The Persian Wars
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 Because of the helot revolt Sparta became a military state
 Since there was hunger in Athens they became a
democracy
 But they had to team up and fight against the Persian
army which was the biggest fear of all
Battle at marathons:
 The Persian wars began in Ionia on the coast of Anatolia
 The greeks settled in Ionia but then the Persians
conquered it in 520 BC
 They Ionia greeks revolted against Persia, Athens sent
ships for their aid, but Persia defeated the rebels and
vowed to destroy Athens
 In 490 BC the Persians landed northeast of Athens on a
plain called Marathon after sailing across the Aegean sea
 They Persians had 25,000 skill lacking and lightly armored
soldiers and the greeks had 10,000 strong and well
trained soldiers, 6400 persians were killed, and only 192
greeks were killed before the Persians fled
 The Athenians had a tradition, which was that the army
leader would choose a young runner to bring back the
news of the defeat against Persia this man’s name was
Pheidippides, he did but after he did he collapsed and
died
Thermopylae and Salamis:
 Darius, the king of Persia died in 480 BC and his son his
successer, Xerxes, tried to crush Greece
 The Greece states were badle formed some didn’t want to
fight against Persia some wanted to work together, some
wanted just to let Athens get attacked and the rest of
Greece be safe, and some were fighting on the Persian
side
 The Persians were on the way to destroy Greece when
they were blocked by 7,000 greeks, 300 of which were
Spartans, but a traitor told the Persians about a secret
path around the cliffs. The greeks knew that they were
going to be defeated so they sent back the rest of the
greeks and stalled the Persians and fought the Persians
off as long as they could
 Every sing Spartan soldier that stayed to fight were killed
and made a big impression on the greeks
 While the Spartans were stalling the Athenians argued
about what they should do and concluded by fighting the
Persians off at sea, they did this buy positioning
themselves in a narrow channel next to the island of
Salamis, after setting fire to Athens xerxes tried to block
the channels they were too narrow to have space for the
pesian fleet which is when the Athenians came and drove
their battering rams into their ships which defeated 1
third of the Persian fleet.
 The Spartans killed and defeated the rest of the Persian
army in a third battle on Platea in 479 BC
Consequences of the Persian wars:
 Since the greeks defeated the Persians and the Persian
threats stopped the greek states formed an alliance with
140 states in it called the Delian League which was led
by Athens. Athens controlled each state because of their
very powerful Navy.
Class war and politics
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 A polis was made up of a cityand its surrounding
countryside
 A monarchy is when kings or monarchs rule in the
government
 Aristocracy is when a small group of noble people who
owned land and ruled
 You can only be a noble when you are born, by your
family
 Oligarchy was a government ruled by a few powerful
people, this is what some rich families did when they got
dissatisfied with aristocrat rules
 Only rich were able to afford bronze weapons but when
iron was discovered it was cheaper and stronger than
bronze thus having a stronger and bigger army because
of the more people that had armory
 Hoplites were the most fearsome soldiers and had the
most fearsome formation or phalanx because they were
foot soldiers who were side to side with a spear in one
hand and a shield in the other
 Tyrants were powerful individuals who gained control of
the government by appealing to the poor and the
discontented for support

Greece
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Topic: Ancient Greece- Introduction
Time: ca. 1750-133 BCE
Place: Greece (and her colonies)
Concepts: geography; civilization
Big Question: how did Greece’s geography determine its political
and economical stand?
Geography shapes Greek life:
Ancient Greece was mostly mountains and peninsulas
It contained about 1400 islands
The Greeks were indo European
The Sea:
The Greeks lived basically on the water
They would never travel more than 85 miles to the coastline
The Aegean sea, Ionian sea, and black sea were very important
to the Greeks they provided transportation routes
These water ways were good for trade and Greece needed trade
in order to succeed because they didn’t have much resources
Very maritime (connecting with the seas) it’s culture is maritime
Their main source of protein was fish
The Land:
¾ of the land was mountains
The Greeks made small communities based on their geographical
location
The distances were short to one another but because of the
mountains it was a very hard travel to go from place to place
Only 20% arable (suitable for farming); of the land was farmable
The fact that they didn’t have such good resource may have been
the cause that they got new colonies
A lot of little rivers running through Greece (very good for
growing grapes and olives.) and these are used as very important
trading goods.
