Athens and Sparta

And the Peloponnesian War

Sparta

• Rigorous training of the body for women as well as for men. Men were warriors, women were breeders of warriors.

• Marriage was limited to the prime of life, husbands live in barracks and have to see their wives in secret.

• They all go barefoot, have a single garment per year, withstand heat and cold.

• Men eat in the common mess. Food reputed to be the worst in all of Greece.

Sparta (cont.)• Ephors, five high executive officials. Had

police, judicial powers. They also determined the fate of newborns.

• Two kings, largely ceremonial function.• Democratic assembly, voted yes or no on

legislation.• Gerousia, same as senate, a council of

elders.

Athens

• Originally it was ruled by a king and a council of Elders (Areopagus), then a series of constitutional measures was enacted. Kings were replaced by archons, with a limited term of office. Finally, an assembly was instituted.

• Draco: in 621 he published a law code, esp. for homicide. It was known for the harshness of its penalties.

• Solon: In 594, given extraordinary powers for reform, esp. land reform. Instituted a constitution by representation on basis of land ownership rather than birth. People’s appeals court was formed.

Athens (cont.)• Pisistratus: gained leadership 545-28 through

popular support, but unable to start a dynasty. • Reforms were enacted by Cleisthenes in 508:

new council created, breaking up old systems of alliances, and service was rotated to limit power. More fluid situation than in Sparta, less stability.

Poleis were thus a kind of experimental opportunity for testing various forms of government. Attempts at solving balance of power in different ways, fertile source of political theory.

Peloponnesian War• Following the defeat of Persia in the Persian War of

480, Sparta withdrew into isolation, while Athens continued to develop as a sea power.

• Delian League: Asian, Ionian Greeks, and Greek cities on islands in Aegean, accept Athenian leadership.

• By 465, cities are being coerced into joining. Money is being taken as tribute, by 454, treasury is moved to Athens.

• Pericles: popular leader in Athens, gains ascendancy. Begins to reconcile with Persia, take defensive stance toward other poleis.

• Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, forms in defense against Athens. Tribute money, meanwhile, being used in Athens to construct Parthenon, Phidias' statue of Athens. All this increases Pericles' popularity.

From the TextbookTerms:• Solon • Pisistratus • Delian League • Parthenon • cleruchies • heterai • gymnasium • Messenia • helots • Lycurgan system • laconic; Laconia

Questions:• How did Athens avoid the

instability of revolution and counter-revolution? How did Sparta?

• What was the nature of slavery in Greece during this period?

• What was the status of the wives of citizens in Athens? What was Athenian marriage like? How did their status and circumstances compare to those of Spartan women?

Pericles; the Acropolis

Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues

• Pericles expands eligibility for higher office so that poorer people can serve, thus weakening the aristocracy, Areopagus.

• Quarrel began when Corinth and colony, Corcyra, fell out in 433. Corcyra called upon Athens for help, and a member of Peloponnesian Leage, Megara, helped Corinth.

• 433-421, Athens used sea power, Sparta land. Yearly invasions of Athens, Stalemate

• Meanwhile plague hit Athens, took Pericles. Uneasy peace finally struck.

• 415-404 theatre moved to Sicily. Fighting deprived Athens of her empire entirely, Sparta looked on as liberator.

• The war was followed by period of hegemonies: Sparta, then Thebes (setting of Oedipus Rex).

• Eventually, Macedonia, to the North, began to expand. New chapter which would end with conquests of Alexander the Great.

Questions: Pericles Funeral Oration• This portion of Thucydides History reflects Athens near the

beginning of the Peloponnesian War; in fact within a year after this speech Pericles, the leading citizen in Athens, died of the plague, thus depriving the Athenians of their most effective leader according to Thucydides. What appears to be the balance between individual valor and glory on the one hand and service to the polis, a public insitution, on the other in Pericles' celebration of the deeds of these fallen warriors? How would you compare this balance to what you found among Homeric heroes?

• What does Pericles believe to be the source of Athenian excellence, especially in comparison to Sparta?

• What insights do you gain about the role of Athenian women from Pericles' brief remarks about female excellence?

Questions for Aristophanes Lysistrata: • Keeping in mind that this is a comedy, what might you conclude

about the attitudes and stereotypes regarding women during this time? Would you consider Aristophanes to be a feminist?

• What does this source tell you about the survival of traditional Greek agonistic values toward the end of the Peloponnesian War?

Questions for Lysistrata:

• Keeping in mind that this is a comedy, what might you conclude about the attitudes and stereotypes regarding women during this time? Would you consider Aristophanes to be a feminist?

• What does this source tell you about the survival of traditional Greek agonistic values toward the end of the Peloponnesian War?