athens circa 700-500 BC Flashcards
(26 cards)
What was the region where Athens was located?
Attica, 1,000 square miles
When did Athens emerge?
The unification of Attica around Athens occurred sometime in 820-750 BC
What mythical figure is ascribed to Attica’s unification?
King Theseus
Resources of Attica
One fertile plain outside town Eleusis (for grapes, olives, grain etc)
Elsewhere, the soil was too thin so it couldn’t grow enough grain for its large population of Athens (economic problem)
- So, grain was purchased and imported overseas after developing the economic footing and seaborne trade network
BUT soil supported growing of olives and grapes
AND soil also supported clay for manufacturing pottery and other ceramics
[by 500s BC Athenian pottery would be famous enough to displace Corinth from interational market]
Timber for construction from four Athenian mountains
Mt Pencilus offered fine marble for sculpture and construction
How was Athens economic footing developed?
Through the export economy
by 500s BC Athens was exporting olive oil, perfume, wines, pottery and metal work..
sold for grain
What was Athens major import item?
Grain
Why did Athens need to import grain? What were the consequences of this?
by mid 400s BC, the population was too big at 100,000 citizens and 100,000 slaves
So, import of grain was needed for the feeding of the population
As a result;
- Export economy was created
- Circa 594 BC Solon, it was illegal for any Athenian farmer to export grain outside of Attica
- Motivated Athens in its piratical and imperialistic designs on Hellespont sea channel (Sigeum) to increase grain imports
Athena
Created the first olive tree for Athens
What was Attica’s most dramatic natural resource?
Silver mine at Mt Laurium
Revenue helped boost Athens to greatness in the mid 500s to early 400s BC
For example circa 482 BC it financed the emergency construction of an enlarged Athenian navy while Greece was being invaded by Persia
Athens in the 600s BC
Government by Aristokratia
Enemies: Megara and Mytilene on Lesbos
Future trade rivals: Corinth and Aegina
Sparta didnt become an enemy until mid 400s BC
Attic countryside had a peasant revolt brewing due to oppressive economics under aristokratia
Coup by would be tyrant fails circa 632 BC - but creates a climate of unrest
What was the boulē called in Athens?
Arepoagus
Named foe the Hill of Ares where the council chamber stood
‘Athen’s supreme court’
Athen’s aristocratic government
Areopagus (boulē)
Nine archōns ran day to day government
- They were elected every year from among the aristoi families
Ekklēsia (no vote of common people only aristoi)
Megara
Dorian city
Situated on the Ithmus of Corinth
Placed between Athens and Corinth
Enemy of both (even though Corinth was Dorian too)
800s-600s BC
Seagoing city with vigorous trade and colonization
- Byzantium (now Istanbul) on the Boporous channel was its colony
Early 500s BC
Decline
- Under pressure from Corinth and Athens
- Weakened by internal political strife between aristocrats and commoners
Hoplite franchise
Member of Peloponnesian League
Megara’s wars and frontier losses
Hoplite wars
Megara vs Corinth, Megara vs Athens
Loss of farmlands on southwestern and eastern borders
Inshore island of Salamis belonging to Megara was also seized by Athens circa 560 BC
What did Mytilene and Athens fight over?
Hellspont sea channel at Sigeum
Mytilene of Lesbos
Enemy of Athens
Fought over a strategic piece of real estate - the approach to the Hellespont sea channel
They fought at Sigeum, an Aeloian Greek navy base that was captured by Mytilene circa 600s BC
- Controlling other greek shipping at Hellespont
around 600s BC; Athens invaded Sigeum
Causing intermittent fighting after that
Sigeum at the Hellespont 500s BC
Intermittent fighting of Athens vs Myteline
Until 530 BC
Athens held the town as a long distance possession
Served as an Athenian naval base
Athenian fleet there controlled the westbound grain ships in the Hellespont
- Grain ships included non Athenian merchant ships, sailing southward and westward fro the Black Sea which held Greek seaports where wheat and barley is purchased and then sold in Greece
Athenian warships would interfere with the ships by compelling them to sail to Athens
- They force them to pay a toll that could be reimbursed only if gone to Athens and had the grain sold there
How long was the Hellespont owned by Athens?
next 200 years from 530 BC
When did the Athenian aristokratia start to crack? Why?
630s BC
The city is threatened with the makings of;
- tyrant revolution
-countryside peasant revolt
Who does Athens turn to to head off a possible tyrant revolution?
Solon, 594 BC
Lawgiver, aged 45
Solon
594 BC
He was appointed to be temporary constitutional dictator of Athens
Seized power legally through constitutional reform and writing of new laws
NOT illegally as tyrants would have done
Resembles Lycargus of Sparta
Insufficient to break aristoi power
Epoch making: He invented democracy
Gave everyone the right to vote in ekklēsia
Athens becomes the world’s first democracy
Was Athens ever a hoplite franchise?
No
Went from aristocracy to democracy
Two tyrants in the future - Pisistratus and Hippias
BUT they don’t impose hoplite franchise
Athens remained a democracy even under the tyrants rules
When did the two tyrants of Athens come to rule?
Pisistratus and Hippais
546-510 BC
Political reforms of Cleisthenes
After Hippais was ejected 510 BC
Father of democracy after Solon
Improved on Solon’s reforms:
1- Created ten new made up tribes in Athens
- to counter the problem of countryside farmers feeling like they ow it to their landlords to vote the way they want them to
2- Changed the council
- increase from 400 to 500 members, and made it easier for the middle class to be elected
- election by lottery
- thētes was eligible for council, but couldn’t because they weren’t paid for time lost from labor
