Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Spartan leagues
Acropolis - What: the upper city, the citadel of a city or town. Many citadel hills had been the sites of
Mycenaean palaces and remained as special places in polis life.
Importance: The most famous is in Athens, the religious center of the city, which was magnificently
adorned with temples in the fifth century.
Where: Athens
Importance: persuaded the Athenian assembly that no harm would befall the Phocians for not entering
into the Peace of Philocrates with Philip of Macedon (Phocians were destroyed)
Importance: wrote 70 plays (7 survive) - Greatest surviving achievement is the trilogy known as the
Oresteia, which treats the supreme difficulty of understanding and obtaining a just social and religious
order
Importance: his policies lead to the formation of the new Athenian naval confederacy and the alliance of
Athens and Thebes
Importance: blamed for defacing herms; sent on the Sicilian expedition; changed loyalties to Sparta
Alexander III of Macedon (Alexander the Great) - Who: the son of King Philip II of Macedon and
Olympias; heir to the throne of Macedon
Importance: took over Philip's role as hegemon of the Corinthian league; first Macedonian to land on
Asian soil
Importance: believed that material objects as composed of infinitely divisible particles; forced to flee
Athens because of his connections to Pericles
Importance: tried to convince the Spartans to not go into war with the Athenians.
Importance: charged with assessing each state's appropriate contribution to the League treasury - either
ships for the fleet or cash directly to the temple of Apollo at Delos
Aristophanes - Who: most brilliant of the Athenian comic poets
Where: Athens
Significance: as his story lines were firmly grounded in the culture and politics of his day, we get an idea
of Athenian Democracy
Importance: showed desire of many Athenians for role models provided by the "men of Marathon"
rather than by silver-tongued sophists
Aristophanes' Peace - What: a play written by Aristophanes right before the declaration of peace
between Athens and Sparta - the main character asks the gods why they are letting Greek destroy itself
with war and they respond it is because Peace has been locked up and the Gods have been alienated by
the squabbling
Importance: shows the feelings on the war felt by many Greek citizens
Where: Athens
Athena Promachos - What: an immense statue of Athena that was placed on the Acropolis, to be
encountered first as one entered through the Propylaia
Where: Athens
Importance: colossal bronze statue is lost to us, but we have descriptions from ancient times to know
that it was the creation of Pheidias, and that it was so large that ships approaching the coast of Attica
could see Athena's spear
Athenian Tribute Lists - What: list recording the one-sixtieth of each contribution to the Delian League
which was dedicated to the goddess Athena Polias
Importance: makes it possible to determine the size of each state's contribution in a given year by
multiplying the respective figure by 60.
Importance: the Athenians promised not to destroy this in their allied states and to maintain the King's
Peace
Banausic - What: work performed over a hot furnace; a type of manual labor performed indoors
Where: Aegospotami
Importance: overwhelming Spartan victory that led to the capture of almost 200 Athenian ships and led
to the Spartans cutting the Athenians off from their grain supply
Battle of Amphipolis - What: a battle where the Athenian stronghold of Amphipolis was brought over to
the Spartan side
Battle of Arginusae - What: Battle between the Athenian and Spartan fleets
Importance: an Athenian victory that boosted spirits toward the end of the war
Battle of Chaeronea - What: a battle between Athens, Thebes, and the Boetian League against Philip of
Macedon
Where: Boetia
Importance: win for the Macedonians led by Alexander (before he was king) that led to heavy Greek
casualties, including the entire Theban Sacred Band
Battle of Cnidus - What: a battle between Sparta and the joined Persian and Athenian fleets
Where: Cnidas
Importance: Persian and Athenian victory; lead to a feeling of security that brought home Conon and led
to the rebuilding of the Long Walls
Battle of Cyzicus - What: battle between the Spartans and the Athenians
Where: Cyziucus
Importance: Athenian win that also resulted in the death of the Spartan admiral-in-chief; first major
encounter of the war not described by Thucydides
Battle of Gaugamela - What: a battle between Darius (Persians) and Alexander the Great (Macedonians)
When: 331 B.C.
