inhabitants of Greece

Euclid

(325-250). Deductive Elements (from principles to conclusions. Gathers all knowledge about geometry.

Three phases of the Peloponnesian War

1) Archidamian War (431-421) 2) Peace of Nicias (421-413) 3) Ionian War (412-404)

Spartan government

1) Two kings (Agiad and Eurypontid families). Military and religious leaders. After 506, only one king with the army at a time. Possibly diarchy arises from tow basilies of Mesoa and Pitana? 2) Council of Elders/Gerousia. 28 + 2 kings. Settle lawsuits, prepare agenda for the Assembly. No written laws. Elected by acclamation from men over 60. 3) Ephors: 5 elected each year by acclamation. Supervise and can depose the kings and Elders; supervise Assembly meetings. 2 always follow the king on campaign. 4) Assembly: all Spartan men over 30. Vote by shouting.

Three places where the Greeks can hold the Persians

1) Vale of Tempe - Greek alliance lets it go and Thessaly surrenders to Xerxes. 2) Thermopylae between Thessaly and Locris. 3) Isthmus of Corinth. Sparta favors this consistently.

Solon's four census classes

1) pentakosiomedimnoi (land yields over 500 medimnoi) - can hold all political offices. 2) hippeis (300-500). All offices except treasurer. 3) zeugetai (200-300). No treasurer or archon. 4) thetes (less than 200). No offices, but can be in juries and the Assembly. Nearly all Athenians.

F.A. Wolf

1795 writes Prolegomena ad Homerum. Influenced by philological approaches to the Bible - explaining internal inconsistencies as the result of amalgamating various accounts. Homeric poems are produced by editorial activity under Peisistratus in the 6th century and had originally been separate songs. Followers (Analysts) try to divide the poems into early and late strands with little success.

Polybius

200-118: Sepends time as a hostage in Rome, wants to write a universal history to explain how Rome came to dominate the world. Sees history as analytical. 5 books survive

Battle of Sellasia

222. Battle north of Sparta where the Achaean League and Macedonians defeat the Spartans under Cleomenes III. Almost all of Cleomenes' new Spartiates are killed. Antigonus captures Sparta and puts it in a pro-Macedonian League

Cleomenean War

229-222. Cleomenes tries to defeat the Achaean League to restore the glory of Sparta. Captures Argos in 226, but is crushed by the Achaean League and Macedonia in 222

Agis III

244-241. Spartan king who wants Lycurgan reform, attempts to redistribute wealth and property. Wants to divide the land in the city into 4500 equal plots for the Spartiates, 15000 for the perioikoi (Plutarch, Life of Cleomenes). Overthrows Leonidas and the ephors. Agesilaos (rich guy) undermines him by getting him to forgive debts before he redistributes land. Loses support and is murdered

Chremonidean War

267-261. Anti-Macedonian faction in Athens, led by Chremonides, rebels against Macedon together with Sparta and the Achaean League. Defeated by Antigonus Gonatus, and a new dictator is installed in Athens until 229.

Battle of Beneventum

278. Romans defeat Pyrrhus at Maleventum by sending light armed skirmishers against the elephants. Romans rename it Beneventum.

Battle of Asculum

279. Another Pyrrhus victory with elephants over the Romans.

Battle of Heracleia

280 BCE. Pyrrhus defeats the Romans near Tarentum. With elephants!

Battle of Korupedion

281. Battle near Sardis where Seleucus defeats and kills Lysimachus. Hellenistic kingdoms about to settle down.

Archimedes of Syracuse

287-212. Spends much of his life at King Hiero II's court in Syracuse. Geometer, mathematician, and engineer. Defines lever, designs pulleys. Archimedes' principle and hydrostatics: displaced water.

Battle of Ipsus

301. Cassander, Lysimachus, and Seleucus (elephants!) versus Antigonus and Demetrius (nervous because Demetrius has organized a common league of Greek cities). Antigonus is killed, idea of one empire is over. Ends the wars of the successors.

Battle of Salamis (Cyprus)

306. Antigonus and Demetrius beat Ptolemy's fleet near Cyprus, adopt the title "King" (all the other diadochs follow suit). Plutarch's life of Demetrius.

Battle of Gaza

312. Ptolemy defeats Demetrius the Besieger

Coup of Syracuse

316, lead by Agathocles

Sixth Punic-Sicilian War

316-304. Agathocles and Syracuse versus Carthage (who comes to help the wealthy exiles expelled by Agathocles). Ends in a peace in 304.

Siege of Pydna

316. Cassander besieges and captures Pydna, puts Olympias to death.

Pyrrhus of Epirus

319-272. Ascendant in the 280s. 280 - goes west to help Taras against Rome. Wins two battles but with heavy losses (Pyrrhic victories). Then goes to Sicily to fight the Carthaginians (278-276) but fails. Captures Macedon for a second in 276. Dies in Argos in 272 (roof tile). Plutarch's life of Pyrrhus. Attempt to create a new Hellenistic kingdom in the west

Battle of Crannon

322 (Lamian War). Greeks defeated by the Macedonians. Every Greek state has to negotiate peace terms separately.

Lamian War

323-321. Athens and the Aetolian League revolt upon Alexander's death. Hold Antipater's army besieged at Lamia. Craterus and Lysimachus delay sending help. End of Athenian political independence. Macedonian garrison set up in Athens, citizenship restricted (only people holding over 2000 drachmas can be politically active.

Battle of Hydaspes River

326. Alexander victorious over king Porus in Pakistan (Porus has elephants). Alexander's troops are exhausted, his horse Bucephalas dies.

Battle of Gaugamela

331. Alexander's victory over Darius III in northern Iraq. Uses a V formation. Babylon and Susa surrender; Darius flees east to Ecbatana, then Zagros mountains.

Siege of Tyre

332. Alexander besieges Tyre by building a land bridge out to it. Sells everyone into slavery. Best harbor in the Mediterranean - key for Persian fleets. Darius offers Alexander everything west of the Eurphrates - A says no.

Battle of Issus

333. Between Turkey and Syria. Darius traps Alexander between him and hostile Phoenician cities to the south. Alexander is the victor and captures Darius' family; Darius flees from the battlefield. Depicted in the Alexander mosaic. Darius offers Alexander Anatolia in exchange for peace and his family - A refuses.

Battle of Granicus River

334. Memnon tells the western satraps to devastate their own countrysides and retreat, but they don't listen and are defeated by Alexander's army. Alexander kills all the Greek mercenaries (Memnon escapes). Cleitus the Black saves Alexander's life.

Siege of Thebes

335 - Alexander campaigns against tribes in the Danube river, and Thebes revolts. Every house in the city is burned except Pindar's, 30,000 Thebans sold into slavery, Athens surrenders.

Darius III

336 - 330. Alexander's foe in Persia. Killed by Bessus, 330.

Second Common Peace

337. Philip establishes a League of Corinth with himself as hegemon and a representative council. Poleis promise not to act against Macedon. Installs garrisons at Chalcis and Corinth, plans to attack Persia

Battle of Chaeronea

338. Philip II defeats Athens and Thebes. Alexander destroys the Theban Sacred Band. Thebes gets a garrison, Athens gets generous terms (Philip and Alexander made Athenian citizens).

Menander

342-291, New Comedy - late 4th and early 3rd century Athens. Less political than Old Comedy. Often romantic plots and domestic settings. Only the Duskolos survives complete. Influence on Plautus and Terence.

Peace of Philocrates

346. Peace between Philip and "Athens and its allies"

Alexander the Great

356-323

Third Sacred War

356-346. At Thebes' urging, Amphyctyonic League imposes fines on Phocis; Sparta and Athens supports Phocis. Philip II crushes Phocis in 352 (Battle of Crocus Field), allowing him to position himself as defender of Delphi.

The Social War

357-355. Rhodes, Cos, and Chios secede from the Second Athenian League, backed by Mausolus of Caria. Athens accepts defeat before Persia can back rebels. Ends the League and allows Philip to retake Amphipolis while Athens is distracted

Agathocles of Syracuse

361-289/8. From western Sicily: moves to Syracuse and champions the poor, raises a revolution that slaughters 4000 wealthy citizens and exiles 6000 (316). Assembly elects him commander in chief. Attacks Carthage in 311 (Carthaginians sacrifice children to Baal), abandons his troops there in 307, becomes king of Syracuse in 304 (imitating Hellenistic monarchs). Abdicates before he dies, dissolving the Syracusan empire

Battle of Mantinea (362)

362. Mantineia breaks from Thebes and asks for Spartan help. Both sides claim a victory, but it's a stalemate. Epaminondas is killed. Xenophon's history ends in this year.

