Ancient Greece: Notable Concepts (Political, Economic, Social, Militaristic, etc.) and Notable Groups (Civilizations, Groups, Peoples, Types of People, Types of Places, Types of Professions, etc.)

Cretan Economy (All Facts)

• Comprised on the sale and trade of

  • olive oil and wine

  • wool, from the rearing of large flocks of sheep in its country houses

Cretan / Minoan Writing (All Facts)

• Developed around 1700 / 1600 BCE to keep track of more complex arrangements of trade

• Its earliest models that formed its local script were based on Egyptian models

Mycenean Writing (All Facts)

• Developed around 1450 BCE

• Form in which the Greek language is written down for the first time

• Form based on ideograms representing men, animals, objects, products and numerical signs

• Form in which painted inscriptions in this style were made on oil jars exported from Crete to other parts of the Aegean

• Based on an 88 character syllabic system

• Eventually became unwieldly and ill-adapted to modern needs, it evolved into a newer script used by the Greeks after the period known as the Greek Dark Age

  • This was because, like a number of similar systems developed around that time such as Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian Cuneiform, it had too many signs for clarity and ease of use

Greek Writing: Greek Alphabet (All Facts)

• Developed around 775 BCE, it replaced Mycenean writing with a simpler system derived from the Phoenician system of the time, in which the namesake system was used instead

• System that was discovered whilst trading with Phoenicia

  • Over time, Phoenicians settled in Greece and offered the namesake discovery to native Greeks

  • Native Greeks went on to modify the namesake system for their own uses, although its origins were never forgotten

• Different from its Phoenician model / derivation in that the namesake system and its parts

  • look different: its different sounds produce differently shaped letters

  • has vowels, five total; which were ignored by the Phoenicians and other Semitic groups in their languages

Eunomia (All Facts)

• Legal concept adopted, developed, and constitutionalized by the Spartans around 900 BCE - 700 BCE and attributed to the (their) famous lawgiver Lycurgus

• Characterized by two main principles:

  • Equality

  • Strict discipline, organized along military lines

Spartan Government / Constitution (All Facts)

• Government consisting of

  • an odd mixture of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy

  • two kings, who seem to have more military than governmental power

  • five annually-elected magistrates

  • council of elders whose members are elected for life but must be at least 60 years old

  • an assembly of “Equals” or 9,000 citizens who have the final say in legislation

    • However, most of its inhabitants are not citizens and are excluded from government including the freemen and serfs who grow food for everyone else

Greek Democracy: Origins (All Facts)

• Political system which began to develop around 700 BCE

  • During this early period, the marketplaces of city-states throughout Greece rang with the cries of protesting peasants who demanded more civil rights

    • They were primarily angry about being continually unsettled by continually feuding landowners over boundaries

    • Such turmoil in the countryside gave them the opportunity to challenge their city-state governments

  • Prior to this time, only male property owners who worshipped the local patron god or goddess were allowed to attend political meetings and elect officials

    • Now, however, by this time, free public meetings began in city squares where slaves, peasants, artisans, traders, and even aristocrats gathered and all had a chance to speak

  • The ruling assemblies were made up of aristocrats who had taken over the power of the king and one government officer still had to be called king in order to continue ancient religious rites with the gods while others were made generals, civil heads, law directors, state cult supervisors, etc.

• Political system which began to develop around 600 BCE

  • Around this time, turmoil was brewing throughout Greece, especially in the countryside

  • The poor had look for protection to the ever-quarreling aristocrats and those powerful nobles exacted a heavy price for their uncertain help

  • The nobles demanded ever greater shares of the poor man’s harvest as the poor man slid deeper into debt to the point where he mortgaged himself until he could not pay any more and forfeited to the great estates and became a serf

  • In the Athenian countryside in particular, there was a growing reluctance by former soldiers-turned-farmers to pay the customary 1/6 tribute demanded by landowners; in which these independent-minded men regarded the tribute at this point as degrading

  • The discontent of the country eventually spilled into the cities and led to political instability with the rupture of the civic community; a situation only made worse by the prevalent rivalries between the various aristocratic fashions

  • The people began to demand political equality and fairer distribution of the land

  • The old certainties began to be questioned

  • The people began to challenge the powers of the old ruling factions

Polis (All Facts)

• System of municipal organization of Ancient Greece also known as “city-states” which replaced the monarchy of earlier periods of Greek history

• Centers of territorial government which were built around groups of villages, ideally on a hill, for purposes of defense

• These polities had their own citizen-based armies

  • In these polities, military service was compulsory and everyone was required to take part in the defense of his variant of the namesake

  • Were organized so as to produce as large an army as possible

  • Usually, all men who owned a moderate amount of land had to equip themselves as hoplites

Hoplites (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the foot soldiers that comprised the armies of the various Greek city-states

