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Ancient Greece Review
Created by Mrs. Tippin
The Polis
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The polis is a city-state.
The typical polis was made up of a city, and the
surrounding villages, fields, and orchards.
At the center of the city was an acropolis with a
temple dedicated to the city’s god.
Citizens took part in government, carried out
public affairs, chose their officials, and pass laws.
Citizens could vote, hold public office, own
property, and speak for themselves in court.
Citizens were expected to serve in government
and to help defend the polis in war.
Citizens were only native-born free men who
owned property.
Greek Trade
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Ancient Greece had to create colonies in order
to have enough food for its population.
Farmers on the Greek mainland produced wine
and grew olives.
The Greek merchants switched from a barter
system to a money system, with coins
produced by the city-states.
Cities of Ionia raised sheep which produced
wool. This helped to create a textile industry.
Pottery was also produced in the colony of
Ionia and other areas.
Early Greek Government
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Earliest Greece was ruled by kings.
By the 700s BC, power had been lost to aristocrats.
By 650 BC, farmers demanded political reforms.
Farmers were the foot soldiers in the Greek army. As
the army became more important, aristocrats lost
power.
The middle-class then demanded a voice in
government, also.
Tyrants seized power and ruled the city-states until
500 BC.
From 500BC to 336BC most city-states became
oligarchies or democracies.
The city-state of Athens became a democracy.
The city-state of Sparta became an oligarchy.
Spartan Society
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Sparta was located in the Peloponnesus, a peninsula of
southern Greece.
Spartans invaded neighboring cultures and enslaved the
people.
Slaves were called helots and farmed the estates of
Spartans.
The perioikoi, a class of freemen, worked as merchants and
artisans.
The Spartans created a military society.
Spartan boys were taken into the military at age 7, and
were trained in the military as well as being taught to read
and write.
Spartan men were in the military until age 60, and then
they could retire.
Spartan women married later (age 19), were athletic, could
go shopping in the marketplace, attend dinners without
family, own property, and could express opinions on public
issues. However, they could not take part in government.
Spartan Government
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Two kings ruled jointly but had little power.
These kings could lead the army and conduct religious
services.
True power was held by the Assembly.
The Assembly was made up of all male citizens over age
30.
The Assembly could pass laws and make decisions
concerning war and peace.
Each year the Assembly elected 5 overseers (ephors) to
administer public affairs.
The ephors could veto decisions made by the Assembly.
A Council of Elders, made up of 28 men over the age of 60,
proposed laws to the Assembly and served as a supreme
court.
Spartan Legacy
Sparta did not trade with other cultures,
so their economy suffered.
‹ Spartans used heavy iron bars for
currency.
‹ The Spartans rejected the ideas of Greek
philosophers, science, and the arts.
‹ Spartans were exceptional Olympic
athletes and were important in defending
Greece against invasions from other
civilizations.
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Athenian Government
Athens is located on a peninsula in central
Greece called Attica.
‹ In 507 BC, Athenians wrote a constitution
which stated that all Athenian-born men
were citizens, regardless of class.
‹ Non-landowners could participate in the
Athenian Assembly.
‹ Four successive rulers brought about great
changes in Athenian government: Draco,
Solon, Peisistratus, and Cleisthenes.
These leaders will be detailed on the next
slide.
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Athenian Government
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Draco issued an improved set of laws in 621 BC. The penalties for
breaking these laws were exceptionally harsh.
When Solon became the new ruler of Athens in 594 BC,he cancelled
all land debts and freed debtors from slavery, limited the amount of
land any one man could own, ordered fathers to teach their sons a
skill, and granted citizenship to foreign-born artisans. All of these
steps helped improve the economy. Solon also allowed citizens of all
classes to serve in the Assembly. A Council of 400 was formed to
create laws which would then be sent to the Assembly.
Peisistratus took control of the government in 546 BC. He granted
citizenship to non-landowners, and provided loans to the poor. These
steps also improved the economy.
