Chapter

4a

Ancient Greece
(1750 B.C. – 133 B.C.)
Section
1

The Minoans

 The Minoans established a

brilliant early civilization on
the island of Crete.
 The Minoans traded with
Egypt and Mesopotamia.
They acquired ideas and
technology that they
adapted to their own
culture.
 The Minoans helped to
shape the first Greek
civilization. Fresco in the Knossos Palace on Crete
Minoan Civilization began on the Island of Crete
 Minoan History
 c. 3000 B.C., Crete was settled by a people from Asia Minor
 By 2000 B.C. they lived in cities and traded with other nations in
the Mediterranean.
 They had a written hieroglyphic language that evolved into a
linear form.
 They built magnificent palace centers at Knossos, Phaistros, and
Kato Zakros.
 Their government system was ruled by priests and consisted of
bureaucratic monarchies, who served as “chief entrepreneurs” or
CEOs.
 They built large navies of armored merchant ships and traded
throughout Asia Minor and Egypt.
 They had large multi-room homes – even the peasants.
 They are the first civilization that appears to have “leisure time.”
Bull-Jumping Fresco at the Palace of Knossos
 Downfall of Cretans
 The concentration of wealth produced a
society with social equality, which was
unknown in the in ancient world.
 No gender inequality seems to have
existed.
 Palaces had no defensive works,
throughout much of their history.
 Their concentration of economic
resources on mercantilism and their
generous distribution of wealth among
their people may have led to their
downfall.
 Earthquakes and volcanoes weakened
their cities.
 Eventually the Minoans were conquered
by the Mycenaens .
 Women in Minoan Civilization
 Crete was a class-based society with little inequality.
 Women played an important role in city public life, serving as
priestesses, functionaries, & administrators.
 They participated in all the sports men did, including bull-jumping.
 They also participated in every occupation & trade available to
men, including skilled crafts, entrepreneurs, bureaucracy,
priesthood.

Fresco of Women at
Knossos Palace in Crete
 The Mycenaens
 The Mycenaens conquered
the Greek mainland and
Crete.
 Mycenaen civilization
dominated the Aegean from
about 1400 B.C. to 1200 B.C.
 They traded with Sicily, Italy,
Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
 Mycenaens absorbed
Egyptian and Mesopotamian
influences and passed them
on to later Greeks.
Mycenean Fresco
Mycenean Civilization
 The Late Helladic Period
 Most of what we know about this
culture comes from Homer’s epics.
 The archeological sites at Troy and
Mycenae indicate a strong influence on
their culture from the Minoans.
 There were differences. The government
consisted of monarchs who ruled over
large administrations.
 Mycenean kings accumulated vast
wealth, but it was not shared by the rest
of society.
 Mycenean kings were warlords,
constantly ready for battle or invasion.
Mask of Agamemnon  Cities had heavy defenses.
 Mycenean Religion

 Early Myceneans had a

sky-god, who would
become Zeus.
 Later, they adopted the
Minoan goddesses.
 Offerings and sacrifices
were made to the gods,
and may have involved
human sacrifices.
 The Greek Dark Ages
 Between 1200 and 1100 BC populations
in cities dwindled & they could no longer
support artisans and craftsmen.
 Writing was abandoned leaving no
history to explain it the 500 years of
mystery.
 Greeks returned to an agricultural or
nomadic life in small tribal groups.
 Many Greeks took to the sea and
migrated to the islands of the Aegean.
 Dorians, invaders from the north, soon
followed bringing new weapons and
tools.
Mycenean Woman
 The Epics of Homer
“Every man make up his mind to fight
And move on his enemy! Strong as I am,
It’s hard for me to face so many men
And fight with all at once. . . .
And yet I will!”
Homer, Iliad

 The Iliad and the Odyssey reveal many of the values of

ancient Greeks. Homer’s heroes display honor, courage, and
eloquence.

 The epics of Homer have been inspiring writers for almost

3,000 years.
Section
2 The Ancient Greeks: How Democratic?

Document 1

The Granger
Collection, New York

Document 2
Section
2
Ancient Greece
 Greece is part of the Balkan
peninsula. Mountains divide the
peninsula into isolated valleys.
Off the Greek mainland are
hundreds of small islands.

 The geography of the region

prevented the Greeks from
creating a large, united empire.
Instead, they built many small
city-states, cut off from one
another by mountains or water.

 The seas linked the Greeks to

the outside world. The Greeks
became skilled sailors, traveling
and trading all over the
Mediterranean.
 Greek City-States Develop
 The Greeks developed an alphabet based
on the Phoenician’s that became the basis
for all western alphabets.
 Between 750 B.C. and 500 B.C., the
Greeks evolved different forms of
government.
 At first, the ruler was a king, who
exercised central power, or a monarchy.
 Slowly, power shifted to a class of noble
landowners, who defended the king, but
in time, they won power for themselves,
creating an aristocracy.
 As trade expanded, a new class of
wealthy merchants, farmers, and artisans
came to dominate some city-states,
creating an oligarchy.
Spartan Warrior
 Competing City-States

ATHENS SPARTA
• Society grew into a limited • Rulers were two kings and a
democracy, or government council of elders.
by the people. • Rulers formed a military society.
• Only free, native-born, land- • Conquered people were turned
owning men could be citizens. into slaves, called helots.
• Male citizens over age 30 • Rulers forbade trade and travel.
were members of the • Male, native-born Spartans over
assembly. age 30 were citizens.
• Rulers encouraged trade with • All boys received military training.
other city-states. • Girls were raised to produce
• Women were considered inferior. healthy sons for the army.