Importance: most documented of all battles in ancient Greek history because of the capture of the
Persian headquarters; Alexander win but fail to capture Darius after he fled
Battle of Granicus River - What: a battle between the Persians and Alexander the Great
Importance: Alexander the Great won the battle and took over the western parts of the Persian empire
and slaughtered the Persian cavalry
Battle of Issus - What: a battle between the Persians and Alexander the Great
Importance: though the Macedonians suffered they won and forced Darius to abandon his army and
flee without his family
Battle of Leuctra - What: a battle between the Spartans and the Thebans
Importance: the introduction of the Sacred Band led by Epaminondas that led to a Theban victory
because of the style of fighting that lined up the majority of the soldiers on the typically weak left side
Battle of Mantinea - What: a battle between Sparta and an Alliance between Athens and Argos
Importance: Sparta wins and mends fences with their disaffected allies Boeotia and Corinth - restore
Peloponnesian League
Battle of Notium - What: a battle between the Athenian and Spartan fleets (Alcibiades' friend v.
Lysander)
Where: Notium
Importance: a great Athenian loss because of Alcibiades' friend being unsuitable for leading a navy - led
to the end of the Alcibiades' career
Importance: persuaded Acanthus, Stagirus, and Argilus of Sparta's sincerity as a Liberator and induced
them to revolt from Athens
Importance: led the expedition that expelled the Persians from Europe and prevented them from
establishing naval bases in Ionia
Importance: saved Alexander's life by cutting off the arm of a Persian about to attack Alexander during
the Battle of Granicus
Importance: advocated a policy of harsh consistency in regards to the revolt of Mytilene (when people
change mind about wanting to execute all the men); accepted the commission that led to the surrender
of the Spartan soldiers trapped at Pylos
Cleophon - Who: Athenian statesmen
Importance: convinced the Athenians to reject Spartan peace offerings after the Battles of Cyzicus and
Arginusae
Cleruchy - What: form of Greek colony in which colonists retained the citizenship of the founding city -
each given parcel of land
Importance: Athenian Empire established these in the territory of rebellious or unreliable allies as self-
supporting garrisons; provided an outlet for the disaffected and potentially dangerous poor
Importance: head of a great fleet blockaded at Mytilene that suffered huge casualties; one of the only
survivors of the Battle of Aegospotami
Corinthian League - What: an alliance between Philip of Macedon and all the Greek city-states, except
for Sparta
Importance: maintain a common peace in Greece and retaliate against the Persians for their invasion
and aggression with pledges of nonaggression from members - legitimized Philip's domination of Greece
Corinthian War - What: a war between Sparta and a coalition of Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos
Importance: lead to the death of Lysander and the recall of Agesilaus from Asia
Critias - Who: a student of Socrates and a relative of Plato
Where: Athens
Importance: antidemocratic who was banished after the fall of the 400, who is known for his tyrannical
reign under the 30
Cyrus the Younger - Who: the younger son of the Persian King Darius
When: Late Fifth Century B.C.; towards the end of the Peloponnesian War
Importance: replaced the coastal satraps and was given large powers to help Sparta end the
Peloponnesian war
Darius III - Who: a relative of Artaxerxes who took the Persian throne after his death
When: Late Fifth Century B.C. - after the Spartan win of the Peloponnesian War
Importance: ensured that Athens' former allies were now governed in accordance with oligarchic
principles and served Spartan interests
Delian League - What: the modern name for the confederacy organized under Athenian leadership to
bind themselves to fight the Persians - make treaty with Athenians (about 150 city-states)
When: Founded in 477 B.C., after the end of the Persian wars
Importance: the League was slowly converted into an Athenian empire as Athens began forcing
unwilling states to remain in the organization, or to join it if they were not already members
Demagogue - What: a "leader of the people"; term some Athenians used to categorize the politicians
who arose in Athens after Pericles' death
When: first appeared in Aristophanes' Knights in 424 B.C. Importance: Usually it had negative
connotations and suggested a man interested only in his own well-being, unlike a true statesman, who
cared for the welfare of the state.
