1 The Persian War led to the Gold Age in Greek. Persia tried to invade Greek in 490 BC and 480 BC for twice, both of which were ended with the victory of Greek. Greece's victory ensured the independence and security of the Greek city-states, so that Greece continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean for centuries, which is known as Gold Age. (Section 2.3) 2 As the culture center of Greek, Athens had many advantages during the Gold Age. First of all, the economy was very strong in Athens. Athens is located in the gulf, and the transportation was very convenient, so development in industry and commerce increased rapidly. What’s more, Democracy was rising in Athens. “In 508 BCE, the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes instituted the first Athenian political democracy.” As the Greek playwright, Euripides wrote in his play that,“ Nothing is worse for a city than a tyrant.” (Section 2.2The Rise of Democracy and the Threat of Persia) Cleisthenes knew that, so he gave every …show more content…
They were good at rhetorical persuasion. People were willing to listen to them and then believed in what they said. In spite of being metics, their status in the society and influence of the public were enormous. 3 1. Architectural achievement. The Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion are located in Athens. All of them were built with extraordinary talents and skills. 2. Philosophy achievement. “The great Athenian philosopher Socrates, born in 469 BCE, a decade after the Greek defeat of the Persians.” He was not for the democracy. Even though he was about to be killed, he refused to admit he was wrong. His death claimed the experiment of democracy was a failure. Also, Protagoras, who said he didn’t know if gods exist or not. Many Sophists were in Greek at that time. 3. Republic and Idealism of Plato. He was against individualistic and self-aggrandizing world of Sophists, and also