Cleisthenes is given credit for bringing democracy to Athens. A new
constitution was created which increased the power of the Assembly,
which now passed laws and acted as a supreme court. A newly
created Council of 500 carried out the daily business of Athenian
government. Members of this Council were chosen by lottery every
year.
Juries of 200 to 100,1 citizens were used to decide court cases.
The ostracon could banish a person from government or from Athens
itself.
Athenian Society
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Women, foreign-born males, and slaves did not participate in
Athenian democracy.
Athenian girls did not usually receive any formal education,
while Athenian boys were taught by tutors or attended private
school.
Athenian homes had a central courtyard and many rooms used
for entertaining.
Athenian wives could only attend dinner with their husbands if
guests were not present.
Athenian men usually worked in the morning as farmers,
artisans, or merchants. They would spend their afternoons
watching the Assembly or in the gymnasium.
Slaves worked in the mines, did heavy work in craft
production, or worked as teachers and household servants.
Athenian women spent their time at home weaving cloth, or in
open-air markets of the agora as food vendors.
Many Athenian women did learn to read and write and could
take part in city festivals.
The Persian Wars:
The Battle of Marathon
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In the 400s BC, Persia was the strongest military
force in the western world.
Persia attacked and conquered the Greek city-state of
Ionia.
The Ionians rebelled, but despite help from Athens,
they were defeated.
Persia decided to attack Athens for helping the
Ionians.
Darius I of Persia decided to attack at the Plain of
Marathon.
The Athenians refused to attack, sat back, and
waited.
The Persians decided to attack at a different site, and
started loading their boats.
As the Persian infantry began to load, the Athenian
army attacked and strongly defeated the Persians.
The Persian Wars:
The Battle of Salamis
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Ten years later, in 480 BC, Xerxes (Darius’s son), invaded
Greece from the north.
Under Spartan leadership, a fleet of warships was used.
These ships were called triremes.
At Thermopylae, a soldier named Leonidas faced the
Persian army with only 300 men. He held the Persians for
three days.
As the battle went on, the fleet of warships baited the
Persian navy into a narrow body of water near Salamis.
The heavy Persian ships were no match for the lighter
Greek ships. The Persian navy was defeated, and Persia
returned to their homeland in Asia Minor.
By 479 BC, the city-state of Athens was ready to begin a
time of prosperity: The Golden Age of Athens.
The Peloponnesian War
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The Peloponnesian was fought between Sparta and Athens
from 431-404 BC.
The reason for the conflict was a desire to control Greece.
The Spartans made a deal with the Persians to return
control of Ionia to Persia. In return, Sparta received enough
gold to build its own navy.
Plague destroys 1/3 of the Athenian population, and several
Athenian allies switch sides. As a result, the Spartans finally
defeated the Athenians.
There were several effects of the war: populations in both
city-states decreased, fighting destroyed much of the land,
unemployment was high, and the Greeks lost the ability
and desire to rule themselves. This, in effect, ended the
democracy.
Alexander the Great
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Alexander led the Macedonians and the Greeks in
a war against Persia.
Alexander has two goals: to punish the Persians
for attacking Greece 150 years before, and then
to create and empire that would unite Europe and
Asia, and combine Persian and Greek cultures.
Alexander not only led his armies to victory over
the Persians, but eventually increased his empire
to cover parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Alexander was a great military leader, but he
died from malaria at the age of 33.
The effect of the Hellenic (Greek) culture mixing
with Middle Eastern culture, created a new
culture, the Hellenistic culture.
The Extent of Alexander the Great’s Empire
Hellenistic Life
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Alexandria, in Egypt, was the largest and most wealthy of
all Hellenistic cities.
Straight streets intersected at right angles.
Stucco stone palaces and temples were common.
Its harbor could hold 1200 ships at a time.
Alexandria was also an intellectual center. Its library
contained over a million books, had a research facility, a
zoo, and a botanical garden for study.
In Alexandria, Jewish scholars translated the Torah into
Greek.