Importance: built a fort at Pylos, the legendary home of Nestor - enclosed the Bay of Navarino; sent to
help Nicias in Syracuse - recommended an immediate withdrawal
Demosthenes - Who: an Athenian politician who wanted an aggressive policy toward Macedon
Where: Athens
Importance: urged the Athenians to vote for the establishment and support of a strong naval force for
the upcoming war against Philip
Dikasteria - What: courts on which even the poorest citizen could serve
Where: Athens
Importance: all male citizens over the age of 30 were eligible to serve
Importance: argued for allowing the people of Mytilene to live despite their revolt, because killing them
would leave no incentive for others to surrender (won argument against Cleon)
Dokimasia - What: scrutiny Athenian citizens had to undergo before assuming a position in the
government
Egyptian Expedition - What: Pericles convinced the Athenians to send ships to Egypt.
Importance: Egyptian general penned the Athenians on the island of Prosopitis and then captured the
Athenian sailors, killing almost all of them
Importance: propounded a cosmogony based on the idea of four primary elements (earth, air, fire, and
water)
Importance: involved in the liberation of Cadmea; fought in the Battle of Leuctra and led the Sacred
Band; served on the board of eleven Boeotarchs; brought the liberation of Messenia
Ephialtes - Who: Leader of a coalition to break with Sparta and further the growth of democracy that
attacked individual members of the Council of the Areopagus
Epikleros - What: a brotherless Athenian girl who was compelled to marry her nearest male relative able
to procreate so that her son, who was slated to inherit her father's property, would be descended from
his grandfather through the male line.
Importance: The word is often translated "heiress," but in fact she could inherit nothing, which was the
whole point of her forced marriage.
Erastes - What: the older lover
Importance: shored up the stability of society by encouraging each generation to imitate the one that
had gone before
Where: Athens
Importance: located in the Agora, but never completed because of the Peloponnesian War
Importance: shored up the stability of society by encouraging each generation to imitate the one that
had gone before
Importance: convinced the Athenians to pass a law assigning all surplus from the annual government
budgets known as the Theroic Fund and served as the commissioner
Importance: wrote to undermine conventional views of what makes a hero - wrote Medea; explored
dynamics of the conflict between reason and passion
Importance: general sent to Syracuse to help after Alcibiades convinced the Spartans that Athens was
going to take over all of Greece; received Nicias' surrender
Importance: a Spartan set up by Lysander in former Athenian states that was requested by the 30 to
protect them from a popular uprising
Importance: Athens, for example, was this type of leader of the Delian League and Sparta was for the
Peloponnesian League - both wanted to be for all of Greece
Importance: drank himself to death, caused depression in Alexander who had him declared a hero and
built a monument in his honor
Herm - What: squared shafts topped by archaizing heads of the god Hermes and sporting erect phalluses
on their front surfaces - believed to bring good luck and protection from danger
Importance: most of them were defaced and it was blamed on Alcibiades, who escaped to Sparta
instead of returning to Athens from the convoy to Sicily
Where: Athens
Importance: they were generally more cultivated than citizen women; they were trained to be
entertaining and interesting rather than to be thrifty managers of households - but could not bear
citizens
Hetaireiai - What: drinking clubs composed of upper-class young men, often with oligarchic leanings;
involved in a variety of social and political activities
Importance: could be responsible for defacing the herms in Athens which was blamed on Alcibiades
Importance: created a body of writings with a commitment to seeking rational explanations of natural
phenomena - a lot on gynecology
Importance: last ostracism because was supposed to end the rivalry between Alcibiades and Nicias, but
they organized their supporters against this guy
Importance: led Athenian peltasts to destroy an entire Spartan regiment at the Corinthian port of
Lechaeum; introduced longer swords and light, comfortable boots
Importance: united all of the Thessalians under the same ruler for the first time since the Sixth Century
B.C.
Klepsydra - What: a water clock
Where: Athens
Kleroterion - What: an allotment device that distributed the names haphazardly among the daily juries
Where: Athens
Importance: one of the strategos who traveled to Sicily with Alcibiades and Nicias - backed Alcibiades'
plan of attack because of lack of support for his own plan
Where: Athens
Importance: harnessed the wealth of the elite - maintaining trireme, training its crew, leading a
delegation to a religious festival in another Greek state.
Long Walls - What: formidable walls linking Athens to the port of Piraues
Importance: makes it impossible to besiege Athens by land because supplies can always be brought in by
boat.
