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The Early Greeks: The Ancient Greek World Lesson Module The Greek World Click to enlarge Iron Age Governments • Based on agriculture and centered on rivers • King owns everything and has a special relationship with the gods • Priests control writing and knowledge • Aristocratic nobles control the military • Peasants work the land and are owned Iron Age Religions • Bound up with idea of fertility and harvest • Usually some sort of afterlife with rewards for the virtuous • Deeply connected to the government – king is divinely chosen and laws are divinely given • Patriarchal in nature Greek Government • Greek towns are small and isolated by both mountains and sea • Isolation results in small city-states and a range of government types • Kings exist but their power is not absolute • Size allows for democracy Greek Religion • The Greek Gods are not connected to any human royal line • Greek Gods are unique in their humanity • Mystery religions popular in Greece • Orpheus descends to Hades and returns with divine knowledge Greek Advantage: The Alphabet • Earliest alphabets are pictorial and complex • Phoenicians (1200 BCE) develop a phonemic alphabet – each symbol represents a sound • Greeks improve upon Phoenician by adding vowels (800 BCE) • Easy to learn – there are only 24 symbols • Infinitely flexible Greek Advantage: Trading • Many Greeks were traders, exchanging goods between colonies and Iron Age empires • Superior naval technology like the trireme made trade efficient and profitable • Primary exports are wine and olive oil Greek Advantage: Coinage • Nearby Lydia was the first to use currency in the form of gold coins but the Greeks soon followed • Money is more efficient than barter causing trading to increase • Greeks had easy access to rich gold mines, allowing for seigniorage Distinctive Athenian “owl” coin (5th century BCE) The Persian Wars • 499 to 494 BCE: Ionians revolt against Persian control with help from Greek city-states • 490 BCE: Persian invasion of Athens repelled at Marathon • 480 BCE: Xerxes leads second invasion and is turned back at Salamis (sea) and Plataea (land)