The Classical Age of Greece

The classical age of Greece was the age of the historians Herodotus and Thucydides. Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus were dramatists during the age, and Socrates was a philosopher. The Greeks made their government and set a stable ground. Statues and monuments were formed to represent the great achievements in the city-states of Greece. There was much discovery as well as achievement throughout this age.

The Classical age was from 500 BC to 323 BC. It was known as an age of conflict and war. Most Greek city-states had no king because they took on a new government that had a council of citizens. The Persian Empire invaded Greece in 490 BC. Greek forces came together and trapped the Persian Army and won. Then the Persians tried to come back and attack Athens, but failed when the Greek army came and made them return to Asia Minor.

A second invasion was planned, but the king passed away before he could lead his army into battle again. The new king Xerxes took over Darius’s plans and built up a force to attack by water and land. An alliance with Athens, Sparta, and Corinth was formed to keep the Persians away, or at least hold them back. King Xerxes sent 60,000 of his men into Greece followed by 600 ships. In Thermopylae, the Greeks made a stand. It was 5,000 men against 60,000. They did a good job keeping the Persians out, but then a traitor lead the enemy to the rear of the Greek forces, and they were massacred. The Persians then progressed across the Attic peninsula and destroyed Athens. A fake message from Themistocles to Xerxes was sent telling Xerxes to strike. The Greeks ambushed the Persian ships and had another victory in Salamis, but Persians stayed in Greece, and were finally thrown out in 479 BC. By this time, Greek forces had conquered the Persians who were originally trying to conquer them. Athens was now the most economically and politically dominant forces in Greece. This lead to the beginning of the Athenian Empire.

Trade throughout the AegeanBasin brought Greece back to conflicts with Persia. Some Greeks thought that they had not conquered Persia, so they took the war to Persia itself and dominated them. Before this domination, the Delian League was formed in Greece. Then after the domination, the Athenians forced more city-states to become part of the league. They placed garrisons in cities to try to keep the peace between them.

Athens best success was from 450-430 BC. This was the Age of Pericles. He was the leader of the Athenian Democracy, which was the highest power possible. He earned support from many people by offering benefits to common people. Some say that Pericles was a man of forceful character. He was honest in what he did. Persia was in the past with him, and now he was looking at a new possible threat, Sparta. Sparta was cut off from other Greece city-states, and Pericles saw this as a major threat. It was fated that Athens and Sparta would become rivals.

Pericles was a good man and rebuilt Athens from all the destruction caused by the Persian wars. He took money from the Delian League and used it to build the Parthenon and Propylaea. Many citizens were angered by this, but the common people still supported him, for he had given then money and jobs. Pericles made Athens a new city of Socrates, Phidias, and Aeschylus. He encourages drama and music in an effort for intellectual improvement. The people loved Pericles like a hero.

Sparta and Athens went to war in 431 BC. It was called the PeloponnesianWar. Athenian power was feared by Sparta, and Sparta’s isolation was feared by the Athenians. The war was horrible for Athens. They were totally destructed by the Spartans who had made an alliance with Persia. Pericles became hated for the fact that everything he built and changed all came crashing down. Pericles died, not from the hand of Spartans, but from a plague that swept Athens in 431 BC. There were tons of losses between Athens and Sparta, and both cities were willing to give up. In 421 BC, the Peace of Nicias was signed, but the war still dragged on. Sparta got help from Persia, and crushed Athens. The Athenian empire was given up and the defensive walls had to be taken down. In 404 BC, Sparta changed Greece into an oligarchy, but this only lasted one year.

There was so much disorder between power, that Macedonia was able to take control over Athens and they are in a different side of Greece. King PhilipII lead his army across the Attic peninsula and widened his power into central Greece. He was murdered in 336 BC, and his son AlexanderIII took his place. Under his rule, Macedonia grew an empire larger then the Roman empire. He gained control over Asia Minor by invading anything that was left of Persia. He was known as Alexander the Great, but he died at the age of 33 from a fever. This marked the end of the Classical age.

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