Unit 2 comp civ essay
The three images given represent two different aspects of Ancient Greece. One aspect being the cultured, artistic side of Greece, and the other being the aggressive, war prone side. It is an amazing civilization, with success in both art, and war. Art getting a chance to thrive in Greece, between periods of hard fought war.
From artifacts and research done about ancient Greece, we can tell that the greeks had a certain proficiency in their crafts. A major example of this would be the parthenon. With its doric columns, and several friezes, the parthenon is a true masterpiece, that is still standing a top the acropolis today. Having taken 15 years to build, it truly shows the effort greeks had put into the monument. Also during that era, Polykleitos had sculpted out of marble the statue of Diadoumenos, a statue of a young man, sculpted to perfection. Originally made of bronze, the statue represents the idealistic view of Greek artists. Another art form of the time were the plays, many of which were political. A well known play writer at the time was Aristophanes, who made many different plays, including one called "clouds" where he ridiculed the public for their view of socrates, which he found absurd. All of these are examples of one aspect of greek civilization at the time, which was very artistic.
The other main aspect of Greece, would have been the wars, and empires. From 499-449 BC, to 431-404 BC, to 336-323 BC Greece was at war. For 200 years, with around 50 years of interlude in between, there were wars that spanned for several decades. One war that was before 500 BC (around the time of 1200 BC) was the trojan war. Said to be during the period of the Mycenaeans, the trojan war was an attack on troy by the greeks, lead by the greek king Agamemnon. Many heroes such as Achilles and Odysseus were first introduced tales of the trojan war, first written by Homer, in two epic poems titled the iliad and the odyssey. The legend saying that the Greeks could not manage to defeat the Trojans, so they made it appear as if they were retreating and gave the Trojans a gigantic horse as a gift, which the Trojans took inside their walls, only to have the greeks jump out at night and slaughter the Trojans. Several centuries later, there was the Persian wars, where the first invasion was lead by king Darius, who was defeated by the Greeks. The second invasion, lead by Xerxes, was an attack on Thermopylae, where Xerxes managed to defeat king Leonidas and his fellow spartans. Xerxes proceeded to sack Athens, but was then lead astray by false information. The informant told him to send his navy into a channel at Salamis as a passage through, but the Greeks had planed on this and attacked and defeated the Persian navy, while Xerxes could only watch as his troops were destroyed. He was forced to retreat to Persia, and left Athens and Sparta to rule Greece.
Later on, the Peloponnesian wars started, and continued for 30 years. It was a war between Sparta and Athens. Even though Athens should have won they lost due to a plague that hit them, their lose at Sicily, the war was fought on land, and Persia supported Sparta. Sparta then occupies Athens and replaces the democracy with the rule of 30, who are pro-Sparta dictators. The next war was lead by Alexander the Great. He was the son of Philip the Great, and he replaced his father after his father was murdered. He destroys the rebellious Thebes, and the rest of Greece recognize his leadership due to being frightened of what Alexander could do. Alexander tells Greek troops that if they fight for him the can plunder and loot in order to become rich, while they are campaigning with him. Alexander then proceeds to conquer the near east of Asia, and makes it all the way to India before his troops commit mutiny, and he is forced to turn back.