McDougal Littell World History: Patterns of Interaction

`Chapter 5: Classical Greece 

Chapter 5.1: Culture of the Mountains and the Sea 

• The sea shaped Greek civilization just as rivers shaped the ancient civilizations of Egypt,the Fertile Crescent, India, and China. 

  • Greeks rarely had to travel more than 85 miles to reach the coastline. 

  • The Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and the Black Sea were important transportation routes for the Greek people. 

    • Sea travel connected Greece with other societies. 

      • It was important because Greece lacked natural resources, such as timber, precious metals, and usable farmland. 

• The Greeks developed small, independent communities within each little valley and its surrounding mountains. 

  • Most Greeks gave their loyalties to local communities. 

  • The uneven terrain made land travel difficult. 

    • There were few roads, and most were little dirt paths. 

      • Often it took travelers several days to complete a journey that might take a few hours today. 

  • Much of the land was stony and only a small part was arable, or suitable for farming. 

    • Tiny fertile valleys covered ¼ of Greece. 

    • The small streams that watered the valleys were not suitable for large-scale irrigation projects. 

      • Greece was never able to support a large population. 

      • No more than a few million people lived here at any given time. 

        • They did not live lives of luxury. 

  • Climate was one of the environmental influences of the Greek civilization. 

    • There was a varied climate with temperatures averaging 48 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and 80 degrees in the summer. 

      • Men spent much of their leisure time at outdoor public events. 

        • They met often to discuss public issues,exchange news, and take an active part in civic life. 

• Some of the people who settled on Greek mainland around 2000 B.C. were later known as Mycenaeans. 

  • They came from their leading city Mycenae. 

    • It was located in southern Greece on a steep, rocky ridge and surrounded by a protective wall more than 20 feet thick. 

    • They could withstand almost any attack.

    • Strong rulers controlled the areas around other Mycenaean cities, such as Tiryns and Athens. 

      • These kings dominated Greece from about 1600-1100 B.C. 

  • Sometime after 1500 B.C. the Mycenaeans came into contact with the Minoan civilization. 

    • They saw the value of seaborne trade. 

      • This led to them sailing throughout the eastern Mediterranean, making stops at Aegean islands, coastal towns in Anatolia, and ports in Syria, Egypt, Italy, and Crete. 

      • They adopted the Minoan writing system to the Greek language and decorated vases with Minoan designs. 

• During the 1200s B.C. the Mycenaeans fought a ten year war against Troy, an independent trading city located in Anatolia. 

  • According to legend, a Greek army besieged and destroyed Troy because a Trojan prince had kidnapped Helen, the beautiful wife of a Greek king. 

    • Historians originally thought that this war was totally fictional at first. \

      • After excavations conducted in northwestern Turkey, the stories of the Trojan war suggested that it could have been based on real cities, people, and events. 

• Not long after the Trojan War, Mycenaean civilization collapsed. 

  • 1200 B.C. sea raider attacked and burned many Mycenaean cities. 

  • The Dorians moved into the war-torn countryside. 

    • They spoke a dialect of Greek and may have been distant relatives of the Bronze Age Greeks. 

    • They were far less advanced than the Mycenaeans. 

    • The economy collapsed and the trade eventually came to a standstill soon after their arrival. 

  • Greeks appear to have lost the art of writing during the Dorian Age. 

    • No written record exists from the 400-year period between 1150-750 B.C. 

      • Little is known about this period of time. 

• The Greeks of this time learned about their history through spoken word. 

  • The greatest storyteller was a blind man named Homer. 

    • Some historians believe that he composed his epic celebrating heroic deeds, between 750-700 B.C. 

    • The Trojan War forms the backdrop for one of Homer’s great epic poems, the Iliad. 

      • The heroes of the Iliad are warriors 

        • The fierce Greek Achilles and the courageous noble Hector of Troy. 

• The Greeks developed a rich set of myths. 

  • Myths: traditional stories about their gods . 

    • The works of Homer and another epic  Theogony by Hesiod, are the source of much of Greek mythology. 

      • Through these the Greeks sought to understand the mysteries of nature and the power of human passions. 

  • Greeks attributed human qualities, such as love, hate, and jealousy to their gods. 

    • The gods quarreled and competed with each other constantly. 

      • Unlike humans, the gods lived forever. 

