The most important thing about this kind of meeting is the election meeting. On the day of the election meeting, the venue was packed with people. Athenians were ashamed that they had never held any public office in their lives, so the enthusiasm for the meeting was very high.

Then let’s talk about the most important thing. In the past, Athenian judges, soldiers, parliamentarians and public officials were not paid. Even soldiers had to buy their own armor, weapons and even horses. In fact, we have talked about this before, only

Only fourth-class civilians can get paid if they serve as soldiers, which means that only the poorest people can get paid if they serve as soldiers.

So this led to a strange phenomenon. All positions were held by wealthy people. But Pericles changed this system at this time. The system he formulated is: public officials will be paid by the state in the future.

, and in this way, ordinary citizens can serve as judges, parliamentarians, and other arbitrary public positions, which indirectly expands the democratic rights of ordinary citizens.

The election meeting mainly elects ten generals, ten infantry commanders, two cavalry commanders, and one treasurer. These positions involve the army and the treasury, so this is very important. When the host of the meeting reads the candidates

When someone's name is called, the citizens vote by a show of hands, and the person with the most support is elected.

There is also a strange rule, which seems a bit strange to us today. This rule is: a very important high-level official position, as well as judges, prison officers, etc., are filled by drawing lots.

decided.

The lottery is held in the temple. There are two boxes in the temple. One box contains the candidate's name, and the other box contains black beans and white beans. When the lot is drawn, the candidate first draws a list of people.

, and then take out a bean from another box. If it happens to be a white bean, then the candidate is elected, otherwise the candidate loses the election.

The final form is that two months after the election convention, the original public officials begin to transfer power to the newly elected public officials.

It is not difficult to see from here that the civilian power in Athens at this time was actually very good, and it was also an extraordinarily progressive system. But in the final analysis, Athens was still a so-called civil rights system of slavery, and it also served the ruling class.

, so it has great limitations.

However, it was Pericles' extraordinary reforms that eventually led to the very rapid development of Athens. This era can be said to be the golden age of Athens, which has reached the most prosperous level in this era on earth.

Development and prosperity.

Therefore, Athens' military power is very powerful and continues to expand outwards. Athens also turned the members of the Delian League into their own tributaries and controlled the Aegean Sea. This formed a relationship with Athens.

Bada was competing for hegemony over the whole of Greece.

The Spartans were originally not very good-tempered. After all, the Spartan city-state was originally a completely militarized city-state, and it was tit for tat with Athens. For example, the Athenians used powerful military power to attack the next tribe, and then captured the people inside.

slaves, the Spartans would interfere in its internal affairs. On the contrary, if the Spartans attacked the next tribe, and then the Spartans captured the slaves in that tribe, the Athenians would also interfere in its internal affairs. This would lead to

Conflicts between the Badans and the Athenians continued, even to the extent of small battles.

But why is this? In fact, because the people of the Greek city-states no longer have the threat of the Persian Empire, why do you say this? In 449 BC, Greece and Persia signed the "Peace of Callias" in the Persian capital. Greece

The fifty-year war with Persia came to an end.

Moreover, the Greek city-state of Athens controls the entire maritime hegemony, so even if Persia wants to tear up the treaty, it will not be easy to attack Greece. Another is that after the maritime hegemony was controlled by Athens, the Phoenicians, a dependent country of Persia, also began to decline.

At this point, various conflicts between Athens and Spartans have occurred within Greece. We can say that they really have nothing to do now. Of course, this is in addition to robbing resources. It is precisely because of this robbing of slaves and resources

This incident caused constant conflicts and conflicts between Athens and Sparta.

In 435 BC, Corinth had a dispute with its colony Kercyra. In 433 BC, Athens dispatched a large number of naval warships to aid Kercyra, forcing Corinth to retreat. In 432 BC, Athens used the Corinthian colony of Potidaea

On the grounds of belonging to the Delian League, it was required to sever ties with Corinth, and the conflicts between the two sides intensified!

In the autumn of 432 BC, the states of the Peloponnesian League met and, instigated by Corinthian representatives, demanded that Athens give up its leadership of the Delian League, but Athens severely refused.

Faced with this dispute with Athens, the Spartans finally became furious and decided to use violence to solve the problem! They used military force mainly based on the army to encourage members of the Delian League to rebel. How should I say this?

