Early people of the Aegean

Minoan Civilization: The island of Crete (in Aegean Sea):

Ø  Trading civilization

Ø  Palace at Knossos

Ø  Religious shrines

Ø  Colorful frescoes (watercolor paintings done on wet plaster)

Ø  1400 BC. Minoan civilization vanished

Ø  Mycenaeans civilization: 1400-1200 B.C.: invaders, ruled Aegean world, sea traders, reached Sicily, Italy, Egypt and Mesopotamia 

Trojan War

1250 BC: the Trojan war between Mycenaenans and Troy

The war erupted when Mycenaeans (Greeks) sailed to Troy to rescue the kidnapped wife of the king.

The war lasted 10 years until the Mycenaeans burned Troy to the ground

Poet Homer: “Iliad and Odyssey”

1.100 BC: Dorians conquered the Mycenaeans

After several centuries in obscurity,  a new Greek civilization emerged. 

The rise of Greek city-state

Greek city states:

Ø  Greeks-skilled sailors and traders

Ø  The sea provided a vital link to outside world

Ø  New ideas from traveling in foreign lands

Ø  Adaptation of new ideas to their own needs

•        Greeks evolved a unique version of the city-state, called the polis.

Ø  Polis= a major city and surrounding countryside

Ø  Acropolis or high city with many temples on a hill 

The rise of Greek city-state

Greeks shared

Ø  Common culture

Ø  Same language

Ø  Same ancient heroes

Ø  Common festivals

Ø  Same gods

The citizens felt a shared sense of responsibility for the triumphs and failures of their polis

Different form of government evolved in Greece:

Ø  Monarchy: hereditary ruler, central power

Ø  Aristocracy: rule by the landholding elite

Ø  Oligarchy: expansion of trade, emergence of wealthy middle class, a small elite

New method of fighting: Phalanx: massive tactical formation of heavily armed foot soldiers

•        In Sparta: focused on developing strong military skills

•        In Athens:

Ø  Government evolved from a monarchy into aristocracy

Ø  Discontent spread among ordinary citizens

Ø  Unrest by people

Ø  The rise of tyrants (who gained power by force) supported by merchant class and the poor.

Ø  Slow movement of Athens toward democracy (government by the people)

Ø  In 507 B.C. the first legislature (lawmaking body)

Conflict in the Greek World

After 522 BC: the Persians extended their empire to include the Greek city-states

In 499: the Persian war

Greeks were victors: increase of Greeks’ sense of uniqueness

Athens formed an alliance (Delian League): a formal agreement to cooperate between 2 or more nations of powers

After the Persian War: golden age in Athens:

Ø  Direct democracy

Ø  Pay a stipend (fixed salary)

Ø  Service on juries (a panel of citizens who make the final judgment in a trial)

Ø  ostracism: (banishment of a public figure)

•        During the age of Pericles – a reformer: Athens became cultural center of Greece

Ø  Arts were encouraged through public festival, dramatic competitions, building program, creating jobs for artisans and workers

Ø  Many Greeks outside resented Athenian domination

Ø  In 431 BC; war between Athens and Sparta

Ø  Sparta defeated Athens, ending Athenian domination

The glory that was Greece

•        Greek philosophers (lovers of wisdom):

Ø  observation and reason to explain events;

Ø  discover law that governed the universe

Ø  Some philosophers: in ethics and morality

Ø  Sophists: believed success more important than moral truth; skills in rhetoric

Ø  Others: (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle): emphasized the importance of reason; believed in seeking truth and self-knowledge

•        Greek arts: architecture (Parthenon), sculpture, literature, tragedies, comedies, and history

Alexander and the Hellenistic Age

In 359 BC: Macedonian King Philip II brought all of Greece under his control

In 323 BC: Alexander the Great could conquer Persia, established an Empire from Egypt to the border of India

A new Hellenistic culture emerged that blended Greek, Persian, Egyptian and Indian influences

City Alexandria in Egypt: great library

Development of arts, culture, mathematics (Pythagoras), astronomy (Aristarchus), Archimedes, medicine (Hippocrates)