Monday-
Ancient Greece (continued)
- Phalanx Military Formation
- Spartans used this
- Used shields, had to stay in formation
- Persian Wars (Greco-Persian) 499-449 BC
- Fought between the Persian Empire and Greek City-states (Athens, Sparta, Thebes, etc.)
- Problems started when Persian leader Cyrus the Great took over Ionia in Greece in 546 BC
- Ionian Revolt 499-493 BC
- The Ionians (Greeks) led a revolt against the Persians after Cyrus the Great Died
- The Ionian Revolt was led by Athenian General Miltiades
- Ionia asked Athens to help them which they did
- Darius quickly suppresses the Ionian Revolt but is very angry at the Greeks
- Darius the Great vowed to burn Athens to the ground before he died
- Miltiades Escapes
- Miltiades escapes back to Athens and tells the Athenians that the Persians are coming to burn Athens
- This sets up the beginning of the Great Persian War
- Ancient Greece vs. Civilization of Persia
- Persia was the largest empire in the world at the time and consisted of millions of people
- Ancient Greece was about 500,00 total people
- It was truly a David vs. Goliath battle
- Athens and Sparta United
- Athens and Sparta had been fighting for hundreds of years
- They now fought not for Athens or for Sparta but for Greece
- Battle of Marathon- 490 BC
- 25,000 Persians
- 10,000 Athenians
- Athenians won due to the Phalanx Formation, better armor, and better tactics
- The Persians were lightly armored and not prepared
- Pheidippides
- After the battle ended, he ran from Marathon to Athens to tell the Athenians of the victory over Persia
- It was 26 miles from Marathon to Athens
- Battle of Thermopylae- 480 BC
- Ten years after the Battle of Marathon, Persia once again invaded Greece
- Darius the Great's son, Xerxes, made it a goal to destroy Athens
- The Persians won the Battle of Thermopylae but not before the Spartan soldiers held out for days allowing many Greek troops to retreat
- The movie "300" is based on this battle (called "300" because there were 300 Spartan soldiers)
- Even though the 300 Spartan soldiers died, Greece used this as a battle cry to get into the war
- Battle of Salamis
- At the naval Battle of Salamis, the Greeks destroyed the Persian navy
- The Persians were never the same after that and were eventually driven out of Greece
- After the Persian Wars, the Delian League was established, setting up an alliance between the Greek city-states
- Starting around 470 BC, Greece, and Athens specifically, entered a golden age
Tuesday-
Ancient Greece (continued)
- The Golden Age of Athens
- 477-431 BC
- Came about after Greece defeated the Persians
- Drama, sculpture, poetry, philosophy, architecture, and science flourished
- Also known as the "Age of Pericles"
- Pericles led Athens in the Peloponnesian War
- Pericles' Plans for Athens (461-429 BC)
- Three goals for Athens
- 1. Strengthen Athenian democracy
- Increased the number of paid government jobs which benefited people who were not wealthy
- Instituted direct democracy (citizens rule directly and not through elected representatives)
- 2. Hold and strengthen empire
- Helped establish and eventually led the Delian League after the Persian Wars (Delian League is an alliance of Greek city-states)
- Grew Athens navy
- Started dominating other city-states, which led to conflicts
- 3. Glorify Athens
- Used money from the Delian League to buy gold, marble, and ivory
- Used money from the Delian League to hire artists, architects, and workers to build buildings and sculptures
- Phidias was hired to build the Parthenon (also created a sculpture of Athena and Zeus)
- Greek sculptors focused on beauty, not realism
- Classical art focused on simplicity and being well proportioned
- 1. Strengthen Athenian democracy
- Three goals for Athens
- Greek Drama- Tragedy and Comedy
- A tragedy was a serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, or betrayal
- The hero usually was an important person and often gifted with extraordinary abilities
- A tragic flaw usually caused the hero's downfall, usually excessive pride
- Sophocles wrote Oedipus the King, a famous tragedy
- A comedy contained scenes filled with humor
- Playwrights often made fun of politics and respected people and ideas of the time
- Aristophanes was a famous writer of comedies
- The fact that Athenians could listen to criticism of themselves showed the freedom that existed in democratic Athens
- A tragedy was a serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, or betrayal
- The Start of the Greatest Subject in Recorded History
- History
- Herodotus pioneered the accurate reporting and documentation of events
- Thucydides believed that certain types of events and political situations recur over time, documented the Peloponnesian War
- Studying those events and situations would aid in understanding the present
- The approaches Thucydides used in his work stills guides historians today
- Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC)
- Fought between Athens and Sparta
- Athens= Delian League
- Sparta= Peloponnesian League
