Chapter 4 Overview
Duiker & Speilvogel
 Pericles: Funeral Oration- ideals of
democracy and importance of the
individual
 Early Greece
o Geography- mountainous terrainisolating, sea trading
 Minoan Crete
o 2000-1450 BCE = height
o Around 2800 BCE Bronze tools/
weapons
o Palace at Knossos
o Bull-leapers (gymnasts)
o Why did they decline? Invasion?
 Mycenaeans
o 1600-1100 BCE= height
o Homer
o Invasion by the Dorians?
 Dark Age (1100-750BCE)
o Migration due to declining population
and falling food production
o Iron replaced bronze
o Adoption of Phoenician alphabet
 Homer
o Based Iliad and Odyssey on oral
tradition of the Trojan War
o “the gods strong and incalculable;
that the quality of a man matters
more than his achievement, that
violence and recklessness will still
lead to disaster, and that this will fall
on the innocent as well as on the
guilty.”
o Homer gave an idealized pastcornerstone of education
 Greek City-States (c750-500BCE)
o Polis= small but autonomous political
unit, town and countryside
 Acropolis= fortified hill
 Agora= market and assembly
(AGORAPHOBIC)
 Classes w/in polis: Adult males
(full political rights), women and
children (citizens w/ no political
rights), noncitizens (slaves and
resident aliens)
 New Military- hoplites (heavily
armed) Phalanx formation
 Colonization (750-550BCE)
o Causes: poverty, land hunger,
growing gulf between rich and poor,
overpopulation and development of
trade
o Effects: Establishment of colonies,
spread of culture throughout
Mediterranean region, increased
trade and industry
 Govt.
o Monarchy-Oligarchy-TyrannyDemocracy
o Tyrants- usurpers of power in a coup
d’etat- upheld public works projects
to enhance their popularity
 Sparta
o Peloponnesus- conquered the
Laconians and subjected theme to
serfdom “HELOTS”- bound to the
land
o Created a military state to control
Laconian and Messenian Helots
o Babies judged at birth- defective- left
to die
o Boys- wet-nursed- taken away at 7
to military barracks- military trainingjoined army at 20, lived at Barracks
until 30-could retire at 60.
o Could marry and visit wife at night,
but couldn’t get caught
o Spartan women unique- had more
rights- trained in wrestling and
gymnastics to make them strong and
bear healthy children- married later
o Spartan Govt. (oligarchy)
 2 kings- military affairs and
supreme priests
 Gerousia= council of elders
 Ephors= supervised education
 Apella= assembly of all male
citizens
o isolationist
o Leader of Peloponnesian League
o Spartans valued their strength as
justification for their militaristic ideals
and regimented society
 Athens
o Monarchy-Oligarchy (7thcBCE)Tyranny-Democracy
o 7thcBCE- political and social
discontent- rival factions w/in
aristocracy- many farmers sold into
slavery when they couldn’t pay debts
o 594BCE- Solon- reforms- cancelled
land debts, outlawed new loans
based on human collateral and freed
people from slavery
o Tyrants: Pisistratus & Clisthenes
 Created new Council of 500
chosen by lot
 Classical Greece (500-338BCE)
o Greece vs. Persia
 Ionian colonies revolt against
Persians 499BCE aided by
Athenian navy
 490BCE Persian king Darius
attacked Greece Battle of
Marathon
 Xerxes renewed plans for
invasion of Greece
 Battle of Thermopolae- Leonidas
(Spartan king) 9,000 Greeks and
300 Spartans held off Persians
for 2 days
 479BCE Persian army defeated
at Platea
o 478-477BCE Delian League founded
w/ Athens
o “Age of Pericles”- height of Athenian
power and the culmination of its
brilliance as a civilization
o Athens was sacked and burned,
Greek naval fleet won decisive
victory over Persian navy at Salamis.
o 479BCE Greeks defeated the
Persians at Plataea
 Athenian Empire
o Athens formed the Delian League
 Age of Pericles
o Assembly “will of the people”= all
male citizens over 18- passed all
laws and made financial decisions
on war and foreign policy
o Direct Democracy
o Pericles expanded suffrage: lowerclass citizens eligible for public
offices formerly closed: state pay for
office-holders
o City magistrates chosen by lot
o “Generals”=directors of policy (10
officials)= elected by public vote
o Ostracism- person receiving 6,000
votes could be exiled for 10 years
o Used treasury of Delian League to
rebuild Athens
 The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)
o Sparta v. Athens
o Athen’s plan to stay behind walls but
plague struck
o Athens defeated= walls torn down,
navy disbanded, empire destroyed
o Interfighting b/w Athens, Sparta, and
Thebes weakens the Greek citystates while Macedonia became
stronger.
