Roots Ch. 6 Flashcards
Greek culture developed around what body of water?
Aegean Sea
Why was there no unified, pan-Hellenic state?
The Ionian coast was too rough.
The islands were too isolated from each other and the mainland.
The mountains and inlets divided the Greek peninsula itself into a number of semi-isolated districts.
What was the main form of political organization in ancient Greece?
City-state (polis)
When did the Greek city-states rise?
c. 900–700 b.c.
What word originally was used to describe a fortified place?
Polis
Polis eventually came to mean what?
It came to mean a self-governing society, a political community of adult male citizens who lived with their families along with free non-citizens and slaves in a (normally) fortified city and its agricultural surroundings.
What English words come from the Greek word polis?
“political,” “politics,” and “policy”
Who said “Man is a political animal”?
Aristotle
What was an ethnos?
It was a political unit in Greece that was not dominated by a single city but had villages or towns spread across a large area. It would have a common assembly which had some political powers, such as control of warfare.
In the classical Greek era, approximately how many poleis were there? (Poleis is the plural of polis)
around 1000 (They ranged in size from approximately 10 to 3,000 square kilometers and had populations from under 1,000 to roughly 300,000 inhabitants.)
Who was allowed to fully participate in the activities of the polis?
Adult males
What was most important in keeping the polis running?
participation–it was vital that all adult males participate in the affairs of the polis
What is an acropolis?
It literally means “high town”. The people of a small district would often erect, atop a central hill, a fortress (citadel). It would be the chief religious center of the district and its natural assembly place in time of war.
What is the agora?
marketplace
It was usually set up at the foot of the acropolis
Many of the farmers whose fields were nearby built houses around the market, for reasons of sociability and defense.
What was the chora or ge?
The agricultural area surrounding the village or city.
Were there kings in classical Greek society?
By about 700 b.c. most Greek kings had been overthrown or they had lost all but their religious functions.
Who usually controlled the polis?
The aristocracy–wealthy and powerful citizens.
Who was under the aristocracy in the polis?
Farmers who had acquired old commonly held lands or who had started new farms. They were not that well off financially and had little power in the polis.
What was agriculture like in Greece?
The soil was the least fertile in Europe so it was hard to grow crops there. The wealthy aristocrats grew grapes and olives on large farms. Smaller farmers often slipped into slavery because they couldn’t make a living.
Who was Hesiod?
He was an eighth century b.c. poet and farmer.
He wrote Works and Days.
He described a world that had declined from a primitive golden age to the present “age of iron,” with a corrupt nobility.
When was the age of Colonization?
c. 750–550 B.C.
Why did the Greeks start sending out colonists in the 8th century?
They had an enormous increase in population.
Why did the Greeks take to the sea around 750 BC?
Some were pirates in search of booty.
Some were merchants and traders in search of copper and iron (rare in Greece) and the profits of trade.
What did Greek seafarers find?
Many fertile districts that could be colonized.
Greeks founded some settlements as trading stations which were known as what?
emporia
Greeks founded new cities when colonizing which were called what?
apoikiai
What was the relationship between the colonial polis and its mother city?
Although bound to its mother city by ties of kinship, sentiment, and commerce and by a common patriotic cult, the colonial polis was politically independent.
Its citizens often went to the new colony with equal political rights so the colonization movement helped to make Greek society more egalitarian.
What were the advantages of colonization for the aristocrats? For other citizens?
Colonization meant new opportunities for those with little or no land. Hard work could mean success.
It provided the aristocracy with a useful safety valve against the pressures of rising discontent among the citizens dealing with a shortage of land.
Where did the Greeks colonize?
The Greek polis spread out along the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
What was called Magna Graecia (Great Greece)?
Southern Italy and Sicily–because there were so many settlements there.
What Greek colony became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire 1000 years later?
The colonial polis of Byzantium, dominating the trade route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, later became Constantinople.
Can you name any of the Greek colonies that we still know of today?
The Greek colony of Neapolis (New Polis) in southern Italy is now known as Napoli or Naples
Nikaia, on today’s French Riviera, became the modern Nice;
Massilia became Marseilles, France
Syracuse, in Sicily, remains to this day one of the island’s chief cities
What other famous ancient civilization did Greek greatly influence through its colonies.
Ancient Rome
How did the colonial experience affect the evolution of the Greek way of life?
Commerce developed between the far-flung settlements and brought renewed prosperity to Greece itself.
The needs of the new settlements stimulated the growth of industrial and commercial classes (smiths and potters, stevedores, and sailors) and transformed many poleis from quiet agrarian communities into bustling mercantile centers.
A new elite of merchants and manufacturers began to elbow its way into the councils of government alongside the old noble families.
What kinds of goods did the homeland supply to the colonies?
wine
olive oil
manufactured goods
