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117-662: In the Late Bronze Age, it may have been known under the Hittite name Arrinnanda. In classical Greece nearly the entire ridge was a promontory enclosed by the Aegean Sea . Geopolitically it was part of Ionia with Priene placed on the coast on the south flank of the mountain and Miletus on the coast opposite to the south across the deep embayment into which the Maeander River drained. Somewhat further north

234-519: 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

351-675: A triumph . The emperors in the Julio-Claudian dynasty all sourced their Laurel wreaths from the original tree planted by Livia. It was taken as an omen of the impending end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that in the reign of Nero the entire grove died, shortly before he was assassinated. Rome's second Emperor Tiberius wore wreaths of laurel whenever there was stormy weather because it was widely believed that Laurel trees were immune to lightning strikes, affording protection to those who brandished it. One reason for this belief

468-652: 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

585-598: A constituted body had a name, the koinon Iōnōn ("common thing of the Ionians"), a synedrion ("place to sit down together") and a boulē ("council"). Whether this body existed before the Meliac War is uncertain. Vitruvius' commune consilium seems to translate koinon. Some analysts have postulated an association as early as 800 BC but whether formally constituted remains unknown. There is no sign of it yet on Mycale unless Carium had in fact been it. In 479 BC, Mycale

702-460: 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

819-824: A hot spot of earthquakes and volcanoes. Mount Mycale is part of a larger ridge, which continues in Samos on the other side of the Samos Strait, and to the northeast in the Aydin Dağlari ("Aydin Mountains"), ancient Messogis range, on the other side of low hills and passes. The entire block of mountains around the Menderes (Maeander) River is known as the Menderes Massif. Mycale is scored transversely by numerous ravines through which sources drain. The biggest ravine

936-442: A leaf. The leaves are glabrous, 6–12 cm (2–5 in) long and 2–4 cm ( 3 ⁄ 4 – 1 + 5 ⁄ 8  in) broad, with an entire (untoothed) margin. On some leaves the margin undulates. The fruit is a small, shiny black drupe-like berry about 1 cm ( 3 ⁄ 8  in) long that contains one seed. Laurus nobilis is a widespread relict of the laurel forests that originally covered much of

1053-470: 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

1170-646: 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

1287-477: 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

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1404-595: 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

1521-458: A passage from the now missing History of Maeandrius of Miletus to support their claim. The jury found that Maeandrius was not authentic and reversed the earlier decision. The Melians had named their capital Carium, "of Caria" as a Greek word. Considering that it was placed in Ionia, the choice of name suggests a political statement of some sort, although the word may have had a different meaning in

1638-572: 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 ,

1755-454: A priestess of Gaia (Mother Earth), and when he tried to seduce her she pleaded for help to Gaia, who transported her to Crete . In Daphne's place Gaia left a laurel tree, from which Apollo fashioned wreaths to console himself. Other versions of the myth, including that of the Roman poet Ovid , state that Daphne was transformed directly into a laurel tree. Bay laurel was used to fashion

1872-421: A promontory. The entire ridge was designated as a national park in 1966; Dilek Yarimadisi Milli Parki ("Dilek Peninsula National Park") has 109.85 km (27,145 acres), which is partly accessible to the public. The remainder is a military reservation. The park's isolation has encouraged the return of the native ecology, which is 60% maquis shrubland . It is a refuge for species that used to be more abundant in

1989-522: 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

2106-488: 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. Laurus nobilis Laurus nobilis / ˈ l ɔːr ə s ˈ n ɒ b ɪ l ɪ s / is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae . It

2223-483: A similar case brought before Lysimachus of Macedon a century earlier. That case is mentioned in an earlier inscription from Priene. Priene had now reopened the case arguing that their sale of plots from the land demonstrated their continuous ownership of it except for a brief period when an invasion of the Cimmerians under Lygdamis forced temporary Greek evacuation of the region (about 650 BC). The Samians used

2340-452: A simple garnish . Whole bay leaves have a long shelf life of about one year, under normal temperature and humidity. Whole bay leaves are used almost exclusively as flavor agents during the food preparation stage. Ground bay leaves, however, can be ingested safely and are often used in soups and stocks , as well as being a common addition to a Bloody Mary . Dried laurel berries and pressed leaf oil can both be used as robust spices, and

