Ancient Greece and Rome Vocab: 1.Polis 2.Democracy Guiding Questions 1.What did the Greeks contribute to our culture? 2.What did we learn from Greek philosophers? 3.What did the Romans build that helps us today? 4.How did Christianity change the world?

Ancient Greece  Homer, a great Greek poet, wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were passed on stories that were passed down from generation to generation.  Greeks lived in city-states or what they called a polis.  Each polis had different governments  Democracy: Rule by the people (thanks Greece!)  Oligarchy: Rule by the few

Ancient Greece continued…  Two biggest city-states were Athens and Sparta  Athens was known for its education and philosophy  Sparta was known for its military prowess (Movie: 300)  The two city-states did not get along which resulted in many wars

Greek Culture  Greek culture paved the way for ours  Strong emphasis on architecture, art, literature, drama and philosophy  Also created the Olympics  Some great philosophers were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living”  Plato: Wrote “The Republic” which explained his ideas about gov’t.  Aristotle: More scientific, wrote about ethics, logic, politics, and biology just to name a few.

Roman Empire  Rome became a Republic in 509 BC  The Roman Empire would stretch all across Europe, through part of the Middle East down through Egypt and Northern Africa  Had a complex system of law known as the Law of Nations.  Some ideas we stole from them: innocent until proven guilt, right to appear before a judge, and the right to present evidence on your behalf

Roman Culture  Romans mimicked Greek art and sculpting  Roman architecture is some of the most magnificent in the world and is copied frequently.  Used curved lines like domes, arches and vaults, unlike the Greeks  Roman’s used slaves to build the most extensive infrastructure to date.  Built aqueducts, roads, bridges, buildings, temples, etc.

Christianity  Rome controlled the Kingdom of Judaea (modern day Israel).  This is where Jesus was born and preached  He stirred up a lot of controversy  Was crucified  Christianity slowly spread throughout the world (with much persecution)  Christianity offered Salvation, gave meaning and purpose to life  Also filled the need to belong.  Attractive to all classes  Constantine became the first Christian Emperor  Issued the Edict of Milan: official tolerance of Christians