Ancient Greece

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Ancient Greece
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Geography of Greece

• Mountainous allowed for the Greek polis or
  city-state to develop in isolation and
  independent of one another.
• Seas Greek city-states and its people became
  seafarers due to the close proximity of the
  Aegean Ionian Seas
• The warm climate promoted an outdoor life.

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Mycenaean Civilization Develops

• Came into contact with the Minoans sometime after
  1500 BCE either by trade or war.
• Preserved spread aspects of the Minoan culture
  (writing system, art, literature, religion).

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Cultural Diffusion

• Primarily through Trade Networks
• Concept will be repeated throughout history
• Two major types
• diffusion through choice where the group
  adopts new concepts because they want to do so
• diffusion by coercion where the group is
  forced to adopt new concepts by war and
  domination of another culture

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The Trojan War

• During the 1200s BCE, the Mycenaeans fought a
  ten-year war against Troy.
• Last great military campaign for the Mycenaeans.
• Fought over Helen who was kidnapped by a Trojan
  prince.
• Not long after the war the Dorians became the
  dominant Greek civilization a period of decline
  began.
• Little is known of the Dorians because they kept
  no written records.
• Most of the time periods history was passed down
  through story telling.
• Homer Iliad and the Odyssey

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Ancient Sparta
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Sparta Government Society

• Spartan citizens elected officials who made up
  the Council of Elders which made laws.
• The major social classes of Spartan society were
  made up of citizens with history in Sparta, then
  non-citizens who were free and owned land and
  lastly the helots who were servants and slaves.

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Daily Life

• The military was the central focus of Spartan
  society. They were the most advanced military of
  their time.
• At the age of 7 all males were sent to live in
  army barracks where they were trained to read,
  write and fight.
• At age 30 they were sent home to marry then they
  reported to the military front.
• At age 60 they were allowed to retire.

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Daily Life Cont.

• Spartan women were also given military training
  and were fed more food than their Athenian
  counterparts.
• Spartan women had considerable freedom especially
  in running the household.
• Spartan women were strong both physically and
  mentally telling their husbands
• come back with your shield or on it.

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The Persian Wars

• Name given to a series of battles between the
  Greeks and Persian Empire.
• The Spartan army used a military tactic known as
  a phalanx. (Standing side by side)
• Victories at Marathon and Thermopylae helped the
  Greeks drive out the Persian army.
• Victory in the Persian Wars led a great
  confidence on the part of the Greeks and led to a
  brief Golden Age for Athens.

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Four Forms of Government in Ancient Greece

• Monarchy form of govt. in which the ruling power
  is in the hands of a single person. This was the
  case under the Mycenaeans who ruled Greece from
  2000 to 1100 BCE.
• Oligarchy Form of govt. in which the ruling
  power is in the hands of a few leaders. Between
  1100 and 800 BCE small groups of people began to
  share the ruling power This was shared among
  aristocrats. People lacked full political rights

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Four Forms of Government in Ancient Greece

• Tyranny form of govt. in which the ruling power
  is in the hands of an individual who has seized
  control, often by illegal means. Tyrannies in
  Greece first arose during the mid 600s BCE. Many
  tyrants only ruled for short periods of time.
• Democracy form of govt. in which the ruling
  power is in the hands of all the people.
  Democracy developed in ancient Greece around 500
  BCE in the city-state of Athens, where many
  people began to oppose the rule of the tyrants.
  One important fact. Public officials did not have
  that much individual power.

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Greek Golden Age

• Occurs during the leadership of Pericles in the
  5th Century BCE.
• The achievements were mainly confined to the
  city-states of Athens where a strong economy and
  good government created the conditions necessary
  for such advancements.
• Pericles increased the number of paid officials
  in Athens.

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Government

• The Ancient Greeks were the first to use
  democracy as a form of government. 
• Under Pericles, male citizens in Athens
  participated in the daily running of government. 
  
• This form of direct democracy excluded all
  non-citizens, such as women and slaves. 
• Today, many governments around the world practice
  some form of democracy.

