Overview of Classical Greece

The Geography of Greece

Archaic Greece: 1650 BC - 700 BC

Bronze Age Greece

Crete: Minoan Civilization (Palace at Knossos)

Knossos: Minoan Civilization

The Mycenaean Civilization

Homer: The “Heroic Age”

"Hellenic" (Classical) Greece: 700 BC - 324 BC

ATHENS: Yesterday & Today

Piraeus: Athens’ Port City

Early Athenian Lawgivers Draco - “draconian” Solon Cleisthenes  created the first democracy!

Persian Wars: 499 BC – 480 BC

Persian Wars: Famous Battles Marathon (490 BC) - 26 miles from Athens Thermopylae (480 BC) - 300 Spartans at the Mountain pass Salamis (480 BC) - Athenian navy victorious

Golden “Age of Pericles”: 460 BC – 429 BC

The Parthenon

The Acropolis Today

Great Athenian Philosophers Socrates - Know thyself! - question everything - only the pursuit of goodness brings happiness. Plato - The Academy - the world of the FORMS - The Republic  philosopher-king

Great Athenian Philosophers Aristotle - the Lyceum - “Golden Mean” [everything in moderation] - Logic - Scientific method.

Athens: The Arts & Sciences DRAMA (tragedians): - Aeschylus - Sophocles - Euripides THE SCIENCES: - Pythagoras - Democritus  all matter made up of small atoms. - Hippocrates  “Father of Medicine”

The Agora

The Classical Greek “Ideal”

SPARTA

SPARTA

Peloponnesian Wars

Macedonia Under Philip II

"Hellenistic" Greece: 324 BC - 100 BC

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great’s Empire

The Hellenization of Asia

Hellenistic Philosophers Cynics  Diogenes - ignore social conventions & avoid luxuries. - citizens of the world. - live a humble, simple life. Epicurians  Epicurus - avoid pain & seek pleasure. - all excess leads to pain! - politics should be avoided.

Hellenistic Philosophers Stoics  Zeno - nature is the expansion of divine will. - concept of natural law. - get involved in politics, not for personal gain, but to perform virtuous acts for the good of all. - true happiness is found in great achievements.

The Breakup of Alexander’s Empire