Battle of Leuctra

371. Decisive Theban victory under Epaminondas over the Spartans under Cleombrotus. Cleombrotus and 400 Spartiates (more than 1/4 of the Spartiate population) killed, remaining Spartans retreat and Agesilaus must refuse to disenfranchise them. End of Spartan power; Thebes no longer belongs to the Athenian League. Allies with Arcadia to liberate Messenia and found Messene.

Common Peace

375. Pushed through by the Athenians. A reinforcement of the King's Peace, dissolving the Boeotian League (betrayal of Thebes)

Battle of Naxos

376. Athens and its allies defeat Sparta's navy. Helps secure the grain route.

Fourth Punic Sicilian War

382-374. Dionysius I versus Carthage

Aristotle

384-322. Born in Stagira, moves to Athens (Academy), near Troy, Macedon, then Athens again to open the Lyceum. Rules of logic: contradictory statements cannot both be true. Teleology: the study of ends (the explanation of change lies in its end). Prime Mover: the causeless cause that causes everything else. THE POLIS IS THE TELOS OF PEOPLE. Doctrine of the mean: good follows the mean between extremes.

King's Peace

387-371. Settlement between Artaxerxes II and Sparta. All Greek cities in Ionia, Clazomenae and Cyprus are Persia's, others are independent except for Lemnos/Imbros/Skyros (belong to Athens). Viewed as a betrayal of the Asiatic Greeks. Dissolves Boeotian League (makes Thebans mad).

Corinthian War

394-387. Sparta against Thebes, Corinth, and Athens with Persian backing. Sparta defeated.

Third Punic-Sicilian War

397-393. Dionysius I invades Punic west Sicily, ravaging Segesta and besieging Motya. Himilco reacts by besieging Syracuse, but plague breaks out in the Syracusan camp. Ended by the Sicilian peace in 393. Syracuse dominant in Greek Sicily, Carthage in the west

Anabasis

401-399 BCE: March of 10,000 Greeks from Cunaxa to the Black Sea, led by Xenophon.

Battle of Cunaxa

401. Battle between Artaxerxes II and Greek mercenaries near Babylon. Cyrus is killed. Main source Xenophon

Battle of Aegospotami

405. Lysander captures Lampascus, Athenians camp at Aegospotami (bad idea, but they don't listen to Alcibiades). Almost all of the Athenian fleet is destroyed or captured, Athenian prisoners killed, Athenian generals flee.

Battle of Arginusae

406. Athenians melt down gold and silver in temples to raise cash, offer freedom to slaves who will row. Engage the Spartans at Arginusae islands near Lesbos. Greatest Athenian naval victory. Callicratidas killed. Athenians generals are prevented from picking up the dead by a storm. Six of them are executed after an illegal trial.

Battle of Notium

406. Spartans under Lysander defeat the Athenians. Alcibiades has left the ships under the command of Antiochus, who makes a stupid move to provoke Lysander. Minor losses, but makes Alcibiades look bad - he flees to his castle in Thrace and the Athenians elect new generals.

Battle of Himera (II)

409. Hannibal marches on Himera in revenge for his grandfather Hamilcar's defeat there in 480, assisted by Sicilian indigenous population. He captures the city, sacrifices 3000 prisoners on the spot of Hamilcar's death, then sails home to Carthage. Diocles evacuates half the city to Syracuse.

Battle of Selinus

409. The Carthaginians with a huge army of mercenaries (under Hannibal) destroy Selinus and massacre the inhabitants

Battle of Cyzicus

410. Sea battle. Mindarus (Spartan general) and Persian satrap Pharnabazus versus Athenians under Alcibiades, Theramenes, and Thrasybulus. Athenian victory.

Battle of Syme

411. Athenian naval victory over Sparta near the Hellespont. Thucydides breaks off here.

Sicilian-Carthaginian War

412-404 (two waves of Carthaginian invasion - 412-410 under Hannibal and . Carthage agrees to help Segesta against Selinus. Selinus, Himera, Akragas, and Gela destroyed. Peace in 404 between Dionysius and Himilco. Selinus, Himera, Akragas, Gela, and Camarina have to pay tribute to Carthage, but other Greek cities and the Sicels are autonomus. Dionyius is dominant in Syracuse, Syracuse dominant in Sicily, but prevents Sicily from finishing off Athens when they have an advantage.

Ionian War

412-404. Third and final stage of the Peloponnesian War. The Hellespont is the key strategic location - grain supply from the Black Sea.

Siege of Syracuse

415-413. Athenians build a siege wall around the foot of Epipolai (hill north of the city) while the fleet cuts off Syracuse by sea (Syracuse sits on Ortygia with the Great Harbor south of it). Two Syracusan counterwalls fail until the arrival of Gylippus. Athenian ships begin to decay. Nicias asks for help from Athens and receives Demosthenes. After a crushing defeat, Nicias and Demosthenes are killed and the 7000 surviving Athenian forces are imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse.

Battle of Mantinea (418)

418. Spartan victory (under Agis, with Tegea) against allied Argives and Athenians. Largest hoplite battle in the war. Sparta restores much of the influence lost at Pylos.

Peace of Nicias

421. Nicias negotiates a settlement with Sparta, returns 120 Spartiates. Supposed to last for fifty years, with all prisoners and conquered territory returned. Many of Sparta's allies reject it (Megara, Thebes, Corinth). Sparta refuses to return Amphipolis, Athens keeps fort at Pylos. Alcibiades insulted by it.

Battle of Amphipolis

422. Athenians send Cleon to regain Amphipolis. Spartan victory. Cleon and Brasidas both killed.

Battle of Delium

424. Boeotians defeat Athenians and allies. Socrates is one of the hoplites (described by Alcibiades in the Symposium).

Battle of Pylos

425 - Athenian fleet sails back and traps 420 Spartiates on Sphacteria. Sparta requests a truce - Cleon says no, but Athenians at Pylos are running out of food and water. Cleon sails to Sphacteria, a fire breaks out on the island, and the 120 surviving Spartiates surrender to Cleon

Mytilene incident

427 - Mytilene revolts against Athens, and the assembly votes to kill men and sell women and children into slavery. Then change of mind -- kill only 1000 leading citizens, but for practical reasons. Sign of growing ruthlessness of Athens.

Capture of Plataea

427 - Sparta captures Plataea and puts every man on trial - what have you done to help the Spartans in the war? Executes them when they say nothing, enslaves women and children.

Plato

427-347. Two threats to the pursuit of arete: democracy and sophists. Poleis should have philosopher kings. Repubic (380s) and Laws (355). Theory of the forms: true forms exist in an unchanging world that our world is an imperfect reflection of. Eternal souls. Founds the Academy.

Sicilian Wars

427-424. Dorian cities side with Syracuse against the Ionian cities (including Leontini). Leontini invokes its treaty in 433 with Athens; Athens moves a ton of men and ships to Sicily. Ionians and Dorians in Sicily call a secret conference where Hermocrates of Syracuse persuades them to make peace and send the Athenians away. Athenian generals prosecuted for taking bribes.

Civil war in Corcyra

427. Democratic faction in Corcyra attacks the aristocrats. Stasis!!!

Battles of Chalchis and Naupactus

429. Athenian victories under Phormio over the Corinthian fleet in the gulf of Corinth. Sparta avoids naval engagements afterwards.

Plague of Athens

430. Prompted by overcrowding of refugees from the countryside inside Athens' city walls. Kills Pericles, which Thucydides sees as the beginning of the end for the Athenians (his successors pursue higher risk strategies aimed at destroying the Peloponnesian League).

Megarian decree

432. Under Pericles, Athens bans the Megarians from all harbors in cities controlled by Athens. Aristophanes jokes that he's protecting Aspasia.

Athenian treaty with Leontini and Rhegium

433 - Athenians bothered by growing power of Syracuse

Siege of Epidamnus

435 - Athenians become involved in a conflict between Corcyra and Epidamnus (its colony). Epidamnus asks Corcyra for help with a civil faction; Corcyra refuses and Epidamnus asks Corinth, who interferes. Corcyra captures Epidamnus, Athenians side with Corcyra (good base for action against Syracuse).