2457-589: A state located between Priene and Samos ; i.e., on Mycale. The inscription records the result of an arbitration between Priene and Samos by jurors from Rhodes . Both litigants claimed that Carium, the fortified settlement of Melia, and Dryussa, another settlement, had been distributed to them at the conclusion of the Meliac War, when the Carians were expelled. Being on the Samian side of the crest Melia had been resettled mainly by Samians and for this reason they had won

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2574-469: 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)

2691-400: A war levied pursuant to the directions of a general council ( communi consilio ); and in its place ... the city of Smyrna was admitted into the number of Ionian states ( inter Ionas est recepta )." There is no other mention of Melite anywhere but two fragments of Hecataeus say that Melia was a city of Caria and an inscription from Priene confirms that there had been a "Meliac War" against

2808-694: Is Oluk Gorge, with cliffs 200 m (656 ft) high. The main permanent streams are the Bal Deresi, the Sarap Dami and the Oluk Dereleri. The ample water supply supports a verdant maquis. The rock is primarily metamorphic : marble and limestone formed from rocks originating in the Mesozoic , crystalline schists formed from rocks originating in the Palaeozoic and conglomerates of

2925-490: Is a poultice soaked in boiled bay leaves. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder listed a variety of conditions which laurel oil was supposed to treat: paralysis, spasms, sciatica , bruises, headaches, catarrhs , ear infections, and rheumatism. In Greek , the plant is called δάφνη dáphnē , after the mythic mountain nymph of the same name . In the myth of Apollo and Daphne , the god Apollo fell in love with Daphne,

3042-423: Is also the source of the words baccalaureate and poet laureate , as well as the expressions "assume the laurel" and "resting on one's laurels". Pliny the Elder stated that the laurel was not permitted for "profane" uses – lighting it on fire at altars "for the propitiation of divinities" was strictly forbidden, because "it is very evident that the laurel protests against such usage by crackling as it does in

3159-436: Is an evergreen shrub or small tree , variable in size and sometimes reaching 7–18 m (23–59 ft) tall. The genus Laurus includes three accepted species, whose diagnostic key characters often overlap. The bay laurel is dioecious ( unisexual ), with male and female flowers on separate plants. Each flower is pale yellow-green, about 1 cm ( 3 ⁄ 8  in) diameter, and they are borne in pairs beside

3276-460: Is because laurel crackles loudly when on fire. It led ancient Romans to believe the plant was inhabited by a "heavenly fire demon ", and was therefore "immune" from outer threats like fire or lightning. In modern Italy, laurel wreaths are worn as a crown by graduating school students. An early Chinese etiological myth for the phases of the moon involved a great forest or tree which quickly grew and lost its leaves and flowers every month. After

3393-693: 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

3510-545: Is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking. Its common names include bay tree (esp. United Kingdom), bay laurel , sweet bay , true laurel , Grecian laurel , or simply laurel . Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture. Worldwide, many other kinds of plants in diverse families are also called "bay" or "laurel", generally due to similarity of foliage or aroma to Laurus nobilis . The laurel

3627-521: Is the previous name of Samos so the reader is to understand Mycalessos as the previous name of Mycale. On being chosen as the birthplace of Apollo, Delos becomes fixed in the sea. Hittite records of the Late Bronze Age . In Hitti language, Apasa ( Ephesus ), the capital of a state called Arzawa , in which also was Karkisha in ( Caria ) and Millawanda ( Miletus ). In the Linear B script tablets

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3744-511: 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

3861-537: 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

3978-454: The Cenozoic . The renowned builders and sculptors of Ionia made full use of these materials for their major works. The ridge and its environs offer a number of different ecologies. The crest is a sharp divide between the xerophytic southern slopes and the forested northern slopes, with 66.24 km (16,368 acres) of maquis and 35.74 km (8,832 acres) of mixed pine. Around the base of

4095-674: 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

4212-486: 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

4329-430: 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:

