Download Classical Greece

Classical Greece
Athens – First Democracy
• City-States – a small country based
around a main city
• Aristocrats – wealthy/powerful families
who rule the government
• Tyrants – Leaders who take power –
usually newly rich, not part of the old
aristocracy
Parthenon in Athens
• Period of Tyrants didn’t last long, but
important
• In order to remain popular, Tyrants took
land from the aristocrats and gave them to
the peasants
• Greeks believed in the rule of law – tyrants
were an insult to that ideal
• When the last tyrant in Athens was
overthrown a leader (Cleisthenes) took
over and changed the government.
• He had seen the power of the common
people.
• He created the Athenian assembly – male
citizens who had the final say on laws after
free and open debate.
• Democracy was born! (510 B.C.)
Persian Wars
490 B.C.
• Persia was a large and powerful empire at
this time.
• Persia controlled Ionia
• Greece helped Ionia revolt.
• To get back at Greece for this offense,
Darius led an invasion that landed near
Athens.
• Battle of Marathon
•
•
•
•
Darius died and Xerxes took over.
He vowed revenge.
Invaded with huge army and navy.
Greeks tried to delay the Persians at a
place called Thermopylae (300)
• Persians captured Athens after it was
abandoned.
• Persians navy defeated at the Battle of
Salamis – Persians couldn’t supply their
army and had to retreat.
Great Peloponnesian War
431 B.C.
• The 2 most powerful City-states of
Classical Greece were Athens and Sparta
• Athens a democracy was dynamic and
drew brilliant and hard working people to
it.
• Sparta was very different.
Sparta
• Sparta was all about their military
• Sparta conquered the city-states that were
around them and enslaved their
populations
• Since they had enslaved whole (little)
countries of free people they were
constantly afraid of an uprising.
• Boys left home and began military training
at age 7.
• Underfed on purpose
• At 20 they were in the army
• Girls were unique in that they were
educated (less focus on military)
•
•
•
•
•
Sparta had the best army
Athens had the best navy
They went to war.
Athens retreated with its walled city.
Plague broke out and killed 1/3rd
population.
• War lasted about 25 years
• Athens fleet was finally destroyed.
• Athens surrendered and was destroyed.
Culture
• Drama
– Aeschylus – tragedies
– Sophocles – Oedipus Rex
– Euripides – more realistic
• History
– Herodotus – wrote History of the Persian
Wars – seen as the first historian (yeah!)
– Thucydides – General who fought in the Great
Peloponnesian War and wrote the history of it.
Considered the greatest historian of the
ancient world. Instead of writing about gods
and legends he examined events and people.
• Philosophy – an organized system of
thought
• Philosophers attempt to
answer questions about the
nature of the universe.
– Pythagoras – essence of universe found in
music and numbers
– Sophists – goal was to argue effectively
3 of the Greatest Philosophers
• Socrates – no writings of his own, we
know about him from his pupils writings
– Used a teaching method called Socratic
method
– Q & A to lead students to find the answer
themselves.
– Believed all real knowledge is already present
within each person.
• Plato – considered greatest philosopher of
Western civilization
– Student of Socrates
– Wrote a great deal
– Shadow world
– The Republic a book about government in
which philosopher kings rule
• Aristotle
– Student of Plato
– He used a scientific method – observing and
recording
– Believed that a constitutional government was
the best.
– Viewed as the most influential thinker of the
Western world.
– His student was Alexander the Great