Chapter 5.2: Warring City- States 

• By 750 B.C. the city-state, or polis was the fundamental political unit in ancient Greece

. 

• A polis was made up of a city and its surrounding countryside, which included numerous villages. 

• Most city states controlled between 50-500 square miles of territory. 

  • They were often home to fewer than 10,000 residents. 

    • Acropolis: thar agora, or marketplace that citizens gathered at to discuss city government. 

• Greek City states had many different forms of government. 

  • Monarchy: when a single person, called a king, ruled in a government. 

  • Aristocracy: when a government ruled by a small group of noble serving in a king’s military cavalry. 

  • Oligarchy: a government ruled by a few powerful people

• The idea of representative government began to take root in some city states, particularly Athens. 

  • Athens went through power struggles between the rich and the poor. 

    • They avoided political upheavals by making timely reform.  

    • The reformers moved toward democracy, rule by the people. 

      • Citizens now participated directly in political decision making. 

  • The first step toward democracy came when a nobleman named Draco took power. 

    • In 621 B.C. Draci developed a legal code based on the idea that all Athenians,rich and poor, were equal under the law. 

    • His code dealt very harshly with criminals, making death the punishment for practically every crime.

    • It upheld such practices, such as debt slavry, in which debtors worked as slaves to repay their debts. 

  • More far reaching democratic reforms were introduced by Solon who came to power in 594 B.C. 

    • He stated that no citizens should own another citizen.

      • He outlawed debt slavery

    • He organized all Athenian citizens into four classes according to wealth. 

      • Only members of the top three classes could hold political office. 

      • All citizens regardless of class, could participate in the Athenian assembly. 

    • He also introduced the legal concept that ant citizen could bring charges against wrongdoers. 

  • Around 500 B.C. the Athenian leader Cleistenes introduced further reforms. 

    • He broke up the power of the nobility by organizing citizens into ten groups based on where they lived, rather than their wealth. 

    • He increased the power of the assembly by allowing all citizens to submit laws for debate and passage. 

    • He created the council of Five Hundred. 

      • This body proposed laws and counseled the assembly. 

      • Council members were chosen by lot,or at random. 

• The reforms of Cleistenes allowed Athenian citizens to participate in a limited democracy. 

  • Citizenship was restricted to a relatively small number of Athenians. 

  • Only free adult male property owners born in Athens were considered citizens. 

  • Women, slaves, and foreigners were excluded from citizenship and had few rights. 

• Only free adult male property owners born in Athens were considered citizens. 

  • Women, slaves, and foreigners were excluded from citizenship and had few rights. 

  • For the most part, only sons of wealthy families received formal education. 

  • Schooling began around the sage of 7 and largely prepared boys to be good citizens. 

    • They studied reading, grammar, poetry,history, mathematics, and music, . 

    • They were expected to debate issues in the assembly, and they received training in logic and public speaking.

• The Greeks believed that it was important to train and develop the body.

  • They spent their time doing athletic activities. 

  • When they got older, boys went to military school to help them prepare for another important duty of citizenship- defending Athens. 

  • Athenian girls did not attend school. 

    • They were educated at home by their mothers and other female members of the household. 

    • They learned about child-rearing, weaving cloth, preparing meals, managing the household, and other skills that helped them become good wives and mothers. 

    • Some women were able to learn how to read and write. 

• Sparta was nearly cut off from the rest of Greece by the Gulf of Corinth. 

  • Sparta built a military state. 

  • Around 725 B.C. Sparta conquered the neighboring region of Messenia and took over the land. 

    • Messenians became helots. 

    • Helots: peasant forced to stay on the land they worked. 

    • Each year the Spartans demanded half of their crops. 

      • In 650 B.C. the Messenians, resentful of the Spartans’ harsh rule, revolted. 

• Spartan government had many branches. 

  • An assembly was composed of all Spartan citizens, elected officials and voted on major issues. 

  • The council of Elders, made up of 30 older citizens, proposed laws on which the assembly voted. 

  • Fived elected officials carried out the laws passed by the assembly. 

    • These men also controlled education and prosecuted court cases. 

  • Two kings ruled over Sparta’s military forces.

• The sparta social order consisted of several groups. 

  • The first were citizens descended from the original inhabitants of the region. 

    • This group included the ruling families who owned the land.

  • The second group were the non citizens who were free, worked in commerce and industry.                                   

  • The helots were at the bottom of Spartan society, were little better than slaves. 

