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123-553: During the classical period the Aetolians were not highly regarded by other Greeks, who considered them to be semi-barbaric and reckless. Their League had a complex political and administrative structure, and their armies were easily a match for the other Greek powers. However, during the Hellenistic period , they emerged as a dominant state in central Greece and expanded by the voluntary annexation of several Greek city-states to

246-591: A bishop of Dodona named Theodorus attended the First Council of Ephesus in 431 CE. Herodotus ( Histories 2:54–57) was told by priests at Egyptian Thebes in the 5th century BCE "that two priestesses had been carried away from Thebes by Phoenicians ; one, they said they had heard was taken away and sold in Libya , the other in Hellas; these women, they said, were the first founders of places of divination in

369-519: A diarchy . This meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty. According to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles , twin descendants of Hercules . They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after

492-652: A chief advisor to the Spartans and began to counsel them on the best way to defeat his native land. Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to begin building a real navy for the first time—large enough to challenge the Athenian superiority at sea. Additionally, Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to ally themselves with their traditional foes—the Persians. As noted below, Alcibiades soon found himself in controversy in Sparta when he

615-574: A colony from the city, also named Dodona , in Thessaly . Cult activity at Dodona was already established in some form during the Late Bronze Age (or Mycenaean period). Mycenaean offerings such as bronze objects of the 14th and 13th centuries were brought in Dodona. A 13th century cist tomb with squared shoulders was found at Dodona; it had no context, but a Mycenaean sherd of c. 1200 B.C.

738-406: A common currency and adopting a uniform system of weights and measures. There may not have been any central archive of state documents. However, the constituent communities of the league enjoyed substantial autonomy. At times the league was unable (or unwilling) to prevent its members from undertaking military actions against states that had treaties with it. The league members were grouped together in

861-465: A distance). No buildings are mentioned, and the priests (called Selloi ) slept on the ground with unwashed feet. No priestesses are mentioned in Homer. The oracle also features in another passage involving Odysseus, giving a story of his visit to Dodona. Odysseus's words "bespeak a familiarity with Dodona, a realization of its importance, and an understanding that it was normal to consult Zeus there on

984-483: A folk etymology applied to the archaic name of the sacred women that no longer made sense and the eventual connection with Zeus, justified by a tale told by a priestess. Was the pel- element in their name connected with "black" or "muddy" root elements in names like "Peleus" or "Pelops"? Is that why the doves were black? Herodotus adds: But my own belief about it is this. If the Phoenicians did in fact carry away

1107-460: A hegemony, they decided after 403 BC not to support the directives that he had made. Agesilaus came to power by accident at the start of the 4th century BC. This accidental accession meant that, unlike the other Spartan kings, he had the advantage of a Spartan education. The Spartans at this date discovered a conspiracy against the laws of the city conducted by Cinadon and as a result concluded there were too many dangerous worldly elements at work in

1230-470: A major power without regaining its former glory. This empire was powerful but short-lived. In 405 BC, the Spartans were masters of all—of Athens' allies and of Athens itself—and their power was undivided. By the end of the century, they could not even defend their own city. As noted above, in 400 BC, Agesilaus became king of Sparta. The subject of how to reorganize the Athenian Empire as part of

1353-547: A minor post, became the General's deputy from the late 260s BC, but his exact responsibilities are not clear. The third in command was the Grammateus ( Secretary ). These three officials were Eponymous archons (eponymous magistrates), which is to say that they were named in the dating formula for all decrees of the league. From around 260 BC, there were also seven tamiai (Treasurers) and seven epilektarchoi (Commanders of

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1476-646: A much more powerful force of 300,000 by land, with 1,207 ships in support, across a double pontoon bridge over the Hellespont . This army took Thrace, before descending on Thessaly and Boeotia, whilst the Persian navy skirted the coast and resupplied the ground troops. The Greek fleet, meanwhile, dashed to block Cape Artemision . After being delayed by Leonidas I , the Spartan king of the Agiad Dynasty, at

1599-441: A number of tele (districts), which seem to have had administrative and juridical powers of some sort. The league's central administrative apparatus consisted of an assembly, a council, and a number of magistrates. The Ekklesia (Assembly) was open to all citizens of all member communities of the league. The assembly was the ultimate authority within the league, with responsibility for declarations of war and peace, but its power

1722-477: A number of island cities benefiting from Athens' maritime protection), and other states outside this Athenian Empire. The sources denounce this Athenian supremacy (or hegemony ) as smothering and disadvantageous. After 403 BC, things became more complicated, with a number of cities trying to create similar empires over others, all of which proved short-lived. The first of these turnarounds was managed by Athens as early as 390 BC, allowing it to re-establish itself as

1845-595: A number of victories. For most of the first years of his reign, Agesilaus had been engaged in a war against Persia in the Aegean Sea and in Asia Minor. In 394 BC, the Spartan authorities ordered Agesilaus to return to mainland Greece. While Agesilaus had a large part of the Spartan Army in Asia Minor, the Spartan forces protecting the homeland had been attacked by a coalition of forces led by Corinth. At

1968-572: A powerful influence on the later Roman Empire . Part of the broader era of classical antiquity , the classical Greek era ended after Philip II 's unification of most of the Greek world against the common enemy of the Persian Empire, which was conquered within 13 years during the wars of Alexander the Great , Philip's son. In the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece ,

2091-545: A problem of personal conduct." The details of this story are as follows. Odysseus says to the swineherd Eumaeus (possibly giving him a fictive account) that he (Odysseus) was seen among the Thesprotians, having gone to inquire of the oracle at Dodona whether he should return to Ithaca openly or in secret (as the disguised Odysseus is doing). Odysseus later repeats the same tale to Penelope, who may not yet have seen through his disguise. According to some scholars, Dodona

