Monday, September 17

Athens

Architecture-

The Acropoliswas the main group of buildings
- A sacred area that is one of the most recognizable in the world
- Took 9 years to build, finished in 438 BC
- Cost the equivalent of $3 billion today
- The Parathenon and other buildings on the acropolis were all built between 460 and 430 BC under the leadership of Pericles
- Used for political purposes
- One of the biggest construction projects of the ancient world
- The Porch of Carytids
  - Six columns holding up the roof
  - Each female figure was sculpted differently but still looked real
  - Started in 421 BC and was completed in 406 BC
  - Cost equivalent of $130 million today
  - Greek Art
    - The most devine and complex sculptures of this time are the sculptures of the Athenian Acropolis
      - Earliest of these are the Parathanon sculptures
Purpose of Buildings
- To show cultural and political achievements of Athens
- Others were used to honor gods and goddesses
- Some were used for political gatherings
- Athens had walls that would surround the city for protection
- Buildings for praise and worship, buy and sell items, drama, education, and law making
- Parathenon was built for the worship of Athena and celebreate the ending of Athen’s war with Persia
- Agora
  - Townspeople would come to buy and sell food and house items
  - The Theater of Dionysus
    - Meant for dramatic plays
    - Important for social life
    - Most plays were pure comedy
    - Gymnasium
      - Children would go to get educated
      - At age 6 or 7, left homes to go to school, boys and girls were separate, was expensive for the parents
    - Pnyx
      - Athenians would go to this building to gather around and decide as the laws and rules of the town
Key Players
- Pericles’ plan for Athens was to get the greatest Greece architects
- Socrates
  - Lived from 470 to 399 BC
  - Son of a sculptor
  - Short and stout and not very handsome
  - Attracted to a young boy soldier
  - Plato
    - Lived from 437 to 347 BC
    - Student prized student
    - Aristocles real name
    - Pirates captured him and then gave him back
    - Aristotle
      - 384 to 322 BC
      - Born in Stagira
      - Scientist and philosopher and loved nature

Military and Delian League

Phalanx-
- Used in battle of Marathon around 500 BC
- On major downside is its use against cavalry
- Horses could quickly ride around and attack the weak side
- Used mountains and natural habitat to protect
- Naval Warfare
  - Athens used naval warfare during the Peloponnesion War
  - Shipped grain and food into the city
  - Fought by ramming and boarding
  - Called trireme
  - Key Players
    - Pericles
      - 461-429 BC
      - Politician, democrat, general
      - Led victories in the Peloponnesian and Persian wars
Socrates
- Philosopher
- Scrutinized Athens, praised Sparta, (not well liked)
Plato
- Student of Socrates wrote the dialogues of Socrats
Aristotle
- Student of Plato
- Teacher to Alexander the Great
Archemides
- Well known mathematician
- First to calculate Pi
Pythagoras
- Developed the Pythagorean theorem
- Delian League
  - Coalition of Greek states and Athenians
  - Founded in 478 BC
  - Under the control of Athens, HQ was in Delos
  - Goals:
    - Free Ionian Greeks from Persia
    - Protect Aegean Sea
    - Use sea power
    - Athens was the leader
    - Persia was run out of the Aegean Sea
    - Famous Battles
      - Persian War
        Marathon,
        25000 Persians met 10000 Athenians
        Persians fled and lost 6000, Athens lost very few
    - Thermopylae
      - 7000 Greeks and 300 Spartans
      - Stood up to Persia for a very long time
      - Persians found a way around the mountain, all 300 Spartans died
    - Salamis
      - Greeks Abandoned Athens
      - Fought with their naval forces
      - Destroyed most of the Persian fleet
      - Formed the Delian League to protect Greece
Peloponnesian War-431-404 BC
- Battle of Pylos
  - 425 BC
  - Athenian naval forces were out attacking Zacynthus
  - Spartan troops decided to attack walled city called Pylos
  - 2000 Spartan troops
  - Failed to capture Pylos before the Athenian naval fleet could return
  - Tried to block harbor but Athenian naval fleet destroyed them
  - Weaponry and Armor
    - Swords, iron knives, arrowheads, sling bullets-steel and clay, shields-bronze, archery, spears
    - Who participated?
      - Male, 18 or older, own land, have mandatory 2 years military training
      - Old way – rich, had to buy own weapons, resulted in small armies
      - Different kind of soldiers
        18-60 all physically fit men went to the military
        Called hoplites (heavily armored)
        Young ephebes (adolescent males)
        Hoplite attendants: light armored men usually poor citizens or trusted slaves
        Petlasts-older soldiers
        If only needed a small force they would take the people 20-24 years old
        If a crisis, would call everyone even elderly
        Hoplite attendants carried the hoplites shields and other supplies of theirs until they fought

