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Ancient Greece
Greece & RomeUnit 3
Geography played an important role in the
development of Greek civilization. Compared to the landmasses of Mesopotamia and Egypt, Greece occupies a small area. It consists of a mountainous peninsula and numerous islands that encompass about 50,000 sq. miles of territory (about the size of Louisiana).
Geography
Mountains About 80% of Greece is mountainous Olympus is the highest peak in the Pindus
Mountains, which divide the mainland Mountain ranges isolated Greeks from one
another, causing different Greek communities to develop their own ways of life
Seas The Aegean, Mediterranean, and Ionian Seas
make up the eastern, southern, and western borders of Greece
Although Greece is small, it has an 8,500 mile coastline (no part of the Greek mainland is more than 60 miles from a body of water)
Ancient Greeks also lived on a number of islands to the west, south, and east of the mainland
By 2800 BC a Bronze Age civilization had
been established on the island of Crete Called the Minoan civilization, it flourished
from 2700 – 1450 BC At the beginning of the 20th century an English
archaeologist discovered an enormous palace complex on Crete at Knossos, the remains of which revealed a rich culture, that had a far-ranging sea empire based on trade
Minoan Civilization
The ships of the Minoans took them to Egypt as well as southern Greece They traded finely crafted pottery, gold and silver
jewelry in exchange for other goods and ideas Although Minoans built palaces on several sites in
Crete, the palace at Knossos was where the royals lived Several private living rooms, workshops, and
bathrooms formed the complex The centers of Minoan civilization on Crete
suffered a sudden and catastrophic collapse around 1450 BC Some believe it was a tidal wave spurred by a
volcanic eruption that was responsible Most historians believe that the destruction was a
result of invasion by mainland Greeks known as the Mycenaeans
Mycenae, a fortified site on the Greek mainland,
was one center in a Mycenaean Greek civilization that flourished between 1600 and 1100 BC
The Mycenaean Greeks were part of the Indo-European family of peoples who spread into Europe and Asia
Mycenaean civilization was made up of powerful monarchies Each family resided in fortified palace centers built
on hills and surrounded by stone walls (like Mycenae itself)
A noticeable feature of these centers were the tholos tombs built into hillsides for the royal families
Mycenae
Mycenaean's were a warrior people who prided themselves on their heroic deeds in battle Some historians believe that they spread their
control by conquering Crete and other Aegean islands
Their most famous military adventure is recounted in the poetry of Homer The Mycenaean Greeks, led by Agamemnon,
sacked the city of Troy on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor around 1250 BC
By the late thirteenth century Mycenaean Greece was showing signs of serious trouble Mycenaean states fought one another, and
major earthquakes caused widespread damage In the 12th century new waves of Greek-
speaking invaders moved into Greece from the north
By 1100 BC, Mycenaean civilization collapsed
After the collapse of Mycenaean civilization, Greece entered a difficult period in which the population declined and food production dropped. Historians call the period from 1100 BC to 750 BC the Dark Age because few records of what happened exist.
Greeks in the Dark Age
During the Dark Age, many Greeks left the mainland
and sailed across the Aegean Sea to various islands Many went to the western shore of Asia Minor to Ionia
in modern day Turkey Two other major groups settled in established parts
of Greece: The Aeolian Greeks (northern and central Greece)
colonized the island of Lesbos and the territory near the mainland
The Dorians settled in southwestern Greece and some Aegean islands, including Crete
Changes of the Dark Age
In addition to agriculture, there was a revival of some trade and economic activity during the Dark Age Iron replaced bronze in weapons and iron
farming tools helped reverse the decline in food production
At some point in the 8th century BC the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet to give themselves a new system of writing They reduced all words to a combination of 24
letters and made learning to read and write simpler
The Iliad and the Odyssey were the first great
epic poems of early Greece Homer proved to be of great value to later
Greeks, not because he recorded history, but because he created it They looked at the Iliad and the Odyssey as true
history that gave the Greeks an ideal past with a cast of heroes
The values Homer taught were courage and honor and gave later generations of Greek males a model of heroism and honor
Homer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUZt7vycu2Y
Greece: A Moment of Excellence
By 750 BC, the city-state – or what the Greeks called
a polis – became the central focus of Greek life The gathering place was at the top of a hill in a
fortified area known as an acropolis, here they would meet for political, social, and religious activities
The acropolis was also a place of refuge during an attack and came to be religious centers where temples were built
