In this essay I will examine the two main reasons why Phillip II engaged in Hellenic affairs. These were the desire to gain the necessary stronghold required for an attack on Persia, as well as the desire to stabilise his own country by stabilizing those around him and thus securing his newly conquered borders and territories. I will also explain what some of the Greek city-states could/could not have done to prevent Philip II’s engagement in Hellenic affairs. Which was by …
This is a particularly important issue as the decisions made by Philip during his rule to engage in Hellenic affairs helped to shape the history of that region and created a whole new Pan-Hellenic region. Yet these are also a problematic questions to discuss. Neither modern
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Philip would not have had to involve himself with every single city-state to engage himself in Hellenic affairs. Furthermore when discussing whether the Greeks could have prevented Philip II from either wanting to, or physically being able to, involve himself in Hellenic affairs; it is not the Greeks as a collective that would have done this. Instead I will examine the actions of Greek city- states such as Athens and Thebes to determine whether they could have prevented Philip’s …show more content…
Philip II spend the earliest years of his reign working to expand Macedonia’s control over surrounding regions by securing the Paionians and Thracian border and dominating regions such as Amphipolis, the Illyrians and the Pydna. These conquests would have been an important part of Philip’s legitimizing of his rule, and it would have been equally as important for him to maintain these new territories. Since Philip had expanded further south, this placed his domain closer to the Hellenistic city-states. Therefore the numerous Social and Sacred wars created an instability that could threaten his territory. In particular The Third Sacred War could have been a threat to this, yet it also acted as an ideal opportunity for Philip to gain control within Greece and attempt creating Pan-Hellenic
The effects of this go far beyond the imbalance of military power between Athens and her tributaries, however. The Old Oligarch lists four main areas where the existence of the Empire benefits the common people of Athens, thus giving impetus to radicalize democracy and justify the expansion and strengthening of the Empire, and giving is reason to find an ongoing justification for its existence. The first is the building of the disproportionately large Athenian navy. Second is the overall flattening of the Athenian social pyramid, raising the relative status of the lowest classes of society, and exemplified by the way that Athens becomes a magnet for aliens to live and work, and gives unusual freedom and opportunity to slaves. Third is that the allies are compelled to have their court cases tried in Athenian courts, bringing both prestige and financial reward to Athens. Finally, the centralizing effect of these things, and the obvious maritime nature of the Empire, make Athens a trading center, m...
In the book, Hanson presents how the Peloponnesian war was started and so savagely pursued by Sparta and her allies due to their fear of Athens’ military strength and idealism. This fear caused the cataclysmic collapse of the Greek world. Athens lost the war and all ideas of the Athenian culture were destroyed. Hanson spends very little time addressing the true purpose of writing the book.
We have now examined Thucydides' strongest arguments for Athenian rule. It is clear that Athens had a stronger claim to rule than the Melians had to remain sovereign. We also know that Athens' claims hold up when we examine them for validity. Thucydides beliefs in Athens' claims were therefore well founded.
Of all the history of the Ancient Greece, there were two events that showed really well how disunity among the Greeks highly contributed to its downfall, which were the Peloponnesian War and Successors’ War. Interestingly, both wars occurred after a unity and followed by a unity that was carried out by “outsiders”. This may have actually shown that the Greeks had never learned from their past
Alexander’s first battle came when he was only sixteen. Philip, his father had gone away on a campaign and left Macedonia u...
For over 30 years, two of the world's greatest military forces of their time battled over supremacy of Greece. The elite navy of Athens and the powerful armies of Sparta and her allies dueled in an epic battle to determine the direction in which Greece was heading. Through the stories of Thuycides, we have the world's first eye witness account of a war from a great historian who lived through it. From this account we can analyze the war which can be interpreted as the first battle against imperialism. Through my analysis of this war, I plan to determine how Greece benefited as a whole.
Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, there has been only one which changed the course of Greek history forever; the Peloponnesian War. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its wake. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.
