Download Ancient Greece Chapter 4 sections 1

Ancient Greece
Chapter 4 sections 1-4
 Geography Shapes Greece
- Greece is at the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula.
- Greece is surrounded by the Adriatic Sea in the west and the Aegean Sea in the east.
- The coastline is rough.
- The soil is rocky and farming is at a subsistence level.
- Greeks made a living through sea trade.
- Greeks were influenced by other cultures with whom they traded including Phoenicia.
- Greeks colonized throughout the Mediterranean including Spain, Sicily, Egypt and Italy.
Minoans
- Named after the legendary king from the island of Crete, Minos
- Traded with the Egyptians and Mesopotamia and adapting their inventions to their own culture
- Reached their height between 1600 -1500 BC
- By 1400 BC they had vanished
- Archaeologist are not completely sure and have speculated that there was either a volcanic eruption or
an earthquake
- BUT the invading Mycenaean did play a part……
 Palace at Knossos
- Housed the royal family as well as banquet halls, working areas for artisans and religious shrines
Mycenaeans
- Dominated the Aegean World 1400-1200BC
- They learned many skills Minoans including writing
- Lived on the mainland in separate city-states
- Fine gold ornaments have been unearthed
- Warrior King with thick walled fortress
 Buildings
- They became started building using Arches
 Trojan War
- The Mycenaeans are best known for their role in the Trojan War in 1250 BC
- Troy is located in present day Turkey
- Greek Legend told by Homer was fought for 10 years after Paris kidnaps Helen the beautiful wife of a
Greek king.
- In 1870 Heinrich Schliemann excavated the site of ancient Troy
City States
- Greece was a collection of city- states about 800 BC
- Each polis developed independently, with its own form of government, laws and customs
 Life in the Polis
- Polis, center of daily life, culture
- Greeks fiercely loyal to their polis
- Did not think of selves as Greeks, but as residents of their particular city-state
 Infrastructure
- Polis built around high area, called acropolis
- Acropolis used as fortification
- It included temples, ceremonial spaces
- Agora: public marketplace
 Other Attributes
- Shops, houses, temples near agora
- Gymnasium, athletes’ training grounds, public bath
- Sturdy wall for defense surrounded polis
- Governing the City-States
1
Political Structure
 Monarchy -rule by a king
- hereditary succession
- Monarchs claimed to rule by divine right.
- Mycenae, 1450 B.C. was monarchy.
 Aristocracy -the rule by a nobility
- Rule was based on land ownership and heredity
- Wealth and social status reinforced their rule.
- This describes Athens 594 BC
 Oligarchy -rule by a small group
- Oligarchs were wealthy.
- The control of the military helped them maintain power
- This describes Sparta 800-600 BC
 Tyranny -rule by a powerful dictator
- Tyrants ruled based on the popular support of the people.
- Tyrants used the army to maintain power.
- Various city states had dictators
 Direct Democracy-rule based on citizen participation
- Majority vote decided actions of the city state.
- Only male citizens could vote.
- Athens 461 B.C. practiced democracy.
Armies of the city-states grew stronger.
- Compulsory service- all male citizens had to serve.
- Soldiers were known as hoplites.
- Every soldier was responsible for his own weapons.
- Greeks used a phalanx, a military formation of 8x8 men, to fight.
Dominant city states included:
 Sparta
- militaristic
- Sparta conquered the Messenians, and made them virtual slaves known as Helots
- Over time the Helots outnumbered the Spartans 8-1.
- After a helot uprising, Sparta relied on its military to maintain control.
- Code of Lycurgus- was a set of laws that placed the strength of the army above all other values
- Spartan education began at the age of 7 for both boys and girls. It included tough physical training for
both
- Men were expected to serve in the army
- Women were expected to raise children for the polis.
- Spartans valued duty to the polis, strength and discipline above all
- Mothers would say as they gave them their shields “Either come back with your on or on it:
- The Theatre at Sparta, Greece
 Athens
- became democratic
- Wealthy rulers (aristocrats) and poor farmers struggled for power
 Cylon (632 BC) tried to establish a dictatorship but failed
 Draco (621BC) his harsh laws were the first written down he tried to control the conflict but his efforts failed.
 Solon (638-558)
- He created a democracy.
- 1/5 of the people were citizens could participate.
- His reforms included
- canceling debts
- encouraging farming & industry
2
- allowing all male citizens voting rights
- improving of the legal system
 Pisistratus (600-527BC)
- took over as a tyrant and ruled for 33 years
- He maintained control by taking away power of the nobles.
 Cleisthenes
- Had many reforms
- Creating a Council of 500, to advise the assembly and to propose laws.
- Introduced ostracism (first used 487), whereby a vote from 6,000 + of the citizens would exile a citizen
for 10 years
 Valued in Athenian society
- Democracy, education, art, Beauty, independent thinking
 Women
- As in other city-states they had no political life and must be guided by men.
- They played a crucial role in sacred processions and ceremonies
- They managed the entire household
- Unlike boys, girls did not receive an education
Things that Unified Greeks
 Religion
- Polytheistic
- 12 gods, goddesses were particularly influential in Greek lives
- These 12 lived together on Mount Olympus, highest mountain in Greece
- Olympian gods thought to have great power, though not perfect
- Myths say gods flawed, often unpredictable—loved, hated, argued, made mistakes, got jealous, played
tricks on each other
 The Gods of Olympus
- Ancient Greeks believed in hundreds of gods, goddesses; each governed one aspect of nature, life
- Example: Apollo controlled movement of sun; sister Artemis did same for moon
- Greeks believed gods would protect them, city-states in exchange for proper rituals, sacrifices
 Myths and Legends
- Much of what is known about early Greece comes from studying Greeks’ legends, myths
- Myths, stories told to explain natural phenomena, events of distant past
- Greek myths explained where they came from, how they should live, cope with uncertain world
 Worship
- Almost all Greeks worshipped same gods
- Each polis claimed one god, goddess as special protector
- Athens sacred to Athena
- Some locations considered sacred by all Greeks
 Sacred Locations
- Delphi sacred to all Greeks—priestesses of Apollo were thought to receive visions of future
- Olympia—every four years Greeks assembled there for Olympic Games; athletes competed against each
other to honor gods
 Foreigners
- The Greeks felt culturally inferior barbarians, even though they had adopted or borrowed many of their
ideas
- Those with different languages and customs were called “Barbaroi”
- The English word Barbarians comes from this.
Persian Wars 499-450 BC
- Wars between the Greek and the Persian Empire (Persia is now current day Iran)
Began around 520 BC with the invasion of Greek Ionia on the Anatolia Coast.
- Greeks supported Ionia in a revolt against the Persian Empire
3
-

