Study sheet: Greek Influence in Ancient Mediterranean

📋 Course Outline

1. Greek and Roman Mediterranean Foundations
2. Athens and Democratic Citizenship
3. Delos League and Naval Power
4. Pericles and Athenian Golden Age
5. Crisis and End of Democracy

📅 Key Dates

1. 431 to 404 BCAthens fought Sparta in the Peloponnesian War and was defeated in 404 BC, when part of the city was destroyed.
2. 404 BCSparta replaced Athenian democracy with an oligarchy.
3. 403 BCAthenian democracy was restored, but the abolition of the Delos League prevented Athens from financing it.

📖 1. Greek and Roman Mediterranean Foundations

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Cité : A territory containing a city and its surrounding countryside, governed by a public authority.
• Démocratie : A political system in which citizens hold power.
• Empire : A political system in which power is held by a single man, the emperor.

★ Must-know

• The Roman Empire was founded in 27 BC and spread its influence through military conquests, cultural exchange, and the diffusion of Christianity.

Further detail

• Athens is a city in eastern Greece whose political system is democracy, and from the 5th century BC it extended its political, military, and cultural influence over other Greek cities.

💡 Memory Hook

Athens symbolizes Greek democracy, whereas Rome symbolizes imperial power.

📖 2. Athens and Democratic Citizenship

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Citizens : Free men over 18 who were sons of citizens, regardless of their wealth.
• Magistrates : An elected citizen who exercised command functions.

★ Must-know

• In the 5th century BC, Cleisthenes reformed the Athenian political system by establishing democracy and political equality among citizens.

• Athenian citizens voted on laws in the Ecclesia, could be chosen by lot for the Boulè, could serve as jurors in the Heliaea, and could be elected as magistrates such as strategists.

📌 The Athenian democracy excluded non-citizens, including women, children, slaves, and foreigners, from political participation.

Further detail

• Athens was founded around 700 BC, but the people initially had no political role.

💡 Memory Hook

Ecclesia → Boulè → Heliaea: laws, council, justice.

📖 3. Delos League and Naval Power

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Thalassocracy : A political power based on domination of the sea.

📝 Essential Points

• Athenian hoplites defeated the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC and won the naval battle of Salamis in 480 BC.

• In 478 BC, Athens created and directed the Delos League, a military alliance whose allied Greek cities paid a tribute kept on the island of Delos to prepare for a possible Persian return.

• Athens strengthened its domination over the Delos League by transferring its treasury to the Acropolis and then establishing a commercial empire.

💡 Memory Hook

Persian invasions → Delos League → Athenian thalassocracy.

📖 4. Pericles and Athenian Golden Age

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Misthos : A payment for citizens who held a public office, allowing poorer citizens to participate in political life.

★ Must-know

• Pericles was a strategist in Athens from 443 to 429 BC and used this position to introduce numerous reforms.

📌 In 451 BC, Pericles restricted citizenship to men born to a citizen father and a mother who was a citizen’s daughter, reducing the number of citizens from 40,000 to 22,000.

• Pericles undertook the construction of temples dedicated to Athena on the Acropolis, enabling Athens to radiate its influence across the Mediterranean.

Further detail

• Pericles rebuilt the city and completed its fortifications, strengthening Athens militarily.

💡 Memory Hook

The misthos broadens political participation, whereas the citizenship law restricts it.

📖 5. Crisis and End of Democracy

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Oligarchy : A political system in which a small group, composed of the wealthiest people, holds power.

📝 Essential Points

• 🔄 The end of Athenian democracy followed this sequence:
  1. Macedon threatened the independence of the Greek city-states
  2. the Greeks were defeated by the Macedonians
  3. Athenian democracy was permanently abolished in 322 BC

💡 Memory Hook

Peloponnesian War → oligarchy → restoration → Macedonian conquest.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Political Regimes

Regime	Who holds power	Athens example
Democracy	Citizens	Athenian political system
Oligarchy	A small group of wealthy people	Regime imposed by Sparta in 404 BC
Empire	A single man, the emperor	Roman Empire