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Chapter 5

Classical Greece,

2000 – 300 BCE

Section 1 – Cultures of the Mountains and the Sea

• Geography DIRECTLY shapes the history, culture, traditions, customs of Greece

• Sea – Aegean, Ionian, Black Seas

– Transportation routes

– Trade routes

• Land – mountains = ¾ of Greece

– Different regions = independent communities

– Transportation = problem

– Very little arable land

• Climate – moderate

– Allows for an outdoor life

– Active participation in civic affairs

Greece Mycenaeans

• Indo-Europeans settled the Greek mainland around 2000 BCE

• Mycenae

– Fortified city

– Ruled by warrior-king

– Controlled surrounding areas

– These kings dominated Greece from 1600 – 1100

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Agamemnon Mask Mycenae

Lion Gate of Mycenae Trojan War

• 1200s – Mycenaeans fight ten-year war against Troy (Anatolian trading city)

– The Judgment of Paris

– Legend – Helen, “the face that launched a thousand ships”

– Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, Ajax

– 1870s – Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ruins of Troy, evidence of prolonged fighting

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Trojan Horse Dorians

• 1200 BCE – sea raiders began attacking Mycenaean cities

• Dorian invasion?

– Sparta later claims descent

– No distinctive remains (archaeological doubt)

• Decline of culture

– Writing disappears

– No written records from 1150 – 750

Homer

• Blind storyteller

• Epics – poems celebrating heroic deeds

– Iliad – relates part of the Trojan War

– Odyssey – relates Odysseus’ journey home

• Other Myths – traditional stories about gods

– Hesiod – Theogeny

– Anthropomorphic gods

Homer

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Discussion Questions 1. How did nearness to the sea help alleviate resource shortages?

2. Why did most Greeks identify with their local community instead of Greece as a whole?

3. How might a moderate climate foster civic life?

4. What were some of Mycenae’s strengths?

5. Look at the map on page 124. Why might Troy have prospered as a trading city?

6. Why might a detailed history of the Dorian Age be difficult to write?

7. Why might the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad be unreliable?

8. Why are the explanations provided in Greek myths of nature’s mysteries no longer believable?

Section 2 – Warring City-States

• Polis – city-state

– Main political unit by 750 BCE

– REMINDER: what is a city-state?

– Each often had fewer than 10,000 residents

– Agora – marketplace

– Acropolis – fortified hilltop

– Examples – Athens, Sparta, Corinth

Acropolis Political Structures

• Monarchy – king rules the government

• Aristocracy – noble, landowning families rule

• Oligarchy – rule by a few powerful people

• Tyrants

– Nobles or wealthy citizens would sometimes seize power with the support of the common people

– Generally not harsh or cruel

– Worked for the ordinary people!

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Athenian Democracy

• Athens avoided upheaval by reforming

• Gradually, citizens began DIRECTLY participating in politics

• Draco

– 621 BCE – developed legal code based on the idea that ALL Athenians were equal under law

– Harsh treatment of criminals (death = usual penalty)

– Upheld debt slavery

• Owe a debt? Do slave labor to pay it off

Democracy (cnt’d)

• Solon – 594 BCE – outlawed debt slavery and organized

Athens into 4 wealth-based classes – Only top 3 classes could hold office – All citizens could participate in assembly – Any citizen could bring charges against criminals

• Cleisthenes – 500 BCE – organized Athens by geography – Created Council of Five Hundred

• Discussion: Who were the citizens? Why does it matter who was a citizen?

Athenian Education

• Males – Began around 7 – Prepared for citizenship – Subjects: reading, grammar, poetry, history, mathematics,

music, logic, rhetoric – Physical training as well – Older boys went to military school

• Females – Educated at home by mothers – Subjects: child-rearing, weaving, meal preparation,

household management – Some learned to read/write

This is Sparta!

• Sparta

– Located on the Peloponnesus, cut off from the rest of Greece by the Gulf of Corinth

– 725 – Sparta conquers Messenia

• Messenians become helots, peasants forced to stay on the land they worked

– 650 – Messenian revolt

• Spartans barely put down revolt (outnumbered 8 to 1)

• Shocked Sparta into military dedication

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Spartan Soldier Spartan Government

• Government

– Assembly – all Spartan citizens

• Elected officials

• Voted on major issues

– Council of Elders – 30 Spartans who suggested laws

– 5 elected officials to carry out laws • Controlled education

• Prosecuted court cases

– 2 kings – ruled over military forces

• Can you think of a famous Spartan king?

