Classical Athens

Investigating Athens' Treatment of Her Allies During the period of 478-431, Athens’ treatment of her allies changed dramatically as she rose to become the leader of an empire. The establishment of the Delian League marked the beginning of a significant series of events, which lead to Athens’ rise to extreme power. From the evidence of Thucydides and the inscriptions, it is possible to track the progress of these events and the rapidly changing treatment that Athens enforced

conclusion of the Persian Wars (492-479BC) with Athens being the true victor, and before the Peloponnesian War, a period of prosperity covered Athens, and they needed to devise new ways to protect themselves and expand their wealth, and how this would affect their relations with allies. 'The Athenians and their Allies' was an organisation led by the Athenians in the 5th century, but is now referred to as the 'Delian League' or the 'Confederacy of Athens.' The official aim of the League was, according

Athens is a major Greek city-state in European history. It was a great center of cultural and intellectual development, and thus home to philosophers. Socrates and Pericles, two of these philosophers, had polarizing opinions about the city-state and its citizens. While Pericles chooses to praise the Athenian citizen, Socrates criticizes Athens’ people. Pericles gave his opinion at a funeral during the first battles of the Peloponnesian War, while Socrates gave his during the trial that ultimately

The Peloponnesian War and the Decline of Leadership in Athens Thucydides set out to narrate the events of what he believed would be a great war—one requiring great power amassed on both sides and great states to carry out. Greatness, for Thucydides, was measured most fundamentally in capital and military strength, but his history delves into almost every aspect of the war, including, quite prominently, its leaders. In Athens especially, leadership was vital to the war effort because the city’s

from prejudice and mistreatment from both Sparta and Athens; however this is overcome by the unity of the Delian league when war was Forthcoming. The Delian league’s founding members, Chios, Lesbos and Samos as well as most of the Ionian city-states in the northern Aegean and along the cost of Asia Minor. Rightfully, the states joined in an alliance in hopes to be freed of the threat of Persian domination and shared interest in trade with Athens. This free confederation (symmachia) of independent

democracy is a type of political system in which all members share the same level of power, but it is also the framework for the government of multiple countries including the United States of America. Athenian democracy, created near 400 B.C. in Athens, Greece, was a direct system where participating citizens had the opportunity to vote directly on legislative and executive bills. The founding fathers of the United States took the Athenian’s idea and created the idea of “representative democracy”

not an obtainable reality and it was beneficial that modern democracies transitioned to a system that protects individual liberty. Two of Aristotle’s most famous works, Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, offer an outline of his perfect society and how Athens could ascend to his ideals. According to Aristotle, the strive for the most good society starts with individuals and then collectively builds up to the Chief Aim through active participation in politics. He explains that an Athenian earns his freedom

type of system, known as democracy. Greece was one of the first people to have recorded the events of their democratic system. Democracy is a Greek word literally meaning the power of the people to rule. Early democracy was established in ancient Athens, a Greek city-state, and was probably the single most powerful and stable democratic government in Greece. Greek democracy has a powerful hand in influencing modern democratic practices. Greek democracy was separated into three ruling bodies, the

Pericles was born in Athens to in an aristocratic family sometime around 493BC (Lewis). His father, Xanthippus, was a military leader in the battle of Mycale in 479BC who defeated the last vestiges of Xerxes’ fleet (Halsall). Pericles’ mother was Agariste was a member of the Alcmaeonid family (Lewis). Given that he was of aristocratic birth Pericles received his education from some of the greatest minds in Greece (Lewis). He was educated musically by Damon and philosophically by Zenon of Elea and

In the ‘Frogs’ and ‘Wasps’ written by the “eminently best” comedian of the fifth century, Aristophanes, we see he utilized humour to exact the important message that Athens is corrupt, and on the verge of chaos. The Athenian audience would expect to be thrust into a world of humour in the City Dionysia, somewhere parallel to their own (e.g. the Athenian jury in the ‘Wasps’, and the failings of the government in ‘Frogs’). It is vital, then, that Aristophanes conveys his political and social views