1. Ancient Greece
Greece is important because its art, architecture, religion, and philosophy have heavily influenced the cultures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
The Greeks still influence our literature, government, and architecture today.

2. Ideas to Know: Vocabulary terms: Polis Tyrant Oligarchy Democracy
Constitution
Classical
Tragedy
Comedy
People:
Pericles
Homer
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Alexander the Great
Places:- Locate these on the map and label them.
Greece
Sparta
Athens
Marathon
Salamis
Olympia
Alexandria

3. Greece 5 themes of Geography:
Location/Region: Mediterranean Region, located to the east of Italy.
Movement: ancient Greeks were prolific sailors (except Sparta); also used chariots, donkeys, horses, and walked.
Human-Environmental Interaction: Irrigated, built large urban centers; had to contend with droughts, earthquakes, and volcanoes.
Place: Physical-Mediterranean climate is hot and dry in the summer, mild and wet in the winter. Vegetation is mostly scrub brush and short grasses that grow well in dry summers. Greece consists of a peninsula and a chain of islands.
People:
Made up of many Greek city-states (polis) that were ruled independently and often warred against each other. Now called Greeks, but then they identified themselves by the city they lived in or near-Spartans, Athenians, Thebeans, Macedonians, etc.
One of the ideas we get from Greeks is the idea of citizenship. But Greeks did not consider themselves Greek citizens. Land-owning men born in a city-state were citizens of that city-state and identified themselves with that city-state. Women, foreigners, and slaves were excluded.
Speak Greek and use an alphabet-based written language.
Religion-polytheistic, believed their gods were human-like but powerful. Their gods and heroes often show up as allusions in modern literature.
Due to the 4 seas that Greeks had easy access to, many Greeks were fishermen and sailors.
Although the soil in Greece is rocky and its climate dry, many men were subsistence farmers. Wheat, barley, olives, and grapes were their principle crops What is subsistence farming?
What kind of animals did they raise in this arid land?
Since Greece was not great land for farming, it relied heavily on trade with other nations to provide it with food and other goods.
How might Greece’s status as a trading nation affect its culture?

4. Important Ideas We Get from the Greeks:
Citizenship: the idea that people could be citizens of a country.
Democracy: In Athens, Greece, they formed a government in which citizens (free males over 20 born in Athens) could vote on every law and issue. This is called direct democracy.
They dropped white and black rocks in a jar to vote, and majority ruled.
Jury trial: the idea that people have the right to be tried by a jury when accused of a crime.
Constitution: the idea of a written plan of government.
Olympics: these were athletic games to honor the gods, participation was limited to men and they were held every 4 years.

5. Brief history of Greece
Began as a collection of poleis (city-states), each with their own government system.
Three types of governments:
Autocracy-ruled by one person (tyrant) who makes all decisions. The tyrants promoted trade, built public works (like roads and temples). Some were good, some were bad, but the bad ones turned people off this system.
Democracy-in places like Athens, all male citizens got to vote on the laws passed.
Oligarchy-in places like Sparta, a small group of elites ruled.
By 700 BCE there were too many people for the land to support, so they started colonizing nearby islands, Anatolian Peninsula, and Italy.
Colonies began to produce the grains needed in the parent cities, farmers back in the polis concentrated on cash crops (crops for trade) like olives and wine (grapes); these crops didn’t require as much labor, thereby freeing up more Greeks to take on craft jobs like metalworking and pottery, which gave Greeks even more items to trade. Greece became a center of trade and commerce in the Mediterranean.

6. Greece and its colonies 500 BCE

7. Greco-Persian War
The Greek colonies on the Anatolian Peninsula were conquered by the Persians and later rebelled, with support from Athens.
Angered by Athenian support of the rebellious Greek colonies, the mighty Persian Empire, under King Darius, invaded Greece with a huge army in 490 BCE, where they were defeated by the Athenians.
Athenian victory allowed for the continuation of Athenian democracy and the development of Greek philosophy, art, and architecture, which are the basis of classical or “western” thought today.

8. Peloponnesian War
After winning the Greco-Persian War, Athens tried to form a Greek Empire under its domination by forcing other Greek poleis to join the Delian League.
Sparta refused to join the League and went to war against Athens.
The war lasted 20 years and finally ended with a victory by Sparta (once they got a navy from the Persians).
Spartan victory ended Athenian democracy.

9. Alexander the Great
Alexander of Macedonia (Northern Greece) built an empire that stretched from Greece, across North Africa, and southwest Asia into India, where it stopped at the Indus River.
He took over Egypt and moved its capital to Alexandria.
He helped spread Hellenistic
(Greek) philosophy, art,
architecture, and drama
across 3 continents.

10. Division of an Empire
When Alexander died unexpectedly, his generals divided up this empire into 3 empires, one of which was the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt (the last Egyptian dynasty) from which its last ruler came. Cleopatra VII was a Macedonian-Egyptian queen who lost Egypt to Rome.