The Rise of the Greeks

1000- 500 BCE

Great Acropolis in Athens

• Because Greece is made up of many islands, and has many tall mountains, the Greeks began to build city-states instead of one country.

• A city-state is a city with its own laws, rulers, and money.

• City-states were cities that acted like countries

Emergence of the Polis

• The polis (city-state) was an urban center and its rural territory

• Characteristic features of the polis included an acropolis, an agora (marketplace), fortified walls, and public buildings

• There were frequent wars between the various city-states

Persian Wars: Famous Battles

$ Marathon (490 BCE) 26 miles from Athens

$ Thermopylae (480 BCE) 300 Spartans at the

Mountain pass

$ Salamis (480 BCE) Athenian navy victorious

Greek Military

• The Greeks developed a style of warfare that used hoplites—a close formation of heavily armored infantrymen who would try to break the enemy’s line of defense

• The soldiers were mostly farmer-citizens who served for short periods of time when called

Greek Hoplite

• This is a phalanx.• Soldiers get in a tight

box. They each have a large shield and a 9 foot long spear.

Political: Athens was the first democracy

• Democracy: type of government where people vote.

• Well, actually, Athens was a direct democracy where people vote on everything.

• The U.S. today is a representative democracy, where we vote for people to make decisions for us.

Social Inequality

• Athenian democracy was very limited in its scope

• Only free adult males participated in Athenian democracy

• They accounted for about 10 or 15 percent of the total population.

• Women, children, slaves, and foreigners did not have the rights of citizens

Athenian Philosophers$ Socrates

Know thyself! The unexamined life is not worth living.

I know that I know nothing. question everything only the pursuit of goodness

brings happiness.

$ Plato The Academy The world of the FORMS The Republic philosopher-king

$ Aristotle The Lyceum

“Golden Mean” [everything inmoderation].

Logic.

Scientific method.

SPARTA

Spartan Society

• In order to ensure food supply, Sparta conquered their neighbors in Messina.

• Messinians were turned into slaves called helots.

• To guard against slave uprisings, Spartans developed a militaristic way of life.

Spartans

Sparta

• Spartan society was obsessed with war.

• Boys were sent to military school at a young age.

• Boys who are born deformed are left to die on mountainsides

Peloponnesian Wars

Athenian Navy

• Trireme• trireme—a fast,

maneuverable 170-oar boat

• Lower class Athenians were used as rowers.

• Tried to ram other ships or break off their oars.

Alexander the Great

Alexander’s Empire

Greek Achievements

• Medicine – Hippocrates, “the Hippocratic oath”• Math – Pythagoras, Euclid• Drama – Aeschylus, Sophocles• History – Thucydides• The first Olympics• Homer’s “Odyssey” and “Iliad”• Greek Mythology• Scientific Method

Greek Alphabet