The 4th Century Flashcards
1
Q
note
A
- Stasis, or civil strife, was always specially prevalent in Classical Sicily; the Selinus sacred law already noted may be a response to a particularly violent and bloody bout of stasis
- Immediately after the defeat of Athens, a radical democracy was installed in Syracuse, at the instigation of an extremist called Diocles
- Dionysius looked to the future; his was essentially a military monarchy based on loyal mercenary power
- Corinthian War (395–386) was fought against Sparta by a coalition of Athens (with help from Persia), Boeotia, Corinth, and Argos
- Sparta eventually won the war, but only after the Persians had switched support from Athens to Sparta.
- The ensuing Peace of Antalcidas, or King’s Peace, of 386 specified that Asia, including Cyprus and Clazomenae, was to belong to the king of Persia.
- The other Greek cities great and small, including the other islands, were to be autonomous, but Athens was allowed to keep Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, three long-standing cleruchies
2
Q
From 386 bce to the decline of Sparta
A
- autonomy was elastic, and Sparta by its behaviour soon made clear its intention to interpret it in the way most favourable to itself
- The occupation of the Cadmea was a famous instance of Spartan high-handedness; indeed, it produced such a revulsion of feeling that Sparta lost its leadership of Greece
- The restrictive policies adopted by Athens are interesting as showing awareness of what had been 5th-century grievances. There was to be no tribute, no governors, no garrisons, and no cleruchies.
- new Athenian navy defeated Sparta in the battle of Naxos (376), a victory won under the command of the Athenian Chabrias.
- another great Athenian commander, Timotheus, won the battle of Alyzia
- After its expulsion from Thebes, Sparta had steadily lost ground in central Greece.
- Despite renewed fighting between Athens and Sparta in the west (374 and 373) and despite Thebes’s continued, though increasingly reluctant, contributions to the Athenian navy (373), it was becoming clear that Thebes was the real threat to both Athens and Sparta.
- In the 360s the main focus of Greek history shifted from Sparta to the struggle between Athens and Thebes.
- in central and northern Greece, the energetic rule of Jason had ended abruptly in 370, and Macedon was the power of the future, but that was far from obvious in the 360s
- Arcadian federation in the Peloponnese had split in two; the Tegean party appealed for help to the Thebans, and the Mantineans to Athens and Sparta
- The great Battle of Mantinea was a technical victory for Thebes in the strictly military sense, but it was actually indecisive
3
Q
The rise of Macedon
A
- In 359 two new strong rulers came to the throne, Artaxerxes III of Persia and Philip II of Macedon. The last decade of the long reign of Artaxerxes II had been blighted by revolts in the western half of his empire—at first sporadic, then concerted
- Cultural Hellenization, however, was compatible with a social and military structure that was alien to Greek tradition, resembling instead the feudalism of later societies
- In 357 the Social War, the war against its allies, broke out. Already in the 360s, in the aftermath of the Samian cleruchy, trouble had occurred on Ceos and elsewhere.
- The war went badly for Athens, and it was forced to accept a disadvantageous peace in 355 when the Persian king threatened to intervene on the rebel side.
4
Q
Macedonian supremacy in Greece
A
- In 353 Philip was in undisputed control of a much-enlarged Macedon. He was brought into Greece itself as a result of the Third Sacred War of 355–346. That war originated in a more or less gratuitous Theban attack on Phocis, which in 362 had refused to send a contingent for the Mantinea campaign.
- in Athens after 346 there was a group who seemed to want war against Persia, and this entailed good relations with Philip.
5
Q
Alexander the Great
A
- Alexander began his career of conquest in 335. He started with lightning campaigns against the Triballi and Illyrians, which took him across the Danube. Thebes was next: the Thebans had risen in the optimistic belief that Alexander had died in Illyria. He reached Thessaly in seven days and was in Boeotia five days later.
- Soon after his accession, Alexander had been voted the leadership of the Persian expedition by the League of Corinth.
- Alexander’s period in Egypt was marked by two major events, the founding of Alexandria and the visit to the oracle of the god Amon at Sīwah in the Western Desert.
- After campaigning in Persis proper, Alexander occupied the palace of Persepolis, where the strong defensive position known as the “Persian Gates” was taken
- By the middle of 330 Darius had been killed. Alexander now adopted symbolic features of Persian royal dress, but one of Darius’s noble followers Bessus, proclaimed himself king.
- The year 329 saw the final elimination of Satibarzanes and the capture of Bessus in Sogdiana, north of the Oxus River from Bactria.
- India was the objective in 327, though Alexander did not reach the Indus valley until 326. In 326, at the great Battle of the Hydaspes (Jhelum), he defeated the Indian king Porus.
- At Susa in 324 Alexander staged a splendid mass marriage of Persians and Macedonians. He himself had already married a Bactrian princess, Rhoxane (Roxane), in 327, but he now took two more wives, a daughter of Darius III called Barsine (or Stateira) and Parysatis, the daughter of Artaxerxes III.
6
Q
Greek civilization in the 4th century
A
- the 4th century produced no Parthenon, but it was the great age of military structures.
- Buildings such as the Mausoleum were commissioned by powerful individuals
- The Athenian empire had given employment to many artists, architects, and sculptors, both from Athens itself and from the subject states of the empire
- Immigration and free movement of individuals between one polis and another are typical features
- great number of citizenships were granted to individuals from whom favours were expected or by whom they had already been conferred, or both
