As well as recapping Athens’ natural advantages (coastline to trade by sea, expand into colonies and capture slaves) and their natural resources (silver mines) pupils focus on the significance of the victory at the Battle of Marathon in seeing off the Persian threat.
This ushers in the Golden Age. Money spent on defence now goes to building etc.
Learning objectives
- Pupils should be able to show on a timeline the duration of the ‘Golden Age’ of Athens and its link to the Battle of Marathon.
- They should list 3 reasons why Athens was so dominant.
- Pupils can explain why the Battle of Marathon was fought and can give reasons for defeat of Persia, classifying not just listing, eg: Persian weaknesses, Athenian strengths
- Pupils can compare different versions of the Battle of Marathon and give 2 or 3 valid reasons why textbook accounts might differ.
- Pupils grasp how the battle affected both Athens and Persia Pupils understand that dominance of Athens was short-lived
Part 1
Looks at characteristic features of Classical Athens. This is a simple teacher-led explanation using a few PowerPoint clues.
Part 2
Looks at the causes of the unlikely victory of Athens over Persia and is a separate