2214-522: A sceptic about the Sicilian Expedition , he was appointed along with Alcibiades to lead the expedition. However, unlike the expedition against Melos, the citizens of Athens were deeply divided over Alcibiades' proposal for an expedition to far-off Sicily. In June 415 BC, on the very eve of the departure of the Athenian fleet for Sicily, a band of vandals in Athens defaced the many statues of

2337-507: A significant dynamic that was occurring in Greece. While Athens and Sparta fought each other to exhaustion, Thebes was rising to a position of dominance among the various Greek city-states. Dodona Dodona ( / d oʊ ˈ d oʊ n ə / ; Doric Greek : Δωδώνα , romanized:  Dōdṓnā , Ionic and Attic Greek : Δωδώνη , Dōdṓnē ) in Epirus in northwestern Greece was

2460-610: A theatre). A wall was built around the oracle itself and the holy tree, as well as temples to Dione and Heracles . In 219 BCE, the Aetolians , under the leadership of General Dorimachus, looted and set fire to the sanctuary. During the late 3rd century BCE, King Philip V of Macedon (along with the Epirotes) reconstructed all the buildings at Dodona. In 167 BCE, the Molossian cities and possibly Dodona itself were destroyed by

2583-469: A war in which Thebes allied with its old enemy Athens. Then the Theban generals Epaminondas and Pelopidas won a decisive victory at Leuctra (371 BC). The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of Theban dominance, but Athens herself recovered much of her former power because the supremacy of Thebes was short-lived. With the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea (362 BC)

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2706-693: Is known as the Peloponnesian League. However, unlike the Hellenic League and the Delian League, this league was not a response to any external threat, Persian or otherwise: it was unabashedly an instrument of Spartan policy aimed at Sparta's security and Spartan dominance over the Peloponnese peninsula. The term "Peloponnesian League" is a misnomer. It was not really a "league" at all. Nor was it really "Peloponnesian". There

2829-480: Is why they say that the dove uttered human speech; as long as she spoke in a foreign tongue, they thought her voice was like the voice of a bird. For how could a dove utter the speech of men? The tale that the dove was black signifies that the woman was Egyptian. Thesprotia, on the coast west of Dodona, would have been available to the seagoing Phoenicians, whom readers of Herodotus would not have expected to have penetrated as far inland as Dodona. According to Strabo ,

2952-540: The Argonauts , Jason's ship, the " Argo ", had the gift of prophecy, because it contained an oak timber spirited from Dodona. In c. 290 BCE, King Pyrrhus made Dodona the religious capital of his domain and beautified it by implementing a series of construction projects (i.e. grandly rebuilt the Temple of Zeus, developed many other buildings, added a festival featuring athletic games, musical contests, and drama enacted in

3075-511: The Battle of Coronea , Agesilaus and his Spartan Army defeated a Theban force. During the war, Corinth drew support from a coalition of traditional Spartan enemies—Argos, Athens and Thebes. However, when the war descended into guerilla tactics, Sparta decided that it could not fight on two fronts and so chose to ally with Persia. The long Corinthian War finally ended with the Peace of Antalcidas or

3198-650: The Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, during the Second Macedonian War . However, it grew increasingly hostile to Roman involvement in Greek affairs and only a few years later sided with Antiochus III , the anti-Roman king of the Seleucid Empire , during the Roman-Syrian War . The defeat of Antiochus in 189 BC robbed the league of its principal foreign ally and made it impossible to stand alone in continued opposition to Rome. The league

3321-537: The Battle of Thermopylae (a battle made famous by the 300 Spartans who faced the entire Persian army), Xerxes advanced into Attica, and captured and burned Athens. The subsequent Battle of Artemisium resulted in the capture of Euboea , bringing most of mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth under Persian control. However, the Athenians had evacuated the city of Athens by sea before Thermopylae, and under

3444-615: The Classical period corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC (the most common dates being the fall of the last Athenian tyrant in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC). The Classical period in this sense follows the Greek Dark Ages and Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period . This century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than any of

3567-486: The Delian League , led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta. The Delian League grew out of the need to present a unified front of all Greek city-states against Persian aggression. In 481 BC, Greek city-states, including Sparta, met in the first of a series of "congresses" that strove to unify all the Greek city-states against the danger of another Persian invasion. The coalition that emerged from

3690-430: The Delian League , so named because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of Delos . The Spartans, although they had taken part in the war, withdrew into isolation afterwards, allowing Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power. In 431 BC war broke out between Athens and Sparta . The war was a struggle not merely between two city-states but rather between two coalitions, or leagues of city-states:

3813-591: The Greek deity Zeus . Although the earliest inscriptions at the site date to c. 550–500 BCE, archaeological excavations conducted for more than a century have recovered artifacts as early as the Mycenaean era , many now at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens , and some in the archaeological museum at nearby Ioannina . There was an ancient tradition that Dodona was founded as

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3936-654: The Hellenes originated. The oracle was first under the control of the Thesprotians before it passed into the hands of the Molossians . It remained an important religious sanctuary until the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman era . During classical antiquity , according to various accounts, priestesses and priests in the sacred grove interpreted the rustling of the oak (or beech) leaves to determine

4059-678: The Ionian Revolt of 500 BC, the event that provoked the Persian invasion of 492 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC. A second Persian attempt , in 481–479 BC, failed as well, despite having overrun much of modern-day Greece (north of the Isthmus of Corinth ) at a crucial point during the war following the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Artemisium . The Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens' instrument. Athens' successes caused several revolts among

