Unit 2 Notes Flashcards
Aegean Age
The stone and bronze civilizations that flourished around the Aegean sea.
7000-1000 BCE
Greece Geography
Rocky Landscape
1/4 land is farmable
lacked abundant natural resources
Used the sea and trade to meet their needs
Greece was not a unified country
How were greek city-states unified
Through trade, war and common language/religion
Bronze age Civilizations and locations
Trojan: Asia Minor (north)
Mycenaean: Mainland Greece (middle)
Minoan: Island of Crete (south)
Sea Empire
Based out of Knossos (City in Crete)
Controlled trade
‘very beautiful people’
rich despite small population
loss of control from 1700-1750 BCE
Destroyed by natural disaster
Myth of ‘Lost city of Atlantis’ is based on Sea Empire
Mycenae
Greatest city on Mainland
As resources decreased, Greeks set up new colonies across the Aegean
Troy
Strongest Colonial city
Known for Trojan War
Rebuilt up to 10 times
Trojan War
Around 1300 BCE king Agamemmnon of Mycenae united most of Greece
Troy was the only military and economic rival
war starts over trade routes
Troy is destroyed after 10 year war
Homer records the stories of ‘Iliad and Odyssey’
Minoans
A bronze Age Aegean civilization on Crete
King Minos
Mythical King of Crete Son of
Zeus and Europa
Creates successful code of laws for Crete
Knossos
Crete’s leading city
Running by Minoans
Invaded by the Mycenaeans around 1450 BCE
Greek Dark Ages
1100-800 BCE
Invasions, migrations, disasters and social problems lead to a period of poverty
Writing and the arts decline
No written record for another 400 years
Around 1100 BCE a series of natural disasters and invasions from barbarians (like the Dorians) ended Mycenaean control
Death and afterlife beliefs
After your final breath, your psyche leaves your body.
After you die you go to the underworld for Judgement
Underworld is ruled by Hates
Psyche
The spirit/mind/soul
Three parts of the underworld
Tartarus: Hell
Asphodel Meadows: Kind of good, kind of bad. Less perfect than earth
Elysian Fields: Heaven
Oracle at Delphi
Where you go to ask important questions
Bring offerings to the Oracle and she will give you a ‘prophesy’ to answer your question
The Olympics
Started as a way to honor the Olympic Gods
Every 4 years, each city-state competes in different events
Polis
A Greek city-state
small, autonomous, distinct city
Hoplites
City (citizen) soldiers in Greece
Usually farmers or artisans
40-45% of men were part of it
Started the phalanx theory/war strategy
Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy
Right belief vs Right practice
Olympians and Chthonic Gods
12-14 Olympic Gods (zeus, poseidon, ect)
Chthonic Gods are gods of the underworld, more greedy and required more sacrifices
Athens
Ruled by tyrants around 700 BCE
Wealthy aristocrats
Discontent and violent
Slavery makes Athens possible
Slave labor made time for political engagement
Draco
Harsh Athens dictator
wrote legal code/constitution
Kept people under control
gave people equality
Started juries
‘Draconian measures’
over the top punishments for small offenses
Solon
Replaces Draco
Wise, influential leader
Eliminates debt-bond slavery/mortgages
softens punishments
Hippocrates
philosophers that looked at how the body functions
Phalanx
A war strategy/formation where warriors interlocked with eachothers’ shields with their spears poking through
they moved together as one group
Athens Golden Age
480-404 BCE
Political military and economic dominance
Pericles (Greek politician at the time)
Sparta
Rulers of Laconia
Militant state
Lycurgus starts the ‘Spartan State’
Very strict punishments and control
Facist/communist philosophy
‘State before the individual’
Helots
Spartan state owned slaves
Helots rebelled for 30 years
Spartan Isolationism
Released from the military at 40
Could marry at 20, but lived with military until 30
Selective breeding and exposure
limited trade
Spartan women’s rights
Women had almost equal rights because they were responsible to run the family estates while the men were at war
also had inheritance rights
Classical Greece time period
510-323 BCE
Pericles
In favor of direct democracy/general assembly legislature
started a cultural explosion. had the Acropolis built and (parthenon)
Shakespeare play about Pericles. A comedy
Sophists
Believed that there’s no absolute truth
‘the end justifies the means’
Socrates
Started Socratic Method
‘wisest man in greece’
criticized Athenian life and questioned everything
eventually executed for challenging and questioning Athens too much
The athens plague was blamed on him
Plato
Came up platonic ideals “true forms”
Thought Athens was run by mob rule
his book ‘Republic’ writes about how the government should function
thought democracy was one of the worst ways to run the government
thought you should work at whatever your best at and don’t let the government tell you what your job should be.
founded ‘the academy for young minds’
Aristotle
Taught by Plato
Believed in the observable world
founded the scientific method
believed in realism
very practical
studied the physical world
Herodotus
Father of history
Famous for recounting the Greek-Persian wars
Not the most reliable source
First Persian war
Invaded the Ionian Greeks.
Greeks fought back so the Persians invaded Marathon in 490 BCE. and the outnumbered Athenians defeated the Persians.
Second Persian Wars
480-479 BCE
King Xeres of Persia invades Greece
Persians Destroy Athens
Persian Battle of Thermopylae
Spartans hold back the persians long enough for Athenians to evacuate.
All spartans are killed and Athens is destroyed
Persian Battle of Salamis
Greek city-states defeat Persians in a naval battle
Persians look control of ocean (ports and trade)
Persian Battle of Marathon
Athenian man sees Persians coming and runs 26.2 miles to warn Athens of invasion.
Runner dies, but Athens is to be prepared and attack them when they arrive.
Athens defeats Persia.
Delian League
Athens and surrounding city-states come together to fight against persians.
Athens starts it and tries to become an Athenian empire and use the contributed money to rebuild Athens
Peloponnesian League
Sparta and other city-states leave Delian League and form another league to fight the Persians.
Sparta later invades Athens and kills and exiles thousands.
Peloponnesian war time-frame
431-404 BCE
Rule of 30 Tyrants
Spartan oligarchy of 30 men take over Athens.
Later overthrown and killed by spartan army
Spartan downfall
Sparta is seen as an invincible military force but are defeated by Thebes.
No longer seen as a threat or powerful
The third persian war time-frame
334-323 BCE
Darius III
Persian King. Fights Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great
Macedonian King
Replaces King Philip
Fights against King Darius III
dies from Malaria
Alexander the Great war strategy
“hammer and anvil”
Battle of Granicus
First of three battles between Darius III and Alexander the Great
First victory for Alexander’s invasion of Persia
Battle of Issos
Persians trick Alexander and come from backside where they find hospital tents and cut off the hands of all Macedonians
Darius runs away and as Alexander goes after him he plunders and conquers Issos along with surrounding city-states.
Battle of Gaugamela
Same thing as Issos
Darius runs away and lets Alexander have his thrown
Alexander then rules all of persia and Macedonia
King Philip of Macedonia
Wants to be part of Greece
Threatens and sets up alliances to join Greece
League of Corinth
All the city-states that agreed to have alliances with King Philip
Parthenon
Temple on Athenian Acropolis
Built for Goddess Athena
Classical Philosophy
helps us understand the way we think and why we think that way
Pre-socratic philosophy
found natural explanations and rejecting super-natural explanations for things
Natural Laws
Laws of nature. Not governmental
(the way things are)
Acropolis
Means ‘high city’
constructed on a hill above Greece
