How Did Athens Change Over Time

Athens was a historical city-state that had deeply affected the face of the future-forming Hellenism from within the walls of its own culture. Athens’ location affects its people a slight bit, but the superiority complex of its people and warriors drove parts of Greece to fight itself into uncertainty. It is the closest city-state to the Persian Empire(62), close to the Mediterranean Sea(62), and had a naturally mountainous landscape surrounding the two walls protecting the city (58). The people of Athens, specifically those in battle, were boisterous and proud of their city-state, so much so that it seemed to be its downfall. Even Pericles, a highly spoken Athenian politician, spoke with pride for its city-state, no matter the circumstances,

The period from the formation of the league in 478BC to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 431BC is referred to by Thucydides as the pentecontaetia and is the period in which Athens moved changed the league from a democratic coalition, to an Athenian hegemony and finally into an Athenian arche . This period has been selected as following the Peace of Callias in 449BC the last vestiges of a league of equals slowly fall away and by the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 431BC the league ceases to exist, and is now the Athenian Empire, with its formal dissolution in 404BC. The argument of this essay is whether Athens actions during the pentecontaetia against her ‘allies’ in the league such as attacking members who wished to leave the league, forcefully establishing democracies in allied cities, setting up cleruchies and Athenian colonies in allied or occupied land and finally using league funds for purposes other than the intended war on Persia can be justified as fair and just in deference to the leagues aims and objections, or whether there was an unjust motive behind these actions. This we will be

I believe Athens being so addicted to power, now wanted to use their position in the league to ensure it never again slipped from their grasp. They intimidated the other member states and ensured military repercussions for any that dared to withdraw. The Delian league ceased to be a coalition as Athens alienated the other states as subjects instead of members. The Athenians made drastic adjustments to the leagues original mode of operation by moving all the funds closer to their land. They appeared almost inseparable from a dictator paranoid about losing

From 507 until 322 BC, the city of Athens lived under a radially democratic government. Before democracy was introduced, Athens was governed by an aristocracy of wealthy citizens. The introduction of democracy in Athens saw changes in how the government was run and allowed the people of Athens to debate and vote on the political issues of the city. However, limitations to the definition of being an Athenian citizen introduced by Pericles, meant that Periklean Athens was not as democratic as countries today, including Great Britain and Australia. Before democracy was introduced, the early government of Athens was aristocratic (Pomeroy 2004, 136).

The Athenian Golden Age was defined in this manner due to the rapid advances seen in such a short window of history. However, that window closed as rapidly as it opened. In the following two paragraphs, the Athenian Golden Age will be described, as well as one of the circumstances that caused this age to dwindle. First, what was the Athenian Golden Age?

The Delian League was formed in 478 BC due to the Ionians asking for the Athenians to take control of the Hellenic League, as a result of Spartan commander Pausanias’ harsh treatment. According to Thucydides ‘at first the Athenians were the leaders of autonomous allies who met together to make their policy in common’ , justified by the need for protection against Barbarians such as the Persians. Most ancient sources and modern scholars believe that the hegemony soon became an Athenian empire, yet the extent to which it became a deliberately harsh and exploitative regime is debatable. Our main Ancient source for the period of the Delian League is Thucydides’ History of Peloponnesian War; the lack of many other sources causing issues when trying to provide an unbiased debate.

The Athenian leadership failed to adapt their governing policies from the relatively small scale of a city-state to that of an empire, an undertaking an order of magnitude larger. Infected with corruption, petty disputes, and political in-fighting, leaders ignored true matters of state. If Athens had pursued more inclusive policies, it would not have alienated nearly all of its allies and, indeed, may have been successful in poaching Sparta’s. Athens’ strategy, while generally sound, suffered from poor

Introduction In this week, we take a step further to study the difference between Athens and Sparta. In fact, these two societies were different mainly in terms of the way in which the political system was run. In this essay, various forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states are compared.

