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Greek politicians and commanders
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In the course of the late seventh and sixth century, when Greece was
experiencing rapid social and political changes, many Greek towns were
ruled by tyrants
or sole rulers. Often, these men were aristocrats who had seized extra
powers, sometimes relying on a group of wealthy nouveaux riches. Although
the word 'tyrant' sounds very negative to us, this was not the case in
ancient Greece. The tyrant of Corinth, Periander,
was a respected man and was reckoned among the Seven
sages. His rule started in 627 BCE, lasted forty years, and saw a great
economic boom. He appointed his son Lycophron as tyrant of Corcyra, which
became an important trade partner. He also built the diolkos (portage)
across the Isthmus and allied his town to the rich city of Miletus. Unfortunately,
he survived his children, except for Lycophron. When he asked him to become
his successor, the Corcyrans killed him. Periander retaliated by sending
the sons of the Corcyrans to Lydia,
where they became eunuchs at the court of king Alyattes. |
Musei Vaticani, Rome
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Athens saw the same problems as Corinth. A class of aristocrats ruled
the city and excluded the wealthy nouveaux riches. Moreover, there were
social conflicts. One would have expected the rise of tyrant, but instead
the Athenians appointed a wise man named Solon
(c.640-561) as lawgiver (594/593). He is responsible for several measures:
for example, he decreed that no Athenian would be sold into slavery and
that magistracies were open to all rich people (diminishing the power of
the aristocrats). He also took economic measures and founded the Heliaia,
the people's law court. The result was that people for the first time began
to define themselves as Athenians. After Solon had written these laws,
he left Athens for some time. He is said to have visited Egypt and king
Croesus
of Lydia. Later, he returned home, where he was forced to see how Athens
got its tyrant: Pisistratus. Solon is reckoned among the Seven sages. |
National Museum, Beirut
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After the measures of Solon, factional strife was destabilizing Athens.
Pisistratus was accepted as tyrant because he promised law and order. His
tyranny, which lasted from 546 until his death, was the first period of
Athenian glory. He broke the power of the aristocracy, strengthened the
city institutions, improved the economy, built temples, and stimulated
cultural life. When he died in 527, he was succeeded by his son Hippias,
whose reign was resented by many people. In 514, two men,
Harmodius
and Aristogeiton, killed the brother of the tyrant - who
had become a tyrant in our sense of the word, and executed the two men.
Four years later, Clisthenes introduced the democracy. The new system needed
heroes, and celebrated the 'tyrannicides',
even though they had not killed a tyrant at all. |
Museo archeologico,
Napoli
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Miltiades
(c.555-489) belonged to the old nobility, but he was loyal to Hippias'
regime. In 520 he was sent to to the Hellespontine region, where he ruled
as a tyrant in a small kingdom of his own. However, in 514, when his ally
Hippias had been expelled, he switched his loyalty to the Persian king
Darius
I the Great, who conquered the region on his way to Thrace and Scythia.
When the Greeks in the Persian empire unsuccessfully revolted, his position
became untenable, and he returned to Athens, where he became one of the
war leaders when the Persians wanted to reinstate Hippias in Athens. At
Marathon,
Miltiades defeated the Persians and secured the continued existence of
Athens as an independent power and a democracy (490; go
here
for the story). The following year, he tried to conquer Paros, but was
mortally wounded. |
(©!!!)
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Ten years after Marathon, the Persians returned to Europe. The Greeks
knew at least three years before the invasion that war was eminent, because
the Persian preparations were visible to all. The obvious strategy was
to meet them on the land - it had been successful in 490. However, Themistocles
(c.525-459) convinced the Athenians that they had to build a navy and fight
the Persians at sea. He was right: the Persian army was too large to defeat.
In September 480, the allied Greeks defeated the enemy navy in the harbor
of Athens (the naval battle of Salamis).
The building of the Athenian navy was important for two other reasons too:
(a) from now on, rowers were the strength of Athens, and they were radical
democrats; (b) it gave the Athenians the tool to subject other Greek towns.
So, Themistocles was the founder of the Athenian empire and the man who
saved Greece from Persian domination. However, in 472/471, the Athenians
exiled him. It is ironical that he settled in the Persian empire as a vassal
of his old enemy, king Xerxes. |
Museo Ostiense; ©**
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Prince Pausanias
unexpectedly became commander of the Spartan forces in 480, when king Leonidas
was killed in action at Thermopylae,
where he had tried to block the Persian advance, and after his brother
Cleombrotus died of natural causes. Leonidas' son Pleistarchus was too
young to rule, so Cleombrotus' son Pausanias was made regent. In 479, he
commanded the Spartan army and its allies at Plataea,
where the Persians were defeated (more).
In the spring of 478, he led the Greek army to Byzantium, but he lost authority
when rumors were spread that he wanted to collaborate with the satrap
of nearby Hellespontine Phrygia, Artabazus.