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The Peloponnesian War

• Fought by Athens and its empire against the
  Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.
• More than 1/3 of the Athenians, including
  Pericles, died as a result of disease.
• Won by Sparta.

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Philosophy

• Greek philosophers, or "lovers of wisdom," used
  observation and reason to study the world around
  them. 
• Socrates encouraged Greeks to question themselves
  and their moral character. ( Socratic Method).
  Tried for corrupting the youth put to death.
• Plato wrote The Republic favored a strong
  central government.
• Aristotle favored human reason as a way to solve
  problems. (Teacher of Alexander the Great.)
• Socrates

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Literature

• Early Greek literature was in the form of plays
  developed for religious ceremonies.
• Famous writers, such as Aeschylus and Sophocles,
  wrote tragedies and comedies about human conflict
  and interaction between the gods and man. 

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• Herodotus a Greek who lived in Athens for a
  time, pioneered the accurate reporting of events.
  His book on the Persian Wars is considered the
  first work of history.
• Greatest historian of the classical age was
  Thucydides. The approaches Thucydides used in
  his work still guide historians today.

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Drama and History

• Greeks invented drama as an art form and built
  the first theaters in the west.
• Tragedy a serious drama about common themes
  (love, hate, war, betrayal) and featured a tragic
  hero (important person and often gifted with
  extraordinary abilities). The heros downfall
  was often a tragic flaw such as hubris (excessive
  pride).
• Comedies contained scenes filled with slapstick
  situation and humor. Playwrights often made fun
  of politics, respected people, and ideas of the
  times.

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Art Architecture

• Greek artists portrayed the human figure in
  idealized realism.  Paintings and sculptures
  show humans in the perfect form. 
• Greek architects build elaborate buildings using
  marble and the Greek column.  The most famous
  example of Greek architecture is the Parthenon in
  Athens. 
• Many buildings around the world today use Greek
  architectural ideas.

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Medicine

• Hippocrates, a 5th century BCE physician, studied
  the causes of illnesses and experimented with
  various cures. 
• He is also credited with creating a set of
  ethical standards for doctors called the
  Hippocratic Oath.

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Math Science

• Greek mathematician Pythagoras, developed a
  formula to calculate the relationship between the
  sides of a right triangle, a method still in use
  today. 
• Aristarchus, a Greek astronomer, discovered that
  the earth rotated on its axis, and revolved
  around the sun. 
• Eratosthenes discovered that the earth was round,
  and accurately calculated its circumference.
  Euclid wrote a book called The Elements, which is
  the basis for modern geometry. 
• A Greek scientist named Archimedes tried to use
  science for more practical matters, he showed how
  the use of a lever and pulley system could lift
  just about any weight.

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Minoans

• By 3000 BCE, the Minoans lived on the large Greek
  island of Crete.
• The Minoans created an elegant civilization that
  had great power in the Mediterranean world.
• Bronze Age civilization.
• The Minoans were primarily a mercantile people
  engaged in overseas trade. (tin)

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Epic

• A long narrative poem celebrating the deeds of
  legendary or traditional heroes

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Hellenistic

• Relating to the civilization, language, art,
  science, and literature of the Greek world from
  the reign of Alexander the Great to the late
  second century B.C.

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Mycenaean

• An Indo-European person who settled on the Greek
  mainland around 2000 B.C.

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Myth

• A traditional story about gods, ancestors, or
  heroes, told to explain the natural world or the
  customs and beliefs of a society.

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Oligarchy

• A government in which power is in the hands of a
  few people especially one on which rule is
  based on wealth

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Hellenistic Age

• Occurs under the leadership of Alexander the
  Great, who conquered an empire stretching from
  the Greek mainland all the way to the Indus River
  Valley. 
• Hellenistic society was a blending of Greek,
  Egyptian, Persian, and many other cultures that
  gave rise to advancements in math, science, art,
  and literature.

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Accomplished by the age of 33. Undefeated as a
battlefield commander.