1. Legacy of Ancient Greece and Rome
Unit 2, September 20th – 21st

3. Golden Age Hellenistic – pure Greek civilization and culture
Athens was the most powerful city-state with magnificent new temples.
This golden age flourished under the leadership of Pericles, a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician.
What is the Golden Age?
The golden age of Athenian culture lasted from 449 to 431 BC. These were the years of relative peace between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.

4. Pericles had three goals for Athens:
Strengthen democracy
Strengthen the empire
Glorify Athens
How did Pericles strengthen democracy?
Increased the number of paid public officials and increased citizen participation
What steps did Pericles take to strengthen the empire and glorify Athens?
Built a strong navy through Delian League’s funds, expanded overseas trade, bought expensive building materials to expand architectural projects (includes the Parthenon), hired artisans to create works of classical art.

5. Drama & Theater The Greeks invented Drama: tragedy and comedy
Both an expression of civic pride and tribute to the gods.
What themes were common in Greek tragedy?
Love, Hate, War, Betrayal
What do the themes of Greek comedies suggest about the men and women of Athens?
It shows they discussed and accepted criticism of their ideas, behavior, customs, politics

6. Socrates
B.C.
Sentenced to death for refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state, introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth
He died after drinking a slow poison.
Socrates was one of the most powerful thinkers in history. He spent his life questioning assumptions and rejected conventional wisdoms. He used logic and reason to study people.
What did Socrates encourage Greeks to do? Question themselves and their moral character because absolute standards did not exist for truth and justice. He used what we now call the Socratic method of education – question and answer.

7. Plato B.C.
Plato was born into a wealth Athenian family and was a student of Socrates. Following Socrates death, he opened ‘The Academy,’ and his school lasted for about 900 years in Athens. He lectured on politics, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology.
What was Plato’s vision of the ideal society?
Society would be divided into three groups – farmers and artisans, warriors, and the ruling class. The person in the ruling class with the greatest insight and intellect would be a philosopher-king.

8. Aristotle B.C.
Aristotle was one of the brightest students of Plato’s Academy. He wrote books on physics, poetry, zoology, logic, rhetoric, politics, government and biology. He is one of the few figures in history who studied almost every subject possible at the time.
What is the philosophic legacy of Aristotle?
Scientific method – arguing according to rules of logic—questioned the nature of the world
“He who studies how things originate and came into being … will achieve the clearest view of them.”

10. Arts, Learning and Literature
The Romans developed bas-relief sculptures to tell stories and were skilled in creating mosaics
They excelled in painting, especially bright, large murals called frescoes
Virgil: Aeneid modeled after Homer’s epics
Tacitus: excels in writing factually accurate history
The Romans borrowed from Greek philosophy and literature
Poets like Virgil and Ovid; Historians like Livy and Tacitus were instrumental in Roman literature

11. The presence of the Roman Empire is still felt today
The Latin Language developed into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian. It also influenced other languages, with ½ of the worlds in the English language having a basis Latin. It remained the official language of the Roman Catholic Church until the 1900s.
The Romans were master builders. They pioneered the use of the arch and also used domes and concrete.
The design of aqueducts was essential to their survival and many of their roads lasted well into the Middle Ages.
The most lasting and widespread contribution was the Roman system of law, which was the basis for many legal systems in Europe and their colonies.