 Culture of Classical Greece
o Herodotus (484-425BCE) History of
the Persian Wars
 Central theme struggle b/w
Greeks and Persians for Greek
freedom
 Divine intervention in Greek
victory
o Thucydides (460-400BCE)
 Greatest historian of ancient
world
 Scientific, methodical, and
objective account of Pelop. War
o Greek Drama
 1st were tragedies- suffering of
hero (tragic flaw) ex: Hubris
o Aeschylus (525-456BCE)
 1st tragedian
 Oresteia Trilogy- evil acts breed
evil acts- Reason Triumphs
o Sophocles (496-406BCE)
 Oedipus Rex- man is fated to kill
father and marry his mother
o Euripedes (485-406BCE)
 The Bacchae
 Critical of view that war was
glorious- showed war as brutal
and barbaric
 Greek Comedy
o Aristophanes (450-385 BCE)
 The Clouds, Lysistrata
 Comic but effective message
against the Peloponnesian War
(women have sex strike until war
is ended)
 The Arts: The Classical Ideal
o Architecture- the Temple
o Doric- Ionic- Corinthian columns
o Parthenon- Temple of Athena
 Sophists
o Wandering teachers
o Truth is relative to everyone
 Socrates
o Socratic Method
o Sentenced to death for corrupting
the youth of Athens- hemlock
 Plato
o The Republic
o Ideal state: Population divided into 3
groups
o Upper-class – Philosopher-Kings
o Men and women have same
education and equal access to all
positions
 Aristotle
o Student of Plato, tutor to Alexander
the Great
o Book: Politics: constitutional govt.
o Marriage impt for mutual support
o Women biologically inferior to men
and therefore should be subordinate
to men in marriage
 Greek Religion
o Social and practical
o Civic cult necessary for well-being of
state
o 12 Olympian gods (Zeus, Hera,
Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Poseidon,
etc)
o Each polis had a patron god
o Afterdeath spirits to a gloomy
underworld- Hades
o Ritual important along w/ prayer and
sacrifices
o Oracles (at Delphi)
 Daily Life
o Males part of public life
o Slavery common
o Limited arable land- trade very
important especially for grain
o Women as wives, primary duty to
have children
o Homosexuality accepted
 The Rise of Macedonia
o Philip II (359-336BCE)- King of
Macedonia
 Built efficient army and
conquered the Greeks
 He was assassinated
o Alexander the Great (336-323BCE)
 Became king of Macedonia at 20
 Invaded the Persian Empire
 Asia Minor-Syria, Palestine,
Egypt- Mesopotamia (Babylon)Persepolis-Indus River
 His troops mutinied at Indus
River, forced to turn back
 On return trip, Alexander died in
Babylon
 Legacy: Hero or Villain?
 Hellenistic Era “to imitate Greeks”
o “Hellenic” culture= Greek culture
o Extension of Greek language and
ideas to non-Greek world of Middle
East
o Spreading of Greek language, art,
architecture, and literature
o Urban centers key for diffusing
Greek culture
 Non-Greeks restricted from high
positions so that Greeks could
maintain their dominance
 Ex: Alexandria in Egypt
 Many Greek colonists moved to
the Middle East
 Economic and Social Trends
o Agriculture
o Commerce increased trade between
west and east
o Key trade item= grain
o New opportunities for women
o Education for upper class women
o Ptolemaic rulers in Egypt= return to
kings marrying own sisters
 Culture in Hellenistic World
o Hellenistic sculptures tried for more
emotional and realistic art rather
than idealized
o Menander (342-291BCE)= New
Comedy “Pretty Woman” Stories
o Polybus (203-120BCE)= chief
historian of Hellenistic Age
 A Golden Age of Science
o Separation of science from
philosophy
o Archimedes (287-212 BCE)= famous
scientist
 Worked on geometry in spheres
and cylinders
 Pi
 Science of hydrostatics
 Archimedian screw
 Philosophy
o Epicurus (341-270BCE)- founder of
Epicureanism
 Human beings were free to follow
self-interest as a basic motivating
force.
 Happiness was goal of lifepursuit of pleasure
 Pleasure= freedom from
emotional turmoil, freedom from
worry
 Remove from public activity
 Friendship important
o Stoicism- founded by Zeno (335263BCE)
 Happiness, the supreme good,
could only be found by living in
harmony with the will of God
 You could bear whatever life
offered
 Public service important and
noble
 Religion in Hellenistic World
o Decline in popularity of traditional
Greek Olympian Religion
o Mystery cults= individuals could
pursue a path to salvation and
achieve eternal life by being initiated
into a union with a savior god or
goddess who had died and risen
again.
Name:
_________________________
Period: _______
Date: __________
Chapter 4 Reading Quiz
1. Name the two famous Greek historians
and the subject of each of their famous
works.
Herodotus- known as the “Father of History”
wrote Histories about the Persian
Wars…included the Gods favoring the Greeks as
the main reason for their win over the Persians.
Thucydides- known as a scientific
historian…wrote a History of the Peloponnesian
War in which he included statistics, and was
much more systematic in his account.
2.
Who was Philip II? (Time Period,
Location, Key Achievements).
(359-336 BCE/ 4th century BCE) King of
Macedonia who invaded Greece, and
conquered the Greeks…he was assassinated
and his son, Alexander the Great took over.
3. List two similarities and two differences
between Sparta and Athens.
Similarities
Both City-States
Both polytheistic
Patriarchal
Both had rule by
oligarchies at one
point
Joined together to
fight the Persians in
the Persian Wars
Differences
Athens was focused
on intellectual
pursuits
Sparta was organized
as a militaristic society
Athens was
surrounded by a
wall…for the Spartans,
their people were
their wall
Fought against each
other in the
Peloponnesian War
Women had more
rights in Sparta