• Consisted of men who owned a moderate amount of land who were required throughout Ancient Greece to equip themselves as heavily-armed foot soldiers

• Wore bronze helmets, breastplates, and graves (leg-armor) and were armed with long lances for stabbing (rather than throwing) and short swords

• Carried stout circular shields of wood on their left arms

• The key to their success in battle was their formation into phalanxes

• They fought by shoving and pushing with the shields, accompanied by stabbing with the spear or sword

• Because of their shields, most of the wounds they incurred were either in the neck or genitals

Phalanxes (All Facts)

• Classic, compact and highly-disciplined formation of the Greek hoplites in battle

• Typically, they are deeper than they are wider

• Consist of each of the foot soldiers sticking very close together, each protecting himself and the man on his left with his shield

• Made for fighting consisting of shoving and pushing with the shield and stabbing with the spear or sword

• Its design made it so that if the front rank fell and was trampled underfoot, the next rank replaced it, and so on, until one side gave way

• In this battle formation, death was distinctively nasty because of the hoplites’ shields’ position in this formation, in which the majority of hoplites died or were injured in the neck or genitals

Olympics (All Facts)

• Held every four years to honor the glory of Zeus

  • Promoted the development of the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia

• Brought together athletes from all the different Greek cities

• Old animosities were put aside when heralds proclaimed the sacred truce for the games

  • Warring states put aside their weapons and competitors, spectators, and pilgrims were given safe conduct to the games

  • Thus, for a time, the Greeks, often divided, were reconciled by the accomplishments of the athletes

• Visitors from all over the known world came to see the athletes compete

  • However, women were barred from the arena

• Strictly controlled by the people of Elis who run the festival

• Last 5-7 days

  • The first is given over to ceremonies with blasts on the trump, sacrifices, and banquets

• Events originally consisted of foot races, with young men running bare naked; but also boxing and wrestling (pankration), the pentathlon, the race in armor, and various horse and chariot races

  • Adolescents competed in running and wrestling contests

• A month before they opened, heralds and religious ambassadors announced the date of the great gathering

• Were overseen by the aristocracy of Elis, who presided over all religious ceremonies at Olympia, of which they were considered the earthly guardians

• The opening ceremonies begin at Elis two days before its start in which the competitors set out on a two day march to Olympia

  • The march, 35+ miles long, took the athletes through Pieria, where they washed themselves and sacrificed a pig, and Letrini, where they rested the night before arrival in Olympia

• There were around 20,000 people in the crowd watching the competitors each time

Olympians (All Facts)

• Athletes in the Olympics

• Were required to

  • Be Greek (by blood)

  • Be a free man

  • Be legitimate and of impeccable character

  • Train for 10 months in their own city-states

    • During the final month of training, they gather in the gymnasium of Elis where they were forbidden any stimulants and were fed a diet of barley bread, wheat porridge, dried figs, nuts, and cheese

  • Swear by the gods that they have not broken their training

  • March two days before the Games from Elis to Olympia, a 35-mile long march in which they passed through

    • Pieria, where they

      • Washed themselves

      • Sacrificed a pig

    • Letrini, where they rested the night before arrival in Olympia

• When they arrived in Olympia, they were greeted by the roar of 20,000 spectators packed into the stadium

• Led by the Hellanodikai, they went to the altar of Zeus where they swear to keep the namesake ideal

• The virtues of modesty and good nature were regarded by them as essential complements to victory

  • They believed that

    • victory belonged

      • First to the gods

      • Second to the city-state

    • the ego of the individual athlete was the least important

Olympianicae (All Facts)

• Winning athletes in the Olympics

• Rewarded on the last day of the Olympics with simple olive wreaths but return home as heroes, equals of warriors, and are awarded valuable gifts and privileges in their hometowns

Olympic Senate (All Facts)

• Body of aristocrats from Elis who elect nine Hellanodikai, or judges, for the namesake event

Hellanodikai (All Facts)

• 9 Judges of the Olympics

  • 3 judged the Pentathlon

  • 3 judged the chariot and horse races

  • 3 judged the other events

• They

  • Set the rulers

  • Gave the starting signals

  • Judged the competitions

  • Awarded the prizes of wild olive wreaths to the victors

• Were elected by the “Olympic Senate”

• Dressed in their purple robes with laurel wreaths on their brows

• They entered the results in the victory lists and set up the statues of the victors

• Assisted by their servants called the Keryx

Keryx (All Facts)

• Servant of the Hellanodikai in the Olympics

• Raised his arm for silence

• Read out the names of the competitors, the cities they came from, and the events they will take part in

• Takes each competitor into into the center of the arena and asks the thousands assembled if there are any who object to the athlete taking part

Pankration (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek sport which combined boxing and all-in wrestling

• These athletes were not confined to rings or rounds like they are today

Himantes (All Facts)

