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. 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.

ATHENS: A CITY-STATE

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.

ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE

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.

A TALE OF TWO CITY-STATES

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 GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS

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.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

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.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND HIS INFLUENCE

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.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE GREEKS

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.