Spartan Society

• Citizens – Descended from original inhabitants

– Included ruling, landowning families

• Free non-citizens – Commercial merchants

– Industrial workers

• Helots – Little better than slaves

– Worked in fields or as house servants

Spartan Daily Life

• Males – Expected to serve in the army until 60 – Boys left home at 7, remained in barracks until 30

• Marching, exercising, fighting • Light tunics and no shoes in all weather • Beds = hard benches without blankets • Sparse daily diet – Want more? Steal it!

• Females – Received some military training – Service to Sparta is more important than family – “Come back with your shield or on it” – Freedom shocked other city-states

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Persian Wars

• Hoplites – Greek foot soldiers – Stood side by side, spear and shield in hand – Formed phalanx

• 546 BCE – Persians invade Ionia – Athens sends help – Darius puts down rebellion and swore revenge on Athens

for aiding Ionia

• 490 BCE – 25,000 Persians v. 10,000 Athenians – Plain of Marathon – Discussion: What military advantages did the Greek army

enjoy? – Pheidippides – “Rejoice, we conquer.”

Pheidippides

Persian Wars (cnt’d)

• 480 BCE – Xerxes attempts to invade Athens

– Thermopylae – “hot gates”

– Greek forces check Persian forces

• Themistocles – convinces Athens to abandon the city to fight a sea battle

– Battle of Salamis

• 479 – Battle of Plataea

• 478 – establishment of Delian League

Thermopylae

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Hot Gates Leonidas

Battle of Salamis Greek Ship (Trireme)

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Discussion Questions

1. What were advantages and disadvantages of the city-state as a form of government?

2. Why would tyrants set up building programs?

3. Which Athenian leader’s reforms most resemble aspects of U.S. democracy?

4. Why might logic and public speaking have been emphasized more in Athens than in other city-states?

5. Why didn’t Spartans resist such an austere system?

6. What was meant by the comment “come back with your shield or on it”?

7. What advantages did Greece enjoy during the Persian Wars?

8. If you were the leader of a small Greek city-state, would you have joined the Delian League? Why or why not?

Section 3 – Democracy and Greece’s Golden Age

• Pericles

– “Ruled” Athens for 32 years

– Politician, orator, general

– 461-429 BCE – “Age of Pericles”

– Goals

• Strengthen democracy (direct democracy)

• Strengthen Athenian empire

• Glorify Athens (classical art)

Pericles Parthenon

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Parthenon Reconstruction Golden Ratio

Phidias’ Statue of Zeus Drama and History

• Tragedy – Tragic hero – Tragic flaw – Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides

• Comedy – Mocked contemporary politics and politicians – Aristophanes

• History – Herodotus – wrote about Persian Wars – Thucydides – wrote about Peloponnesian War

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Discussion

• Reread “Tragedy and Comedy” on page 136.

• List different themes found in Greek drama.

• Choose three themes and think about how modern television or movies incorporate these themes.

• Can you identify any shows or movies that include a character with a tragic flaw?

Peloponnesian War

• Athens – stronger navy – Strategy = avoid land battles, wait for naval battle

• Sparta – stronger army – Strategy = march into Athenian territory

• Pericles orders nearby residents into the city to be protected by the walls – 430 BCE – plague erupts in Athens, killing 1/3 of

the population, including Pericles

– 421 BCE – truce is signed

Spartan Victory

• 415 BCE – Athens sends a fleet against Syracuse, an ally of Sparta

– 413 BCE – Athens is crushed in battle

• Athens fights for another nine years

• 404 BCE – Athens and allies surrender

Philosophy

• Philosopher – “Lover of wisdom”

– Universe is put together in an orderly manner, and subject to absolute and unchanging laws.

– People can understand these laws through logic and reason.

• Sophists – questioned unexamined beliefs

– Protagoras

• Questioned the existence of traditional Greek gods

• “Man is the measure of all things.”

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Socrates

• Believed in absolute standards

• “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

• 399 BCE – Socrates is brought to trial

– “Corrupting the youth of Athens”

– “Neglecting the city’s gods”

– Condemned to death by drinking hemlock

Socrates

The Trial of Socrates Plato

• Student of Socrates

• Wrote down the conversations of Socrates

– “As a means of philosophical investigation”

• 370s BCE – The Republic

– Perfect society ruled by a philosopher-king

• Plato’s ideas dominated European thought for 1,500 years

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Plato Aristotle

• Student of Plato

• Questioned nature of the world and of human belief, thought, and knowledge

• Invented a method of arguing based on logic

• Provided basis of modern scientific method

• Tutored Alexander the Great

Aristotle Discussion

• Critique this statement from Socrates:

– “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

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Discussion Questions 1. How did paying public officers strengthen Athenian democracy?

