4.9 Europe: 500 to 401 b.c.

Europe

Back to Europe 600 to 501 B.C.

Southern europe

Eastern mediterranean islands

With the ultimate Greek victory over the Persians, many Mediterranean islands, including Rhodes and the Cyclades, now became dependents of Athens. Even the Etruscan held island of Lemnos fell to Athenian control in that period. At the end of the century, however, Rhodes pulled away, forming its own confederacy of three city-states. (Ref. 38 )

Greece (the 2nd center of civilization)

In the first half of the century the city-states of Greece were occupied with continuous warfare with Persia with the first Persian attack coming in 490 B.C. by sea. In 480 B.C. there was the great battle of Thermophylae and a concurrent sea battle at Salamis in which Xerxes was defeated. Between 478 and 477 Athens organized the Delian League as a defense against future imperialism, with members being the Aegean coast and island allies, with headquarters at Delos, but with Athens as the leader. These Athenian imperialistic policies were engineered by Cimon, aristocratic successor of Themistocles. The Perisan wars ended about 449 B.C. as the Persian Empire deteriorated and most of the Greek cities, even those on the coast of Asia Minor and the Black Sea, became free.

The key to Athens’ extraordinary accomplishments in the first half of this century lay in her fleet, which maintained control of the Aegean and allowed goods from the eastern Mediterranean to enter through the port of Piraeus. The fleet thus not only carried the war across the Aegean to help liberate the Greek cities there, but also allowed foreign contact, thus bringing new ideas and concepts, all of which set the stage for cultural creativity. In this context we must not forget that behind all the shipping and trade was the necessity for Greece to import food. The life-line demanded grain, even though this 5th century B.C. did see the use of the domestic hen in almost every Athenian household and Greece now became the home of fine wines. Alfalfa was introduced by the Persians and subsequently the Greeks used this as horse fodder. (Ref. 47 , 222 )

Some modern writers have a tendency to idealize Greek life of this century and underplay some of the less tasteful aspects of that civilization. In all Greek states abortion or abandonment of children was permitted. Sparta arranged to prevent parents from knowing which were their own children and vice versa, while the state decided whether or not any child would be permitted to live. Homosexuality was widespread and publicly accepted. Athens had between 75,000 and 150,000 slaves representing some 25 to 35% of the population. (Ref. 213 , 222 ) Finley (Ref. 249 ) says that this number is purely a guess, and that while the exact number of slaves is unknown, the important fact is that this was a slave society. Urbanism and the great increase in wealth initiated capitalism and with the extension of full rights to the lower classes, free hired labor could not meet the needs of the capitalists who, taking advantage of the almost continuous wars, turned to ever larger scale slave labor.