Not only was Athens a massive empire, but it functioned on the premise of a democracy. The era that preceded the Peloponnesian War is commonly known as the golden age of Athenian culture. It was under the rule of Pericles that Athens was able to flourish in the way that it did. Athens under Pericles’ rule was a better and more thorough democratic society than modern America. Fundamentally speaking, a democracy

Each of the city-states was well protected from external aggressions until Athens who was the leader of the league employed a tyrannical reign on members of the league. In describing the scenario, Brand (n.d.) emphasized that “As the years went by, however, Athens began treating other city states in the League less as allies and more as subjects” (p. 28). In other words, Athens had a hidden agenda from the inception of the league but that did not make the Delian League less successful as its formative mission was accomplished- rebuff the Persian Empire and reclaim all Persian seized Greek states “The League's main goals were to liberate the Ionian Greeks from Persian rule and to safeguard the islands in the Aegean from further Persian aggression” (The Flow of History, n.d., para 3). All reclaimed states eventually joined the league and increased the strength of the Delian league as a formidable fighting force and prosperous

Because of this, this added more complexity in the Greek life. The most important empire that has risen around this time would be the Athenian Empire which brought more trade, colonization, more complex economy, and most of all war. The rise between the two city-states, Sparta and Athens, was due to the development of aristocratic clans that would soon replace chiefdoms. Around 508 to 478 BC, the history of Athens history towards an imperial empire was a complicated process. When the intervention from Sparta occurred, it just pushed Athens more to a democracy even further. Persia proclaimed a threat, as a result Sparta and Athens came together but in the end Sparta’s military reputation has been strengthen, while Athens lost their land and city, but for some reason appeared stronger throughout the war. They owned the sea, and their navy proved to be the best defense against the Persians. After that event, the balance of power switched towards Athens rather than Sparta since representatives of Athens and other representatives of the city states met up and created the Delian League. Sparta unfortunately did not want any part of this, so as a result, it just showed that Athens is the new leader of this Greek Alliance. In the beginning of this league, everything went smoothly. For example, they won a couple fights against Persia. But since they were so powerful, this became a threat to all its allies especially Sparta since they can be easily disposed out. This was when the league was seen as an Athenian Empire, they looked like bullies but imperially. A couple years later, Sparta destroyed Athens by land and sea. The most tragic event that has happened to them is that their Long Walls were demolished by Sparta. Throughout this period, play writers, sculptors, and architects has emerged, and are still known and studied today. People such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides. An

Greece’s Golden Age can be defined as a time of flourishing. There are many changes that occurred during this time that changed Athens for the better. Athens made the important decision of splitting itself from Sparta, who they constantly differed with. “It is from this split that the Athenian Empire was created” (Hunt 80). This split illustrates the certainty that the Athenians possessed in terms of creating a better nation. Athens developed an empire because democracy was expensive. In order for democracy to be created, you need an empire to raise money. The Athenian empire was well-known for its excellent trading along with the arts and sciences that developed during this time. When trade flourished, the polis grew which created

From these conflicts rose many different forms of new government. Sparta would become dominated by a prevailing military regime; while Athens would become a more moderate aristocratic government, one that would eventually be replaced by Cleisthenes’ form of democracy.

Although the Delian League was successful in holding off the Persian invasions, Athens had taken advantage of their naval military might. To this extent, the formation of the Delian League was unsuccessful. The members of the Delian League grew tired of Athens’ abusive power, which eventually led to the Peloponnesian War led by Sparta against Athens. The eventual result of the war devastated and humbled Athens (Brand, n.d., pp. 28).

The last Olympic swimmer just touched the wall and the race has ended. Cameras are replaying every single movement from the race and a winner has been clearly decided. Just as these Olympic swimmers will gain a medal for placing, ancient Athens had numerous accomplishments of its own. Athens “prosperity … was due in large part to its stable and effective government” (SOURCE 1). When analyzing the history of ancient Athens, is easy to see how the accomplishments of a democracy, Greek philosophy, and Greek literature all shape Athens.