OCR Ancient History GCSE Component 1

N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N OCR Ancient History gcse

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COMPONENT 1

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N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements | iv

Introduction | vii

How to Use this Book | viii

PART 1

PERIOD STUDY: THE PERSIAN EMPIRE, 559–465

Introduction to the Persian Empire, 559–465 BC | 2

bc

| 1

1.1 The Rise of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, 559–530 bc | 5

1.2 Cambyses II, Smerdis and the Accession of Darius, 530–522 bc | 21

1.3 The Reign of Darius the Great, 522–486

1.4 Xerxes I and the Greeks, 486–465

bc

bc

| 33

| 50

What to Expect in the Exam: Greece and Persia Section A | 66

PART 2

DEPTH STUDIES | 75

Introduction to the Depth Study Options | 76

DEPTH STUDY 1: FROM TYRANNY TO DEMOCRACY, 546–483

2.2 Tyranny and Samos | 97

2.3 The Emergence of Democracy in Athens | 115

2.4 Democracy in Action | 128

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2.1 Athens under the Tyrants | 80

What to Expect in the Exam: Greece and Persia Section B | 149

DEPTH STUDY 2: ATHENS IN THE AGE OF PERICLES, 462–429

| 77

Introduction to From Tyranny to Democracy, 546–483 bc | 78

bc

bc

| 159

Introduction to Athens in the Age of Pericles, 462–429 bc | 160

3.1 The Workings of Athenian Democracy | 161

3.2 The Relationship between Athens and Sparta and Pericles’ Foreign Policy | 178

3.3 Pericles and the Cultural and Religious Life in Athens | 194

3.4 Women in Athens | 211

What to Expect in the Exam: Greece and Persia Section C | 228

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Contents

DEPTH STUDY 3: ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 356–323

bc

| 237

Introduction to Alexander the Great, 356–323 BC | 238

4.1 Upbringing, Character, Beliefs and Life of Alexander | 239

4.2 Alexander’s Campaigns: The Reasons for his Expeditions and the

N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

Main Battles | 257

4.3 Significant Events in Alexander’s Life | 269

4.4 The Macedonian Army under Alexander | 280

What to Expect in the Exam: Greece and Persia Section D | 292

Glossary | 300 Sources of Quotations | 303 Sources of Illustrations | 308 Index | 310

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N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

1.1 The Rise of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, 559–530 bc TIMELINE OVERVIEW

l l l l l l

The back­ground and acces­sion of Cyrus The conquest of Lydia The conquest of Babylon Cyrus’ atti­tude towards conquered peoples and his liber­a­tion of the Jews The construc­tion of Pasargadae The circum­stances of Cyrus’ death.

There are no prescribed sources for this compon­ent, but the follow­ing sugges­ted read­ings and arte­facts are covered in this chapter: l l l l l l

Herodotus Histories 1.25–59; 69–216 Xenophanes, Fragment DK21 B22 Cyrus Cylinder (CB) Nabonidus Chronicle Old Testament: Isaiah 45, Ezra 6, 2 Chronicles 36 The archae­olo­gical site of Pasargadae.

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This chapter will examine the life of Cyrus the Great, and his reign as king of Persia. It will focus on the legends surround­ing his upbring­ing, and then look at his famous conquests, espe­cially of the Medes, the Lydians and the Babylonians.

EXAM TIP: SECOND-­O RDER CONCEPTS

Question 4 of the exam paper asks you to under­stand second-­order concepts.

These are concepts which histor­i­ans use as ways of analys­ing the past. For example, one second-­order concept is ‘cause’, whereby histor­i­ans try to analyse what caused a set of events to happen in the way that they did. As you read this chapter make sure you that you bear in mind the follow­ing second-­order concepts: continu­ity, change, cause, consequence, signi­fic­ance, simil­ar­ity and differ­ence.