4182-556: The King's Peace , in which the "Great King" of Persia, Artaxerxes II , pronounced a "treaty" of peace between the various city-states of Greece which broke up all "leagues" of city-states on Greek mainland and in the islands of the Aegean Sea . Although this was looked upon as "independence" for some city-states, the effect of the unilateral "treaty" was highly favourable to the interests of the Persian Empire. The Corinthian War revealed

4305-481: The Persian Empire in the mid-6th century BC. In 499 BC that region's Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt , and Athens and some other Greek cities sent aid, but were quickly forced to back down after defeat in 494 BC at the Battle of Lade . Asia Minor returned to Persian control. In 492 BC, the Persian general Mardonius led a campaign through Thrace and Macedonia . He was victorious and again subjugated

4428-542: The Persian Empire ; the peak flourishing of democratic Athens ; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars ; the Spartan and then Theban hegemonies ; and the expansion of Macedonia under Philip II . Much of the early defining mathematics, science, artistic thought ( architecture , sculpture), theatre , literature , philosophy , and politics of Western civilization derives from this period of Greek history , which had

4551-457: The Romans (led by Aemilius Paulus ). A fragment of Dio Cassius reports that Thracian soldiers instigated by King Mithridates sacked the sanctuary ca. 88 BCE. In the reign of the emperor Augustus the site was prominent enough to feature an honorary statue of Livia . The 2nd century CE traveller Pausanias noted a sacred oak tree of Zeus. In 241 CE, a priest named Poplius Memmius Leon organized

4674-484: The Trojan War . In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias , son of Peisistratos . Cleomenes I , king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras . But his rival Cleisthenes , with the support of the middle class and aided by pro-democracy citizens, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, now supported by

4797-596: The gerontes among the Laconians and the Massaliotes). And this, it is said, is the origin of the myth about the pigeons [peleiades] in the Dodonaean oak-tree. According to Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb , the epithet Neuos of Zeus at Dodona primarily designated "the god of streams, and, generally, of water". Jebb also points out that Achelous , as a water deity, received special honours at Dodona. The area of

4920-573: The military party, led by Alcibiades . Thus, in 415 BC, Alcibiades found support within the Athenian Assembly for his position when he urged that Athens launch a major expedition against Syracuse , a Peloponnesian ally in Sicily , Magna Graecia . Segesta, a town in Sicily, had requested Athenian assistance in their war with another Sicilian town—the town of Selinus. Although Nicias was

5043-591: The 400 to overthrow democracy in Samos failed. Alcibiades was immediately made an admiral ( navarch ) in the Athenian navy. Later, due to democratic pressures, the 400 were replaced by a broader oligarchy called "the 5000". Alcibiades did not immediately return to Athens. In early 410, Alcibiades led an Athenian fleet of 18 triremes against the Persian-financed Spartan fleet at Abydos near the Hellespont . The Battle of Abydos had actually begun before

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5166-666: The Aetolians alone and in 280 BC, they took control of Heraclea in Trachis , which gave them control over the crucial pass at Thermopylae . In 279 BC, they were victorious in battle against the Gauls , who had invaded Greece and were threatening the sanctuary of Delphi . After their victory they earned the appreciation of the rest of the Greeks and they were admitted as a new member into the Amphictyonic League . In 232 BC,

5289-573: The Aetolians forced them to retreat. In the course of the fourth century, the league offered passive support to more powerful states and was rewarded for it, receiving Aeolis from the Thebans in 367 BC and Naupactus from Philip II of Macedon in 338 BC. Sometime in this century, the Koinon tōn Aitōlōn (League of the Aetolians) was founded, but it is uncertain when. One suggestion is that the league

5412-470: The Aetolians took control of Parnassus , including the panhellenic sanctuary of Delphi , which they would continue to control for over a century. Demetrius Poliorcetes launched the Fifth Sacred War , 289-287 BC, in an attempt to remove them, but was defeated and driven from Macedonia altogether with the help of Pyrrhus of Epirus . A Sixth Sacred War , 281 BC, led by Areus I was rebuffed by

5535-522: The Assembly are not clear. It consisted of delegates elected by each of the constituent communities of the league in proportion to their size. By the late third century BC it had around 1500 members - too large for it to have been in continuous session. A small portion of the council's members, known as the apokletoi ("Select-men"), conducted day-to-day business, such as sending and receiving embassies. The league's archons (magistrates) were elected by

5658-472: The Athenian-controlled island of Samos . Alcibiades felt that "radical democracy" was his worst enemy. Accordingly, he asked his supporters to initiate a coup to establish an oligarchy in Athens. If the coup were successful Alcibiades promised to return to Athens. In 411, a successful oligarchic coup was mounted in Athens, by a group which became known as "the 400". However, a parallel attempt by

5781-399: The Athenians. Through Cleisthenes' reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomic institutions—equal rights for all citizens (though only men were citizens)—and established ostracism . The isonomic and isegoric (equal freedom of speech) democracy was first organized into about 130 demes , which became the basic civic element. The 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of

5904-547: The Battle of Haliartus the Spartans had been defeated by the Theban forces. Worse yet, Lysander, Sparta's chief military leader, had been killed during the battle. This was the start of what became known as the " Corinthian War " (395–387 BC). Upon hearing of the Spartan loss at Haliartus and of the death of Lysander, Agesilaus headed out of Asia Minor, back across the Hellespont, across Thrace and back towards Greece. At

