Download Athens’ Age of Glory - Newton Middle School

Athens’ Age of
Glory
By Karrissa Garza
Vocabulary
 Assembly - a lawmaking body of government
 Jury – a group of citizens chosen to hear evidence and make decisions in a
court of law
 Philosophy – a search for wisdom or the right way to live
 Peloponnesian Wars – a series of wars fought between primarily Athens and
Sparta, along with smaller city-states
People and Places
 Pericles – an Athenian leader from around
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450 B. C. who made sure
everyone could participate in the government
Socrates – a famous teacher and philosopher
who lived in the mid
400s BC
Plato – a student of Socrates and a noted philosopher
Acropolis – THE religious center of Athens
Parthenon – a temple at the highest point of Athens
The Golden Age
 Life still revolves around
the Acropolis; it is one
of the largest in Greece,
a symbol of wealth
 At the center of the
Acropolis was the
Parthenon at the
highest point
 Athens became the
biggest city with
100,000 people
The Golden Age: The Agora
 In one corner people
could leave and post
messages
 In another corner
there were merchants
who offered goods or
services
 In the Agora there
was also students,
lawyers and
government officials
that met
This is actually the grocery area of
an agora
Athenian Government
 In the mid 400s BC the
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government was run by
an assembly
This assembly made up
laws and voted on
issues
Slaves and women
were NOT citizens
Pericles, leader of
Athens
Established juries and
paid citizens who
served on juries
The Trouble with Philosophy
 Around 400 BC Socrates began questioning Athenian
values, laws, customs, and religious ideas
 Some Athenians were not too thrilled with Socrates
and his ideas saying he was encouraging the youth
to revolt
 As a result the brought Socrates to trial and executed
him
 His teachings exist today because Plato, his student
and another philosopher wrote them down
War and Conflict
 Sparta joined with other Greek city- states to fight
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against Athens
The other Greeks were jealous of Athens prosperity
Spartan’s army surrounded the city
Athens's navy however defeated Sparta’s navy
The two sides were in deadlock for several years
Eventually disease killed 1/3 of Athens population
and Pericles
Sparta managed to cut off the grain supply to Athens
Sparta became the most powerful city- state though
only for a little while