Ancient Greek Historians

Greek History
What influenced the Ancient Greek writers?

• History for the Ancient Greeks started with the Illiad (Homer's great epic poem)
• The poem, which was finally put to paper in the 7th century BC was the pinnacle for later works to come from Greek and Roman writers

What themes underlie the Ancient Greek writings?

• Many of the literary elements found in the Illiad are found in varying degrees in the narratives of Herodotus
• The history written during the Greek and Roman periods never lost its association with war and politics
• It was never really associated with the role of women or the social and economical issues

What was the role of the Ancient Greek writers?

• The Greek historians saw their role not as simple narration, but as offering comments and reflecting on the nature of the world - providing moral lessons
• Their works were meant to be entertaining, with exciting plots
• Its origin were based on epic poetry and in the descriptions of men and gods

Thucydides

• An Athenian aristocrat who witnessed the Peloponnesian War first hand
• He was elected in 424 BC as one of the ten Athenian commanders
• He was sent into exile for failing to defeat the Spartan attack at Amphipolis (Thrace)
• Although he kept in line with the writing of the period, in recording the war he was recalling the work of his predecessors, Herodotus and Homer

What were the methodologies used by Thucydides?

• He maintained that the work of his predecessors were exaggerated and lacking evidential weight (cough cough Homer cough), as well as more focused on being entertaining rather than truthful (cough cough Herodotus cough)
• He emphasised the importance of
• Sifting through examined evidence
• Potential conflict between the attractions of entertainment, telling a good story and the rigours of truthful reporting, even in the context of literary rivalries

"In investigating past history, it must be admitted that one cannot rely on every detail which has come down to us by way of tradition. People are inclined to accept all sorts of stories from ancient times in an un-critical way...most people in fact are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear, and will not take the trouble to find out the truth"

Thucydides on his own work

"with regard to my factual reporting of events I have made it a principle not to write down the first story that has come my way, and not even to be guided by my own impressions; either I was present myself at the events I describe or else I heard them from eye-witnesses whose reports I have checked as thoroughly as possible. Not that the truth was easy to find: different eye-witnesses give different accounts of the same event, speaking out of partiality of one side or from imperfect memories. And it may well be that my history will seem less easy to read because of the absence of a romantic element to my work. It will be enough for me, however, if these words of mine are judged to be useful by those who want to judge accurately the events of the past. My work is not a piece to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last forever"

• He attempted to set his own work aside from that of his predecessors, maintaining that the war he records was far greater and more destructive than any other war previously recorded
• He claims that his work is very accurate
• He limits himself to events at which he was present, or could find an eyewitness for
• Noted the contradictory tendency of eyewitnesses, whether it be due to memory or bias
• The main significance surrounding Thucydides was that for the first time he gave explicit expression not only to the problem of sources, but also to a methodology of analysing and judging their reliability

Xenophon

• An Athenian who was born a generation later than Thucydides, and was a pupil of Socrates
• He personally experienced the political turmoil of coup and counter-coup that gripped Athens after its fall to Sparta in 404 BC
• He enlisted as a mercenary into the army of Cyrus III (the Persian King) in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War and after his defeat marched the Greek soldiers to the coast of the Black sea
• He did not return to his homeland but rather took up a position with the Spartan Army where he became an admirer of King Agesilaos. He was banished for this act of treason against Athens but towards the end of his life was granted reconciliation from his native country

What is the basis of his work?

• Xenophon's Hellenika picks up from where Thucydides' Peloponnesian War ends in 411 BC
• Book 1 completes the story down to the surrender of Athens and Samos and the knocking down of the long walls in 404 BC
• Book 2 is the longer section of the text which narrates the fortunes of Athens and Sparta in the decades after the war ending with the Battle of Mantineia

Links between Xenophon and Thucydides

• Xenophon's work owes much to the work of his predecessor:
• Subject matter - War and Politics
• Focus - confined to the Greek world particularly Athens and Sparta
• Thucydidean system of dating - summer and winter
• Speeches
• Detached objectivity - sources are hardly mentioned or discussed; personal involvement in the events described are played down

Plutarch

• A philosopher above all with a strong interest in history which he considered in biographical terms
• His key work is his Parallel Lives and what is central to his work is the exploration of character
• His work is remarkable for its focus on the person of the individual subject and for its concern with issues of character and personal morality