Very big sheppards
City-states=poleis (politics come from this word)
The climate:
They usually met outdoors to discuss public events and etc.
Thei invented the gymnasium
Very big in athletics
Mycenaean Civilization Develops:
Around 2000 BCE people settle mainland Greece later called
Mycenaean
The city Mycenae had a 20 foot thick wall surrounding it and
almost withstood any attack
The kings that ruled these people and neighboring villages rules
from 1600-1200 BCE
Culture and Trade:
The rich people lives in fortresses and lives perfect lives
They would eat in dining halls 35 feet wide and 50 feet long
The warrior kings invaded Crete
These invasions prevented the Minoans to rebuild
The Trojan War:
About 1200 BCE
They fought a ten year war with Greece because a youth had
kidnapped the kings wife
Greek Culture Declines under the Dorians:
Around 1200 BCE sea raiders attacked Greece and destroyed
them
According to legend the people to inhabit the land were the
Dorians
When they took control the Greek empire basically stopped
Historians say that they forgot how to write in the period (1150750 BCE) because there are no written records
Epics of Homer:
It is said that the best storyteller of the time was a blind man
named homer
He wrote poem based on heroic deed from 750-700 BCE
His to best epic poems were the Iliad and odyssey
The Iliad is about hector of troy fighting Achilles and when his
wife asks him not to fight him he says that then he would be a
coward showing about Greek life and values
The odyssey is about Odysseus and his travels on the sea and
fighting the Trojans
Greeks create Myths:
Myth- traditional story
Through the myths the people would explain super natural
powers
They gave their basic attributes to god
The gods lived forever
Zeus the head of gods lived on mount Olympus
What were the influences of Greek geography on Greek political
and economic life?
Answer: economically it was everything. Mainland Greece didn’t
have such good resources so trade on the sea was very
important. Politically it kind of made them a little weaker,
because they could be united into one big kingdom. They couldn’t
unite into one kingdom because of the mountains.
Homer and Hesiod: What can mythology help us understand
about Greek societies’ understanding of order and stability?
Answer: the Greeks thought that they were very good people.
They thought this because they gave their basic attributes as
gods. They were very orderly and stable because these are good
attributes to have and they possessed them.
Rule and order in Greek City-States:
Most city states controlled 50-500 miles of territory
Most of the time less than 20,000 residents
On the hilltop called the acropolis the people would make
business meetings
Greek Political Structures:
In some city states their were monarchs or kings
In some city states their were artistocracies which were whn a
few noble families were the head and would gain olitical power by
working in the king’s military cavalry
As trade expanded merchants became the political leaders
They made an oligarchy when a few powerful people rule the
government
A New Kind of Army Emerges:
After the bronze age people started to use iron whichw as
cheeper so the less wealthy people could afford weapons and
defend themselves
Phalanx’s of fearsome formations was the most powerful fighting
force in the ancient world
Tyrants seize Power:
In many city states lower classmen would join rebellions against
the nobles, these powerful individuals were called tyrants
In some CS it would go from tyrant to tyrant
Topic: Ancient Greece- Sparta
Time: 725-150 BCE
Place: Sparta
Concepts: militarism, totalitarism
Big Question: Why did Sparta develop a military state?
