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  • Early Greek History
  • 2000 – 750 B.C.
  • Geography of Greece
  • Mountains

–      Small plains and river valleys

–      Mountains isolate Greek communities

  • Sea

–      Long sea coast with many bays and inlets

–      Islands of the Aegean Sea

–      Became great seafarers

  • Polis (city-state)
  • Polis = city + surrounding countryside

–      Center of political, social, and religious life

  • Acropolis – fortified part of a city, usually on a hill
  • Agora – below acropolis, open area for market and/or assemblies
  • Polis was made of people with a similar background and similar goals
  • Adult men had political rights, women and children were citizens without political rights, and slaves were noncitizens
  • Daily Life in Classical Athens
  • Male dominated (only 15% of population)
  • Slavery common, most families owned at least one
  • Economy based on farming and trade

–      Grains, fruits, grapes (wine), olives (oil)

–      Had to import most of their food

–      Port of Piraeus and the Long Walls

  • Daily Life (Continued)
  • Crafts

–      Pottery

–      Factories for weapons

  • Family

–      Nuclear family

–      Function to produce more citizens

  • Women

–      Took part in religious festivals, but kept out of other public life

–      Controlled by men, could not own property

–      Married at 14 or 15

–      Take care of family and house, not educated

  • Philosophy
  • Early philosophy focused on understanding the universe
  • Sophists – taught individuals to improve themselves (rhetoric)
  • Socrates

–      Socratic method – question and answers

–      Sentenced to death for teaching youth to think for themselves

  • Plato (student of Socrates)

–      Looked for the ideal form

–      The Republic

  • Aristotle (student of Plato)

–      Politics

  • Historians
  • Herodotus

–      History of the Persian War

–      First ever recorded history

–      Focused on divine forces

  • Thucydides

–      Considered greatest classical historian

–      History of the Peloponnesian War

  • Alexander the Great and the spread of Hellenistic Culture
  • 360 – 300 B.C.
  • King Philip II’s Macedonian Empire
  • Greece city-states weak after the Peloponnesian Wars
  • 359 B.C. – Philip took over as king of Macedonia

–      Skilled military leader (16 x 16 phalanx)

  • 338 B.C. – Macedonia takes over the Greek city-states

–      City-states retain local control, but under the control of a foreign power

–      Plan was to attack the Persian Empire

  • 336 B.C. – Philip murdered by his former guard

–      Philip’s son Alexander takes over as king

  • Alexander the Great
  • Childhood

–      Tutored by Aristotle (science, geography, & literature)

–      Idealized heroes of Homer’s the Iliad

  • Theban revolt

–      Destroyed the city, killed 6,000, and sold the rest into slavery

–      No other Greek cities revolt under Alexander

  • Invasion of Persia

–      Crossing the Hellespont

–      Victory at Granicus

–      Defeat of Darius III gave control of Anatolia (Asia Minor)

  • Legacy of Alexander the Great
  • Alexander’s empire divided up

–      Greece (ruled by Antigonus)

–      Egypt (ruled by Ptolemy)

–      Persia (ruled by Seleucus)

  • Alexander adopted Persian culture (dress, married a Persian woman)
  • After Alexander = mixture of Greek and Eastern culture = Hellenistic
  • Hellenistic Culture
  • Hellenistic = mixture of Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian cultures
  • Alexandria

–      Center of trade

–      The Library of Alexandria

  • Science and Technology

–      Astronomy (Eratosthenes)

–      Math (Euclid = geometry)

–      Science (Archimedes = pi)

  • Hellenistic Culture (cont.)
  • Philosophy and Art

–      Zeno = Stoicism = live a virtuous life and reject desires and wealth

–      Epicurus = Epicureanism = moderation of all things

–      Realism in Sculpture

  • Colossus of Rhodes
  • Nike of Samothrace
  • ~150 B.C. Hellenistic culture fades and is replaced by a new powerful neighbor (Rome)