Greece! 1900-133 BC Because They Were Awesome. Geography • Mountains and Islands ▫ 80% Mountains Isolating Separate Communities ▫ Sea becomes extremely important! No part of Greek mainland is more than 60 miles from the sea. Trade, travel, resources. Minoans: 2700 to 1450 BC • Sea Empire ▫ Traded pottery, gold, and silver jewelry ▫ Art: Paintings in the palace at Knossos Sports Nature ▫ Conquered by Mycenaeans. Lasted 1250 years! Empire of peace, trade, art. Mycenae: 1600 to 1100 BC • Warrior People! • Agamemnon and Troy ▫ Helen (Agamemnon’s sister-in-law) is seduced by Paris (Prince of Troy) and taken home with him. She is the “Face that launched a thousand ships.” ▫ Agamemnon wanted the riches of Troy. Uses Helen’s affair as an excuse to launch a war. Makes sacrifice to gain the god’s favor for the war. His daughter. Wife, Clytemnestra will be a little peeved by this. Mycenae: 1600 to 1100 BC • Agamemnon and Troy ▫ Troy is ultimately destroyed Everybody dies: Paris Helen Achilles Hector It’s all very sad... • Ultimately Mycenae is weakened by earthquakes (the gods must be angry…) and invasion from the north. The Dark Age: 1100 to 750 BC • Farming collapses • Records and Archaeology goes silent. • Mainland Greeks flee to the islands and Ionia (Asia Minor/Turkey) ▫ Some flee north and colonize the island of Lesbos ▫ Dorian Greeks flee southwest Peloponnese Southern Aegean islands Crete The Dark Age: 1100 to 750 BC • Iron slowly replaces bronze! ▫ Weapons become more affordable ▫ Easier to use ▫ Provides improved farming The Dark Age: 1100 to 750 BC • Homer ▫ Poet ▫ Paints a picture of the past/lost glory of Greece ▫ Gives Greeks a vision of a possible/better future. ▫ Not a record of history as much as a creation of it and a creation of cultural/shared identity. ▫ Taught: Courage, honor, excellence through struggle and contest. Greek Expansion: • Why? ▫ Desire for good farmland ▫ Overpopulation of home ▫ Trade! • These lead to the founding of Byzantium ▫ Byzantium will be known as Constantinople at the height of it’s power and named for it’s greatest citizen and founder. ▫ Today it is called Istanbul ▫ Controlled the waterway between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Economic advantage! Athens • Economic Capital of the Ancient world ▫ 300,000 people at it’s height Larger than Anchorage ▫ Citizens belong to the State This leads to a fierce kind of city loyalty. Eventually leads to the fall of Greece. ▫ Traded: Olive Oil, Salt, Wine, Pottery, Grain, Metals, Fish, Timber, Slaves Traders gain wealth Want a share of power Leads to a contest between Old Money (Aristocrats and landowners) vs. New Money (Merchants). Rule of History: • The wider the gap between the rich (those that have) and the poor (those that don’t have), the more unstable society will be. Vocabulary • Polis = City ▫ Metropolis: (metro = mother) Mother-city ▫ Politics: the business of the city. ▫ Policeman: man of the city. • Greek City State ▫ Center of the city is the Acropolis Acro = top, tip, highest, beginning Highest point of the city Built on a defensible hill. Temples placed there (protection of the gods). ▫ The Agora The marketplace or assembly area Where the people live Vocabulary • Oligarchy ▫ Oligos = few ▫ Arch = chief, first, to rule ▫ Rule by a few or by a small group. • Democracy ▫ Demos = people ▫ Cracy = government ▫ Rule by the people (understood as mob-rule) Vocabulary • Tyrant A ruler that seizes power by force from aristocrats (old money). ▫ Kept power by using hired thugs—I mean soldiers. ▫ Led to a hard choice: Tyrant vs. Rule of Law or End of the aristocracy and power the one vs. the rule of the people. Back to Athens! • Had a King Led an oligarchy of aristocrats CRISIS! ▫ A man called Draco (Draconian) passes laws that are so harsh a new guy named Solon has to take over to avoid civil war. ▫ Solon helped, but wouldn’t fix the problem of land ownership so ▫ Peisistratus takes over and institutes land reforms. (HE SHARED THE WEALTH: took land from the rich and redistributed it to folks that didn’t have any.) ▫ The poor REALLY liked him, but didn’t like his son too much, so they said, “no more tyrants, thank you very much.” Athens • CRISIS! ▫ After the Athenians got rid of the tyrants, a guy named Cleisthenes came to power. He set up something called The Council of 500. Supervised foreign affairs. Oversaw the city budget. Proposed laws. He laid the foundation for Athens’ final form of government: democracy. Sparta • They were different from Athens. • It was a military city-state. ▫ Formed to control the Helots or captured slaves. • They had: ▫ Two kings. ▫ 28 citizens over the age of 60 that ruled on issues to be presented at assembly. ▫ Assembly only voted yes or no No debate. Only voted on subject of war. Sparta • Children were taught military discipline. ▫ State raised children after 7 years. Taught to steal, lie, cheat, and intimidate others for food. ▫ 20 years old Serve in the military. Live in the barracks until 30. ▫ Stayed in the military until they were 60. ▫ Women: Be/stay healthy. Have lots of babies. Words of a Spartan mother to her son: “Come home bearing your shield or on it!” Athens vs. Sparta • Athens and Sparta did things very differently from each other. • They competed with each other for influence, commerce, and control/power. • Political differences were aggressively argued they fought a really long war with each other with a few breaks to fight with other people like THE EVIL PERSIANS. • The fight against Persia leads to: Classical Greece: 500 to 338 BC • Ionian Greece fell to the Persians in 499 Athens tried to liberate them. ▫ It failed, but it made Darius (Persia’s king) mad. Every night for 9 years, Darius has a slave declare: “Sire, remember the Athenians!” This is really an unhealthy rage. It ends badly for Darius. Classical Greece: 500 to 338 BC ▫ Darius lands with an overwhelming force on the beach of Marathon (26 miles from Athens). Gets his trash kicked. Athenian man who is assigned to watch and take news home, Pheidippides, races to Athens with the news! With his dying breath he cries: “Victory, we win!” Victory was really un-hoped for. ▫ It is a minor victory, but it inspires tiny little Greece. Classical Greece: 500 to 338 BC • Inspired Greece: ▫ Builds a fleet of ships to defend against the next and inevitable attack from the Persian super- power. ▫ The next Persian King Xerxes brings 180,000 soldiers and thousands of warships. *It’s brown trousers time.* Classical Greece: 500 to 338 BC • Thermopylae “The Hot Gates.” ▫ At a place called Thermopylae 7,000 Greek soldiers hold off the hoard for 2 days. ▫ This is the fight made famous by the movie 300. Sparta played an inspirational part, but they weren’t the only ones there. *I’m not sorry to burst any bubbles here.* When told, “The sky will be black with arrows!” Dieneces of Sparta said, “That is good news. We will fight in the shade!” They LOSE. But Greece is inspired! Persia can be defeated. Classical Greece: 500 to 338 BC • 479 BC: Athens gets sacked and destroyed, but Persia loses the war. ▫ Athens comes out with naval control of the Aegean Sea! • 478 BC: Athens forms the Delian League headquartered on the island of Delos. ▫ All officials were Athenian. ▫ Defended from the Persians at first and then pursued them! ▫ Liberated most of the Greek states in the Aegean. Classical Greece: 500 to 338 BC • 454 BC: The Delian treasury was moved from Delos to Athens. The Age of Pericles: 461 to 429 BC • Pericles expanded the Athenian Empire and nurtured democracy at home. • Every Male citizen had to participate in the democracy. ▫ 300,000 Athenians 60,000 Adult males with political rights 10,000 Adult male foreigners under the protection of the law Subject to responsibilities, taxes, military service, etc. Most were NOT citizens. 100,000 slaves. The Age of Pericles: 461 to 429 BC • Athenian democracy: ▫ Every 10 days the assembly met. ▫ Anyone in attendance could speak, but usually only respected leaders did. ▫ Poor could participate because Pericles paid the office holders. ▫ The practice of Ostracism protected the democracy from overly ambitious politicians. Anyone named by @ least 6,000 votes was banned from Athens for 10 years. The Age of Pericles: 461 to 429 BC • Athens becomes the center of Greek culture. • Massive rebuilding projects. • Imported 50 to 80% of their grain. ▫ They didn’t have enough land for farming. ▫ This is a BIG PROBLEM. • Raised sheep and goats. • Grew grapes and olive trees. • Women could participate in religious festivals, but very little else. ▫ Only traveled under escort. ▫ Father of the house owned the women of the house. The Peloponnesian War: 431 BC • Athens vs. Sparta! • The Persians were defeated. • The Delian League was split into the Athens faction and the Spartan faction. ▫ Athens Navy. ▫ Sparta Army. • Sparta besieged Athens. ▫ In the second year 1/3 of Athens (including Pericles) are killed by Typhus. The Peloponnesian War: 431 BC • The Siege: ▫ Lasted 25 years. ▫ 405 BC: Athenian navy is destroyed at Aegospotami on the Hellespont. With no navy, Athens is beaten and the empire destroyed. It was a very sad day. • 67 more years of fighting continues to weaken Greece. ▫ Athens, Sparta, and Thebes fight for control. ▫ They ignore Macedonia to the north. THIS IS BAD. Macedonia and the Hellenistic Era • Hellenistic = To imitate the Greeks. • 359 BC: Philip II ▫ Builds an army, ends the independence of the Greek city-states in the south. Decides to celebrate his triumph by finishing off Persia. Killed before he can invade.