The Athenian Empire and The Age of Pericles (Golden Age)

The Development of the Athenian Empire

After the Greeks defeated the Persians, Athens gained control over the entire Greek World. Athenians formed a protective alliance against the Persians dubbed the Delian League. The league's headquarters were on the island of Delos, however the chief officials were all Athenian. Under Athenian leadership, the Delian League led an attack against Persia, and all city-states in the Aegean that were under Persian control were liberated. In 454 BC, Athens moved the league's headquarters to Athens, thus creating an empire. Under Pericles, a dominant figure in Athenian politics from 461 BC and 429 BC Athenians were able to both expand the empire and flourish at home. This period in Greek History was dubbed the Age of Pericles and was considered the Golden Age of Athens, as this was the height of Athenian power and brilliance. 

The Age of Pericles- Government/Laws

Pericles created a direct democracy which allowed all Athenian citizens to participate in their government. Before, many Athenians were not citizens, as only powerful officials spoke at assemblies and made laws. Pericles, however, gave all Athenian men the right to participate in their government. The inclusion of the lower class allowed for poor people to participate in their government and public affairs.

   Numerous city officials ran the government on a daily basis. Ten officials or generals directed policy and were consistently reelected. Thus, individual leaders were able to play a crucial political role. Furthermore, the Athenians developed the concept of ostracism, which was defined as the temporary banning of overly ambitious politicians  deemed harmful to society. In order for one to be ostracized, 6,000 assembly members must write to their name on a pottery fragment called ostrakon. 

Under Pericles' leadership, Athens became the center of Greece. Due to the destruction caused by the Persian Wars, Pericles began a massive rebuilding program in which numerous new temples (including the Parthenon) and statues were built to signify the greatness of Rome. Art and architecture flourished, and Athens became known as the "school of Greece". 

Daily Life in Classical Athens

By the 5th century BC, Athens had the largest population of the Greek city-states. Before the plague in 430 BC, Athens  and its surrounding area had a population of 300,000. About 43,000 of the population consisted of adult males with political rights. Adult male foreigners living in Athens made up about 10,000 of the population. They received the protection of the law and were subject to some of the responsibilities of citizens, such as military service. There were about 100,000 slaves in Athens. With the exception of the impoverished, the majority of the population owned slaves. Most slaves worked in fields or in the house as cooks or maids. Some slaves were owned by the city-state and worked on public construction projects.

Economy

The Athenian economy flourished on trade and farming. Athenians grew grains, vegetables, and fruit for local use. They cultivated olive trees and grapes for wine and olive oil which were used for both local use and export. Athenians raised sheep and goats for wool, milk, and dairy products. Due to Athens' high population and lack of fertile land, Athens had to import 50 to 80 percent of its grains, a vital component of the Athenian diet. Hence, trade played an extremely important role in Athenian economy. The construction of a port near Piraeus helped Athens become the leading trade center of the 5th century BC Greek world. 

Society/Roles of Women

One of the most important institutions of Classical Greek society was family. A typical Greek family consisted of a husband, wife, and children. However, dependent family members and even slaves were sometimes regarded as family as well. A family's primary function was to produce new citizens by having offspring. 

Women were considered citizens of Greece, however they were only allowed to partake in religious ceremonies and were otherwise excluded from public life. Women were not allowed to leave the home and were required to spend the day in special quarters, unless attending a festival or funeral. Women were only allowed to leave the house with a companion. 

An Athenian woman's primary expectations were to be a good, faithful wife, bear children, and do housework. It was preferred that a woman bear a male heir in order to preserve the family line. A woman was also allowed to have slaves do the housework, however she was in charge of supervising them.

Women weren't allowed to own property aside from personal items and always had a guardian. If they were unmarried, their guardian was their father, if married, it was their husband, and if widowed, it was their son or male relative. Women were often married at the mere age of 14 or 15, thus they were required to learn how to take care of the house at a young age. Their mothers taught them how to run the home and spin and weave cloth. Although most girls learned how to read and play instruments, they did not have any formal education. They did not work outside the home unless they were poor, and if so, women only worked unskilled jobs. 

Greek Philosophers

The Great Peloponnesian War

After the Persians were defeated, the Greeks were divided into two main factions: The Athenian Empire (Athens and the Delian league which it controlled) and Sparta and its allies (the Peloponnesian league). Sparta and Athens never saw eye to eye, and were unable to accept their different systems. The Spartans and their allies feared the Athenian Empire's growing power which caused a series of disputes that eventually led to war in 431 BC. 

At the commencement of the war, both sides believed they had winning strategies. The Athenians opted to stay behind the walls, and get supplies from their colonies and navy. The Spartans and their allies, however, surrounded the Athenian walls, hoping that Athens would sent out troops to fight beyond their walls. Pericles knew that Athens would lose in open combat, as Athens had a stronger navy, whereas Sparta had a stronger army. Pericles believed that Athenians were secure behind their walls, hence they stayed put.

In the first winter of the war, Athenians hosted a funeral for all those who died in combat. Pericles praised Athens' political system and spoke of the city-state's greatness. In the second year of the war, however, a plague broke out due to overpopulation and killed more than a third of the people. Pericles himself died the following year in 429 BC. 

The Athenians were on the verge of losing the war in 405 BC when their fleet was destroyed in Aegospotami on the Hellespont. Within the next year, Athens surrendered, and its walls were destroyed, navy disbanded, and the empire was torn apart along with the classic Greek culture that thrived with it. The war weakened the major Greek states and made cooperation between them virtually impossible. For the next 67 years, Athens, Sparta, and Thebes (a new power) engaged in petty wars, ignoring the growing power of Macedonia to the north, thus resulting in Greece's downfall/