• Name for the boxing gloves the Ancient Greeks wore in pankration

• Made of ox-hide bindings, they were laced around the hands

Greek Colonies (All Facts)

• Needed to be established due to the social pressures and quarrels over distribution of land and fear of starvation occurring in mainland Greece around 650 BCE

• Established upon Greek expeditions setting sail to all parts of the known world at the time, with each of the namesake having been founded by a particular city-state

  • Some city-states founded one or more of them

• Were founded in Sicily and southern Italy, North Africa, and on the shores of the Black Sea as well as the Sea of Marmara and Bosporus Strait

• Were settled by young men of fighting age who set out in bands of up to 200 and were led by an individual called an “Oikistes”

  • The settlers who founded them retain close links with their old homes, taking with them their traditional institutions and gods in the form of wooden statuettes when they arrive

• Sometimes, the original inhabitants of the namesake lands welcomed the Greeks, who would give them grants of land

  • Other times, however, the Greeks had to fight their way ashore

    • If successful, they used the conquered natives as slave laborers in the fields

• Once established, they became completely independent of the mother city that founded it

• Were essentially agrarian, the land having been allotted equally among the settlers

Emporia / Emporium (All Facts)

• Commercial and/or agricultural settlements centered on trade established via Greek colonization who owed their existence not to a mother city, but to groups of businessmen who sought an opportunity for profitable trade

Tyrant (All Facts)

• Type of ruler of the Greek city-states

• First appeared in 657 BCE

• Usually an aristocrat, they seize power in a period of crisis

• They all seemed to follow the same pattern:

  • Anarchy was their breeding ground; nurtured on discontent

  • Seized power with the support of either

    • a faction of the quarreling aristocracy

    • the poor and dispossessed

    • the sword-power of a band of foreign mercenaries

• Their immediate task upon seizing power was to solve the particular crisis which brought them to power

  • Has to first eliminate their immediate opposition

  • Thus, they would then have the people’s support while he solves the crisis

• As they strove to re-establish order and stability, they instituted radical measures involving

  • the redistribution of land

  • the setting of economic and social measures in motion with large-scale building projects

  • looking abroad to increase his city’s international prestige

  • promoting the arts

  • promoting popular religious cults

• Were often a popular figure

• Some passed their rule to their sons, but their rule rarely extended beyond one generation because the Greeks were a freedom-loving people and they grew burdensome to them once their task was completed

• Thus, they were typically overthrown after a certain time

Greek Scribes (All Facts)

• Type of figure / profession that developed by the 600’s BCE throughout Greece’s city-states, especially in Athens

• Regularly engraved new laws of their day on stone pillars or columns in public places

• Some of them were

  • already occupied as craftsmen

  • hired to travel from place to place

  • resident officials

• Were skilled in alphabetic writing

• Were responsible for publishing

  • official decrees

  • lists of magistrates

  • religious instructions

  • commemorative notices (affecting the daily lives of citizens)

• Their texts, picked out in red and blue letting to attract attention to them, were placed

  • In the busiest parts of the cities

  • In front of public buildings

  • In the city forums

• Thus, the occupation, a form of art in its own right, was

  • used to tell the people of laws that were the same for all

  • not held as a privilege of the royal archivists any longer and was an occupation which extended down the class hierarchy of Greek society at the time

Agora (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the city forum of the Greek city-states

• Term used to refer to the “meeting place” of Athens where important political processes, decisions, and/or votes, such as those of ostracism, took place

Archon (All Facts)

• Political office held by the ancient Greek rulers of city-states that developed in the early 600’s BCE (682 BCE) and marked a transition from monarchy to constitutional government

• Was the chief magistrate of a Greek city-state

• Word for “ruler” in Greek, it evolved to become a more generically applied term to any Greek ruler

Eiren (All Facts)

• Title given to young Spartan boys after they experience many painful ordeals and which put them in charge of younger boys

• These boys were encouraged to steal food, yet if they were caught they were flogged

Greek Entertainment (All Facts)

• By the 600’s BCE, this consisted of poetry, dance, and music

• Was also used for religious and political purposes

Boar-Hunting (All Facts)

• Considered a vital part of the training of young Greek men

• Consists of a chase of the namesake animal on foot or on horseback

• Tests their courage and endurance

• Teaches them how to

  • judge the lie of the land

  • use their weapons against live quarry / game

• Training which was essential to a man’s survival given that Greek men were expected to take to the field in defense of his city at a moment’s notice

• Training which was so important that it was decreed that the men may even ride through standing crops in order that the sportsmen’s game is preserved

• Considered to have a beneficial effect on a young Greek man’s character, making him confident and just

• Was an initiation rite, through with the virtues of the young were recognized

• Even the namesake animal being slaughtered had a place in this developing philosophy of the namesake practice, for the slaughtered animal gained from the practice when possessed served as a

