Ancient Greece
 Greece
lies on a peninsula that reaches out
into the Mediterranean Sea east of Italy.
 Greece
is very mountainous. Therefore,
farming is difficult. From the very beginning,
Greeks have made a living from the sea.
 Ancient
Greece was home to many
adventurous warriors, philosophers, poets,
architects, and sculptors.
Homer
Plato
 Ancient
Greece is called the “Cradle of
Western Civilization.”
 This means that the Greek were the first
people to ask questions like, “how do we
know the truth? How do we know what is
right or wrong? What is the best way to
govern society?
 The
Greeks treasured their historic myths.
 Homer wrote two of the greatest Greek
poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. They tell
the story of the Trojan War.
 For
many centuries, Greece was divided into
city-states.
 Two primary city-states were Athens and
Sparta.
 Both Athens and Sparta had very different
and opposing ways of living the Greek life.
 Known
as a land of military sacrifice and
discipline.
 All life in Sparta was directed to making
strong warriors.
 Its citizens were soldiers, first and foremost,
and its armies were the best trained in
Greece.
 At the age of 7, children left their homes to
train in the ways of war.
 The
form of government Sparta had is called
an oligarchy.
 Oligarchy – political rule by a small group.
 Sparta had originally been formed from 2
cities each with its own king.
 When these 2 cities united both kings were
kept and became generals of the army.
 Sparta thought of themselves as a monarchy
(governed by a king or queen) because they
had kings.
 Athens
developed into
a democracy.
 Democracy – political rule by all of the
people governed.
 Every citizen had the right to vote for or
against laws.
 Ordinary citizens were able to serve as
judges or magistrate.
 Magistrate – an officer of the government
who has the power to enforce laws.
 In
order to be good citizens, boys were
taught to read, write, do math, and speak
persuasively.
 They studied military history so that they
could one day serve as army officers.
 At
this time, 500BC, the Persian Empire was
the greatest power.
 Athens
assisted the city of Sardis in revolting
against Persia and its King Darius. Sardis was
a city controlled by Persia.
 King Darius vowed revenge on the Athenians
for helping.
 Battle
of Marathon – Outnumbered Athens
defeats the Persian army without any help
from any other Greeks.
 The Brave 300 – Sparta’s king, Leonidas and
his army of 300 held back the Persians and
King Xerxes. Their defeat was not a failure
because they had help the Persians back
allowing other Greek cities to organize their
armies.
 Invasion of Peloponnesus – Themistocles and
his Greek ships defeat the Persians by
ramming the Persian ships and then boarding
for hand-to-hand attack.
 Athens
and its allies formed the Delian
league after the defeat of Persia to defend
Greece.
 In 461BC, Pericles became the chief political
leader making him the most powerful man in
Athens for 33 years.
 Under Pericles, many great buildings were
built.
 Parthenon
– a temple built for the goddess
Athena.
 Phidias, the sculptor who was in charge of
building the Parthenon made a statue of Zeus
at Olympia. This statue was so great that it is
considered one of the seven wonders of the
world.
 Athens
and Sparta go to war. Athens sought
to rule all of Greece.
 By 413BC Athens fell to Sparta and the
Athenian empire ended.
 Socrates,
a Greek philosopher, believed that
the purpose of men was to understand what
is right and good, and then to do it.
 He was condemned to death from false
charges of corrupting youth.
 His student, Plato, carried on Socrates’
influence.
 Aristotle also studied with Plato. He is
considered the father of modern science.
 The
Father of Medicine – the first great
doctor in history was Hippocrates.
 He was believed to be descended from
Aclepius, the god of healing.
 He discovered that each part of the body had
a special function or task to perform.
 He founded a guild of physicians where
members had to swear an oath to heal, do no
harm, and not to reveal patients’ secrets.
This is called the Hippocratic Oath that all
physicians took until the end of the 20th
century.
 Democratic
government – the idea of
government by the people, trial by jury, and
equality were introduced in 500BC.
 Modern science – They introduced principles
of medicine, physics, biology, and math.
 Greek art and architecture – many modern
building designs reflect Greek styles.
 Drama – Aristotle created the rules for
drama. Movie scriptwriters still use his ideas.
 Alexander
the Great helped spread the ideas
of the Greeks. He was king of Macedonia in
northern Greece and wanted his kingdom to
be large.
 He conquered an area as large as the U.S. in
10 years.
 In his new lands he established Greek cities,
Greek language, and Greek ideas.