ATS 6 - 5th Century Athens

Question 1

The Evidence-Historians

Herodotus

3 points.

Answer 1

c.485-425 BCE

• Provides almost all information about the Greco-Persian wars
• Important source for
  • Cleisthenes reforms
  • First half of 5th century BCE Athens and Sparta
• Herodotus was an anthropological historian

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Question 2

The Evidence-Historians

Thucydides

4 points.

Answer 2

c.460-400 BCE

• Most reliable source for Peloponnesian War
• Thucydides was a political historian
• Citizen of Athens
• Exiled when he failed to arrive in time from Thasos to the battle of Amphipolis in 423 BCE

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Question 3

The Evidence-Historians

Aristotle

3 points.

Answer 3

384-322 BCE

• Either Aristotle or one of his students writes a description of the Athenian Constitution
• Describes the earlier history under Cleisthenes and changes through 5th century
• Found on a 1st century CE papyrus in Oxyrhynchus in 1879

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Question 4

The Evidence-Historians

Plutarch

3 points.

Answer 4

c. 46-120 CE

• Had earlier histories to base his work on but they do not survive
• Was really interested in communicating the nature of power
• Main source for life of Perikles although questionable details

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Question 5

The Evidence

Inscriptions

3 main points.

Answer 5

• Some 1500 inscriptions from Attica in 5th century BCE
• Include:

    * Law decrees
    * Tribute payments
    * Workers payments
    * Records of debates in Ekklesia
    * Citizenship grants
    * Other public documents

• Tribute paid to Athenian League 425 BCE (Large amounts paid to fund Peloponnesian war)

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Question 6

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Hippias (tyrant, Peisistratus’ son) forced out of Athens

Answer 6

510

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Question 7

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Cleisthenes reforms the Athenian democracy

Answer 7

508/7

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Question 8

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Ionian Revolt begins

Answer 8

499

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Question 9

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Persian forces attack Eretria and Athens Battle at Marathon

Answer 9

490

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Question 10

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Persian invasion force invades Greece (Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea)

Answer 10

480-479

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Question 11

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Hellenic League collapses, Delian League created

Answer 11

478

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Question 12

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Perikles reforms state, creates “radical democracy”

Answer 12

462-461

Treasury of Delian League moved to Athens (the Parthenon)

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Question 13

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Peace of Callias allegedly ends war between Delian League and Persia

Answer 13

449

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Question 14

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Peloponnesian War breaks out

Answer 14

430

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Question 15

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Periklean funeral oration, Plague of Athens, death of Perikles

Answer 15

429

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Question 16

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

ill-fated Sicilian Expedition

Answer 16

415-413

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Question 17

What were the major parts of the Cleisthenes reforms?

4 points.

Answer 17

• Phylai (tribes)
• Council (boule)
• Strategoi (Elected leaders of army)
• Ekklesia (General assembly)

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Question 18

Cleisthenes Reforms

What were the reforms system of four phylai (tribes)?

4 points.

Answer 18

• Three regions - city, shore, inland
• Each region divided into ten trittyes
• Each trittyes made up of groups of demes (villages)
• Ten new tribes (phylai) made up from a trittys from each region

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Question 19

What were the reforms of the Council (boule) of 500?

2 points.

Answer 19

• 50 members chosen by lot from each tribe
• Prepare business for the assembly (ekklesia)

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Question 20

Who were the Strategoi?

Answer 20

Elected leaders of army one from each of the ten tribes

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Question 21

Who were the Ekklesia?

Answer 21

The general assembly of all citizens where laws are proposed and voted on.

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Question 22

Who were greek citizens?

4 points.

Answer 22

• Athenian citizenship was based on father’s citizenship status.
• A son was enrolled in their father’s deme and citizenship conferred.
• A daughter was enrolled instead in a segment of the tribe (phyle)
• In 451 BCE Perikles instituted a law saying both parents must be citizens to pass on citizenship to their offspring of either sex

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Question 23

Who were not included as Greek citizens?

Resident Foreigners (metics. metoikos)

4 points.

Answer 23

• Estimated at about 1/3 population of Athens
• Inability to own or inherit land
• Inability to vote or hold any political or judicial office
• Vulnerable to summary arrest and sale into slavery for serious crimes

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Question 24

Who were not included as Greek citizens?

Slaves

4 points.

Answer 24

• Probably about 80,000 slaves in greater Athens (although very difficult to estimate)
• Worked in domestic labour, agricultural labour, construction, and in silver mines at Laurion
• Slaves were allowed to be tortured in order to give evidence for court cases
• Slaves had no rights although they could sometimes purchase their freedom

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Question 25

Who were not included as Greek citizens?

