Ø Hellenes had same language,
customs, and beliefs but were separated by mountains and sea.
Ø The polis (city-state) was
geographic and political center of Greek life.
Ø Started as villages centered
around a defended hill called an acropolis.
Ø
Ø Marketplace called an agora
was at bottom of hill.
Ø Gradually these villages
became larger until they were cities.
Ø Each CS had its own laws
& government and citizens & slaves.
Ø Women, children, foreigners,
and slaves did not count as citizens.
Ø Citizens could vote, hold
office, own property, and speak in court.
Ø Citizens were expected to
defend polis during war and take part in government.
Ø Polis was very important and
they were different across
Ø SP in southern part of
Ø SP first ruled by
aristocrats (nobles).
Ø Only aristocrats were
citizens and they served in the Assembly that made laws and military policy.
Ø Ephors trained young
Spartans (SPS) and took care of public affairs.
Ø Council of Elders was made
up of older SPS, it suggested laws and served as a court.
Aristocrats,
Helots, and Perioeci
Ø Land farmed by helots who
were slaves owned by the CS.
Ø Merchants or artisans called
perioeci were business people of SP.
Ø Aristocrats let these groups
do their jobs while they mainly trained for war.
Ø Despite being greatly
outnumbered, the aristocrats treated the other groups very harshly instead of
letting them share power.
Ø At age of 7 boys started to
go to military school and continued to train at least until 60.
Ø SP men could marry but they
still lived in military barracks.
Ø SP women had more freedom
than in other CS.
Ø In other CS, women were not
allowed out without chaperones and did very few things outside of home.
Ø SP women were allowed to go
out more freely and they watched sports.
Ø SP tried to prevent change
because they were worried it would destroy their way of life
Ø SP was militarily strong,
but remained poor because it did not address the needs of most of its people.
Ø AT originally ruled by
kings, but nobles, merchants, and manufactures took over.
Ø These groups set up and
oligarchy (government where a small group of people hold power).
Ø Those in power agreed to
make reforms because they were concerned about the people that were not in
power revolting.
Ø -Draco tried to make
changes, but his punishments were too harsh.
Ø -Solon came next and he set
up a constitution (a set of principles and rules for governing).
Ø Under this first
constitution, a person had a right to vote in the Assembly (AS) only if they had
a certain amount of property.
Ø The AS passed laws.
Ø These changes allowed more
people to be a part of government and increased trade.
Ø Solon became less popular
because both the rich and poor thought he had not gone far enough.
Ø Pesistratrus came next and
he was popular with the poor because he divided large estates among them.
A
Democratic Constitution
Ø After Pesistratus died, the
Spartans briefly overthrew the government.
Ø Then Cleisthenes became the
leader and he helped overthrow the SPS.
Ø -Cleisthenes soon put into
effect the first democratic constitution.
Ø The new constitution allowed
for freedom of speech and these reforms lasted for 300 years.
Ø Cleisthenes allowed any male
over twenty to be a part of the AS.
Ø The AS elected 10 generals
to be in charge of the army, navy and to serve as chief justices.
Ø One of the generals was
named commander and chief.
Ø The Council of Five Hundred
handled most of AT government.
Ø Members of this council were
chosen randomly from citizens and could only serve two terms.
Ø This helped to make the
council representative of the people.
Ø Cleisthenes required people
to educate their sons in a variety of subjects.
Ø At 18 boys would take a
loyalty oath to AT.
The
Persian Wars
Ø Persians (PE) were the most powerful empire during time.
Ø PE conquered a set of
islands (
Ø AT helped a little but PE
won.
Ø The PE leader, Darius, then
was determined to punish the GR.
Ø The PE sent lots of ships
and a big army to
Ø AT found silver mines and
spent lots of money on new ships called triremes (fast ships).
Ø PE, under Darius’ son
Xeres, invaded
Ø Remaining GR city-states
joined forces with AT leading the navy and SP the army.
Ø SP troops fought the
Persians at a mountain pass by
Ø PE eventually got to AT, but
the people had evacuated it, so the PE burned it.
Ø PE lost a major sea battle
at
Ø PE then lost a battle with
their remaining troops and did not come back.
The
Delian League and the Athenian Empire
Ø The GR were still worried
about PE so they formed a defensive league that would protect them.
Ø The league was headquartered
on the
Ø Once in a city-state could
not leave unless all the others agreed.
Ø Ships for the league were
built and manned by AT and funded by other city-states.
Ø AT took advantage of the
control it had over the sea and the Delian League became the AT Empire since the
sea was so important
Ø Leader of AT during this
time was Pericles
Ø He helped to make AT
beautiful by rebuilding palaces and temples
Decline
of
Ø Other city-states resented AT
power.
Ø AT attacked one of SP’s
allies, so SP declared war on AT.
Ø This war was called the
Peloponnesian War and it lasted nearly 30 years.
Ø AT eventually lost to SP.
Ø Disease and the war led to
the decline of AT and young men started. becoming mercenaries (hired soldiers)
in the PE army.
Ø AT kicked out SPS, but the
city-state was never the same after the war.
Ø People became more interested in themselves than helping out their polis due to the long war and the great deal of money that had been wasted on it.
Ø People in different social
classes started to become bitter towards each other.
Ø After war, SP ruled
Ø A group led by the
city-state of
Ø This fighting made the GR
weak and not united.
Ø -Philip II of