1. Warring City-States
Chapter 5, Section 2

2. Section Opener
 The growth of city states in Greece lead to
the development of several political
systems, including democracy.

3. Rule and Order in Greek City-States
 By 750 B.C. the Greek city-state, or polis,
is the formal government.
 A polis is a city and its surrounding
villages; 50-500 square miles.
 Population of a city-state is often less than
10,000.
 Citizens gather in the marketplace and
acropolis—a fortified hilltop

4. Rule and Order in Greek City-States
 Greek Political Structures
 City-states have different forms of government.
 Monarchy-rule by a king
 Aristocracy-rule by nobility
 Oligarchy-rule by a small group of powerful
merchants and artisans

5. Rule and Order in Greek City-States
 Tyrants Seize Power
 Rulers and common people clash in many city-
states.
 Tyrants—nobles and wealthy citizens win
support of common people.
 They seize control and rule in the interests of
ordinary people.

6. Athens Builds a Limited Democracy
 Building Democracy
 About 621 B.C., democracy—rule by the people
—develops in Athens.
 Nobleman, Draco, develops legal code based on
equality of citizens.
 Ruler Solon abolishes debt slavery; Cleisthenes
has citizens make laws.
 Only native-born, property-owning males are
citizens.

7. Athens Builds a Limited Democracy
 Athenian Education
 Schooling only for sons of wealthy families.
 Girls learn from mothers and other female
members of the household.

8. Sparta Builds a Military State
 A Unique City State
 Sparta, isolated from much of Greece, builds a
military state.
 Sparta Dominates Messenians
 Around 725 B.C., Sparta conquers Messenia
 Messenians become helots—peasants forced to
farm the land.
 Harsh rule leads to Messenian revolt; Spartans
build a stronger state.

9. How the Spartans kept the Messenians
down! from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “Certainly, by the time he
finished the agoge
[training period], a young
man would know for sure
whether he had been
marked out for future
greatness. To the most
promising graduates was
granted the honor of one
final bloody challenge.” (p.
85)

10. How the Spartans kept the Messenians
down! from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “Enrolled into a crack squad known as the
Crypteia, they would be sent into the
mountains, armed only with a single dagger
each, and ordered to live off the land. This
period of exile from their city, however, was
much more than a mere endurance test.”

11. How the Spartans kept the Messenians
down! from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “Traveling alone, each member of the
Crypteia would inevitably cross the
Taygetos range and slip into Messenia.
There, advancing soundlessly by night, as
every graduate of the agoge had been
trained to do, they would be expected to
prove themselves as killers.”

12. How the Spartans kept the Messenians
down! from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “How else, after all, save by the careful
pruning of the most able Messenians, could
the Spartans hope to breed natural serfs?
Just as they condemned to the Apothetae
the dregs of their own city, so they aimed to
extinguish any spark of talent or rebellion in
their slaves. Only the truly servile could be
permitted to reproduce.” (p. 86)

13. Sparta Builds a Military State
 Sparta’s Government and Society
 Sparta government has four branches: citizens
elect officials
 Three social classes:
 Citizens
 Free non-citizens
 Helots--slaves

14. Sparta Builds a Military State
 Spartan Daily Life
 Spartan values: duty, strength, individuality, discipline
over freedom.
 Sparta has the most powerful army in Greece
 Males move into barracks at age 7, train until 30, serve
until 60.
 Girls receive some military training and live hard lives
 Girls are also taught to value service to Sparta above all
else

15. Role of Women in Sparta
from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “Visions of female flesh, oiled and tanned,
glistened in the imaginings of many a Sparta-
watcher. The Spartans themselves, sensitive to
the mockery that labeled their daughters ‘thigh-
flashers,’ would retort sternly, ‘that there was
nothing shameful about female nudity, nothing
immoral in the slightest.’ In fact, ‘since it
encouraged a sense of sobriety, and a passion for
physical fitness,’ precisely the opposite.”

16. Role of Women in Sparta
from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “Yet paramount though the requirements of
Sparta’s eugenic program undoubtedly were, an
aura of the erotic still clung to the training grounds
nevertheless. The fertility of a future mother was
best gauged, a Spartan might argue, by the
glowing of her skin and the perfection of her
[body]. Physical beauty—the long blond hair and
elegant ankles for which Spartan girls were
celebrated—provided the readiest measure by
which moral beauty too could be judged. An ugly
daughter, inevitably, would cause her parents
alarm and distress.” (p. 83)

17. Description of Training of Boys
from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “For it was the goal of instructors not
merely to crush a boy’s individuality, but to
push him to startling extremes of
endurance, discipline and impassivity, so
that he might prove himself, supremely, as
a being reforged of iron.” (p. 84)

18. Description of Training of Boys
from Persian Fire by Tom Holland
 “When, at the age of seven, a young
Spartan left his home to live communally
with other boys, it was more than his sense
of family that was being fractured and reset:
the very notion that he possessed a private
identity was, from that moment on, to be
placed under continuous assault.” (p. 84)

19. The Persian Wars
 A New Kind of Army Emerges
 Cheaper iron replaces bronze, making arms and
armor cheaper
 Leads to new kind of army; includes soldiers
from all classes
 Phalanx—feared by all, formation of soldiers with
spears, shields

23. The Persian Wars
 Battle of Marathon
 Persian Wars—between Greece and the Persian
Empire—begin in Ionia
 Persian Army attacks Athens, is defeated at
Marathon in 490 B.C.
 Pheidippides Brings News
 Runner Pheidippides races to Athens to
announce Greek victory.

24. The Persian Wars
 Thermopylae and Salamis
 In 480 B.C. Persians launch a new invasion of Greece.
 Greeks are divided; many stay neutral or side with
Persians.
 Greek forces hold Thermopylae for three days before
retreating.
 Athenians defeat Persians at sea, near island of Salamis.
 Victories at Salamis and Plataea force Persian retreat.
 Many city-states form Delian League and continue to fight
Persians.

25. The Persian Wars
 Consequences of the Persian Wars
 New self-confidence in Greece due to victory.
 Athens emerges as leader of Delian League.
 Athens controls the league by using force
against opponents.
 League members essentially become provinces
of Athenian empire.
 Stage is set for a dazzling burst of creativity in
Athens.