4446-678: 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

4563-498: 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

4680-637: The Mediterranean Basin when the climate of the region was more humid. With the drying of the Mediterranean during the Pliocene era, the laurel forests gradually retreated, and were replaced by the more drought-tolerant sclerophyll plant communities familiar today. Most of the last remaining laurel forests around the Mediterranean are believed to have disappeared approximately ten thousand years ago, although some remnants still persist in

4797-737: The Mid-Autumn Festival . However, in English, it is often associated with the more well-known cassia ( Cinnamomum cassia , now known in Chinese as the 肉桂 or "meat gui ") while, in modern Chinese, it has instead become associated with the Mediterranean laurel. By the Qing dynasty , the chengyu "pluck osmanthus in the Toad Palace" ( 蟾宫折桂 , Chángōng zhé guì ) meant passing the imperial examinations , which were held around

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4914-481: 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

5031-468: The Sui and Tang dynasties , this was sometimes connected to a woodsman named Wu Gang , sentenced to cut at a self-repairing tree as a punishment for varying offenses. The tree was originally identified as a 桂 ( guì ) and described in the terms of the osmanthus ( Osmanthus fragrans , now known in Chinese as the 桂花 or " gui flower"), whose blossoms are still used to flavor wine and confections for

5148-484: 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

5265-552: The laurel wreath of ancient Greece , a symbol of highest status. A wreath of bay laurels was given as the prize at the Pythian Games because the games were in honor of Apollo, and the laurel was one of his symbols. According to the poet Lucian , the priestess of Apollo known as the Pythia reputedly chewed laurel leaves from a sacred tree growing inside the temple to induce the enthusiasmos (trance) from which she uttered

5382-573: 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

5499-591: 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

5616-486: The Aegean looking for a home for her son, and settles on Delos , the major Ionian political, religious and cultural center of Classical Greece . A similar metaphor is to be found in the centuries-later Hymn to Delos of Callimachus , in which Delos , a swimming island, visits various places in the Aegean, including Parthenia, "Maiden's Isle" ( Samos ), where it is entertained by the nymphs of Mycalessos. Just as Parthenia

5733-472: 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

5850-399: 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

5967-547: 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

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6084-549: The Carian language, now lost except for a few dozen words. The Ionians leagued together to defeat it and continued the league, building a capital they called Panionium , "of all the Ionians" next to the former Carium. It rose to prominence while the Ionian confederacy was sovereign, became a memory when Ionia was incorporated into other states and empires and finally was lost altogether. The ancient writers remembered that it had been on

6201-511: The Civil Wars and his close association with Apollo. Suetonius relates the story of Augustus' wife, and Rome's first Empress, Livia , who planted a sprig of laurel on the grounds of her villa at Prima Porta after an eagle dropped a hen with the sprig clutched in its beak onto her lap. The sprig grew into a full-size tree which fostered an entire grove of laurel trees, which were in turn added to by subsequent Emperors when they celebrated

6318-574: 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,

6435-609: 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

6552-480: The Late Bronze Age the entire Aegean region entered a historical period termed the Greek Dark Ages . Archaeologically it was known as the Proto-geometric and Geometric Periods, which did not belong to any one ethnic group. This is the time to which heavy Ionic migration from mainland Greece to the coast of Ionia and the emergence of Delos as an Ionian center is believed to apply. These events were over at

6669-457: 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

6786-742: 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

6903-619: 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

7020-400: 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

7137-401: 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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7254-521: 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

7371-499: 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

7488-449: 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

7605-478: 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

7722-399: 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

7839-424: 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

7956-474: 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

8073-518: 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

8190-405: 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

8307-399: 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

8424-563: 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

8541-552: 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

8658-405: 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

8775-545: 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

8892-496: The desired height. Together with a gold form, L. nobilis 'Aurea' and a willow-leaved form L. nobilis f. angustifolia , it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society 's Award of Garden Merit . One of the most important pests affecting ornamental laurels is caused by the jumping plant louse Trioza alacris , which induces the curling and thickening of the edge of the leaves for the development of

9009-667: The eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture (such as Ionia and Macedonia ) gaining increased autonomy from 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

