Download Ancient Greece Notes - South Lewis Central School

Ancient Greece & Rome
World History - Unit 3.2
Timeline of Empires
Ancient Greece : 8th-6th Century BCE
Ancient Rome: 44BCE-1453C.E.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Geography
• Climate in this
region made living
easier
• Mediterranean Sea
promoted trade
• No real unity b/c citystates cut off from
one another by
mountains or water
• People became skilled
sailors & carried
caravels (ships) of
olive oil, wine, and
marble
Ancient Greece
Government
• Changed gov’t many times: monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy (do
you remember these?)
• City-states were called a polis
- polis made up a city & its countryside
• On top of the hill was the acropolis (high city w/ temples
dedicated to the gods/goddesses)
• Once the city states united, direct democracy evolved in Athens
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Rule by the people
Had courts and juries
Elected council or consul
Debated & voted on laws
(*only free males were citizens who could vote)
Ancient Greece
Common Culture
• Polytheistic
• Believed that gods lived on Mount Olympus
• Zeus= most important god
-Other gods include: Aphrodite, Ares, Athena
• Gods were honored with feasts, performances, &
athletic competitions
• Language: Greek
Factors that brought Greeks together, and kept them apart
• Common Language, religion, &
festivals
• Rugged mountains separating
the valleys
• Co-operative supervision of
certain temples
• Rivalries between city-states
• separate legal systems
• Belief that the Greeks were
descended from the same
ancestors
• independent calendars, money,
weights & measures
• Fierce spirit of independence
Ancient Greece
2 great city-states emerge
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SPARTA
A warrior society – trained
from a child to become part
of the military
Gov’t - 2 kings, council of
elders, assembly ran daily
affairs
Women needed to produce
strong boys
Isolated
“Spartans are willing to die
for their city, because they
have no reason to live”
ATHENS
• Gov’t – from monarchy to
aristocracy
• Lower classes demanded
change and as a result Athens
moved towards democracy (1st
in the world)
• Legislature – lawmaking body
(all men were expected to
participate)
• Boys attended schools to learn
to read, write, study music,
poetry, and public speaking (so
they could be in the
legislature)
Ancient Greece
Contributions to the World
• Philosophy
-brought back 1000s yrs. later w/ the Enlightenment
& reason)
thinkers (logic
• Developed skills like rhetoric (art of speaking)
– Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle question tradition
• Architecture (columns)
• Literature (books: the Iliad, the Odyssey
• Comedies, dramas & tragedies
• First to start recording events aka writing history (Persian War)
• Olympics
Greek Philosophers: based on logic
Socrates
Aristotle
-Know thyself!
-question everything to seek truth & selfknowledge
-
“Golden Mean”
[everything in moderation]
Plato
-His book: The Republic
-set up a school called The Academy
-rational thought would bring understanding
of Ethical values, perfect beauty, & society
ATHENS
Golden Age
Today
Classical Greek architecture
COLUMN- style
Do you know any
famous U.S.
buildings that use
columns?
Downfall of Greece
-400s B.C.: wars fought w/ Persia (empire in SW
Asia) & Sparta (rival Greek city-state)
-338 B.C. Macedonia (kingdom to the north)
conquered Greece
-Alexander the Great of Macedonia
conquered Greece, Persia, and
part of India
-During his rule he spread Greek culture (cultural
diffusion) throughout the lands he conquered