Download Station 3: City States

Station #1: Map of Ancient Greece
Directions: Using the map below answer the questions below the map.
1. Using the Greek City States listed below match them to a letter on the map.
Argos
Athens
Corinth
Megara
Sparta
2. Why does Greece have a large amount of coastline?
3. What does letter ‘E’ represent on the map?
Station #2: Map of Ancient Greece (Part II)
Directions: Using the map below answer the questions below the map.
1. Find the Longitude and latitude coordinates of the 5 city states.
Argos
Athens
Corinth
Megara
Sparta
2. How did mountains and islands impact Ancient Greece?
Station 3: City States
Directions: Read the descriptions of the city states below and the statements that follow after then determine
whether the statements are describing Argos, Athens, Corinth, Megara, or Sparta.
Athens
Athenians thought of themselves as the shining star of the Greek city-states. They were famed for their
literature, poetry, drama, theatre, schools, buildings, and government.
The Greeks had common gods, but they held them in different esteem. Further, the Greeks believed that each
city-state in ancient Greece had a god or a goddess in charge of it, their special patron. For Athens, the patron
was Athena, goddess of wisdom. Perhaps because Athena was their patron, Athenians put a great deal of
emphasis on education.
Girls learned at home from their mothers. They learned how to run a home, and how to be good wives and
mothers.
Boys were educated quite differently. Until age 6 or 7, boys were taught at home by their mothers. From 7-14,
boys attended a day school outside the home. There, they memorized Homeric poetry and learned to play the
lyre. They learned drama, public speaking, reading, writing, math, and perhaps even how to play the flute. After
middle school, they went to a four year high school and learned more about math, science, and government. At
18, they attended two years of military school. There was just cause for Athens to be proud of its system of
education for its citizens.
Each city-state chose its own form of government. Most Greek city-states were ruled by kings. In Athens,
citizens (the men) met each week to discuss problems and cooperatively worked on solutions. The men of
Athens experimented with government by tweaking how they thought it should be run and making necessary
changes. For about 100 years, Athens was a direct democracy!
Corinth
As a coastal city-state, Corinth had a glorious history as a cultural and trade center. Corinth was a monarchy.
The people were ruled by a king. The king had many advisors. Together, Corinth's government solved many
problems that face cities today.
For example, Corinth had a problem with unemployment. To solve this, they created a huge and successful
public works program. This gave people work, like building new aqueducts, while solving other city problems,
such as the need for an additional source of drinking water.
To solve the problem of foreign money pouring into their polis, the government of Corinth created its own
coinage. They forced traders to exchange their coins for Corinth's coinage at the bank of Corinth, for a fee of
course. Corinthians were very good with money.
Although Corinth's schools were not as fine, perhaps, as those of Athens, their boys were educated in the arts
and the sciences. As a child, kids were taught at home. From age 7-14, boys attended a nearby day school,
where they studied poetry, drama, public speaking, accounting, reading, writing, math, science, and the flute.
Boys attended a higher school if their parents could afford it. All boys went to military school for at least two
years.
Literature, culture, art, and businesses thrived in Corinth. Corinth was a highly respected city-state in the
ancient Greek world.
Megara
Megara was a highly respected city-state in ancient Greece. As a coastal city-state, their history was similar to
Corinth's, their neighbor. Any Megarian would have told you that their schools were as fine as those of Athens,
although they would have had no doubt that any Athenian would disagree.
Boys were trained in the arts and the sciences. As a child, kids were taught at home by their mother or by a male
slave. From age 7-14, boys attended a day school near their home where they memorized poetry and studied
drama, public speaking, reading, writing, science, poetry, the flute, the lyre, and a great deal of mathematics.
Boys then attended a higher school, and went on to military school for at least two years.
Like Athens, Megara offered its citizens a great deal of freedom. Like nearly all Greek city-states, Megara had
beautiful temples, gorgeous statues, and open-air theatres. They were famous for their glorious textiles, which
were the envy of other Greek city-states.
As a coastal town, Megara did a great deal of trading. They had their own coinage, an idea they copied from
Corinth (who copied it from Argos.)
They were also explorers. Like all Greeks, they loved to establish new towns. The city-state of Megara founded the city
of Byzantium, also called Constantinople, now called Istanbul, way back in 630 BCE.
Argos
The ancient city-state of Argos had a nearby harbor for trade and commerce. But Argos was located on a plain.
The weather was hot and dry in the summer, and cold and wet in the winter. The soil was not especially fertile.
The people of Argos had to fight to grow food. This they did, quite successfully.
They did many things successfully. Many scholars credit Argos with the invention of coinage in ancient Greece,
an invention that made trade much easier.
Argos was actively involved in the arts. Their magnificent stone sculptures of athletes, rippling with stone
muscles, were the envy of many a Greek city-state. Argos was famous for their wonderful musicians and poets.
Drama reached new heights in their polis (city-state).
When Athens and Sparta asked Argos to send supplies and troops to help fight the Persians, after the battle of
Thermopylae in 480 BCE, the king of Argos refused. The other Greek city-states held Argos in disgrace for that decision
for many years thereafter.
