Download Classical Civilizations: Mediterranean Basin 1 WH010 Activity

Classical Civilizations: Mediterranean Basin 1
WH010
Activity Introduction
Hey friend. I’ve got somethin’ cookin’ in the oven for you. It’s Greece! No no no, not
like cooking grease. I mean Greece the country.
So to get started with Greece during the classical era, we’re gonna take a look
aaaaattttttttttt Persia! Didn’t see that coming, did ya?!
Reading Passage Introduction
Let’s begin by givin’ you a quick little taste of the Persian Empire, yum. Yum. This is so
we can serve you a well-portioned meal on the history of the Greco-Persian Wars
because they affected Greece in a super-sized way!
You see, Greece was made up of several delicious little city-states that were pretty
independent of each other. However, when Persia started to threaten Greece, the citystates had to unite to fight off the great empire.
So, read a fun little passage about the heritage of Persia and the Greco-Persian Wars.
Yummy!
Video 1
Well hello there! I am Cleisthenes and many people consider me the father of
democracy. Why are you surprised? Were you expecting Thomas Jefferson or
something? Come to think of it, that Jefferson fellow owes me a debt of gratitude. For I
was the one waaaaay back in the sixth century B.C.E. in the Greek city-state of Athens
who devised the form of government known as democracy. So it only makes sense that
I was sent here to talk to you about the political institutions of Ancient Greece.
Now allow me to start with Athens, partly because I was from Athens, and partly
because it’s just a good place to start. Now prior to democracy, Athens was ruled by
tyrants. Oh now don’t get the wrong idea. I know in your lovely little free society “tyrant”
is a terrible word that conjures up visions of brutality and enslavement.
But the tyrants of Athens were not like that. I mean, some were better than others. But
typically a tyrant was a wealthy aristocrat who came to power by using wealth and
influence to edge out other aristocrats for power. Sometimes the rise to power for a
tyrant involved murdering a rival, but that didn’t necessarily make him a bad ruler.
Anyway, a tyrant typically ran Athens in an autocratic fashion, which means he made all
the decisions for Athens, and the citizens lived according to those decisions. However,
things changed under the leadership of Solon. He was different from the tyrants; he was
a wise man who was actually selected to revise the laws written by Draco. The laws of
Draco were very harsh; so harsh that the punishment for just about everything from
loitering to murder was murder. So if you hear the word Draconian today, it’s often in
reference to a policy that is rather severe.
But back to Solon. The main reason Solon was appointed ruler of Athens had to with a
serious crisis. The crisis occurred when the humble farmers of Athens experienced a
series of crop failures and were unable to pay their debts. It became so bad that some
even sold themselves and their family members into slavery. So, not surprisingly, the
poor of Athens demanded reform!
Solon attempted to do this by offering the farmers debt forgiveness and making it illegal
for someone to repay a debt with slavery. Solon also turned the seats on the Athens
council into positions that could be achieved by merit rather than granted by birth, so
that the power of the privileged over the lower classes would be reduced.
However, Solon’s reforms went too far for the wealthy in Athens and not far enough for
the poor. After Solon, a man named Peisistratus took control. Peisistratus took up the
cause of the poor and redistributed the land by taking it from the aristocratic class in
Athens and dispersing it among poorer farmers. He also established many public works
projects in Athens and was responsible for building our aqueduct system.
Video 2
Well, after Peisistratus died, his son Hippias came to power, and he was not a very
good leader. So I helped overthrow Hippias. After that, I got into a long, drawn-out
power struggle with a guy named Isagoras. I was then exiled from Athens, but when the
people overthrew Isagoras, I was called back to again lead Athens in five-oh-nine
B.C.E.
And that’s when I introduced a new idea to try and establish some political balance
between the aristocrats and the humble people. Instead of having an autocratic ruler, I
suggested having an assembly made up of all the citizens. Literally, it would be a
government run by all of the citizens of Athens A DEMOCRACY.
So allow me to tell you how I did it. First I organized Athens into demes or districts.
After that, I told the people in those districts to select representatives to serve on the
Council of Five-hundred. This Council of Five-hundred wrote legislation. Pieces of
legislation were then brought before all forty-thousand citizens of Athens to be voted on.
Generally, only about six-thousand showed up, but the system didn’t discriminate. If you
were rich or poor, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that you were an Athenian
citizen. Oh by the way, this doesn’t mean that women or slaves voted. Theeeey…ahh...
never voted. Now, it’s true they made up a great deal of the population of Athens, but
remember, I belong to a different time.
Anyway, we would all meet—all six-thousand of us. Together we would vote on the
issues of the day. To do this, each was given a white stone and a black stone. A black
stone was a “no” vote and a white stone was a “yes” vote. This means that Athens was
a “direct” democracy since it did not involve representatives voting for the citizens, but
rather each citizen voting.
I felt democracy was the perfect solution to Athens’ problems, but other Athenians felt
that democracy led to poor decision-making. They believed giving the votes to mass of
uneducated citizens was a mistake that would one day cost Athens dearly. On the other
hand, some people felt that certain aspects of Athenian society still favored the
aristocrats.
It’s also important to know that some of the other Greek city-states set up democratic
governments as well. But I dare say we Athenians did it best.
However, not all city-states were won over by the idea. Some tended to find it strange
and a bit radical. Instead, they preferred a ruler with an advisory council or a council of
aristocrats to make decisions for the city-state.
One Greek city-state in particular that shall remain nameless “Sparta” actually found our
system of democracy not just radical but dangerous. Ahhhh…but that’s a story for
another day.
Reading Passage Introduction
Reading Passage Introduction
I think you have enough info on the birth of democracy (beat) for now. It’s time to move
on to religion and culture in Classical Greece.
You see, because Greece wasn’t this super-united empire or dynasty, but rather
individual city-states, it had quite a bit going on. Some Greeks were really into their
religion and the supernatural, whereas other Greeks really got into exploring human
reasoning.
And as far as culture goes, well, let’s just say we still regularly perform the plays of
Classical Greece to this day. Let’s check out this reading passage for more.