  • Sign of social prestige

  • Most acceptable form of a gift for a lover

• Done in the open with javelins in Athens

• Skills associated with the practice are taught to very young Spartans

Symposium (All Facts)

• Greek social institution in which there was a social gathering of men and women after banquets in which the men gathered together to eat, drink, sing, discuss the affairs of the day, and be entertained by beautiful young boys and girls

• This institution involved a strict order in which

  • First, the host will invite his friends to an “andron” or men’s room, where they lie, propped on their left arms, on couches piled high with cushions

    • slaves served the men with delicacies and light snacks were laid out on low tables

  • Second, a toast to the god Dionysus was made and a “king” was elected for the evening to mix the wine and water in a large “krater” or mixing bowl

  • Third, when he had done his work, young boy and girl slaves poured the wine into fine pottery or metal goblets

• The drinking that took place followed well-establish rituals common to many all-male gatherings

• They had their own song books

• No free women were allowed to attend them, but some men took their “hired women” with them

• As the wine circulated in one, the gaiety increased

  • There were games

    • Like flicking wine at a target

  • There was music and jesters

• Also had a serious aspect

  • Often served as intellectual gatherings in which poets and authors read out their latest work

  • Sometimes attended by the great philosophers to dispute their theories in which conversation reached a very high level

Andron (All Facts)

• Men’s room in the Symposiums, where men would lie, propped on their left arms, on couches piled high with cushions

• Slaves served the men with delicacies and light snacks were laid out on low tables in this room

Krater (All Facts)

• Mixing bowl in which the wine and water was mixed by the “kings” during a Greek Symposium

Seisachtheia (All Fact)

• Term used to refer to Solon’s law which abolished the system by which a man and his family could fall into slavery if they failed to pay off their debts and/or mortgages

Demos (All Fact)

• Term used to refer to “the people” of Athens or any other Greek city-state from which support was enlisted amongst populist rulers or “tyrants”

The Deme (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the administrative units of city-states first established by Cleisthenes, which consisted of a village or a section of Athens

• These units are then combined into 30 groups called “trittyes”, which themselves form ten “phylai” (tribes), which replaced the old division of four tribes

  • Each tribe now chose 50 men by lot to send to the Council, which meant that all citizens of Athens, from the richest to the poorest, were represented on the Council

  • All citizens were now equal in the eyes of the law

• Townships

Ostracism (All Facts)

• Legal concept / political process established by Cleisthenes in which, once a year, a man considered to be dangerous to Athens could be (was) sent into exile for ten years

  • This was done by citizens scratching the name of the man they wanted exiled on a potshard called an “ostrakon”

  • The man who received the most votes was exiled

• Established in case there was ever a need to remove a despot

  • In practice, however, it was used by jealous politicians to settle scores with rivals

  • However, victims of the process who were recalled after initially having been forced into exile could return to keep a major part of their wealth in Athens and make their home in a place of their own choosing

• Set in motion by the President of the Council of Athens

  • Once victims’ names begin to be mooted in the Assembly, action occurs

  • Six months later, a gathering of all citizens in the agora (meeting place) of Athens makes the final decision

    • At least 6,000 citizens must voice an opinion

• The first individual to be forced into exile by this process was Hipparchos, son of Charmos, who fled to Persia

• One individual who was recalled back after wrongfully being exiled was Aristides the Just

• When this occurred to Themistocles, he was later recalled by he chose to go to Persia, the home of his former enemy

Greek Homosexuality (All Facts)

• This love between men was as common as heterosexual love throughout Greece, especially in Athens

• Was positively encouraged among students and soliders

Pederasty (All Facts)

• Most common form of homosexuality in Ancient Greece in which a man or “Erastes” forms an attachment to a boy or “Eronemos” between the ages of 12 and 18

• Was seen as an integral part of a young man’s education, especially in Athens

• Although this relationship was platonic, it involved mutual masturbation

• In this relationship, young men were legally protected against rape and certain forms of abuse and were never expected to submit to an older man’s advances

  • If they did, however, there was no opprobrium (public disgrace) attached

• In Dorian cities such as in Sparta, this form was favored as bonds of love between soldiers were guarantees of solidarity and bravery in combat

Erastes (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the man in a relationship of pederasty

Eronemos (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the boy in a relationship of pederasty

Kalos (All Facts)

• Exclamation in Greek for “beautiful” that was inscribed on Attic pottery alongside depictions of naked young men and their partners

  • Were shown exchanging gifts or making gestures indicating sexual contact

Strategos (All Facts)

• Magistracy / Public office instituted in Athens by the 400’s BCE in which the individual is elected by the popular assembly

• Made up of ten Strategoi (generals) who were under the direction of the Polemarchos (Supreme Commander)