Athenian War against Samos

440-439. Athens helps Miletus against Samos and sets up a democracy in Samos.

Battle of Coronea

447. Boeotia gains independence from Athens

Second Sacred War

449-448. Indirect confrontation between Athens and Sparta over control of Delphi. Athens gives it to the Phocians, Spartans back to the Amphictyony.

Battle of Tanagra

457. Spartan victory over Athens. After Sparta attacks Phocis, Athens blocks access to the Isthmus.

Democritus of Abdera (Thrace)

460-380. Devises an atomic theory. The soul is made up of atoms that break apart at death.

First Peloponnesian War

460-446. Cold war between Athenian allies and Spartan allies. Athenian strategy is to break up the Peloponnesian League (can't beat Sparta in battle). Attempts to encircle and split off Corinth.

Egyptian revolt from Persia

460-454: Athens sends ships to help, but fleet is destroyed in 454. This prompts the relocation of the treasury of the Delian League to Athens.

Helot Revolt

464 after an earthquake. Spartans ask for help from the Athenians. Siege of Ithome. Cimon helps in 463, but Athenian forces sent home in 462 - causes ostracism of Cimon.

Thasian rebellion

465-3. Thasos revolts, Athenians besiege it, Sparta decides to attack Athens but is prevented by an earthquake and helot revolt. Thasos recaptured in 463.

Sicilian Civil Wars

466-461 BCE. After the death of Hiero I. Between ex-mercenaries and those displaced under tyrants.

Socrates

469-399. Opposes moral relativism. Arete is knowledge. Inductive reasoning: from a lot of examples, distill an essence in common. The Republic and justice.

Battle of Eurymedon River

469. Athenian victory (under Cimon) against the Persians (Xerxes)

Battles of Akragas

472 and 471. Precipitated by the death of Theron, tyrant of Akragas, who allied with Polyzalos (Hiero's brother) to attack Hiero. Syracusans win.

Battle of Cumae

474. Sea battle between the Etruscans and Italian Greeks (Syracusans under Hiero I and the navy of Cumae). Greek victory; Etruscans lose much political influence.

Battle of Mycale

479 (same day as Plataea). Greek fleet at Delos attacks the Persians at Samos and defeats them, leading to the freedom of the Ionians. "Second Ionian revolt"

Battle of Plataea

479. Spartans begin to march north, Mardonius falls back to Boeotia. 7 day standoff, oracles say whoever attacks will lose. Greek victory - Mardonius killed.

Battle of Himera

480, between Carthage (under Hamilcar) and Syracuse and allies. Diodorus Siculus describes Gelon's cavalry posing as allied troops from Selinus and infiltrating the Carthaginian camp. Kill Hamilcar as he is sacrificing as well as troops. Makes Gelon very powerful (Carthage pays huge indemnities, Akragas captures and enslaves fleeing Carthaginians).

Battle of Thermopylae

480. 300 Spartans and 5000 allies hold the pass under king Leonidas; Greek fleet assembles off Cape Artemesion. Ephialtes shows Xerxes the back way; Leonidas dismisses the allies, and 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians fight the Immortals and are defeated.

Battle of Salamis

480. Athens has been burnt by the Persians. Eurybiades wants to withdraw to the Isthmus; Themistocles wants to defeat the Persian fleet in the narrows near Salamis. Greek victory. Xerxes retreats in a disastrous rout and leaves Mardonius in Thessaly with an army. Herodotus says that this is the decisive battle - beating the Persians at sea was crucial.

Battle of Artemesium

480. Naval battle simultaneous with Thermopylae. Euboeans give Themistocles money to bribe Eurybiades (Spartan naval commander) to stay at Artemesium. Greeks withdraw to Salamis after they hear news from Thermopylae. Storms have destroyed a lot of Persian ships (Athenians pray to Boreas).

Second Persian invasion of Greece

481-479. 481: Xerxes gathers an army of 500 K (Herodotus says more than 5 million!) and bridges the Hellespont, cuts a canal through the Athos peninsula. Hopes to terrify Greeks into submission. Many cities surrender to him. Sparta starts to organize a resistance (31 poleis) and sends to Gelon of Syracuse for help.

Battle of Marathon

490. Miltiades takes charge. Pheidippides sent to Sparta for help, but Spartans wait for the full moon. 9000 Athenian hoplites, 1000 Plataean hoplites. Athenian generals split - 5 say fight, 5 say return to Athens for a siege. War Archon votes yes. Greek victory (6400 Persians dead, 192 Greeks). Persians under Datis sail to Athens, but decide to go home instead of besieging it.

Empedocles of Akragas

492-432. Argues for the survival of the fittest before intelligent design.

First Persian invasion of Greece

492-490. Mardonius sent out with a fleet along the north Aegean, but fleet is wrecked by a storm. Then Darius I sends heralds through Greece asking for surrender. Many poleis submit (not Athens and Sparta). In 490, sends 30,000 troops across the Aegean - burn Naxos, occupy Delos, besiege and then destroy Eritrea (betrayed by citizens). Ends at Marathon.

Battle of Lade

494 sea battle off the coast of Miletus. Persian navy defeats the Ionian navy under Dionysus of Phocaea (tries to impose discipline, but the Ionians are lazy). Samians desert, Miletus is burned and its population deported.

Heraclitus of Ephesus

494-475. Truth lies in logos ("order" "reason"). Everything is flowing and changing - things at rest appear that way because opposing forces are in balance. Fire/energy is the basis of everything (logos). "You can't step in the same river twice."

Ionian Revolt

499-493. Ionians with help from Athens and Eretria march inland and burn Sardis in 498. Uprising in Cyprus. Aristagoras flees north in 497 when things stop going well. After Battle of Lade in 494, the Persian army devastates the other Ionian cities (except Samos). Darius sets up democracies and regional courts.

Skepticism

4th and early 3rd century. Nothing can be known for sure, but we can act on plausible impressions. Develops from Academy in Athens.

Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sikyon

560s BCE. Herodotus describes the courting of his daughter Agariste; the Athenian Hippokleides dances on a table (Hdt. Book 6)

Solon

594 - chosen from among the Eupatridai to arbitrate between the rich and the poor. Law code displayed on Acropolis on wooden boards in 5th century. Debt bondage is outlawed, outstanding debts cancelled, those sold abroad repatriated. Redistribution of land (returning to original owners?) Childless landowners have autonomy over land. Economic measures: bans export of grain from Attica, encourages investment in olives and vines, clarifies weights and measures, requires fathers to teach sons a trade. Archaeology shows increased prosperity - SOS amphoras and fineware pottery all over the Med. More silver mining, eventually silver coinage (late 6th century). Reforms have made labor more expensive - import of slaves.

First Sacred War

595-585. Did it happen? Most testimony clustered around 340s and 330s, when 3rd and 4th Sacred Wars are being fought. Fought between the Amphyctyonic League of Delphi and the city of Cirrha (who robs/mistreats pilgrims). Chemical warfare (Cleisthenes of Sikyon poisons the water of Cirrha). Victory of the League.

Foundation of Selinus

628 (Megara and Megara Hyblaia)

Dreros inscription

650-600. Earliest Greek legal document. Placing term limits on the kosmos (attempt to curtail elite power).

Battle of Hysiae.

669. Sparta defeated by Argos.

Second Messenian War

685-668. Date and information from Pausanius, who gets it from Tyrtaeus (composes poems around this war). Sparta successfully suppresses a helot revolt. Hall - is this actually an expansion of the theater to more of Messenia (First War captures Messenia itself).

Parthenian coup at Sparta

706. Either the sons of Spartans who did not participate in the First Messenian War and became helots or the illegitimate sons of young soldiers sent home from the First Messenian War. Revolt is defeated and they are exiled; they found Taras in South Italy (only Spartan colony there). (Antiochus, Ephorus)

Lelantine War

710-650. War between Chalcis and Eretria over the Lelantine plain. Complex web of alliances - Thucydides describes it as the only war between Trojan War and the Persian Wars where alliances and not single cities are involved. May be fictional.

Foundation of Megara Hyblaia

726 (Megara)

Foundation of Corcyra

733 (Corinth)

Foundation of Syracuse

733 (Corinth)

Foundation of Naxos

734 (Chalcis - first Greek colony in Sicily according to Thucydides)

First Messenian War

743-724 (dates from Pausanius). Spartan expansionism in the mid-8th century: incorporate Amyklai to add to Cynosura, Mesoa, Limnae and Pitana, transform Therapnae into a shrine to Helen/Menelaus/Dioscuri. After controlling Eurotas valley, move over the Taygetus Mountains to Messenia. Probably a series of raids and border skirmishes (not an organized invasion as stated in later sources). Messenians converted into serfs (most of the helots, although idea of helotage probably pioneered in Laconia).