Geography

Sea
- Borders the Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea and the East Mediterranean Sea
- Served many purposes, thought it was a beautiful element
- Land
  - The longest river is the Aliakmon
  - Riverbeds tend to dry up
  - Grew barley-less demanding and more productive
  - Olive plantations, grapes were very popular because of rocky soil
  - Goats and sheep were the most common
    - Provided fur, mild, and meat
Chicken and geese were raised and eaten
Oxen were on the land but rare
Donkeys and mules used for travel
Climate
- Mild, rainy winters
- Relatively warm and dry summers
- Lots of sunshine all through the year
- The mountains adjust the climate changes
- Winters in the mountains can be rigorous and snowy
- Trade and Colonization
  - Important role as the furthest outposts of the greek culture
  - Bronze, silver and gold vessels, olive oil, wine, and textiles
  - Luxury items and exotic raw materials
  - Mediterranean basin enabled for trade and travel to Greece
  - Farming
    - Little soil and farmland
    - 20% of land
    - Grain crops were planted in October and harvested in April and May
    - Barley-main cereal crop
    - Small farming villages were set up by people who came from the north
    - Average size was 5 acres
    - Greek Agriculture
      - Diet based on cereals
      - Home to many olive trees
        20 years to provide fruit
Augmented by vegetable gardens and orchards
Mining
- Lavrion mines
  - Means narrow passage or tunnel
  - Silver production was so high
Natural Resources
- Iron, bronze, flax, clay, timber, grain, animals
- How land affected battles
  - Battle of Thermopylae
    - Narrow coastal pass
The Battle of Salamis
- Took place on Salamis island
- Fought with ships
- Held off will with the help of the gulf
Peloponnesian War
- Athens vs. Peloponnesian league
- Bordering Aegean sea,

Jobs
- Farmers-grew enough for family and sold little surplus to markets
- Blacksmiths-used iron and ore to create swords plows, axes, and other tools
- Craftsman-most shops in Greece were family owned and small, specialized in their work depending on the size of the community
- Doctors and Medicine-limited in its ability to cure disease, combined religion and science, induced vomiting and sweating to bring everything back into balance
- Merchants-traders in Greece, owned or rented cargo space on their boats
- Bankers-vital role, changed money into local currency, often loaned money for trading voyages, rates varied based on risks

Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates

Aristotle
- Greek philosopher, “the best purpose”
- Very important founding person in Western Philosophy
- Wrote about physics, poetry, theatre, music, logic, politics, biology, etc.
- 384 BC-322 BC
- Married Pythias and had a daughter whom they named after her
- First trained in medicine
- Went to Plato’s Academy, studied philosophy with Plato, stayed for 20 years then left
- Brought up and trained and educated to be a member of the government, Aristocracy
- Taught Alexander the Great
- “Granddaddy of the scientific method”
- Advanced physics and astronomy
- Plato
  - 428 BC-347 BC
  - Originally Aristocles meaning “best” and “renowned”
  - Traced ancestry to early king of Athens, Codrus
  - Father died when young, mom remarried
  - Outstanding as a youth in sports, music, academics
  - Studied music and poetry at the gymnasium owned by Donysios
  - Student of Socrates at age twenty in 407 BC
  - Adopted style to philosophy and debate
  - Believed that justice is the most important virtue
  - Many myths on how he died
  - Thought most people were stupid
  - Philosophy, mathematics, and science
  - Socrates
    - Classical Greek Athenian philosopher
    - Known for his contribution to ethics, founder of Western Philosophy
    - 469 BC-399 BC
    - Attended school of Athens
    - Military at age 18, hoplite soldier in Peloponnesian War against Sparta
    - Grew up in poverty
    - Two works of sculpture
    - Spent time in market and gymnasium to converse with men of intellect
    - People liked his wit and humor
    - Served on legislative council of 500
    - Accused of atheist and corrupting the youth of Athens, accepted death penalty, drank hemlock and died
    - Obsessed over the truth and how to find it
    - Endless questioning, but never lectured students
    - Didn’t charge for schooling

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