Transcript Ancient Greece

ANCIENT GREECE
FIRST CIVILIZATIONS
 Minoans- Labyrinth and The Minotaur.
 Located on Crete.
 Mycenaea- First Greek City-State.
 Powerful kings, frequent fighting and warfare.
GREEK ART
MYCENAE DECLINES
 Rise of a new type of leader…
 Tyrants: not tyrannical, but means leaders that take power by
force.
RISE OF CITY-STATES
 Polis- Greek city-states
 Acropolis- Center of city, usually on a hill
 Acropolis- religious center, and public gathering place.
 Athens and Sparta- Two major city-states.
 Brains Vs. Brawn?
DAY 2 MILITARY ASPECTS OF GREECE
THE SPARTAN WAY OF LIFE
 Helots- Men bound to the land
 All males fight, from ages 20-30, ten years service
 Hoplites- Heavily armed soldiers, bronze and leather equipment.
 Phalanx- rectangular formation, tight formation, very effective.
Never break rank!
ATHENS
 Sought to better themselves intellectually.
 Sought the understand the beauty of life by means of:
 Philosophy, art, architecture,
 Created Democracy
 Had a powerful navy.
GREEK MILITARY IN GENERAL
 Heavily armored troops,
 Comprised of land owning men both aristocrats and peasants
 Made up of citizen soldiers
 Advanced weapons and army
 Greeks would face their enemy head on.
 Effectiveness of heavy infantry and strategy
 Phalanx- tight rectangular formation
PERSIAN WAR
 Persians try to expand west.
 War seen as Freedom Vs. Slavery.
 A person was a citizen of the state, not a subject.
 The First Persian Attack: Battle at Marathon.
PERSIAN WAR
 After Marathon Persians wait ten years to renew attacks.
 Battle of Thermopylae (300)
 Athens evacuated to Salamis (island)
 Naval battle of Salamis- Greeks win, Xerxes retreats
AFTERMATH
 Athens and Sparta became the most powerful city-states.
 Athens became the leader.
 Athens created a league of city-states to protect Greece
 League of equals but Athens dominated everything.
ONSET OF WAR
 Athens used league money to rebuild their city.
 Sparta had it’s own league focused on military and protection
 Athens feared Sparta’s army, Sparta feared Athens’ navy.
 Sparta and Athens declare war on each other.
PELOPONNESIAN WAR
 Athens controlled the sea and retreated behind their city walls.
 A terrible plague devastated Athens.
 Pericles, Athens beloved leader perished in the plague.
 Sparta and Athens agreed to a temporary truce.
 Years later, war renewed and Sparta won.
AFTERMATH OF WAR
 Athens weakened, Sparta won but weakened.
 Divided and weakened Greece as a whole.
 Eventually Greece conquered by Macedonians.
DAY 3 TYPES OF GOVERNMENT
WHICH ONE IS BETTER?
 Mycenea – Powerful kings, constantly warring = Decline
 Oligarchy – unstable and overthrown by tyrants
 Sparta- Only Stable Oligarchy -> two kings, and council of
elders.
 Athens- Monarchy -> Oligarchy -> Tyrants -> Democracy.
THE CREATION OF DEMOCRACY
 “Demos”= People and “Kratia”= Power” Democracy= Power to the people.
 Cleisthenes – Reforms Athens, creates Democracy.
 He made the towns and villages the units of political life.
 10 districts, 50 men each = Council of 500
 The Assembly = All male citizens over 18 years of age.
EXPANDING DEMOCRACY
 Pericles- helped expand Democracy, severed ties with Sparta
 Age of Pericles – height of Athenian power and brilliance.
 Pericles truly thought Athens was the best city-state
 Pericles- Helped rebuild Athens, roads, ports, defensive walls
and the Parthenon.
THE PARTHENON ON THE ACROPOLIS
DAY 4: GREEK ACHIEVEMENTS!
