By: Jeremiah Scott

 Cyclades is a group of 200 islands.  The Minoans started at 2700 B.C.  In 3000 B.C., the Cycladic culture began on their islands.  The Minoans live on an island called Crete.  The Mycenaean culture got its name from their city, Mycenae.  In 1500 B.C., They were the dominant culture in the Aegean region.

 The Trojan culture was in the city of Troy.  They were defeated by the Greeks, ( the Greeks were in a wooden horse. The Trojans thought it was a gift from the goddess of wisdom and warfare, Athena.)

 The Greeks built their forts on hilltops (acropolis).  Their colonies were built in southern Italy, on the island of Sicily, and other places.  Spartan’s people led simple lives of hard work and physical activity, like us.  Their society was made into 3 classes, ruling, enslaved and the free.  Athens, a city-state, was located on Attica.

 Athens was named after Athena.  Attica was part of the Balkan Peninsula, northeast of the Peloponnesus.  The Greeks made the first Olympic Games.  The word “alphabet” was made by two Greek words; alpha and beta  Barbarian means a person who is considered uncivilized.

 In 490 B.C., the Persian king, Darius I, invaded Greece’s mainland, but he failed.  Pericles was a relative of Cleisthenes, who was the Athenian leader.  The Athenians learned about art and theater.  Sparta was worried that Athens was growing too much power, and the treaty was off.  In 385 B.C., Plato started an academy, a special school.

 Alexander was born in 356 B.C.  When Philip II died, he passed the throne to Alexander.  In 334 B.C., he led 35,000 soldiers to fight.  King Gordius tied the Gordian knot and Alexander cuts it with his sword.  He wanted more land, but his soldiers were tired. Alexander had no choice but to send them home.