Ancient Greece

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Ancient Greece
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Questions

• What made the city-states of Greece unusual?
• Why would we not characterize them as typical
  pre-industrial communities?
• How did the Greeks organize themselves to prevent
  one person from seizing control?
• What were the strengths and weaknesses of the
  polis system?

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Chronology

• Bronze Age (1600-1200 B.C.)
• Dark Ages (1200-800 B.C.)
• Archaic Period (800-479 B.C.)
• Persian Wars
• Marathon 490 B.C.
• Salamis 480 B.C.
• Plataea 479 B.C.
• Classical Period (478-323 B.C.)
• Age of Pericles (462-429 B.C.)
• Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.)
• Campaigns of Alexander 334-325 B.C.
• Hellenistic Period (323-31 B.C.)

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The Polis

• Citizen vs. Peasant
• Freedom and Equality
• Assembly
• Oligarchy
• Competitive
• Hoplite Phalanx
• Olympic Games (776 B.C.)
• Philosophy
• Tragedy
• Comedy

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Hoplite Phalanx
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Ancient Greek Wrestlers
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Sparta

• Ca. 650 B.C. Defeat of Messenians
• Helots
• Equals
• 480-79 Persian Wars

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The Persian Empire
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Athens, Democracy, and Empire

• Democracy
• Rotation, Sortition, Election
• The Navy and Democracy
• The Age of Pericles (462-429)
• Democracy and Empire
• Public Building

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The Weakness of the Polis

• Peloponnesian War (431-404)
• Philip of Macedon (r. 359-336)

Hoplite Battle Depicted on a Vase
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Alexander the Great (r. 336-323)

• Persian Campaign 334-324 B.C.
• Gaugamela (331 B.C.)
• Hellenistic Age 323-31 B.C.
• Ai Khanum

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Conclusions

• The Greeks organized their community life so as
  to prevent one person from taking power
• The polis was generally small in size, and each
  polis tended to feud with its neighbors
• The Greeks also bequeathed to the world the value
  of freedom and the concept of democracy