Characteristics of Classical Greece DAY 1 Geography In southeastern Europe on the tip of the Balkan Peninsula within the Mediterranean Sea with the Aegean.

Characteristics of Classical Greece DAY 1

Geography

In southeastern Europe on the tip of the Balkan Peninsula within the Mediterranean Sea with the Aegean Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west;

east of Italy and Sicily and west of what is now Turkey;

mountainous terrain with no major rivers;

off from mainland Greece are hundreds of tiny islands that the Greeks used for trade and colonization

Ionian

Sea

ASIA MINOR

(Turkey)

BALKAN PENINSULA

a. Disadvantages

b. Advantages

a. no major rivers to begin an agricultural revolution as the earliest ancient civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, India, and China had relied upon;

mountains separated the city-states of Greece causing no unity or loyalty to one another

b. The seas linked the Greeks to the outside world. The Greeks became skilled shipbuilders and sailors, traveling and trading all over the Mediterranean, spreading their culture while absorbing others

(cultural diffusion)

Q

A geographical feature of ancient Greece was that Greece

A. was so mountainous that it often failed to unite its city-states

B. was supported by its many rivers and valleys for trade

C. relied on the seas to produce enough crops for its population

D. had no means to colonization around the Mediterranean area A

When any group of people, as the ancient Greeks, travel, trade, or war with one another, the term to describe this exchange is called

A. colonization

B. Neolithic Revolution

C. filial piety

D. cultural diffusion

D

Early Influences by the Minoans

The Minoans established their civilization on the island of Crete, helping to shape the Greek civilization.

They traded with Egypt and Mesopotamia and acquired ideas/technology that they adapted to their own culture. The fall of the Minoan civilization was due to possible natural catastrophes such as a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, or a tidal wave. Now weakened, the Minoans fell to invading Mycenaeans.

Minoans

Early Influences by the Mycenaean

The Mycenaean conquered the Greek mainland and Crete, and by dominating the Aegean Sea from about 1400 B.C. to 1200 B.C., they absorbed Egyptian and Mesopotamian influences that they passed on to later Greeks. They traded with Sicily, Italy, Egypt, Mesopotamia, andthe Phoenicians, considered to be the greatest sea-trading people of the ancient world, who invented a 22-letter alphabet from which the Greek alphabet was adapted.

Shellfish from which the Phoenicians

derived purple dye

[& introduced royal purple dye]

Greek poet, Homer, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey about the Trojan War that was fought between the two cities of Mycenae and Troy, reveal many of the values held by the ancient Greeks such as honor, courage, and eloquence.

Development of Greek city-states

Each city-state was called a polis, first meaning “fort,” and each polis had its own acropolis (fortified hilltop) and agora (marketplace);

Each polis was ruled by a king, whose rule was eventually overthrown by an aristocracy (nobility who owned land) which became so oppressive,

Greek hoplites (foot soldiers of a citizen-army),

using their phalanxes (8-rank formations)

defeated the aristocrats with the use of a new material called iron to make affordable weapons.

The hoplites replaced the aristocracy with a ruling class of oligarchs known as Tyrants who successfully built temples, forts, and harbors for the betterment of the Greek civilization. The Greeks’ adopted their alphabet directly from the

A. Minoans

B. Phoenicians

C. Mycenaean

D. Mountainous peoples

CWhich inexpensive material helped Greek hoplites overthrow the aristocrats?

A. gold

B. bronze

C. steel

D. iron

D

• Similarities among Greek city-states

• all Greek citizens considered themselves “Hellenes” (Greeks) living in “Hellas” (Greece); • used language of Greek, derived from the Phoenician 22-letter alphabet• participated in Olympic Games, counting every four years as one Olympiad• practiced a polytheistic religion• feared constant threat of attack from the Persian Empire• felt superior to non-Greeks whom they called “barbaroi,” people who did not speak Greek

Which of the following is not a similarity among all early Greeks city-states?

A. Each Greek city-state constructed its most important buildings on an acropolis.

B. Each city-state used the agora as a marketplace and gathering place.

C. Each of its citizens considered all non-Latin-speaking people “barbaroi.”

D. Each of its citizens called himself “Hellene.”

C

STOP

Which Greek Age was beneficial in beautifying and improving the ancient Greek city-states overall?A. Age of KingsB. Age of AristocracyC. Age of TyrantsD. Age of NoblesE. Age of Monarchies

C

Which was not a common feature among all Greek city-states during the Iron Age?A. Each had a citizen-army of soldiers called hoplites.B. Each built their important buildings on an acropolis.C. Any non-Greek person who spoke Greek was considered to be a “barbaroi.”D. Each polis feared an attack from the Persian Empire.E. called their homeland Hellas and themselves “Hellenes”

C

CHAPTER 5 LESSON 1 DAY 2 •Differences between the Greek city-states of Athens and

SpartaAthens

• on Greek mainland • established the world’s 1st democracy called a direct democracy, led by all male citizens 30 years or older as Assembly members (U.S. has a representative democracy whereby the people elect senators and state representatives to speak and vote on their behalf) • Greek government [and modern America’s] based on idea of popular sovereignty (the people choose their form of govern-ment to rule them)• Archons (reformers who worked to improve Athens’ democracy) wrote laws: beginning with the Draconian Code of Laws, a set of harsh, severe laws comparable to Babylonian King Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, the world’s 1st written law code

• Sophists (Greek wise men) taught rhetoric (public-speaking course to Athenian citizens’ older sons); wide range of educational opportunities for males only

Sparta

• on Greek area called Peloponnesus atthe southern end of Balkan Peninsula • established a closed society led by an oligarchy with 2 kings and a Council of Elders• based society on a military state• glorified war according to the law code of Lycurgus, a Dorian warrior ancestor of the Spartans & Sparta’s 1st lawmaker, who, legend has it, sacrificed his own life to save all other Spartans• began military training at age of 7• women honored as “mothers of soldiers”• feared revolts by helots (enslaved farmers forced to work for the Spartans and provide them with food)• feared strangers (xenophobia)

Major Wars Fought by Ancient Greece

Persian Wars• began in 490 B.C., lasted for 11 yrs.• Athens, angering Sparta, takes credit for defeating the ancient world’s most powerful military, the Persian Empire: from Middle East area; now Iran; had lands on 3 continents; militarily centralized in Asia by building the

Royal Road, with a pony express to introduce a postal service; treated all conquered people with tolerance & respect, even allowing the conquered monotheistic Jews to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem

• Pericles, Athenian military general and political orator, begins Athens’ Golden Age by rebuilding the Parthenon, strengthening democracy; supporting knowledge and learning and ensuring that Athens became known as the “School of Hellas;” Greece is confirmed as the Western World’s 1st classical civilization • jealousy intensifies between Athens and Sparta, leading them into a 27-year Greek civil war

Peloponnesian War

• Greek civil war began in 431 B.C.• Pericles died of a plague along with 1/3 of the Athenian population• with a Persian-backed navy, Sparta defeated Athenian naval forces• Athens surrendered to Sparta, so that totalitarianism triumphed over democracy• Greece, weaker than ever, fell to a foreign power in the north, the kingdom of Macedonia led by King Philip II, father of

Alexander the Great

Which of the following does not belong as the name of an ancient law code?

A. Pericles

B. Hammurabi

C. Draco

D. Lycurgus

A

Which of the following allowed the Jews to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem?

A. Athens

B. Pericles

C. Persians

D. Sparta

C