And the beginnings of the Classical Period Archaic Greece And the beginnings of the Classical Period

Timeline (review) Archaic Period: ca. 800-500 BC Classical Period: ca. 500-323 BC Persian Wars: 490-479 BC (Herodotus) Peloponnesian War: 431-404 BC (Thucydides)

Colonization

Development of the polis Definition, origin in Archaic Period: Family loyalty in Dark Age yields to loyalty to place Tribal loyalty yields to loyalty to polis Politea; aristos, demos: struggles Tyrannies (in Athens, Pisistratus) Lawgivers: Solon in Athens Lycurgus in Sparta

Persian Wars: Darius In 546 B.C.E.: Cyrus, King of Persia, conquered Croesus, king of Lydia and annexed Asia Minor, including a number of Greek cities. (Map) 499: These cities, composed of Ionian Greeks, revolted, asked for help from the Greek mainland. Athens sent aid, and Cyrus’s successor Darius decided to punish Athens by sending a great fleet. 490: Battle of Marathon; Athens defeated Persian forces and sent them packing.

Map of Persia

Persian Wars: Xerxes Ten years later, Xerxes, Darius’s son, thirsting for revenge, launched a second attack. Famous battle of Thermopylae, where a mountain pass was held by a few Spartans against a huge Persian force. Spartan general Leonidas. 480: Battle of Salamis, which destroyed the Persian fleet. The land forces were defeated the next year. Great victory, made Greeks feel that they had shown their virtue by defeating Goliath.

Xerxes, then and now

Terms polis metics/citizens aristoi, aristocratia basileus Greeks/barbaroi kouros Herodotus Persian Wars: Marathon Thermopylae Peloponnesian War hoplite phalanx tyrants oligarchy demos, democracy metabole politeion ("cycle of constitutions") Pericles

Questions What was the basis for loyalty to one's polis in the archaic period? How did aristocratic families demonstrate their status? What was the basis for Greek identity? How did the Persian Wars affect this sense of identity? What undermined a larger sense of Greek identity? How did loyalties to the polis change over time, and why?

Plutarch Life of Solon Why was Solon selected to remake Athenian law? What social conflicts had emerged in Athens by Solon's time? What dangers did they pose? What steps did Solon take to resolve these conflicts? Was he successful? What implications did Solon's laws have for women? For slaves? For free male citizens? Was the distinction between slave and free sharper before or after Solon's rule? In the early archaic period, Greeks thought of their polis as an extended kin group. What impact did Solon's laws have on this way of thinking? Did he categorize citizens according to family background? What about the significance of his admission of foreigners to citizenship?