Classical Greece
In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras. But his rival Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by pro-democracy citizens, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, now supported by the Athenians. Through Cleisthenes' reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomic institutions, equal rights for all citizens (though only men were citizens), and established ostracism.
The isonomic and isegoric democracy was first organized into about 130 demes, which became the basic civic element. The 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of the assembly, headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random. The city's administrative geography was reworked to create mixed political groups. Not federated by local interests linked to the sea, to the city, or to farming, whose decisions would depend on their geographical position, the territory of the city was divided into thirty trittyes.
Ten trittyes existed in the coastal region, ten in the urban centre, and ten in the rural interior. A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one from each of the three groups. Each tribe therefore always acted in the interest of all three sectors. It was this corpus of reforms that allowed the emergence of a wider democracy in the 460s and 450s BC.
In Ionia, the modern Aegean coast of Turkey, the Greek cities came under the rule of the Persian Empire in the mid-6th century BC. In 499 BC that region's Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt, and Athens and some other Greek cities sent aid, but were quickly forced to back down after defeat in 494 BC at the Battle of Lade. Asia Minor returned to Persian control.
In 492 BC, the Persian general Mardonius led a campaign through Thrace and Macedonia. He was victorious and again subjugated the former and conquered the latter, but he was wounded and forced to retreat back into Asia Minor. Later, the generals Artaphernes and Datis led a successful naval expedition against the Aegean islands. In 490 BC, Darius the Great sent a Persian fleet to punish the Greeks. They landed in Attica intending to take Athens, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army of 9,000 Athenian hoplites and 1,000 Plataeans led by the Athenian general Miltiades.
In 480 BC, Darius' successor Xerxes I sent a much more powerful force across a double pontoon bridge over the Hellespont. This army took Thrace before descending on Thessaly and Boeotia. The Greek fleet dashed to block Cape Artemisium. After being delayed by Leonidas I, the Spartan king of the Agiad Dynasty, at the Battle of Thermopylae, Xerxes advanced into Attica and captured and burned Athens. The subsequent Battle of Artemisium resulted in the capture of Euboea, bringing most of mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth under Persian control. However, the Athenians had evacuated the city of Athens by sea before Thermopylae, and under the command of Themistocles, they defeated the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis.
In 431 BC war broke out between Athens and Sparta. The war was a struggle not merely between two city-states but rather between two coalitions, or leagues of city-states: the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta. Under the influence of King Archidamus II, Sparta concluded the Thirty Years Peace with Athens in 446 BC. This treaty took effect the next winter in 445 BC.
Sparta's initial strategy was to invade Attica, but the Athenians were able to retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of plague in the city during the siege caused many deaths, including that of Pericles. At the same time the Athenian fleet landed troops in the Peloponnesus, winning battles at Naupactus and Pylos. After several years of inconclusive campaigning, the moderate Athenian leader Nicias concluded the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC.
In 418 BC conflict between Sparta and the Athenian ally Argos led to a resumption of hostilities. Alcibiades was one of the most influential voices in persuading the Athenians to ally with Argos against the Spartans. At the Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. In 415 BC, Alcibiades found support within the Athenian Assembly for his position when he urged that Athens launch a major expedition against Syracuse. The entire expeditionary force was lost and Nicias was captured and executed.
The end of the Peloponnesian War left Sparta the master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role. Within a few years the democratic party regained power in Athens and in other cities. In 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth challenged Sparta's dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC.
That same year Sparta shocked the Greeks by concluding the Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia. The agreement turned over the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus, reversing a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Then the Theban generals Epaminondas and Pelopidas won a decisive victory at Leuctra in 371 BC. The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of Theban dominance, but Athens herself recovered much of her former power because the supremacy of Thebes was short-lived.
With the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea in 362 BC, the city lost its greatest leader and his successors blundered into an ineffectual ten-year war with Phocis. In 346 BC the Thebans appealed to Philip II of Macedon to help them against the Phocians, thus drawing Macedon into Greek affairs for the first time.
