The Rise of Greek Cities

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The Rise of Greek Cities

• Unit 3 Chapter 8 Lesson 2
• L. Nabulsi

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VOCABULARY

• POLIS
• ACROPOLIS
• AGORA
• CITIZEN
• ELIGARCHY
• MONARCHY
• DEMOCRACY
• COLONY

• HOMER
• ATHENS
• SPARTA
• MOUNT OLYMPUS

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Read Aloud

• Shared blood, shared language, shared religion,
  and shared customs. Long ago a Greek historian
  named Herodotusused these words to describe what
  it meant to be Greek. Greeks were very proud of
  what they shared. However, they prized just as
  highly those things that made them different from
  one another. Those differences began in the many
  city-states that dotted the mainland and islands
  of ancient Greece (Banks 196).

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The Big Picture

• 1100BC Egypts New Kingdom lost power as did
  Chinas Shang dynasty.
• 1100-970BC Little known of Greece
• Few artifacts give insight
• 700BC Artifacts exist showing
• Many cities
• Powerful men creating communities
• Polis existed within these communities

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A Greek Polis

• City-states in Greece had a similar plan
• Built on an acropolis or large hill which gave
  shelter and safety in times of war (Bank 197).
• Included an area called an agora where farmers
  and craftworkers gathered as a marketplace and
  meeting place.

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Developing Government

• Plan similar but governments of the city-states
  differed.
• Leaders
• Citizens
• Men
• Rights not extended to women or slaves
• Slaves in Sparta
• Called Helots
• Conquered neighbors

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Monarchy

• First form of government in Athens
• Ruler was a king
• Means rule by one.

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Oligarchy

• A small group of rich men who ruled
• This system disallowed non-rich to be leaders
• Most powerful citizens made decisions
• 600 BC Athens an oligarchy
• Rested on value of property
• Rich owned property

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City-States of Greece

• Greece is not a united country
• City-states differed from one another
• Governments of city-states differed
• Most information known about Athens and Sparta
• Other city-states also existed
• Corinth
• Megara

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Sparta

• 700 BC Sparta in Peloponnesus
• Greeces largest city-state in area
• Contained dozens of villages
• Central city contained 30 villages
• Located 30 miles from the Mediterranean Sea.
• Low mountains formed the acropolis
• Had an agora for farmers to do business
• Farmers in Sparta were slaves
• More slaves than other city-states with 7-1 ratio

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The Spartan Military

• 600 BC Slave revolt in Sparta
• Spartans overpowered slaves
• Leaders determine to make Sparta the strongest
  military power in Greece (Banks 198).
• Reason neither slaves nor other polis to gain
  control.
• Spartan children
• At age seven, boys and girls began training
• Girls running, throwing javelins, playing ball
  games, to be strong mothers of strong children

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Athens

• Life very different for boys and girls
• Located in Attica
• Athenian girls did not practice sports (to see
  little, hear little, and ask no more questions
  than are absolutely necessary (Bank 199).
• Boys
• Worked in fields
• Learned pottery or stone working shops
• Wealthy families sent boys to school for reading
  and writing
• Wrestling and boxing at gymnasium
• Girls
• stayed home to help their mothers
• weaving cloth.
• Farm girls helped in the fields at harvest time

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Government in Athens

• Building an army was not the focus
• Prior to 600 BC monarchy
• 600 BC oligarchy
• Power to rich
• Poorer citizens wanted power
• Nobles forced to share power with poorer citizens

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Power to the People

• Large meetings allowing all citizens to take part
  in decision making
• Athens divided into demes
• Ten demes
• Fifty people from each deme drew lots to serve in
  the 500
• Begins democracy in the world, a new form of
  government.

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Shared Culture

• Monthly religious celebrations
• Polytheistic
• Belief that gods and goddesses lived on Mt.
  Olympus.

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Special Festivals

• Each polis honored one god or goddess as its
  protector or patron
• Athens Athena (contest between Athena and
  Poseidon)
• Festival to honor Athena in spring cattle
  killed.
• Zeus worshipped in all of the polis.
• Olympics another special festival

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Olympics

• Olympics is 3000 years old
• Achieved cooperation between city-states
• 400 AD games disappeared
• 1896 Modern Olympics began
• Ties past with present
• Women could not participate in original Olympics,
  but can now.
• Now summer and winter Olympics

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Beyond Greece

• 700 BC - Greeks established colonies
• due to their inability to produce enough food
• to extend their trade routes
• Colonies remained loyal to Greece
• Participated in the Olympic games
• Traded needed grain to city-states
• 500 BC colonies ringed the Mediterranean.
• Threat now came from larger empire of Persia

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Why It Matters

• City-states differed and valued independence
• Had different types of governments
• Athens developed democracy
• Cities shared cultural ties
• 499BC city in Turkey wanted to break from
  Persian control
• Athens, Sparta, and others joined together in the
  League to fight Persia.

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Main Ideas

• Life in most of the Greek city-states revolved
  around an agora and an acropolis.
• Spartans spent much of their time working to
  strengthen their bodies and their army.
• In Athens free women and girls worked at home.
  Boys and women worked, went to school or took
  part in government.

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Think About It

• What did city-states have in common?
• What made them different?
• Who was allowed to vote in the developing
  democracy of Athens?
• FOCUS Why was life in Sparta so different from
  life in Athens?
• THINKING SKILL What effects did slavery have on
  life in Sparta?
• GEOGRAPHY What made the agora a center for
  cultural interaction?

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A Greek Poet

• Homer bard or poet
• Blind and lived by entertaining others with his
  stories
• Lived possibly between 800-700 BC.
• Oral literature
• Poems
• Iliad kidnapping of Helen by Paris, Prince of
  Troy, a city in Turkey
• The Odyssey voyage of Odysseus from Troy to
  Ithaca after being punished by Poseidon for
  hubris.