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ANCIENT GREECE. Prepared by Anita Billeter Palmdale School District with funding from Jordan Fundamentals Grant Keeping History Alive Grant. THE EARLY GREEKS. GEOGRAPHY . THE LAND AROUND THE SEA. The area in which the ancient Greeks lived centered on the Aegean Sea.
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ANCIENT GREECE Prepared by Anita Billeter Palmdale School District with funding from Jordan Fundamentals Grant Keeping History Alive Grant
THE LAND AROUND THE SEA • The area in which the ancient Greeks lived centered on the Aegean Sea. • Greece was ideally located for sea trade, and the sea became the Greeks’ link to other peoples, products, and ideas. • Most people in ancient Greece were farmers, growing grapes, olives, wheat and barley.
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS • The Minoans developed a system of writing, carried on rich trade, and were master builders. • The Mycenaeans learned from the Minoans and became the dominant civilization in the Aegean region. • From about 1100 B.C. to 800 B.C. Greece was in a decline called the Dark Age, when trade stopped and written language disappeared.
THE RISE OF THE CITY STATES • During the Dark Age, Greece’s population increased and isolated villages grew into cities. • City-states were independent, self-governing units that included the territory around the city. • As the city-states grew, they began to fight over boundaries and other things, and some Greeks left to found new city-states.
THE EVOLUTION OF DEMOCRACY • The Athenians developed a form of government that enabled citizens to make decisions, called a democracy. • Tyrants taught citizens that by uniting behind a leader, they could gain the power to make changes. • Citizens in Athens proposed new laws, voted on laws, and served on juries. • Several other city-states in Greece also developed democracies, but Athens’ version was the most successful.
CITIZENSHIP IN ATHENS • Citizenship was limited to men over the age of 18, and usually to those men whose fathers had been citizens. • Wives, children, unmarried women, foreigners, and slaves were not citizens, though they were protected by Athenian law.
THE ECONOMY OF ATHENS • Most Athenians were farmers, with just enough land to support their families. • As Athens became an international trading center, the barter system changed to the use of coins. • Wealthy Athenians were expected to contribute large amounts of money to government projects, and this kept money flowing throughout the city-state.
THE FAMILY OF GREEK GODS • The Greeks believed their gods controlled both the natural and human world. • All Greeks worshipped Zeus and his family of gods, each of whom had a specific role with particular duties and powers. • The Greeks built sacred places called sanctuaries to honor their gods.
SANCTUARIES TO THE GODS • The Greeks used sanctuaries to make sacrifices to specific gods. • Some sanctuaries were also places where oracles, or predictions of the future, were told. • The Greeks also honored their gods and goddesses by holding religious festivals.
GREEK DRAMA • Greek Plays were written and performed twice a year at festivals in Athens honoring Dionysus. • Most of the plays were about Greek gods or heroes, combining religion and history with entertainment. • Plays were either tragedies, in which the hero was ruined by a character flaw, or comedies, which made fun of a variety of topics.
SPARTA AND ATHENS • The Spartans built a strong army because they feared slave uprisings from the many slaves they owned. • Unlike Athens, Sparta’s government was an oligarchy, with power remaining in the hands of a few families. • Sparta’s emphasis on maintaining a strong army shaped its economy.
EDUCATION IN SPARTA AND ATHENS • Spartan education focuses on physical skills and military training and began at an early age. • Wealthy Athenian education included reading, writing, arithmetic, poetry, music, and dance, as well as athletics. • In both city-states, formal education was reserved for boys.
ALLIES AGAINST PERSIA • Although quite different, Athens and Sparta joined to fight against Persia. • After several losses, the Greeks finally defeated the Persians at sea, and a year later, on land.
THE AGE OF PERICLES • Pericles was Athens’ most outstanding leader during its Golden Age. • Pericles worked to protect Athens, to make it beautiful, and to strengthen democracy. • During the Golden Age, Athens was a center for art, literature, and ideas.
LIFE IN A CITIZEN FAMILY • Men spent time debating issues, selling wares, serving as jurors in the Assembly, and exercising in outdoor gymnasiums. • Women spent time weaving clothes, preparing food, and caring for children. • In the evenings, men either socialized with each other, or attended plays or religious festivals with their wives.
LIFE FOR NONCITIZENS • Metics were foreigners who were allowed to attend theater and religious festivals, and use the law courts. • Slaves had no legal rights in Athens, but some were paid for their work and a few bought their freedom. • In contrast to other slaves in Athens, those who worked in the silver mines labored under terrible conditions.
ATHENS AND SPARTA • Concerned about an increasingly powerful Athens, Sparta declared war in 431B.C. • A plague which killed many in Athens, including Pericles, and Sparta’s yearly destruction of food supplies, greatly weakened Athens. • Still, it took 27 years of yearly battles, before Athens surrendered to Sparta in 404B.C.
END OF THE GOLDEN AGE • After their defeat by Sparta, Athenian democracy was weakened. • Socrates was an important teacher and philosopher challenged his students to examine their own beliefs by asking questions. • Athenian leaders believed Socrates was encouraging students to challenge government authority, so they tried him and sentenced him to die.
THE RISE OF MACEDONIA • King Philip turned Macedonia into a military power by creating a full-time professional army and developing new weapons and battle plans. • Philip defeated the Greek armies and became ruler of Greece in 338B.C. • Philip reorganized the Greek army, combined it with his Macedonian troops, and set out to conquer Persia.
ALEXANDER’S CONQUESTS • Though only 20, Alexander took firm control of his fathers kingdom. • With his troops, Alexander began a 20,000-mile journey of conquest.
THE SPREAD OF GREEK CULTURE • As Alexander conquered lands, he established colonies and cities modeled after Greek cities, and left Greeks to rule the conquered lands. • During the Hellenistic Age, the center of Greek culture shifted from Athens to Alexandria. • Alexandria’s library became the largest in the western world, lasting seven centuries.
AFTER ALEXANDER • After Alexander’s death in 323B.C., Greek culture still united the empire, but politically it broke apart. • Alexander’s generals divided the empire and fought each other for control. • Eventually three generals and regions emerged as the strongest.
GREEK ARTS • The Greeks are known for their lyric poetry, epic poetry, and plays– both tragedies and comedies. • Painters and sculptors throughout history have learned from Greek art and sculpture. • The Greeks examined and wrote about the past critically and our word “history” comes from a Greek word.
GREEK IDEAS • Greek philosophers developed ways of seeking knowledge and asking questions that are still used today. • Greek scientists believed they could understand the workings of the world, and made important discoveries in astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. • In addition to achievements in the arts and sciences, the Greeks’ ideas about democracy and government have also influenced Western civilization.
