History Midterm (Ancient Greece)

Question 1

who and where transformed and simplified the writing system?

Answer 1

by merchant people from lebanon, The Phoenicians

Question 2

why do the Phoenicians invent an alphabet?

Answer 2

They use this alphabet for their business dealings.

Question 3

what do the greeks do using the phoenician alphabet?

Answer 3

The greeks adopt phenician writing their own language and made their own alphabet their own way.

Question 4

where did the Greeks live?

Answer 4

The Greeks lived in Greece and the Aegean islands as well as Asia minor, southern Italy, Sicily and the coast of the black sea

Question 5

what king of language do they speak

Answer 5

Indo- European language

Question 6

What religion do the greeks and phoenicians follow?

Answer 6

polytheistic

Question 7

are the greeks and phoenicians politically aligned.

Answer 7

no

Question 8

where did phoenicians live? and what do the greeks call them?

Answer 8

they live in small city- states and the Greeks called them (“ poleis”) at the edge of the persian empire HUGE (persia).

Question 9

What, very original, culture did the greeks invent?

Answer 9

were able to invent a very original culture including philosophy, democracy, and a very inventive political organization to try to make sense of life.

Question 10

what do the phoenicians and greeks have different answers for? it was the center of Axial age thinking

Answer 10

the question of “How to live a good life”

Question 10

what are the 2 important Greek poleis:

Answer 10

• Athens
• Sparta.

Question 11

what were the major problems that both athenians and spartans had to solve?

Answer 11

• 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.

Question 12

what was the main problem in athens concerning the aristicrat families?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

what happened if people couldn’t pay their debts?

Answer 13

they were enslaved legally by their creaditers

Question 14

what happened when people started not being able to pay their debts?

Answer 14

things had gotten so bad that Athenian society was seriously destabilized so a revolt was brewing and even the wealthy classes recognized.

Question 15

Explain the story of Solon the noble

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

what were christine’s winning insights?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

what was the solution to the social and political problems of the aristocrat families?

Answer 17

Democracy

Question 18

explain how democracy went and how it helped the soldiers

Answer 18

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

Question 19

The other important polis in Greece

Answer 19

Sparta, in the southern part of Peloponnesus.

Question 20

n the 7th - 6th centuries, the Spartans had conquered their neighbors: who?

Answer 20

the people living in the provinces of Laconia and Messenia.

Question 21

The Spartans decided that they would enslave and do what?

Answer 21

the whole population of Messenia and force them to support the Spartans citizens.

Question 22

The Messenians who were state owned slaves were called what?

Answer 22

Helots

Question 23

what did the Helots end up doing?

Answer 23

They ended up doing most of the work of agriculture and craft for the Spartans.

Question 24

What did the Spartans become specialized in, and why?

Answer 24

specialized as soldiers because the Helots outnumbered the Spartans greatly

Question 25

what was spartan society completly focused on and why?

Answer 25

Focused on military force to keep the Helots in line.

Question 26

what laws did the spartans adopt to keep the Helots in line

Answer 26

The Laws of Lycurgus

Question 27

Briefly explain a few of the laws of Lycurgus

Answer 27

• 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.

Question 28

what empire were the Greeks able to defeat?

Answer 28

Persian Empire

Question 29

the Greeks started turning on eachother and fought in war centered on two coalitions, what were they and what was this war called?

Answer 29

one around Athens, and another with Sparta as the main power. called the Peloponnesian war.

Question 30

what happened to the Greeks during the peloponnesian war? which led to what?

Answer 30

the Greeks just weakened themselves to the point where they became vulnerable to attack by an outsider: Philip II, King of Macedonia.

Question 31

what were the Macedonians successful in that the persians couldnt do?

Answer 31

Take over all of Greece

Question 32

Philip was assasinated and his son was left in charge, who was it?

Answer 32

Alexander “The Great”

Question 33

Alexander was very young (about 17 yrs old) but he was very familiar with what?

Answer 33

military life and commanding men

Question 34

how long did it take him to secure authority over the Greeks

Answer 34

2 years

Question 35

How long did he spend trying to take over the persian empire

Answer 35

12 years

Question 36

what were the places alexander was able to take over?

Answer 36

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.

Question 37

what age did alexander die at? and what happened to his empire?

Answer 37

he died at 32 yrs old and his empire was broken up by his feuding generals into small and large kingdoms.

Question 38

what period does alexanders death kick off?

Answer 38

the “Hellenistic” period: the period where Greek culture influences the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean

Question 39

what will the Greek language serve for the next 1500 yrs during the hellenistic period?

Answer 39

Greek will be the language of regional communication in this area - especially in the Eastern Mediterranean.