9126-494: 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

9243-583: The family – a father and a son – acquired both town rights and the status of staple town for the village at the time. The most abundant component found in laurel essential oil is 1,8-cineole , also called eucalyptol. The leaves contain about 1.3% essential oils ( ol. lauri folii ), consisting of 45% eucalyptol , 12% other terpenes , 8–12% terpinyl acetate , 3–4% sesquiterpenes , 3% methyleugenol , and other α- and β- pinenes , phellandrene , linalool , geraniol , and terpineol . It contains lauric acid also. Both essential and fatty oils are present in

9360-652: The fire, thus, in a manner, giving expression to its abhorrence of such treatment". Laurel was closely associated with the Roman Emperors, beginning with Augustus . Two Laurel trees flanked the entrance to Augustus' house on the Palatine Hill in Rome, which itself was connected to the Temple of Apollo Palatinus , which Augustus had built. Thus, the laurels had the dual purpose of advertising Augustus' victory in

9477-484: 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

9594-441: 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

9711-402: 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

9828-423: 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

9945-402: The insect's nymphs , eventually creating a necrosed gall . The species is also affected by the scale insect Coccus hesperidum . In herbal medicine , aqueous extracts of bay laurel have been used as an astringent and salve for open wounds. It is also used in massage therapy and aromatherapy . A folk remedy for rashes caused by poison ivy , poison oak , and stinging nettle

10062-430: 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

10179-455: 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

10296-535: 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

10413-477: 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

10530-590: The mountains of southern Turkey , northern Syria , southern Spain , north-central Portugal , northern Morocco , the Canary Islands and in Madeira . The plant is the source of several popular herbs and one spice used in a wide variety of recipes, particularly among Mediterranean cuisines. Most commonly, the aromatic leaves are added whole to Italian pasta sauces. They are typically removed from dishes before serving, although they may also be used as

10647-512: The north side of the mountain, across the ridge from Priene . After a few false identifications in modern times, the ruins of Melia and the Panionium were discovered in 2004 on Dilek Daglari, a smaller peak of Mycale, 15 km (9 mi) to the north of Priene at an elevation of 750 m (2,461 ft). The Carium must be the early 7th century BC town surrounded by a triangular wall in places as thick as 3 m (10 ft). The floruit

10764-534: The oracular prophecies for which she was famous. Some accounts starting in the fourth century BC describe her as shaking a laurel branch while delivering her prophecies. Those who received promising omens from the Pythia were crowned with laurel wreaths as a symbol of Apollo's favor. The symbolism carried over to Roman culture , which held the laurel as a symbol of victory. It was also associated with immortality, with ritual purification, prosperity and health. It

10881-445: 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

10998-527: 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

11115-526: 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

11232-954: The promontory is a maritime environment. The maquis vegetation includes Pistacia lentiscus ; Laurus nobilis ; Quercus ilex , Q. frainetto and Q. ithaburensis ; Phillyrea latifolia ; Ceratonia siliqua ; Olea europaea ; Rubus fruticosus ; Myrtus communis ; Smilax ; Jasminum fruticans ; Vitis vinifera ; Lathyrus grandiflorus ; Erica arborea , and Juncus on the slopes of the north. In moister areas are to be found Nerium oleander , Platanus orientalis , Fraxinus ornus , Laurus nobilis , Cupressus sempervirens and Rubus fruticosus . The mixed pine forest goes up to 700 m (2,297 ft). Its major plant species are Pinus brutia , Juniperus phoenicea , with broad-leaved trees and shrubs: Ulmus campestris , Acer sempervirens , Fraxinus ornus , Castanea sativa , Tilia platyphyllos , Sorbus torminalis , Viburnum tinus , Pyrus eleagrifolia , and Prunus dulcis . Some mammals native to

11349-641: The region are Sus scrofa , Vulpes vulpes , Hystrix cristata , Canis aureus , Canis lupus , Martes martes , Lynx lynx , Felis sylvestris , Ursus arctos , Meles meles , Lepus , Erinaceus europaeus , and Sciurus . Migrants are Caracal caracal and Panthera pardus . Some birds are Columba livia , Alectoris graeca , Perdix perdix , Coturnix coturnix , Scolopax rusticola , Turdus merula , Turdus pilaris , Oriolus oriolus , Merops apiaster , eagles , vultures , Corvus corax , Pica pica , and Sturnus vulgaris . Monachus monachus breeds in caves around

