Classical Greece
Geography-
Sea
- Allowed for great opportunity for trade and travel.
- Important because it allowed Greece to get natural resources that it lacked: timber, precious metals, usable farmland.
- Land o Rugged mountains 75% of land o Mountains were dividers
- Mountains played big role in wars.
- Hard to climb move troops through.
Climate
- Upper 40’s in winter
- Lower 80’s in summer o Allowed people to be outdoors.
People-
Minoan people
- Crated an elegant civilization that had great power that started around 3000 BC
- Culture influenced the Mycenaean’s
- Writing, Language
- Design
- Trade- used ships
Mycenaean people
- Heavily influenced by Minoan
- Came from Indo-Europeans migrants
- Dominated Greece from 1600 BC to 1100 BC
Dorian people
- Spoke a kind of Greek
- Not very advanced as the other not writing system
- Focused on story telling- Homer(best storyteller)
During the Dorian Period… Change
- Dorian and the Mycenaean people started to identify less with culture of their ancestors and more with the local area
- Government made the transition from tribal or clan control to more formal governments called city-states.
Government
- 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 and an acropolis to discuss their city government.
- City-state didn’t always have the same forms of government.
Monarchy
- State ruled by a king(hereditary)
- Some rulers claim that they have a divine (god had appointed them) right to rule.
- Practiced in Mycenae by 2000 BC
Aristocracy
- State ruled by nobility(ruler heredity based on ties, social rank wealth)
- Social status and wealth support rulers authority
- Practiced in Athens prior to 594BC
Oligarchy
- State ruled by a small group of citizens(rule 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 based on citizenship)
- Majority rule decides vote
- Practiced in Athens by 500 BC
Athens
- About 600 BC, Athens was taking steps toward 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 code based on the idea that al Athenians, rich and poor, were equal under law.
- He had very harsh punishments for nearly any crime.
- He believed in debt slavery
- The word 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 but 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.
Government
- Several branches
- Assembly, all citizens, elected official 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 that ruled over Sparta’s military
Purpose of Education for boys and girls
Athens
- Boys were taught at home till age 6 by their mother or a male slave
- 6-14 they were sent to a neighborhood primary schools or private school.
- Books were expensive and rare so they were read out loud.
- They had to memorize everything.
- They learned mainly 2 things the words of Homer and how to play lyre.
- Teachers were always men and they could choose was other subjects to teach
- He might choose to teach drama, public speaking, government, art, reading, writing, math, and how to play another ancient Greek instrument - the flute.
- Following that, boys attended a higher school for four more years.
- When they turned 18, they entered military school for two additional years.
- At age 20, they graduated.
- Girls were not educated at school, but many learned to read and write at home in the comfort of their courtyard.
Sparta
- When babies were born in ancient Sparta, Spartan soldiers would come by the house and check the baby.
- If the baby did not appear healthy and strong, the infant was taken away, and left to die on a hillside, or taken away to be trained as a slave.
- Babies who passed this examination were assigned membership in a brotherhood or sisterhood, usually the same one to which their father or mother belonged.
- Spartan boys were sent to military school at age 6 or 7.
- They lived, trained and slept in the barracks of their brotherhood.
- They were taught survival skills and other skills necessary to be a great soldier.
- School courses were very hard and often painful.
- Although students were taught to read and write, those skills were not very important to the ancient Spartans.
- Only warfare mattered.
- The boys were not fed well, and were told that it was fine to steal food as long as they did not get caught stealing.
- If they were caught, they were beaten.
- The boys marched without shoes to make them stronger.
- It was a brutal training period.
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