Ancient+Greece

ANCIENT GREECE 1900-133 B.C. Dylan and Sadie  "Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity." -Aristotle

//A brief description of Ancient Greece// media type="custom" key="11436368" align="left"

media type="custom" key="12053223" Parthanon

Depiction of Greek Gods

** Ancient Greek alphabet **

=**__Overview__**= The Minoans, discovered by Arthur Evans and named after their legendary king, Minos, were founded on the island of Crete. This culture was famous for its metalworking, especially with bronze. Their capitol, Knossos, had a huge palace containing rooms decorated with paintings showing sporting events and nature scenes. However, this great civilization collapsed suddenly in about 1450 BC. Various historians believe that it was destroyed by a tidal wave triggered by a volcanic eruption, but most think they were invaded by the Mycenaeans.

The Mycenaeans were part of an Indo-European family of peoples that spread into Europe, India, and Iran. They entered Greece in about 1900 BC. Eventually they developed a civilization on the Greek mainland. This civilization was made of monarchies living in fortified palace centers, which were built on hills and surrounded by walls. Their artistry was shown in their wall murals, showing war and hunting scenes, and in their pottery. Mycenaean pottery was found all throughout the Mediterranean area, showing Mycenae’s commercial network, but the Mycenaeans were principally a warlike people that put much emphasis on heroic deeds during battle. They would conquer the civilizations around them, thereby spreading their influence and proving their power. Their most famous supposed military accomplishment, though, was recorded by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer’s epic poems about the defeat of Troy in around 1250 BC. About a century later, the Mycenaean civilization had collapsed from the invasion of new Greek-speaking peoples.

After the collapse of the Mycenaeans, there was a dark age from 1100 to 750 BC. Then the Greek city-state (polis) started springing up. Athens and Sparta were two of the most prominent city-states in ancient Greece. Athens became a city of learning, openness, and arts, after it went through three styles of ruling: monarchy, oligarchy, and tyranny. Cleisthenes proposed a reform that created the beginning of democracy. Sparta, on the other hand, became a city of war. Its male children were taken from their parents at the age of 7 and put in boot camp until they were 20 years old. Then they married and joined the military, living in the barracks until age 30, and retiring at 60, when they were no longer required/allowed to be in the army. The Spartan government was an oligarchy, ruled by two kings. They were assisted by the ephors, elected every year to be responsible for the education of the young and the conduct of citizens. A council of elders voted on the issues to be proposed to the assembly of citizens, who would decide whether or not to pass them. Spartans were discouraged from studying the “thinking arts” or from traveling abroad, because they might discover ideas that would damage the unity of the state. These two city-states were opposites of each other, but one culture could bring them together: the Persians.

Darius, the king of Persia, had conquered the Ionian Greek cities in Asia Minor. The Ionians appealed to the Athenian navy to help them revolt. The revolt was ultimately unsuccessful, but it angered Darius enough to make him seek revenge. He sent an army that outnumbered Athens' by 20,000 soldiers to fight the Greeks on the plain of Marathon. Amazingly, the Athenians won, and then marched back to Athens to help fight against Darius' navy. When Darius died, Xeres, his son, sent a giant invasion force to conquer Greece. On its way to Athens, it was met by 7,000 soldiers, 300 of which were Spartans, at Thermopyle. The non-Spartan soldiers eventually retreated, leaving the 300 Spartans to fight over 100,000 men. The Spartans were eventually overcome when a traitor told the Persians about a mountain trail they could use to get behind the Spartans. Later, the Athenians fought and defeated the Persian navy at Salimas, cutting off supplies, and a few months after that, the Greeks banded together to form a huge army and defeated the Persians at Plataea to end the war.


 * A map of Ancient Greece **

__**People:**__

 * 1) Alexander t he Great- He was a student of Aristotle, He inheirited control of Philip the Second's (his father's) army when he was 20 and conquered the Persian Empire and much of the area on the eastern half of the Mediterranian.
 * 2) Socrates- He was a sculptor and a philosopher. He used a method of teaching that involved giving his student the information so the student could figure things out for himself.
 * 3) Aristotle- He was a student of Plato. He was interested in classifying things based on observation and investigation. He contributed many ideas to science.
 * 4) Plato- He was one of Sorcates' students. He was considered to be the greatest philosopher in Western civilization. He was facinated with how we could tell something was real.
 * 5) Xerxes- The Persian monarch after Darius. He invaded Greece and caused the Battle of Thermopylae. He was eventually defeated at Plataea by the Greek army after he was outmaneuvered by an outnumbered Greek navy.


 * The theater at Delphi**

**__Terms:__**

 * 1) Epic Poem- A long poem that tells the deeds of a great hero.
 * 2) Arete- Excellence or respect won in a struggle or contest.
 * 3) Phalanx- A rectangle formation used by hoplites (Greek foot soldiers) in battle.
 * 4) Ostracism- A practice in which assembly members could vote on who they thought was most harmful to their city. Any person who got 6000 or more votes was exiled for 10 years.
 * 5) Hellenistic- Derived from a word meaning "to imitate Greeks"

media type="custom" key="12053685"
__** For More Information About: **__ [|Spartans] [|The Persian Wars] [|Athens] [|The Geography of Ancient Greece] [|Greek Mythology]