Claudius Ptolemy

87-150 AD. Lives in Alexandria, not connected to the Ptolemaic rulers. Proposes a model of epicycles to explain retrograde motion.

Potidaea

A Corinthian colony and Athenian subject city. Revolts from Athens in 433. Athenians besiege it and trap some Corinthians inside.

Decelea

A hill just north of Athens in Attica. Alcibiades persuades the Spartan army to garrison it year-round in 415 - peasants move inside Athens' walls. Thucydides says 20,000 slaves escape here in 413 BCE from Athens.

Peloponnesian League

After Spartans stop annexing around 560, they bring oligarchies in other cities into the Peloponnesian League. Do not pay tribute and cannot be forced into war. Bicameral setup - Spartan assembly votes first, and league can veto. Mostly defensive and rarely operates north of the Isthmus - but very powerful by 500.

Cleomenes I

Agid king of Sparta. Deposes Hippias of Athens in 510. Teams up with Isagoras, Cleisthenes' political rival, in 508 to try to take over Athens, and expels 700 families, but is ejected by a mob of Athenians. Tries to attack Athens again in 506 to install Isagoras as tyrant, but Corinth and Demaratus (co-king) back out. Invites Hippias to Sparta in 505, promising to restore him. Does not join the Ionian revolt in 499 (dissuaded by Gorgo).

Common Resolution

Agreement signed in 461; puts an end to a civil war in Sicily between those who were forcibly transferred by tyrants and the ex-mercenaries settled on their land. Old citizens win right of return. Ex-mercenaries win partial citizen rights. Creates large and diverse poleis, often democracies (but aristocrats remain powerful.

Cleisthenes

Alcmaeonid who emerges as a strong man after 510 and institutes democratic reforms. The four old phylai are broken up and reorganized. Attica divided into 30 trittyes, and 10 new tribes are created (each consisting of one coastal, one inland, and one urban trittys). Army has tribal regiments with a general from each phyle. Each trittys consists of several demes - Athenians known by their name and their deme name. Establishes Council of 500.

Alcibiades

Alcmaeonid, friend of Socrates. Angry after the Peace of Nicias - his family had been proxenos to Sparta, and he should have been involved. Seeks to undermine the peace. Agitates for the Sicilian expedition and is appointed commander in 415, then flees upon his arrival in southern Italy and is recalled to Sparta before he can stand trial for the mutilation of the herms. Lives at Sparta with Agis II until 412, when he flees to Persia. Acclaimed admiral at Samos during the period of the 400 (411), wins Cyzicus in 410 and is acclaimed by the Athenians with a hero's welcome in 407 (although sails in on the plynteria - bad omen?)

Ptolemy I (Soter)

Alexander's general, head of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Runs to Egypt upon Alexander's death and rules from 323-283. Acquires Alexander's body. Receives cultic honors after he dies and the title of Soter.

Roxane

Alexander's wife (married 327) and mother of Alexander IV

Demetrius the Besieger

Antigonus the One-Eyed's son. Captures/"liberates" Athens in 307 and is worshiped as a god together with Antigonus after throwing out Demetrius of Phaleron. Besieges Rhodes in 305-304 (huge siege towers; gets his nickname, Colossus of Rhodes). Loses his kingdom at Ipsus in 301, but briefly takes control of Athens (297) and Macedon (294). Dies in Selecus' prison, 282

Damasias

Archon of Athens in 582, refuses to step down (seeking tyranny) and has to be forcibly expelled.

Eupatridai

Aristocracy at Athens in the 7th and early 6th centuries; widely resented

Philip II

Ascends 359, rules until his death in 336. Son of Amyntas and Eurydice. Sent to Thebes as a hostage at age 13, then recalled by his brother Perdiccas. Develops new military tactics with sarissas. Defeats Illyrians and recovers Upper Macedon, makes dynastic marriages. Killed by a bodyguard at a family weddign

Ostracism

Assembly is asked once a year if they want to hold an ostracism. Ostracized person is sent away for ten years (but his property remains intact). 6000 people have to vote and a majority has to win. Institution is credited to Cleisthenes, although first recorded ostracism is not until 487 (a Peisistratid relative). Democratic usurpation of aristocracy's exile of opponents?

Croesus

Assumes the Lydian throne in 560. "First man to harm the Greeks" according to Herodotus. Taxes and installs client rulers for the coastal Greeks, then thinks about taking over the islands but makes a pact with them instead. Asks oracles in 546 if he should attack the Persians, allies with Spartans. Sardis is sacked, story of the pyre.

Themistocles

Athenian general and politician. 483 - convinces the Athenians to spend the windfall from a silver strike at Laurion on their fleet for the war against Aegina (used against the Persians). Bribes Eurybiades at Artemesium in 480, leaves messages telling the Ionians to defect along the route to Salamis. Sends a slave to Xerxes saying that the Greeks are divided to get him to fight at Salamis. After Platea and Mycale, keeps the Spartans negotiating so Athenians can build new city walls. Exiled from Athens between 476 and 471, he takes refuge with Artaxerxes I in Persia.

Miltiades

Athenian general. Tried to get Ionian Greeks to betray Darius to the Scythians in 514. Main general at Marathon. Dies 489.

The Four Hundred

Athenian oligarchy set up as the result of a coup in 411. Hoping to win help from Darius II and get Alcibiades recalled, Peisander sails to Samos for the coup. Assembly meets outside the city walls and votes itself out of existence; a group of 400 kill enemies, confiscate land, negotiate with Sparta. The sailors on Samos revolt and form a democratic state in exile. Democrats in Athens overthrow them and recall Alcibiades

Isocrates

Athenian orator and essayist, argues that the Greeks should unite behind the Athenians and attack Persia. Later argues that Philip should lead the crusade (and settle mercenaries in PErsia so they stop causing problems.

Sicilian expedition (415-413)

Athens decides to help Elymian city of Segesta to fight Selinus (also means war with Syracuse). Alcibiades is pro, Nicias against. Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus appointed by the Assembly as the three commanders. Thucydides attributes the expedition to the personal ambitions of Alcibiades. Three strategies: 1) Alcibiades: raise an anti-Syracusan league and conquer all of Sicily. 2) Nicias: go help Segesta and go home 3) Lamachus: storm Syracuse right away by surprise Alcibiades' strategy pursued. No one joins the Athenians except Naxos; Segesta doesn't have enough money. Athens don't assault Syracuse until winter (already too strong). Generally non-Greek populations support Athens, but all Greek cities except Akragas support Syracuse.

Cylon

Author of a failed coup in Athens in 632 BCE, described in Thucydides. An Olympian victor who marries the daughter of the tyrant of Megara. Delphic oracle tells him to seize the Acropolis during the "greatest festival of Zeus," which he interprets to mean Olympia. He escapes, but many of his followers are besieged and put to death after having been promised safety. Results in the Athenian assembly laying a curse on the Alcmaeonid family

Diocles

Becomes a leading man in the Assmembly in Syracuse after the siege of Syracuse; removes Hermocrates from generalship in 410. Fails to prevent the destruction of Himera by Hannibal in 409 and is exiled in 407.

Assyria

Begins expanding in the 930s. Demand tribute from the Phoenicians, who therefore intensify trade in the western Mediterranean and found colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, and Carthage.

Big men versus chiefs

Big men gain authority from their personal charisma, not an office. Chiefs have power/status attached to the office itself

Herodotus of Halicarnassus

Borne 484, lives and works in Athens. Istorie (inquiry)

Himilco

Carthaginian general who besieges Akragas with Hannibal in 406. Moves from Sicilian city to Sicilian city, then besieges Syracuse in 404 before pursuing a settlement with Dionysius of Syracuse. Reinvades Sicily in 396 and besieges Syracuse, but is defeated and starves himself to death in shame.

Hamilcar

Carthaginian general who hires mercenaries and besieges Himera in 480.

