Year 12 Ancient - Persepolis

Hi guys, and welcome back after the trials. The verdict seems to be: more on Greek World, more on Xerxes, more on Sparta...which is fine, because that's what we'll be doing. You are getting better and better at Pompeii (you have been tested on it three times, now) but we will come back to that some time before the end of term.

In today's lesson, we looked at this great website from livius.org, focusing on the building and reliefs at Persepolis. it really is worth a closer look, if only to see some of the beautiful ruins that still remain after 2500 years. Click on the links and enjoy.

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes/Persian Wars Sources

Just a quick post. I have compiled some of the most relevant chunks of Herodotus, to provide some quotes on Xerxes and the Persian Wars.

You can access them here.

All the best in Monday's exam, I'm sure you'll all do wonderfully!

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes in The Persians

Some more quotes for you to play around with. The following are all from the play The persians, written by Aeschylus (a Greek) who actually fought at Salamis. Despite being fictional, the play is about real events, and gives us a fair idea of the Greek view of Xerxes: tyrannical, impetuous (acted before thinking), ill-fated, and hubristic (let his pride take him over the edge).

Quotes about Xerxes from the Play The Persians by Aeschylus

“The mighty Xerxes from Darius sprung”

“Deep were the groans of Xerxes when he saw This havoc; for his seat, a lofty mound Commanding the wide sea, o'erlook'd his hosts” [watching Salamis]

“Xerxes, ill-fated, led the war”

“Xerxes sent forth the unwise command, The crowded ships unpeopled all the land”

“The impetuous Xerxes, thinning all the land.” [of people, that is]

“The impetuous Xerxes learn'd; these caught his ear With thy great deeds, as winning for thy sons Vast riches with thy conquering spear, while he Tim'rous and slothful, never, save in sport, Lifted his lance, nor added to the wealth Won by his noble fathers. This reproach Oft by bad men repeated, urged his soul To attempt this war, and lead his troops to Greece.” [This is saying that Xerxes had never done anything of worth, and so he led his troops to Greece to try to secure his legacy]

“The unpeopled land laments her youth By Xerxes led to slaughter, till the realms Of death are gorged with Persians”

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Poll Results

Hi guys, hope everyone is enjoying their holidays...and studying hard. There are plenty of old exam papers you can be looking at on the BOS website.

meanwhile, the latest poll results (a few days late, I know):

Why did Xerxes leave Greece after Salamis? According to 77% of you, it was because he was so humiliated after the battle.

And why did Hitler invade the USSR? 83% of you believed he wanted more territory (lebensraum), whilst 50% each (you could make mulitple responses) said it was because he hated communism, and because it had been his lifelong obsession. All pretty accurate, I would say - Hitler certainly did see the fight with Russia as an ideological and racial showdown, that was both inevitable, and necessary for Germany's survival.

Year 12 Ancient - Exam Advice

Year 12 Ancient students will have their next assessment on Wednesday, in the double lesson. As you know, the format is as follows:

Time Allowed: 70 minutes

Part 1: 25 marks (35 minutes)
Essay question on the Persian Wars, using 'assess' or 'explain'.

Assess = make a judgement of value
Explain = relate cause and effect, make the relationships between things evident, provide why and/or how

So the question will ask you to make some sort of judgement about some aspect of the Persian Wars. Make sure you know:

• the causes and background of the conflict (persian expansion, Ionian Revolt)
  
• the details of the six major battles
• the contribution of Themistocles, Leonidas, Eurybiades, and Pausanias
• why the Greeks won and the Persians lost (you can find a sample essay on this dot point here)
  

Part 2: 25 marks (35 minutes)
10-mark question on Xerxes' rise to prominence (spend about 15 minutes on this)
Make sure you know:

• his family background
• his career before becoming king
• how he became king

15-mark question assessing his reign/career (spend about 20 minutes on this)
Make sure you know:

• his achievements/failures as a builder/engineer, a religious leader, a warrior, an administrator, and as king
• ancient and modern assessments of his reign

We will go through some practice questions on Tuesday. Any questions, send me an email. Good luck!

