Download Guided Notes: Ancient Greece Early Civilization: Ancient Greece

Guided Notes: Ancient Greece
Early Civilization:
Ancient Greece consisted mainly of a mountainous ______________ in addition to around _____ islands
in the Mediterranean Sea. Because of this, Greek civilization was shaped by the ____. _____________
covered ¾ of Ancient Greece making less than ¼ of the land________ or suitable for farming. Greece
therefore had a fairly _______ population that depended on _____ _______ for their survival. The
originators of Greek civilization were the __________, dominators of trade in the Mediterranean during
the _______ _____. Named for their legendary King ______, who ruled from the city of ________, the
Minoans lived on the island of _______. The influence of the Minoans is best seen in their written
language or use of the _________, which originated from trade with the ___________, and through the
role of women, sports, and their mythological religion.
The Trojan War:
Around 2,000 B.C., a group called the Mycenae began to migrate into Greece from the north and by
1600 came to dominate all the Greek city-states or _______. This dominance continued until around
1200 when the Mycenaean kings led by Agamemnon fought a 10 year war with the city of Troy.
According to legend, a Greek army crossed the Aegean Sea in 1,000 ships and besieged Troy because the
Trojan Prince Paris, had kidnapped Helen, Queen of Sparta and wife of Agamemnon’s brother
Menelaus. The story of the Trojan War and its various tragic heroes were composed over 400 years
later by the blind Greek poet _______ in the _____ poems the ______ and the _________.
Mythology:
Homer’s epics are the main source of our knowledge of Greek _________ through his use of mythologythe traditional stories the Greeks used to explain _________ of ________. Unlike all other __________
religions, the Greeks attributed ________ qualities as well to their gods of nature. For example, _____king of the gods, lived with most of the others on ___ _________, the highest on the northern Greek
peninsula. He had many affairs with human women and many ____-___ children as a result.
City-States and the Persian Wars:
By 750 BC, the majority of citizens in most Greek polis’ or ____ - ______ came to resent being ruled by a
one king _________ or even by a few aristocrats as in an ____________. Most turned to the leadership
of a _________ who would later take advantage of them. But before this political turmoil was settled in
most polis’, the __________ sought to expand their vast empire in to Europe between 490-480 BC. To
the rescue came the two polis’ that had begun to solve their political problems. There was ________,
with its fortified hilltop or __________ protecting its important buildings and its citizen army of artisans
and landowners using iron weapons, as well as its navy full of sea trading merchants. And then there
was _______, with its hoplite army of professional foot soldiers; one of the most powerful fighting
forces in the Ancient World as inventors of the _________ formation. The 1st famous battle was at
__________, 26.2 miles from Athens. After holding off the initial Persian attack there, a man named
____________ ran to warn the Athenians of the overwhelming forces still on their way and the
Athenians were prepared and victorious as a result. Ten years later, after Darius II, Xerxes led the
Persian attack when 300 Spartans led by one of their kings, Leoniedus, held off the entire Persian army
(including their 10,000 immortals) for 3 days at Thermopylae pass. This allowed Athenians to prepare
and their Gen. Themistocles and his ships called triremes defeated the Persians once and for all in 480
BC at the naval battle of Salamis.
