The Story of Ancient Greece

Geography of Greece• Greece is a small country

in Europe.• Greece is near the

Mediterranean Sea.• The main part of Greece

in on a peninsula.• A peninsula is a body of

land surrounded by water on three sides.

• The rest of Greece is made up of islands.

Greek City-States

• Because Greece is made up of many islands, and has many tall mountains, the Greeks began to build city-states instead of one country.

• A city-state is a city with its own laws, rulers, and money.

• City-states were cities that acted like countries.

©2004 Mrs. Joan Crick

Theater

Greek theater in Miletus

©2004 Mrs. Joan Crick

Greek Mythology

Myths are stories about gods & goddesses that were used to explain events in nature

Poseidon Hades Hermes

Hera Apollo Artemis Hephaestus

Athena Demeter Aphrodite

Ares

Zeus

12 Major Gods & Goddesses of Mt. Olympus

Go to Mythman.com for more on Greek mythology!

©2004 Mrs. Joan Crick

EpicsLong poems written about gods, heroes, and history of a culture

Wrote the Illiad about the Trojan War

Homer most famous author of Greek epics.

The Odyssey about a Trojan War hero, Odysseus

Sparta• Sparta was a Greek city-state.• Sparta was very powerful and had

its own army.• Sparta conquered other city-states

to gain wealth and power.• There were three classes of people

in Sparta.• Citizens, non-citizens, and slaves.

Sparta’s Classes• Only men born in Sparta were citizens.• Women were not allowed to become

citizens, however, women were allowed to own land and businesses, which gave them more freedom than other Greek city-states.

• The second class in Sparta was people who came from other city-states or other countries. They could own businesses but not become citizens.

• The third class was slaves.

Sparta warriors• Learning to read and write in Sparta

was not very important.• Training to become a good soldiers

was important.• Young boys were taken from their

parents and trained to be soldiers as well as good in sports such as running.

• Girls were also trained to be good in sports.

Athens• Athens was another important Greek

city-state.• The people of Athens wanted to rule

themselves and not have a king or queen.

• Athens became the world’s first democracy around 508 B.C.

• A democracy is a government in which all citizens can vote and have equal say in what happens.

A government where the people have the right to make decisions about

leaders and laws

Democracy

Greek word meaning “power of the people”(dêmos, which means

"people" and krátos, which means "force" or "power")

Athens developed the first democracy

The U.S. government is based on Athenian

democracy.

Democracy in Athens

• Athens was a democracy because all citizens could vote, but only half the people in Athens were citizens.

• Women, people born outside of Athens, and slaves could not vote.

©2004 Mrs. Joan Crick

Trial By Jury

Main Menu

When a group of citizens decides if a person is innocent or guilty of a crime

Serving on a jury was a citizen’s duty

About 500 jurors for a trial

Jurors were paid for service

Pericles• Pericles was the leader of creating democracy in Athens.

• He had many buildings constructed.

• Pericles had the Parthenon and the Acropolis built.

Parthenon and Acropolis

Education in Athens

• Education was very important in Athens.

• Boys went to school to learn to read and write. They also learned many sports.

• Girls were not allowed to go to school or learn to play sports.

The Greek Alphabet

• The Greeks borrowed their alphabet from the Phoenicians.

• Most European languages, including English borrowed ideas from the Greek alphabet.

Socrates• Socrates was a philosopher of Ancient Greece.

• A philosopher is someone who tries to explain the nature of life.

• Socrates taught by by asking questions. This method of questioning is still called the Socratic method.

Plato• Plato was a student

of Socrates.• He started a school

called The Academy.

• Plato’s writing took the form of a dialogue between teacher and student.

Aristotle• Aristotle was

another Greek philosopher and student of Plato.

• He wrote about science, art, law, poetry, and government.

Philip II• Ruled Macedonia from 359-

336 B.C. and transformed it into a powerful military machine

• Moved into northern Greece and met little resistance due to residual effects of Peloponnesian War

– By 338 he had Greece under his control

Alexander the Great

• Alexander the Great was the son of King Phillip II of Macedonia.

• Alexander conquered Persia, Egypt, the Middle East and Northern India.

• He died at age 33 from malaria.(one thought)

Conquests of Alexander

• Ionia and Anatolia 333• Syria, Palestine, Egypt 332• Mesopotamia 331• Persepolis 331• King of Persia 330• India 327• Returns to Susa 324• Dies (age 33) 323

Alexander’s Empire

Warfare in the Age of Alexander

• Phalanx: A formation of infantry carrying overlapping shields and long spears, developed by Philip II and used by Alexander the Great

Warfare in the Age of Alexander

• Hoplite – The main melee

warrior of the Macedonian army.

– Worked mainly in the tight phalanx formation, creating impregnable lines that often left the enemy demoralized.

Warfare in the Age of Alexander

• Sieges involved the surrounding and blockading of a town or fortress by an army trying to capture it.

• A variety of weapons were built to hurl projectiles over city walls, scale or batter the walls, and transport soldiers over them.

The End of the Empire

"The Marriage of Alexander the Great

and Roxanna" by Ishmail Parbury

• Alexander– Married Roxanna and had his men

also intermarry– Adopted Eastern dress and habits– Publicly insisted upon his descent

from the gods– Began giving key positions to

Persians

• The Macedonians were tired of campaigning and resented the changes in Alexander’s behavior and become mutinous

• Alexander died in June 323, perhaps as a result of poisoning

After Alexander• After Alexander died,

his generals jockeyed for power and by 275 they had divided up his kingdom into three large states– Antigonus took

Greece and Macedon

– Ptolemy took Egypt– Seleuces took the

former Achaemenid empire

• The period of Alexander and his successors is called the Hellenistic period to reflect the broad influence of Greek culture beyond Greece’s borders