6027-513: The Elite), who managed financial and military matters respectively. There were a number of boularchoi (Council Commanders) who seem to have been a steering committee for the Council. When these first appear in the 260s, there were two of them, but by the end of the third century BC they had risen to six or more, presumably as a result of the continued expansion of the league's membership (and thus of

6150-574: The Eurypontid king as Agesilaus II , expelled Leotychidas from the country, and took over all of Agis' estates and property. The end of the Peloponnesian War left Sparta the master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role. Within a few years the democratic party regained power in Athens and in other cities. In 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens , Argos , Thebes , and Corinth,

6273-588: The Illyrians under Agron attacked the Aetolians, and managed to take many prisoners and booty. In 229 BC, the Aetolians participated in a naval battle off the island of Paxos in a coalition with Korkyra and the Achaean League , and were defeated by a coalition of Illyrians and Acarnanians ; as a result, the Korkyreans were forced to accept an Illyrian garrison in their city, which was put under

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6396-609: The Ionian cities, sent a Persian fleet to punish the Greeks. (Historians are uncertain about their number of men; accounts vary from 18,000 to 100,000.) They landed in Attica intending to take Athens, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army of 9,000 Athenian hoplites and 1,000 Plataeans led by the Athenian general Miltiades . The Persian fleet continued to Athens but, seeing it garrisoned, decided not to attempt an assault. In 480 BC, Darius' successor Xerxes I sent

6519-510: The League took the name "Delian League". Its formal purpose was to liberate Greek cities still under Persian control. However, it became increasingly apparent that the Delian League was really a front for Athenian hegemony throughout the Aegean. A competing coalition of Greek city-states centred around Sparta arose, and became more important as the external Persian threat subsided. This coalition

6642-434: The League. Still, the Aetolian League had to fight against Macedonia and were driven to an alliance with Rome , which resulted in the final conquest of Greece by the Romans. The Aetolians were a recognised ethnic group with a religious centre at Thermos from at least the seventh century BC. During the Peloponnesian War , the Aetolians were initially neutral, but when the Athenians tried to invade Aetolia in 426 BC ,

6765-436: The Libyans (they say) to make an oracle of Ammon; this also is sacred to Zeus. Such was the story told by the Dodonaean priestesses, the eldest of whom was Promeneia and the next Timarete and the youngest Nicandra; and the rest of the servants of the temple at Dodona similarly held it true. In the simplest analysis, this was a confirmation of the oracle tradition in Egypt. The element of the dove may be an attempt to account for

6888-618: The Megarian people. The Peloponnesian League accused Athens of violating the Thirty Years Peace through all of the aforementioned actions, and, accordingly, Sparta formally declared war on Athens. Many historians consider these to be merely the immediate causes of the war. They would argue that the underlying cause was the growing resentment on the part of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over Greek affairs. The war lasted 27 years, partly because Athens (a naval power) and Sparta (a land-based military power) found it difficult to come to grips with each other. Sparta's initial strategy

7011-474: The Naia festival of Dodona. In 362 CE, Emperor Julian consulted the oracle prior to his military campaigns against the Persians. Pilgrims still consulted the oracle until 391-392 CE when Emperor Theodosius closed all pagan temples, banned all pagan religious activities, and cut down the ancient oak tree at the sanctuary of Zeus. Although the surviving town was insignificant, the long-hallowed pagan site must have retained significance for Christians given that

7134-444: The Oracle of Dodona arrived from most of the Greek world including its colonies. Although an adjacent area there were few Illyrian dedication most probably because the Oracle preferred interaction with the Greek world. Until 650 BCE, Dodona was a religious and oracular centre mainly for northern tribes; only after 650 BCE did it become important for the southern tribes. Zeus was worshipped at Dodona as "Zeus Naios" or "Naos" (god of

7257-428: The Peloponnese Peninsula. In the 7th century BC Argos dominated the peninsula. Even in the early 6th century the Argives attempted to control the northeastern part of the peninsula. The rise of Sparta in the 6th century brought Sparta into conflict with Argos. However, with the conquest of the Peloponnesian city-state of Tegea in 550 BC and the defeat of the Argives in 546 BC the Spartans' control began to reach well beyond

7380-400: The Peloponnesian War vary from account to account. However three causes are fairly consistent among the ancient historians, namely Thucydides and Plutarch . Prior to the war, Corinth and one of its colonies, Corcyra (modern-day Corfu ), went to war in 435 BC over the new Corcyran colony of Epidamnus . Sparta refused to become involved in the conflict and urged an arbitrated settlement of

7503-401: The Persian army at Plataea . The Persians then began to withdraw from Greece, and never attempted an invasion again. The Athenian fleet then turned to chasing the Persians from the Aegean Sea, defeating their fleet decisively in the Battle of Mycale ; then in 478 BC the fleet captured Byzantium . At that time Athens enrolled all the island states and some mainland ones into an alliance called

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7626-521: The Persians to dominate the Greek peninsula. Among the war party in Athens, a belief arose that the catastrophic defeat of the military expedition to Sicily in 415–413 could have been avoided if Alcibiades had been allowed to lead the expedition. Thus, despite his treacherous flight to Sparta and his collaboration with Sparta and later with the Persian court, there arose a demand among the war party that Alcibiades be allowed to return to Athens without being arrested. Alcibiades negotiated with his supporters on

7749-499: The Spartan Empire provoked much heated debate among Sparta's full citizens. The admiral Lysander felt that the Spartans should rebuild the Athenian empire in such a way that Sparta profited from it. Lysander tended to be too proud to take advice from others. Prior to this, Spartan law forbade the use of all precious metals by private citizens, with transactions being carried out with cumbersome iron ingots (which generally discouraged their accumulation) and all precious metals obtained by

