Download Ancient Greece - Miami Beach Senior High School

+
Greece & Persia, 800-30 B.C.E.
Mr. Ermer
World History AP
Miami Beach Senior High School
+
Early Classical Era Empires
 Connecting
diverse, previously
unfamiliar cultures
 Cross-cultural
 Persian
exchanges, judgment
& Greek commonalities:
 Indo-European
language
 Common Cultural Traits
 Social Organization
Persian Origins
Indo-Europeans from Iran (land of the Aryans)
Former Pastoral Nomads, Expert Horsemen
Settled in southwestern Iranian Plateau
Borrowed cultural elements from Babylonians &
Assyrians
Very little Persian records found
Underground irrigation channels
Great Salt Desert
Tin, Copper, Iron, Gold, Silver
Persia’s Achaemenid Emperors
 Cyrus the Great (559-529 BCE)
 First emperor of Persia
 Portrayed himself as a benevolent savior
 Darius I (521-486 BCE)
 Conquers lands up to the Indus River in the east
 Expands empire into eastern Europe, Libya
 Controlled 70 different ethnicities
 Established new bureaucratic system, fixed taxation
 Made best use of local leaders and customs, built infrastructure
 Semitic-Aramaic becomes official language
 Equality for all peoples in the empire
 New Administrative system divided into satrapies
Persian Ideology
Persian kings enjoy absolute authority
 Expected to behave and rule morally
 Skilled warriors and horsemen
Social Structure = 4 groups
 Priests
 Nobles
 Warriors
 Administrative & Commercial class
Women have many rights, influential
Zoroastrianism
 Monotheistic faith, taught by Zoroaster
 Avesta: the holy book of Zoroastrians
 Ahura Mezda: the one creator God of all good
 Ahiram: in struggle with AM for control of universe
 Reverence given to elements of nature
 Rules of Behavior
 Avoidance of intoxicants
 Corpses exposed to be picked by animals
 Influences on Judaism & Christianity

God vs. Devil, eternal reward/suffering, End of Time
Building An Empire
Infrastructure:
Roads (The Royal Road)
 Way stations for travellers
Art
Uniquely Persian style promoted by Darius
Monumental Architecture
Grand columned halls/palaces
Paradayadam
+
Map of Greece
Moving & Shaking
 Mediterranean basin = uniform ecological zone
 Easy transfer of lifestyles across space
 Second Generation Societies/Cultures
 Assyrian defeat & Persian expansion= new cultural
blending
 Improved maritime navigation = colonization of Western
Med. Sea
 Hybrid communities combining new and old ideas

Phoenicians, Greeks, Lydians, Etruscans
 New models of governments comprised of citizens, not
kings
The Greek Dark Age
 1100-800 BCE: Greece suffers from loss of population and
declining agriculture, Greece is isolated from Asia
 Many Mycenaean Greeks spread throughout Mediterranean basin.
 Begin use of iron weapons
 800: Phoenicians reestablish trade between Greece &
Asia
 Greeks adopt the Phoenician alphabet
 Greece = plentiful clay for pottery, and stone for building material
(marble)
 Two new groups pastoral nomadic Indo-European Greeks
settle Greek mainland:
 Aeolian Greeks: settle in northern and central Greece; including
Athens
 Dorian Greeks: settle on the island of Crete, other Aegean islands
and the Peloponnese; including Sparta
Archaic Greece & The Polis
 Archaic Period: 800-480 BCE, Greece=urban society
 Polis=The Greek City-State

Acropolis & Agora
 Greek poleis reject Mycenaean monarchical system, choose
self-government by citizens in various forms:



Tyrannis (Tyranny): rule by one leader elected by the citizens
Oligoi (Oligarchy): rule by a few chosen citizens
Dēmokratia (Democracy): rule by many citizens who vote on policy
 Competition between city-states=warfare and athletic
competition
 Hoplites: heavily armored, well trained infantrymen, phalanx
 Olympic Games
 Free Market & Money Based Economy
 Chattel Slavery: humans bought and sold as property
Sparta
 Oligarchical Government
 Two “king” system: one for domestic rule, one for battlefield
 The Ephors: five elected to oversee education and regulate conduct
 The Council of 30: men over sixty debate policy to present for vote

