Unit 8: Greece
Major Events Time Line
a. 3,000 BCE: Minoans civilization thrives in Crete and Greece.
b. 1,500 BCE: Mycenaean civilization thrives in Greece.
c. 1,050 BCE: Dorians move into Greece.
d. 800 BCE: Greeks learn how to create an alphabet from the Phoenicians and Homer recites his poems
e. 776 BCE: First Olympics are played
f. 700 BCE: City-states dominated Greece; especially Sparta and Athens. They are mostly aristocracies and oligarchies.
g. 500s BCE: Solon and Cleisthenes expand the power of citizenship in Athens
h. 490 BCE: Athenians win the Battle of Marathon
i. 480 BCE: 300 Spartans and other Greeks make a famous last stand at Thermopylae.
j. 477 BCE: The Golden Age of Greece begins.
k. 431 BCE: The Peloponnesian War begins.
l. 387 BCE: Plato founds the Academy.
m. 326 BCE: The Empire of Alexander the Great reaches its peak.
GRAPES
Geography:
-Mountains cover 70-80% of Greece.
-Greeks could farm 20-30% of their land.
-They established colonies all along the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, grew grains on the few open plains they had, planted grapevines on slopes of hills, and had sheep and goats graze on their rocky land.
-Early-city-states thrived due to their location along sea trade routes.
Religion:
-The Greeks worshiped a pantheon of gods and goddesses learned about through myths.
-Zeus ruled the heavens, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the seas.
-Greeks made sacrifices to their gods, visited oracles, and believed the gods could influence their lives.
Achievements:
-Early Greek literature included Aesop’s fables and Homer’s epic poems.
-The Greeks learned the alphabet from the Phoenicians.
-Created foundations for western culture.
-Established guidelines for writing history.
-Developed philosophy.
-Created drama as an art form.
-Pursued the ideal in the arts.
-Set standards for art and architecture.
-Studied the motions of stars and planets
-Devised new mathematics
-Developed inventions such as the compound pulley and water-lifting devices
Political Systems:
-Early Mycenaean Greeks were ruled by monarchies.
-The ancient Greek city-states were ruled by aristocracies, oligarchies, monarchies, tyrannies, and democracies.
-Athenians developed limited, direct democracy and expands citizenship participation in government.
-Various Greek city-states would unit to resist an invasion from the Persian Empire.
-Athens turned the defensive alliance of city-states known as the Delian League into their own empire.
-Sparta and the Peloponnesian League defeated the Athenians; leaving a weak Greece.
-Phillip II conquered the Greek city-states and his son, Alexander, spread Greek culture all throughout Mesopotamia and Egypt.
-Rome would conquer Greece as part of their republic in the 100s BCE.
Economic Systems:
-The Greeks built their economy on farming and sea trade.
-They learned to use coins from other trading people (the Lydians did this first)
Social Structure:
-Athens had four main classes: citizens (men), women, noncitizen free persons, and enslaved people.
-Sparta had four main classes: Spartan men, Spartan women, helots (slaves), and free foreigners.
-In Alexander’s Empire, Greek speakers dominated the government official class.
Key Understandings
-Greece’s mountainous terrain forced its inhabitants to turn to the sea for resources and establish colonies all over the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. Their culture diffused in this way.
-Following the rise and fall of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, Greece emerged into a variety of city-states with an array of government types.
-Athens experimented with direct democracy and expanded the power of the citizen in governing the state.
-Sparta created a militaristic society dependent upon helot – or slave – labor.
-Women had more rights in Sparta while slaves received better treatment in Athens.
-The Persian Wars began when the Athenians interfered with the Persian Empire’s control on Greek colonies in Asia Minor. Both Darius and Xerxes had failed invasions of the Greek mainland.
-The Peloponnesian Wars began when Sparta and her allies feared the growing power of Athens in Greece. Sparta won a long and costing war that left the city-states in a weakened state.
-Phillip II conquered the Greeks and his son, Alexander, conquered all of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and part of India.
-A blending of cultures created a Hellenistic culture in the empire.
-The Greeks believed in a polytheistic faith with titans, gods, and goddesses.