2. What evidence exists to suggest that Pericles also pursued policies that were not democratic?

3. Why would Pericles not have been satisfied with securing Athens’ political and economic strength? Why did he also demand the city-state’s artistic glorification?

4. What sorts of artistic values might classical artists and architects have shunned?

5. How might Greek plays have been expressions of civic pride?

6. Do you think that Thucydides was right in his assertion that history sometimes repeats itself? Why or why not?

7. Who held the advantage during the Peloponnesian War? Explain.

8. Why might the plague that struck Athens in the second year of the war have been so devastating?

9. Why might the ideas of Protagoras have troubled Athenians?

10. How does the trial of Socrates reflect on Athenian democracy?

Section 4 – Alexander’s Empire

• Philip II – King of Macedonia

– Macedonian peasants → well-trained army • 16x16 phalanx

• 18-foot pike

• Break lines with infantry, scatter with cavalry

– Defeats Athens/Thebes at Chaeronea • Greece had been unable to unite, despite the counsel

of Demosthenes

• Greek independence ends

Philip II Macedonian Pike

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Alexander the Great

• 20 years old when he became king

• Very skilled general

– Put down Theban rebellion harshly

– Carried out Philip’s plan to conquer Persia

• 334 BCE – led forces across Hellespont

– Granicus River

• 333 BCE – Battle of Issus

– Darius III raised between 50k and 75k soldiers

Battle of Issus

Battle of Issus Conquering Persia

• 332 BCE – Alexander marches into Egypt

– Crowned pharaoh

– Established Alexandria

• Battle of Gaugamela

– Alexander vs. estimated 250,000 Persians

• Alexander next occupied Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis (royal capital)

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Alexander Alexander in Egypt

Other Conquests

• Fought across Central Asia

• 326 BCE – Alexander reached Indus Valley

– Won battle at Hydaspes River

– Continued marching for another 200 miles until soldiers refuse to continue

• 323 BCE – army had returned to Babylon

– Plans to organize what he had conquered

– Dies at the age of 32

Alexander in India

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Alexander’s Empire Legacy

• Death of Alexander = CHAOS

• Empire divided in three parts

– Antigonus – takes Macedonia and Greece

– Ptolemy – takes Egypt, pharaonic dynasty

– Seleucus – takes old Persian empire (Seleucid)

• Culture

– Conquests spread Hellenic culture

– Hellenistic culture emerges

Discussion Questions

1. What was the military consequence of the lack of unity among Greek city-states?

2. Why might Philip II have allowed city-states to control local affairs?

3. Was Alexander right to destroy Thebes?

4. Why do you think the Egyptians welcomed Alexander?

5. How could Alexander have supplied his troops during his 11-year campaign?

6. Why did Alexander’s troops remain loyal for over a decade?

Section 5 – The Spread of Hellenistic Culture

• Hellenistic – Greek culture blended with Egyptian, Persian, and Indian influence – Koine – “common” Greek

• Alexandria – center of commerce/culture – Spacious harbor

– Alexander’s coffin/tomb

– Museum (temple to the Muses)

– Library (first research library)

– Pharos lighthouse

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Alexander and Bucephalus Science and Technology

• Astronomy – Aristarchus of Samos

• Estimated sun to be 300x size of Earth • Proposed Earth revolves around Sun

– Ptolemy • Claimed Earth as center of the universe

– Eratosthenes • Tried to calculate Earth’s circumference

• Math – Euclid – Elements, book on geometry – Archimedes – estimated value of 𝝅, Archimedes screw and

compound pulley

Euclid Early Geometric Text

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Archimedes Archimedes Screw

Philosophy

• Stoicism – Zeno

• virtuous lives in accordance with the will of god or natural laws

• Human desires are dangerous

• Epicureanism – Epicurus

• Gods have no real interest in humans

• Greatest good/highest pleasure = virtuous conduct and absence of pain

Art

• Sculpture flourishes during Hellenistic Age

• Moved away from Classical idealism

• Created more natural works

• Most popular examples

– Colossus of Rhodes

– Nike of Samothrace

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Colossus of Rhodes Nike of Samothrace

The School of Athens Discussion Questions

1. Why might Koine have been named for the word “common”?

2. Why might Alexander have founded a library in Alexandria?

3. Why might astronomy, math, and physics have been promoted in Alexandria?

4. Why did Alexandrian scholars work in several disciplines instead of focusing on just one area?

5. Which philosophy, Stoicism or Epicureanism, seems more reasonable to you?

6. Why do you think Hellenistic artists focused on realism?