The Glory That Was

Greece

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 The Early Greeks
• Hellenes – Indo-European nomads – Dorian,
Aeolian, and Ionian tribes
• Circa 1400-1000 B.C.E. – migration from Black
Sea and Danube regions → modern-day
Greece and Turkey
• Conquered Cretans and other natives
• Circa 1000 B.C.E. – controlled Greece, some of
Asia Minor, and Aegean islands
 The Age of Homer
• Circa 1000 B.C.E.-circa 750 B.C.E.
• Greece’s “Dark Ages” – little information
known
• Iliad and Odyssey
• Troy discovered by Heinrich Schliemann
• People – farmers, traders, and warriors
• Crops and livestock – cattle, grapes, olives,
sheep, wheat
 The Age of Homer

Homer Schliemann
 The Geography of Greece
• Mountains
– Hindered communication and unification
– Caused growth of independent city-states
• Seas and seaports
– Peninsula with irregular coastline
– Seaports encouraged development of trade
• Poor farmland
– Few crops could be grown
– Forced to trade
– Became leading traders of Aegean and eastern
Mediterranean
 Greece’s Colonies
• Circa 800-600 B.C.E.

• Colonized areas around the Mediterranean –

Italy’s west coast (Naples), Sicily (Syracuse),
southern France (Marseilles), Egypt,
Byzantium (Constantinople/Istanbul)

• Spread Greek culture, language, religion

Greece and the Greek Colonies
Forces Uniting the Greeks
Forces Uniting the Greeks
Forces Uniting the Greeks
Greek Language and Alphabet
Greek Religion
Olympic Games
Forces Disuniting the Greeks
 Sparta
• Spartans conquered
Peloponnesians
– Peloponnesians became
slaves, or helots
• Helots outnumbered Spartans
20 to 1
• Spartans feared that helots
would revolt
• Spartans became heavily
militaristic in response
The Life of a Spartan
 Review Questions
1. The early Greeks came from where?
2. What archaeologist discovered the remains
of Troy?
3. Describe the geography of mainland Greece.
4. What forces united the Greeks?
5. Explain the evolution of the Greek alphabet.
6. Compare the life of a Spartan male with the
life of an American male today.
 Athens and Athenian Democracy
• Democracy
– Demos (“people”) +
kratein (“to rule”)
• Democracy developed
through various reforms
over 200 years (circa
620s B.C.E.-420 B.C.E.)
– Draco
– Solon
– Clisthenes
– Pericles
 Draco
• Athenian noble
• 621 B.C.E. – credited with putting down first
written laws of Athens
– Severe (modern English term draconian meaning
“severe” or “harsh”)
– Written “in blood, not ink”
– Written laws meant that judges could not show
favoritism or make up laws
 Solon
• 594 B.C.E. – rewrote
Draco’s laws
• Helped the poor
– All citizens could
participate in the
legislature
– Ended debt enslavement
– Canceled land mortgages
– Limited amount of land a
person could own
 Clisthenes
• 508 B.C.E.
• Enlarged Athenian Assembly and increased its powers
• Created Council of 500 to represent the different classes
– Created and administered laws after they were approved by
Assembly
• Officials were elected
• Executive power
– Ten generals called strategi (singular strategus)
– Elected for one year
• Citizenship granted to some freedmen (former slaves) and
to some immigrants
• Ostracism
– Names written on ostrakon (piece of broken potsherd) once a
year
– Most votes = ten years of exile
 Pericles
• “Golden Age of Pericles” – 461-429
B.C.E.

