Ancient Greece and You

What You Need to Know About Those Wild and Crazy Greeks in One

Smooth Powerpoint!

Fight the Persians Like a GreekGreco-Persian Wars 499-449 BCE

• Ionian Revolt (499-493 BCE)– Led Darius to exert

greater control– Wants to punish Athens

and Eritrea• Darius mounts the attack

(490 BCE)– Successfully takes Eritrea– Defeated at the Battle of

Marathon by Athens

• Second Persian Invasion (480 BCE)– Xerxes I takes over w/ huge army– Defeats Allied Greek states at

Thermopylae• Overrun Greece• Persian Navy defeated at Salamis

– By 478 BCE, Persia had been kicked out as far as Byzantium

• Delian League– Athens led (anti-Sparta)– Continued to push out the

Persians• Peace of Callias Ends the War

The Persian Wars

Be Golden Like the Greeks (Or at Least Athens) 480-404 BCE

• Pericles (445 BCE)– Non-wealthy could hold

public office, paid jury duty, interest in public life

• Athenian Democracy– The Assembly

• All citizens voices could be heard

– Providing for the Citizen• Social welfare, jobs, public

workers

• Trade and Commerce– Need to import food due to

environment– Primarily based on sea

lanes– Export of manufactured

goods• Education

– Women stayed home– Men learned to read, write,

philosophize, and train for the military

Think Like a Greek

• Greek Philosophy– Use of Reason and Logic– Look at the world

around you (observation)

– Attempts to explain the process of power and the natural world• Think the geocentric

theory devised by observation

Rule Like a Greek• Advantage

– Encouraged civil discourse, education of the public, and progress

– Allowed for peaceful overthrow of gov’t

• Disadvantage– Slowed the decision making

process (Socrates and Aristotle)

– Not everyone could vote– Stupid people could vote too

• Demos-kratos (Democracy)– Power of the people

• Direct democracy– Votes by all citizens over 20– Led to problem with

representing peasants• Representative democracy

emerges– Representatives from villages

would represent food producers in the Assembly of Citizens

Build Like a Greek

• Temples– Columns, Open-Air– Used for cult worship of

gods (deity statues)• Open-Air Theatre

– Usually carved into the hillside (utilizing environment)

• Sport Arenas– Hippodromes,

gymnasiums, stadiums!

Temple of ArtemisPediment

Columns

Open Air

Colorful

Greek Theatre

Sporting Events

Be Great Like the Greeks (or at least Alexander)

• Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE)

• Macedonian Prince– Great military leader– Daddy issues (Philip II)

• Long road of conquest– Defeats the Persians

(Darius III)– Controls from the Adriatic

Sea to the Indus River

• Know When to Stop– Wanted to conquer India– Troops were tired of

fighting• Alexander turns back (keep

the troops happy!)

• Legacy– Encouraged intermarriage

and colonization by the Greeks

– Hellenistic culture spreads eastward as a result

Alexander’s Empire

Examples of Hellenism in the East

Fall Like the Greeks• Death of Alexander Leads to

Breakup of Empire– Ptolemaic (Egypt)– Seleucid (Meso/Persia)– Antigonid (Macedonia)– City-states wrestle for power

• 2 Leagues Form and Fight– Achaean (Thebes, Corinth,

Argo)– Aetolian (Athens, Sparta)

• Rome takes advantage and conquers (146 BCE)