• Instituted by Cleisthenes

Strategoi (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the generals of the office of Strategos

• There were ten of them and they were elected by the Popular Assembly

Polemarchos (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the supreme commander of the office of Strategos

Isonomia (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the Greek conception of equality under the law

Pythian Games (All Facts)

• One of the four major athletic festivals in Ancient Greece

Isthmian Games (All Facts)

• One of the four major athletic festivals in Ancient Greece

Nemean Games (All Facts)

• One of the four major athletic festivals in Ancient Greece

Triremes (All Facts)

• Athenian marine warships

• Long fast ships, each requiring 200 oarsmen

• 200 of them were built by Athens via a “crash building program” which was completed in 3 years

• Famously built and promoted during the rule of Themistocles

  • Would require 40,000 oarsmen total

• If Athens were ever to be defeated by the Persians, or any other power, they could be used for the mass emigration of Athenians towards the west of Greece if in such a time of crisis

• Their square sail was often left on the beach whenever they were taken into battle

Trierarchy (All Facts)

• Tax that was levied on those who owned very large amounts of property

• Tax that was essentially levied on the 100 or so wealthiest citizens of Athens

• First instituted in Athens by Themistocles in 493 BCE

Phoros (All Facts)

• Annual tribute instituted by the Delian League to be paid to finance a fleet of triremes for the defense of Greece against Persia, with the contribution of each city fixed according to its means

Symmachia (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to a military treaty between independent polities covering both offense and defense, was a military alliance

Ostrakon (All Facts)

• Piece of pottery on which everyone in the Agora or meeting place of Athens who wished to vote on banishing someone via Ostracism inscribed their vote

3100 BCE - 1100 BCE - Minoan Civilization (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek Bronze Age Civilization which developed and was centered in Crete around 3100 BCE (and began forming urban settlements and towns around 2000 BCE)

• Built many luxurious palaces including the Palace at Knossos and Palace at Phaistos

• Characterized by its art and architecture

• Some consider it the first ever European civilization (in history, that is - after prehistory)

1750 BCE - 1250 BCE / 1050 BCE - Mycenaean Civilization (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek Bronze Age Civilization which developed and centered in mainland Greece (especially in the Peloponnese) around 1750 BCE

• Characterized by it being the first distinctively Greek civilization with its palatial (city-) states and urban organization, its writing system, and art and architecture

  • Wrote down the Greek language for the first time

  • Characterized by its many palaces including those at the namesake site from which the civilization gets its name as well as Tiryns, Pylos, and Thebes

  • Characterized by their distinctive “tholoi” or “beehive” tombs and “shaft” graves

• Achieved fame and prosperity on mainland Greece, dominating the plain of Argos with its cornfields and horse ranches but also dominating the trade routes that ran from the southeastern ports through the mountain passes northwards towards the Isthmus of Corinth

• Took over Knossos and Minoan Civilization in Crete around 1450 BCE while adopting bureaucratic techniques such as writing from the older Cretan culture

  • Reorganized its economic, political, and military administration by 1375 BCE

• Eventually opened itself up to the outside world and began establishing trading contacts over large parts of the Mediterranean, especially in the Aegean, Cyprus, and Near East

  • Its economy is characterized by the trade and exchange of fabric, perfumed oils, cereals and wine for basic materials they lacked including copper, tin, gold, ivory, amber, and jewels

  • Fostered a vigorous enterprise culture in which they forged links deep into Europe for gold, bronze, and amber

  • They re-exported these materials from Europe and exported their own pottery to the islands of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean

• Its people, including kings, worshipped at shrines in their own homes, or at sacred sites like saves or mountain tops in the open air

• Its collapse was likely due to economic and social problems

1750 BCE - 1050 BCE - Mycenaean Ruling Class (All Facts)

• Ruling Class of the Ancient Greek Bronze Age Civilization which developed and centered in mainland Greece (especially in the Peloponnese) around 1750 BCE

• Enjoyed a full life of sport and games, boar-hunting expeditions

• Fought wars of armed combat with the hill-folk to the north with lance and body-shield of bull’s hide

• Women were large-eyed, had flowing hair, flounced skirts, and low-cut bodices and danced and feasted with the men

1200 BCE - 800 BCE - Dorians (Dark Age Greece) (All Facts)

• One of the four major ethnic tribes of Greece or the “Hellenes”

• Relatively primitive people initially, they came to dominate the Peloponnese during the Greek Dark Ages

• Relied on Iron to make their tools and weapons

• Lived in small communities with land divided into plots owned by the community

  • Eventually, some individuals began to grab larger chunks of land and thus a more hierarchical society soon developed

• Traded with Phoenicians who travelled to Greece and brought the Greeks jewelry, pottery, and other objects

• Established colonies and communities in Sparta and Argos in the Peloponnese and who founded the city of Gela in Sicily