Gelon

Cavalry commander of Hippocrates; takes over his territory in east Sicily on his death in 491. Seizes Syracuse in 485, makes his brother Hiero tyrant of Gela. Gelon moves elite populations from Camarina, Gela, Megara Hyblaea, and Sicilian Euboea to Syracuse; sells the others into slavery. Conquered cities subject to economic exploitation, but not politically unified (retain some autonomy. In 481, the poleis allied against Sparta send an embassy to him asking for help, which he offers only if they allow him to be commander in chief. They balk, and Gelon sends ships under Cadmus to wait at Delphi with money and earth and water to give to Xerxes if he should win. Golden tripod at Delphi glorifies his own achievement. Dies in 478.

metics

Citizens settling in cities other than their own. Pay residence taxes, usually can't own land. Some become wealthy, run major banks in Athens. Aristotle is a metic.

Segesta

City in western Sicily where Elymnians concentrate themselves in the mid-fifth century. Athens allies with them in the 418 or 417; they approach Athens in 416 for help against their neighbor Selinus. Segesta then tricks the Athenian ambassadors, making them think they have more money than they do. After Sicilian expedition fails, Segesta appeals to the Carthaginians against Selinus

Himera

City on the north coast of Sicily. Tyrant Terillus has a good relationship with Carthage.

Dorians

Claim descent from Herakles. In legend, invade southern Greece in the 12th century BCE after the fall of Troy. Spartans believe they are descended from Dorians, use as a justification to dominate surrounding people.

Council of 500

Cleisthenes' Council (replacing Solon's Council of 400). Fifty men over thirty selected by lot from each of the ten new tribes. Men serve for a year and can serve only twice. President chosen by lot for twenty-four hours.

Dionysius of Phocaea

Commander at the Battle of Lade in 494, flees to Sicily and becomes a pirate robbing the Phoenicians.

The Thirty

Council of thirty oligarchs established by Lysander and made loyal to him personally. Murder 1500 Athenians and take their land away. Lysander installs a Spartan governor and garrison to protect them

Cynicism

Countercultural movement. Virtue over wealth/status/honor. Diogenes from Sinope famous proponent (404-323).

Council of 400

Created by Solon. One hundred men from each of the four phylai (no thetes). Prepare agenda for the Assembly.

Tyrants at Corinth

Cypselus (657-627), son Periander (627-587) builds Diolkos ca. 600. Story in Herodotus of Periander sending an ambassador to Thrasyboulous, tyrant of Miletus, and watching him level the tallest grain.

Memnon

Darius III's best general, a Greek mercenary. Wins back some Ionian cities from Parmenio in 335, dies of illness in 333.

Bessus

Darius' cavalry commander at Gaugamela and satrap of Bactria. Orders Darius imprisoned and killed in 330, executed by Alexander

Demosthenes

Delivers First Philippic in 351, three Olynthiancs in 349. Disgraces himself at Charonea (thorws his shield)

Cleon

Demagogue in Athens who tries to persuade the Assembly to capture the Spartans on Sphacteria in 425. Nicias gets him to sail there, and he captures 120 Spartiates. Sent to relieve Amphipolis in 422 and is killed.

Thrasybulus

Democratic leader who helps overthrow the Thirty in 403

basileus

Derived from the Mycenaean pa-si-re-u, a local administrator. By the Classical period, can refer to a magistrate, a non-Greek monarch, or a mythical ruler. In Homer, there can be multiple ones in the same place. An example of Sahlins' "big-men"? Tyrants like basileis - reliance on personal charisma, guest-friendship and intermarriage with other elites.

Gedrosian desert

Desert along the Persian gulf. Alexander and his troops walk across it to Susa in 335-334 after sailing down the river Indus. 60,000 troops die.

Lysimachus

Diadoch, holds kingdom in Thrace.

Coinage

Early electrum issues conform the Milesian standard, found deposited in the foundations of the 6th century Artemesion at Ephesus. Lydia begins in 600. Turtles from Aegina date to 580-570 (earliest coinage on mainland Greece). Corinth later, Athenian owls probably last quarter of sixth century. Earliest are very large denominations, smaller copper and bronze coins before 500.

Lysander

Elected admiral of Sparta in 406 after the death of Mindarus. Strong friendships with Agesilaus (brother of Agis II) and Cyrus of Persia, son of Darius II (financial support). General at Notium and Aegospotami. Succeeded by Callicraditas (Cyrus won't deal with him), then reinstated after Callicraditas' death. Besieges Athens, then institutes the Thirty upon Athens' surrender. Installs Spartan governors in Ionian cities answering directly to him. Dies in exile in 395. Worshiped as a god during his life.

Theocritus

Emigrant from Syracuse, invents bucolic

Battle of Himera (311)

Ends the Sixth Punic-Sicilian War. Carthaginian victory over Agathocles and Syracusans. Syracuse is besieged and Agathocles heads for Carthage.

Nicias

Enemy of Cleon and Alcibiades, from an aristocratic family. Gains popularity by funding things (Plutarch). Negotiates the Peace of Nicias in 421. Joint commander of the Sicilian expedition 415-413. Becomes ill during the siege of Syracuse and asks the Athenians to be relieved - they send Demosthenes but refuse to let him come home. Waits out at Syracuse long after there is hope left of capturing it (eclipse of the moon in 413). Executed 413.

Second Athenian League

Established 378 with about seventy poleis. Meant to curtail Sparta, stresses to Persia that it is an association, not an alliance. It has a synedrion/council with Athens as the hegemon. No garrisons, no tributes - a defensive league only (not a Delian repeat).

Demetrius of Phaleron

Ex-student of Alexander installed by Cassander as a dictator in Athens in 317 after Athens revolts against the Macedonian garrison in 318. Keeps Athens out of war and restores the city's finances. Relaxes property restrictions on citizenship.

Megacles and Lycurgus (Athenian)

Expel Peisistratus from the tyranny in 556. Megacles is expelled in 551 and marries his daughter to Peisistratus, who then refuses to have normal sex with her. Megacles gets mad at him and exiles him again.

Achaean League

Federation of member states in the north and central Peloponnese, refounded in 277 (had been an earlier one). Institute common weights, measures, coinage and laws.

Cimon

First commander of the Delian League (477). Compels Naxos to pay when it revolts in 476. Reputation for being pro-Spartan (proxenos at Athens). Ostracized 461 after going to help the Spartans with a helot revolt. Returns 451 to defeat the Persians on Cyprus

Pythagoras

Flees Samos in 531 and goes to Croton in south Italy. Believes human soul is a spark of divinity, believes in transmigration. Emphasis on purity, asceticism. Interests in mathematics and music. Followers become very powerful, try to impose a utopian vision in south Italy.

sophists

Focus on practical affairs, claim to teach arete. Moral relativists. Gorgias, Hippias, Protagoras most famous ("man is the measure of all things"). Mocked by Aristophanes in Clouds.

Delian League

Founded 477. Cimon is the first commander. Provides for a permanent fleet where larger cities supply ships/men and smaller cities supply money. Treasury moved from Delos to the Athenian Acropolis in 454.

Stoicism

Founded by Zeno of Citium. Most influential Hellenistic school - established in the stoa poikile in the Athenian agora in the 4th century. To be happy, follow natural law (dog with a cart). Epictetus, a slave born in A.D. 50, is the major proponent in Rome.

Amphipolis

Founded by the Athenians in 437 (interest in timber, silver). Captured by Brasidas in 424. Thucydides shows up too late to relieve it and is exiled for twenty years by the Assembly, during which time he writes the Histories. The captured by the Macedonians (retaken by Philip II in 356)

Carthage

Founded in the 9th century BCE by the Phoenicians, near modern Tunis. Big harbor (stopover point for shpping goods between east and west). Run by an oligarchy. Treaty with Rome in 508 ensuring access to markets in Italy.

Epicureanism

Founder is Epicurus, who spends much of his life in Athens (founds the Garden in 309). Writings preserved in Vesuvius scrolls and Lucretius. True happiness is ataraxia. Death is not scary - our atoms fly apart.

Anaxagoras

From Clazomenae in Ionia but moves to Athens in 456, friend of Pericles. Matter (what moves) versus nous (what moves it). Sun is not a god - exiled for impiety.

Parmenides of Elea

From Magna Graeca. Everything is the same, even if it appears to be changing. Pure reason over dependence on the senses.

Theramenes

General at Cyzicus, trierarch at Arginusae (vehemently accuses generals for not having picked up the dead, tricks the Assembly with people posing as family members of the dead). Sent as an ambassador to Lysander from Athens after Athens is besieged to negotiate terms. Becomes one of the Thirty, tries to get them to make a list of 3000 well-off men to have full rights. Killed by Critias and other extremists in 403.