Below the acropolis was an agora, an open area where people would assemble; it was also a market
The polis was a community that consisted of citizens with political rights (adult males), citizens with no political rights (women and children), and noncitizens (slaves)
Greek City-States
City-states distrusted one another, and the diversion of Greece into fiercely patriotic independent units helped to bring about its ruin
As the polis developed, so too did a new military system By 700 BC the military system was based on
hoplites (heavily armed infantry soldiers), each of which carried a shield, short sword, and a spear
Hoplites went into battle as a unit marching shoulder to shoulder in a rectangular formation known as a phalanx; this created a wall of shields to protect the hoplites
Between 750
and 550 BC, large numbers of Greeks left their homeland to settle in distant lands looking for good farmland and the growth of trade
Greek Colonies
The expansion of trade and industry created a
new group of wealthy individuals, which fostered the rise of tyrants in the 7th and 6th centuries BC The tyrants gained power and kept it by using
hired soldiers Tyrants also built marketplaces, temples, and
walls which increased their popularity However tyranny didn’t last long, as the Greeks
believed in the rule of law and tyranny ended in the 6th century
Tyranny in the City-States
The rule of tyrants had ended the rule of the aristocrats in many city-states and its end allowed many new people to participate in government This led to the development of democracy
(government by the people or rule of the many) Other city-states remained committed to
government by an oligarchy (rule by the few)
Like other city-states, Sparta needed more land
and chose to conquer their neighbors rather than starting new colonies Once they took over an area those people they
conquered (helots) became their serfs Between 800 and 600 BC the lives of the Spartans
were rigidly organized and tightly controlled Males spent their childhood learning military
discipline, enrolled in the army at 20, were required to live in military barracks until 30 (this is when they were allowed to vote in the assembly), and had to stay in the army until age 60
Sparta
While their husbands lived in the barracks, Spartan women lived at home Because of this freedom, Spartan women had
greater freedom of movement and greater power in the house
Many women upheld the strict Spartan values, expecting their husbands and sons to be brave in war (mothers would tell their sons to bring their shields home from war or be carried home on it)
The Spartan government was an oligarchy headed by two kings A group of five men (ephors) were elected
each year and were responsible for the education and conduct of all citizens
A council of elders (28 citizens over 60) decided on issues that were presented to them
To make their new military state secure, Spartans turned their backs on the outside world Foreigners were discouraged from visiting Except for military reasons, Spartans were not
allowed to travel abroad, where they might encounter ideas dangerous to the stability of the state
Spartan citizens were discouraged from studying philosophy, literature, or the arts (the art of war was the ideal and all other forms were frowned upon)
Early Athens was ruled by a king, but by the
seventh century BC, it became an oligarchy under the control of its aristocrats
Near the end of the seventh century, Athens faced political turmoil because of serious economic problems Many farmers were sold into slavery when they
couldn’t repay their debts to the aristocracy; even though people begged for the aristocracy to cancel all debt and return the debt…civil war seemed likely
Athens
The ruling Athenian aristocrats reacted to this crisis in 594 BC by giving full power to Solon He cancelled all land debts and freed people
who had fallen into slavery He refused to take land from the rich and give it
to the poor, which left the aristocrats very powerful
In 560 BC, Peisistratus seized power and led the tyranny in Athens He aided trade as a way of pleasing the
merchants and gave the aristocrat’s land to the peasants
The Athenians rebelled against his son and ended the tyranny in 510 BC
In 508 BC Cleisthenes gained control He created a council of 500 that supervised
foreign affairs, oversaw the treasury, and proposed laws
Because the assembly control the central political role, his reforms created the foundations for democracy
As the Greeks spread throughout the
Mediterranean, they came in contact with the Persian Empire Ionian Greek cities in Asia Minor fell to the
Persian Empire by the mid-sixth century BC In 499 BC an unsuccessful revolt by the Ionian
cities (assisted by the Athenian navy) led the Persian ruler Darius to seek revenge In 490, the Persians landed in Marathon (26 miles
from Athens) and were defeated by a much smaller Athenian army
The Challenge of Persia
After Darius died in 486 BC, Xerxes became the new Persian monarch and vowed revenge against Greece In preparation for the attack some of the Greek
states formed a defensive league under the Spartans
The Athenians however followed a new military policy and built a navy (they had 200 vessels by the time the Persians invaded in 480)