Lysander - Who: the new chief admiral of the Spartan navy
When: Late Fifth Century B.C. - at the end of the Peloponnesian War
Importance: his ambitious advance changed the situation in the Aegean - won the Battle of Notium,
replaced the governments of Athenians' former allies with oligarchies
Megarian Decree - What: a decree passed against the Megarians by the Athenians
Importance: excluded Megarian merchants from all ports of the Athenian empire - allow Athenians to
harm member of Peloponnesian League without breaking the Thirty Years' Peace.
Metic - What: Resident aliens in a Greek state who did not own land because they could not legally do
so without special dispensation
Where: Athens
Importance: Although they lacked citizenship, the mingled comfortably in Athenian society and were
often called on for help in wartime; often carried on affairs with married Athenian citizens
Importance: one of the strategos on the Sicily expedition - the only surviving strategoi that did not leave
Importance: a law or custom that defined by legal and social society based on tradition or convention -
blurred line
Olympias - Who: the fourth wife of Philip of Macedon (of 7), who served as the main queen
When: Fourth Century B.C.
Importance: mother of Alexander the Great; took Alexander into exile after his father's seventh
marriage to a Macedonian bride, who could threaten his chance at succession
Oresteia - What: a trilogy which treats the supreme difficulty of understanding and obtaining a just
social and religious order; the three plays combine and form one complex drama
Where: Athens
Importance: sent as head of an expeditionary force across the Hellespont into Persia
Where: Athens
Importance: designed with a blend of Doric and Ionic elements and covered with sculpture depicting
myths and history of Athena and Athens
Pausanius - Who: Spartan who commanded the Greek fleet against the Persians
Importance: accused of exchanging treacherous letters with King Xerxes and replaced by Athens
leadership
Peace of Callias - What: Athenian peace made with Persia after Cimon died
Importance: force Sparta to return Amphipolis; force Athens to abandon Pylos and release all prisoners
of war, but to keep the empire they started with - uneffective because many allies did not sign
Peace of Philocrates - What: a peace agreement between Athens and Philip of Macedon
Importance: quickly collapsed, but Athens renounced its long-cherished claim to Amphipolis and made
the Second Athenian Confederacy a permanent ally of Macedon
Importance: served as a dynamic center with limited civic institutions because most Macedonians were
farmers or pastoralists (became capital after Alexander the Great)
Importance: involved in the liberation of Cadmea in 379; fought in the Battle of Leuctra; served on the
board of eleven Boeotarchs
Peltast - What: a type of javelin thrower named for their small round wicker shields
Importance: changed the style of fighting - allowing for the throwing of javelins at a long distance to
make it difficult for heavily armed enemy hoplites to retreat
Pericles - Who: man repeatedly elected to the post of strategos in Athens
Importance: passed a citizenship law dictating that only those born in the city and descended from
parents born in the city could be citizens
Pericles' Citizenship Law - What: law that limited Athenian citizenship to those whose parents were born
Athenians
Importance: eliminated connectiveness between poleis (many have sexual relationships with women of
a different poleis - marriage problems)
Importance: created the statutes of Athena both inside and outside the Parthenon, as well as statutes of
Zeus at Olympia
Importance: seize the Greek cities and joined them into his kingdom; introduced new military
techniques that made the Macedonians superior fighters - created a new type of Phalanx
Importance: set up a pro-Spartan government in Thebes after it was seized by Sparta on the
encouragement of Leontiades
Where: Athens
Importance: wrote the Apology of Socrates, which gives us an idea of what happened at Socrates' trial;
created the theory of forms; founded a school called the Academy
Pnyx - What: a hill where the Athenian assembly gathered, originally ten times a year, but after Pericles
up to as many one every ten days.
Where: Athens
Importance: magnet for the many men of Attica who wanted to play a role in determining the
Peninsula's future
Importance: fought defensively against Alexander in the Battle of the Hydaspes, but had all of his forces
destroyed, but became an ally of Alexander and had his kingdom restored
Proskynesis - What: a type of prostration reserved for Gods (Greeks and Macedonians) or highest
members of a hierarchy (Persians)
Where: Macedon
Importance: Alexander the Great wanted all members of his court to practice this - showed he felt he
was a descendant of a god
Revolution at Corcyra - What: a civil war in Corcyra where both men and women participated
Importance: increased tensions between the ordinary citizens, who resented the wealth of the elite, and
the aristocrats because the former could expect help from Athens and the latter from Sparta
When: 440-439B.C.