7872-449: The Spartan navy was after the Battle of Abydos, the Persian navy directly assisted the Spartans. Alcibiades then pursued and met the combined Spartan and Persian fleets at the Battle of Cyzicus later in the spring of 410, achieving a significant victory. With the financial help of the Persians, Sparta built a fleet to challenge Athenian naval supremacy. With the new fleet and new military leader Lysander , Sparta attacked Abydos , seizing

7995-478: The Spartan state. Agesilaus employed a political dynamic that played on a feeling of pan-Hellenic sentiment and launched a successful campaign against the Persian empire. Once again, the Persian empire played both sides against each other. The Persian Court supported Sparta in the rebuilding of their navy while simultaneously funding the Athenians, who used Persian subsidies to rebuild their long walls (destroyed in 404 BC) as well as to reconstruct their fleet and win

8118-399: The action of the vandals would have weakened Alcibiades and the war party in Athens. Furthermore, it is unlikely that Alcibiades would have deliberately defaced the statues of Hermes on the very eve of his departure with the fleet. Such defacement could only have been interpreted as a bad omen for the expedition that he had long advocated. Even before the fleet reached Sicily, word arrived to

8241-448: The aforesaid countries." The simplest analysis of the quote is: Egypt, for Greeks as well as for Egyptians, was a spring of human culture of all but immeasurable antiquity. This mythic element says that the oracles at the oasis of Siwa in Libya and of Dodona in Epirus were equally old, but similarly transmitted by Phoenician culture, and that the seeresses – Herodotus does not say " sibyls " – were women. Herodotus follows with what he

8364-424: The allied cities, all of which were put down by force, but Athenian dynamism finally awoke Sparta and brought about the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC. After both forces were spent, a brief peace came about; then the war resumed to Sparta's advantage. Athens was definitively defeated in 404 BC, and internal Athenian agitations mark the end of the 5th century BC in Greece. Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by

8487-487: The appointment of Phemonoe , the prophetess at Delphi. The introduction of female attendants probably took place in the fifth century. The timing of change is clearly prior to Herodotus (5th century BCE), with his narrative about the doves and Egypt. Aristotle ( Meteorologica , 1.14) places 'Hellas' in the parts about Dodona and the Achelous and says it was inhabited by "the Selloi, who were formerly called Graikoi, but now Hellenes." The alternative reading of Selloi

8610-474: The arrival of Alcibiades, and had been inclining slightly toward the Athenians. However, with the arrival of Alcibiades, the Athenian victory over the Spartans became a rout. Only the approach of nightfall and the movement of Persian troops to the coast where the Spartans had beached their ships saved the Spartan navy from total destruction. Following Alcibiades' advice, the Persian Empire had been playing Sparta and Athens off against each other. However, as weak as

8733-518: The assembly ( ἐκκλησία , ekklesia ), headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random. The city's administrative geography was reworked, in order to create mixed political groups: not federated by local interests linked to the sea, to the city, or to farming, whose decisions (e.g. a declaration of war) would depend on their geographical position. The territory of the city was also divided into thirty trittyes as follows: A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one from each of

8856-472: The assembly each year at the Thermica. The chief executive was the strategos (General), who commanded the league's armies, received all diplomatic contacts from other states in first instance, and presided over meetings of the assembly, the council, and the select-men. The office could be held multiple times, but only after an interval of, probably, four years. The hipparchos (Cavalry Commander), originally

8979-473: The borders of Laconia . As the two coalitions grew, their separate interests kept coming into conflict. Under the influence of King Archidamus II (the Eurypontid king of Sparta from 476 BC through 427 BC), Sparta, in the late summer or early autumn of 446 BC, concluded the Thirty Years Peace with Athens. This treaty took effect the next winter in 445 BC Under the terms of this treaty, Greece

9102-399: The city becoming state property. Without the Spartans' support, Lysander's innovations came into effect and brought a great deal of profit for him—on Samos, for example, festivals known as Lysandreia were organized in his honour. He was recalled to Sparta, and once there did not attend to any important matters. Sparta refused to see Lysander or his successors dominate. Not wanting to establish

9225-508: The city lost its greatest leader and his successors blundered into an ineffectual ten-year war with Phocis . In 346 BC the Thebans appealed to Philip II of Macedon to help them against the Phocians, thus drawing Macedon into Greek affairs for the first time. The Peloponnesian War was a radical turning point for the Greek world. Before 403 BC, the situation was more defined, with Athens and its allies (a zone of domination and stability, with

9348-552: The command of Themistocles , they defeated the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis . In 483 BC, during the period of peace between the two Persian invasions, a vein of silver ore had been discovered in the Laurion (a small mountain range near Athens), and the hundreds of talents mined there were used to build 200 warships to combat Aeginetan piracy. A year later, the Greeks, under the Spartan Pausanias , defeated

9471-875: The command of Demetrius of Pharos. In the Social War , 220-217 BC, the Aetolian League fought against the Kingdom of Macedonia . Philip V of Macedon invaded Aetolia and sacked the city of Thermos as a response to the Aetolians' invasion at the city of Dodona in Epirus. The league was the first Greek ally of the Roman Republic , siding with the Romans during the First Macedonian War , 215-205 BC, and helping to defeat Philip V of Macedon at