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Part One Period Study

KEY PLACES

The Persian Empire grew up in a part of the world which is some­times referred to as the Near East. This name of course reflects a European perspect­ive, since it describes lands imme­di­ately to the east of Europe (the region is some­times altern­at­ively referred to as West Asia). In ancient times, the Near East was home to some of the world’s first civil­isa­tions, includ­ing the Egyptians and the Sumerians, which date back to the 5th millen­nium BC. The Near East can itself be divided into regions as follows (you should consult Fig 1.1 on p. 000 to help you locate these places):

N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

Near East The vast area of lands from the Mediterranean to the Zagros Mountains, includ­ing Egypt to the south-­west.

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

Asia Minor (Anatolia) A region roughly equi­val­ent to modern Turkey.

The Levant A region incor­por­at­ing a number of inde­pend­ent peoples on the eastern Mediterranean coast, from south­ern Turkey to north-­eastern Egypt.

Egypt An ancient civil­isa­tion which had long been power­ful due to the fertil­ity of its land.

Mesopotamia A fertile region corres­pond­ing to modern Iraq, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

Zagros Mountains A range of moun­tains running from north­ern Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf.

Persia A small kingdom to the east of Mesopotamia.

Anshan The capital of Persia.

Elam An older kingdom absorbed by the Persians.

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Susa The capital of Elam.

Central Asia The lands to the north and east of the Zagros Mountains.

KEY PEOPLE

The Jews A people from the Levant whose capital was Jerusalem.

The Phoenicians A people who lived in the Levant on the Mediterranean coast.

Asia Minor (also known as Anatolia), an area which roughly corres­ponds to the western two-­thirds of modern Turkey l The Levant, a term describ­ing the lands on the eastern Mediterranean coast, from south­ern Turkey to north-­eastern Egypt. Two signi­fic­ant peoples in this region were the Jews, a people inhab­it­ing a hill kingdom with its capital at Jerusalem, and the Phoenicians, a sea-­faring people based on the Mediterranean coast. l Egypt, a region which owed its power and success to its loca­tion in the fertile Nile Valley. l Mesopotamia, a region roughly corres­pond­ing to modern Iraq. It is a Greek name which means ‘between the rivers’, and this fertile region was located between the Euphrates to the west and the Tigris to the east. l

To the east of the Tigris river lay the Zagros Mountains, a range nearly 1,000 miles long which runs from the north of Mesopotamia south-­east to the Persian Gulf. At the south-­western end of the moun­tain range was the small kingdom of Persia, with its capital at Anshan. This kingdom grew up during the middle of the 7th century BC, at which time it took over an older kingdom to the north, Elam, the capital of which was Susa. The Persians seem to have absorbed a good deal of Elamite culture and admin­is­ trat­ive skill, as well as the Elamite language.

Cyrus became king of Persia in 559 bc . By the time that he died in 530, he had conquered all of the Near East apart from Egypt (which his son Cambyses would go on to conquer – see p. 000), as well as a vast expanse of lands to the east of the Zagros Mountains, in a region now known as Central Asia. To under­stand how he did this, we must first examine the regional powers at play in the Near East in the 6th century BC. By 600 bc , there were a number of regional powers in the Near East. To the west, the two most import­ant were the Egyptians, whose civil­isa­tion was flour­ish­ing at this time, and the Lydians, who ruled the western half of Asia Minor from their capital Sardis.

Further east, until the end of the 7th century, one people had been domin­ant. They were the Assyrians, who were based in north­ern Mesopotamia and had ruled as far as the Levant for three centur­ies. However, they were over­thrown in 612 by two other peoples who now became the domin­ant powers in the region: the Babylonians and the Medes. Babylonian civil­isa­tion was very old and was centred on the city of Babylon in Mesopotamia. For centur­ies, the Babylonians had been ruled by other peoples, but by 600 they had estab­lished a power­ful empire in Mesopotamia and the Levant. This is

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1.1 The Rise of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, 559–530 bc

N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

FIGURE 1.2 This glazed brick depic­tion of a Lion was set up in Babylon in the early 6th century BC. The Lion repres­en­ted the King of Babylon. Later Persian art was heavily influ­enced by this style.

KEY PEOPLE

Lydians A people who ruled the western half of Asia Minor.

some­times known as the Neo-Babylonian Empire, to distin­guish it from the Babylonian Empire which had flour­ished centur­ies earlier (the prefix ‘neo’ means ‘new’).