Aristophanes

• The comic playwright of the fifth (and late fourth) century BC is very useful for Athenian political life and also the impact of warfare on it
• Aristophanes was a Greek comic writer, who was the son of Philippus
• Most of his plays were political satires highlighting the troubles in Athens during that period. Many of them were performed at festivals, watched and voted for by the people
• His first surviving work is The Archanians (425 BC). Athens at this time was demoralised because of the Peloponnesian War and the death of Pericles six years earlier. The play highlights the problems the people of Attica were having with constant raids on their land and continual enemy invasions

Other works:

• His second surviving play is The Knights (424 BC). In the play, Aristophanes pokes fun at the Athenian leader of the time Cleon, for his tyrannical leadership and also for his alcoholic tendencies. Because of the sharp attack on Cleon, Aristophanes had to play the part of Cleon himself. The play gained Aristophanes first place at the festival
• Aristophanes' next play was not for another seven years and in that time a law had been passed attempting to keep in check political satire. Aristophanes' next surviving play was The Birds (414 BC) and poked fun at Athens for its fondness of litigation. In 411 BC Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata, which is another anti-war play and shows the plight of women trying to bring about peace in an attempt to stop losing their sons to the war

Pentecontaetia

Pentecontaetia = the 50 years of peace between the Persian war and the Peloponnesian war

Herodotus

• Herodotus is a major source of the ancient world. Without him, we would know very little of ancient Greece. However, we don't actually know a great deal about him.
• He was born in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor (a Greek city that was under the control of the Persians at that time), probably in the 480s.
• He researched and wrote his work in the third quarter of the fifth century, which was several decades after the events he wrote about took place
• He seems to have lived in Athens for at least a part of his life
• He uses a variety of research methods and made use of many different sources (including oral, literary, archaeological and epigraphic) - although scholars agree that most of his sources were oral
• The majority of Herodotus' research seems to have consisted of conversations with people who were present at the major events Herodotus writes of (as well as descendants and those who knew them) - it is important to reflect on how much the stories would have already changed before Herodotus heard them and immortalised them. We must also recognise the fact that many of these sources would have likely been biased
• He is often thought to be overly hostile to the Corinthians and Thebans, who were both enemies of Athens at the time that Herodotus was writing
• Herodotus questions the reliability of his own sources. He once wrote "My business is to record what people say, but I am by no means bound to believe it and that may be taken to apply to this book as a whole"
• There are also many occasions where he reports contradicting versions of the same event.
• Although this is the case, archaeological evidence has proved Herodotus to be at least somewhat accurate in his narrative - and our understanding of what constitutes history has evolved a lot. It is impossible to produce an entirely accurate account of the ancient past, and so all historical reporting must by definition give an imperfect, subjective and limited account of past events

Herodotus Assessment of the Athenian Contributions to the War

Herodotus Assessment	Is this true based on our understanding of the Persian wars?
“However many lines of fortification the Spartans had built across the Isthmus, they would have been deserted by their confederates”	Themistocles' main concern before Salamis was that if allowed to retreat to Isthmus the allies would defect and go back to defend their home cities Before Plataea the Athenians threatened to abandon the Greek alliance - the Spartans were celebrating Hyacinthia
“Thus the Spartans would have been left alone – to perform great deeds and to die nobly. Or, on the other hand, it is possible that before things came to the ultimate test, the sight of the rest of Greece submitting to Persia might have driven them to make terms with Xerxes”	The Spartans never surrendered and would never have made terms with Xerxes under any circumstances - their law would have prevented them They would have fought to the death
“I cannot myself see what possible use there could have been in fortifying the Isthmus, if the Persians had command of the sea. In view of this, therefore, one is surely right in saying that Greece was saved by the Athenians”	The Persians could easily attack the Greeks via sea and so the Athenians were indisposable, due to their large navy
“It was the Athenians too, who, having chosen that Greece should live and preserve her freedom, roused to battle the other Greek states which had not yet submitted. It was the Athenians who – after the gods – drove back the Persian king”	The Spartans at Thermopylae raised/inspired the other Greeks to continue fighting The Spartans were given leadership over the other Greeks The majority of victories were directed by Sparta (Thermopylae, Plataea, Mycale) The Spartan army was relatively small, with no fleet. There were 5,000 Spartans at Plataea,. which was half of their population
“Not even the terrifying warnings of the oracle at Delphi could persuade them to abandon Greece; they stood firm and had the courage to meet the invader”	They wouldn't leave the oracle at Delphi until she gave them a second prophecy, which shows resilience Both suggested the destruction of Athens, but the Athenians clung to the hope that they could trust in their "wooden walls"

