480 B.C.

User Summary:

A series of adventures and supplements originally written for Fantasy Imperium set in Europe around the year 480 B.C.

From the Publisher:

The Classical Age

Greece was controlled by about 200 "Poleis" or City States. The polis was a walled town surrounded by villages in the countryside. Each was completely independent of its neighbors.

The citizens of the polis thought their way of life was superior to the barbarians (anyone not a Greek), who were ruled by kings.

The citizens of a Greek polis served in the army in return for a voice in their government. The Greeks thought that by allowing men to be ruled by reason, they could live more productive lives.

The building of so many poleis spurred the development of architecture and sculpture. This in turn led to the philosophical speculation about man's relationship to the cosmos. The citizens of the polis could debate political issues in public assemblies. The preservation of freedom without dissolving into anarchy led the Greeks to believe that human beings also had the capacity to understand the structure of the cosmos. This was the start of Western philosophy and science. The high place of the polis called the "Acropolis" was where shrines to the local deities were kept.

During the 8th century B.C., the polis of Sparta fought a war of expansion against the Messenians. After 20 years of fighting, the Messenians lost the war and became Helots, agricultural laborers for the Spartans.

Argos, a polis to the north, became an enemy of Sparta in a struggle for dominance in the region, and after losing a battle at Hysiai in 669 B.C., the Helots revolted. The Helots were defeated by the Spartans even though the Helots outnumbered them by as much as ten to one. Since the Spartans needed to control the Helots, they developed the Military State.

The City State of Athens which had become one of the most populous and wealthiest of the poleis was a rival of the Military State of Sparta.

The difference in these two poleis was dramatic. Sparta was ruled jointly by two kings while Athens had a democracy. Sparta trained its citizens to be warriors, while the people of Athens learned how to be public speakers. While Sparta had a powerful army, Athens had a powerful navy.

In 500 B.C. the Persian Empire began to conquer poleis in western Turkey. When Athens supported revolts of these people against the invaders, the Persian King Darius invaded Greece. The Athenians defeated the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. In 480 B.C. Xerxes, the son of Darius, invaded again.

The Greek city states fought together against the Persian invaders, but were defeated after a small Spartan force was wiped out defending the narrow pass of Thermopylae in the north. Athens was captured and its temples destroyed.