Lecture 2 - Geography And Landscape

Question 1

Importance of natural environment - Thucydides 1.2 quote

Answer 1

“Where the soil was most fertile there were the most frequent changes of population.”

Question 2

Affect of wind - Herodotus 7.188

Answer 2

Suggests that wind was the reason for the failure of the Persian fleet at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE.

Question 3

Seas

Answer 3

Mediterranean, Aegean, Ionian, Adriatic, Black Sea, Propontis.

Question 4

Archipelagos

Answer 4

Dodecanese, Cyclades, Sporades, Ionian islands.

Question 5

Mountains

Answer 5

Olympus, Parnassos, Taygetos, Kithairon.

Question 6

Plains

Answer 6

Thessaly, Marathon, Messene, Lelantis, Thyreatis

Question 7

Mineral resources

Answer 7

Marble, gold, silver, iron ore.

Question 8

Agriculture

Answer 8

Forestry in Thrace, cultivation of olives, grain and grapes.

Question 9

Population

Answer 9

Be careful as there was no census. 5th century BCE Attica had 250,000, 30,000 of whom were adult males. 4th century BCE Corinth had 70,000. Eretria at the same time had 15,000

Question 10

Importance of the natural environment - Hippocrates ‘Air, water, places’ quote

Answer 10

“The small variations of climate to which the Asiatics are subject, extreme of both heat and cold being avoided, account for their mental flabbiness and cowardice as well”.