Download The Civilization of the Greeks

The Civilization
of the Greeks
Chapter 1 Section 2
The Polis: Center of Greek Life
• Greek city-state, or polis – central focus to
Greek life
– City-states varied in size
• Between a few hundred and several thousand
• Athens was one of the largest – 250,000
– Polis was the town, city, village and surrounding
countryside
• People met for political, religious, social, and
economic activities
• Polis = means Politics to us
• Polis was made up of three groups
– Citizens with political rights (adult males)
– Citizens with no political rights (women and children)
– And noncitizens (slaves and resident aliens)
• 7th or 6th Century B.C. – Tyrants – conflicts
– Rulers who seized power by force and were not
subject to laws
• Tyrants were supported by rich traders & poor
peasants in debt to landholding aristocrats
• Hired Soldiers to maintain power
• Built new marketplaces, temples, and walls
– Greeks turned against the tyranny
• Insult to ideal of the law
• Overthrew the tyrants to form Democracy
– Govt. by the people or rule of many
• Sparta – powerful city state
– Conquers neighboring peoples
• Laconians and Messenians
– Prevent them from rebelling Sparta created a
military state
• Lives of Spartans were rigidly organized and
controlled
• Spartan means highly self disciplined
– Boys/Men
• spent childhood learning military discipline and
enrolled in military service at age 20
• They might marry but lived in the barracks until age 30
• At age 30, they could vote and live at home but stayed
in the military until age 60
– Women –
• Lived at home which gave them greater freedom of
movement & power
– unique in Greece
• Expected to exercise
– Bear children and raise healthy children
• Expected bravery from their husbands and sons
– Government was an Oligarchy
• Headed by 2 Kings
• Led the Spartan army on their campaigns
– Council of Elders
• 2 Kings and 28 citizens who were over the age of 60
• Power to decide on what issues would be presented
to the assembly of male citizens
– Conservative government with a Closed society
• Turned their back on the outside world
• Were not allowed to travel - No one in/no one out
• Were not allowed to study philosophy, literature, or the
arts
– Anything that could encourage critical thinking
– Art of war was the Spartan ideal
• All others were frowned upon
• Athens – Major city state in ancient Greece
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700 B.C. was a unified polis on the peninsula of Attica
Early Athens was ruled by a king
7th century B.C. it was an oligarchy
Economic problems
• Athenian farmers could not pay their debts to aristocrats
– Being sold into slavery
• Led to Democratic government
– 508 B.C. aristocrat Cleisthenes came to power
• Restructured the assembly and laid the foundation for democracy
• Created the council of 500 members came from local districts
– All male citizens allowed to vote and elect the Council
– Controlled foreign policy and the treasury
– Council prepared legislation
» Legislation was debated openly in the assembly
– Athens had a Direct Democracy
• Citizens participated directly in decision making
– Pericles – dominated politics from 461 B.C. to 429 B.C.
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Started paying salaries
Made it possible for many more citizens to serve in public office
Athenians became deeply attached to their political system
Athens became the leading center of Greek culture
– New temples and statues
– Art and architecture flourished
The Greek Love of Wisdom
• Philosophy refers to an organized system of
thought
– Comes from the Greek word meaning “love of
wisdom”
• Greatest thinkers of the Western World
– Socrates
– Plato
– Aristotle
• Socrates was an Athenian stonemason
– Education had no other goal than improving
human understanding
– Teaching method called the Socratic method
• Presumed all knowledge was already present in each
person
• Careful questioning can draw it out
– Question and answer format
– Placed great emphasis on the ability to reason
• Questioned all things… including authority
• Accused and convicted of corrupting the youth by
encouraging critical thinking
– Sentenced to death by drinking hemlock, poison
• Plato – one of Socrates’ students
– Considered by many to be the greatest
philosopher of Western Civilization
– The Republic – ideas about government
• Thought political life in Athens was too rowdy
– Ideal state – 3 groups in society
• (1) Upper class – philosopher-kings
– Political power because they were wise
• (2) Warriors – protected society
• (3) Everyone else
– Masses driven by desires, not wisdom or courage
– Believed men & women should have the same
education & access to all positions in society
• Aristotle was a student of Plato
– Studied at Plato’s famous Academy for 20 years
– Focused on analyzing & classifying things based
on observation & investigation
– Wrote – ethics, logic, politics, poetry, astronomy,
geology, biology & physics
• Great contributions to Western society
– Based largely on Aristotle until the Scientific Revolution
• Thought critically about a rational form of government
• (3) good forms government
– Monarchy, Aristocracy & Constitutional government
» Constitutional government was best for people
• The Greeks & Western Civilization
– Principal source of Western culture
– Socrates, Plato & Aristotle established the
foundations of Western philosophy
• Rational method of inquiry was important to
modern science
– Established in ancient Greece
• Western Literature derived from drama & poetry
• Art and Architecture
– Greek principles of harmony and proportion have
remained
– Greece being a citizen in democracy brought
with it a strict sense of duty
Pericles – Advanced democracy
- Great leader of Athens
“We do not say a man who takes no interest in politics
minds his own business; we say he has no business
here at all.”
The Greeks called such a man idiotes, meaning “idiot,” by
which they meant a fool who lives in his own private
world.
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