-The Greek city-states met to compete in the Olympic Games in Olympia once every four years. They believed being physically and mentally fit honored the gods.
-The Greeks made several contributions to math, astronomy, science, history, drama, poetry, sculpture, and architecture.
Vocab
Peninsula: body of land surround by water on three sides
Peloponnesus: peninsula that forms the southern part of Greece
Balkan Peninsula: peninsula that forms the northern part of Greece
Isthmus: strip of land that connects two landmasses
Phoenicians: people of Southwest Asia who began to trade around 1,100 BCE
Alphabet: system of symbols representing sounds
Founded: established; brought into being
Zeus: ruler of the Greek gods
Mount Olympus: highest mountain in Greece: home of the Greek gods (according to myth)
Myths: stories that people tell to explain beliefs about their world
Olympics: games held every four years
Epics: long poems about a hero’s adventures
Fables: short story that usually involves animals and teachers a moral
Athena: goddess of wisdom
Homer: famous ancient Greek poet who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey
Iliad: epic poem about the Trojan War; including heroes like Achilles and Hector
Odyssey: epic poem about Odysseus’ long and adventurous journey home after defeating the Trojans
Aesop: a Greek slave who wrote some of the first fables (some modern historians don’t think he existed)
Polis: Greek word for city-state
Aristocracy: a government ruled by the upper class
Oligarchy: a government ruled by a few powerful individuals
Tyrant: in ancient Greece, a ruler who took power illegally
Democracy: government in which citizens make political decisions, either directly (direct democracy) or through elected representatives (representative democracies)
Ostracize: to send someone away from the city-state for ten years
Citizen: a person who is loyal to and protected by a state or nation
Entitled: to have rights and privileges
Solon: Athenian statesman who outlawed the enslavement of citizens and organized the citizens into four classes based on wealth. He gave them all groups a voice in government
Cleisthenes: Athenian statesman who took power away from the nobles and reorganized citizens into ten groups known as tribes
Athens: city-state of ancient Greece, noted for its democratic form of government
Sparta: city-state of ancient Greece, noted for its militarism
Helots: enslaved people of Sparta
Barracks: military houses
Marathon: plain near Athens
Industry: enterprise in which goods are manufactured (made) from raw materials
Pericles: leader of Athens from 460-426 BCE
Direct democracy: form of government in which all citizens participate
Delian League: league of Greek city-states formed for mutual protection
Parthenon: temple for Athena on the Acropolis in Athens
Plague: disease that spreads easily and usually causes death
Truce: agreement to stop fighting
Glorify: to bring honor, praise, and admiration to someone or something
Strategy: plan for series of actions designed to reach a specific goal
Catapult: military machine used to hurl stones or spears at enemy forces and walls
Alexander the Great: King of Macedonia who conquered parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia
Hellenistic: culture made up of parts of Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian styles and customs
Alexandria: city in Egypt founded by Alexander in 332 BCE.
Drama: written work performed by artists
Tragedy: serious drama that presents the downfall of an important character
Comedy: humorous dramatic work that makes fun of politics, important people, or ideas
Ideal: perfected form
Philosophy: logical study of basic truths about knowledge, values, and the world.
Herodotus: “Father of History” who wrote a history on the Persian Wars
Thucydides: Greek historian who made sure his history was accurate by using primary sources (eye witnesses) and by not including inference from gods/goddesses.
Socrates: philosopher who encouraged his pupils to question things; he was sentenced to death by a jury and consented to drinking hemlock because he respected his city’s laws
Plato: philosopher who learned from Socrates and opened a philosophy school known as the Academy
Aristotle: philosopher who learned from Plato, opened the Lyceum philosophy school, and tutored Alexander the Great
Eratosthenes: mathematician who figured out a way to estimate the circumference (distance around) of the earth
Aristarchus: scientist who tried to prove the earth revolved around the sun
Ptolemy: astronomer who created a mathematical system that described the motion of the earth, sun, and planets
Archimedes: mathematician who used levels to had inventions in irrigation, war, and other things.