Presented policies were voted on by all men over 30 years of age
 Non-Spartans denied entry into the polis
 Conquered polis of Messenia, Messenians to work as helots
 Fear of a helot revolt creates military state, cautious foreign policy
 The Spartan Military State
 Tight government control of behavior
 Young men educated in military discipline, enlist at 20
 Men under 30 live in army barracks, eat together
 Men over 30 live at home, gain right to vote, discharged at 60
 Women expected to exercise, given more freedom than elsewhere
 Art, literature, money, and commerce are forbidden
 Foreign policy is isolationist
Athens
 Archaic Athens is largest polis in Greece, trade-based
economy
 Athens experiences transition from monarchy to oligarchy to
tyranny to democracy
 Threat of war resulting from debt peonage brings elected tyrants
 Salon, Pisistratus, and Cleisthenes expand democratic participation
 Council of 500 male citizens supervises the rule Cleisthenes
 Tyrant Pericles expands democracy
 Athenian men experience great amount of freedom
 Women stay home to cook, clean, supervise servants, raise
children



Must have male escort to leave home, excluded from public life
Married at 14-15 years of age, to older and established men
Women expected to be literate and trained in music
The Greco-Persian War
 546 BCE: Cyrus the Great conquers Ionian Coast of Anatolia
 499: Ionian city-states revolt, Athens sends naval support
 490: Darius sends forces to Greece, repelled by Athens at
Marathon
 486: Xerxes, son of Darius, invades from the north
 Many northern and central Greek poleis accept Persian control
 Sparta assembles the Hellenic League (coalition of southern
poleis)
 Battle of Thermopylae
 Sacking of Athens & Battle of Salamis
 Battle of Plataea
 Athenian navy controls the Aegean Sea—Delian League
 Athenian trireme
The Athenian Trireme
The Peloponnesian War
 Athens exercises hegemony over Delian League
 Sparta forms Peloponnesian League to protect itself
 Rivalry between the two leagues’ interests leads to conflict
 Athenians threaten Spartan interests by trading with Sparta’s
allies
 431: Sparta marches on Athens, Athens holds out behind walls



Plague (Typhoid Fever) sweeps across Athens
Athens holds out for generation
Extended contact with outsiders erodes Spartan integrity
 Peloponnesian forces are victorious, but at a cost
 No polis enjoys large amounts of control after the war
 Sparta declines, Athens rebounds, Thebes rises as commercial
power
Greek Society
 Polytheistic Religion
 Temples to patron gods and goddess dominate the polis
 Non-institutionalized, no doctrine or moral code
 Oracles provide access to will of the gods
 Ritual sacrifice & festivals important to well-being of state
and self
 Popular Entertainment
 Dramas performed at the amphitheater



Tragedies & Comedies
Aeschylus (Oresteia)
Sophocles (Oedipus Rex, Antigone)
The Oracle at Delphi
Greek Thought
 Greek art idealizes the natural world, human body
 Gods take human form, not anthropomorphic gods of Asia
 Nudity is admired, not shunned as in the traditional Asian
societies
 Artists sign works, become known as individuals
 Greek philosophy (“love of wisdom”)
 Pythagoras studies numbers in search of a unifying principle
 Democritus discovers the atom (atoma)
 Sophists travel and teach rhetoric and relativity for selfbetterment
 The “Big Three”: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
 Socrates: questioned authority, held conversations with public
 Plato: Platonic Forms, natural world is an imperfect copy
 Aristotle: By studying nature, one can arrive at a better
understanding of the true world, rules for successful societies
Alexander the Great
 By
400 BCE, Macedonia develops from a fringe
state to a powerful, united, and ethnic Greek state


Wealth comes from gold mines and slave trade
Finances new military technologies
 Philip


II conquers Greek city-states, including Athens
Assassinated, succeeded by son—Alexander
Alexander conquers the Persian Empire, enters India
 Alexander



continues cross-cultural integration
Exposes southwest Asia to money and Med. Goods
Spread of Greek language and philosophy
Redistribution of Persian wealth
 323
BCE: Alexander dies of wounds and alcohol
poisoning
Alexander’s Empire
Hellenistic Kingdoms
 After
his death, Alexander’s generals (Ptolomy,
Seleucus, Antigonus, Lysimachus) split the empire
into four kingdoms:

Macedonia, Syria, Egypt, and Pergamum
 Absolute
rulers, modeled after Persian satraps
 Women,
especially queens, exercise great influence
 Conquered people were equal to Greeks

Greeks move throughout the Hellenistic world
 Greek
art, architecture, ideas, and language
become common throughout

Alexandria, Egypt becomes the model city
Hellenistic Kingdoms
Alexandria