The Greeks: More Notes from the Movie Pt. 2

• Themistocles worked his way up to being a general through the new democracy that begun
• Triremes were lightweight war boats that Themistocles wanted to begin the Athens Navy
• Themistocles began a Naval force of over 200 triremes
• As soon as Themistocles built these, Xerxes promised that in his fathers honor, he would burn Athens to the ground
• The military that Xerxes made for this war was something like 2 million men
• The people of Athens went to see the Oracle of Delehi to see what was going to happen to them in this war
• The Oracle said that they were doomed and that they should run before they get trashed by some Persians
• Themistocles sent people back to the Oracle
• The Oracle said "The wooden wall only would not fail" 
• Themistocles said that this meant inside the walls of the wooden triremes
• Athens was ordered to evacuate
• The people of Athens fled to Salamis 
• Xerxes and his men went into Athens, and burnt down the acropolis  
• The Persians lost 200 ships in this war and had its Navy broken
• Athens was head of the Delian League 
• Themistocles got banished from Athens
• Athens had said that Themistocles had "gotten too big for his boats"
• He had finally died while he was still in exile somewhere in Persia
• Pericles was the next ruler for Athens
• Pericles wanted to create a place where people would admire it forever
• Pericles commanded people to recreate the acropolis that was burnt down and changing it to the parthenon  
• The parthenon was a billion dollar statue in modern day money
• Aspasia was a foreign woman that was basically a prostitute
• The Greeks basically invented drama and comedies