Mycale

Naval Movements After Salamis:

• The Greek fleet chased the Persian fleet as far as Euboea but then turned around to dock and winter the ships in the winter of 480 BC
• This allowed Xerxes to escape back across the Hellespont and the Persian fleet to sail to Samos
• In 479 BC, whilst the Greek army led by Pausanias marched to meet the Persians at Plataea, the Greek fleet under the command of the Spartan King Leotychidas sailed to Samos. The Samians had promised to revolt if given assistance by the other Greeks
• The Persians, not wishing to risk their already damaged fleet in another naval battle, retreated to the bay off Mt Mycale, not imagining the Greeks would sail that for inland

The Battle

• The Greek fleet followed the Persians into the bay
• They docked their ships nearby and moved inland on foot
• The Spartans commanded the left wing, the hillier land closer to the mountain
• The Athenians commanded the right wing, in the more open land closer to the sea
• The Persians attempted to defend their military encampment from the Athenians, but once they saw the Spartans encircling on the left, they retreated back through the mountain passes
• The Milesians, who had been tasked with defending the pass, switched sides at this stage
• Persian losses were great and the surviving army was forced to retreat as far back as Sardis
• The Spartans and Athenians sailed back to Samos and decided upon the next course of action with regards to the liberated Ionians

Herodotus 9.98 - 106

What is revealed about the relationship between the Persians and Ionians at this stage of the war?

• It is shown to be a distrustful relationship
• The Persians take away the Samians' armour
• The Persians did not trust the Samians because they had set free Athenian captives earlier on in the war
• The Persians also send the Milesians to guard the mountain passes as they feared that they would defect in battle
• The Spartan king Leutychides made a proclamation to the Ionians, encouraging them to join with them against the Persians
• "The purpose of this act (was that) either the message would be unknown to the barbarians and  would prevail with the Ionians, or if it were thereafter reported to the barbarians, it would cause them to mistrust their Greek allies"

What plan do the Spartans propose to help the Ionians? Why do you think they suggest this strategy?

• "they debated it in council over the removal of all Greeks from Ionia"
• "for it seemed impossible to stand on guard between the Ionians and their enemies forever"
• It would be easier to protect the Ionians this way because in Asia Minor they were too far away to help easily
• Spartans hate to travel

What do the Athenians do instead? Why do you think that they "resisted vehemently" the Spartan proposal?

• "The Athenians disliked the whole plan of removing the Greeks from Ionia, or allowing the Peloponnesians to determine the lot of Athenian colonies" - the Athenians did not want to be told what to do
• They bound their allies by pledge (Samians, Chians, Lesbians and all other islanders who served with their force) to remain faithful and not desert their allies

What more can we learn about the Greek alliance?

• It is not a true alliance - there are tensions between different Greek states

Peloponnesians and Spartans = Dorians

Athenians and the rest = Ionians

The Battle of Plataea: 479BC

Preliminaries:

• Over the winter months the Peloponnesians finally completed their fortification of the Isthmus of Corinth
• This was a series of fortifications offering protection against a land assault into the Peloponnese
• With the reassurance from this protection, the Peloponnesian armies (headed by 5,000 Spartan hoplites) marched out towards Boeotia to fight the Persians

The Serpent Column:

• The Serpent Column is a victory monument that was erected by the Greeks after Plataea
• According to Herodotus, it was made out of the melted weapons of the Persian soldiers
• It consists of a base made of bronze woven into three entwined snakes, and a golden cauldron that sat on top
• It was placed in the sanctuary at Delphi, where the oracles for the war had been uttered
• The cauldron was stolen during ancient times and the bronze base was moved to Constantinople (Istanbul) by the Emperor Constantine, where it still stands today

Belligerents:

Greek:

• 110,000 (Herodotus)
• 80,000 (Modern estimation)
• Commander: Pausanias - Spartan regent for the young king Pleistarchus, Leonidas' son

