Ancient Greece: Geography and Early Civilizations

• Ancient Greece was located on a peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea.
• A gulf nearly divides this peninsula, but an isthmus connects the two parts.
• The southern portion of the peninsula is called the Peloponnesus.

Landscape, Climate, and Resources

• Mountains cover 70-80% of the land
• Mild temperatures encouraged outdoor life
• Only 20-30% of the land was good for farming.
• Half of the Greek population farmed or herded
• Landowners were respected, but only men could own land.
• Greeks had access to lots of stone.

Early Greeks - Minoans

• Neolithic farmers settled on the island of Crete around 7000 BCE.
• By 2000 BCE, a sophisticated Minoan civilization had emerged
• Historians can't read their language, but archaeologists have pieced together clues.
• There are many myths about the Minoans.
• They were expert sailors and traders in the Mediterranean.

Early Greeks - Mycenaeans

• The Mycenaeans moved onto the Greek peninsula around 2000 BCE.
• They later moved to Crete in 1500 BCE.
• The Mycenaean civilization was the first Greek civilization, built on the Peloponnesus
• Their main city was called Mycenae.
• They were traders that made and traded gold jewelry, fine pottery, and bronze weapons

Trade in Greece

• The Ionian and Aegean Seas are branches of the Mediterranean.
• They were "highways of water", linking different parts of Greece.
• Greeks were skilled sailors and shipbuilders.
• They ate and traded lots of fish.
• Greek city-states traded surplus goods like olive oil, wool, and pottery with each other.
• Greeks traded with surrounding regions for grain.

The Phoenician & Greek Alphabets

• Through trading with the Phoenicians, Greeks picked up the Phoenician alphabet.
• The 22 symbols of the Phoenician alphabet evolved into the Greeks' 26 symbol alphabet.
• With this writing system, Greeks developed unique sophisticated literature and forms of government.

Homer's Epic Poems

• Ancient Greeks created a strong storytelling tradition that mixed history, religion, and fantasy.
• Homer was a blind poet who emerged around 750 BCE.
• He is most famous for writing The Iliad and The Odyssey, which are epic poems.
• These are long poetic stories about a hero who faces a challenge.

Greek Gods

• Greek gods looked like humans but were more powerful and beautiful.
• They weren't distant beings, but involved in people's lives.
• The gods were featured in Greek stories (mythology), in which they competed with one another and displayed a range of human emotions.
• Zeus and 11 other gods/goddesses lived on Mount Olympus which is the highest peak in Greece.

Honoring the Gods

• Greeks believed honoring the gods was important because angry gods can create trouble.
• They created many statues of gods.
• They built temples to the gods, like the Parthenon in Athens.
• Greeks held many festivals to honor different gods.
• The Olympic games originated as part of a major festival honoring Zeus.

The City-State

• A city-state is a self-governing city and its surrounding lands.
• Most had fewer than 20,000 residents, which formed a close community.
• The largest city-states were Athens and Sparta.

Layout of the City

• The Agora was an open space in the city center where people gathered for business, festivals, and political discussions.
• Acropolis means "highest city" and was a fortified hilltop for military purposes (easy to defend).
• Later it was used for temples and palaces on the flat top.
• Ordinary houses were built at the base of the acropolis.

Forms of Government

• Aristocracy is the earliest form of government in Greece
• The King or Queen is supreme
• Aristocracy = upper class, nobility
• Aristocrats descended from high-born ancestors
• By the 700s BCE, most city-states were ruled by the Aristocracy

Oligarchy

• Oligarchy means "rule by the few".
• It is like aristocracy except power is not inherited through social class.
• People rule because of wealth and land.

Tyrants

• Wealthy people would take advantage of poor people who were shut out of power
• They would also ask them to support him becoming a leader.
• A tyrant is someone who takes power in an illegal way, or acts like a King without royal birth.
• Some tyrants helped the poor, and showed that by uniting, the poor could influence change.
• Today, the word tyrant means a cruel leader.

Sparta

• Fear of revolts by Helots led Sparta to focus on building a strong army.
• Spartan government was part monarchy, part oligarchy and part democracy.
• There were 2 kings and 5 elected supervisors.
• The Council of Elders was made up of 30 older citizens who proposed laws
• The Assembly of citizens voted on laws.
• Citizens spent all their time training as soldiers from age 20-60.
• Boys started military education at age 7 in barracks where they learned discipline, duty, strength and enough reading.

Athenian Democracy

• Greeks invented the idea of citizenship
• Citizens are loyal to a government and entitled to protection by that government.
• Reforms in Athens, starting around 500 BCE with Solon and Cleisthenes, moved Greece toward democracy.
• Solon made a law saying no citizens could be slaves.
• He allowed all citizens to serve in the assembly and help elect leaders.
• Cleisthenes took power away from nobles.
• He organized citizens based on residence, not wealth, and said any citizen could vote on a law.

Direct Democracy

• A democratic system in which all the citizens meet to decide on the laws.

Limited Democracy

• Does not include everyone living in the city-state
• Free adult males were citizens but women were not

Athens Government

• The Council of Four Hundred took care of day to day problems.
• The Assembly voted on policies proposed by the council.
• Citizens served in the army when needed and on large juries and were organized into four classes based on income.
• Boys in wealthy families went to school and studied logic, public speaking, reading, writing, poetry, arithmetic, music and athletics.
• Women were respected in their roles as mothers and wives
• However, they had few freedoms: They couldn't own property, go to school, or participate in civic life.

Key Vocabulary

• Acropolis: The highest point in an ancient Greek city, or upper city that served as the city’s last line of defense against invasion.
• Agora: The city’s marketplace and social center for sports, festivals and meetings.
• Polis: A powerful city that grew into an even more powerful city-state.
• City-State: An independent political unit in which a dominant city rules the surrounding area in which Smaller towns and villages supplied food, trade goods, labor and soldiers for the city-states.
• Monarchy: A government ruled by a single person such as a king.
• Aristocracy: A government ruled by a small group of elite landowning families.
• Tyrants: Powerful men that sometimes seized power by taking advantage of a situation. Some tyrants were ruthless but others made positive changes.
• Merchants: Took power away from tyrants and formed an oligarchy.
• Oligarchy: a government ruled by a few powerful citizens.