The Classical History Page

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The Classical History Page

I find it amazing (for lack of a better word) that historians are still writing about the Greco-Persian Wars. In the current issue of The Claremont Review of Books, an essay on what Joseph Epstein calls the "war for the west."

Three books are mentioned in the essay:

• The Greco-Persian Wars, by Peter Green;
• The Persian War in Herodotus and Other Ancient Voices, William Shephere; and, 
• Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West, Tom Holland.

At first it can seem overwhelming, trying to keep track of all the Greek personalities, but this is the scaffolding. Know these well and you can add to the scaffolding as you go along.

Tragedians: For the grandchildren, Athens is tragedy and tragedy is Athens. There are only three tragedians you need to remember. It's hard to believe, but any Greek classical tragedies that have survived in full have come from one of these three tragedians. In chronological order, and furthermore, this means all those tragedies were written +/- fifty years around 480 BC:

• Aeschylus: the "old man"-- he actually fought at Salamis when the Greeks defeated the Persians; 480 BC.
  
• Sophocles: about 21 years old when he marched in the victory parade celebrating the victory;
• Euripides: born in the very year the decisive and final battle was fought.

Greek historians:

• Herodotus
• wrote Histories 40 years after the war had ended
• the father of history 
• the father of ethnography
• his writing foreshadowed modern social science
• Thucydides
• the first truly modern historian
• owed much to Herodotus
• disregarded the intervention of gods in the affairs of men and nations

The two greatest Greek poets:

• Homer
• Hesiod

Two Greek politician-generals:

• Thermistocles;
• Pericles;

Note: Alexander the Great was Macedonian.

Two philosophers:

• Socrates: spoke
  
• Plato: published
  

One scientist:

• Aristotle: acted
  

Two mathematicians:

• Euclid
• Archimedes

One polymath:

• Pythagoras 

The gods: apparently everything "we" know about the Greek gods came from Homer, Hesiod (Theogeny), and the playwrights, particularly A, S, and E.

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Key Dates

1200 BC:

• Troy falls
• end of Bronze Age
• beginning of Iron Age

800 BC:

• Homer writes the Iliad, and then later, the Odyssey

Greco-Persian Wars (exactly 50 years; a series of wars):

• 499 BC
• 490 BC: Battle of Marathon
• 480 BC: Battle of Salamis -- decisive naval battle
• 449 BC