PHILOSOPHY: THE LOVE OF WISDOM
 The attempt to explain the universe.
 Socrates: Taught for free, the goal of education is to improve the individual.
 Socratic Method: Question-Answer technique where students see things for
themselves using their own reason.
 Socrates was persecuted and eventually tried for corrupting the youth by his
teachings.
 Drank Hemlock poison as his punishment, died in jail.
PLATO
 Plato: considered the greatest western philosopher
 Wrote on truth and goodness as it relates to government.
 Most famous work is the “Republic”
 His idea: Philosophers are the best rulers.
 Founded the Academy, place for philosophers to gain an education.
ARISTOTLE
 Student of Plato
 More concerned with nature of the world
 Reason: clear and ordered thinking
 Logic: making inferences.
GREEK LITERATURE
 Homer: The Odyssey and The Iliad, both about the Trojan War.
 Homer’s writings were the foundation of Greek education
 History: Herodotus and Thucydides
 Herodotus: recorded wars, and battles, some he saw himself
others he recounted stories.
 Thucydides: wrote about Peloponnesian War, focused on
Primary Sources, he ignored unreliable or irrelevant sources.
GREEK DRAMA
 Meant more than to entertain, to educate as well.
 Outdoor theaters,
 All male actors, they wore masks.
 Action limited, emphasis on story and the meaning behind it.
 It was their attempt to understand the world beyond their reach
DIONYSUS
THEATER
GREEK DRAMA
ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Sculpture: focused on the nude male form, focused on the beauty of
the human figure.
 Aesthetics: Concerned with “what makes things beautiful.”
 Greek art reflected: reason, moderation, balance, symmetry and
harmony.
 Architecture- Parthenon, one of the greatest examples.
SCULPTURE
OTHER INTERESTING FINDINGS
 Gymnasium – “Naked” a place for athletics, public gatherings, and intellectual
persuits.
 Olympics
 Mathematicians- Pythagoras, Archimedes, major improvements in geometry and
number theory
THINK LIKE A PHILOSOPHER
 Three groups, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
 Work in your groups to answer your philosophical question.
 Posters : Label Major achievement, three supporting facts and your reasoning for
it, two graphics (NO WORDS) that describe the major achievement.
DAY 6: ALEXANDER AND MACEDONIA
MAIN IDEA:
 Alexander made a huge empire.
 He spread Greek culture throughout the world far into parts of
Asia.
 How specifically did he do this?
MACEDONIAN MILITARY
 Phillip II of Macedonia (Alexander’s father) studied and admired
Greek culture,
 Adopted the Greek Phalanx, but used longer spears.
 18ft long, twice as long as Greeks.
 Phillip used large bodies of cavalry and archers.
MACEDONIAN CONQUEST
 The Macedonians were seen by the Greeks as “less civilized” they lived in villages
not cities, they spoke a different form of Greek
 The Macedonians crushed the Greeks, Punishing Thebes but being lenient with
Athens.
 Formed a new league (Corinthian league)
 Philip intended to conquer of Asia (Persian empire) but was assassinated.
THINGS FALL APART
 Alexander makes it to modern-day India and Pakistan, he wants
to move on,
 His soldiers are tired and they refuse to fight (mutinied)
 Alexander agreed to stop the campaign
 Weakened from campaigning, fever and probably excessive
alcohol Alexander died at 32,
ALEXANDER MILITARY SUCCESSES
 Tactical skills, and attention to detail
 He was able to quickly adapt and make decisions on the
battlefield.
 He maintained interest in his troops, built moral
 He lead by example, fought with his men
ALEXANDER
 Alexander desired to be a god, he once sent a message to the
Greek cities to “vote him a god.”
 He was considered a living god in Egypt, named Pharaoh “son of
Amon”
THE HELLENISTIC ERA
 Alexander’s greatest legacy was the Hellenistic era.
 Hellenistic means “ to imitate Greeks”
 The spread of Greek culture (language and ideas) to non-Greek
areas.