• Boys received education in many • Women had the right to inherit

property.
areas, not just military training.
The Acropolis
Athena
 Unifying Forces
Local ties, independent spirit, and economic rivalries led to
fighting among the Greek city-states. Despite these divisions, the
Greeks shared a common culture.
 They honored the same ancient heroes.
 They participated in common festivals.
 They prayed to the same gods.
 They shared the Greek language.
 They felt superior to non-Greeks, whom they called “barbaroi,”
people who did not speak Greek.

Despite their cultural ties, the Greek city-states were often in

conflict with one another.
The threat of the powerful Persian empire united the Greek city-
states.
The Persian Wars
 Darius I invaded Greece at
Marathon in 490 B.C. with a
fleet containing 20,000 soldiers.

 The Greeks waited out the

Persians, attacking them as they
tried to re-board their ships and
won.

 Pheidippides then ran 26 miles

from Marathon to Athens to tell
them of the success. He told this
story and died. The marathon
race was added to the Olympics
to commemorate the event.

 Later, Xerxes decided to attack

Greece in order to take revenge
for his father’s loss.
 The Persian Wars (cont.)
 In 480 B.C. Xerxes took 180,000
troops and thousands of
warships and supply vessels to
attack Greece.

 The Greeks joined forces to

repel them.

 Leonidas and his Spartan

soldiers led a combined Greek
army against the Persians at
Thermopylae.

 Athenian general Themistocles

led the navy against the
Persians at Salamis.

 United, the city-states defeated

the Persians and ended the
threat of Persian invasions.
Themistocles
Ancient Greek Trireme
 The Impact of the Persian Wars
 Victory over the Persians increased the Greeks’ sense of their
own uniqueness.
 Athens emerged as the most powerful city-state.
 Athens organized the Delian League, an alliance with other
Greek city-states.
 Athens used the Delian League to create an Athenian empire.
 Sparta responded by forming the Peloponnesian League.
Section
3 The Ancient Greeks: How Democratic?

Document 3
The Granger Collection, New York
Section
3
The Age of Pericles
 After the Persian Wars, under the leadership
of Pericles experienced a golden age.
 Periclean Athens was a direct democracy. In
this form of government, large numbers of
citizens take part in the day-to-day affairs of
government.
 This meant that Athenian men participated
in the assembly and served on juries.
↑ Pericles
 Pericles hired architects and sculptors to
rebuild the Acropolis, which the Persians had
Aspasia → destroyed.
 Pericles turned Athens into the cultural
center of Greece. He did this with the help
of an educated, foreign-born woman named
Aspasia.
 Pericles Funeral Oration
 Pericles gave a speech at the funeral of Athenians slain
in battle. This speech is considered one of the earliest
and greatest expressions of democratic ideals.

 “Our constitution is called a democracy because power

is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole
people.”

 “We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public

affairs, not as a harmless but as a useless character.”
 The Peloponnesian War

CAUSES EFFECTS
• Many Greeks outside of • Athenian domination of the
Athens resented Athenian Greek world ended.
domination. • Athens recovered economically
and remained the cultural
• Sparta formed the center of Greece.
Peloponnesian League to
• Democratic government
rival the Delian League. suffered.
• Sparta encouraged • Corruption and selfish interests
oligarchy, while Athens replaced older ideals such as
supported democracy. service to the city-state.
Peloponnesian War Alliances
 After the unconditional
surrender of Athens, Sparta
became the undisputed major
power in Greece.
 The Spartan general, Lysander,
replaced the Athenian
democracy with an oligarchy.
 Proponents of democracy fled
to Corinth and Thebes, while
the Spartans ruled with an iron
fist.
 The Peloponnesian War
weakened the Greek city-states,
making them easier to conquer
by Philip of Macedonia.
 The Glory that Was Greece
 Guided by a belief in
reason, Greek Artists,
writers, and philosophers
used their genius to seek
order in the universe.
 Homer wrote the Illiad and Plato
the Odyssey.
 The greatest Athenian
Sophocles
playwrights, Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides,
wrote tragedies.

Aristotle
 Greek Philosophers
Some Greek thinkers used observation and reason to find causes
for what happened. The Greeks called these thinkers
philosophers, meaning “lovers of wisdom.”

