Monday, June 29, 2009
The most interesting time in human history as far as I'm concerned is around 400 - 500BC in Greece. The big players were Athens and Sparta.
I won't get into exact dates and names, that would be too much work isn't that important.
Athens was democratic (minus a few periods of hysteria), the first real democracy as far as I know.
Athens fought off the Persians in Marathon pretty much on their own (with a few allies, Thebes or Megarans I think) around 490BC. This was pretty significant, a loss here could have meant the end of western civilization right there. Sparta was too busy with religious festivals to help out (a recurring theme for them). Sparta was impressed with Athens and probably didn't like Athens becoming the big thing in Greece.
Interesting side note, the marathon race we have today is named after the run an Athenian made from Marathon to Athens to report the victory (where he died of exhaustion).
Athens' power, especially it's navy, thanks to Themosticles . Athens, Sparta and the rest of the non-Persian allied Greeks cities fought the Persians again in 480BC. They lost (see Thermopylae) but inspired Greece to victory a year later at the battle of Plataea. Athens beat the Persians at sea which was crucial to beating them on the ground.
The next big event for Athens was the Peloponnesian War where it fought Sparta for Greek supremacy. The war went back and forth but Athens ended up losing. Surprisingly, Syracuse, Sicily played a big role in this.
