1. Section 3
The Golden Age of Athens

2. The Persian Wars
 499 B.C.
 Persian armies set out to conquer Egypt & surrounding lands
 More land = more power
 Captured Africa & Asia Minor (Greek colonies)
 Greek colonies revolted, but failed
 490 B.C.
 Darius I, Persian king, sent soldiers towards Athens
 Athens had helped colonies fight Persians
 Athenians w/ fewer soldiers defeated the Persians at Marathon
 A messenger ran to Athens from Marathon to tell of the
victory
 How long distance race the marathon got its name
 485 B.C. Darius died
 480 B.C. Darius’s son Xerxes sent 2,000 soldiers & 800 ships to attack
Greece
 Greek city states of Athens, Sparta, & other united
 Defeated Persians in a sea battle near Salamis
 After the wars the Greeks banded together to form leagues (groups of
allies) for protection
 Peloponnesian League: led by Sparta
 Delian League: led by Athens

3. The Golden Age
 479 to 431 B.C.
 Greek pride in victory over Persians led to a
time of achievement know as the Golden Age
 Especially the Athenians
 Led by aristocracy name Pericles
 Advise was not to overdo anything
 Ruled w/ assembly of thousands of men
 Members could speak in assembly & vote
 Council of 500 chose what would be discussed
at each meeting; council, government offices &
juries were chosen every year by drawing names
from a bowl

4.  Pericles supported idea of democracy
 Believed it could be better
 Felt every citizen, not just wealthy, should
have a right to take part in gov’t
 Ordered public officials & jurors be paid
 Made up for money lost by not being able to go to
regular jobs

5. Achievements of the Golden Age
 Gov’t of Athens made stronger
 Easier to work in the arts & sciences
Gov’t supported them now
 Architects & builders made Athens more beautiful
 New temples, gymnasiums, theaters, & other public
buildings were built
 Decorated with murals of Athens’s history
 Writers like Herodotus recorded Athens past
Sophocles wrote tragedies (serious plays)
 Aristophanes wrote comedies (humorous plays)
 Scholars were paid to study nature & human life
 Greatest scientist of time was Hippocrates
 Showed illness cam from natural causes, not from gods

6. The End of the Golden Age
 Athens & Sparta were unsatisfied & wanted more
land & to get rid of the influences of the other city
state
 Peloponnesian League supported Sparta & Delian
League supported Athens
 431 B.C. Peloponnesian War
 Lasted 27 years
 Sparta attacked Attica causing people to move from
the countryside into Athens, leading to overcrowding &
diseases causing ¼ of Athenian army to die from
diseases; including Pericles

7.  Without Pericles, assembly began following
bad leaders called demagogues
 They made promises they couldn’t keep & led
assembly into making foolish decisions
 Athens surrendered to Sparta in 404 B.C.
 Assembly was replaced with a Spartan oligarchy
 After the war great thinkers & teachers were
not paid for their work
 Socrates: taught by asking questions &
making students think rather than simply
telling them information
 Used criticism to try to return Athens into its early
greatness
 399 B.C. Athenian court convicted Socrates of
teaching dangerous ideas
 Sentenced to end his own life by drinking poison

8.  Plato
 Student of Socrates’
 Disappointed in leaders of Athens
 Believed leaders should be a good person because good
people are just and wise
 Possible to do so by studying hard & loving wisdom
 385 B.C.
 Plato started the Academy where philosophers could learn
the lessons they would need to govern well
 Plato ideas of citizens
 Should think, feel, & then take action
 Right & responsibility to take part in public life
 Important to be informed, to understand others viewpoints, &
responsible for own actions
 Aristotle
 Student of Plato
 Interested in how things were instead of how he would like
them
 Search for knowledge covered subjects of law, economics,
astronomy, & sports