Sparta Builds A Military State:
They were the only City State to build a military state
Sparta Dominates Messenians:
Sparta conquered messenia in 725 BCE
They became helots or people who were forced to stay and do
work on the land
Every year the Spartans would demand half of the crops
Around 600 BCE the much bigger messenians revolted and just
lost it took the Spartans 20 years to put it down
After the revolt the Spartans made themselves a stronger nation
Sparta’s Government and Society:
They were governed by 2 groups
1 group: aseemble- all free adult males- ones who were elected
voted on major issues
2 group: council of elders- they proposed laws
five elected officials called ephors carried out the laws council
passed
2 kings ruled over sparta’s military
there were different social classes the rich ones were the people
who were indigenous to the land the other were the non native
people
Spartan Education:
for men army was everything
once a boy turned 7 he started training for the army
Spartan girls would play sports instead of military service
The women couldn’t vote but got a lot of rights
In places like Athens the women weren’t expected to come out of
their house
600-371 BCE the Spartans had the most powerful army in Greece
Athens Builds a Limited Democracy:
Athens was north of Sparta
Compared to Spartans because they complete each other
Political Development in Athens:
Athens tried to make a democracy
Only free adult males were counted as citizens
Solon’s Political and Economic Reforms:
Peseants destroyed the attempt of a rich man named cylon to
make it a tyranny
621 BCE first code of laws are written by draco
to prevent civil war in 594 BCE solon is chosen to rule the
government
he allowed al citizens to debate policies in the assembly
he was the first to say that someone can press charges against
someone else for doing something wrong
he ignored land reforms so when he finished the wealthy and
poor landowners would fight
546 BCE pisustratus becames athens’ first tyrant
he gave jobs to the poor and got their support
The rise of Persia
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In 612 B.C medes and Chaldeans helped overthrow Assyria from
their empire, meanwhile Persian expanded their horizons and
territorial ambitions
 The Persians had a strong empire because based their
army was so strong
 The whole world didn’t really pay any attention to the
Persians until 550 B.C, which was the Persian king Cyrus
began conquering other neighboring cities
 This empire spanned over 2000 miles
 The soldiers wore leather pants with thick felt boots
 The Persian leader was proven to be a military genius
because he led his team to numerous victories, they
conquered all of the fertile crescent and most of Anatolia
 Cyrus was different then any other ruler, when he
conquered a territory he would make strict rules of
burning things and letting them keep the cities customs
and religion, when he would come to a temple he would
kneel and pray
 When cyrus conquered Babylon he let the jews return to
their homeland.
 Cyrus died in a battle against namdic invaders
 Cryrus’s son Cambyses became king of Persia and
conquered Egypt to add to their empire
 He had different rules than his father, when he conquered
Egypt he burned their idols and made them switch religion
 After 8 years of ruling King Cambysys died, but then there
was a rebellion which made Persia very weak
 Darius was Cambyses’s succeser and he took the throne
in 522, the first 3 years he took putting down the revolts
than he organized a well organized administration for the
next few years
 He expanded This empire and made it more than 2500
miles wide
 But Darius was not able to conquer Greece before he died
 Darius let every province go by some of their own laws go
by their religion and their language
 He had a governor name Satrap who ruled locally
 He set an army leader and a tax collector for each
province
 He made this Rayol Road which went from Susa to Sardis
which was 1677 miles long
 He borrowed a system of coins from the Lydians so that
there wouldn’t be odd weighing of gold and metal
 Zoroastrian was a religion, if you picked the god of good
than you would live a life of paradise if you picked the god
of darkness than you would live life in a burning pit in hell
 This religion influenced judiasm because they belived that
what ever you would do or act will reflect on your after
life, if you do good you will go to heaven, if you do bad
you will go to hell
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A mighty military machine:
 Starting in 850 B.C Assyria became a large empire
 They made the empire by a superior military force than
other countries, with the state of the art weapons and
their sophisticated military organization
 Since the Assyrians didn’t have any natural barriers they
had to form a strong army so that know one could invade
them
 The Assyrians conquered land from the Tigris river to
central Egypt
 One of the kings that ruled during the empire was a king
named, Sennacherib, conquered 89 cities and 820
villages, burned Babylon, and killed most of the people
who lived their.
 The soldiers wore, stiff leather and metal armor: copper
and iron helmets, padded loincloths, and skirts layered
with metal scales. They had iron swords and iron pointed
spears, the military had Infantry, archers, and spear
throwers with huge shields.
 Each time the Assyrians would conquer a city they would
weaken the walls of the cities by digging under it and
shoot a rain of arrows at the city while ramming the city
gates open. Once that was done they killed or enslaved all
the victims in the city
An Extending empire:
 Between 850 and 650 b.c the Assyrians defeated
Palestine, Syria, Babylon and Egypt
 The Assyrians made all the cities they conquered pay
taxes and if they didn’t they would be sent into exile
 The Assyrian’s capital city was Nineveh along the Tigris
river
 King Ashurbanipal had at the time the world’s biggest
library with more than 25,000 tablets of writing which was
in the city of Nineveh
The Empires of Egypt and Nubia Collide
Egypt
-Trade helped Egypt a lot
- the old empire of Egypt was
very weak, and were invaded by
the Hyksos- a nomadic tribe who
ruled over Egypt from 1640 to
1570 B.C.E
-In 1600 B.C.E a Queen named
Ahhotep began the driving out of
the Hyksos
- With the help of Kamose (an
Egyptian Pharaoh) and his
successors the Hyksos were
driven out of Egypt
- Now that the Hyksos were gone
the New Kingdom arose in 1570
B.C.E and lasted until 1075 B.C.E
- Part of the New Kingdom was
the eighteenth dynasty (15701365 B.C.E)
-During this period of time the
Egyptian army became much
stronger because of their great
weaponry, they had two wheeled
chariots, bronze weapons archers
- in 1472 B.C.E a new and unique
pharoh arose, Hatshepsut, she
was unique because she was a
women, and 2 because she
encouraged the egytians to trade
rather than waging war.
