OCTOBER 27, 2000
Course update
Herodotus: Friday (Marathon-490 BC), Monday (Thermopylae-480 BC), Wednesday
(Salamis-479BC)
Prooimion
or "prologue"
I: History of Lydia (especially the reign of Croesus); Persia (especially
the reign of Cyrus); the rise of Persian power
II: Egyptian customs and the reign of Cambyses
III: History of Egypt; Sparta's war with Samos; death of Cambyses & reign
of Darius of Persia
IV: Darius' expedition against the Scythians
V: Persia's reduction of Thrace; Ionian revolt
VI: Persian hostilities against the Greeks; Marathon (1st Persian War)
VII: Xerxes succeeds Darius; preparation for the 2nd Persian War; Xerxes'
invasion of Greece; Thermopylae; VIII: Battle of Artemisum
VIII: Battle
of Salamis
IX: Battles of Plataea
and Mycale; end of the war
Chatroom
comments
TERMINOLOGY
FOR THE EAST-WEST CONFLICT, 499-490 BC
Review of Kleisthenes' reforms
Athens and the Peloponnesian League after Kleisthenes
- Athens on the verge
of international power, economic prosperity and cultural flowering
- Sparta still the greatest
military power; Athens' navy modest in size (20 ships in the Ionian revolt,
9000 at Marathon)
War between Athens and
Boeotia in Lelantine plain ca. 508-506; klerouchy in Boeotia by 506 (klerouchia
from kleros or "an allotment")
klerouchy on Salamis ca. 500
Persia ca. 500 BC
- Lydia
(Sardis); King Croesus ("as rich as Croesus"); Ephesus, Delphi
- Ionia (Miletus, Halicarnassus,
Ephesus)
- Medes conquer Assyrian
Empire 612; peace treaty with Lydia 585; unification of Medes and Persians
by Cyrus 550
- Cyrus' rule: sharing
of responsibility and authority; incorporation and assimilation of conquered
peoples but with local cultural autonomy, local variation. Tolerant, efficient,
with strong central leadership.
- United kingdom conquers
Lydia, Greeks, Babylonia, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine. Cyrus dies 530 BC vs.
Scythians and Queen Tomyris
- Satrapy, satrap
- Succeeded by Herodotus'
"mad" Cambyses. Behistun (Bisistun) trilingual (Elamite, Babylonian,
Persian) inscription records Cambyses usurped, commits suicide, succeeded
by Darius I.
- Darius, 521-486:
20 satrapies, tax collection
- Royal Road (official
business, safe travel, commerce)
- Persian king-subject:
master-slave, patron-client but not god-mortal. Status, hierarchy, monarchy
and subservience (Persia) vs. individual autonomy and fierce independence
(Athens, Sparta).
- Risks? loss of autonomy
& rebellion
- Ionian Revolt, 499-494
- Histiaios and Aristagoras
of Miletos (D&G 7.2-6)
- Athens and Eretria
(on Euboia)
Battle of Marathon, 490/89
(D&G 7.7-17)
Philippides (or Phidippides)
Plataia
"Remember Athens"; toothless Hippias
Kallimachos the polemarch (D&G 7.13, his "memorial")
strategoi or "generals"
Miltiades the strategos
Read D&G 7.8: Hdt. 6.111.3-117.1
Marathon
Plain
Hoplites
at Marathon
Soros
(see D&G 7.16, where Thuc. 2.34.5 notes that because the Marathon hoplites
were so valorous, they had the unusual distinction to have their tomb "on
the spot").
Death toll: 6400 of 20,000
Persians (1/3), 192 of 10,000 Greeks (2%) dead.
Medizers: Thessaly, Aegina,
Argos, Boeotia (except Plataia), most of Cyclades
Dedication at Delphi:
Plan
of Delphic Sanctuary
Delphi,
Athenian Treasury
Limestone base adjoining the front of the south
wall of the Athenian Treasury
Inscription
"The Athenians to Apollo from the Medes as first-fruits of the battle of
Marathon" (= D&G 7.14)
The Battle as depicted
on the Painted
Stoa in the Agora (Pausanias
1.15.3)
Aeschylus' epitaph (Pausanias
1.14.5) = D&G 7.10
Monday chatroom:
- Christie (Thea, Rachel,
Nick C., Geordie, Tom): does Pressfield portray Spartan society accurately,
based upon what you have learned this semester?
- Graham (Ethan, Samantha,
Adrianna, Bob, Insley): does Pressfield portray the battle of Thermopylae
accurately?
- Nick M. (Zehra, Travis,
Sara, Jon, Vittoria): for that matter, does Herodotus portray the battle of
Thermopylae accurately? In other words, are there aspects that seem too fantastic
to be real?
- Marysellis (Kristina,
Greg, Mara, Joe): why is each account - both Pressfield's and Herodotus' -
compelling? How does each succeed as a logopoios - a storyteller?
- Allison (Dusty, Peter,
Martin, Mirka, David): you are the director for Gates of Fire. Whom
would you cast in the major roles, and why? What would you change in the novel
in order to translate it to the big screen?
