Quiz 1 IDs

Question 1

First Persian War

Answer 1

• Caused by Ionian revolts against Persia in the early 5th century BC where Athenians and Ionians burned Sardis, including several temples
• Caused the first Persian War in 490 BC, a war fought between the Greeks and the Persians under the Persian rule of Darius I including the battle of Marathon
• The cause of the first Persian War is interesting because the reason the Persians were so offended when Sardis was burned (amplified by the fact that temples were burned) was that the Athenians had once allowed the Persians to drink and eat from their land which in the Persian’s eyes signified Athenian submission)
  -This means that in burning Sardis, the Athenians were violating their alleged alliance with the Persians, which was a grave offence.

Question 2

Plutarch

Answer 2

• Greek author living in the Roman empire in late 1st century to early 2nd century AD
• Chronicled and compared the lives of Greeks and Romans in his literary works
• He was the first to record the ‘Marathon story’ which seems suspicious since he was writing about half a century after the battle of Marathon took place, something which should make readers slightly suspicious of the credibility of that story

Question 3

Xerxes I

Answer 3

• King of Persia and son of Darius living in the early 5th century BC who led the second Persian invasion into Greece
• He collected a massive army over a number of years before finally invading Greece, but the size of his army ended up being his downfall
• According to H., his greatest enemies were the land and the sea, since his army was too large to live off the land and the fleet needed to support his army was too large to stay in ports, even if there were storms on the Mediterranean (which there often were)
• Xerxes’ rise and fall from power exemplify common themes in the Ancient Greek world, according to H. at least: prosperity, arrogance and downfall
• After the battle of Salamis Xerxes retreats and the war ends.

Question 4

The Delian League

Answer 4

• Originally named the Hellenic League but was renamed to the Delian League in 478 BC and they win a battle against the Persians in 467 BC
• Made under the charge of Themistocles
• Athens takes charge of the league and allies can contribute ships (triremes) or money
• Poleis who joined got protection from the Persians in return for their donations
• The treasury is on the island of Delos, but is later moved to Athens in 454 BC (in the Parthenon)
• As Athens grows, it starts using the money from the Delian League to improve the polis and imposes Athenian coinage in the Delian League, something which is extremely impractical for other poleis
• At first being part of the league was voluntary but after they regain power of the Agean sea and the Persians are no longer a threat, some islands ask to leave the league, and Athens threatens to attack them or increase their “donations”
• Delian League or Athenian Empire?

Question 5

Sophocles’ Antigone

Answer 5

• Tragic play first performed in 441 BC in Athens
• Takes place in Thebes, whether Antigone’s brother (a traitor) should receive a proper burial
• King Creon vs niece Antigone
• Law of the polis vs law of the Gods
• Brings into question gender roles and the political power of women in the Athenian empire
• Thought provoking play for the audience

Question 6

Life of an Athenian woman

Answer 6

• First a maiden raised in the house who learns domestic work from her mother and participates in religious festivals
• Women are responsible for the funerary rights of their families, so a young girl would be trained in these rites
• A girl would marry from 14-17 and would have a dowry which belonged to her and would return with her in case of divorce (high interest rate to ensure the husband did not spend it)
• Her role was to stay sequestered in the house and to have as many children as possible
• Having many children was very important since many children did not survive childhood, in fact a woman would need to have at least 6 children in her lifetime just to maintain the Greek population

Question 7

Aspasia of Miletus

Answer 7

• Lived from 470-400 BC
• Metic (resident foreigner) in Athens
• Pericles’ lover for many years (maybe a concubine, but this could be a rumour)
• She was a very interesting woman because she did not fit into traditional Athenian gender roles
• She was said to be on the same philosophical level as Socrates (although she probably bathed more than him) and women were even brought to her by their husbands to discuss philosophy and politics, which was unheard of according to Athenian gender roles
• One possibility for why she was granted such liberties is because she was a foreigner, so Athenian gender roles applied to her in a much less strict way

Question 8

On the murder of Eratosthenes

Answer 8

-Trial about the murder of Eratosthenes by Euphiletus in 400-380 BC
- People would defend themselves in court, but the rich (like Euphiletus) could afford a speech-writer
- He admits to the murder, but claims that he caught Eratosthenes having an affair with his wife
- Under Athenian law, if you caught your wife in the act of infidelity, you could kill the male adulterer
- This case is significant because in his defence speech he mentions how his wife thought he wanted to sexually assault their domestic slave, and he mentions it in a very casual way
- This brings up the question: was sexual assault an accepted part of Athenian slavery?
- He then threatens the slave to testify that his wife was cheating on him with Eratosthenes or else he will send her to work in the mill her whole life
- This defence speech and speeches like it prove to be interesting and in this case troubling resources for information on Athenian slaves and women

Question 9

Thucydides

Answer 9

• Son of Olorus who lived in the mid 5th century BC to the early 4th century BC
• Greek historian who wrote his histories on the Peloponnesian War, because he wanted to chronicle the greatest war
• He himself was an Athenian general and war participant but was later exiled from Athens
• He is significant as a historian because he is critical of other historians (cough cough Herodotus) and prides himself of writing an accurate account of events
• He is also a particularly interesting historian because, unlike Herodotus or Plutarch, he actually lived through the events he wrote about (The Peloponnesian War, the Plague of Athens, etc.) and had first hand experiences of the things he wrote about
• This means he also had a lot of sources with whom he could confirm information to ensure that he was providing a true account

Question 10

The Peloponnesian War

Answer 10

• A war which lasted from 431-404 BC between Athen’s Delian League and Sparta’s Peloponnesian League
• Started with the Theban’s (Sparta’s allies) capture of Plataea in 431 BC
• Pericles’ strategy was to move all of the people from Attica into Athens where they had long walls, making Athens a sort of island-city (and the Spartans were certainly not known for their naval prowess)
• Wherever the Athenians conquered they instated democracies and wherever the Spartans conquered they instated oligarchies
• There was much civil unrest (stasis) and the peace of Nicias (established in 421 BC) which was supposed to last 50 years was broken for the failed Sicilian expedition to Syracuse
• After an Athenian naval victory in 406, Sparta eventually defeat the Athenian navy and Athens falls in 405 BC
• This leaves Sparta as the hegemon of the Greek world
• This marks the fall of the strongest polis in all of Greece during the Golden Age and begs the question, what will come next?

Question 11

The Plague of Athens

Answer 11

• Lasting from 430-427 BC, the plague of Athens is said to have wiped out approx. 25% of people who were residing in Athens, including the people moved there from Attica
• It is said to have perhaps originated in Egypt and was maybe typhoid or smallpox
• Very interesting that we have a first hand account of how the plague was because Thucydides lived through the plague (and even caught it at one point!) and was able to document the effects of illness on Athens as a whole
• The plague of Athens is particularly significant because, not only did Pericles die of it in 429, it brought in its wake a more aggressive and populist Athenian strategy
• Thucydides recounts the breakdown of laws and customs in times of the plague, such as people behaving recklessly and doing away with funerary customs because they were impossible to practice with so many people dying