Sparta
Life was very different in ancient Sparta than it was in the rest of ancient Greek city-states. The Spartans were
proud, fierce, capable warriors. No great works of art came out of Sparta. But the Spartans, both men and
women, were tough, and the Greeks admired strength.
Sparta's government was an oligarchy. The people were ruled by a small group of warriors. The Spartans spoke
Greek, wrote Greek, thought of themselves as Greeks, but they were different.
In most of the other Greek city-states, the goal of education was to create a strong citizen of that city-state. In
Sparta, the goal of education was to create a strong warrior.
All of the ancient Greeks were warriors, but Sparta's warriors were legendary.
In Sparta, boys were taken away from their parents at age 7. They lived a harsh and often brutal life in the
soldiers barracks. Younger children were beaten by older children who started fights to help make the younger
boys strong. Children were often were whipped in front of groups of other Spartans, including their parents, but
they were not allowed to cry out in pain.
Girls went to school too, to learn how to fight. They lived at home during training. Their training was not as
harsh and the boy's, but it was harsh enough. Sparta women were warriors.
Children, during their training process, were given very little food. They were encouraged to steal food, instead.
If caught stealing, they were beaten. Spartan children learned to be cunning, to lie, to cheat, to steal, and how to
get away with it!
As adults, Spartan men did not live with their families. They visited their families, but men lived in the soldiers'
barracks.
As adults, Spartan women, unlike women in the rest of Greek world, had a great deal of freedom. Many ran
businesses. Sparta women were free to move about and visit neighbors without permission from their husbands.
How would they get permission? The men were often off fighting.
1. “This city state had an oligarchy.”
2. “had a problem with unemployment. To solve this, they created a huge and successful public works
program.”
3. “, citizens (the men) met each week to discuss problems and cooperatively worked on solutions”
4. “ They were famous for their glorious textiles, which were the envy of other Greek city-states.”
5. “Athens and Sparta asked this city state to send supplies and troops to help fight the Persians, after
the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, but their king refused. After they did this other Greek citystates held this city state in disgrace for that decision for many years.”
6. “In most of the other Greek city-states, the goal of education was to create a strong citizen of that citystate. In this city state, the goal of education was to create a strong warrior.”
7. “This city state was dedicated to the arts.”
Station 4: Philosophers
Directions: Use the quotes from the philosophers to answer the questions.
Philosopher
Quote from the philosopher
Plato (427-347 BCE)
“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy,
and the most aggravated form of tyranny and
slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
“Democracy is when the indigent, and not the
men of property, are the rulers.”
Socrates (469-399 BCE)
“I was really too honest a man to be a politician
and live.”
1. Which philosopher, Plato or Aristotle, was more in favor of a democracy?
2. How much did Socrates value politics? Why do you think this?
Station 5: Alexander the Great
Directions: Read the article below and answer the questions that follow.
Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC)
Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, single-handedly changed the
nature of the ancient world in little more than a decade.
Alexander was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia in July 356 BC. His parents were
Philip II of Macedon and his wife Olympias. Alexander was educated by the philosopher Aristotle. Philip
was assassinated in 336 BC and Alexander inherited a powerful yet volatile kingdom. He quickly dealt with
his enemies at home and reasserted Macedonian power within Greece. He then set out to conquer the
massive Persian Empire.
Against overwhelming odds, he led his army to victories across the Persian territories of Asia Minor,
Syria and Egypt without suffering a single defeat. His greatest victory was at the Battle of Gaugamela, in
what is now northern Iraq, in 331 BC. The young king of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia
Minor and pharaoh of Egypt became 'great king' of Persia at the age of 25.
Over the next eight years, in his capacity as king, commander, politician, scholar and explorer,
Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles, founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that
stretched across three continents and covered around two million square miles. The entire area from
Greece in the west, north to the Danube, south into Egypt and as far to the east as the Indian Punjab, was
linked together in a vast international network of trade and commerce. This was united by a common
Greek language and culture, while the king himself adopted foreign customs in order to rule his millions of
ethnically diverse subjects.
Alexander was acknowledged as a military genius who always led by example, although his belief in
his own indestructibility meant he was often reckless with his own life and those of his soldiers. The fact
that his army only refused to follow him once in 13 years of a reign during which there was constant
fighting, indicates the loyalty he inspired.
He died of a fever in Babylon in June 323 BC.
Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
How do you think Alexander’s family background impacted his life?
What accomplishments did Alexander achieve?
How would you characterize Alexander’s leadership skills?
If you had to compare Alexander the Great to someone else in world history who would it be?
Why?
Station 6: Greek Accomplishments
Directions: Using the list of accomplishments below answer the questions that follow.
Accomplishments:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
Philosophers – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
Literature that had Greek Heroes, poems about love and friendship
Plays
Government – developed the idea of Democracy
Art – focus on the human body and making art realistic
Science – advances in biology, medicine, astronomy
Architecture – columns on buildings, the Parthenon
Questions:
1. Out of these achievements which one was the most important? Why?
2. Ancient Greece was said to be the “birthplace of western culture.” Using the achievements above do you agree
or disagree? Why?