11466-469: The region is called A-swi-ja (Asia). Documents at Pylos , Thebes and Knossos identify female textile workers and seamstresses (raptria) in servitude of Mi-ra-ti-ja, *Milātiai, "Milesians". The regions from which they came were centers of Mycenaean civilization although the languages they spoke was an early Greek-Mycenaean language and written in Linear B, although some support that was an unknown. After

11583-598: The region. Western Turkey is mainly fault-block terrain, with steep-sided ridges running east–west and rivers in the rifts. The source of the faulting is the closing of Tethys Sea and the collision of the African and Arabian Plates with the Eurasian Plate . The smaller Turkish and Aegean plates are being pushed together, generating ridges in Turkey. This orogenic belt was in place by 1.6 mya and continues to be

11700-485: 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

11817-662: The shores of Mycale. They and other marine predators (including man) feed on Planiliza , Pagellus , Dentex vulgaris and Thunnus thynnus . Mycale, Miletus and the Maeander appear in the Trojan Battle Order of the Iliad , where they are populated by Carians . "The steep heights of Mycale" and Miletus are also in the Hymn to Apollo , where Leto , pregnant with Apollo , an especially Ionian god, travels about

11934-489: The start of the brilliant renaissance of the Orientalizing Period in which Ionia played a cardinal role. During this rise to prominence twelve cities were settled or resettled and emerged as Ionia speaking varieties of Ionic Greek . Vitruvius , however, says there were thirteen, the extra state being Melite, which "... as a punishment of the arrogance of its citizens was detached from the other states in

12051-514: 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

12168-498: 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

12285-402: 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

12402-464: The time of the lunar festival. The similar association in Europe of laurels with victory and success led to its translation into Chinese as the 月桂 or "Moon gui ". The laurel leaves in the coat of arms of Kaskinen , Finland ( Swedish : Kaskö ) may have been meant to refer to local flowering, but its origin may also be in the name of the family Bladh ( Swedish : blad ; 'leaf'); two members of

12519-447: 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

12636-418: The wood can be burnt for strong smoke flavoring . Laurus nobilis is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in regions with Mediterranean or oceanic climates , and as a house plant or greenhouse plant in colder regions. It is used in topiary to create single erect stems with ball-shaped, box-shaped or twisted crowns; also for low hedges. However, it is slow-growing and may take several years to reach

12753-436: Was Ephesus . The ruins of the first two Ionian cities mentioned with their harbor facilities remain but today are several miles inland overlooking instead a rich agricultural plain and delta parkland created by deposition of sediments from the river, which continues to form the geological feature named after it, maeanders . The end of the former bay remains as a lake, Çamiçi Gölü ( Lake Bafa ). Samsun Daği, or Mycale, still has

12870-646: Was a renegade Ionian state. The temple believed to the Panionium was constructed next to the Carium about 540 BC. It took over the worship of Poseidon Heliconius, served as the meeting place of the Ionian League , and was the site of the religious festival and games ( panegyris ) called the Panionia . The construction of this temple is a terminus post quem for the existence of the Ionian League , which as

12987-505: 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

13104-494: 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

13221-417: 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

13338-561: Was the early 7th, but sherds have been found there from as early as the Protogeometric period . Coldstream characterizes the burial structures as of "a considerable Carian substrate". The culture was not entirely Carian; the Ionians continued the worship of Poseidon Heliconius there, which Strabo says came from Helike in Peloponnesian Achaea. This event must have been during the Ionian colonization. Melia therefore

13455-411: 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,

13572-689: Was the site of one of the two major battles that ended the second Persian invasion of Greece , during the Greco-Persian Wars . Under the leadership of the Spartan Leotychides , the Greek fleet defeated the Persian fleet and army. According to Herodotus , the battle occurred the same day as the Greek victory at Plataea . Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece , marked by much of

13689-429: 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,

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