ancient greece

  1. How did the geography of Greece contribute to its development?

  • islands were secluded and far apart

    • made their polises very different and separate

      • a large variety of government, arts, and education

      • city-states each developed their own cultures which interacted and clashed

    • competition of isolated city states accelerated western development

  1. How were the city-states of ancient Greece organized?

    1. the greek city-states were organized in separate polis’s

      1. each was very separate and different with their own governments

      2. decentralized and split up by landforms

      3. everyone in Ancient Greece spoke Greek

      4. polises were competitive (each thought theirs was the best)



  1. What different characteristics did Athens and Sparta have?

    1. Athens

      1. far more sophisticated than sparta

      2. center of culture - thrived in education, trade, and art

      3. educated society

      4. direct democracy - “the birthplace of democracy”

        1. everyone votes on laws

        2. “everyone” - male over the age of 19

      5. many self-made businessmen

        1. became leading trading center

      6. people there excelled in politics and intellectual activities

      7. loved beautifying their city-state as they thought it would please the gods

    2. Sparta

      1. militaristic society

      2. oligarchy - ruled by the few (the rich and elite)

      3. education was focused on battle tactics

      4. hardly cared for arts - only to be raised as the best soldier with arete

      5. care more about state then family

      6. didn’t matter what an individual wanted, as long as it was for the better of the society

      7. the goal was to be the best soldier 

      8. social classes

        1. ephors (leaders)

        2. spartiates (full-time soldiers)

        3. perioikoi (merchants)

        4. helots (state-owned slaves)

      9. little freedom and connection to the outside world

      What were the causes, important battles, and effects of the Persian Wars? 

      1. causes of the Persian wars

        1. As the Greeks spread through the meditareanian, they came into conflict with the Persian empire to the east. Athens set up the Ionian cities that was in persian territory. By the mid sixth century, the Persian Empire controlled the Ionian greek cities. After they took control, Athens convinced the Ionian cities to revolt with help from the Atheanian navy. this caused the ruler of the Peresian empire to seek revenge. when the persian empire began to expand, many greek city-states were frightened and against strict control. as a result, a rebellion against the empire was attempted. this anger Darius (the leader of the persian empire) so he declared war 

      2. important battles of the Persian wars

        1. battle of marathon

          1. the Persians arrived at Marathon, a town 26 miles outside of Athens and the outnumbered Athenian army was able to defeat the Persians

          2. Pheidippides raced from Marathon to Athens to spread the news of Persia’s defeat

          3. this was a minor loss to the Persians but was huge to the Athenians because it proved that the Persians could be defeated which gave them confidence

        2. battle of Thermopylae - most important battle

          1. the Athenians, Spartans, and other Greek city-states united at the battle of Thermopylae 

          2. 300 brave Spartans were able to hold off the Persians from entering for three days

          3. the sacrifice of the men fueled the greeks to push the Persians out of their country later on

          4. prevented the Persians from conquering all of Greece, even though they were able to burn Athens

            1. if perisa burned all of greece we would not know about things like democracy

      3. effects of the Persian wars

        1. a short-lived unity between the Greek city-states 

        2. western civ survives

        3. the creation of the Delian League, which was a defensive alliance led by the Athenians

          1. spending funds for army or navy - chooses navy

            1. all money is going to go to Athens (stronger navy)

              1. Athens starts spending the money

                1. GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS which was funded by delian league money

              2. Spartans got angry that they are spending the money for themselves - creates peloponnesian league and starts the peloponnesian war

        4. the Athenian empire

  1. Why was the expansion of Athenian democracy by Pericles a turning point in history?

    1. The Golden Age of Athens (drama, architecture, Pericles, Parthenon)

      1. golden ages - the brief years of peace in between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars

        1. this time period gave us monuments, art, philosophy, architecture, and literature

      2. Parthenon

        1. former temple in ancient Greece

        2. symbol of power, wealth, and elevated culture

        3. it was the largest and most lavish temple in ancient Greece

        4. dedicated to the goddess athena

      3. Drama

        1. Homer wrote epic tragedies such as the Iliad and the Odyssey

        2. male slaves performed in the plays

        3. most of the plays were comedy or tragedy

      4. Architecture

        1. Parthenon

      5. Pericles

        1. lead the Athenian empire during its golden age

        2. largely his fault for peloponnesian war

          1. his decisions for spending the delian league money

        3. helped athens grow in power which then threatened Sparta and caused wars

        4. strengthened democracy 

          1. all male citizens could participate

        5. built a commercial empire

          1. used funding from delian league to build navy

        6. funeral oration

          1. he gave an empowering speech there to convince the people that they were still as strong as ever and to honor the soldiers who had died in battle