Aratus

General elected 245 as the leader of the Achaean League. starts expelling Macedonian garrisons

Demosthenes (5th century)

General who fortifies the northern headland on the Bay of Pylos in 425. Spartans kill the two thousand best helots in fear that they'll revolt. Later is sent to help Nicias in 414 during the siege of Syracuse. Leads a night attack on the Syracusan counterwall at Epipolai, which fails. Tries to persuade Nicias to retreat but is overruled. Executed 413.

Medes

Group from mountainous western Iran. With the Babylonians, sack Ninevah (Assyrian capital) in 612. Mesopotamian thinkers flee to Ionia - Ionian enlightenment.

Hecataeus of Miletus

Historian active around 500 BCE; works survive in fragments. Early Greek prose, rationalizing. Writes geography/ethnography/politics, analyses genealogies.

dithyramb

Hymn to Dionysus danced and sung by a chorus with a leader. According to Aristotle, drama evolves from these in the late 6th century. Some have first-person speakers - innovation of an Athenian named Thespis active in the 530s?

The Spartan Mirage

Idealized vision of Sparta presented by Greek and Roman historians writing about it. Stable, hierarchical, organized society.

Andocides

Imprisoned for the mutilation of the herms in 415, then released for becoming an informer and exiled.

Timoleon

In 345, Syracusans as Corinth for help with the civil war. They send Timoleon with 700 settlers. Raises cash, deposes all Greek tyrants in Sicily, confines Carthaginians to west part of island, institutes a democratic constitution in Syracuse.

Siege of Akragas

In 406 - Hermocrates' ambition has alarmed Hannibal and Himilco, who reinvade Sicily and destroy Akragas in 406

Dracon

In 621 in the midst of Athenian crisis, is empowered to set up a new law code, prescribing death for nearly all crimes. Code does not help tensions, and Athens loses wars (Megara seizes Salamis). In late 5th century, his homicide law is quoted on an Athenian inscription (basileis adjudicate - has gone from a 'big man' to an official with limited tenure).

Melos

Independent island in the Cyclades - Athens tries to force them to join the empire and pay tribute in 416. The Melians trust in their defensive alliance with Sparta and in the gods. Men are killed, women and children sold into slavery, Athenians colonize Melos themselves.

Ducetius

Indigenous leader in Sicily who tries to exploit power vacuum created by the Common Resolution. Forges a Sicel League in eastern Sicily with an army and coins; founds a new city in 453 at Palice.

Sicilian tyrants versus Aegean tyrants

Install themselves ca. 500 after a wave of civil wars. Stronger than Aegean tyrants - richer and more centralized states. Are able to sell grain to the Aegean and wine to Carthage. Hire mercenaries (decreasing need for civilian hoplites).

Ionian Enlightenment

Intellectual movement in 6th century BCE Ionia (especially Miletus). Mesopotamian learning and Greek institutions. Interest in natural causes, systematizing knowledge

Gyges

King of Lydia, seizes the throne in the 680s (Hdt. Book 1). Founder of the Mermnad dynasty. He and his successors subdue the Ionian Greeks and make them pay tribute.

Cyrus

King of Persia 550 - 530 (starts by overthrowing his grandfather, Astyages the Mede). 539 sacks Babylon (accounts are Herodotus with the diversion of the river and The Cyrus cylinder emphasizing restoration of Babylonian religion). Sparta warns him not to harm the Greek cities in 545, and he says he doesn't care what people with an agora say

King Midas

King of Phrygia, circa 700 BCE

West Semitic writing

Language family that Phoenician is part of; used all over the Levant

Hippias

Last Peisistratid tyrant of Athens, expelled by the Spartan king Cleomenes in 510. Fled to Persia. Traveled with the Persian force to Greece in 490 to attack Athens (Darius plans to reinstate him).

Critias

Leading and violent member of the Thirty, associate of Socrates. Storms a hill near Piraeus where a democratic force is stationed in 403 and is killed in the attack.

Lycurgus

Legendary Spartan lawgiver, little agreement about when he lived (800 to 700?) Main sources are Plutarch and Xenophon. Spartans believe he designed all institutions; modern historians doubt that.

Perdiccas

Macedonian cavalry commander under Alexander. Appointed regent of the kingdom after Alexander's death. Olympias brokers a marriage between him and Cleopatra (Alexander the Great's sister) even though he is already married to Antipater's daughter. Attacks Ptolemy in 320, but a bunch of his men drown crossing the Nile and his own officers kill him.

Antigonus the One-Eyed

Macedonian general, head of the Antigonid dynasty. Takes over much of Anatolia after Alexander's death. Last diadoch hoping to reiunite the entire empire

Phoenician-Greek relations in Sicily

Main western Sicilian Phoenician settlements are Motya, Panormos, and Soloeis. Phoenicians ally with local Elymians, destroy attempted Spartan colony near Motya in 510. Constant issues with Greek pirates.

Parian Marble

Mid-3rd century inscription from Paros giving a universal history with dates (including dates of colony foundations, Peisistratid tyranny in Athens). 1582-299 BCE.

Hippocrates

Most famous Greek physician, lives in the late 5th century BCE, from Cos in the SW Aegean (temple of Asclepius). Rationalizing (On the Sacred Disease argues that epilepsy is not from the gods).

Anaximenes

Natural philosopher from Miletus, active 520s. Air is the primary element. Soul/psyche is also air.

Anaximander

Natural philosopher from Miletus, active 550s. Primary element is the Infinite (apeiron). Hot, cold, wet, dry elements compete within the apeiron (constant wiggle). First mechanical theory of the universe - column drums with rotating rings.

Thales

Natural philosopher from Miletus, active 580s. Water is the primary element. Predicts solar eclipse in 585.

Thirty Years' Peace

Negotiated by Pericles between Athens and the Peloponnesian League in 446 after revolts in Boeotia (Coronea 447), Euboea, Megara. Athens givens up holdings in Isthmus, Peloponnese. Argos neutral. Defines Spartan and Athenian blocs.

archons

Nine elected in Athens from the top two classes. Serve one therm, then become lifelong member of the Areopagus council.

Milman Parry

Notices that use of epithets in dactylic hexameter governed by place in the line. Formulaic nature allows poets to compose orally. Travels with Lord to Serbia to study the guslari.

Olynthus

Offers in 359 to help Athens recover Amphipolis from Macedon.

Lamachus

Old war veteran appointed as the third general on the Sicilian expedition in 415. Killed in 414 while storming the Sicilians trying to build counterwalls during the siege of Syracuse.

River Oxus

On modern Afghanistan's northern border, site of a mutiny of Alexander's troops. Alexander pays off and sends the old veterans home, enrolls local troops instead

Craterus

One of Alexander's generals, supposed to meet Alexander with food and water in the Gedrosian but misses the rendezvous. Sent by Alexander to depose Antipater, then called back by the other generals in 323and appointed guardian of Philip III and the unborn Alexander IV. Murdered by Perdiccas in 320.

Diatribe

Orations by the Cynics, mocking authority.

Khyber Pass

Pass across the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan where Alexander massacres 7000 surrendered troops and their families.

Olympias

Philip II's wife from Epirus (he marries her in 357). Alexander's mother. Runs a reign of terror after Antipater's death in 319, when she supports Polyperchon and purges Cassander's family. Her cruelty causes many Macedonians to favor Cassander.

Parmenio

Philip's top general, in Ionia when Philip II is killed. Accompanies Alexander on his campaigns in Persia, encourages him to accept Darius' terms after the siege of Tyre in 331. Parmenio made satrap of Ecbatana, then framed as a conspirator and assassinated.

Naucratis

Port on the Nile Delta. Settlement around 625. Around 570, Amasis settles Greeks there (probably former mercenaries) and grants land for a temple to Greek gods. Only place where Greeks may trade in Egypt (pharaoh collects duties and taxes). Greeks supply wine/oil/slaves/silver, Egypt supplies luxury goods and grain. Aegina involved early on. Conduit for transfer of Egyptian styles/techniques to Greece.

Alcmaeonid family

Powerful dynasty in Athens. Megacles violates the suppliant status of Cylon's supporters after the coup in 632 (is cursed). Hippias expels the Alcmaeonids after the assassination of Hipparchos in 514. Alcmaeonids bribe the Delphic oracle to tell the Spartans to free Athens, rebuild the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Cleisthenes (democratic reformer), Pericles, and Alcibiades are all members of this family.