    • They worked in the fields or as house servants. 

• From about 600 until 371 B.C. Sparta had the most powerful army in Greece.       

  • Spartan people paid a high price for their military supremacy. 

  • All forms of individual expression were discouraged. 

  • The spartans did not value the arts, literature, or other artistic and intellectual pursuits. 

  • They valued duty, strength, and discipline over freedom, individuality, beauty, and learning. 

  • Men were expected to serve in the army until the age of 60. 

• During the Dorian Age only the rich could afford bronze spears, shields, breastplates, and chariots. 

  • Only the rich served in armies.

  • Iron later replaced bronze, it was more common= more cheaper.

• The Persain Wars between Greece and the Persian Empire, began in Ionia on the east coast of Anatolia. 

  • Around 546 B.C. the Persians conquered the area. 

  • When Ionian Greeks revolted, Athens sent ships and soldiers to their aid. 

    • The persain king Darius the Great defeated the rebels and then vowed to destroy Athens in revenge. 

  • In 490 B.C. a Persian fleet carried 25,000 men across the Aegean Sea and landed northeast of Athens on a plain called Marathon. 

    • The Persians fled the battlefield due to them being outnumbered.

• In 480 B.C. Xerxes assembled an enormous invasion force to crush Athens.

  • The Greeks were badly divided. 

  • Some city states agreed to fight the Persians. 

  • His army met no resistance as it marched down the eastern coast of Greece. 

    • When he reached a mountain pass at Thermopylae 7,000 Greeks and 300 spartans blocked his way. 

    • He thought they would have been easy to get past and underestimated their fighting abilities. 

Chapter 5.3: Democracy and Greece’s Golden Age 

• Pericles led Athens during much of its golden age. 

  • He was honest and fair and he held onto popular support for 32 years. 

  • He was a skillful politician, an inspiring speaker, and a respected general. 

  • He so dominated the life of Athens from 461 to 429 B.C. 

    • this period often is called the Age of Pericles

  • He had 3 goals 

    • To strengthen Athenian democracy

    • To hld and strengthen the empire 

    • To glorify Athens. 

  • To strengthen the democracy, Pericles increased the number of public officials who were paid salaries. 

    • Most positions in public office were unpaid. 

    • Direct democracy: a form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives. 

• After the defeat of the Persians, Athens helped organize the Delian League. 

  • Athens tool over leadership of the league and dominated all the city states in it. 

  • Pericles used the money from the league’s treasury to make the Athenian navy the strongest in the Mediterranean. 

    • A strong navy was important because it help Athen strengthen the safety of its empire 

  • Prosperity depended on gaining access to the surrounding waterways. 

    • They needed overseas trade to obtain supplies of grain and other raw materials. 

  • The military allowed Pericles to treat other members of the Delian Leagues as part of the empire. 

  • He also used money form the Delian League to beautify Athens. 

  • He wanted to have the greatest Greek artists and architects crete magnificent sculptures and buildings to glorify Athens 

    • At the center of his plan was one of architecture;s noblest works, the Parthenon. 

      • This was a temple that was built to honor Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the protector of Athens. 

• The Greeks invented drama as an art form and built the first theaters in the West. 

  • Theatrical productions in Athen were both an expression of civic pride and a tribute to the gods. 

  • Wealthy citizens bore the cost of producing the plays.

  • Actors used colorful costumes, masks, and sets to dramatize stories

    • The plays were about leadership, justice, and the duties owed to the gods

    • They often included a chorus that danced, sang, and recited poetry. 

  • The Greeks wrote two kinds of drama, tragedy and comedy. 

    • tragedy : a serious drama abut common themes such as love, hate, war, or betrayal. 

      • These dramas featured a man character, or a tragic hero 

      • The hero usually was an important person often gifted with extraordinary abilities. 

      • A tragic flaw usually causes the hero’s downfall. 

        • The flaw was hubris, or excessive pride. 

      • The three most notable dramatist who wrote tragedies included: 

        • Aeschylus who wrote more than 80 plays. 

        • Sophocles who wrote over 100 plays 

        • Euripides who was the author of the play Medea. 

    • comedy : contained scenes filled with slapstick situations and crude humor. 

      • They often made fun of politics and respected people and ideas of the time. 

      • Aristophanes wrote the first great comedies for the stage. 

• There are no written records from the Dorian period. 