  • Their intervention in the island of Sicily was made under the guidance of Antiphemos of Rhodes and Entimos of Crete

1200 BCE - 800 BCE - Achaeans (Dark Age Greece) (All Facts)

• One of the four major ethnic tribes of Greece or the “Hellenes”

1200 BCE - 800 BCE - Aeolians (Dark Age Greece) (All Facts)

• One of the four major ethnic tribes of Greece or the “Hellenes”

1200 BCE - 800 BCE - Ionians (Dark Age Greece) (All Facts)

• One of the four major ethnic tribes of Greece or the “Hellenes”

Oikistes (All Facts)

• Individual leaders chosen by the elders of a city-state to found a new colony

• Colony settlers are young men of fighting age who set out in bands of up to 200 and were led by this figure

Serfs (All Facts)

• Lower class of Greeks

• Greeks who lost their status

900 BCE / 700 BCE - Spartans (All Facts)

• Name for the group of people living in the namesake city and region of the Peloponnese in Greece

• Adopted a constitution aimed at “Eunomia,” or “good order,” which was attributed to a great law-giver called Lycurgus

• Practiced infanticide

  • This was done amongst newborn babies who were judged to be too weak to be soldiers and were left to die in the wilderness

• The strictness in their military discipline and conversion of city-states into armed camps likely stemmed from the fear of an uprising by the lower subject class

• Known for their cunning and their bravery in war

900 BCE / 700 BCE - Spartan Class Structure (All Facts)

• At the top of this class structure was the warrior class, which had legal and civil rights

• Below them were the “Dwellers Round About” or class that carried on trade

• At the bottom of this class structure were the serfs, who were tied to the land

Spartan Boys (All Facts)

• Taken from their families at age 7 to live among children of their own age

  • They start military training at age 12

  • Dirty, barefoot, and ill-clad; they

    • Sleep on a mat of reeds

    • Learn to read and write (but only in order to express themselves “laconically” in a few pointed words)

  • Were encouraged to steal food, yet if they were caught they were flogged

• During their training

  • They had other young men as lovers

  • They had elders keep watch in their gymnastic contests and naked battled between rival teams

• In religious ceremonies, they flogged each other until

  • Blood was drawn out

  • One of them died

• The system behind the training process and religious ceremonies was designed to turn out soldiers to be the most rough, obedient, and resourceful

Spartan Girls (All Facts)

• Trained in

  • running

  • wrestling

  • javelin-throwing

  • discus-casting

• Trained in these in order to develop strong, healthy bodies to deliver strong, healthy babies

Spartan Women (All Facts)

• Excluded from all political power

• However, they are not as constrained as elsewhere in the world at the time

• They widely participate and take seriously athletics

---

• Were famous in ancient Greece for seemingly having more freedom than women elsewhere in the Greek world.

• To contemporaries outside the namesake city, its women had a reputation for promiscuity and controlling their husbands

• Its women could legally own and inherit property, and they were usually better educated than their Athenian counterparts

Phocaeans (All Fact)

• People from the namesake city in Anatolia who founded Massalia (Marseilles, France)

• Established new colonies along the southern shore of Gaul and the northeastern coast of Iberia

• Rapidly became a major economic power in the Western Mediterranean around the 600’s BCE

Delphians (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the priests of Apollo

500’s BCE - 404 BCE - Peloponnesian League (All Facts)

• Alliance of the namesake states formed under the control of Sparta

• Formed in order to

  • Help the Greek city-states get rid of their tyrants

  • Counter the influence of Argos in the namesake region

  • Help pro-Spartan rulers come to power

  • create a military alliance for

    • combined attack on external foes

    • defense against aggressors

478 BCE - Delian League (All Facts)

• Alliance of Greek cities formed by Athens against the Persian King Xerxes who remained a threat to Greece by the time of its creation despite his major war losses and the end of the Greco-Persian Wars

• The congress of this alliance met once a year on the namesake island

• This alliance was sealed by sinking pieces of iron in the sea to symbolize the fate of those who break oaths

• It was essential for the alliance to have a fleet capable of protecting its cities against the Persians, but some of its members were too small to be able to provide the necessary ships and men

  • Thus, it was proposed that each member should pay an annual tribute to finance a fleet of triremes, with the contribution of each city fixed according to its means

    • The states it was comprised of made their payments to the shrine of Apollo on the namesake island

      • These payments could be in money or in kind (for example, by supplying ships to the common fleet)

• The Spartans, who, by the time of this alliance’s creation, believed the war to be over, played no part in it’s affairs

  • They would soon regret this decision, however, as the Athenian’s leadership of the alliance resulted in all of Greece being united under its hegemony and would eventually lead to a civil war (the Peloponnesian Wars)

• Although its original aim was to protect Greek cities against Persian invasion, it rapidly became an instrument that bolstered the power of Athens

