Unit 4: Ancient Greece

Acropolis

structure built high on a hill, dedicated to Greek gods

Aristocracy

A government in which power is in the hands of a hereditary ruling class or nobility

Democracy

A political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them. In Greece they favored a lottery over a ballot, believing that all citizens were capable of holding public office.

Homer

A Greek poet that taught values, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

Mt. Olympus

Home of the Greek gods

Oligarchy

A government ruled by a few powerful people

Peloponnesian War

(431-404 BCE) The war between Athens and Sparta that in which Sparta won, but left Greece as a whole weak and ready to fall to its neighbors to the north.

Plato

(430-347 BCE) Was a disciple of Socrates who wrote the Republic on the perfect form of government

Trojan War

10 year war fought between the Mycenaean Greeks and the city of Troy

Polis

A city-state in ancient Greece.

Aphrodite

Goddess of love and beauty

Hades

God of the underworld

Helots

enslaved people in ancient Sparta

Minoan

Prosperous civilization on the Aegean island of Crete in the second millennium B.C.E. Exerted powerful cultural influences on the early Greeks.

Persian Wars

A series of wars between the Greeks (mainly Athens) and the Persians in which the Greeks were usually victorious.

Rhetoric

the art of using language effectively and persuasively

Aristotle

(470-399 BCE) An Athenian philosopher who thought that human beings could lead honest lives and that honor was far more important than wealth, fame, or other superficial attributes. Established basis of Scientific method and taught Alexander the Great

Zeus

King of the gods

Athena

Goddess of wisdom

draconian

describes something that is very cruel or severe, and is often used when describing drastic cuts.

Socrates

Greek philosopher; socratic method--questioning; sentenced to death for corrupting Athens youth

Battle of Marathon

A significant battle in 490 BC during the Greco-Persian Wars, where the Athenians achieved a surprising victory against the Persian army using phalanx formations.

Battle of Thermopylae

A pivotal battle in 480 BC during the Greco-Persian Wars, where a small Greek force, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, famously held off a much larger Persian army for three days before being overwhelmed so Greek forces could recover.

Battle of Salamis

Naval Battle in 400 BC in which Greek forces battered and destroyed over a third of Xerxes and the Persian Fleet.

Battle of Plataea

Battle in which the Greeks crushed the Persians, forcing them off Greek soil and the Persians were in the run after.