Importance: Samos ask Spartans for help, but since their allies will not help them they refuse; Athens
fear will end their Aegean empire, but Athens wins, establishes a democracy, and confiscates the Samian
navy
Second Athenian Confederacy - What: a new naval league established by the Athenians that was joined
by many other city-states
Importance: joined many of the old members of the Delian League, but allowed them to keep their
autonomy and was led by two assemblies
Second Battle of Mantinea - What: Battle between Thebes and an alliance of Achaea, Elis, Athens, and
Sparta
Importance: a Theban victory thanks to the strategies of Leuctra, but Epaminondas was fatally wounded
Importance: chaired the assembly that tried the generals of the Battle of Arginusae; taught many
influential leaders - was sentenced to death for corruption of the youth because he spoke against
democracy
Sophist - What: a "practioner of wisdom"; a group of intellectuals who gravitated to Athens
Importance: taught pupils how to get by in the world - speak persuasively in the assembly and courts;
aroused suspicions of Athens' entrenched elite
Importance: wrote Oedipus Tyrannus, the most famous tragedy of antiquity - reworked the familiar
plots of Greek mythology, with their emphasis on agonizing family discord, to express his view of the
world
Importance: tried to make a night march to seize Piraeus for Sparta, but did not reach it and failed,
angering the Athenians
Importance: had the power to veto measures approved by the Athenian assembly and helped establish
league policy
Where: Athens
Importance: allowed Athenian citizens, although loyal to Sparta and willing to sacrifice democratic
principles, have political power in Athens
Where: Athens
Importance: marks the introduction of the oligarchy following the Peloponnesian war
Where: Athens
Importance: a political party connected to the hoplite caste, which remained powerful after the
reinstallment of the democracy
The King's Peace - What: a peace treaty between Sparta and the new coalition, including Thebes,
Where: Persia
Importance: ended the Corinthian war and gave Sparta the power to guarantee the peace, even though
they were the cause
The Old Oligarch - What: the author of a pamphlet called "The Constitution of the Athenians"
Importance: believed to be Xenophon before the Twentieth Century; believed that sea power was
superior to land power
The Sacred Band - What: an elite corp of 150 pairs of select hoplites
Where: Thebes
Importance: was the reason for the Thebes great military power of the time
The Social War - What: Rhodes, Byzantium, Cos, and Chios revolted from Athens
When: 357 B.C.
Importance: although the best Athenian generals were sent the uprising was not squelched and these
states received their independence
Theoric Fund - What: a fund containing the surpluses from the annual government budgets
Where: Athens
Importance: the money was used for repairing roads and fortifications and for distribution to Athenian
citizens at religious festivals; reduced tensions between rich and poor
Where: Athens
Importance: continued to be a leader in Athens after the reinstallation of the democracy; negotiated the
treaty between Athens and Sparta at the end of the Peloponnesian war
Third Sacred War - What: a war caused by Thebes attempt to consolidate its hegemony in central
Greece - fight between Thebes and the Phocians
Importance: the Phocians tried to regain their independence after Thebes tried to make them sign a
treaty declaring them superior by seizing control of Delphi, so Thebes appealed to Philip, who offered
terms of surrender to avoid sacrilige terms; PHILIP RECEIVED THE PHOCIANS VOTE IN THE DELPHIC
AMPHICTYONY
Thirty Years' Peace - What: Peace agreement made between the Athenians and the Spartans
When:445B.C.
Importance: neither state was to interfere with the allies of the other; neutrals were free to join either
state; disagreements were to be settled by arbitration; no allies were permitted to switch sides; and
each hegemon was free to use force to resolve conflicts within its own alliance.
Thrasybulus - Who: a trierarch and champion of the democracy
Importance: a newly appointed general of the Athenian fleet during the time of the 400, thought self to
be the true Athenian government; led the exiles that seized Phyle in 403
Where: Athens
Importance: negotiated multiple treaties with Sparta during the Peloponnesian war and sold out the
freedom of some Greek cities of Ionia in exchange for Persian gold
Xenophon's Anabasis - What: the account of Xenophon's experiences with fellow mercenaries in Persia
Where: Athens
Importance: incomparable eyewitness source for Greco-Persian interaction after the Peloponnesian war