Xerxes led a massive invasion force into Greece, which included 180,000 troops and thousands of warships and supply vessels Despite their differences, Athenians, Spartans,
and other Greeks were united by a common goal of defeating the Persians
In 479 BC the Greeks formed the largest Greek army at that time and defeated the Persian army at Plataea
After the defeat of the Persians, Athens took over
the leadership of the entire Greek world In 478 BC they formed a defensive alliance against
the Persians known as the Delian League It was headquartered on the island of Delos,
however all of the commanders lived in Athens They pursued the attack against the Persian empire,
eventually liberating virtually all of the Greek states in the Aegean
Under Pericles Athens expanded its empire abroad while democracy flourished, creating the height of Athenian power and brilliance
The Athenian Empire
Pericles created a direct democracy, where
every male citizen participated in the governing assembly and voted on all major issues The assembly met every 10 days and passed all
laws, elected public officials, and made decisions concerning war and foreign policy
Athenians devised the practice of ostracism to protect against ambitious politicians People wrote down the name of someone they
considered “harmful”, if at least 6,000 members named the same person they were banned from the city for 10 years
The Age of Pericles
By the 5th century BC, Athens had the largest
population of all the Greek city-states with about 300,000 people Nearly 10,000 people were considered non-
citizens, though they served in the military and helped to fund festivals
Most people in Athens, except the very poor, owned at least 1 slave (100,000 slaves total) who mostly worked in the fields or in the home
Daily Life, Economy & Society
The Athenian economy was largely based on farming and trade Mostly grew grains, vegetables, grapes and olive
trees Raised sheep and goats for wool, milk, and dairy
products Because of the lack of land, Athens imported 50-
80% of their grain and became the leading trade center in the 5th century
An Athenian woman was expected to be a good wife and her chief obligation was to bear children Women were strictly controlled (couldn’t own land,
always had a male guardian, etc) Many learned to read and play a musical instrument,
though girls were not provided a formal education Only poor women could work outside the home and
then only at unskilled jobs
Twelve chief gods and goddesses were thought to
live on Olympus Zeus (chief god and father of gods), Athena (goddess
of wisdom and crafts), Apollo (god of sun and poetry), Artemis (goddess of the moon and the hunt), Ares (god of war), Aphrodite (goddess of love), and Poseidon (god of the seas and earthquakes)
Greek religion did not have a body of doctrine and it didn’t focus on morality (all spirits went to the gloomy underworld ruled by Hades) However religious rituals became very important so
the gods would look favorably on their activities
Greek Religion
Festivals also developed as a way to honor the gods and goddesses Numerous events, including athletic games, took
place in honor of the gods at Greek festivals (the first such games were held at the Olympic festival in 776 BC)
The Greeks also had a great desire to learn the will of the gods by using an oracle (a sacred shrine where a god revealed the future through a priest or priestess) Responses were often puzzling and could be
interpreted in more than one way Although Greek religion is no longer practiced, it
was the source of most Greek drama and art Not only did the Romans adopt their gods, but many
stories and references about Greek gods appear in European and American literature
Drama as we know it in Western culture was
created by the Greeks The first Greek dramas were tragedies, which
were presented in trilogies built around a common theme They examined such problems as the nature of good
and evil, rights of the individual, divine forces, and human beings
Striving to do the best thing may not always lead to success, but the attempt is a worthy endeavor
Greek comedy developed later than tragedy and were used to criticize politicians and intellectuals Meant to entertain and provoke a reaction
Drama
The Greeks were the first people in the Western
world to present history as a systematic analysis of past events
Herodotus wrote History of the Persian Wars, often seen as the first real history He traveled widely and questioned many people to
obtain his information Many historians consider Thucydides to be the
greatest historian of the ancient world He wrote about war and political activities seeing it
as an act of human beings, not gods He believed the study of history was a great value
to understanding the present
The Writing of History
The term philosophy comes from a Greek
word meaning “love of wisdom” Many early Greek philosophers tried to explain
the universe on the basis of unifying prinicples Pythagoras taught that the essence of the
universe could be found in music and numbers In the 5th and 4th centuries, Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle raised basic questions that have been debated for two thousand years
Greek Philosophy
All we know about Socrates is what we have learned