Rhapsodes

Professional reciters ("staff-singers"). Plato describes them performing Homeric poems at the command of Peisistratus at the Panathenaic festival.

liturgies

Public services performed for the demos. Festivals, sacrifices, rigging a warship. Rich politicians can spend lavishly on these to curry favor (see Cimon in Ath. Pol.)

Seleucus I

Put in charge of Babylon in 320 to neutralize Antigonus, then expelled from Babylon by Antigonus in 312. Runs to Ptolemy to warn him about Antigonus. Proclaims himself king in 305, takes over most of Antigonus' kingdom after 301. Assassinated in 281

Antipater

Regent of Macedon during Alexander's campaign to Persia (appointed 334). At a meeting in 320, he is put in charge of Philip III and Alexander IV to replace Craterus. Dies 319.

Polyperchon

Regent of Macedonia 319-315. Officer of Antipater, who names him king over his own son Cassander. To win support against Cassander, he restores constitutions valid before Lamian War, and Athens recovers Samos. Brings Olympias back to Macedonia. She allies with him and raises an army in Epirus. Antigonus begins backing Polyperchon after Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Cassander tell him to stop expanding

Antigonus II Gonatas

Reigns 276-239 in Macedonia (after victory over the Gauls in 277).

Ptolemy II Philadelphos

Reigns 283-246 BCE. Married to his sister Arsinoe. Land reclamation projects, development of the Museum and the Library. Theocritus' patron.

Artaxerxes I

Reigns 465-424

Pergamon

Rise around 240 in a power vacuum provided by feuding Seleucids - Attalus I defeats the Gauls. Eumenes and Attalus II make dedications in the Athenian agora

Ephialtes

Rival of Cimon (says not to help the Spartans during the Helot revolt). Radical democratic reforms in 462/1 take powers away from the Areopagus and transfer them to the Assembly Ephialtes tries members for their conduct, takes away most of its powers (probably eisangelia, or impeachment for major offences against the state, and dokimasia, or validation/accounting/scrutinizing conduct of officials). Foreign policy turns against Sparta. Murdered after constitutional change. Ath Pol. favorable to reforms, Plutarch (life of Cimon) is not.

Hypaphis River

River in the Punjab region (a tributary of the Indus) before the Ganges plain. Alexander's troops mutiny here in 326. Alexander sulks in his tent, can't get a favorable omen and decides to turn back (Arrian)

First Punic War

Rome versus Carthage, 264-241. Carthage abandons all claims to Sicily. Akragas sacked in 262, many other Greek cities never recover.

Artaxerxes III

Rules 359-338. Killed by the eunuch Bagoas.

Xerxes I

Rules 486 - 465. Puts down Egyptian and Babylonian revolts, then persuaded by Mardonius to attack the west again. Diodorus Siculus says he reaches out to the Carthaginians and asks them to attack the Greeks in Sicily and Italy.

Darius I

Rules 521 to 486. Accession described in Herodotus (Book 3) and in the Behistun inscription of 520 in Iran. Satrapal reforms after his accession, then moves north and west to punish the Scythians.

Artaphernes

Satrap of Sardis under Darius I. Athenians send envoys to him in 506 to make an alliance against Sparta after expelling Cleomenes. Envoys give earth and water to Persia. Helps fund Aristagoras to subjugate Naxos. The other Persian commander at Marathon (with Datis).

Cleitus the Black

Saves Alexander's life at the Battle of Granicus, killed by Alexander in Samarkand in 328. Sign of tension between Alexander and MAcedonian troops

Antiochus I

Seleucus I's son, rules 281-261. Defeats the Gauls in Anatolia in the late 270s (settling them in Galatia)

Helots

Serfs. Allowed to marry, but no political or legal rights. Plutarch describes an annual ritual war against them where religious pollution doesn't apply to killing them. Herodotus describes light-armed helots fighting at the Battle of Plataea.

Old Comedy

Set in the present, not the mythical past. Often attacks well-known politicians. Aristophanes is the only one preserved complete. First complete one is the Acharnians (425 - mocking Megarian hunger).

Secondary products revolution

Shift to raising animals for traction, milk, and wool as much as meat. Happens in Greece circa 3500 BCE (around invention of the plow)

Cassander

Son of Antipater. Rules Macedonia from 315-297 after struggle with Polyperchon. Installs Demetrius of Phaleron as a dictator in Athens in 317. Executes Roxana and Alexander IV in 309.

Cambyses

Son of Cyrus, attacks Egypt in 525 and pharaoh Amasis. Herodotus (Cambyses crazy and impious), statue base of Udjahorresne chief physician (Cambyses rules as a pharaoh, doing good things for Neith). Dies in 522.

Cyrus the Younger

Son of Darius II, sent by Darius to replace western satraps in 406. Friend of Lysander. Wants to oust Artaxerxes II from the throne.

Dionysius II

Son of Dionysius I. Fights the Fifth Punic-Sicilian War (last direct war with Carthage.Deposed by Dion in 357.

Cleomenes III

Son of Leonidas (Agis III's co-king) and a Stoic philosopher. Writes a pamphlet called On the Spartan Constitution. Marries Agis III's wife after his death. He becomes sympathetic to Agis III's policies and decides to attack the Achaean Leaugue to gain favor with the ephors. Launches a coup in 228 - assassinates the ephors and removes their seats in the agora, exiles the wealthiest citizens, redistributes land among 4000 Spartiates and trains them to fight with long spears. Flees to Alexandria after he is defeated by the Achaean League in 222, but Ptolemy IV doesn't help him. Tries to topple Ptolemy in 219 and is killed.

Mardonius

Son-in-law of Darius I and commander of the failed Persian expedition against the Greeks in 492. Persuades Xerxes to attack the Greeks again. Is left in Thessaly with a land force after the Battle of Salamis in 480. Burns Athens again in 479 after they refuse to be bribed. Killed at Plataea.

Cleombrotus

Spartan co-king with Agesilaus in the 4th century. Invades Thebes in 371 to force them to sign the Common Peace and defeated

Gylippus

Spartan commander sent to Syracuse in 415 on the advice of Alcibiades to help the Syracusans against Athens. Gatherns hemp in Himera and breaks through Athenian line, allowing the Syracusans to build a successful counterwall. Captures Nicias' forts, reinforces the prows of the Syracusan ships and smashes Athenian ships. In 413, builds a pontoon bridge across the Great Harbor and traps the Athenian ships - Athenian ships crushed and the Athenian force beats a retreat.

Pausanius

Spartan general who commands at the Battle of Plataea (keeps sacrificing until he gets a favorable omen). In 478 expels the Persians from Cyprus, then sails to Byzantium and starts negotiations with Xerxes. Removed from command by the ephors, Athenians take over the leadership of the Allied fleet. Starved to death in 470 in the Temple of Athena of the Bronze House.

Brasidas

Spartan general who occupies Sphacteria with 420 hoplites, challenging the Athenian base at Pylos. Heads to Thrace in 424 with helots and mercenaries to challenge Athens' subjects on the mainland in N Greece. Captures Amphipolis. Dies at the Battle of Amphipolis in 422.

Phoebidas

Spartan general who seizes Thebes in 382 (persuaded by a pro-Spartan faction) in violation of the King's Peace. Agesilaos defends him and keeps a garrison in Thebes. Seven conspirators disguised as hetairai assassinate pro-Spartan governers in 378

Agesilaus

Spartan king who Lysander helps get instated in 398. Jealously banishes Lysander in 395 - killed in the east. Campaign for Ionian freedom - advances troops to Sardis. Artaxerxes II bribes Greeks to revolt against Sparta and Agesilaus is recalled to Greece (starts the Corinthian War). Seeks an accommodation with Persia in 387.

Sphodrias

Spartan officer launches a night attack on Piraeus, which fails. Put on trial and acquitted

The Successors

Special corps of 30,000 Asian youths created by Alexander, who are taught Greek and learn Macedonian tactics

Zeno

Student of Parmenides (490-430). Famous for his paradoxes proving that motion and change are illusions.

Darius II

Succeeds Artaxerxes, reigns 425-405. In 412, agrees to help fund Sparta in the Peloponnesian War if Sparta will surrender the Ionian Greeks. The money allows Sparta to build a new fleet.