• Repeatedly elected as a strategus

• All citizens could hold public office

• People were paid for government service

• “Golden Age of Pericles” also saw

developments in art and architecture
 Athenian Democracy: Its Flaws
• Athens’ adult population: Circa 300,000
– 150,000 foreigners and slaves (not citizens)
– 100,000 women and others
– 50,000 male citizens with voting rights
• Direct democracy – the citizen had to be there to
vote (typically 5,000-6,000 voted at a time)
• Women had few rights and opportunities
• Slavery played a major role in the economy
• Orators often used forceful and coercive
language, rather than logic, to sway voters
 Persian Wars: 500-479 B.C.E.
• Greeks lived in Asia Minor since at least 1000
B.C.E.
• Persian empire expanded in the 5th century
B.C.E. to include Asia Minor
• 500 B.C.E. – Greeks in Miletus led a revolt
• Athens and other city-states came to aid of
Miletus
• Persians won and King Darius swore revenge
against Athens for interfering
 First Persian War (490 B.C.E.)
• King Darius sent fleet to attack Athens
– Set anchor 26 miles northeast of Marathon
• Battle of Marathon
– Spartans could not help because of a religious
festival
– Athenians were outnumbered but still defeated
the Persians
Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.E.)
 Second Persian War (480 B.C.E..)
• Xerxes (son of Darius) led army of 500,000
while Persian fleet sent along Greek coast
– Xerxes attacked by land from the north
– 300 Spartans led by Leonidas
• Attempted to block Pass of Thermopylae
• Traitor betrayed them and showed Persians another
route
• All 300 Spartans killed after inflicting heavy casualties
– Athens destroyed
• But Athenians had spent 10 years building up their navy
• Athenians defeated Persian fleet in the Strait of Salamis
Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.E.)
 Second Persian War
• 479 B.C.E. – Spartans led defeat of Persians at
Plataea
• Persian fleet destroyed at Mycale
 Significance of the Persian Wars
• Persian empire declined
• Greek civilization and culture flourished
• Wealth from increased trade
• Started the Greek onslaught against the
Persian empire
– Completed by Alexander the Great of Macedonia
in 331 B.C.E.
 Athens Leads Greece
• Great leadership
– Aristides and the Delian League (a.k.a.
Confederacy of Delos) to protect against possible
future Persian invasions
• Alliance became the basis for the Athenian empire
• Members paid protection money to Athens
– Cimon – expelled Persians from Black Sea shore
– Pericles and his “Golden Age”
• Increased trade brought wealth
Athens
 Athenian-Spartan Rivalry
• Spartans created Peloponnesian League to rival Delian
League
• Sparta
– Peloponnesian League dominated land
– Oligarchic rule
• Athens
– Delian League dominated sea
– Democratic rule
• Corinth
– Joined Peloponnesian League
– Threatened Athenian sea supremacy
• 461 B.C.E. – war between Athens and Sparta
– 445 B.C.E. – signed a truce
 Peloponnesian Wars
• 431 B.C.E. – war began again
• Circa 430 B.C.E. – plague struck Athens
– 1/3 of population died, including Pericles
• Athens attacked Syracuse (ally of Sparta), located
in southern Italy, at sea
– Athens lost
• Battle of Aegospotami (404 B.C.E.)
– Spartans allied with Persians and defeated Athenians
– Spartans conquered Athens and destroyed its
defensive walls
 Sparta Leads Greece
• 404-371 B.C.E.
• Sparta’s support of oligarchic rule upset the
lower classes in other Greek city-states
• Battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.E.)
– Thebes was first to revolt
– General Epaminondas led Thebans to defeat Spartans
• Battle of Mantinea (362 B.C.E.)
– Thebes defeated by Sparta and Athens
• Battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.E.)
– Philip II of Macedon defeated Athenians and Thebans
• League of Corinth (337 B.C.E.)
– Philip II of Macedon had Greek city-states pledge to
stop warring one another
 Review Questions
1. What ancient Greek city-state first developed
democracy?
2. How did Draco, Solon, Clisthenes, and Pericles
advance democracy?
3. What features of Athenian society were
undemocratic?
4. Describe the Greek wars with the Persians.
5. What were the causes and outcomes of the
Peloponnesian wars?
6. Who got the Greek city-states to pledge to stop
warring one another with the League of
Corinth?
 Hellenic Culture
• “Hellenic” refers to Greek culture among
those who considered themselves to be Greek
during the centuries before Alexander the
Great

• Much of what is considered typically “Greek”

and which greatly influenced the course of
Western civilization was created and
developed during this time
 Greek Architecture and Art
• Architecture of the Acropolis
– Parthenon designed by Ictinus
• Gold and ivory statue of Athena
designed by Phidias
– Optical illusions and
engineering used to avoid
building appearing curved from
a distance
• Sculpture
– Lifelike and proportionate
– Attention to detail
– Emphasis on the beauty of the
human form
Hermes and Dionysos by Praxiteles
The Acropolis in Athens
Leaders in Greek Science
 Thales
• Lived circa 624 B.C.E.-circa 546 B.C.E.

• Called the “father of natural science”

• Believed the basic substance in the world is

water, which changes its form (ice, liquid,
steam) but not its composition
 Pythagoras
• Lived circa 580 B.C.E.-circa 490 B.C.E.

• Called the “father of numbers” –

mathematician who believed everything could
be numbered

• Pythagorean Theorem: “The square of the

hypotenuse of a right angle is equal to the
sum of the squares on the other two sides.”
 Democritus
• Lived circa 460 B.C.E.-circa 370 B.C.E.

• Everything made of atoms so small they

cannot be divided
 Hippocrates
• Lived circa 460 B.C.E.-370 B.C.E.

• Called the “father of medicine”

• Believed that diseases have natural rather

than supernatural causes

• Hippocratic Oath – still taken by medical

personnel today
 Greek Drama
• Purpose
– Educative – taught history and morality
• Presentation
– Open-air amphitheaters
– Little scenery
– Originally sung by a chorus, but later chorus members
developed into actors
• Themes
– Gods, divine laws, and fate dominate human destiny
Greek Dramatists
 Greek Philosophy
“Love of knowledge” – Search for answers to life’s big questions
Greek Philosophers
 The Greeks and History
Knowledge of the past had consisted of myths and legends.
The first true historians attempted to base their writings on facts.
 Greek Literature
• Hesiod (late 8th century B.C.E.)
– Theogony – poem about Greek gods
– Work and Days – poem about the life of a farmer
• Sappho (ca. 620 B.C.E.-ca. 570 B.C.E.)
– Lyric poetry (sung accompanied by a lyre)
– Hymn to Aphrodite
• Pindar (522-443 B.C.E.)
– Paeans
– Greeks considered him their greatest lyric poet
Greek Literature
 Greek Oratory
• Art of oratory introduced by the Sophists
• Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.E.)
– Warned Greeks about Philip of Macedonia’s plans
– English word philippic means “tirade against
someone”

Demosthenes
 Greek Education
• “A perfect mind in a perfect body”
• Education largely informal
• Formal education
– Not for girls (learned domestic arts at home)
– Boys sent to private schools at age seven
– Slave – pedagogue – watched over him and taught
him how to behave
– Grammar, reading, writing, math, music, oratory
– Age 12 – began gymnastics
• Only for upper classes
• Development of citizens who could participate in
government and public affairs
 Review Questions
1. What does the term Hellenic mean?
2. Describe Greek architecture and art.
3. What did Pythagoras and Hippocrates
contribute to the sciences?
4. What questions and criticisms were raised by
ancient Greek philosophers?
5. In what ways were Herodotus and Thucydides
true historians?
6. Compare education in ancient Greece to
education in the United States today.