from the writings of his pupils, because he left no writings himself He had many pupils as he believed the goal of education
was to improve the individual Socrates taught his students to live by a code of ethics
People could be happy by living moral lives and they could be taught to behave morally
He used the Socratic Method to teach students to see things for themselves and use their own reasoning
Socrates was accused and convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens by teaching them to question and think for themselves
Socrates
Unlike Socrates, Plato wrote a lot and is considered the
greatest philosopher of western civilization He believed that a higher world of eternal, unchanging
Forms has always existed Objects we perceive with our senses are simply reflections
of the ideal Forms Plato explained his ideas about government in The
Republic, as he distrusted the workings of democracy His ideal state had people divided into three basic groups:
philosopher-kings at the top, warriors second, and all the rest were at the bottom (those not driven by wisdom but by desire)
Plato believed all men and women should have the same education and equal access to positions
Plato
Aristotle was Plato’s most famous pupil who studied at his
Academy for 20 years Aristotle believed that people’s happiness was tied to their
behavior He studied natural science (one of his many interests) by
making and recording obsevations Until the 17th century science in the Western world was
largely based on his ideas He also wanted an effective form of government that would
rationally direct human affairs and tried to find the best form of government by observing other forms He analyzed constitutions of 158 states and found 3 good
forms of government: monarcy, aristocracy, and constitutional government
Aristotle
In 359 BC, Philip II became the ruler of Macedonia (a
powerful kingdom to the North of Greece) He built a powerful army and was soon drawn into Greek
affairs as he longed to unite Greece and Macedonia The Athenians feared Philip and would ally with other
Greek states to fight the Macedonians…they were crushed by the Macedonian army Philip quickly gained control of all Greece, bringing an end
to the freedom of the city-states Philip insisted the Greek states join him in a war against
the Persians, but before he could undertake the invasion of Asia he was assassinated, leaving the task to his son Alexander
Philip & Alexander
Alexander the Great was only 20 when he became king of Macedonia Alexander had grown up studying his father in warfare and
was also a student of Aristotle He moved quickly to fulfill his father’s dream and was
motivated by the desire for glory Alexander was taking a chance in attacking the Persian
Empire with only 37,000 men His cavalry of about 5,000 would play an important role as
a striking force By the next year Alexander had freed the Ionian Greek
cities; by winter 332 BC Alexander had Syria, Palestine, and Egypt (where he built Alexandria as the Greek capital of Egypt); soon after Alexander controlled the rest of the Persian Empire; in 326 Alexander reached India, where his soldiers refused to go farther and then returned home
Alexander returned to Babylon, planning more conquests, but in 323 BC he died from his wounds and a fever…he was 32 years old
Alexander created a new Hellenistic Era, which comes
from the Greek word meaning “to imitate Greeks” The united empire that Alexander had created soon fell
apart over a struggle for power amongst his generals, leaving only four kingdoms: Macedonia, Syria, Pergamum, and Egypt (all of which would be conquered by the Romans) The Hellenistic monarchs relied on Greeks and
Macedonians for form the new ruling class They created a series of new cities and military settlements
The Greek cities of the Hellenistic Era spread Greek culture to Southwest and Central Asia (as far as to modern day Afghanistan and India)
The Hellenistic Era
The Hellenistic Era was a period of considerable
cultural accomplishment in many areas, especially science and philosophy The library in Alexandria became the largest in ancient
times with over 500,000 scrolls and encouraging the study of literature and language
Rebuilding and creating new cities presented many opportunities for Greek architects and sculptors Thousands of statues were erected in towns and cities all
over the Hellenistic world, which maintained the classical period skills but also adopted more emotion and realism
A great quantity of literature was also produced during this time
Arts & Literature
Math and astronomy were two areas that considerable
advances were made during this time Eratosthenes determined that the Earth was round and
calculated its circumference within 185 miles of the actual number
Euclid wrote the Elements textbook on plane geometry Archimedes developed the concept of pi, and worked on
the geometrical concepts of spheres and cylinders Epicurus, the founder of Epicureanism, believed that
humans were free to follow their own self interest and make happiness their goal
Stoicism became the most popular belief and would flourish during the Roman Empire, teaching that material possessions were not necessary in order to be happy; “bear anything life hands you”
Science & Philosophy
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