Transcript Ancient Greece

1750 B.C. – 133 B.C.
Early People of the Aegean

Minoans: 1750-1500 B.C.- developed
on the island of Crete, named after
Minos, a legendary king of Crete.
 Success based on trade not conquest
 Knossos: rulers lived in this palace. It
housed rooms for the royal family, banquet
halls, workshops for artisans. Walls covered
with frescoes
Early People of the Aegean
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Mycanea: 1400-1200 B.C.- developed on
Greek mainland before taking over Crete
 sea traders, lived in separate city-states on the
mainland
 Trojan War: 1250 B.C.- Mycanea vs. Troy Troy-(rich
trading city in present day Turkey), Troy controlled
straits connecting the Mediterranean and Black
Seas.
 Legend of the Trojan War: Trojans kidnapped the
wife of a Greek king and the Greeks went to rescue
her, fought for ten years to get her back. Finally Troy
was seized by the Greeks and burned down
The Age of Homer

Homer: 750 B.C.- blind poet
who wandered village to village
passing on oral accounts of
heroic deeds. Responsible for
two great epics.
 Iliad: story of Achilles, the mightiest
Greek warrior.
 Odyssey: story of Odysseus and
his return home to his wife
Penelope after the Trojan War.
 Iliad and Odyssey: display the
values of honor, courage, and
eloquence
Ancient Greece

Geography has a huge influence on
Greek way of life.
 Mountains cover ¾ of Greece – results in
city-states organization, rather than
centralization
 Bad conditions for growing grain, market
agriculture emerges
The Rise of Greek City-States
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Different city states developed with
different ideas:
 Sparta: great military, aristocracy rule, large
slave population, but very little arts or culture
 Athens: democracy and advancements in
philosophy, education, trade, science,
architecture, drama, and history
Athens Democracy

Athens/American Democracy:
 Athens:
 Citizens participate directly (direct
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democracy)
Only male citizens (born in Athens) could
vote
America:
Citizens elect people to make laws
(representative democracy)
All citizens can vote
The Persian Wars
By 500 B.C., Athens had emerged as
the wealthiest Greek city-state
 Persians: empire stretching from AsiaMinor to the border of India.
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 `Greek city-states: Ionia in Asia Minor
 Though under Persian rule-still self
governing
 499 B.C.- Ionian Greeks rebelled against
Persian rule- Athens sent ships to help them
Persian Wars
Persians soon crushed the rebellion but
Darius, ruler of the Persians, was upset
with the Athenians role in the uprising.
 Marathon: Darius sent troops to punish
Athens, landed near Marathon

 Athenians - heavily outnumbered, outmatched,
overran the Persians and forced them to retreat
back to their ships.
 Pheidippides - Athenian, ran from Marathon to
Athens proclaiming “We are victorious” died
upon arrival
 The Marathon Race is named after this event.
Persian Wars
Darius: died before another attack was
made
 Xerxes: (son of Darius) 480 B.C.- sent
much larger force to conquer Greece

 Athens- Sparta & other city-states support
 Thermopylae- Spartans led by Leonidas, held
out bravely but were defeated by the Persians,
Persians then marched south and burned
Athens (the city was empty)
Persian Wars, cont’d.
 Greeks defeated Persians at the strait of
Salamis, and later on land in Asia Minor, ending
the Persian invasion of Greece
 Delian League: Athens and alliance with other
greek City-States
Athens – Age of Pericles

Pericles – 460 -429 B.C. –under
his leadership, Athens thrived
economically and the gov’t
became more democratic.
 Direct democracy (6,000 members
required to decide important issues)
- Stipend, Jury, Ostracism
 Pericles’ Funeral Oration- one of
earliest and greatest expressions of
democracy
 Pericles – turned Athens into
cultural center of Greece
Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian League: formed by Sparta
and other city-states to counter the Delian
League
 Peloponnesian War -431 B.C.- fighting
broke out between Athens and Sparta.
Soon all of Greece was involved.

 fighting lasted 27 years
 Athens geographic disadvantage: Sparta inland
 Plague in Athens – 1/3 of population lost,
including Pericles
Peloponnesian War

War Ends: 404 B.C.- with the help of
Persian navy, the Spartans captured
Athens
 ended Athenian domination of Greek world
 Democratic government suffered
 For the next century, fighting plagued the
Greek world
Greek Philosophers

Socrates: Athenian
philosopher, we most know
about him from his student
Plato
 Socratic Method – pose a series
of questions and asked students
to evaluate their answers
 “Know Thyself” seek truth and
self-knowledge
 Put on trial at age 70, jurors
sentenced him to death, he drank
the hemlock(deadly poison)
Greek Philosophers

Plato: distrust of democracy
after the death of Socrates
 Set up the Academy (school in
Athens)
 Emphasized the importance of
reason
 The Republic – Plato described
his vision of an ideal state. Ideal
society: workers to produce,
military to protect, and
philosophers to rule
Greek Philosophers

Aristotle: Plato’s most
famous student
 Analyzed all forms of
government
 Thought democracy could
lead to mob rule
 Favored rule by a single and
strong ruler
 Left writings on politics,
ethics, logic, biology,
literature, and many other
subjects
Art, Architecture, and Drama

Parthenon – an example of Greek
architecture (tall columns and sloping
roof)
Art, Architecture, and Drama
•Greek Sculpture:
valued order, balance,
and proportion. Wanted
to depict the ideal human
form
•Poetry and Drama:
Tragedies and Comedies
Alexander the Great
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336 B.C. – 323 B.C.
King of Macedonia upon
death of his father
Great warrior who
conquered Persia, Egypt,
and reached India
Hellenistic – Greek like
Supported assimilation –
blended Greek styles with
Egyptian, Persian, and
Indian
Greek traditions spread to
Asia and Africa