their father, were patrons of the arts, but this was not enough
to protect them from popular ill will, and Hipparchus was
murdered by Harmodius and Aristogiton in 514 b.c.e. Th ese
men were forever aft er hailed as the “tyrannicides,” and the
Athenians drove Hippias into exile in 510 b.c.e.
When the tyranny at Athens ended, the Athenians ad-
opted a new constitution that instituted a radical democracy.
At this same period the tyrannies in the Greek cities of Asia
Minor came to an end due to the conquest of that territory
by the Persians. Th e Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great (r.
558–ca. 529 b.c.e.), established friendly puppet governments
in these cities and soon came into confl ict with the Greeks
of Europe. Th ere followed the so-called Persian Wars, which
provided the occasion for Herodotus’s great work of history,
the fi rst in the European tradition, and the fi rst signifi cant
test of the democracy at Athens, the city that found itself
playing a central role in defending the Greek world from Per-
sian ambitions.
THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C.E.
Against all reasonable expectation, the Greek cities that
joined Athens and Sparta in resisting Persia were successful
in defeating fi rst the armies of Cyrus and then the massive
invasion of his grandson, Xerxes (r. 486–465 b.c.e.). By 479
b.c.e. the Greeks had beaten the Persian fl eet at Salamis, de-
feated the Persian army at Plataea, and chased down and de-
stroyed the retreating forces at Mycale.
Aft er the defeat of Persia, an alliance of Greek cities, in-
cluding many of those on the islands of the Aegean Sea, came
together for mutual defense against future Persian threats.
Initially the Spartans, the preeminent military force of the
day, led this coalition. But the Spartans proved to be over-
bearing, and Athens gradually took over leadership of this
league, which came to be known as the Delian League, be-
cause its treasury was on the island of Delos.
Athens’ power was based on its naval fl eet, as Sparta’s
was based on its infantry. In 482 b.c.e., just before Xerxes in-
vaded Europe with his army, the Athenians had discovered a
rich vein of silver in their territory, at Laurium. Th eir initial
plan was to distribute this wealth among the citizens, but a
certain Th emistocles (ca. 524–ca. 460 b.c.e.) persuaded his
countrymen to use this treasure to build up the navy. When
the Persians invaded Greece and entered and sacked Athens,
the Athenians were able to evacuate to the island of Salamis,
thanks to their fl eet, and then to defeat the Persians at sea.
With his advice thus vindicated, Th emistocles assumed a po-
sition of prominence—not by virtue of any particular offi ce,
but merely by force of character and persuasion. Aft er the
Persian Wars, he planned a series of walls around the city of
Athens that connected the city to its harbor. Athens was thus
safe from invasion and could use its fl eet to wage war and
provide food from abroad in time of war.
Aft er Athens assumed leadership of the Delian League,
the Athenians gradually turned this confederacy into an em-
pire, with themselves at its head. Th ey persuaded the member
states to cease providing ships for the common defense and
simply to provide funds, which the Athenians would use to
build up their own navy, ostensibly to protect all the Greeks
against Persia. By the fi rst third of the fi ft h century b.c.e. this
“league” had become an archē, an “empire,” and the “dues”
for the common good had become tribute paid to Athens. In
454 b.c.e. the treasury of the league was moved from Delos
to Athens, ending all pretence, and in 440 b.c.e., when the is-
land of Sámos tried to excuse itself from the league, the Athe-
nians sent military forces to enforce their rule.
Th e rise of Athenian power alarmed the rest of the
Greeks, and particularly Sparta, which began collecting al-
lies to oppose Athens. In 431 b.c.e. war broke out between
Athens and its allies and between Sparta and its allies. Th is
war, called by the Athenians the Peloponnesian War because
Sparta was in the Peloponnese, is the subject of the historical
account by Th ucydides. Th e war lasted 25 years, though there
were a few periods of truce.
Th e most prominent Athenian at the outbreak of the war
was Pericles (ca. 495–429 b.c.e.), who was a descendant of
the aristocratic Alcmaeonidae, who had ruled Athens before
the time of Solon and prevented Cylon from becoming ty-
rant. Like Th emistocles, Pericles’ prominence had less to do
with any particular political offi ce than with his qualities as a
leader, but his aristocratic lineage, even in Athens of the radi-
cal democracy, almost certainly added to his authority.
Pericles was most active in persuading the Athenians
to rebuild the temples on the Acropolis, a building program
that resulted in the monumental architecture visible there to-
day—the Parthenon, the Propylaea, and the Erechtheum. He
was also a staunch advocate for war with Sparta. Th e Spar-
tans knew this, and in public debates among the ambassadors
from cities of Greece, Spartans and their allies made frequent
references to “the accursed” leader of the Athenians. Th is was
a reference to Pericles’ aristocratic lineage and his Alcmaeo-
nid ancestors who had killed Cylon aft er the would-be tyrant
had taken refuge in a temple. War between Sparta and Athens
came, to the satisfaction of Pericles, but in its second year he
died of the plague that devastated the urban population of the
city. According to the historian Th ucydides, the Athenians
who assumed leadership aft er his death were not aristocrats
but demagogues, rising to power through championing the
people and playing on their prejudices, and the city’s policies
suff ered for it.
By the end of the century the Athenians had squandered
many of their advantages, having launched a disastrous ex-
pedition against Sicily in 413 b.c.e. and experienced a short-
lived oligarchic coup d’état in 411 b.c.e. Th e Spartans, in
the meantime, had begun receiving monetary and military
support from Persia. Th e Spartans fi nally ambushed and de-
stroyed the Athenian fl eet at Aegospotami in 405 b.c.e. Aft er
a prolonged siege, the Athenians surrendered. Th e Spartans
dismantled the Athenian empire, nullifi ed the democratic
constitution of Athens, and instituted an oligarchy of 30 rul-
ers, chosen from the Athenians friendly toward Sparta.empires and dynasties: Greece 411