The Peloponnesian War:
_______ got credit for the victory in the Persian Wars and for saving Greece. Thanks to men like Draco,
Cleisthenes, and finally Pericles; Athens was the first civilization on earth to have a __________- an
assembly of which ___ ________ (male property owners) made and/or voted on all the laws. Women
could not own property so could not participate and slaves were property. The assembly usually met in
the agora, just beneath the acropolis in the shadows of the parthenon. Athenians were very much
interested in art, literature, science, math, Philosophy, and architecture. ___________ said, “Know
thyself, ? everything, and only the pursuit of goodness brings happiness”. It was because of ideas like
this that he was ___________ to ________ for corrupting the _______ of Athens. ______ was a student
of Socrates who wrote his words, opened a school in Athens, and wrote a book called The __________ about how the best govt. is one in which the wisest will/should rule because the people will always
choose them to do so on their behalf. Aristotle was a student of Plato who wrote about logic and
introduced the scientific method for the first time as well as the “Golden Mean” of everything in
moderation. Public buildings in Athens were beautifully designed with columns. Athletics were very
important there as well as every 4 years each polis gathered in Olympia to compete in wrestling, track &
field, gymnastics, etc.. Drama was also important as the Greeks gathered weekly in the theatre to see
tragedy and comedy. Scientific contributions of Athens are also still with us today such as those of
Pythagoras and Hippocrates- the father of Medicine. _______ on the other hand made defeat of the
Persians by the Athenians possible. Their polis, however, was comfortable remaining an __________,
run by a few older men called ephors. Isolated in the mountains of the Peloponnese, they were a
military state that could care less about art, philosophy, literature, etc.. Sparta was always prepared for
a slave or helot revolt. Helots, like the Messeneans were POW’s they forced to farm their own fields and
give the crops to Sparta since Sparta wasn’t fertile. Spartan boys started training to become soldiers at
age 7 instead of learning to read and write. They spent time getting physically fit and learning to use
weapons. From ages 20-30 men were cadets who policed the country. At the age of 30 they could
marry. At age 60 they could retire from the military. Spartan women were educated and owned
businesses and property. The city-states of Athens and Sparta fought a civil war, started by _______ for
fear of ________ growing economic power over Greece due to its control of ______. After all, Athens
was a ___________ with ____ power, while Sparta was an __________ with control over most of the
______. The Peloponnesian War began in _____ BC but the Spartans quickly gained the upper hand the
following year as a plague broke out in Athens killing 2/3 of its population, including their leader;
Pericles. Despite this, it took until ____ BC for Athens to finally surrender. A total of ___ years of
warfare between Greek city-states; constantly killing thousands and weakening each other in the
process. This allowed for them all to eventually be easily defeated by the Macedonians.
Alexander the Great: Empire Builder
The _____________ War severely weakened several Greek city-states. In ____________, located to their
north, King ________ took note. He dreamed of taking control of Greece and then turning on Persia.
Phillip II became King of Macedonia in 359 BC at age 23. He quickly proved to be a brilliant general and
ruthless politician. Athenian orator Demosthenes tried to warn the Greeks that Phillip was a threat but
after years of fighting each other, only the city-states of Athens and Thebes could agree on a policy join
forces against Phillip but by then it was too late. The Macedonians soundly defeated and conquered the
_______ at the Battle of Chaeronea. Phillip next planned to invade the Persian empire but was
assassinated at his daughter’s wedding in 336 BC by a former guardsmen. With the army’s help, his son
___________ became king. He would of course become known as ___________ the ______ for his
accomplishments as such over the next 13 years. Although only 20 when he became king, he was well
prepared to lead; having been taught military procedures by his father and learned science, geography,
& literature under his personal tutor; Aristotle. His conquests over the next decade would bring about
the ______________ Era of history, which brought about the spread of the _________ language and
ideas such as _____, _____________, and literature throughout the Middle ______ and Southern
______. In 334 BC he led 35,000 soldiers into Anatolia and defeated an army of 40,000 Persians at
Granicus River and another 75,000 at Issus. In 332 He invaded Egypt, was crowned pharaoh and built
the city of Alexandria. Alexander then moved East into Mesopotamia where he defeated a Persian
army 250,000 strong at a place called Guagamela. Shortly thereafter, his army had conquered the cities
of Babylon, Susa, and the capitol of the Persian Empire; Persepolis. He was now the unchallenged ruler
of Southeastern Europe, Egypt in North Africa, and Southwest Asia. By 327 BC He and his army had
reached the ________ Valley. There, near the Hydaspes River, he defeated the army of Indian Prince
Porus and his cavalry of over 200 elephants. By the spring of 322 BC, his army had had enough and it
was time to return _____ towards home where he planned to organize his new empire which was the
largest the world had ever seen. But on his way back, in Babylon, Alexander got sick and died at the age
of 32; leaving his empire to be split up among 3 of his generals in the end. Antigonus got Macedonia
and Greece, Seleceus got most of the old Persian Empire, and Ptolemy got Egypt and established the
Ptolemaic Dynasty there.