3/21/2012

Lecture 15 The pt. 1

HIST 332 Spring 2011

Olympias, a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme sea trials in 1987, 1990, 1992 and 1994 The bronze bow ram weighed 200 kg. The ship was built from Oregon pine and Virginia oak

1 3/21/2012

Trireme as a weapon

Three banks of oars • same length – lower through ports in hull – upper through gunwale – middle through “rowing apparatus” parexeresia • 9 knots sprint; 4 knots cruising • execute 180° turn in less than a minute and no wider than 2.5 ship-lengths • Athenian contingent of triremes a Salamis: • 34,000 oarsmen – mostly Thetes (become powerful political force in ) – paid a dracma a day

Trireme specs

• Length: 37 meters (121 feet) • Beam: 5.5 meters (18 feet) • 170 (sometimes more) oarsmen needed to row – 2 rows of 31 on the top – 2 rows of 27 in the middle & bottom – Oarsmen only had about 3 feet of room • Oar length: 4.2 meters (13 feet, 8 inches) – Shorter oars were used at the ends of the ship • These oars measured around 4 meters (13 feet)

2 3/21/2012

Trireme Crew

170 oarsmen with 30 “non-sailors” and 1 captain. Oarsmen sat in 3 tiers Names were given for the 3 levels: • Thranites (top level) – The top crew, which held the most amount of oarsmen, was • located at the top of the ship • Zygites (middle level) • Thalamites (bottom level) – other two layers were within the ship’s hull. – Crews were required to undergo training in order to keep fit

Shipwrights

“The construction of a single trireme was a major undertaking: building one hundred at once was a labor fit for Heracles. Once the rich citizens who would oversee the task received their talents of silver, each had to find an experienced shipwright. No plans, drawings, models, or manuals guided the builder of a ship. A trireme, whether fast or fully decked, existed at first only as an ideal image in the mind of a master shipwright. To build his trireme, the shipwright required a wide array of raw materials”

3 3/21/2012

The Trireme

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWlgxhU H3JQ

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Dd5v_ NHCs&playnext=1&list=PLFE7DA3B248C5D17 D

The “Long Walls” of Athens

Peloponnesian War (431-21)

4 3/21/2012

Chronology of Peloponnesian War 431-404 Peloponnesian War Phase 1: Archidamian War (431-21) – Plague hits Athens (431/0) Peace of (421-416) Phase 2: Sicilian Expedition (416-413) Phase 3: Ionian War (413-404) – Oligarchic coup of 400 (411) – Athens defeated (404) 403 30 Tyrants 402 Athens “liberated” by Thebes 399 executed by the state

Thucydides (460-395 BCE)

History of the Peloponnesian War – down to 411 BCE Considered the “First Historian” • objective methods – archaeology – inscriptions • preserves speeches – could not have been present – “If I didn’t write down what they said, I wrote down what they meant” Marble, Roman copy of Greek original Metro Museum, New York

Differences in Strategies and Strengths

Athens democratic polis oligarchic polis • sea-based power • land-based power • quick naval raids • could only fight late from • could hit anywhere in late Spring to early Fall Spartan territory • needed to get home to • defensive walls and harbor farms • considered themselves the • territory was their defense “best” in Greece • considered themselves the “best” in Greece

5 3/21/2012

• Sparta wants decisive battle to finish the war quickly – besiege Athens for the summer, go home winter • Athens under Pericles refuses to meet them in land; fight by sea – 23 battles land troops for quick skirmishes – “Long Walls” key to this strategy

2nd Peloponnesian War: Phase 1 (431-421) 430s series of crises brought Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues into conflict • Sparta wants decisive hoplite battle to finish the war quickly – besiege Athens for the summer, go home winter • Athens under Pericles refuses to meet them in land; fight by sea – 23 battles land troops for quick skirmishes – “Long Walls” key to this strategy

6 3/21/2012

Athens becomes an Island

• Pericles – safe within the “Long Walls” – Funeral Oration (431/0) “you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling of honor in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive their country of their valor, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer.”

