XXXI. End as of 10/11/95
a) This boule considers what the people assembled (ecclesia)vote upon (proboulemata), again, like the Spartan Gerusia
b) State treasurers (10 apodektai, 1/tribe) report to the Boule.
c) Could try magistrates
d) Cleisthens also provided for efficiency in government with the system of the Prytanate
(1) Year divided into 10 parts (prytanies), and the "tribe in Prytany," recorded on the state decrees, conducts the day-to- day stuff.
(2) The chairman (prytanis) and the reps from one of the three trittyes live in the state hostel (the tholos) to be on call for emergencies
e) Solon's class restrictions on the archonship lasted until 458/7. B3 make a good point about inflation playing a role in equality...
f) Reality has a way of interfering with what would otherwise have been a complete reorganization.
(1) Each of the tribes got to elect their own general (strategos) to command their phyla of hoplites, ostensibly under the Polemarch--but are these guys soldiers or politicians?
(2) See Her. 6.109-114 who says that the ten generals alternated command to keep everybody, which almost lost Marathon.
(3) Pericles would turn the generalship into an elected tyrrany, to the extent that they'd have to open the other nine posts up to all comers so that someone else from his tribe could be general.
A. Having solved their own problems, the Athenians next set out to solve the problems of others...
1. Athens had and took a chance to get an outpost in Boetia when the Plataeans (Sparta refusing) asked them to help them secede from the Boetian League (510-9)
2. As noted, the Pisistratids had not wanted to risk wars and another hero arising therefrom
3. Cleomenes and his Spartans, with Hippias, had occupied Eleusis (explain) in 506, and that caused considerable excitement in Athens, "The Isthmus of vulnerability."
4. After some border skirmishes, the Thebans allied with the Chalcidian Hippoboetai (thrilled at the thought of a democracy in Attica) for a joint attack later in 506.
5. Lesson also learned from the revolutionary French: Young democracies can be very hard to strangle in the cradle.
a) Athens ended up with a big chunk of the Lelantine plain and the Thebans beaten and back in Boetia.
b) Cleruchy (explain) established at Chalcis, one of the most far-sighted moves the Athenians ever made, secured by the seizure of Oropus on the strait.
6. In fact, the Athenians felt confident enough to join with Eretria in 498 to help the Ionians win back their freedom from Persia...out of which will come much.
I. The Ionian revolt and the Beginning of the Persian Wars
A. Conditions and geography in the East seemed to favor the growth of large empires centered in "the land between the rivers, Mesopotamia
1. Sumerian civilization c. 3500 B.C.
2. Akkadian domination and Sargon I, our first recorded conqueror, 2300. Worth noting the Greek linkage (dunamenos) of "great" with "to be shuddered at).
3. Babylon and her empire, Hammurabi and his law code, 1800, destroyed by Kassites in 1600--Chaos Engine still functioning
4. Babylon too good a site (narrow spot between the Tigris and the Euphrates) and keeps doing the Dandelion routine
5. Hittite Empire flourishes from 2000 to 1200
a) Wars with Egypt, Kadesh 1287
b) Destruction of Hittites by Sea Peoples, 1200
c) Kingdom of Israel/Judah briefly flourishes in the Power vacuum, c. 1000-585 (Babylonian captivity)
6. Assyrians begin conquest and establish empire from 911-612.
a) Strong central monarchy with large army and connecting road network
b) Lesser tributary vassal states
(1) Israel/Judah subjugated, conquered, 700's
(2) Babylon destroyed, 681
(3) Egypt conquered c. 670
c) Original rulers kept in submission by terror, spies, superiority of central Assyrian army BUT
d) Babylon and new arrivals, the Medes, revolt simultaneously and destroy Nineveh in 612
B. Who are the Medes?
1. Spoke an Indo-European language
a) Term "Aryan" originally meant a similar group in India (which shows how powerful the Chaos Engine is!) but has been discarded today because of unwanted ideological baggage thanks to Nazi misuse.
2. Great Prophet Zoroaster/Zarathustra (cf. Moses)
a) A burning fire an allegory for Life: good/light driving back the powers of evil/darkness
b) Medes revolt from Persia under Deices in 700, found separate kingdom
c) Phraates conquered Persian hillmen, kindred people, same old same old subjugation
3. Growth of Median Empire
a) Showdown with Babylon after Nebuchannezar conquers Egypt, Israel from 604-562, used Greek mercenaries from Ionian, Aeolian, and Doric colonies
(1) Greeks by this time knew the kingdoms of the East and told of the wonders of Babylon
(2) Labels stick. Greeks preferred to use the term "Medes" to describe anyone from that part of the world.
b) Standoff with Babylon, kingdom of Lydia, 5/28/585: Thales of Miletus's eclipse
c) Marriage of Astyages to sister of Lydian King Croesus
d) Median empire stopped expanding: Empires that do that suddenly have the time and the need solve their internal problems. The Medes never did solve the problem of the Persians...
II. End as of 10/18/95