Women

5 points.

Answer 25

• Unclear whether women could be considered “citizens”
• Daughters inherited the right of belonging to Athens and giving birth to male citizens through their father
• However they were enrolled in the tribe rather than the deme (sons were enrolled in the deme)
• Women could not vote or participate in the administration of the city-state
• Women “citizens” seem to have been secluded in a domestic space, with slave women and female metics given more freedom to participate in social activities

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Question 26

Who was Perikles?

7 points.

Answer 26

• Born ca. 495 BCE, deme of Cholargos
• Unofficial leader of Athens, ca. 461-429
• Many of the stories that are told of Perikles come from the later Roman historian Plutarch (and therefore not completely trustworthy)
• Under Perikles, Athens moves treasury of the Delian league to Athens (at the Parthenon), symbolically transforming an alliance into a pseudo-empire
• Held office of strategos (general) most years, including 443-430 BCE

    * Not necessarily a skilled or enthusiastic battlefield commander but known as a great orator

• Died of the “plague” in 429 BCE, Athens

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Question 27

What is the “Delian” League

5 points.

Answer 27

• BCE With defeat of Persians, Hellenic League collapses and “Delian League” created to answer “threat” of Persia
• Member city-states (about 330) make payments in silver or grain (or in warships and men) to a collective treasury at Delos to pay for the naval force (which was run by Athens)
• Athenians stress the ongoing threat of Persian domination to enforce payments
• By 461 with defeat of Persians and possible peace treaty the treasury is moved to Athens and Athens now threatens non-compliant cities
• “League” has transformed into “Empire”

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Question 28

What did the Ancient Greeks call the “Delian” League?

Answer 28

Greeks called it simply ‘the Alliance’

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Question 29

What is the modern name for the Ancient Greek ‘The Alliance’?

Answer 29

The “Delian League”

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Question 30

What happened to Athens in the last half of the 5th century BCE

7 points.

Answer 30

Perikles (leads Athens c. 461-429 BCE)

• Re-builds acropolis with funds from the Delian League

    * Parthenon, Propylaia, Erechtheion, temple of Athena Nike

• 431-404 BCE Peloponnesian War
• 430 BCE “Plague” hits Athens due to overcrowding after retreat into the long walls
• 429 BCE “Plague” kills Perikles
• 413 BCE Athenian navy defeated at Syracuse
• 405 BCE Athens navy is defeated at the battle of Aaegospotami in the Hellespont
• 404 BCE Athens surrenders to Sparta

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Question 31

Points about Peloponnesian War?

3 points.

Answer 31

431-404 BCE

• Essentially Athens vs. Sparta (Delian League vs. Peloponnesian league)
• Perikles insists on naval strategy
• Attica evacuated into Athens between the “long walls”

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Question 32

What were the ‘Long Walls’?

5 points.

Answer 32

Walls connecting Athens to the port city of Piraeus

• About 5 km long, created a defensible corridor leading to the harbour and thus making land locked Athens a seaport.
• First built in c. 460 BCE to provide protection, during the height of the Peloponnesian war
• In about 430 BCE the people of Athens were evacuated from the countryside into the walled in city
• Intense overcrowding that eventually led to an epidemic of a “plague”
• Remains of the walls were found in 2011 while renovating Athens- Piraeus railway.

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Question 33

What happened when Athens was defeated?

7 points.

Answer 33

404 BCE Final Battle at Aigospotamoi (Dardanelles)

• Athenians required to dismantle the Long Walls
• Fortifications protecting Piraeus to be dismantled
• All exiled citizens (i.e. opponents of the democracy) to be recalled
• All surviving Athenian warships to be turned over to Sparta, save 12
• Athens allowed to continue as a political entity
• Athens to follow Sparta in all foreign policy matters
• Strong encouragement to pro-oligarchic factions in Athens, tyrants established

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Question 34

Chronology of 5ᵗʰ century BCE

Battle of Aigospotamoi, Athens surrenders

Answer 34

404

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Question 35

Who was Cleisthenes?

3 points.

Answer 35

c. 570 BCE-c. 490 BCE

• Comes to power after a series of exiles and positioning with Hippias
• Elected archon in c. 508 BCE
• Herodotus tells us that he reforms administrative system in order to break the power of his competitors

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Question 36

How long were Cleisthenes reforms effective?

Answer 36

Reforms made c. 500 BC
Remain in place essentially until 322 BC

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