Download The Greeks

Trojan War Author
• Homer
• He was an Oral Poet.
• Was blind and played a harp while he told the
epics.
• His most famous epics are the Iliad and the
Odyssey.
• Iliad is about the Trojan War, the Odyssey is
about the Journey back from the War. The main
character is Odysseus.
• His epics were composed years later after the
estimated dates of the Trojan war.
Greek City Structure
• Polis - Greek term for city-state. It was
common for many city-states to make
allies with other city-states.
• It was common back then for Greek citystates to ask other city-states to join their
side or die.
• Athens and Sparta were some great citystates in the Aegean World.
Greek City Structure
• Acropolis – Was a high marble temple
dedicated to certain gods and goddesses.
• Citizens would gather and discuss
community affairs there.
• Agora – Central Market Place in Ancient
Greece. Site of many temples and
Government buildings too. Extremely
busy.
Greeks
• Architecture – Most famous temple built
was the Parthenon. Dedicated to
Goddesses Athena. Used columns to hold
it up.
• Farming – Used a heavy hoe called a
mattock.
• Religion – Polytheistic and a heavy
mythology library.
Philosophy and Art
• Greek Philosophy – main purpose – Study
of the meaning and knowledge of life.
• Greek Art – Extremely influential to many
cultures around the globe.
• Painting – Done on pottery and frescos.
• What is a fresco?
• Fresco – painting done on fresh plaster
with water colors.
• Depicts views of Greek life.
Philosophy and Art
• Sculpture – Carved many figures, including
gods, goddesses, athletes, and famous people.
Showed them in graceful or natural poses.
• Drama – Mythology was a heavy influence here.
Plays were preformed outdoors at festivals
about myths and legends. Two types of plays.
• Comedies – Mocked people or customs.
• Tragedy – Story about suffering and ended in a
disaster. Greeks thought you excite emotions
through pity and fear.
Greek Governments
• Monarchy – King rules the polis or empire.
• Aristocracy – Rule by the rich landowning elite.
• Oligarchy – Power is in the hands of a chosen
few.
• Democracy – This government was adopted
later in Greek history. The people call the shots
directly or through elected representatives.
• Tyrant – Someone who assumes power over a
government, not necessarily an evil person.
Spartans
• This southern region was called
Peloponnesus.
• Capital city-state would be Sparta.
• Their culture and way of life was
centered around warfare.
Spartans
• Helots – State owned slaves in Sparta.
Their population outnumbered everyone in
the area so strict rules were enforced to
keep them in check.
• Spartan Life Women – Were expected to
have healthy children. In charge of
property when men went off to war.
Spartan Life
• Spartan Life Men – From birth a child is
prepared for the military life.
• At age 7 they move to the barracks and start
training. Life is hard there but this toughens
them up.
• Exercised everyday and were fed a meager diet.
• Kids were encouraged to steal food from each
other to supplement diet. Also shapes up their
cunning will (sneakiness or swiftness). If caught
stealing they were beaten.
Spartan Life
• At age 20 you could marry.
• Had to stay in barracks at night until a
certain age.
• If you lived through your tour of duty, you
could join a position in the government.
Spartan Government
• Was a combination of a Aristocracy and a
monarchy.
• Had 2 kings
• A council of elders who advised the
monarchs
• Last a assembly of citizens ( Spartans
over the age of 30)
Final Spartan Facts
• Land troops were extremely effective.
• Sparta forbid anyone to travel out side of
their borders.
• Sparta was shut out of the outside world
and did not gain the advancements the
rest of the world was making. They were
isolated.
Athens
• The city-state of Athens grew up as an
aristocracy, but it had a few flaws so it changed
to a democracy.
• The main flaw was citizenship. Old laws stated
that foreigners that moved to Athens could not
become citizens. This made many mad because
they were under this category and the
aristocracy would not change the law.
• Really strong Navy and Army.
Athens
• Differences between Greek democracy
and our country’s?
• Only male could vote in Greek democracy.
• Lots of people were slaves with no voting
rights.
• Have to be at least age 30 to vote in
Greece.
Athens
• Women of Athens – Domestic engineers,
seen as lower beings, no real rights.
• Men of Athens – Growing up men were
encouraged to explore many different
ideas, unlike Sparta just doing war.
• Athenian men could go to school, study
poetry, become athletes, professional
traders, and learn military skills.
Athens and Sparta
• The two empires did have a few things in
common.
• Both spoke Greek.
• Both viewed all non Greek people as
lesser beings and called them barbaroi
(barbarians).
• Both were never really friendly towards
each other, but came together during the
Persian Wars.
Persian Wars
• Persia had a grand empire in the east.
• Persia demanded all Greek city states to
surrender. Some states did, but not Sparta
and Athens. This brought the city states
together as allies.
• Persia sent messengers to deliver the
demands, Athens threw the messenger
down a well, Sparta threw their messenger
down a pit.