Hypatia: first noted female mathematician; she taught at Alexandria and led a philosophical movement based on Plato
a. 3,000 BCE: Minoans civilization thrives in Crete and Greece.
b. 1,500 BCE: Mycenaean civilization thrives in Greece.
c. 1,050 BCE: Dorians move into Greece.
d. 800 BCE: Greeks learn how to create an alphabet from the Phoenicians and Homer recites his poems
e. 776 BCE: First Olympics are played
f. 700 BCE: City-states dominated Greece; especially Sparta and Athens. They are mostly aristocracies and oligarchies.
g. 500s BCE: Solon and Cleisthenes expand the power of citizenship in Athens
h. 490 BCE: Athenians win the Battle of Marathon
i. 480 BCE: 300 Spartans and other Greeks make a famous last stand at Thermopylae.
j. 477 BCE: The Golden Age of Greece begins.
k. 431 BCE: The Peloponnesian War begins.
l. 387 BCE: Plato founds the Academy.
m. 326 BCE: The Empire of Alexander the Great reaches its peak.
GRAPES
Geography:
-Mountains cover 70-80% of Greece.
-Greeks could farm 20-30% of their land.
-They established colonies all along the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, grew grains on the few open plains they had, planted grapevines on slopes of hills, and had sheep and goats graze on their rocky land.
-Early-city-states thrived due to their location along sea trade routes.
Religion:
-The Greeks worshiped a pantheon of gods and goddesses learned about through myths.
-Zeus ruled the heavens, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the seas.
-Greeks made sacrifices to their gods, visited oracles, and believed the gods could influence their lives.
Achievements:
-Early Greek literature included Aesop’s fables and Homer’s epic poems.
-The Greeks learned the alphabet from the Phoenicians.
-Created foundations for western culture.
-Established guidelines for writing history.
-Developed philosophy.
-Created drama as an art form.
-Pursued the ideal in the arts.
-Set standards for art and architecture.
-Studied the motions of stars and planets
-Devised new mathematics
-Developed inventions such as the compound pulley and water-lifting devices
Political Systems:
-Early Mycenaean Greeks were ruled by monarchies.
-The ancient Greek city-states were ruled by aristocracies, oligarchies, monarchies, tyrannies, and democracies.
-Athenians developed limited, direct democracy and expands citizenship participation in government.
-Various Greek city-states would unit to resist an invasion from the Persian Empire.
-Athens turned the defensive alliance of city-states known as the Delian League into their own empire.
-Sparta and the Peloponnesian League defeated the Athenians; leaving a weak Greece.
-Phillip II conquered the Greek city-states and his son, Alexander, spread Greek culture all throughout Mesopotamia and Egypt.
-Rome would conquer Greece as part of their republic in the 100s BCE.
Economic Systems:
-The Greeks built their economy on farming and sea trade.
-They learned to use coins from other trading people (the Lydians did this first)
Social Structure:
-Athens had four main classes: citizens (men), women, noncitizen free persons, and enslaved people.
-Sparta had four main classes: Spartan men, Spartan women, helots (slaves), and free foreigners.
-In Alexander’s Empire, Greek speakers dominated the government official class.
Key Understandings
-Greece’s mountainous terrain forced its inhabitants to turn to the sea for resources and establish colonies all over the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. Their culture diffused in this way.
-Following the rise and fall of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, Greece emerged into a variety of city-states with an array of government types.
-Athens experimented with direct democracy and expanded the power of the citizen in governing the state.
-Sparta created a militaristic society dependent upon helot – or slave – labor.
-Women had more rights in Sparta while slaves received better treatment in Athens.
-The Persian Wars began when the Athenians interfered with the Persian Empire’s control on Greek colonies in Asia Minor. Both Darius and Xerxes had failed invasions of the Greek mainland.
-The Peloponnesian Wars began when Sparta and her allies feared the growing power of Athens in Greece. Sparta won a long and costing war that left the city-states in a weakened state.
-Phillip II conquered the Greeks and his son, Alexander, conquered all of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and part of India.
-A blending of cultures created a Hellenistic culture in the empire.
-The Greeks believed in a polytheistic faith with titans, gods, and goddesses.