  • Was originally a defensive alliance of Greek city-state, which paid a tribute to Athens mainly to support its navy

  • However, over time, it was developed by the Athenians in order to exert economic and political power over the other city-states

• Its treasury was eventually moved from the namesake city to the Acropolis at Athens for security reasons and in order to use the funds to further its imperialist policies

Helots (All Facts)

• Lower class of Sparta

• Sometimes were treated as quarry by young Spartan warriors who ambushed them at night and killed them to prove their manhood

• The ones in Laconia and Messenia rose up in a slave revolt in 464 BCE that took advantage of an earthquake that occurred that year that decimated the population of the city of Sparta in order to attack any remaining survivors

  • Were joined in their rebellion by the Perioecic community, who were debarred from positions of power in the Spartan state

  • They took up positions on the slopes of Mount Ithome in Messenia

Boule (All Facts)

• Council appointed to run daily affairs of a Greek city

Areopagus (All Facts)

• Ancient aristocratic council and court composed of former magistrates of Greek city-states

• Its political power was codified since the rule of Solon

• Took advantage of the turmoil of the Persian Wars and extended its own power during that time

Heliaia (All Facts)

• Supreme Court of (Ancient) Athens

• Effectively replaced the oligarchical Areopagus along with the Council of the 500

Greek Funerals / Burials (All Facts)

• Athenians and most Greeks believed that everyone, apart from certain criminals, was deserving of one of the namesake

• They thought that

  • without the namesake, the deceased cannot gain access to the afterlife in the house of Hades

  • a corpse is regarded as having nothing further to do with the gods of the living, and therefore must be hidden in the earth to avoid pollution or offense to them

• They tend to follow the same pattern

  • First, the body is bathed

  • Second, it is dressed in clothes such as would have been worn in life

  • Third, it is laid on a couch, and a honeycake or other offering is placed in the mouth for Charon

  • Fourth, Lamentations are recited, together with libations (ritual pourings of various liquids such as wine, milk, honey, and water)

  • Fifth, a procession to the cemetery (located outside the city walls to avoid pollution) occurs

    • There, the namesake action results in one being

      • In a coffin

      • Cremated, with the bones being buried in a jar or urn

  • Sixth, the relatives re-enact the first ritual at increasing intervals

    • for a month afterwards

    • every year on the anniversary of the death

• Those who reached the highest level of value and selflessness by being killed in battle were given an accompanying public display of mourning and reverence that culminated in the namesake oration, in addition to the namesake

Sema (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the sign or inscription and/or statue that marked a grave (statues included a youth, girl, lion, or sphinx)

Greek Schools / Education (All Facts)

• By 420 BCE, growing numbers of Athenian parent sent their sons to the namesake institution

• Its “primary” variant was available for boys only, and it was up to the family to pay for it

• Boys went there accompanied by their slave-tutors

• They meet at the house of the grammatistes, the master who the parents pay to teach the child

• They learned the alphabet, reading, writing, and arithmetic

• Teaching is basic, with the children progressing as rapidly as possible from simple learning by rote to much more difficult logical and rational problems

• After learning the alphabet, they move on to syllables, before tackling whole words

• Arithmetic consisted of counting and the learning of fractions

• Little attempt was made to make adult language more intelligible

• The chief instrument of motivation was the rod

• Handwriting was practiced on fragments of broken earthenware pots or wax tablets

• Pupils eventually moved on to write on papyrus leaves with quills made of reeds

• Pupils recited passages from Homer, Hesiod, or Solon; from which the master drew moral and religious lessons

• Although richer families had private tutors, almost all Athenian boys receive the namesake

• Very few had the opportunity to study beyond their early teens, however

Grammatistes (All Facts)

• Master of the Ancient Greek schools who is paid a modest fee by the parents

411 BCE - Council of the Four Hundred (All Facts)

• A revolt in Athens triggers the suspension of the magistracies who are then replaced by the namesake council of co-opted members

• The revolt’s leaders argued that political life was reserved for the propertied rich and the hoplites and denied to the poor, who rowed on board the triremes

• Its demise was caused by the alienation of Theramenes, one of the coup’s leaders

• After its fall, democracy is restored by its successor

410 BCE - Council of the Five Hundred (All Facts)

• Moderately oligarchic regime which comes to power after its predecessor of the same name minus 100 members

• By refusing to help the co-opted council, The Spartans concluded peace

Ephebic Training (All Facts)

• Athenian system of military training derived from the Spartans

• Characterized by the practice of young men of 18 having their cut short

• Young Athenian men of 18 embarked on a two-year training course

• Each Attic deme drew up a list of young men when they reached 18 (the age of civic majority) and drafted them for the Athenian military provided that they were eligible for Athenian citizenship

