Topic – Friday 2nd October 2020 Ancient Greece Athens: Between 500BC and 400BC, Athens was How was Greece ruled? Here’s a map of the area that was part of Ancient Greece: the most important city in the world. There was never one country called Many of ancient Greece's greatest ‘ancient Greece’. Instead, Greece was thinkers, artists and writers lived here. divided up into small city-states, like At the centre of Athens is a rocky hill Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Olympia. called the Acropolis. This was the site of Each city-state ruled itself. They had the city’s most important temples. The their own governments, laws and largest temple was called the Parthenon. army. So, ancient Greeks living in Inside there was a stunning gold and Sparta considered themselves Spartan ivory statue of the goddess of the city, first, and Greek second. Athena. The city-states didn’t get on very well Athens was also the world's first and often fought each another. democracy. Instead of being ruled by a However, sometimes they joined king, Athenian citizens would meet to together to fight against a bigger decide how the city should be run. enemy, like the Persian Empire. However, not everyone got a say - Only a very powerful ruler could women, slaves and foreigners were not control all Greece. One man did in the allowed to vote. 300s BC. He was Alexander the Great, from Macedonia. Alexander led his army to conquer an empire that stretched as far as Afghanistan and India.
Sparta: The Spartans were very serious soldiers and they spent their entire lives training for battle. Boys left their families when they were seven years old to begin their 23 years of training to become a soldier. Only those who made it through this gruelling system were considered true Spartan If you can, have a look at this website citizens. Sparta was ruled by two kings, who were supposed to be descendants of Heracles. One king might to find out more: stay at home, while the other was away fighting battles. The most famous king of Sparta was https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topic Leonidas. He led 300 Spartans against the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. s/z87tn39/articles/zxytpv4 Delphi: Corinth:
Delphi was one of the holiest places in ancient Greece. People travelled from Around 400BC, Corinth was one of the largest and most all over the country to visit a famous priestess called the Pythia. important cities in ancient Greece. She was said to offer advice from Apollo, the god of sun. Before making her It was located right at the centre of Greece, so was in a prophecies, the Pythia would go into a trance by breathing in vapours rising good place for trade. from a crack in the ground. Corinthians used a special type of silver coin called Delphi was also home to the Pythian Games. These were like the Olympic a stater. Traders had to use these for buying and selling Games but included acting, painting and dancing events, as well as athletics. when they were in the city. On one side of the coin was a winged-horse called Pegasus and on the other was the goddess Athena.
Knossos: Olympia:
Knossos was the oldest city in Greece. It was located on the island Olympia was home to the ancient Olympic Games. of Crete and was the centre of the Minoan civilisation. Every 4 years, athletes came from all over Greece to compete in At the heart of the city was the Palace of Knossos. This vast building had running, wrestling, boxing, over 1,000 rooms, some decorated jumping, throwing and horse racing. with beautiful paintings of dolphins and bulls. The Olympic Games were also a religious festival dedicated to the Legend has it that Knossos was also home to a man-eating bull, called the god Zeus. Minotaur, which roamed the palace Visitors stared in wonder at the huge gold and ivory statue of him labyrinth. inside the Temple of Zeus. There was also the Great Altar of Zeus, where 100 oxen were sacrificed in You need to create your own quiz with questions and answers about the different city states of his honour every year. Ancient Greece, using the information on these two pages. Write your questions clearly and include answers on a separate page. You can add pictures too! Make sure the answers can be found from this information.