Thursday, September 6

Classical Greece

9/3/2012

Geography

Sea
- Allowed for great opportunities for trade and travel
- Important because it allowed Greece to get the natural resources that it lacked: timber, precious metals, usable farm land
- Land
  - Rugged mountains covered about ¾ of ancient Greece
  - Mountains were often the divider for different regions
  - Played a big role in wars. Hard to move through the mountains with large armies.
  - Climate
    - Upper 40’s in winter
    - Lower 80’s in summer
    - Climate allowed for many different outdoor activities
    - The Three Big Players in Classical Greece
      - Minoan Influence
        Created an elegant civilization that had great power that started around 3000 B.C.
        Minoans culture influenced the Mycenaeans
        Writing language
        Design
        Trade
        Used ships to trade goods
Mycenaean Develops
- The Mycenaeans were heavily influenced by the Minoans
- They came from the Indo-Europeans migrants
- Dominated Greece from 1600 B.C to 1100 B.C.
Dorian
- Spoke a kind of Greek
- Not as advanced as the others, no writing system
- Focused more on story telling
- Best known story teller is Homer
- Trojan War
  - Key Players: Both Individual & Group
  - What Occurred?
  - Lasting Effects?

9/5/2012

Dorian Period

During the Dorian Period…
- Dorian and the Mycenaean people started to identify less with the culture of their ancestors and more with the local area
- Gov. made the transition from tribal or clan control to more formal gov’ts called city-states
- Government
  - A polis was made up of a city and its surrounding countryside, which would include numerous villages
  - Citizens of the polis would come together to meet at an acropolis to discuss their city government
  - Not all city-states had the same form of government
  - Different forms of Government
    - Monarchy
      - State is ruled by a king
      - Rule is hereditary
      - Some rulers claim that they have a divine right (religious, god-appointed) to rule
      - Practiced in Mycenaean by 2000 B.C.
Aristocracy
- State ruled by nobility
- Rule is hereditary and based on ties, social rank, wealth
- Social status and wealth support rulers’ authority
- Practiced in Athens prior to 594 BC
Oligarchy
- State ruled by a small group of citizens.
- Rule is based on wealth and/or ability
- Ruling group controls the military
- Practiced in Sparta by 500 BC
Direct Democracy
- State ruled by the citizens
- Rule is based on citizenship
- Majority rule decides vote
- Practiced in Athens by 500 BC
- Athens
  - About 600 BC, Athens was taking steps towards a democracy
  - There were major reform for the next 100 years that would eventually lead to a democracy starting around 500 BC
  - Key Players
    - Draco
      - Developed a legal code based on the idea that all Athenians, rich and poor, were equal under law
      - He had very harsh punishment for nearly any crime
      - He believed in debt slavery
      - The word “draconian” has come to mean “extreme cruelty or severity”
      - Solon
        Stated that no citizens should own another
        Organized Athens into four social classes based on wealth
        Only the top three classes could hold political office
        All four could participate in the Athenian assembly (meet and discuss the laws and the direction of the city-state)
      - Clesithenes
        Broke Athens up based on region that the citizens lived of wealth (10 gorups)
        He increased the power of the assembly by allowing all citizens to submit laws for debate and passage
        Created the Council of Five Hundred
        Proposed Laws
        Counseled the assembly
        Members were chosen at random
        Ended being more bad than good for the gov’t
Limited Democracy
- The reforms allowed for a limited democracy
- Not all were citizens
- Requirements: Free, Adult, Property owner, born in Athens
- Sparta
  - Located in the southern part of Greece
  - Was cut off from the rest of Greece by the Gulf of Corinth
  - Government
    - Several branches
      - Assembly, all citizens, elected officials, and voted on major issues
      - Council of Elders, 30 older citizens, proposed laws on the assembly to vote on
      - 5 elected officials that carried out the laws that were passed the assembly
      - Two kings that ruled over Sparta military

9/6/12

Persian War
- New Technology
  - During the Dorian age, only the rich could really afford to buy the bronze weaponry and armor
  - Iron later replaced bronze and allowed the common man to be able to arm himself and fight battles
  - Also a new formation was formed in battle called the phalanx (spear in one hand shield in the other)
Start of the Persian War
- War between Greece and Persian Empire (as well as Sparta)
- It first began in Ionia on the coast of Anatolia
- Greeks were settled there but Persians conquered it around 546 BC
- The Ionian Greeks revolted
  - Athens sent soldiers to help in the revolt
  - Darius the Great defeated the revolt and then vowed to destroy Athens
  - In 490 BC, the Persian fleet of 25,000 men landed in an area called Marathon
  - 10,000 Athenians meet them there
  - After several hours of fighting
    - Persians fled the battlefield
    - 6,000 Persian lives were lost
    - 200 or less Athenian lives were lost
    - Why such a victory?
      - The Athenians were using this new fighting formation called the phalanx
      - The Persians were not well trained in this type of land fighting
      - The Persians also wore very light armor compared to that of the Athenians
      - Athenians were fighting on their homeland
      - Marathon
        Even though Athenians had won, they left their city without much of an army
        According to tradition, army leaders would send a runner to alert Athens of the battle
        Pheidippides was that runner
        He ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens, then collapsed and died
        Persians tried to quickly attack Athens after their defeat at Marathon, but the Athenians had already returned, so they fled once again
      - Ten years later
        Xerxes, Darius the Great’s son, had become the successor of the Persian Army
        He had brought an enormous army with him to complet the job that his father once vowed (destroy Athens)
      - Greek Issues
        The Greeks were very divided on how to handle the Persian situation
        Some city-states thought that they should fight them and defend their city of Athens
        Some city-states thought it wasn’t worth it and they should just allow them to burn it
        Some even fought with the Persians
      - Battle of Thermopylae
        A narrow mountain pass was the setting of this battle
        7,000 Greeks and 300 Spartans stood in the way of Xerxes and his huge army.
        Xerxes underestimated the Greeks and Spartans, however, they stood up for three days to them
        300
        A traitor went to Xerxes and informed him of a secret path around the pass
        Fearing defeat, the Spartans fought the Persians so that the Greeks could flee to fight another day
        All 300 were killed including their King Leonidas
        Lasting Effects of Spartan sacrifice
        Made a great impression on the Greeks
        Allowed the remaining Greeks to retreat and fight the Persians again
        Showed Xerxes what he was up against
      - Battle of Salamis
        Greeks abandoned Athens because they thought that fighting at sea was their best chance
        They were right, Xerxes watched as a 1/3 of this fleet was sunk, truly diminishing is army
      - Lasting Effects of Persian War
        The Delian League was created (an alliance of Greek city-states to continue to push the Persians out of all Greece)
        Athenians were the head of the league and moved the headquarters to Athens
        This gave the Athenians a lot of power and helped push them into their Golden Age.

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