Trojan War Author

• Homer• He was an Oral Poet.• Was blind and played a harp while he told the

epics.• His most famous epics are the Iliad and the

Odyssey.• Iliad is about the Trojan War, the Odyssey is

about the Journey back from the War. The main character is Odysseus.

• His epics were composed years later after the estimated dates of the Trojan war.

Greek City Structure

• Polis - Greek term for city-state. It was common for many city-states to make allies with other city-states.

• It was common back then for Greek city-states to ask other city-states to join their side or die.

• Athens and Sparta were some great city-states in the Aegean World.

Greek City Structure

• Acropolis – Was a high marble temple dedicated to certain gods and goddesses.

• Citizens would gather and discuss community affairs there.

• Agora – Central Market Place in Ancient Greece. Site of many temples and Government buildings too. Extremely busy.

Greeks

• Architecture – Most famous temple built was the Parthenon. Dedicated to Goddesses Athena. Used columns to hold it up.

• Farming – Used a heavy hoe called a mattock.

• Religion – Polytheistic and a heavy mythology library.

Philosophy and Art

• Greek Philosophy – main purpose – Study of the meaning and knowledge of life.

• Greek Art – Extremely influential to many cultures around the globe.

• Painting – Done on pottery and frescos.• What is a fresco?• Fresco – painting done on fresh plaster

with water colors.• Depicts views of Greek life.

Philosophy and Art

• Sculpture – Carved many figures, including gods, goddesses, athletes, and famous people. Showed them in graceful or natural poses.

• Drama – Mythology was a heavy influence here. Plays were preformed outdoors at festivals about myths and legends. Two types of plays.

• Comedies – Mocked people or customs.• Tragedy – Story about suffering and ended in a

disaster. Greeks thought you excite emotions through pity and fear.

Greek Governments

• Monarchy – King rules the polis or empire.• Aristocracy – Rule by the rich landowning elite. • Oligarchy – Power is in the hands of a chosen

few.• Democracy – This government was adopted

later in Greek history. The people call the shots directly or through elected representatives.

• Tyrant – Someone who assumes power over a government, not necessarily an evil person.

Spartans

•This southern region was called Peloponnesus.

•Capital city-state would be Sparta.

•Their culture and way of life was centered around warfare.

Spartans

• Helots – State owned slaves in Sparta. Their population outnumbered everyone in the area so strict rules were enforced to keep them in check.

• Spartan Life Women – Were expected to have healthy children. In charge of property when men went off to war.

Spartan Life

• Spartan Life Men – From birth a child is prepared for the military life.

• At age 7 they move to the barracks and start training. Life is hard there but this toughens them up.

• Exercised everyday and were fed a meager diet.• Kids were encouraged to steal food from each

other to supplement diet. Also shapes up their cunning will (sneakiness or swiftness). If caught stealing they were beaten.

Spartan Life

• At age 20 you could marry.

• Had to stay in barracks at night until a certain age.

• If you lived through your tour of duty, you could join a position in the government.

Spartan Government

• Was a combination of a Aristocracy and a monarchy.

• Had 2 kings

• A council of elders who advised the monarchs

• Last a assembly of citizens ( Spartans over the age of 30)

Final Spartan Facts

• Land troops were extremely effective.• Sparta forbid anyone to travel out side of

their borders.• Sparta was shut out of the outside world

and did not gain the advancements the rest of the world was making. They were isolated.

Athens

• The city-state of Athens grew up as an aristocracy, but it had a few flaws so it changed to a democracy.

• The main flaw was citizenship. Old laws stated that foreigners that moved to Athens could not become citizens. This made many mad because they were under this category and the aristocracy would not change the law.

• Really strong Navy and Army.

Athens

• Differences between Greek democracy and our country’s?

• Only male could vote in Greek democracy.

• Lots of people were slaves with no voting rights.

• Have to be at least age 30 to vote in Greece.

Athens

• Women of Athens – Domestic engineers, seen as lower beings, no real rights.

• Men of Athens – Growing up men were encouraged to explore many different ideas, unlike Sparta just doing war.

• Athenian men could go to school, study poetry, become athletes, professional traders, and learn military skills.

Athens and Sparta

• The two empires did have a few things in common.

• Both spoke Greek.• Both viewed all non Greek people as

lesser beings and called them barbaroi (barbarians).

• Both were never really friendly towards each other, but came together during the Persian Wars.

Persian Wars

• Persia had a grand empire in the east.• Persia demanded all Greek city states to

surrender. Some states did, but not Sparta and Athens. This brought the city states together as allies.

• Persia sent messengers to deliver the demands, Athens threw the messenger down a well, Sparta threw their messenger down a pit.