9594-429: The correct actions to be taken. According to a new interpretation, the oracular sound originated from bronze objects hanging from oak branches and sounded with the wind blowing, similar to a wind chime . According to Nicholas Hammond , Dodona was an oracle devoted to a Mother Goddess (identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia , but here called Dione ) who was joined and partly supplanted in historical times by

9717-405: The death of Agis II, Leotychidas attempted to claim the Eurypontid throne for himself, but this was met with an outcry, led by Lysander, who was at the height of his influence in Sparta. Lysander argued that Leotychidas was a bastard and could not inherit the Eurypontid throne; instead he backed the hereditary claim of Agesilaus, son of Agis by another wife. With Lysander's support, Agesilaus became

9840-545: The democracy and appointed in its place an oligarchy called the " Thirty Tyrants " to govern Athens. Meanwhile, in Sparta, Timaea gave birth to a child. The child was given the name Leotychidas, after the great grandfather of Agis II—King Leotychidas of Sparta. However, because of Timaea's alleged affair with Alcibiades, it was widely rumoured that the young Leotychidas was fathered by Alcibiades. Indeed, Agis II refused to acknowledge Leotychidas as his son until he relented, in front of witnesses, on his deathbed in 400 BC. Upon

9963-494: The economic growth of the Athenian Empire . Concentration on the Athenian Empire, however, brought Athens into conflict with another Greek state. Ever since the formation of the Delian League in 477 BC, the island of Melos had refused to join. By refusing to join the League, however, Melos reaped the benefits of the League without bearing any of the burdens. In 425 BC, an Athenian army under Cleon attacked Melos to force

10086-484: The first congress was named the "Hellenic League" and included Sparta. Persia, under Xerxes, invaded Greece in September 481 BC, but the Athenian navy defeated the Persian navy. The Persian land forces were delayed in 480 BC by a much smaller force of 300 Spartans, 400 Thebans and 700 men from Boeotian Thespiae at the Battle of Thermopylae . The Persians left Greece in 479 BC after their defeat at Plataea . Plataea

10209-441: The fleet that Alcibiades was to be arrested and charged with sacrilege of the statues of Hermes, prompting Alcibiades to flee to Sparta. When the fleet later landed in Sicily and the battle was joined, the expedition was a complete disaster. The entire expeditionary force was lost and Nicias was captured and executed. This was one of the most crushing defeats in the history of Athens. Meanwhile, Alcibiades betrayed Athens and became

10332-402: The former and conquered the latter, but he was wounded and forced to retreat back into Asia Minor. In addition, a fleet of around 1,200 ships that accompanied Mardonius on the expedition was wrecked by a storm off the coast of Mount Athos . Later, the generals Artaphernes and Datis led a successful naval expedition against the Aegean islands. In 490 BC, Darius the Great , having suppressed

10455-423: The god Hermes that were scattered throughout the city of Athens. This action was blamed on Alcibiades and was seen as a bad omen for the coming campaign. In all likelihood, the coordinated action against the statues of Hermes was the action of the peace party. Having lost the debate on the issue, the peace party was desperate to weaken Alcibiades' hold on the people of Athens. Successfully blaming Alcibiades for

10578-430: The island to join the Delian League. However, Melos fought off the attack and was able to maintain its neutrality. Further conflict was inevitable and in the spring of 416 BC the mood of the people in Athens was inclined toward military adventure. The island of Melos provided an outlet for this energy and frustration for the military party. Furthermore, there appeared to be no real opposition to this military expedition from

10701-455: The issue of joining the Delian League is presented by Thucydides in his Melian Dialogue . The debate did not in the end resolve any of the differences between Melos and Athens and Melos was invaded in 416 BC, and soon occupied by Athens. This success on the part of Athens whetted the appetite of the people of Athens for further expansion of the Athenian Empire. Accordingly, the people of Athens were ready for military action and tended to support

10824-472: The land to which she had come. After this, as soon as she understood the Greek language, she taught divination; and she said that her sister had been sold in Libya by the same Phoenicians who sold her. I expect that these women were called 'doves' by the people of Dodona because they spoke a strange language, and the people thought it like the cries of birds; then the woman spoke what they could understand, and that

10947-535: The latter two former Spartan allies, challenged Sparta's dominance in the Corinthian War , which ended inconclusively in 387 BC. That same year Sparta shocked the Greeks by concluding the Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia. The agreement turned over the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus, reversing a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Sparta then tried to further weaken the power of Thebes, which led to

11070-624: The league to implode. Over the next decade it seems to have been reconstituted and in the later years of Alexander's reign the Aetolians seized Oeniadae against his will. The Aetolian League joined the Athenians in the Lamian war against Antipater which broke out after Alexander's death in 323 BC and continued to oppose Macedonian power throughout the Wars of the Diadochi , participating in invasions of Macedon in 320, 316/5 and 313 BC. Around 301 BC,

11193-559: The meager resources of their region and Will simply assumes the truth of the charge. By contrast, Grainger concludes that Aetolian involvement in piracy appears unlikely given that they lacked the necessary ships. Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece , marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture (such as Ionia and Macedonia ) gaining increased autonomy from

11316-477: The moderate Athenian leader Nicias concluded the Peace of Nicias (421). In 418 BC, however, conflict between Sparta and the Athenian ally Argos led to a resumption of hostilities. Alcibiades was one of the most influential voices in persuading the Athenians to ally with Argos against the Spartans. At the Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. Accordingly, Argos and

11439-510: The oldest Hellenic oracle , possibly dating to the 2nd millennium BCE according to Herodotus . The earliest accounts in Homer describe Dodona as an oracle of Zeus . Situated in a remote region away from the main Greek poleis , it was considered second only to the Oracle of Delphi in prestige. Aristotle considered the region around Dodona to have been part of Hellas and the region where