In the years following the Persian Wars in 479 B.C., Athens had come out on top being the most dominantly powerful of any Greek city with a navy that had superior strength that increased day by day. The Athenians “ruled with heavy-handed, even brutal force as well as with reason” (Kagan 2). This was due largely to the fact that Athens had a stable and effective government, which only increased their advantage in proving themselv...
B. Second issue: The position of Philip is not as strong as it seems, since the allies resent his arrogance. The Athenians
After having described the development of the situation, which from a little uprising brought to the foreign powers’ military intervention (I), it is necessary to analyse how this movement for the Greek independence represented a turning point in the XIX century. In order to do this, firstly the essay will focus on the cultural significance, with the rising of the philhellenic movement (II), and the following one on the diplomatic level, where the war represents a revolutionary change in the politics
The Peloponnesian War is the conflict between the pelopoponesians league led by Sparta and the Delian league, led by Athens. Much of our knowledge on the causes and events of the Peloponnesian War, depends on the Athenian Thucydides 460-400 BC, writer of the History of the Peloponessian War. He servd as an Athenian commander in Northern Greece during the early years of the war until the assembly exiled him as he lost an outpost to the enemy. During this exile, he was able to interview witnesses on both sides of the conflicted. Unlike Heredotus he concentrated on contemporary history and presented his account of the war in an annalistic framework that only occasionally diverts from chronological order. In his account, he discuses the precursors to the war, including the 30 years truce and revolutions, such as the stasis in Corcyra. When looking at wars, the primary focus is normally the fighting itself, such as what we see for World War II. However, it is important to look at the anatomy of war, meaning what effect the war has on the people who are experiencing it first hand, and the consquences that the conflict has on the rest of the world. Therefore in this essay I shall discuss, drawing directly from Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, how the civilians reacted to the war, their involvement and socio economic factors. Furthermore, the first section of my essay shall focus on the direct effect of war on the people, regarding the plague, and violence and hopelessness that was experienced. Then I shall go on to discuss more general effects of the war and how it affected the Greek world, discussing the social and economic losses that occurred such as the cost of the war in attica, the coup d’etat that occurred in gove...
The Greek’s success made it clear that there was a wide gap between their culture and the culture of those who are not Greeks. Herodotus, a Greek historian who was the first to write an account of the Persian Wars, thought that the Greeks won and excelled because they were free men, while the Persians were subjects of an autocracy. (Frankforter & Spellman, 92). After the war, Athens went through a Golden Age. Athenian culture is significant to our history, they had a great impact on our world. We get a lot from Athens’ culture, from architecture, philosophy, literature, science, Olympic Games, to even the word music its self. These Greeks founded a culture we still identify with. They also introduced use to democracy, along with our first dedicated history and vocabulary for politics. (“Ancient Greek…”) However, we would not have experienced the effects of the Greek culture, if the Greeks lost the Persian
The Macedonian army, under the rule of Alexander the Great, was the most successful army around at that time. Alexander’s father, King Philip the 2nd was the first ruler of Macedonia. At first, Macedonia played no role in Greek history. It was just a tiny
The Greeks of smaller city-states found the league a trap they were in from which they could no longer escape or secede and spare themselves from the overwhelming influence of Athens. The league became hegemonic and the Athenians were the “master brother” to whom it was obligatory for smaller city-states to offer not only arms, but financial contribution in the form of tax so Athens can make its bigger and stronger presence and share in defending the lands of the Greeks. With Athens espousing interest in forming a league that will continue fighting Persia, it now posed a threat as much as the Persians against its fellow Greeks in its ambition to become an empire. Eventually, it appears that the wars between the Greeks and Persia, and the civil wars among the Greeks were all needless to say the least and a waste of resources and human life.
Livingstone, Richard W., Sir, and Gilbert, Murray. "The Legacy of Greece." The Legacy of Greece : Internet Archive. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 21 Dec. 2007. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. .