Persian Wars

• Persia sent an army twice the size of Athens.

• Athens sent everyman available and beat the Persians at the battle of Marathon.

• A runner ran all the way back to Athens to spread the word of the victory and to prepare for a naval invasion.

• The runner was Pheidippides. When he made it to Athens he dropped dead of exhaustion. He ran a Marathon distance.

Persian Wars

• After Marathon and realizing they could not successfully attack Athens by sea, Persia retreated and did not return until 10 years later.

• Persia sent 250,000, the Greeks sent 7,000 ( 300 were Spartans). The battle site was called Thermopylae.

• After three days of battle, 20,000 Persians were killed and 1,000 Greeks lay dead.

Persian Wars

• The Greeks figured they would lose the battle so they withdraw and leave the 300 Spartans behind to cover the retreat.

• Every Spartan dies but they give the Greeks enough time to form a counter attack.

• Athens is burned, but the Persian navy is totaled and that cuts off supplies and the Persians eventually surrender.

Post Persian Wars

• Sparta is a great help at Thermopylae and helps keep Athens a power.

• To ward off any future attacks from Persians, Athens creates a grand alliance with other Greek city-states. Sparta does not join.

• The name of the Alliance created by Athens is called the Delian League.

Golden Age of Greece

• After the Persian Wars, Athens is rebuilt and a new ruler named Pericles come to power.

• Pericles made vast reforms in government by making it a direct democracy. Basically no representatives. The people directly make the calls of the government.

Golden Age of Greece

• Other reforms

• More males were allowed to vote with a change of voting age.

• Economic reforms - making more jobs.

• Cultural reforms – built many temples and other types of buildings all over the Athenian Empire.

Peloponnesian War

• Athens and their allies grew very powerful (during their golden age) and they supported democracy. This made other city-states jealous of the Delain League. Also they feared Athens power would be a threat to them.

• Sparta started the Peloponnesian League to counter the Delain League.

Peloponnesian War

• Sparta invades and puts Athens under siege.

• Sparta controls the land around Athens but not the sea.

• Sparta figured it would starve Athens by burning all its crops outside of the city. Athens just simply bought food from over seas and had it shipped to them by sea.

Peloponnesian War

• Athens misfortunes – Plague spreads through the city while under siege and even kills Pericles.

• Athens tries to attack Syracuse ( on Sicily, part of Peloponnesian league) but ends in major disaster for navy and army.

• Persia joins Peloponnesian league and helps turn the tide in navy and army.

Peloponnesian War

•Sparta was simply taken over by rival city-states in the coming years.

•A great Kingdom to the North will rise to power and control Greece shortly after.

•That Kingdom was Macedonia.

Greek Philosophy

• Philosophy – the investigation of questions about the existence and knowledge and ethics.

• Traditional philosophy originally dealt with trying to find success.

• It later became acceptable to talk about philosophy in public.

• It would expand to questioning ethics, truth, or moral behavior.

Socrates

• Greatest philosopher of all time.

• Had many students and started new philosophy in public and got in trouble.

• The government found him guilty of “corrupting the youth”

• He was given two choices; leave Athens or drink hemlock which is a type of poison.

Socrates

• He encouraged free thinking and put to death because of it.

• He believed in the Socratic method that encouraged discussion.

• His students begged him to flee the jail.• He would not leave jail because it was

morally wrong.• All of his work is recorded by his student

Plato.

Macedonia

• Greek origin, but seen as lesser Greeks because they live over the savage north mountains.

• Philip II rose to the throne of Macedonia and conquered the whole Greek peninsula.

• After Greece, Philip II made plans to invade Persia.

Macedonia

• Philip made plans to go into Persia but never lived to start the campaign.

• At age 20 his son Alexander rose to the throne.

• He was ready to lead, had a great teacher growing up named Aristotle. Aristotle was a great thinker and philosopher.

Alexander The Great

• He thought of himself as a hero.

• Went on with his father’s plans to conquer Persia. At the time, Persia was the greatest Empire in size in the world.

• Takes Egypt and Persia. He will go as far east to India. Wanted to keep going but his men would have mutinied.

Alexander’s Empire

• Conquered land ranging from as far West as Greece and Egypt to as far East in India and Afghanistan.

• At least 10 cities named after him.

• Took only 13 years to do these conquests.

• Kept all his lands happy because he adopted local customs and vice versa.

Alexander’s Empire

• He would eventually die of a fever at age 33 in Babylon.

• His empire divided into many factions after his death and wars raged on.

• He also left behind a new culture called Hellenistic. It s a blend of Greek cultures with a little bit of other cultures mixed in it.