The Medes were based in the Zagros Mountains and were pastoral moun­tain people famous for their skill with horses. It is unclear whether there was one unified Median empire, or whether the Medes were a collec­tion of moun­tain tribes which worked together against common enemies. Their largest city was Ecbatana, located on the eastern side of the moun­tain range. It is likely that they had influ­ence on some peoples to the west of the Zagros range, includ­ing the kingdom of Persia. Indeed, the Medes and the Persians were ethnic­ally related peoples who had prob­ably origin­ally migrated from Central Asia.

Assyrians A people of north­ern Mesopotamia who held power over a much wider region until the end of the 7th century.

Babylonians An ancient people from the city of Babylon in Mesopotamia.

Medes A group of peoples based in the Zagros Mountains.

KEY PLACES

The sources

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When we embark on study­ing any period of history, we have to ask ourselves two ques­ tions. The first is ‘what sources do we have for this period of history?’ and the second is ‘how reli­able are these sources?’ As these ques­tions suggest, we are often hampered by two prob­lems when study­ing the ancient past. The first is that we simply do not have enough evid­ence, since written records have been lost or were never in exist­ence in the first place. The second is that all histor­i­ans and writers have their own perspect­ives and agendas. Studying Ancient History can there­fore some­times be like doing a jigsaw puzzle where you don’t have all the pieces, and where you are not sure that some of the pieces that you do have are accur­ately drawn.

The sources for the rise of the Persian Empire in the 6th century are rather like this jigsaw puzzle. Many of our writ­ings on the Persian Empire are by Greeks, who were the first people to develop narrat­ive history. The most famous such Greek writer was Herodotus.

His work, which today is known as the Histories, was prob­ably written and published in the 430s and 420s. In it he wrote a history of the events of the wars between the Greeks and the Persians which lasted between 499 and 479. Herodotus traced the causes of the war back to the time when Cyrus first became king of Persia in 559 bc. He there­fore gives a lot of inform­a­tion about the life and reigns of Cyrus, as well as of his successors.

Sardis The capital of Lydia.

Neo-Babylonian Empire The empire ruled by the Babylonians from the end of the 7th century, which encom­passed much of Mesopotamia and the Levant.

Ecbatana The largest city of the Medes.

KEY INDIVIDUAL

Herodotus Dates: c. 484–c. 425

A Greek histor­ian who wrote about the causes and course of the wars between the Greeks and the Persians from 499 to 479.

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N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

1.2 Cambyses II, Smerdis and the Accession of Darius, 530–522 bc TIMELINE OVERVIEW

l

Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt Cambyses’ atti­tude towards the Egyptians and their culture l The circum­stances of Cambyses’ death l Darius’ over­throw of Smerdis/Bardiya/Gaumata. l

There are no prescribed sources for this compon­ent, but the follow­ing sugges­ted read­ings and arte­facts are covered in this chapter: l

Herodotus, Histories 2.1; 3.1–38; 3.61–88; 5.25 Bisitun Inscription (DB) 10–15; 68–69 l The account of Udjahorresne l Epitaph to the Apis Bull, November 524. l

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This chapter will examine the reign of Cambyses II, king of Persia between 530 and 522 bc , and in partic­u­lar his conquest of Egypt. It will then focus on the events surround­ing his death and succes­sion, which culmin­ated in the acces­sion of Darius I to the throne.

CAMBYSES IN THE SOURCES

KEY INDIVIDUAL

Cambyses II Dates: reigned from 530 to 522 Son of Cyrus and king of Persia.

It is almost impossible to form an object­ive view about the char­ac­ter of Cambyses II as king. The Greek sources, most notably Herodotus, paint him very negat­ively as a cruel king who went mad and insul­ted the gods. As we shall see, Herodotus was no doubt working from heavily biased Egyptian sources and his portrayal cannot be taken at face value. Indeed, it seems that ancient writers liked to contrast Cyrus as the ideal ‘good ruler’ with Cambyses as the typical ‘cruel tyrant’. Moreover, we know very little of the empire during Cambyses’ reign apart from what we are told about the conquest of Egypt. It is there­fore very hard to form any opinion as to his qual­it­ies as a ruler.

