Greatness of Athens
I. The Rise of Athens
A. Commerical and manufacturing greatness
1. colonies
2. shipping and navy
3. pottery and metalworks
B. Social stresses of economic growth
1. The landless farmer
C. Development of democracy
1. weakened aristocracy
2. tyrants
3. equality
D. Defeat of Persian Invasion
1. Athens forms Delian League
II. Democratic empire
A. Pericles, hero of the democracy
1. builds Athenian empire
2. moves treasury of Delian
League to Athens
3. Acropolis rebuilt
B. Pericles's funeral oration (as rendered by
Thucydides)
1. Athens is the ideal polis
2. Periclean ideals:
III. Flowering of Art and Drama
A. Sculpture: Beauty of the ideal
1. Doryphoros
("Spear-bearer")
2. Vital balance
B. Architecture: proportion and balance in form and
space
1. Acropolis and Parthenon
2. Vital balance
C. Tragic drama: moral harmony and balance
1. The greatness and
limitations of humanity
2. Vital balance
IV. The Fall of Athens
A. The Peloponnesian War
1. Defeat of Athenian
defensive and naval strategy
B. New age of history and philosophy
1. New questions in a time
of war and defeat
2. Greeks had not yet
discovered happiness