Greco-Persian War

Persian Empire, 521-486 B.C.

Persia too strong, Greeks rebel At first—Grk city-states are weak b/c not

unitedEventually unite Defeat Persian army after 50 years of

fightingBattle of Marathon—1st major victoryBattles of Thermopylae—Grks

outnumbered, 300 Spartans fend off Persians in support of the other Grks

Battle of Salamis—Naval Battle, Persian downfall

Athens emerges as major power in Greek WorldCreate Delian League (alliance of Grk

City-States)Pericles leads them into a “Golden Age”

Greco-Persian War: 499–449 BC

Achievements of

Greece:

The Greek Golden

Age

Greek Philosophy• Socrates– Sought truths about big concepts such

as truth, justice, and virtue– Education and questioning

• Plato–Most famous work is The Republic–What is reality?

• Aristotle– Used logic and reason to study natural

world.• Ordered thinking, making deductions

– Taught Alexander the Great

Art & Architecture • Statues lifelike, active, idealistic• Paintings: on pottery, detailed,

red/black, told stories

Art & Architecture • Aim for perfection &

symmetry • Parthenon – Dedicated to goddess Athena– Wealth of Athens

Parthenon in Nashville

Temple of Erectheon

Treasury of Delphi

Greek Drama• Tragedies: plays that told stories of human

suffering that usually ended in disaster.– Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

• Comedies: humorous plays that mocked people or customs.– Aristophanes

History• Herodotus “first

historian” or “father of history”

• Thucydides showed the need to avoid bias.

crap

bum

Science: Medicine• Hippocrates & the Hippocratic Oath – all

patients must be treated regardless of class

Science: Astronomy• Sun was larger than earth• Determined earth’s true size.• Ptolemy thought the earth was in the

center –believed for 14 centuries.

Greek Engineering

• Archimedes–Lever –Water

Distribution and Pumps–War

Machines

Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth.

Greek Mathematics

• Euclid—modern geometry

• Pi—circumference of circle

• Pythagoras–explain world in

mathematical terms– Theory about

relationships of sides of right triangle (Pythagorean Theorem)

Pericles on Athens’s Democracy

Athens v. SpartaSparta as military Power,

Athens has moneySparta allies with Persia

Plague breaks out in AthensKills 1/3 population

Athens is defeatedWeakens Greece again

Peloponnesian War: 431-404 BC