11562-526: The oracle was founded by the Pelasgi: This oracle, according to Ephorus, was founded by the Pelasgi. And the Pelasgi are called the earliest of all peoples who have held dominion in Greece. The site of the oracle was dominated by Mount Tomaros , the area being controlled by the Thesprotians and then the Molossians : In ancient times, then, Dodona was under the rule of the Thesprotians; and so

11685-598: The oracle was quite swampy, with lakes in the area and reference to the "holy spring" of Dodona may be a later addition. Jebb mostly follows Strabo in his analysis. Accordingly, he notes that the Selloi, the prophets of Zeus, were also called tomouroi , which name derived from Mount Tomares. Tomouroi was also a variant reading found in the Odyssey . According to Jebb, the Peleiades at Dodona were very early, and preceded

11808-445: The other ancient Greek states . From the perspective of Athenian culture in classical Greece, the period generally referred to as the 5th century BC extends slightly into the 6th century BC. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this century occurs in 508 BC, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant and Cleisthenes ' reforms. However, a broader view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at

11931-527: The other king was from the Agiad Dynasty. With the signing of the Thirty Years Peace treaty, Archidamus II felt he had successfully prevented Sparta from entering into a war with its neighbours. However, the strong war party in Sparta soon won out and in 431 BC Archidamus was forced to go to war with the Delian League. However, in 427 BC, Archidamus II died and his son, Agis II succeeded to the Eurypontid throne of Sparta. The immediate causes of

12054-444: The other magistrates at the Thermica, but their relative rank is not clear. The Aetolian League acquired a reputation for piracy and brigandage . Though some historians recognize a pro- Achaean bias in the portrayal of the League by Polybius , many modern historians also accept his portrayal as largely justified. For example, Walbank is explicit in seeing the Aetolians as systematically using piracy to supplement their income due to

12177-526: The peace party. Enforcement of the economic obligations of the Delian League upon rebellious city-states and islands was a means by which continuing trade and prosperity of Athens could be assured. Melos alone among all the Cycladic Islands located in the south-west Aegean Sea had resisted joining the Delian League. This continued rebellion provided a bad example to the rest of the members of the Delian League. The debate between Athens and Melos over

12300-414: The prophets might be ranked among these), but later on three old women were designated as prophets, after Dione also had been designated as temple-associate of Zeus. Strabo also reports as uncertain the story that the predecessor of Dodona oracle was located in Thessaly : ...the temple [oracle] was transferred from Thessaly, from the part of Pelasgia which is about Scotussa (and Scotussa does belong to

12423-485: The rest of the Peloponnesus was brought back under the control of Sparta. The return of peace allowed Athens to be diverted from meddling in the affairs of the Peloponnesus and to concentrate on building up the empire and putting their finances in order. Soon trade recovered and tribute began, once again, rolling into Athens. A strong "peace party" arose, which promoted avoidance of war and continued concentration on

12546-414: The sacred women and sell one in Libya and one in Hellas, then, in my opinion, the place where this woman was sold in what is now Hellas, but was formerly called Pelasgia , was Thesprotia ; and then, being a slave there, she established a shrine of Zeus under an oak that was growing there; for it was reasonable that, as she had been a handmaid of the temple of Zeus at Thebes, she would remember that temple in

12669-527: The size of the Council). From 278 the league sent delegates to the Amphictyonic League (Delphic Amphictyony), gradually increasing over time until the league held a majority of the seats on the council, which increasingly became an instrument of Aetolian power projection. From the 260s, the secretary of the Amphictyonic council was always an Aetolian. These delegates seem to have been elected along with

12792-554: The spring below the oak in the temenos or sanctuary , cf. Naiads ) and as "Zeus Bouleus" (Counsellor). According to Plutarch , the worship of Jupiter (Zeus) at Dodona was set up by Deucalion and Pyrrha . The earliest mention of Dodona is in Homer , and only Zeus is mentioned in this account. In the Iliad (circa 750 BCE), Achilles prays to "High Zeus, Lord of Dodona, Pelasgian , living afar off, brooding over wintry Dodona" (thus demonstrating that Zeus also could be invoked from

12915-514: The strategic initiative. By occupying the Hellespont , the source of Athens' grain imports, Sparta effectively threatened Athens with starvation. In response, Athens sent its last remaining fleet to confront Lysander, but were decisively defeated at Aegospotami (405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with bankruptcy. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. Lysander abolished

13038-498: The struggle. In 433 BC, Corcyra sought Athenian assistance in the war. Corinth was known to be a traditional enemy of Athens. However, to further encourage Athens to enter the conflict, Corcyra pointed out how useful a friendly relationship with Corcyra would be, given the strategic locations of Corcyra itself and the colony of Epidamnus on the east shore of the Adriatic Sea. Furthermore, Corcyra promised that Athens would have

13161-599: The territory called Thessalia Pelasgiotis ), and also that most of the women whose descendants are the prophetesses of today went along at the same time; and it is from this fact that Zeus was also called “Pelasgian.” In a fragment of Strabo we find the following: Among the Thesprotians and the Molossians old women are called "peliai" and old men "pelioi," as is also the case among the Macedonians; at any rate, those people call their dignitaries "peligones" (compare

13284-472: The texts were written in Greek, and attest to over 1200 personal names from different areas; these were almost exclusively Greek, with non-Greek names (e.g. Thracian, Illyrian) making up around 1% of the total. Though it never eclipsed the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi , Dodona gained a reputation far beyond Greece. In the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes , a retelling of an older story of Jason and