-The Greek city-states met to compete in the Olympic Games in Olympia once every four years. They believed being physically and mentally fit honored the gods.
-The Greeks made several contributions to math, astronomy, science, history, drama, poetry, sculpture, and architecture.
Vocab
Peninsula: body of land surround by water on three sides
Peloponnesus: peninsula that forms the southern part of Greece
Balkan Peninsula: peninsula that forms the northern part of Greece
Isthmus: strip of land that connects two landmasses
Phoenicians: people of Southwest Asia who began to trade around 1,100 BCE
Alphabet: system of symbols representing sounds
Founded: established; brought into being
Zeus: ruler of the Greek gods
Mount Olympus: highest mountain in Greece: home of the Greek gods (according to myth)
Myths: stories that people tell to explain beliefs about their world
Olympics: games held every four years
Epics: long poems about a hero’s adventures
Fables: short story that usually involves animals and teachers a moral
Athena: goddess of wisdom
Homer: famous ancient Greek poet who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey
Iliad: epic poem about the Trojan War; including heroes like Achilles and Hector
Odyssey: epic poem about Odysseus’ long and adventurous journey home after defeating the Trojans
Aesop: a Greek slave who wrote some of the first fables (some modern historians don’t think he existed)
Polis: Greek word for city-state
Aristocracy: a government ruled by the upper class
Oligarchy: a government ruled by a few powerful individuals
Tyrant: in ancient Greece, a ruler who took power illegally
Democracy: government in which citizens make political decisions, either directly (direct democracy) or through elected representatives (representative democracies)
Ostracize: to send someone away from the city-state for ten years
Citizen: a person who is loyal to and protected by a state or nation
Entitled: to have rights and privileges
Solon: Athenian statesman who outlawed the enslavement of citizens and organized the citizens into four classes based on wealth. He gave them all groups a voice in government
Cleisthenes: Athenian statesman who took power away from the nobles and reorganized citizens into ten groups known as tribes
Athens: city-state of ancient Greece, noted for its democratic form of government
Sparta: city-state of ancient Greece, noted for its militarism
Helots: enslaved people of Sparta
Barracks: military houses
Marathon: plain near Athens
Industry: enterprise in which goods are manufactured (made) from raw materials
Pericles: leader of Athens from 460-426 BCE
Direct democracy: form of government in which all citizens participate
Delian League: league of Greek city-states formed for mutual protection
Parthenon: temple for Athena on the Acropolis in Athens
Plague: disease that spreads easily and usually causes death
Truce: agreement to stop fighting
Glorify: to bring honor, praise, and admiration to someone or something
Strategy: plan for series of actions designed to reach a specific goal
Catapult: military machine used to hurl stones or spears at enemy forces and walls
Alexander the Great: King of Macedonia who conquered parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia
Hellenistic: culture made up of parts of Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian styles and customs
Alexandria: city in Egypt founded by Alexander in 332 BCE.
Drama: written work performed by artists
Tragedy: serious drama that presents the downfall of an important character
Comedy: humorous dramatic work that makes fun of politics, important people, or ideas
Ideal: perfected form
Philosophy: logical study of basic truths about knowledge, values, and the world.
Herodotus: “Father of History” who wrote a history on the Persian Wars
Thucydides: Greek historian who made sure his history was accurate by using primary sources (eye witnesses) and by not including inference from gods/goddesses.
Socrates: philosopher who encouraged his pupils to question things; he was sentenced to death by a jury and consented to drinking hemlock because he respected his city’s laws
Plato: philosopher who learned from Socrates and opened a philosophy school known as the Academy
Aristotle: philosopher who learned from Plato, opened the Lyceum philosophy school, and tutored Alexander the Great
Eratosthenes: mathematician who figured out a way to estimate the circumference (distance around) of the earth
Aristarchus: scientist who tried to prove the earth revolved around the sun
Ptolemy: astronomer who created a mathematical system that described the motion of the earth, sun, and planets
Archimedes: mathematician who used levels to had inventions in irrigation, war, and other things.
Hypatia: first noted female mathematician; she taught at Alexandria and led a philosophical movement based on Plato