The Glory That Was Greece
Resources for further research:
1. http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Main_Page/
2. http://history-world.org/ancient_greece.htm
3. http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/
4. http://greece.mrdonn.org/
5. http://www.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/Greece.html
6. http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/
Time Periods
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Minoan
Mycenaean
Dark Ages
Archaic
Classical
Hellenistic
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
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
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
Mycenaean and Minoan Civilization
Greece and the Greek Colonies
Forces Uniting the Greeks
Ancestry
Language
Religion
Literature
Olympic
Games
Forces Uniting the Greeks
Ancestry
• Believed in a
common
ancestor –
Hellen
Language
• Spoke different
Greek dialects
but could
understand
one another
• Used
Phoenician
alphabet and
added vowels
Literature
• Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey
• Mythological
tales
Greek Language and Alphabet
Forces Uniting the Greeks
Religion
• Greek pantheon of gods
and goddesses living on
Mount Olympus
• Zeus, Athena, Hades, etc.
Olympic Games
• Every four years
• This four-year period was
called the Olympiad
• Began in 776 BCE
• Physical games – boxing,
broad jumps, chariot racing,
dashes, discus throwing,
distance running, javelin
throwing
• Intellectual games – art,
drama, music, poetry
Greek Religion
Olympic Games
Forces Disuniting the Greeks
First Loyalty Was
to City-State
• Often fought
one another
• This disunity
eventually
allowed the
Macedonians
to conquer
Greece
Geography
• Mountains
divided citystates and
hindered
communication
Different Types
of Government
• Athens –
democracy
• Sparta –
authoritarian
and militaristic
nature
• Also
aristocracies,
oligarchies, and
tyrannies
The Age of Homer
• Circa 1000 B.C.E.-circa 750
B.C.E.
• Greece’s “Dark Ages” –
little information known
• Iliad and Odyssey
• People – farmers, traders,
and warriors
• Crops and livestock –
cattle, grapes, olives,
sheep, wheat
Homer
Legends of the Trojan War
• Greeks at Ionia preserved many stories about
the Mycenaeans.
• Most famous legend was the Trojan War
• Legends of the Trojan War were kept alive by
Homer, a blind poet who lived in Ionia around
750 B.C.
• He traveled from town to town, singing
ancient stories
Trojan War cast of characters
• GREEKS
– Achilles, known as strongest &
bravest
– Odysseus
– Telemachus (Odysseus’ son)
– Greater Ajax
– Lesser Ajax
– Agamemnon, king of
Mycenae, had most powerful
kingdom in Greece
– Menelaus, king of Sparta,
husband of Helen, brother of
Agamemnon (usually has red
hair)
• TROJANS (FROM TROY)
– Hector, Troy’s greatest warrior
– Paris (Hector’s brother)
– Priam , king of Troy, Hector
and Paris’s father
Trojan War
Trojan War
• War starts with Aprodite, Hera, and Athena fighting
because Eris, the goddess of discord) gave them an
apple labeled “for the fairest”
• A Trojan prince named Paris decides that Aprodite
wins
• Aprodite in turn makes Queen Helen fall in love
with him
• Paris kidnaps Helen from her husband (Menelaus)
• Agamemnon, Menelaus’s brother, led a 10 year
war against Troy
Trojan War
• Greeks Achilles and Ajax die= considered best
Greek fighters
• Trojans Hector (Trojan prince, son of King
Priam, honorable warrior) and Paris die
• Troy falls to concept of the Trojan Horse. The
Greeks construct a huge wooden horse and
hide their men inside
Spartan shield
Trojan shield
Trojan Horse victory by the Greeks
• The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the
Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a
victory trophy. That night the Greek force
crept out of the horse and opened the gates
for the rest of the Greek army, which had
sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks
entered and destroyed the city of Troy,
decisively ending the war.
Trojan Horse
• “Trojan Horse" has come to mean any trick
that causes a target to invite an enemy into a
securely protected bastion or space.
King Agamemnon, king of wealthy
Mycenae
Achilles and Hector
Achilles’ heel
Trojan Horse
Persian Empire
• Founder= Cyrus the Great, very tolerant
• Persians were Ayrans, like the people who
migrated to India
• Now this region is called Iran, which comes from
word Ayran
• Cyrus’ last conquest was Babylonians, treated the
conquered well, allowed Jews to returned to
homeland and gave Jews money to rebuild
temple, which Babylonians had destroyed
• Much info. comes from writing of 1st Greek
historian Herodotus
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus and clemency (merciful)
More a liberator than conquerer; Mentioned in the Old Testament 22 times;
Freed Jews from Bablylon and allowed them to return to homeland; helped pay for
rebuilding of Temple of Jerusalem when destroyed (1st time)
1st Greco-Persian Battle
• Starts with Cyrus conquering Ionia
• Ionians used to being ruled by tyrants, not a
merciful Cyrus
• Set up tyrants in area but wasn’t working
• Ionian Revolt
• Hoplite warfare
• Battle of Marathon
First Persian War
• Cyrus the Great had conquered Greek citystates of Ionia
• Ionians hated Persian rule and Persian taxes
• 499 B.C. they asked Athens for help
• Athens burned Persian city of Sardis
• Persian troops recaptured Ionian leaders and
Darius was angry
• Revenge was to conquer all of Greece
Battle of Marathon
• 490 B.C. 20,000 Persian soldiers set sail for Greece
• Land near Marathon, 26 miles from Athens
• Small force of 10,000 Athenian infantry- no archers, no cavalry,
outnumbered 2 to 1.