Persian:

• 300,000 (Herodotus)
• 80-120,000 (Modern estimates)
• Commander: Mardonius - same as before, now sole commander with Xerxes' retreat to Persia

The Battlefield

• A large, open plain that was ideal for massive military operations and cavalry manoeuvres
• Largely flat land, broken up by a series of small streams and rivers
• Mardonius and the Persians in the north at the river Asopus
• Greeks in the foothills near the city of Plataea to the south

Logistical Mistakes

• For days a stalemate ensued, with both sides trying to position their forces in a way that would best suit their fighting style. Neither side received favourable omens that would convince them to fight
• Mardonius was anxious at the sight of new reinforcements reaching the Greek camp every day, whilst Pausanias was anxious that his forces were too exposed in the great plain
• In the night, Alexander of Macedon secretly entered the Greek camp, wishing to speak to the commanders. There he told the Greeks of Mardonius' worries and his plan to attack to try to force the Greeks into fighting
• Pausanias became terrified at this news, and ordered the Greeks to retreat back to the foothills near Plataea in the cover of darkness
• However, the communication lines failed in the darkness, and by the morning the Greek forces were separated by divisions across the plain
• Mardonius, seeing this error, ordered a full assault and the battle begun...

The Battle: Activity

• On the left wing the Athenians, Plataeans and Megarians fought the Medized Greeks, in the centre the Peloponnesians battled with the Persian allies, whilst on the left wing the Spartans and the Tegeans fought the Persian cavalry and the elite Persian infantry

Herodotus 9.40, 61-64, 71

What reasons are given for the Greek victory

• "the Persians were neither less valorous nor weaker, but they had no armour; moreover, since they were unskilled and no match for their adversaries in craft, they would rush out singly and it tens or in groups great or small, hurling themselves on the Spartans, and so perishing"
• "When Mardonius was killed and his guards...had also fallen, then the rest too yielded"
• "What harmed them the most was the fact that they wore no armour over their clothes and fought, as it were, naked against men fully armed"
• Basically...
• Greeks were heavily armoured
• When Mardonius and the Immortals died, the Persians lost heart
• The Persians were unskilled against the Spartans
• The Persians threw away their bows to fight the Spartans head on
• The Persians rushed out singly or in small groups and so died of the Spartan phalanx

What does Herodotus imply were the outcomes of the battle?

• "the most glorious of victories of all which we know, won by Pausanias"
• Basically...
• The Spartans gained their revenge for Leonidas
• The Spartans earned all of the credit
• The Spartans were given the prize of valour because they fought the best of the Persians and killed Mardonius and the Immortals

Why was Aristodemus not considered the most valiant soldier at Plataea?

• He was the only survivor of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae - he was harshly judged because of this (due to the Spartan law of no retreat)
• Aristodemus wanted to prove his courage and so charged out of the formation and rushed the Persians
• Because the Spartans had treated him so horribly, and because they believed that he rushed out of formation with the intention of dying, they refused to honour him, due to recklessness
• Herodotus suggests that the Spartans may have been jealous

Winter 480 BC: Preliminaries to Plataea

Results of Salamis: Military

• The Persian fleet withdraws
• The fleet sailed for Asia without delay and made its headquarters at Samos, Xerxes feared another revolt from the Ionians
• Xerxes returns to Asia, Athens is reoccupied 
• Xerxes was escorted to the Hellespont with 60,000 Persian soldiers, who then besieged Olynthus and Potidaea, who both revolted following Salamis, Athens was reoccupied
• Mardonius remains
• Mardonius was put in command of the land forces, and moved north to winter in Thessaly until the campaigning season next year
• Turning point in the war
• It ended the Persian strategy of a combined naval and military invasion, the next battle would be fought on land

Athenian Credit?