What? The Spartan army was indeed so powerful that no one dared to offend easily, so the Spartans' agitation still played a big role.

The ultimate goal of the Spartans was to weaken and isolate Athens' war strategy, because the heavy armored phalanx infantry and cavalry trained like devils by Sparta would undoubtedly have an absolute advantage in land battles!

In fact, the Spartans were really angry at this time and wanted to destroy Athens' thinking mode. However, the Athenians were not afraid of the Spartans because the Athenian navy was too powerful. Unfortunately, the Spartans were not

Fool, the Spartans obviously understood their own strengths and weaknesses, so they made such a strategy.

And another one is that it seems that only when the powerful threat of the Persian Empire exists, can the Greek Empire maintain this temporary unity relationship. Once the threat of the Persian Empire is lost, these Greeks are obviously not as united as before, and they all start their own

Fight their own people and compete for their resources and wealth. We can also say that this civil war in the true sense is not a civil war of resistance caused by the lack of power of slaves or civilians. The nature of this civil war is that various groups in the Greek empire

It is believed to be caused by the so-called uneven distribution of spoils among city-states.

At this point, in 431 BC, the Peloponnesian League was the new alliance on Sparta's side. One of the members of the Peloponnesian League was named Thebes, and they attacked Athens' allies.

Brad, this started a war!

In May of the same year, the king of Sparta led more than 60,000 elite troops, including Spartan warriors, and marched toward Attica. At this point, the Peloponnesian war was in full swing.

break out!

The commander-in-chief of Athens at this time was still Pericles. He was not only an absolutely excellent reformer, but also an absolutely outstanding military strategist. Therefore, Pericles had a very clear understanding of the situation. By now, Pericles was also very knowledgeable.

Understand that if you want to win the war or push back the Spartan army, you must avoid its strengths and attack its weaknesses. Therefore, Pericles adopted the strategy of focusing on defense on land and not attacking.

On the maritime battlefield, a forceful attack strategy was adopted, so Pericles immediately issued an order: the marines must definitely defend the main force, and then send fleets to invade various coastal areas of the Peloponnese.

While the Spartan army continued to attack Attica, the Athenian fleet successfully landed on the beaches of the Peloponnese, and then blocked the Peloponnese with a very tough attitude and even force.

All the ports on the coast of the peninsula completely cut off all maritime connections between the Spartan army and the outside world, and incited the hundreds of thousands of slave helots that the Spartans had enslaved to resist! This led to the Spartan

The land army was greatly constrained in its offensive, mainly due to the large supply of food and weapons and armor. This is equivalent to what we modern people call cutting off the army's food and grass. So this eventually led to Sparta

The more than 60,000 well-equipped army could not give full play to its maximum advantage. At this moment, the entire war situation was proceeding according to the Athenians' expectations.

But the Spartan army will also carry out various robberies along the way. This is what they have to do, otherwise everyone will starve to death. Although the Spartan warriors are very powerful, to put it bluntly, they are still human beings.

It's impossible not to eat or drink, right? So this resulted in the war continuing without forcing the King of Sparta to surrender at once.

Perhaps the war would eventually be won by the Athenians. Unfortunately, in 430 BC, a few months after the war, a very serious plague broke out in the city of Athens. The source of this plague

Before a thorough investigation was carried out, a large number of viruses spread at a rapid speed. Many, many people died in the city of Athens. Just dealing with the corpses every day required a lot of manpower.

And more importantly, not long after the plague lasted, Pericles, the supreme commander of Athens, contracted the plague and died. This ended Pericles' life as a great reformer and even a military strategist. And Pericles died.

After that, Athens changed from a defensive war to an aggressive war advocated by its commander Cleon.

The Athenian commander Cleon simply believed that attack was the better defense, so he attacked blindly, which immediately implicated almost all the city-states in Greece. This was the beginning of the largest civil war in the Greek Empire. This civil war was because of this

At that time, the supply of the Spartan Army was still subject to various restrictions, so it lasted for as long as five years.

In the past five years, all the city-states in Greece were full of scenes of people killing people. It was not even clear whether they were killing their own people, because the whole war was too chaotic. But if we use our modern concepts today
Chapter completed!