- Came about as a result of Sparta not liking Athens growth of wealth and power in the area
- Athens was acting like a bully
- Sparta had a better army, Athens had a better navy
- Had one war, then a 30 year peace, then a second war
- With the help of a plague that hit Athens, Sparta eventually won
- Pericles' Plan To Win
- Pericles was the Athenian general
- Decided to build a wall from Athens to the sea
- That way, Athens would never have to go on the ground to go head-to-head with the massive Spartan army
- Athens had access to the sea to get resources, but they were contained in a very small area
- This brought about disease and 30,000 Athenians died, Pericles was one of them
- King Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BC)
- Goal was to take over all of Greece and then to get revenge by taking over the Persian Empire
- Became King of Macedon in 359 BC
- Alexander the Great's father
- Macedonians
- Lived in mountainous villages, not city-states
- Macedonians considered themselves to be Greek but were looked down upon by the big city-states
- Philip II built up his military and eventually invaded and defeated the Greek city-states
- Used the phalanx and cavalry to great effect
- Were barbaric and not well educated
- Alexander the III of Macedon (356-323 BC), "Alexander the Great"
- Took over for his father, Philip in 336 BC
- Philip was assassinated at his daughter's wedding by a former bodyguard (Pausanias)
- Ruled Greece and it's empire for only 13 years (336-323 BC)
- Due to his great accomplishments, became known as Alexander the Great
- Was taught by Aristotle
- Died from high fever- possibly from typhoid fever or malaria
- After taking power, Alexander eliminated his opponents to the throne and then moved to consolidate Greece
- Alexander then turned east to take over the Persian Empire and achieve the goal of his father
- After losing some battles, Darius III retreated quickly and offered Alexander all lands west of the Euphrates River
- Alexander the Great refused Darius III's offer and announced he would take the entire Persian Empire
- In 332 BC, Alexander the Great moved into Egypt and "liberated" Egypt from the Persians
- The Egyptians crowned Alexander pharaoh
- Founded the Egyptian city of Alexandria
- After conquering Egypt, Alexander moved into Mesopotamia and finished the job of defeating Darius III and the Persians
- The capital city of the Persian Empire, Persepolis (in Iran), was burned by Alexander as possible revenge for the Persians burning Athens
- Alexander would continue east into India where he eventually ran into a strong Indian army
- His troops were tired from fighting for 11 years and traveling more than 11,000 miles
- Even after defeating the Indian army in a battle, the monsoons of India were having an impact and Alexander agreed to turn back west
- Alexander would died from disease not long after
Wednesday- video on Alexander the Great
Thursday-
Ancient Greece (continued)
- Rise of the Philosophers
- A philosopher is someone who tries to explain the nature of life
- After losing to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, people in Athens turned to philosophers for answers
- Socrates
- 470-399 BC
- Socrates was a philosopher of Ancient Greece
- Socrates taught by asking questions
- This method of questioning is still called the Socratic Method
- He was put on trial and found guilty for "corrupting the youth of Athens"
- Put to death by drinking hemlock (poison)
- "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance"
- Plato
- 427-347 BC
- Plato was a student of Socrates
- He started a school called The Academy that lasted 900 years
- Wrote The Republic
- The book talked about a perfectly governed society- not a democracy
- In his ideal society, all citizens would fall naturally into three groups: farmers and artisans, warriors, and the ruling class
- The person with the greatest intellect from the ruling class would be chosen king
- Wrote about Atlantis
- Aristotle
- 384-322 BC
- Aristotle was a student of Plato
- He wrote about science, art, law, poetry, government, etc.
- Taught Alexander the Great
- "He who studies how things originated will achieve the clearest view of them"
- Alexander the Great's Legacy
- Greek Empire split into three sections
- Greek city-states were led by Antigonus
- Egypt was led by Ptolemy
- Former Persian Empire was ruled by Seleucus
- Leaders all ruled with absolute power
- Cultural diffusion between east and west
- Greek Empire split into three sections
Friday-
Ancient Greece (continued)
- The Spread of Hellenistic Culture
- Hellenistic culture became common all throughout the Greek Empire
- The cultural diffusion of Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian cultures mixed
- Language- Koine
- Trade
- Cities
- Science and technology
- Philosophy, art, and architecture
- Astronomy
- Mathematics
- Euclid establish geometry
- Archimedes estimated the value of pi and the law of the lever
- Hellenistic culture became common all throughout the Greek Empire
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