Hellenistic cities were ruled by kings, but soldiers and
merchants moved from place to place rather than staying
loyal to one ruler.
In Hellenistic culture, upper class women had more
freedom. They learned to read and write and could be
involved in banking, real estate, and government.
Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Religion
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Greek religion was polytheistic.
The twelve main Greek gods lived on Mt. Olympus.
Each Greek city-state had a temple dedicated to one
of the Greek gods on its acropolis.
In Athens, the Parthenon was dedicated to Athena.
Zeus was the chief god of Greek mythology.
Festivals were held to honor these gods. The most
well-known festival was held every four years in
honor of Zeus. Because they were held near Mt.
Olympus, the were called the Olympics.
Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Art
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Greek artists often designed paintings on styles of pottery to show
aspects of the Greek lifestyle.
Sculpting the human body realistically was a tremendous
achievement of the ancient Greeks.
In the Hellenistic period, sculpture were created showing powerful
human emotions.
Drama and theater started with the ancient Greeks. Tragedies and
comedies were performed in the amphitheaters during the festivals
for the gods.
In the Hellenistic period, comedies were much more common than
tragedies.
Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Architecture
Greek architecture used columns for
support and for beauty. Some
columns, caryatids, were actually
carved in the shape of women.
„ The Greeks also used perspective in
architecture, carving columns wider in
the middle than at the ends.
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Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Literature
The best known ancient Greek
literature was written by Homer. His
epic poems The Iliad and The
Odyssey have given us a glimpse
into the world of Greek history and
mythology.
„ Herodotus and Thucydides were
authors of Greek historical texts.
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Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Philosophy
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The word philosophy means “seeking of wisdom”.
Socrates developed the Socratic method; using questions to get his
students to dig deeper into the meaning of what they were
studying.
Socrates was seen as a threat by some of the important people of
the polis. He was charged with “corrupting the young”.
Socrates was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Plato was the second great Greek philosopher. He recorded (in
writing) the teachings of Socrates from memory.
Plato believed that only the educated should have power, and that
too much freedom would bring social disorder.
Plato stressed logic and reasoning over what could be experienced.
The third great philosopher was Aristotle.
Aristotle also stressed logic and order in thinking.
Aristotle’s teachings and beliefs influenced science and government.
He believed that power should rest with the middle class.
Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Hellenistic Philosophy
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Cynicism was a philosophy taught by Diogenes.
Cynics believed that people would be happy if
they gave up material desires and lived in
accordance with nature.
Zeno founded a school of thought called
stoicism. Stoics believed that people gained
happiness by ignoring their emotions.
A third Hellenistic philosophy was
Epicureanism. Epicurists believed that people
should avoid both joy and pain, ignore politics,
and live simply with only a few close friends.
Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Science
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Thales studied astronomy at Babylon and mathematics
in Egypt, and could predict a solar eclipse.
Atristarchus determined that the sun was larger than the
earth, the earth revolved around the sun, and that the
stars are at great distances from both the sun and the
earth.
Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth
to within 1% of its correct value.
Archimedes invented the compound pulley and the
cylindrical-screw (which is still used today to lift water
for irrigation).
Archimedes also discovered the principle of buoyancy
(floating objects) and demonstrated how a lever works.
Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Mathematics
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Pythagoras described everything in
mathematical terms, often using ratios.
The Pythagorean theorem is still used in
when describing sides of a right triangle.
Euclid developed the mathematic study of
geometry.
Cultural Aspects of Athens:
Medicine
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Hippocrates was the father of Greek medicine. He
believed that diseases had natural causes and the body
could heal itself.
Hippocrates diagnosed and treated illnesses all over
Greece. He was a firm believer in hygiene (cleanliness),
proper diet, and rest for a healthy body.
Hippocrates wrote a code of medical conduct that still
guides doctors today. Many new doctors recite the
Hippocratic Oath when they become physicians.
Hellenistic doctors dissected corpses to learn about
human anatomy. They discovered the body’s nervous
system, studied the brain and liver, and learned how to
use drugs to relieve pain.