          2. talks about values of greek society

          3. during the peloponnesian war

        7. glorified athens

          1. used funding from delian league to build navy

        8. died during the plague outbreak during the Peloponnesian war



  1. How did Athens’ growing power lead to the Peloponnesian War?

    1. the Spartans feared the growing power of the Athenian empire

    2. angry that athens spent delian league money for themselves

    3. the Spartan and Athenian empires were so different in society that they would not tolerate each other

    4. The Peloponnesian League vs. the Delian League

      1. Peloponnesian league

        1. an alliance that was formed by Spartans to prevent them from getting beat by the Athenians

      2. Delian league 

        1. an alliance of Greek city-states that was lead by Athens

      3. outcome

        1. the Spartans defeated the Athenian empire who surrendered; the golden age was over

          Delian League = ATHENS → better navy

        2. Peloponnesian League = SPARTA → better army

        It was called the Peloponnesian war because all of Greece was on the peloponnesian peninsula. The Spartans felt threatened by the growing power of Athens because Athens was becoming a very powerful state in Greece, and the Spartans feared that Athens would overthrow Sparta and become the dominant force in Greece. This ended the Golden Age.

        Athens stayed behind it's cities walls, and they were going to relieve goods from their colonies. Sparta surrounded the Athenians. During the first winter of the war, Athens had a public funeral for all that had died, and Pericles gave a speech about how Athens was going to get through it. During the second year of the war, a plague broke our from a rice shipment, and it killed many people including Pericles. Athens got destroyed and Sparta won. This war was the start of the downfall of Greece. 

        What groundbreaking art and literature were produced during the classical period in Greece?

        1. Homer 

          1. a greek poet during the dark ages of Greece who wrote epic poems

          2. wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey (greek tragedies)

          3. set stage for modern literature

        2. Herodotus & Thucydides - Together these ancient Greek writers became the first true historians in Western civilization

          1. Herodotus

            1. historian who wrote the Persian wars

            2. ambitious traveller who seeked information from many people for the most accurate

            3. “master storyteller”

          2. Thucydides

            1. known as the first historian because he only wrote facts

            2. fact checked and cited

            3. documented Pericles’s funeral oration

            4. demanded primary sources

            5. documented the golden age of Greece

            6. wrote about peloponnesian war



      1. What philosophical ideas came out of ancient Greece?

        1. Arete - to fulfill one’s potential

          1. an important philosophy to the people of ancient Greece

          2. makes people strive for greatness 

        2. Socrates writings & beliefs

          1. writings

            1. he has no written works, everything that we know was written by his students, specifically Plato

          2. beliefs

            1. “an unexamined life is not worth living”

            2. explored whether weakness of will truly existed 

            3. best known as a questioner of everything and everyone

          3. achievements

            1. one of the first philosophers in the west

              taught plato

            2. sentenced to death for corrupting the youth

            3. Socratic method

              1. a way of making students figure information out themselves 

              2. a method of questioning

            1. Plato’s writings & beliefs

              1. writings

                1. the republic

                  1. Plato investigated and explained concepts such as justice, truth, and beauty

                  2. discusses how democracy is bad and that Greece should use philosopher-kings instead

                2. allegory of the cave


            1. theory of forms

            2. wrote everything about socrates and his ideas

            1. beliefs

              1. the perfect state would contain four qualities - wisdom, courage, self-discipline, and justice

              2. not enough to ask questions (socrates), you have to answer them

              3. see beyond the world

              4. we are never going to explore the world fully

                1. goal of life is to see the world more clearly

              5. we spend more time worrying about surface level things than deeper things

            2. achievements

              1. he founded the academy

                1. is argued to be the first university

                2. liberal arts education

                3. strives to create a well rounded person that was free 

                  1. free thinking

                  2. free political thinking

              2. taught Aristotle

            1. Aristotle’s writings, beliefs, and achievements 

              1. beliefs

                1. dissected happiness and its parts

                2. demanded proof

                3. founder of western science

                  1. just ideas

                  2. frustrated with that because he wants to prove them

                    1. proofs - syllogisms 



            1.  very scientific

            1. achievements

              1. tutored Alexander of Macedonia

            1. What was the significance of Hellenistic culture as a result of Alexander the Great’s conquests?                                                                                                                        

            Hellenism - the spread of greek and eastern culture


        while Athens and sparta were busy fighting the peloponnesian wars, Macedonia was growing in power

      2. Alexander the Great - son of Phillip II of Macedonia

      3. Phillip II built a strong, powerful army which was the new powerhouse

        • the Athenians were feeling pressured by the growing power so they decided to declare war

        • the macedonians easily destroyed the forces

        • Phillip II was assassinated before he could fight persia 

      Alexander the Great conquered many places in Europe, which spread Greek culture all over Europe. This resulted in the Hellenistic era because Greek culture was being spread all over. before alexander, greek ideas were only relative to Greece



      alexander’s conquests - before golden age of rome

      • one of the causes of the golden age of rome

      • the spreading of hellenistic culture in the meditaranean

      • spreading greek ideas out of greece, ultimately to us