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Who were the ancient Greeks:
Answer Sheet
Where is Greece?
Greece is a small country in south east Europe.
What is the terrain like in Greece?
It has an area of mainland, which is very mountainous, and hundreds of
small islands dotted around in the Aegean and Ionian seas. The largest
island is Crete which is in the Mediterranean Sea.
Greece has a warm, sunny climate with temperatures that peak at about 33
C in the summer months, lowering to between 13 C and 15 C in the winter
months.
When was Ancient Greece?
The Ancient Greek civilization lived between 800BC and 146BC.
The earliest Greek civilizations thrived nearly 4,000 years ago.
How was ancient Greece governed?
The Greeks lived in little city-states, each one like a small town in the United
States today, with no more than about 100,000 people in each city-state.
Each state had its own laws, government and money but they shared the
same language and religion.
These city-states - Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes - were always fighting
each other over their borders. Often they would get together in leagues, a lot
of city-states together, to fight as allies.
Comparing Athens and Sparta
We know much about Athens because it produced many writers and artists,
whose work has survived to this day. It was a city with lots of beautiful public
buildings, shops and public baths.
Much less evidence survives about Sparta than Athens, but we do know that
it was a military state. Sparta was surrounded by mountains which protected
it from invaders. Sparta was the only city state which had a full time army.
The Spartan men were well known for being brave and fierce, and they
spent their whole lives training and fighting.
Who governed Athens?
In 510BC a new way of government was invented in Athens. 'Demokratia',
from which we get our word 'democracy', means 'rule by the people'.
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Who were the ancient Greeks:
Answer Sheet
Who were citizens of Athens?
Athens did not have a king, it was ruled by the people as a democracy. The
people of Athens believed that no one group of people should make the laws
and so citizens could choose the government officials.
Any man with citizen rights could go to the assembly, where they could
speak and vote freely. Public debates like this decided how the city was run.
Which groups of people were not citizens of Athens?
Athenian democracy was not like modern democracy. Only citizens over 18
could vote. Women, slaves and foreigners could not become citizens. So
democracy in Athens meant rule by the men of Athens.
Who governed Sparta?
Sparta had its own system of government which was very different from the
other city states. Rule was shared between two kings, the Gerousia and the
Assembly.
Who were citizens of Sparta?
Perioeci were citizens who paid taxes, served in the army and were
protected by Spartan laws. Perioeci citizens were given land which was
farmed for them by the Helots. The Helots were treated as serfs (slaves) and
had to give half their crops to their Spartan master.
Helots were people from lands conquered and ruled by Sparta who had no
rights.
Who did the Ancient Greeks Worship?
The Greeks believed in many gods: they were polytheistic.
The most famous of them, and the ones which the most people sacrificed to,
were Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Athena, Demeter,
Hermes, Ares, and Hades.
Why did the ancient Greeks worship the gods?
The Greeks believed that these gods and goddesses controlled everything in
their lives and the environment. There was a god for every aspect of their
lives. It was important to please the gods; happy gods helped you, but
unhappy gods punished you. They also believed the gods would take care of
them when they died.
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