• Would result in the draftees becoming official hoplites for the Athenian army

Ephebes (All Facts)

• 18 year old Athenian draftees of the Ephebic Military Training System

• Their service involved

  • an expedition to the Attic borders

  • instruction in barracks at the Port of Piraeus

  • a year spent in the wild hunting and doing various military duties

• They

  • Wore black cloaks and special hats

  • Took oaths of loyalty

  • Were ready to become an official hoplite by the end of their training

Slavery in Ancient Greece (All Facts)

• Although freeborn Greeks control the country’s commercial success, nothing would be possible without the large community of individuals belonging to this institution, which actually performed the vital labor

• Were almost always

  • non-Greeks

  • without rights, liberty, or property

  • traded like any other commodity

• There were as many as 100,000 in Athens alone, making up a 1/3 of its total population by the 300’s BCE

• Despite these numbers, they never revolted (except in Sparta)

• Some escaped, but were always caught and returned

• Were vital to any community’s smooth operation

• While they were fully exploited, their conditions were not wholly unpleasant

  • Those that were property of the state and essential to the bureaucracy and police as well as those that had special skills in crafts or financial services were considered public property and emancipated at high rates

    • Essentially, they these groups of the namesake to start families, earn money, and thus buy their freedom

  • However, those that were domestic or labored on farms were considered private property and emancipated at low rates

  • The 30,000 or so that worked in the mines were never emancipated

Athenian Women (All Facts)

• Their place was always in the home

  • Outside, they

    • Had no independent status

    • Were not allowed to enter into any transaction worth more than one “medimnos” of barley

• Could not own any property other than their own clothes, jewelry, and slaves

• As wives, they

  • were in charge of their children’s education and the running of the home

  • supervised everything, from baking the bread to making the clothes

  • were said to be “queen bee in [their] hive[s]”

• Well-born ones are well-versed in religion

  • They worshipped Hestia, goddess of the hearth

  • Were constantly confined in the gynaceum

• Their only opportunities for socializing with other women were in the context of religious festivals, funerals, and visits to other gynaecea

• The poorer ones had all of these responsibilities and also helped their husbands with the work in the fields

Athenian Girls (All Facts)

• Lived among their family’s servants

• Learned domestic chores from them

• Learned to spin, weave, and cook in the gynaceums, where men were strictly forbidden

• Learned to manage the workshops and slaves

• When they turned 15 years old, their father sought out a husband for them

  • They were not consulted in this process

Gynaceum (All Facts)

• Part of the house, often the innermost area, designated for women in Ancient Greece

• It served as a woman’s living space, analogous to the andron

• Term also used to refer to any area or building specifically for women in Ancient Greece

Andron (All Facts)

• Part of the house, designated for men in Ancient Greece

• It served a man’s living space, analogous to the Gynaceum

• Term also used to refer to any area or building specifically for men in Ancient Greece

Athenian Fathers (All Facts)

• Were the absolute head of the family

Amphidromia (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek birth ritual

• Was

  • of ancient origins

  • an important aspect of family life

• Its purpose was to

  • integrate the new-born child into the family

  • purify the house after the messiness of the birth

• After a birth, a sign was put on the door of the home

  • For boys, this was an olive branch

  • For girls, this was wool

  • After the sign was place, pitch was smeared on it to ward off evil spirits

• After a birth,

  • the women

    • cleaned the household

    • sprinkled water in a ritual cleansing

  • the father

    • carried the infant round the hearth at a run

  • the family

    • sing in thanksgiving

• On the tenth day of this ritual, the child is fully integrated into the family and given a name

  • Boys were usually given the same name as their paternal grandfather

    • This was done in order to ensure the continuity of the family name in a society with high mortality rates

• Whenever a child was born, the father got to decide whether or not he wanted to keep it

  • He may have tested its fitness by various tests

    • For example, some Greek fathers rubbed them with icy water, pure wine, or urine

  • Sometimes, they abandoned their newborn child

    • The usual reason for this was in order not to divide up an already small estate

      • A daughter was more likely to be rejected in this way

  • Abandoned children were taken to a wild spot and left in a pot known as a pithos, in the hope that a passing shepherd may take pity on it

  • Childless couples were altered to an impending abandonment

Child Abandonment in Ancient Greece (All Facts)

• Practice in which the namesake individual would be forced to undertake the namesake process because the father of the household did not want to divide up an already small estate, especially if they happened to be female

• The individual was then taken to a wild spot and left in a pot known as a pithos, in the hope that a passing shepherd may take pity on it

• Childless couples were altered whenever the namesake case was impending

Pithos (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the pot or pottery that abandoned children were placed in in the hopes that a passing shepherd would take pity on it and “adopt” it

Thebans (All Facts)

• Inhabitants of the namesake city in Central Greece that rose to power after the decline of Athens and Sparta in the mid-300’S BCE