- Her stepson Thutmose III was
not her, he was amore warlike
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Nubia
- Nubia trade with egypt
-
ruler, he led many victories in
battles, and invaded Palestine
and Syria
- the Egyptians went farther
south into Nubia, and they
returned with gold, ivory, catle,
and captivities who were enslaved
- since the Egyptians conquered
most of minor asia the Hittities
became mad and fought each
other, after many battles they
made a peace treaty
The Babylonian exile and the return
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 In 539 B.C.E he defeated naboidus, king of Babylon and
declared himself king of the lands and declared himself
ruler of all of Mesopotamia
 After Cyrus became king he developed a policy of religious
tolerance
 Cyrus returned and restored all of the temples and gods
to their original places and then recorded it in 538 B.C.E.
 The Jews had been captured by the Babylonians but then
the Persians conquered Babylon and let the Jews build the
beit hamikdash in 538 B.C.E.
 The Jews still remained part of the Persian empire
because the Jews and king Cyrus, the king of Persia were
allies
 Cyrus led the Persians in a revolt against medes (indoEuropean speaking people allied with the Babylonians)
 The tribe of Yehuda were the only tribe that stayed
jewish and observed the mosaic laws when the other
tribes assimilated with the Babylonians
 The Temple was the central shrine of the Jews but the
people of Judah were able to stay Jewish because they
lived without the temple anyway so they were able to go
on with their religion with out the temple.
 The yehudah tribe had the mitzavot of brit milah and
shabat to stay separate from the Babylonians
 Not everyone of the jews left babylonia to go and build
the temple some just stayed in their houses but the
people who stayed in Babylon and the people who we to
Jerusalem to build the temple still had a very close
relationship
 The second temple was destroyed by the roman in 70 C.E.
 After the Babylonian exile because of the creation beit
kanest in the exile, when the second beit hamikdash was
destroyed the jews didn’t dispurse because they already
knew how to pray and worship g-d on their own.
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Indo-Europeans Migrate
 The Indo Europeans were a group of semi nomadic
(roamers) people who came from steppes which was dry
grasslands that was north of Caucasus
 The Indo Europeans primarily herded cattle, sheep, goats,
and tamed horses and rode into battle (war) in 2 wealed
chariots.
 The language that they spoke was Indo European which
was like the ancestor languages of European, South west
Asian, south Asian, English, Spanish, Persian and Hindi.
Because all those languages trace back to the original
forms of Indo European.
 Depending on what kind of Indo European they spoke
historians knew who immigrated to where.
 No one knows why they left Steppes, their old home.
 They Migrated to different directions which were all in
different directions between 1700 B.C. to 1200 B.C. Which
was called migrations
Hittites Blend Empire and Technology
 In 2000 B.C. a group of Indo European speakers called
the Hittites went to Anatolia or Asia Minor
 Anatolia was a huge peninsula that sticks out into the
Black and Mediterranean seas
 The Hittite empire dominated southeast Asia for 450
years.
 They occupied Babylon and fought with Egypt to control
Northern Syria, but neither of them obtained it so they
made a peace treaty, which said that each other would
help fight off each others invaders.
 Once the Hittites settled in Babylon that borrowed ideas
about literature, art, politics and laws but gave a little
twist to them. Their laws were very much like the
Hammurabi’s code but much more forgiving.
 They were very advanced in the technology of war, they
had chariots and iron weapons.
 They used Iron for their weapons which made them
massive conquerors because everyone else used bronze
weapons. Its not that they didn’t know about iron, it was
just that they weren’t able to make the iron into weapons.
 But in 1190 B.C. the Hittite’s Empire suddenly end
because a group of invasion tribes attacked them from
the north.