• In 415 B.C. the Athenians sent a huge fleet carrying more than 20,000 soldiers to the island of Sicily, 

  • Their plan was to destroy the city state of Syracuse, one of Sparta’s wealthiest allies. 

• Athenians were determined to seek the truth, no matter where the search led them. 

  • The Greeks called such thinkers philosophers, meaning “lovers of wisdom” 

    • They based their philosophy on the following two assumptions: 

      • The universe (land, sky, and sea) is put together in an orderly way, and subject to absolute and unchanging laws. 

      • People can understand these laws through logic and reason. 

  • One group of philosophers, the sophists, questioned people’s unexamined beliefs and ideas about justice and other traditional values. 

    • One of the most famous Sophists was Protagoras, who questioned the existence of the traditional Greek gods. 

      • He argues that there was no universal standard of truth, saying “Man [the individual] is the measure of all living things. 

        • These were radical and dangerous ideas to many Athenians. 

  • One critic of the Sophists was Socrates. 

    • He believed that absolute standards did exist for truth and justice. 

    • He encouraged Greeks to go farther and question themselves and their moral character. 

    • He was admired by many who understood his ideas, others were puzzled by this man’s viewpoints. 

    • In 399 B.C when Socratees was about 70 years old, he was brought to trial for “corrupting the youth of Athens” and “neglecting the city’s gods”

      • Socrates shahid that his teachings were good because they forced people to think about their values and actions. 

        • The jury disagreed and condemned him to death. 

  • Plato was a student of Socrates. 

    • He wrote down the conversations of Socrates “as means of philosophical investigation” 

    • Sometime in the 370s B.C. Plato wrote his most famous work, The Republic. 

      • In it, he set forth his vision of a perfectly governed society. 

      • It was not a democracy, all citizens would fall naturally into three groups: 

        • Farmers and artisans 

        • Warriors 

        • The ruling class 

    • Plato’s writings dominated philosophic thought in Europe for nearly 1,500 years. 

    • His only rivals in importance were his teacher, Socrates, and his own pupil Aristotle. 

      • Aristotle questioned the nature of the world and of human belief, thought and knowledge. 

      • He came close to summarizing all the knowledge up to his time. 

      • He invented a method for arguing according to the rules of logic. 

        • He later applied his method to problems in the fields of psychology, physics, and biology. 

        • His work provides the basis of the scientific method used today. 

      • One of his most famous pupils was Alexander, son of King Philip II of Macedonia. 

        • Around 343 B.C. Aristotle accepted the king’s invitation to tutor the 13 year old prince. 

Chapter 5.4: Alexander’s Empire

• In 359 B.C. Phillip II became king of Macedonia. 

  • Even though he was only 23 years old, he proved that he was a brilliant general and a ruthless politician. 

  • He transformed the rugged peasants under his command into a well-trained professional army. 

    • He organized his troops into phalanxes of 16 men across and 16 deep, each one armed with an 18-foot pike. 

• Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, tried to warn the Greeks of the threat Phillip and his army posed. 

  • He urged them to unite against phillip. 

  • The Greek city states could not agree on any single policy. 

    • In 338 B.C. Athens and Thebes, a city state in central Greece joined forces to fight Phillip.

    • It was too late, and the Macedonians soundly defeated the Greeks at the battle of Chaeronea. 

      • Ended Greek independence. 

• Phillip planned to invade Persia next, but he never got the chance. 

  • In 336 B.C. he was stabbed to death by a former guardsman. 

  • His son, Alexander became the king of Macedonia. 

    • Alexander had learned science, geography, and literature. 

    • As a young boy he learned to ride a horse, use weapons and command troops. 

    • He carried out his father’s plan to invade and conquer Persa in 334 B.C.

    • Alexander gained control over Anatolia. 

    • He marched into Egypt in 332 B.C. and they welcomed him as a liberator. 

      • They crowned him pharaoh. 

    • He founded the city of Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile. 

    • After he left Egypt, he moved east into Mesopotamia to confront Darius. 

    • He became the unchallenged ruler of southwest Asia. 

      • He was more interested in expanding his empire rather than governing it. 

    • In 326 B.C. Alexander and his army reached the Indus Valley. 

      • A powerful indian ary blocked their path 

      • They ended up turning away and going back. 

    • By spring of 323 B.C. Alexander and his army reached Babylon. 