Plague ravages Athens 430/29

• Entire Attic population behind Long Walls • virulent epidemic (bubonic plague?) kills 35% of Athenian population • describes the scene as horrific – abandon all morals – let passions run wild • Ultimately kills Pericles • radical Cimon takes control of city

Fall of Pericles

• Plague may have killed over 30,000 Athenians and affected even Pericles. • Disobeying Pericles, some Athenians sought a separate peace with Sparta that was rejected. • Pericles returned from a botched naval battle at Epidaurus. He was suspended as strategos and audited. 430 judges convicted him of misappropriating five talents – He was fined fifty talents. 429 Later reinstated, Pericles dies leaving a huge void in Athenian leadership.

7 3/21/2012

Major Battles Phase 1 428 Mytilenaean Revolt 427 Corcyra Massacre 425 Battle of Sphacteria • near Mycenaean Pylos • Athenians built a fort • Spartan force get trapped on island – They surrender (never happened before) 424-422 Battle of • stalemate 421 Peace of Nicias • Athens wanted time to fortify bases around Aegean • Sparta wanted prisoners taken at Sphacteria

Revolt at Mytilene

Island of Lesbos major Athenian ally – large naval partner largest polis was Mytilene – led revolt to unify island against Athens – disliked taxes and restrictions of navy 428 Mytilene pressed their concerns at Olympic Games – Sparta promises aid but never comes – Athens makes Lesbos put down revolt 427 leaders of revolt executed under ’s orders • then vote to execute ALL men – Diodotus calls to rethink; order stayed

Corcyraean Revolt (427 BCE)

Athens’ ally Corcyra falls victim to internal strife – demos: allies of Athens – oligarchs: eager to enlist support of Sparta • Revolt begins when Corinth, an ally of Sparta, released Corcyraean prisoners – promise that the former prisoners would work to convince Corcyra to abandon its alliance Athens and join the Peloponnesian side. • These men brought Peithias, a pro-Athenian civic leader, to trial on charges of “enslaving Corcyra to Athens”

8 3/21/2012

Corcyraean Revolt (427 BCE)

• Peithias acquitted – takes revenge by charging his accusers in turn – pro-Spartans burst into court, killed Peithias and 60 other people Naval engagement between Spartans and Corcyra • Spartan fleet leaves for fear of larger Athenian fleet • demos take opportunity to slay as many pro-Spartans as they could get their hands upon – slay some who had appealed to Hera as suppliants – others committed suicide or killed each other • chaos in Corcyra

Thucydides 3.81.4

“the Corcyraeans were engaged in butchering those of their fellow-citizens whom they regarded as their enemies: and although the crime imputed was that of attempting to put down the democracy, some were slain also for private hatred, others by their debtors because of the monies owed to them.”

Battle of Sphacteria (425 BCE) • 420 Spartans trapped on Sphacteria • blockade seems to fail – help by Helots • Athenians circumvallate Spartans • Messenians travel “impassable” terrain to surprise Spartans • 120 Spartiates surrender

9 3/21/2012

Battle of Amphipolis 424 BCE Sparta besiege Amphipolis – sends to Athens for help • Thucydides • Spartan general – offers amnesty to any who wish to leave – those who will accept Spartan rule can keep property – city capitulates (day Thucy arrives) 423 BCE truce 422 BCE Cleon comes to attack Amphipolis – defeated by Brasidas

Peace of Nicias (421-16 BCE)

• Athens wanted time to fortify bases around Aegean • Sparta wanted prisoners taken at Sphacteria

Unknown Athenian general Vatican Museum

An Uneasy Peace

• Sparta’s unilateral peace with Athens leads to dissolution of the Peloponnesian League…for a time

• Argos, an old rival of Sparta, joins with disaffected poleis Mantinea and Elis to forge a separate alliance

• Then, at both Athens and Sparta there was a triumph of war “hawks.” In Athens, the wisdom and restraint of Pericles was sorely missed.

10