Persian Wars
• Persia sent an army twice the size of
Athens.
• Athens sent everyman available and beat
the Persians at the battle of Marathon.
• A runner ran all the way back to Athens to
spread the word of the victory and to
prepare for a naval invasion.
• The runner was Pheidippides. When he
made it to Athens he dropped dead of
exhaustion. He ran a Marathon distance.
Persian Wars
• After Marathon and realizing they could
not successfully attack Athens by sea,
Persia retreated and did not return until 10
years later.
• Persia sent 250,000, the Greeks sent
7,000 ( 300 were Spartans). The battle site
was called Thermopylae.
• After three days of battle, 20,000 Persians
were killed and 1,000 Greeks lay dead.
Persian Wars
• The Greeks figured they would lose the
battle so they withdraw and leave the 300
Spartans behind to cover the retreat.
• Every Spartan dies but they give the
Greeks enough time to form a counter
attack.
• Athens is burned, but the Persian navy is
totaled and that cuts off supplies and the
Persians eventually surrender.
Post Persian Wars
• Sparta is a great help at Thermopylae and
helps keep Athens a power.
• To ward off any future attacks from
Persians, Athens creates a grand alliance
with other Greek city-states. Sparta does
not join.
• The name of the Alliance created by
Athens is called the Delian League.
Golden Age of Greece
• After the Persian Wars, Athens is rebuilt
and a new ruler named Pericles come to
power.
• Pericles made vast reforms in government
by making it a direct democracy. Basically
no representatives. The people directly
make the calls of the government.
Golden Age of Greece
• Other reforms
• More males were allowed to vote with a
change of voting age.
• Economic reforms - making more jobs.
• Cultural reforms – built many temples and
other types of buildings all over the
Athenian Empire.
Peloponnesian War
• Athens and their allies grew very powerful
(during their golden age) and they supported
democracy. This made other city-states jealous
of the Delain League. Also they feared Athens
power would be a threat to them.
• Sparta started the Peloponnesian League to
counter the Delain League.
Peloponnesian War
• Sparta invades and puts Athens under
siege.
• Sparta controls the land around Athens
but not the sea.
• Sparta figured it would starve Athens by
burning all its crops outside of the city.
Athens just simply bought food from over
seas and had it shipped to them by sea.
Peloponnesian War
• Athens misfortunes – Plague spreads
through the city while under siege and
even kills Pericles.
• Athens tries to attack Syracuse ( on Sicily,
part of Peloponnesian league) but ends in
major disaster for navy and army.
• Persia joins Peloponnesian league and
helps turn the tide in navy and army.
Peloponnesian War
• Sparta was simply taken over by rival citystates in the coming years.
• A great Kingdom to the North will rise to
power and control Greece shortly after.
• That Kingdom was Macedonia.
Greek Philosophy
• Philosophy – the investigation of questions
about the existence and knowledge and ethics.
• Traditional philosophy originally dealt with trying
to find success.
• It later became acceptable to talk about
philosophy in public.
• It would expand to questioning ethics, truth, or
moral behavior.
Socrates
• Greatest philosopher of all time.
• Had many students and started new
philosophy in public and got in trouble.
• The government found him guilty of
“corrupting the youth”
• He was given two choices; leave Athens
or drink hemlock which is a type of poison.
Socrates
• He encouraged free thinking and put to
death because of it.
• He believed in the Socratic method that
encouraged discussion.
• His students begged him to flee the jail.
• He would not leave jail because it was
morally wrong.
• All of his work is recorded by his student
Plato.
Macedonia
• Greek origin, but seen as lesser Greeks
because they live over the savage north
mountains.
• Philip II rose to the throne of Macedonia
and conquered the whole Greek
peninsula.
• After Greece, Philip II made plans to
invade Persia.
Macedonia
• Philip made plans to go into Persia but
never lived to start the campaign.
• At age 20 his son Alexander rose to the
throne.
• He was ready to lead, had a great teacher
growing up named Aristotle. Aristotle was
a great thinker and philosopher.
Alexander The
Great
• He thought of himself as a hero.
• Went on with his father’s plans to conquer
Persia. At the time, Persia was the
greatest Empire in size in the world.
• Takes Egypt and Persia. He will go as far
east to India. Wanted to keep going but his
men would have mutinied.
Alexander’s Empire
• Conquered land ranging from as far West
as Greece and Egypt to as far East in
India and Afghanistan.
• At least 10 cities named after him.
• Took only 13 years to do these conquests.
• Kept all his lands happy because he
adopted local customs and vice versa.
Alexander’s Empire
• He would eventually die of a fever at age
33 in Babylon.
• His empire divided into many factions after
his death and wars raged on.
• He also left behind a new culture called
Hellenistic. It s a blend of Greek cultures
with a little bit of other cultures mixed in it.