Outward threats brought the sometimes disunited Greeks together to fight a common enemy, including
the Persian Empire
First Invasion
- 490 B.C.- Persians under Darius and an army of 25,000 attacked the Greeks
- The Greeks won victory at Marathon and the Persians withdrew
 Pheidippides
 After the Athenians defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon the Greeks sent this
young runner to go to Athenians to tell the people there to not give up without a fight.
 The city was feeling defenseless. The distance was 26 miles and 385 yard. Pheidippides
told the Athenians that “Victory is ours” and then collapsed and died.

Second Invasion
- 480 B.C. Persians led by Xerxes invaded by land and sea.
- The Persians won a victory at Thermopylae with the help of a Greek traitor.
- Greeks won victories on land at Plataea and at sea at Salamis.
- Athens was burned, yet survived
Delian League
- 140 City-states joined together for self defense against a possible Persian attack.
- Athens soon came to dominate the rest of the league
Golden Age of Athens
 Pericles (495 – 429 BC)
- Very wise statesman
- Economy in Athens thrived after the Persian Wars
- Introduces Direct Democracy
- Wanted all Citizens, including the poor to participate so he began paying them a stipend
- Citizens served on a jury ( hundreds or thousands of people would serve at a time)
- Citizens over the age of 30 were picked to serve on the jury for a year at a time.
- Began using ostracism to get rid of his opponents
- He will re-build the Parthenon and the Acropolis, after their destruction.
- Turned Athens into the cultural center of Greece
 Peloponnesian War
- Many Greeks resented Athens domination of the Delian League splitting Greece.
- Sparta and others formed the Peloponnesian League
- 431 BC war breaks out between the two and lasted 27 years
- When Spartan troops get to close to Athens, Pericles will move everyone into the walls of Athens
- Overcrowding leads to the break out of the plague killing thousands including Pericles.
- Athenian domination ended with the war, but they were still the cultural center.
- The city-states will continue to do battle until Macedonia conquers them in 359 BC
4