History Midterm (Ancient Greece) Flashcards
who and where transformed and simplified the writing system?
by merchant people from lebanon, The Phoenicians
why do the Phoenicians invent an alphabet?
They use this alphabet for their business dealings.
what do the greeks do using the phoenician alphabet?
The greeks adopt phenician writing their own language and made their own alphabet their own way.
where did the Greeks live?
The Greeks lived in Greece and the Aegean islands as well as Asia minor, southern Italy, Sicily and the coast of the black sea
what king of language do they speak
Indo- European language
What religion do the greeks and phoenicians follow?
polytheistic
are the greeks and phoenicians politically aligned.
no
where did phoenicians live? and what do the greeks call them?
they live in small city- states and the Greeks called them (“ poleis”) at the edge of the persian empire HUGE (persia).
What, very original, culture did the greeks invent?
were able to invent a very original culture including philosophy, democracy, and a very inventive political organization to try to make sense of life.
what do the phoenicians and greeks have different answers for? it was the center of Axial age thinking
the question of “How to live a good life”
what are the 2 important Greek poleis:
- Athens
- Sparta.
what were the major problems that both athenians and spartans had to solve?
- How to deal with inequality and exploitation? - How do we keep society from coming apart? - - When a small elite is exploiting the life of people.
what was the main problem in athens concerning the aristicrat families?
the main aristocratic families own almost all the land and are facing peasants working on this land to pay high rent and to bossas money nobles from them on bad years when the crops fail.
what happened if people couldn’t pay their debts?
they were enslaved legally by their creaditers
what happened when people started not being able to pay their debts?
things had gotten so bad that Athenian society was seriously destabilized so a revolt was brewing and even the wealthy classes recognized.
Explain the story of Solon the noble
solon, a noble that was given special powers given special powers to fix the social political problem decided all depts ( non- commercial) would be canceled Later on, since Solons solution had only partly solved the issue, another ruler took over: pisistratus, he tries to make rules that benefit the merchants doing commerce rather than the landed aristocracy.
what were christine’s winning insights?
let the rich keep their land and their money but make political decisions based on what all the groups in society want including the commoners, the peasants, the artisans, the regular people.. This was democracy
what was the solution to the social and political problems of the aristocrat families?
Democracy
explain how democracy went and how it helped the soldiers
people from the elite and from the common groups could come together and feel they were cooperating in the evolution and defense of their polis: the illustration of this is the is the new fighting style of the phalanx where individual soldiers (hoplites) needed to cooperate and work as a unit to survive
The other important polis in Greece
Sparta, in the southern part of Peloponnesus.
n the 7th - 6th centuries, the Spartans had conquered their neighbors: who?
the people living in the provinces of Laconia and Messenia.
The Spartans decided that they would enslave and do what?
the whole population of Messenia and force them to support the Spartans citizens.
The Messenians who were state owned slaves were called what?
Helots
what did the Helots end up doing?
They ended up doing most of the work of agriculture and craft for the Spartans.
What did the Spartans become specialized in, and why?
specialized as soldiers because the Helots outnumbered the Spartans greatly
what was spartan society completly focused on and why?
Focused on military force to keep the Helots in line.
what laws did the spartans adopt to keep the Helots in line
The Laws of Lycurgus
Briefly explain a few of the laws of Lycurgus
- birth, children tested for disease
- 7 yr old boy would leave home for military training
- Men “graduate” at 20 yrs old (they can get married but stay in military barracks until 30 yrs old)
- at 60, men retire from army
- spartan men spent their whole lives as soldiers
- women could be in public, they could speak on important matters, and own property
- women should exercise and eat well (to have strong babies)
- Politically sparta was controlled by 2 kings who’s main function was to be generals
- 5 Euphors who were in charge of education and the new rules
- Spartans were not allowed to travel (unless on military mission)
- Visitors to Sparta were not welcome.
what empire were the Greeks able to defeat?
Persian Empire
the Greeks started turning on eachother and fought in war centered on two coalitions, what were they and what was this war called?
one around Athens, and another with Sparta as the main power. called the Peloponnesian war.
what happened to the Greeks during the peloponnesian war? which led to what?
the Greeks just weakened themselves to the point where they became vulnerable to attack by an outsider: Philip II, King of Macedonia.
what were the Macedonians successful in that the persians couldnt do?
Take over all of Greece
Philip was assasinated and his son was left in charge, who was it?
Alexander “The Great”
Alexander was very young (about 17 yrs old) but he was very familiar with what?
military life and commanding men
how long did it take him to secure authority over the Greeks
2 years
How long did he spend trying to take over the persian empire
12 years
what were the places alexander was able to take over?
He ended up conquering not just Greece, but also Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia… all the way to what today is Afghanistan and Pakistan.
what age did alexander die at? and what happened to his empire?
he died at 32 yrs old and his empire was broken up by his feuding generals into small and large kingdoms.
what period does alexanders death kick off?
the “Hellenistic” period: the period where Greek culture influences the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean
what will the Greek language serve for the next 1500 yrs during the hellenistic period?
Greek will be the language of regional communication in this area - especially in the Eastern Mediterranean.