• The Athenians had ultimately provided the most ships for the battle, the Athenian historian Thucydides saw this battle as the one that saved the Peloponnese as:

• "it prevented the Persians from sailing against the Peloponnese and destroying the cities one-by-one for no system of mutual defence could be organised in the face of Persian naval superiority... the fate of Hellas depended on her navy"

•  However, the credit that the Athenians were due was not fully given
• The Greeks made dedications to the gods, but awarded the prize of valour in the battle to the Aeginitans. The Athenians came second
• Themistocles according to Herodotus "his name was on everyone's lips and he acquired the reputation of being by far the most able man in the country"
• Themistocles was honoured in Sparta for his successes, but generally the Greeks were unfavourable - Themistocles should have won the individual prize for valour but was the subject of envy and so was never awarded it

Mardonius' new strategy: diplomacy:

• Whilst in Thessaly during the winter, Mardonius adopted a new approach to winning the war - to detach Athens from the Greek league
• Mardonius realised that unified the Greeks were a formidable force, but separated, they would be easy pickings for the Persians
• The Athenian fleet would also substitute for the loss of the Persian fleet
• Alexander, the king of Macedonia, was sent as the arbitrator of a peace offering from the Persians to the Athenians
• Meanwhile gold was sent to Sparta's enemies in the Peloponnese, most notably Argos, to try and undermine Sparta's resistance

Mardonius' Message: Activity

• Mardonius promised to Athens that, if they joined with the Persians, Athens would be promised autonomy and freedom, and would be given any land desired and help rebuilding the temples. He said that if they did not make peace, the city would once again be occupied and devastated
• The Spartans, upon hearing of this message, sent delegations of their own to Athens to urge the Athenians to reconsider any proposals and remain loyal to the Greek cause

What reasons do the Athenians give to Alexander as to why they will reject Mardonius' offer?

• The Athenians made it clear that they weren't to be bribed or intimidated by Persia
• "So long as the sun holds its course we will never make peace with Persia"
• "We will fight...trusting in the aid of the gods and the heroes whom he has disregarded and burnt their houses and adornments"
• "We do not want those who are our friends and protectors to suffer any harm at Athenian hands"
• The Greeks wouldn't abandon their kinship and countrymen

What reasons do the Athenians give to the Spartans as to why they will reject Mardonius' offer?

• "It was most human" (the Spartan fear that the Athenians would medize)
• "We think that it is an ignoble thing to be afraid" - this would have been very passive aggressive and backhanded to the Spartans because, well, they were Spartans
• The Athenians said that they wouldn't wish for their temples to be destroyed and couldn't abandon their kinship with the other Greeks
• "As long as one Athenian is left alive, we will make no agreement with Xerxes

Athens is evacuated...again...

• After rejecting Mardonius' offer, the Athenians evacuated Athens again and retreated to Salamis, knowing the Persians would strike in the spring and recapture the city
• From here the Athenians pleaded with the Spartans and Peloponnesians to lend assistance

Herodotus 9.1-11 16-18:

What reason do the Spartans give for not lending assistance to Athens at this time? What is the significance of this?

• The Spartans do not actually give a reason for not helping the Athenians. The Ephors delayed answering the Athenian call for help for almost a fortnight. During this time the Spartans continued to build their wall across the Isthmus
• Herodotus claims that a possible explanation for why the Spartans did not immediately help when asked was that "the fortifications of the Isthmus were now complete, and they therefore felt that Athenian help was no longer necessary"

What can we learn about the Spartan/Athenian alliance?

• The alliance between the Spartans and the Athenians was insincere
• Chileus (a foreigner who had a large influence in Sparta) said to the Spartans: 
  "As I see it, gentlemen, if the Athenians desert us and make an alliance with Persia, then, however strongly the Isthmus is fortified, the gates are wide open for the Persian invasion of the Peloponnese. So you had better listen to them before they change their minds and adopt a policy which will ruin Greece."
• The fear of turning the Athenians into enemies convinced the Ephors to help and so they sent 5000 Spartans to help the Athenians
• The Athenian, who were unaware of this, came back to the Ephors and said that they would join with Xerxes if the Spartans weren't going to help - the Ephors promptly swore to them that they had in fact sent forces to help
• It seems that the Spartans only decided to help the Athenians to save themselves, as they would have suffered if they had lost the Athenians as allies

Compare how the Phocians react to assisting the Persians vs the Thebans. What do these instances suggest about their overall commitment to the "Persian cause"?

•  The Phocians were more reluctant to join the Persians than the Thebans were. They did join, "though from necessity rather than willingly"
• The Thebans and the Persians were on very good terms, some even spoke the other's language. They held a banquet for the most important Persians.
• The Phocian army only sent men to help the Persian army after this banquet. It is almost as if the Theban's relationship with the Persians convinced them