1. There were many different languages which the IndoEuropeans had, so when they settled in other places, they could
teach their neighbors different languages. They also used horses
to pull around chariots which were great for war and this was
good because they would be able to win wars and have strong
countries
2. The Hittites used Iron weapons and chariots to fight in war
which made them dominate and untouchable by any other
country, because the other countries used bronze, a weaker
metal than iron. It wasn’t that the other countries didn’t know
about iron yet, it is just that the Hittite knew how to make them
into weapons by melting it and making them into the shapes of
weapons before the dried up, which was done by the very skilled
iron workers. The other countries did not know how to do this.
Once the Hittites occupied Babylon the adapted with and
borrowed the laws and culture of the Akkadians, but gave a little
twist to it. Like their laws were very similar to Hammurabi’s Code,
but was much more forgiving than the Hammurabi’s Code, which
was very good because it helped keep order and stability in there
Empire.
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1. Because of the Nile, Egypt was very fortunate. They had great
farming opportunities, many of the Egyptians were farmers.
When it would rain or the snow from the mountains in eastcentral Africa melted it made the Nile rise which spreads over the
farmers land and then in the next season the water goes away
and leaves black mud which is great and ready for planting crops.
But if the water rises higher than needed it is bad because it
could ruin the crops and it could wash away the houses and
makes a disaster which is not good.
2.In the beginning of Egypt’s society the Egyptians copied some
of the ideas that the Mesopotamians had but that ended quickly.
The Egyptians mixed the cultures of the Nile Valley people and
the culture of the people who came from other parts of Africa and
from the Fertile crescent, which made Egypt a land of culture,
ethnic, and racial diversity.
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Geography of the Fertile Crescent
 In the middle of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers was
Mesopotamia
 Mesopotamia in Greek means “land between the rivers
 Those rivers flooded Mesopotamia once a year and when
the flooding stopped there was mud or silt left over, but
this was good for farmers because it left over rich new soil
which they could plant and havest great quantities of
barley and wheat, which allowed their villages to grow
from there surplus.
 People started to sttle in Mesopotamia in 4500 B.C but in
3500 B.C people called Sumerians settled in
Mesopotamia, we don’t know where they came from but
they were a mass population which made their language
become dominant in the region they lived in.
 Although Mesopotamia was great for farming there were
disadvantages for them
o The flooding and the rain was unpredictable, when
there was not a lot of rain the land quickly dried up
and almost became a desert
o Since Mesopotamia was a very small region the
Sumerians were almost defenseless because they
didn’t have any natural barriers for protection.
o The natural resources were very limited , like wood
stone and metal, they didn’t have a lot of that so
they couldn’t have any tools.
 Everything that the Sumerians were doing in
Mesopotamia required organization. Cooperation, and
leadership so they set up leaders so that they could plan
the projects and supervise the digging, and set up laws so
they could tell everyone how the land and water would be
distributed.
Sumerians Create City-States
Villages Grow into Cities
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Economic Changes to grow extra crops the anciant people had to build
irrigation systems like the wheal or the sail.
Social Changes It took many people to use the irrigation systems, and
there were other groups of people who did other work
which was sometimes a higher social class or a lower
social class in terms of wealth.
 There were also many religions but usually the farmers in
the new stone age believed in gods who they tought
controlled the power to make it rain or wind and many
other forces of nature.
Civilization had five chacteristics; 1. Advanced cities 2.
Specialized workers 3. Complex institutions 4. Recored keeping 5.
Advanced technology
Advanced cities The advanced cities were the centers of large trades
would take place.
Specialized workers Specialized workers were workers who had skills for one
specific job.
Complex institutions Complex institutions were like governments to keep every
thing in order.
Record Keeping Record keeping was keeping records of all the taxes who
bought what and everything that happened, so they
would have the information if they needed it from the
past
Advanced technology In the civilization people invented things to make life
easier and in 3000 B.C (bronze age) they started to make
many things with bronze instead of copper or stone
2. The Neolithic Revolution contributed to the rise of civilization
because instead of eating wild berries or any wild foods that the
gatherers found in wild forests, they could eat domesticated
berries and domesticated apples etc….What the Neolithic
Revolution did was they planted seeds in a regular campsite and
they came back the next season to find fruits that they grew
themselves. So instead of looking for food in random places that
were able to plant food and find it very easily.
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 In history most humans would just worry about surviving but a
small group of people would try to invent things and try to
modernize there culture.