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N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

1.3 The Reign of Darius the Great, 522–486 bc TIMELINE OVERVIEW

l l l l l l l l l l l

Darius’ paci­fic­a­tion of the empire, includ­ing the restor­a­tion of control over Babylon Construction of Susa, Persepolis and the Egyptian canal Persian expan­sion into the Aegean Sea The campaign in India The war with the Scythians Persian culture and reli­gion under Darius Darius’ organ­isa­tion and admin­is­tra­tion of the Persian Empire The Ionian Revolt, includ­ing its causes, course and consequences Persian rela­tions with Athens prior to the revolt Mardonius’ exped­i­tion of 493–492 bc The exped­i­tion to Greece in 490 bc and its after­math.

There are no prescribed sources for this compon­ent, but the follow­ing sugges­ted read­ings and arte­facts are covered in this chapter: l

Herodotus, Histories 3.89–160; 4.1–4; 4.46–98; 4.120–144; 5.1–39; 5.97–126; 6.1–49; 6.94–7.3 Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions of Darius, includ­ing the Bisitun Inscription l Datiya Fortification Tablet (PF 1809Q) l The archae­olo­gical site of Susa l The archae­olo­gical site of Persepolis, in partic­u­lar the apadana stair­case.

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l

This chapter will examine the rule of Darius I, also known as Darius the Great, between 522 and 486 bc , focus­ing initially on the chal­lenges he faced when he came to power. It will then look at the way in which he imposed a new order and iden­tity on the Persian Empire, in both polit­ical and reli­gious terms. The other aspect of this topic will be an exam­in­a­tion of the nature of the expan­sion of the empire during his reign.

THE REVOLTS AGAINST DARIUS

In the after­math of Darius’ acces­sion to the throne in 522, the empire was struck by a series of revolts. These are mentioned in detail by Darius in the Bisitun Inscription, and 33

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N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

1.4 Xerxes I and the Greeks, 486–465 bc TIMELINE OVERVIEW

l l l l l l

Death of Darius and acces­sion of Xerxes The suppres­sion of revolts in Babylonia and Egypt The inva­sion of Greece, includ­ing Persian prepar­a­tion, the journey to Greece, the battle of Thermopylae, the sack of Athens, the battle of Salamis Persian milit­ary organ­isa­tion and fight­ing tech­niques The comple­tion of Darius’ build­ing projects The Battle of Eurymedon and Plutarch’s ‘famous peace’.

There are no prescribed sources for this compon­ent, but the follow­ing sugges­ted read­ings and arte­facts are covered in this chapter: l

Herodotus, Histories 7.2–9.121 Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.96–100 l Plutarch, Life of Kimon, 12–13 l Aeschylus, Persians l Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions of Xerxes. l

KEY INDIVIDUAL

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Xerxes I Dates: reigned from 486 to 465 King of Persia.

This chapter will examine the rule of Xerxes I between 486 and 465 bc . It will focus first on how he estab­lished himself in power and suppressed two revolts in the empire, and then move on to look at his wars with the Greeks: the great inva­sion of 480–479 and then the decis­ive battle of Eurymedon in the early 460s. The Persian army will also be examined, as will the varied way that Xerxes is presen­ted in the sources.

Xerxes in the Sources

In contrast to the reign of Darius, the non-Greek sources avail­able for the reign of Xerxes are much dimin­ished. However, there are still a number of royal inscrip­tions similar to those which Darius commis­sioned. In these, Xerxes presents himself firmly as continu­ ing his father’s legacy. One key theme which emerges is that Xerxes promotes the fact that he has completed Darius’ build­ing projects, as well as insti­tut­ing new ones of his own. For example, at Persepolis he commis­sioned the construc­tion of a new cere­mo­nial

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N C PA O R G R N ES E O C T FO TE FO D R R S R D A E IS M V TR IE PL W E IB U TI O N

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