13407-402: The three groups. Each tribe therefore always acted in the interest of all three sectors. It was this corpus of reforms that allowed the emergence of a wider democracy in the 460s and 450s BC. In Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of Turkey ), the Greek cities, which included great centres such as Miletus and Halicarnassus , were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of

13530-447: The use of Corcyra's navy, the third-largest in Greece. This was too good of an offer for Athens to refuse. Accordingly, Athens signed a defensive alliance with Corcyra. The next year, in 432 BC, Corinth and Athens argued over control of Potidaea (near modern-day Nea Potidaia ), eventually leading to an Athenian siege of Potidaea. In 434–433 BC Athens issued the " Megarian Decrees ", a series of decrees that placed economic sanctions on

13653-524: Was Mount Tomaros, or Tmaros (for it is called both ways), at the base of which the temple is situated. And both the tragic poets and Pindaros have called Dodona 'Thesprotian Dodona.' But later on it came under the rule of the Molossoi. According to Strabo, the prophecies were originally uttered by men: At the outset, it is true, those who uttered the prophecies were men (this too perhaps the poet indicates, for he calls them “hypophetae” [interpreters] and

13776-505: Was accused of having seduced Timaea, the wife of Agis II, the Eurypontid king of Sparta. Accordingly, Alcibiades was required to flee from Sparta and seek the protection of the Persian Court. In the Persian court, Alcibiades now betrayed both Athens and Sparta. He encouraged Persia to give Sparta financial aid to build a navy, advising that long and continuous warfare between Sparta and Athens would weaken both city-states and allow

13899-537: Was also unearthed on the site, in association with kylix stems. Archaeological evidence shows that the cult of Zeus was established around the same time. During the post-Mycenaean period (or " Greek Dark Ages "), evidence of activity at Dodona is scant, but there is a resumption of contact between Dodona and southern Greece during the Archaic period (8th century BCE) with the presence of bronze votive offerings (i.e. tripods ) from southern Greek cities. Dedication to

14022-427: Was forced to sign a peace treaty with Rome that made it a subject ally of the republic. Although it continued to exist in name, the power of the league was broken by the treaty and it never again constituted a significant political or military force. The league had a federal structure, which could raise armies and conduct foreign policy on a common basis. It also implemented economic standardization, levying taxes, using

14145-494: Was formally divided into two large power zones. Sparta and Athens agreed to stay within their own power zone and not to interfere in the other's. Despite the Thirty Years Peace, it was clear that war was inevitable. As noted above, at all times during its history down to 221 BC, Sparta was a "diarchy" with two kings ruling the city-state concurrently. One line of hereditary kings was from the Eurypontid Dynasty while

14268-464: Was founded by Epaminondas in 367 BC. Grainger believes that it was founded much later, around the time of the rise of Philip II of Macedon. Archaeology indicates that settlements in Aetolia began to grow in size and complexity over the course of this century. After the death of Philip II in 336 BC, the Aetolians joined the Thebans in opposing Alexander the Great and the stress of their defeat caused

14391-480: Was limited by the infrequency with which it met. Two meetings took place a year, one at the Thermica festival which was held at Thermos on the autumnal equinox and another in spring at the Panaetolica festival which took place at a different site each year. Emergency meetings could also be called. The exact competencies of the Council, referred to as a boula or synedrion in different documents, relative to

14514-490: Was no equality at all between the members, as might be implied by the term "league". Furthermore, most of its members were located outside the Peloponnese Peninsula. The terms "Spartan League" and "Peloponnesian League" are modern terms. Contemporaries instead referred to " Lacedaemonians and their Allies" to describe the "league". The league had its origins in Sparta's conflict with Argos , another city on

14637-408: Was not until the 4th century BCE that a small stone temple to Dione was added to the site. By the time Euripides mentioned Dodona (fragmentary play Melanippe ) and Herodotus wrote about the oracle, the priestesses had appeared at the site. Over 4200 oracular tablets have been found in Dodona, written in different alphabets, and dated approximately between the mid-6th and early 2nd centuries BCE. All

14760-538: Was originally an oracle of the Mother Goddess attended by priestesses. She was identified at other sites as Rhea or Gaia . The oracle also was shared by Dione . By classical times, Dione was relegated to a minor role elsewhere in classical Greece, being made into an aspect of Zeus's more usual consort, Hera — but never at Dodona. Many dedicatory inscriptions recovered from the site mention both "Dione" and "Zeus Naios". According to some archaeologists, it

14883-411: Was the final battle of Xerxes' invasion of Greece. After this, the Persians never again tried to invade Greece. With the disappearance of this external threat, cracks appeared in the united front of the Hellenic League. In 477, Athens became the recognised leader of a coalition of city-states that did not include Sparta. This coalition met and formalized their relationship at the holy city of Delos. Thus,

15006-429: Was to invade Attica , but the Athenians were able to retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of plague in the city during the siege caused many deaths, including that of Pericles . At the same time the Athenian fleet landed troops in the Peloponnesus, winning battles at Naupactus (429) and Pylos (425). However, these tactics could bring neither side a decisive victory. After several years of inconclusive campaigning,

15129-493: Was told by the prophetesses, called peleiades ("doves") at Dodona: that two black doves had come flying from Thebes in Egypt , one to Libya and one to Dodona; the latter settled on an oak tree, and there uttered human speech, declaring that a place of divination from Zeus must be made there; the people of Dodona understood that the message was divine, and therefore established the oracular shrine. The dove which came to Libya told

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