He was recalled, accused, found innocent, returned, again recalled, and
assassinated. After this incident, Sparta decided to remain outside the
Greek war against Persia. Athens, using its navy, continued the struggle,
founde the Delian
League, and created its empire. |
Musei Capitolini, Rome
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Although the Athenians were sole masters of the Greek world, they had
not decided what kind of foreign policy they were to conduct. Miltiades'
son Cimon wanted to cooperate with Sparta, but he was unpopular with the
masses. In 462, the radical democrat Pericles
(c.495-429) accused him and he had to leave Athens. After 451, Pericles
was the leading politician in Athens. Almost every year, he was reelected
as general, and controlled the people's assembly. The democracy was developed,
the war against Persia continued, and when it was finally over, Pericles
started a full-scale building program. The anti-Persian alliance increasingly
became an Athenian empire, and in the 430's, Pericles embarked upon an
anti-Spartan policy. In 431, the Peloponnesian
War broke out. His strategy to wear out Sparta turned out to be a disaster
(although the historian Thucydides
believed otherwise). Pericles was deposed in the autumn of 430 but almost
immediately rehabilitated. However, his death in 429 saved Athens, because
it prepared the way for a better strategist, Cleon.
He was able to improve Athens' finances, which were running dangerously
low. |
British Museum, London
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After the death of Pericles, the Athenians abandoned his strategy and
embarked upon Cleon's less passive policy, attacking Sparta at home. After
ten years of war, the Spartans were forced to admit that they were unable
to defeat Athens. After 421, Athens started an increasingly aggressive
policy. In 420, a nephew of Pericles,
Alcibiades
(c.450-404/403), convinced the Athenians that they had to join a new anti-Spartan
alliance, and five years later, he commanded an armada to conquer Sicily.
However, Alcibiades was recalled from the Sicilian
Expedition because it was believed that he was involved in a religious
scandal (415). Understanding that his life was in danger, he went into
exile in Sparta, where he convinced the authorities to start the war against
Athens anew (the Decelean
or Ionian
War). The moment was well-chosen, because in 413 the Athenians had
supported Amorges,
a rebel in the Persian empire. Almost immediately, the Persians sided with
Sparta. This was to be Athens' undoing. It could overcome the loss of the
Sicilian expedition force, but could not fight against Sparta and Persia
at the same time. Ironically, Alcibiades was able to return to Athens after
he had made a false promise to forge an alliance between Persia and Athens,
but he had to leave his home town when it became clear that he could not
keep his word. Alcibiades went into exile again. After the battle at the
Aigospotamoi,
Athens was forced to surrender (404); Alcibiades was killed almost immediately
after. A couple of years later, the Athenians avenged themselves upon his
teacher, the philosopher Socrates,
who was forced to drink hemlock. |
Musei Capitolini, Roma
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After the Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta was the
leading power in Greece. Immediately, it started to support the revolt
of Cyrus the
Younger against the Persian king Artaxerxes
II Mnemon, and later, its king Agesilaus
invaded Asia. The only result was that the Persians started to support
Athens, which returned to its former power in 395. To keep the Greeks divided,
the Persians continued to switch sides. They were responsible for the rise
of Thebes, supporting general Epaminondas,
who was able to overcome the Spartans at Leuctra (371) and Mantinea (362).
Although he was killed during the second battle, his inheritance was important
enough: Sparta was no longer a great power. |
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During the fourth century, the Greeks remained politically divided
- Persian gold was sufficient to ensure an endless series of wars. Meanwhile,
Macedonia
gained strength and after 346, it was clearly the strongest power in Europe.
The Athenian politician Aeschines
(c.390-c.315) tried to make the best of it. In his view, the best way to
safeguard Athenian independence was cooperation with Macedonia. However,
the Athenians preferred war. In 338, the Greeks were defeated by the Macedonian
king Philip
and his son Alexander.
In 330, Aeschines was exiled by the Athenians, who resented the Macedonian
superiority. He now started a school, where he taught rhetorics. To be
more precise: he specialized on show rhetorics, because political speeches
were no longer important. He is therefore called the 'father of the Second
Sophistic'. |
British Museum, London
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Aeschines' most important opponent was the orator Demosthenes
(384/383-322). He usually -but not always- tried to safeguard the Athenian
independence by resistance to Macedonian imperialism. After 343, he dominated
the foreign policy of his city, cooperating with Thebes and Persia and
deliberately provoking the Macedonian king Philip in several speeches (the
Philippics).
In 338, the Greeks were defeated. Although Demosthenes' policy had been
disastrous, he remained an influential politician. During the reign of
Alexander the Great, he supported the Macedonians only half-heartedly,
and after 324 he embarked again upon a war policy. After the death of Alexander
on 11
June 323, there was indeed a Greek insurrection (the Lamian war), but
the Macedonians were victorious. After this defeat, Demosthenes committed
suicide. He is regarded as the greatest orator of Antiquity; his death
marked the end of Greek political speech. Aeschines' escapism was the final
word. |
Römisch-Germanisches
Museum, Köln; ©**
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