Year 12 Ancient - Past Exam Questions: Xerxes and Persian Wars

I have created a Word document that has the HSC exam questions on Xerxes and the Persian Wars from the 2004-2007 papers. They should give you an idea of how the questions are worded, and what content area is tested. You can download or view it here.

As you can see, the breakdown is this:

Xerxes' relationships with Persians/non-Persians 2007
Xerxes' achievements as king 2007
How Xerxes became King 2006, 2004
Xerxes' attempts to expand Persia 2006, 2004
Xerxes' personal background 2005
Xerxes' building program 2005
Xerxes' impact on Greece and Persia 2005
Xerxes' influence in his lifetime 2004

Assess the importance of naval battles 2007
Assess the contribution of Miltiades and Leonidas 2006
Evaluate the contribution of Themistocles 2005
Assess the significance of two military events 2004

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes PowerPoint

Hi folks. Here is the Xerxes PowerPoint from class. Make sure you look at the last four slides or so, as we didn't get to them the other day.

I will be posting some resources up soon to help you with your upcoming assessment...

Xerxes

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith | Upload your own presentation

You can also download it here.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Polls Closed

Here are this week's poll results:

For Ancient, 54% of you believe that Xerxes was a failure as a military commander; 27% each said that he was a great ruler, and that he was ifted in running domestic affairs. So you have not all been sucked in by the anti-Xerxes Greek sources!

For Modern, 40% of you asserted that the Allies should have gone to war with Hitler when he reoccupied the Rhineland; 30% each said they should have done so after he announced rearmament, or after he invaded Czechoslovakia. Based on that, none of you believe that the policy of appeasement should have been followed all the way to the invasion of Poland.

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes Biographies

You will notice as we study this intriguing ancient king, that just about every account is biased against him. Either he was a greedy, tyrannical, stupid, vain, and hubristic man, or the sources we have are wildly anti-Persian.

While reading about Xerxes, always bear in mind - he ruled for 20 years, and had some major successes within his kingdom, despite his defeats in the Greco-Persian Wars: putting down three revolts, and building the great city of Persepolis, as well as extending the empire to the east.

Here are some of the online biographies I have found:

A short and comprehensive account of his life at biographybase.com

An anti-Xerxes article at sacklunch.net

An extract from the Histories, by Herodotus, about the incident where Xerxes allegedly had the sea whipped 300 times, to punish it for a storm that destroyed his bridge...

Year 12 Ancient - Persian Wars Introduction

I have found a good summary of the Persian Wars, written by Richard Hooker, on this website.

Here is the first paragraph, to whet your appetite...

Like the Trojan War, the Persian Wars were a defining moment in Greek history. The Athenians, who would dominate Greece culturally and politically through the fifth century BC and through part of the fourth, regarded the wars against Persia as their greatest and most characteristic moment. For all their importance, though, the Persian Wars began inauspiciously. In the middle of the sixth century BC, the Greek city-states along the coast of Asia Minor came under the control of the Lydians and their king, Croesus (560-546 BC). However, when the Persians conquered the Lydians in 546 BC, all the states subject to the Lydians became subject to the Persians. The Persians controlled their new subject-states very closely; they appointed individuals to rule the states as tyrants. They also required citizens to serve in the Persian army and to pay fairly steep taxes. Smarting under these new burdens and anxious for independence, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, began a democratic rebellion in 499 BC. Aristagoras was an opportunist. He had been placed in power by the Persians, but when he persuaded the Persians to launch a failed expedition against Naxos, he began to fear for his life. So he fomented a popular rebellion against the Persians and went to the Greek mainland for support. He went first to the Spartans, since they were the most powerful state in Greece, but the Spartans seem to have seen right through him. When he approached the Athenians, they promised him twenty ships. In 498 BC, the Athenians conquered and burned Sardis, which was the capital of Lydia, and all the Greek cities in Asia Minor joined the revolt. The Athenians, however, lost interest and went home; by 495 BC, the Persians, under king Darius I (521-486 BC), had restored control over the rebellious Greek cities...
(click here to read the rest of the article)