Greek history Flashcards
Chigi vase (Archaic Age)
had a depiction of archaic warfare
Armies (Archaic Age)
- fight to quickly gain prestige and territory
Cavalry (Archaic Age)
- dark age innovation
- small horses
- no chariots
- no stirrups
Light infantry (Archaic Age)
- stone slinging
- archery
- couldn’t afford equipment
- no landowners (no reason to fight)
- were rarely used
Hoplite: heavy armed infantryman (Archaic Age)
- Land owning citizen farmers
- was the warriors choice
Hoplite’ panoply
- all their equipment
- supplied by hoplite
- no unity (each warrior provided their own amour)
Hoplite’s helmets
Leather skull caps and bronze helmet with horse Mohawk, with a boar on the side
Hoplite’s bronze cuirass
Hot, heavy, costly and can be pierced by spears
Hoplite’s linothorax
Cheap, light and effective against spears
Hoplite’s Greaves
Bronze shin guards, gorgon on the knees to scare enemies
Hoplite’s Aspis
- shield
- 3 layers (wooden core, light bronze covering, inside was wool or leather)
- 1 meter in diameter
- decorated with pictures
Hoplite’s phalanx
- 6-8 rows of soldiers
- 1st 3 rows had their spears raised, back row starts to push the front row to make them clash
- who ever broke first lost
Age of Colonization (Archaic Age)
Development of: privacy, naval warfare and thalassocracy (sea power)
Battle of Himeras (480 BCE)
- Akragas/Syracuse vs Himera
- Greeks won = indemnity temples
- Akragas get slaves for building projects
- Syracuse gain control on 2/3 of Slcily
- same time as the Salamis
Battle of Cumae (474 BCE)
- Battle of track
- Persian war
- king of Persia (Darius)
Phase 1 (492 BCE)
1) Darius sent his son (Mardonius) to marched along the shore of Athens to live off the land.
2) Navy destroyed by storm and people attacked by citizens.
Phase 2 (490 BCE)
1) attack across Aegean Sea
2) Persians attack Eritrea
3) Plataia helps, not Sparta
Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)
1) Persians succeeded in pushing back the Athenians
2) Plataeans on the left/ Athenians on the right flank
3) seeing impending defeat Persians to flee and embark transports offshore
Phase 3 (480 BCE)
1) Xerxes invade, largest invasion force in Europe until D day
2) Darius has died and Xerxes (son) is his successor
3) Greeks send force to Thermopylae to stall Persians
Themistokles
- Father of the Athenian navy
Battle of Thermopylae
- to stall Persians
- 300 Spartans
- 900 slaves
- 5000 other soldiers
- Persians go to Athens and destroy Acropolis
- Greek cities came together to fight
Battle of Salamis (480 BCE)
- Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassoa advises Xerxes to not fight in battle
- command 5 ships, sank one of her own ships
- commit suicide
Battle of Plataia (479 BCE)
- Last battle of the Persian War
- Greeks win
- Greek cities include: Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Megaera
Importance of the Persian War
- Major turning point in Western History
- End of Archaic age
- Athens and Sparta merged
- Shaped Greek ideology
Drako: legal reforms (620 BCE)
- 1st written law code in Athens death penalty widely used
- Draconian: excessively harsh
Solon: Legal reforms
- soften draconian laws
- Heliaia (law courts)
- poor now eligible for jury duty (power)
1) increased ekklesia membership
2) wealth was only qualification for office (4 economic class)
3) council of 400 (100 men per tribe)
Solon: Economic reforms
1) Outlawed slavery for debt
2) cancelled debts for the poor
3) established commercial base (waned foreign craftsmen to come to Athens in exchanges for citizenship)
The Tryannicides (514 BCE)
- Harmodius and Aristogeiton (two men from Athens)
- assassinated Hippias
- Brother Hippias: last mainland Greek tyrant
Kleisthenes: political reforms
- Father of democracy
1) 10 new tribes - named after mystical hero (different part of cities)
2) New Boyle: council of 500 - over 30, can serve 1 year term twice
- chosen out a hat
3) Increased size of Ekklesia - had to be male, at least 18 and a citizen
Multi purpose Agora
Social, administration, political, legal, military, religious and economic centre
Macedonia expansion
1) Illyria
- fought side by side
- they had a daughter
2) Epirus
- Alliance with Epirus through marriage give birth to Alexander
3) Thessaly
- 2 separate marriage alliances of 2 daughters
Alexander the 3 (the great)
- Inherits Phillip the 2nd (father) army
- Greeks didn’t want to follow a 20 yr old
- king of Macedon
Hellenistic Age (323-30 BCE)
1) change in government
- Generals
- Objects of ruler cults
2) change in warfare
- larger-scale battles
- use of elephants
3) change in sculpture
- subject: children, old ladies
4) change in coinage
- from classic Greek gods to Hellenistic rulers
Merchant ship and trireme
- Trireme had 3 sets of rowers
- 31 (per side) on top, 27 middle and 31 bottom
- rowers were poor citizens
- top speed of 15 km
- rowed to flute music
Order of battles in Persian war
Himeras, Cumae, Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataia
750-479 BCE
Archaic Age (till end of Persian war)
479-323 BCE
Classical Age (till Alexandar the great’s death)
323-330 BCE
Hellenistic age