      • He announced plans to organize and unify his empire. 

        • He would construct new cities, roads, and harbors and conquer Arabia. 

          • He was never able to carry out his plans as he died from a fever. 

Chapter 5.5: The Spread of Hellenistic Culture 

• Greek (also known as Hellenic) culture blended with Egyptian, Persian, and Indian influences. 

  • Koine was the popular spoken language used in Hellenistic cities, and was the direct result of cultural blending. 

    • The word koine came from te Greek word for “common” 

    • The language was a dialect of Greek and it enabled educated people and traders from diverse backgrounds to communicate in cities throughout the Hellenistic world. 

• The Egyptian city of Aexandia became the foremost center of commerce and Hellenistic civilization. 

  • It occupied a strategic site on the western edge of the Nile delta. 

  • Trade ships from all around the Mediterranean docked in its spacious harbor. 

  • Alexandria had become an international community. 

    • There was a mixture of customs and traditions from Egypt and from the Aegean. 

    • The population exceeded half a million people. 

• Hellenistic scholars, particularly those in Alexandria, preserved Greek and Egyptian learning in the sciences. 

  • Until the scientific advances of the 16th and 17th centuries, Alexandrian scholars provided most of the scientific knowledge available to the west. 

  • Alexandria’s museum contained a small observatory in which astronomers could study the plants and stars. 

    • One astronomer, aristarchus of Samos, reached two significant scientific conclusions. 

      • In one, he estimated that the sun was at least 300 times larger than earth. 

      • He proposed that earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. 

    • Ptolemy incorrectly placed Earth at the center of the solar system.

      • Astronomers accepted this view for the next 14 centuries. 

    • Eratosthenes, the director of the Alexandrian Library, tried to calculator Earth’s true size. 

      • Using geometry he computed Earth’s circumference at 24,860 miles. 

      • He was also a poet and historian. 

    • Eratosthenes and Aristarchus used a geometry text compiled by euclid. 

      • Euclid was a highly regarded mathematician who taught in Alexandria. 

        • His best known books, Elements, contained 465 carefully presented geometry propositions and proofs. 

        • His work is still the basis for courses in geometry. 

    • Another important hellenistic scientist, Archimedes of Syracuse studied at Alexandria.     

      • He accurately estimated the value of pi- the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. 

      • He also explained the law of the lever. 

      • He invented the Archimedes screw which was a device that raised water from the ground, and the compound pulley to lift heavy objects. 

        • Scientists later built a force pump, pneumatic machines, and even a steam engine. 

• In the third century philosophers became concerned with how people should live their lives. 

  • A Greek philosopher named Zeno founded the school of philosophy called Stoicism. 

    • Stoics proposed that people should live virtuous lives in harmony with the will of god or the natural laws that God established to run the universe. 

    • They preached that human desires, power, and wealth were dangerous distractions 

    • It promoted social unity and encouraged its followers to focus on what they could control. 

  • Epicurus founded the school of thought called Epicureanism. 

    • He taught that gods who had no interest in humans ruled the universe. 

    • He believed that the only real objects were those that the five senses perceived. 

    • He taught that the greatest good and the highest pleasure came from virtuous conduct and the absence of pain. 

    • He proposed that the main goal of humans was to achieve harmony of body and mind. 

• Sculpture flourished during the Hellenistic age. 

  • Rulers, wealthy merchants, and cities all purchased statues to honor gods, commemorate heroes, and portray ordinary people in everyday situations. 

  • The largest known Hellenistic statue was created on the island of Rhodes. 

    • Known as the Colossus of Rhodes, this bronze statue stood more than 100 feet high. 

    • This high sculpture was toppled by an earthquake in about 225 B.C. 

      • The bronze was then sold for scrap. 

  • Another sculpture that was found on Rhodes was the Nike (or Winged Victory) of Samothrace. 

    • It was created around 203 B.C. to commemorate a Greek naval victory.. 

  • Hellenistic sculpture moved away from the harmonic balance and idealized forms of the classical age. 

    • They created more natural works. 

    • They felt free to explore new subjects, carving ordinary people such as an old, wrinkled peasant woman. 

• By 150 B.C. the Hellenistic world was in decline. 

  • A new city, Rome was growing and gaining strength. 

    • Through Rome, Greek-style drama, architecture, sculpture, and philosophy were preserved and eventually became the core of the Western civilization.