• Athenians vote to attack, & next day at dawn, Greek phalanxes
attack on all sides- Persians retreat
• As Greeks closed in, Persians fled to their ships
• Fastest runner, Pheidippides, had just returned from carrying a
message to distant Sparta. Although exhausted, he set out for
Athens
• On reaching the city, he gasped, “Rejoice! We have won.” and then
he collapsed and died
• To honor battle and Pheidippides marathon runners cover the same
distance of about 26 miles Pheidippides ran nearly 2,600 years ago
Results of 1st Persian War
• was a watershed in the Greco-Persian wars,
showing the Greeks that the Persians could be
beaten
• highlighted superiority of Greek hoplites
• famous for the inspiration of the Marathon race
Darius the Great
tribute, roads, common currency,
Persepolis, local govt.
Persepolis
Daric
Royal Road
satrap
Darius
• Conquered people had local self govt. but had to send
tribute to the Persian emperor
• Each province would pay only what produced- much more
fair tax code
• With the money, Darius built Persepolis
• Darius created a common currency so gold coins could be
accepted across empire from Ionia (Greece) to India and
Babylonia
• Used wealth to build roads- the Royal Road stretched from
Sardis in Lydia to Susa in Babylonia
• According to Herodotus, it took 3 months to carry a
message from one city to the other. Postal stations were
located a day’s ride apart along the way to get new
messengers and fresh horses.
Persian Empire
• Darius the Great- under his rule, Persia became a
HUGE multicultural empire
• One approach, could follow example of China’s
first emperor Shi Huangdi, by imposing uniform
laws and standards
• Persians created politics where there was local
self-government
• Darius divided empire into satrapies, with laws
made by locals
• Darius also sent each satrap (local official) a
secretary who was the king’s spy and reported
directly to Darius
Persian defeat- Darius more
determined
• But before he could launch another attack, he
dies
• Son Xerxes wants to now punish Greeks
• Herodotus describes the huge invasion forces
Xerxes assembles, and decides to not take
huge army in ships by land
• Creates a floating bridge and leads about
100,000 men into Greece to start Second
Persian War
2nd Greco-Persian Battle
• Xerxes (Darius’s son) is Persian leader
• 3 Major Battles:
– Thermopylae (300, Leonidas, enduring strength of
Spartans)
– Salamis (naval battle)
– Plataea and Mycale (terrestrial battle, showed
military prowess of hoplite soldiers)
Xerxes versus Spartans in
Thermopylae- 300
• Many Greeks thought Persians were unstoppable
• King Leonidas, ledge a small Spartan force to stop
Persians at a narrow mountain pass called
Thermopylae
• Spartans held off the invaders, then a traitor
showed the Persians another path through mts.
• 300 Spartans chose death defeat
• Herodotus wrote that when their weapons were
gone, they fought on “with their hands and teeth”
until every man was killed
• (like Masada by Israelites instead of being
defeated by Romans)
Wooden Walls of Athens- Battle of
Salamis about to occur
• Terrified Athenians consulted the Oracle at Delphi
• It said that “wooden walls” could save the
Athenians
• Many Athenians thought that meant city walls
• Themistocles believed that the wooden walls
meant ships
• When Persians reached Athens, they found the
harbor empty
• Athenians had fled by ship to nearby islands
• Persians burn down Athens, including temples on
the Acropolis
Battle of Salamis- by sea
Battle of Salamis
• Xerxes had throne set on a hill near Athens; Xerxes very
confident and ready to watch his fleet destroy the
Greek navy
• He has 1,200 warships, and Greeks 380 ships
• Themistocles had set a trap
• Keep his fleet hidden while Persian ships filled narrow
strait
• Then Greeks attacked and rammed the crowded Persian
ships
• Soon strait was crowded with broken ships and
impossible for Persians to escape
• Instead of losing rest of his fleet, Xerxes sails for home
“Golden Age” for Athens
• Athenians celebrate their victory by
introducing a “golden age” of art and learning
• Pericles leads the way with a program for
rebuilding the city
• Athenians create marvels of art and
architecture, including the Parthenon
• Athens enjoys a golden age of philosophy,
science, and literature.
Timeline
http://www.holoka.com/pdffiles/hist_323_lect.pdf