The energetic leadership within Macedon began in 359 BC when Philip of Macedon was made regent for his nephew, Amyntas. Within a short time, Philip was acclaimed king as Philip II of Macedonia in his own right. During his lifetime, Philip II consolidated his rule over Macedonia. This was done by 359 BC and Philip began to look toward expanding Macedonia's influence abroad.
Under Philip II, Macedon expanded into the territory of the Paeonians, Thracians, and Illyrians. In 358 BC, Philip allied with Epirus in its campaign against Illyria. In 357 BC, Philip came into direct conflict with Athens when he conquered the Thracian port city of Amphipolis. A year later in 356 BC, the Macedonians attacked and conquered the Athenian-controlled port city of Pydna. With the start of the Phocian War in 356 BC, the great Athenian orator Demosthenes became increasingly active in encouraging Athens to fight vigorously against Philip's expansionist aims.
Philip's son Alexander the Great was born in Pella, Macedonia. Philip II brought Aristotle to Pella to teach the young Alexander. Philip II was assassinated at the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra of Macedon with King Alexander I of Epirus in 336 BC. Philip's son, the future Alexander the Great, immediately claimed the throne of Macedonia by eliminating all the other claimants to the throne.
The Acropolis and Parthenon stood as a temple to Athena in Athens. Construction of the Parthenon began in the 5th century BC. The Artemision Bronze, thought to be either Poseidon or Zeus, dates from around 460 BC and is more than 2 meters in height. It was found by fishermen off the coast of Cape Artemisium in 1928.
A Kylix drinking cup from Attica shows a goddess performing a libation, dating from 470 BC using white ground technique pottery. The Temple of Hephaestus at the Agora of Athens was built between 449 and 415 BC. A wall mural of a charioteer from the Macedonian royal tombs at Vergina dates from the late 6th century BC.
Grave relief of Thraseas and Euandria from Athens dates from 375, 350 BC and resides in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. These artifacts illustrate the development of architectural styles and sculpture techniques characteristic of the era.
Philip II brought Aristotle to Pella to teach the young Alexander. This educational connection highlights the intellectual currents of the period. Will Durant wrote in 1939 that excepting machinery, there is hardly anything secular in our culture that does not come from Greece.
The Classical period conventionally ends at the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the fragmentation of his empire, divided among the Diadochi. Much of the early defining mathematics, science, artistic thought, theatre, literature, philosophy, and politics of Western civilization derive from this period of Greek history.
The legacy of Greece was strongly felt by post-Renaissance European elite, who saw themselves as the spiritual heirs of Greece. There is nothing in Greek civilization that doesn't illuminate our own according to Durant's assessment of the era's enduring influence on modern society.
Common questions
When did the Classical period of ancient Greece begin and end?
The Classical period began in 510 BC when Spartan troops helped Athenians overthrow King Hippias. It conventionally ended at the death of Alexander the Great on the 23rd day of May 323 BC.
Who reformed Athens to establish isonomic democracy after Cleomenes I intervened?
Cleisthenes reformed Athens with support from the middle class and pro-democracy citizens to create isonomic institutions. He organized about 130 demes as basic civic elements and established ostracism for equal rights among male citizens.
Which battle resulted in a Greek victory over Darius the Great's Persian fleet in 490 BC?
The Battle of Marathon was won by a Greek army consisting of 9,000 Athenian hoplites and 1,000 Plataeans led by Miltiades. This defeat occurred in Attica when Darius sent a Persian fleet to punish the Greeks.
What happened during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta starting in 431 BC?
War broke out in 431 BC between the Delian League led by Athens and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. The conflict included an outbreak of plague that killed Pericles and concluded with the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC before hostilities resumed.
When did Philip II of Macedon begin his rule and what territories did he conquer?
Philip II became regent for his nephew Amyntas in 359 BC and was acclaimed king shortly thereafter. He expanded Macedonia into Paeonian, Thracian, and Illyrian territory while conquering Amphipolis in 357 BC and Pydna in 356 BC.
All sources
4 references cited across the entry
- 2bookThe Complete Aeschylus: Volume II: Persians and Other PlaysAeschylus et al. — Oxford University Press — 17 February 2009
- 4bookThe Fall of the Athenian EmpireDonald Kagan — Cornell University Press — 1987