Hermocrates

Syracusan general who dominates the democracy in the 420s. Persuades Dorians and Ionians cities in Sicily to make peace in 424 so as not to be overwhelmed by Athenian control. Advises Gylippus during the siege of Syracuse and helps beat the Athenians. Wants to attack Athens immediately in 412, but prevented by internal strife (Diocles removes him from the generalship) and war with Carthage. Exiled in 410, returns 407 with mercenaries hired with Persian gold, and tries to re-enter Syracuse. Raids Phoenician cities, buries the corpses of the Syracusans who died at Himera, and launches a coup at Syracuse but dies in 407.

Dion

Syracuse's main diplomat, a student of Plato. Talks Dionysius II into inviting Plato back to Syracuse in 367 (but he can't make D. II into a philosopher king). Exiled in 366 after talking secretly to the Carthaginians. Launches a coup in 357, leading to civil war and loss of Syracuse's dominion over the Greek cities.

petalismos

Syracuse's version of ostracism where names are written on olive leaves versus potsherds. Introduced in 454.

Syracuse, 461-433

Technically a democracy, but aristocrats retain more power than in the Aegean. Board of elected generals butts heads with demagogues. Remains the largest and most prosperous city in Sicily.

Archidamus II

The Eurypontid Spartan king who invades Athens each summer in the first years of the Peloponnesian War. Son is Agis II

Plot of tragedy (in Aristotle)

The peripeteia (turn-around), anagnorisis (recognition), katastrophe (reversal of fortune). Mistake (amartia) leads to the katastrophe.

Epaminondas

Theban general who refuses to reaffirm the Common Peace in 371 because Sparta says he can only sign for Thebes and not the Boeotian League. Wins the Battle of Leuctra, then liberates Messenia. Puts down Alexander of Pherae. Killed at the Battle of Mantinea in 362

Pelopidas

Theban general, helps Epiminondas liberate Messenia and achieve Theban hegemony in mainland Greece. Killed at Cynocephalae (364) fighting the Thessalians.

Sacred Band

Theban group of 150 pairs of lovers who are full-time soldiers supported at public expense.

Peace of Callias

Treaty between Athens and Persia, signed in 451 after Cimon defeats the Persians in Cyprus, formally ending the war. Possibly fictional.

Euryclides and Micon

Two wealthy brothers who dominate the Assembly after euergetists pay off the Macedonian assembly in 229.

Harmodius and Aristogeiton

Tyrannicides and a pair of lovers; kill Hipparchus in 514 during the Panathenaia after he is rejected by Harmodius, then excludes Harmodius' sister from the Panathenaia. Hippias escapes. Heroes of the later democracy (statue set up in the Agora in 510, captured by the Persians).

Theron

Tyrant of Akragas. With Gelon, dominates east and central Sicily in the 480s. Deposes Terillus, tyrant of Himera and ally of Carthage, in 483, provoking a Carthaginian invasion.

Peisistratus

Tyrant of Athens. Establishes first tyranny in 561 (after recapturing Salamis from Megara). Expelled by Megacles and Lycurgus in 556. Returns to Athens in 551 with Athena trick. 546 lands at Marathon with Hippias and Hipparchus and establishes final tyranny (until his death in 527). Athens becomes richer: public facilities (fountain house, drains), expansion of industry and exports (black glaze), exchange of olive oil for imported food.

Hippocrates of Gela

Tyrant of Gela (south coast of Sicily). Takes over most of eastern Sicily starting in 498. Dies in 491.

Hiero

Tyrant of Gela in 485, then takes over Syracuse as tyrant when his brother Gelon dies in 478. Keeps peace with Carthage and Selinus. Wins the Battle of Cumae against the Etruscans in 474 in the Bay of Naples. Wins a chariot race in Delphi in 470 - hires Pindar to commemorate it (First Pythian). Dies in 467 - his family is expelled and Sicily descends into civil war

Aristagoras

Tyrant of Miletus, leader of the Ionian revolt. Fails to capture Naxos after a democratic uprising, cannot repay Artaphernes. Sails to mainland Greece in 500 - Sparta refuses to help, but Eretreia and Athens send ships. Killed in 497 after fleeing north.

Histiaeus

Tyrant of Miletus, uncle of Aristagoras. Helps Darius escape from the Scythians by dismantling, then partially repairing, the bridge over the Danube in 514. Receives a territory in the timber-rich north Aegean as a reward. Darius then gets worried he may revolt, calls him back to Susa in 512. Tatooes the head of a slave with a message for Aristagoras to revolt in 500 (wants to go back to the Aegean). Eventually becomes a pirate king in Byzantium, but is captured and executed by Artaphernes in 493

Polycrates

Tyrant of Samos in the 6th century. Temple of Hera, aqueduct. Killed by Oroetus, satrap of Sardis, in 522

Hiero II

Tyrant of Syracuse, 265-216. Joins the Roman side in the First Punic War, and Syracuse does okay.

Dionysius I

Tyrant of Syracuse. Is appointed sole general of Syracuse by the Assembly in 405. Welcomes refugees to Syracuse during Carthaginian attacks of 406 and 405. Makes a peace with Himilco in 404. Huge building projects, hires mercenary armies. Develops siege engines. Another peace with Himilco in 393. Brings famous Aegeans to his court (including Plato) and submits plays to festivals in Athens. Dies in 367

Upper versus Lower Macedonia

Upper Macedonia (west) is mountainous, east is lower river plains

Homeric question

Who is Homer (are the poems single or multiple authorship)? When did he live? How were his works written down? What are the poems about?

Eurydice

Wife of Philip III, declares that he supports Cassander and leads an army against Olympias and Polyperchon's army. Captured by Olympias, who kills Philip III. Eurydice kills herself in 317.

Old Oligarch

Written around 440 (Rhodes says 420s). Fake defense of the Athenian democracy - democracy is bad in general but successful in Athens. Democracy serves the interests of the bad men and not the good. Liturgies are bad. The demos/the poor have too much political power because they row the ships (imply these are separate from the hoplites). Expression of simmering class hostility.

Pindar's First Pythian Ode

Written for Hiero I of Syracuse; compares Himera and Cumae to Plataea and Salamis.

mystes

a person with closed eyes, an intiate

pluralists

argue that many things make up the world. Anaxagoras, Emepedocles, Democritus.

Pericles

c. 495-429. A leading prosecutor of Cimon in 463, (gets him ostracized in 461). In power from 461-429 Populist social policies (state covers cost of theater tickets, lowers property requirements for archonship. Strategy in the first years of the war is conservative -- keep collecting tribute and centralizing power, protect the grain supply. Harass coasts and seize offshore islands. Is deposed and fined in 430, then reinstated, only to die of plague in 429.

Ionians

claim descent from Ion

Apollonius of Rhodes

directs the museum of Alexandria 270-245

Neolithic Revolution

domestication of crops and animals, sedentary village life. Happens in Greece ca. 7000 BCE

Fried's evolutionary scheme for human societies

egalitarian, ranked (fewer status positions), stratified (consistent unequal access, central domination and control. Big-men turn to chiefs in a ranked society.

Persian Immortals

elite force of 10,000 infantry

Jason of Pherae

emerges in the late 370s, gains control of much of Thessaly very quickly (Xenophon's Hellenica). Tries to rally support for Thessalian domination of Greece, but is assassinated in 370. Shows power shifting from the poleis to the ethne (large loose federations in N and W Greece). Succeeded by his son Alexander of Pherae

Callimachus

from Cyrene in Libya, 3rd century, feuds with Callimachus

Spartiates

full, land-owning Spartan citizens (5000). Their land is worked by helots

peltast

javelin thrower.

Indo-European

language family delineated by William Jones in 1786; includes Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Persian, and others. Implies the existence in prehistory of Proto-Indo-European language. Speakers migrate into Greece with Neolithic revolution?

Areopagus

meets on a hill west of the Athenian Acropolis, tries major lawsuits (especially murder) and has judicial oversight. Citizen juries may hear appeals against the Areopagus (a check on them)

proskynesis

prostration before a superior, common practice in Persia. Alexander favors it to look kingly to the Persians, Macedonians object (particularly Cllisthenes, Aristotle's nephew)

Amphidromia

the "running around" - father walks around the house with a newborn baby, presenting it to Hestia. Establishes the child's legitimacy and citizen status. Parents hang an olive branch for a boy, wool for a girl on the front door.

Diodorus of Sicily

writes in the first century BCE in Egypt and Rome. Adds moralizing speeches. 15 books survive