Wednesday, September 5

[5thAlexH]

Classical Greece

Geography

• Sea
  • Allowed for great opportunity for trade and travel
  • Important because it allowed Greece to get the natural resources that it lacked; timber, precious metals, usable farmland.
• Land
  • Rugged mountains covered about 3/4 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 army
• Climate
  • Upper 40's in winter
  • Lower 80's in summer
  • The clime allowed for many different outdoor activities
• Minoan Influence
  • Created an elegant civilization that had great power that started around 3000 BC
  • Culture influenced the Mycenaeans
  • Writing, language
  • Design
  • Trade
  • Used ships to trade goods
• Mycenaean Develops
  • Heavily influenced by the Minoans
  • They came from Indo-Europeans migrants
  • Dominated Greece from 1600 BC to 1100 BC

• Dorian
  • Spoke a kind of Greek
  • Not as advanced as the others, no writing system
  • Focused more on storytelling
  • Best storyteller: Homer
  • 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
  • Monarchy
    • State ruled by a king
    • Rule is hereditary
    • Some rulers claim that they have a divine right to rule
    • Practiced by Mycenae by 2000 BC
    • 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
        • Stated 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
          • Stated ruled by the citizens
          • Rule is based on citizenship
          • Majority rule decides vote
          • Practiced in Athens by 500 BC
          • Athens
            • About the 600 BC, Athens was taking steps towards a democracy
            • There were major reforms for the next 100 years that would eventually lead to a democracy starting around 500 BC
            • Key Players
              • Draco
                • Developed a legal coed based on the idea that all Athenians, rich and poor, were equal under law
                • He had very harsh punishments for nearly any crime
                • He believed in debt slavery
                • The world “draconian” has come to mean “extreme cruelty or severity”
• Solon
  • Stated that no citizen should own another
  • Organized Athens into four social classes based on wealth
  • Only top three classes could hold political office
  • However, all four could participate in the Athenian assembly
• Cleisthenes
  • Broke Athens up based on region that the citizens lived instead of wealth (10 groups)
  • 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
    • Limited Democracy
      • The reforms allowed for a limited democracy
      • However, all people 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
          • Spartan 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
              • Five elected officials that carried out the laws that were passed by the assembly
              • Two kings ruled over Sparta’s military