SOCRATES PLATO ARISTOTLE

Developed Socratic Emphasized importance Favored rule by single
method, whereby a of reason strong and virtuous
series of questions are leader
posed in order to Believed the ideal state
challenge implications should regulate every Taught that good
of answers aspect of citizens’ lives to conduct meant
provide for their best pursuing moderation
interest
 Greek Architects and Artists
The work of Greek artists and architects reflected a
concern with balance, order, and beauty.

ARCHITECTURE ART
• Architects tried to • Early sculptors imitated
convey a sense of rigid Egyptian poses.
perfect balance to • Later sculptors
reflect the harmony of emphasized natural
the universe. poses that were lifelike
but also idealistic.
• Example: The
• Paintings offer views of
Parthenon
Greek life.
 The Parthenon
 The original
inspiration for
Greek architecture
came from the
Egyptians and was
later passed on to
the Romans.
 The columns were
built to lean in
toward each other
so that from a
distance they
would look
The most famous temple is the Parthenon. straight.
Three Orders of Greek Architecture
 Simplest form of column.
 Capital made of circle topped by a
square.
 There is no base.
 The shaft is plain with 20 sides.
 The frieze had simple patterns.
 The Parthenon is an example.
Three Orders of Greek Architecture
 Shafts were taller than the Doric,
making them look more slender.
 Had flutes, or lines carved into them
from top to bottom.
 Shafts had entasis, or a bulge, in the
columns to make them look straight
from a distance.
 The bases were large and looked like
stacked rings.
 Capitals consist of scrolls above the
shaft.

Temple of
Athena Niki
in Athens
Three Orders of Greek Architecture
 Most decorative of orders.
 Uses entasis to make shafts look
straight.
 Capitals have flowers and leaves
below a small scroll.
 The shaft has flutes and the base is
like the Ionian.
 Corinthian roofs are flat.

The Temple of Sybil in Rome

Section
4

Poetry and Drama

Greek dramas were often based on popular myths
and legends. Through these stories, playwrights
discussed moral and social issues and the
relationship between people and the gods.

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote

tragedies, plays that told stories of human suffering
that usually ended in disaster.

Aristophanes wrote comedies, humorous plays that

mocked people or customs.
Euripides, writer of
Greek Tragedies
Theatre in Anatalya, Turkey
 The Writing of History
The Greeks applied reason, observation, and logic
to the study of history.

Herodotus is called the “Father of History.”

Herodotus stressed the importance of research,

while Thucydides showed the need to avoid bias.

Herodotus and Thucydides set standards for future

historians.
 Alexander the Great

 Alexander was the son of

Philip II of Macedon and
Olympias.
 He was taught first by
Leonidas, who was a strict
disciplinarian and later by
Alexander the Great the Greek philosopher,
Aristotle.
 By age 16, Alexander had
served as regent of
Macedonia, put down a
rebellion, and named a
city after himself.
Olympias Philip II of Macedonia
 Alexander the Great
Philip of Macedonia conquered Greece. He was
assassinated before he could fulfill his dream of
conquering the Persian empire.

Philip’s son, Alexander, succeeded him to the throne

in 336 B.C. at the age of 21.

Alexander won his first victory against the Persians

at the Granicus River. He then conquered Asia
Minor, Palestine, Egypt, and Babylon.

Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush into northern India.

There his troops faced soldiers mounted on war
elephants. They were forced to retreat.

While planning his next battle campaign, Alexander

died of a sudden fever. Three generals divided up the
empire.
 The Hellenistic World
 In 334 B.C. Alexander crossed into Asia Minor
to begin his conquest of Persia, the largest
empire to date.
 The conquests of Alexander the Great spread
Greek civilization throughout the
Mediterranean world and across the Middle
East to the outskirts of India.
 Greek culture blended with Persian, Egyptian,
and Indian cultures to create the Hellenistic
civilization, in which art, science,
mathematics, and philosophy flourished.
Alexander the Great  In 323 BC, at the age of thirty-three,
Alexander fell into a fever and died in
Babylon on his way back from India.
Empire of Alexander the Great
 The Legacy of Alexander
Although Alexander’s empire did not last, he had unleashed
changes that would ripple across the Mediterranean world and
the Middle East for centuries.
 Alexander’s most lasting achievement was the spread of
Greek culture.
 Across the empire, local people assimilated, or absorbed,
Greek ideas. In turn, Greek settlers adopted local customs.

 Gradually, a blending of eastern and western cultures

occurred.

 Alexander had encouraged this blending by marrying a Persian

woman and adopting Persian customs.
 Great Minds of the Hellenistic Period
 Zeno founded Stoicism, which urged people to accept calmly
whatever life brought.
 Pythagoras derived a formula to calculate the relationship between
the sides of a triangle.
 Euclid wrote The Elements, a textbook that became the basis for
modern geometry.
 Aristarchus theorized about a heliocentric, or sun-centered, solar
system.
 Eratosthenes showed that the Earth was round and accurately
calculated its circumference.
 Archimedes used principles of physics to make practical inventions,
such as the lever and the pulley.
 Hippocrates studied illnesses and cures and set ethical standards for
medical care.