A. Minoan Civilization
1. The British archaeologist who unearthed its ruins called them Minoans after Minos, a legendary king of Crete.
2. The success of the Minoans was based of trade, not conquest.
3. By about 1400 B.C. Minoan civilization had vanished.
B. Rulers of Mycenae
1. Like the Minoans the Mycenaean where sea traders.
2. Mycenaeans lived in separate city states on the mainland. The warrior king in each built a thick-walled fortress from which he ruled the surrounding villages.
3. The Mycenaean are most remembered for their part in the Trojan War, when they hid in a wooden horse and waited till the city of Troy was asleep then attacked it.
C. The Age of Homer
1. According to tradition, Homer was a blind poet who wandered from village to village, playing his harp and singing of heroic deeds.
2. For almost 3,000 years, the epics of Homer have inspired European Writers and artists.
3. The Iliad is our best source of information about the Trojan War.
D. Looking Ahead
1. After the Dorian invasions, the Greeks lived in small, isolated villages.
2. They had no writing and few contacts with the outside world.
3. Over time, the stories they heard about Crete and Mycenae underwent changes and became part of the Greek heritage.
II. The Rise of Greek City-States
A. Geography: The Greek Homeland
1. The Greeks who farmed the valleys or settled on the scattered islands did not create a large empire as the Egyptians or Mesopotamians.
2. They built small city states, cut off from one another by land or water.
3. While mountains divided Greeks from one another, the seas provided a vital link to the world outside.
B. The Polis
1. Aristocracy � rule by landholding elite.
2. At first they ruler of Polis was a king and the government was a monarchy.
3. In about 650 B.C. iron weapons and tools replaced bronze ones.
C. Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
1. The Spartans were Dorians who conquered Laconia.
2. Starting from when they were children, a Spartan prepared to be part of the military. Officials examined newborns, if they were sickly there were abandoned to die.
3. At the age 20 a man could marry, but he continued to live in the barracks for another 10 years and to eat there for another 40 years.
D. Athens: A Limited Democracy
1. Democracy � government by the people.
2. Tyrants � people who gained power by force.
3. Only male citizens could participate in government, and citizenship was severely restricted. Also, tens of thousands of Athenians were slaves without political rights or personal freedom.
E. Forces for Unity
1. Like most other ancient people, the Greeks were polytheistic.
2. Greeks felt superior to non-Greeks and called them barraroi, people who did not speak Greek.
3. To discover the will of the Gods, Greeks consulted the oracles, priests or priestesses, through whom the gods were thought to speak.
III. Victory and Defeat in the Greek World
A. The Persian Wars
1. By 500 B.C. Athens had emerged as the wealthiest Greek city-state.
2. Victory in the Persian Wars increased the Greek sense of their own uniqueness. The gods, they felt, had protected their superior for of government �the city-state- against invaders from Asia.
3. Athens emerged from the war as the most powerful city-state in Greece.
B. Athens in the Age of Pericles
1. Pericles believed that all male citizens, regardless of wealth, or social class, should take part in government.
2. Athenians had a direct democracy in which a large number of male citizens took part in the day-to-day affairs of government.
3. By the time of Pericles, the assembly met several times a month and needed at least 6,000 members present before deciding important issues.
4. With the riches of the Athenian empire, Pericles hired the best architects and sculptors to rebuild the acropolis which had been destroyed by the Persians.
C. Economic and Cultural Life.
1. In 431 B.C., warfare broke out in earnest between Athens and Sparta. The 27-year Peloponnesian war engulfed all of Greece.
2. When Sparta invaded Athens, Pericles allowed people from the surrounding countryside to move inside the city walls.
3. The Peloponnesian War ended Athenian greatness. Although the Athenian economy revived, its spirit and vitality declined.
IV. The Glory That Was Greece
A. Lover of Wisdom.
1. To Sophists success was more than important than moral truths. They urged students to develop skills in rhetoric, the art of skillful speaking.
2. Philosophers believed through reason and observation, they could discover laws that governed the universe.
3. The turmoil of the Peloponnesian War led many young Athenians to follow the Sophists; the older citizens condemned the Sophists from undermining traditional values.
B. Death of a Philosopher
1. �The unexamined life is not worth living,� declared Socrates. He encouraged people around him to examine their deepest beliefs and ideas. Eventually, this commitment to truth cost Socrates his life.
2. Most of what we know about Socrates comes from his student Plato. Socrates himself wrote no books.
3. When Socrates was 70 he was put on trail. His enemies accused him of corrupting the city�s youth and failing to respect the gods.
C. Ideas about Government
1. After the death of Socrates, Plato left Athens and when he returned he set of the Academy, a school that survived for almost 900 years.
2. Like Socrates, Plato emphasized the importance of reason. He argued that people could discover unchanging ethical values, recognize perfect beauty, and learn how to organize an ideal society.
3. Plato�s most famous student Aristotle developed his own ideas about the best kind of government. Like Plato he thought that democracy could lead to mob rule and overall favored rule by one single strong and virtuous leader.
D. The Search for Beauty and Order
1. The most famous Greek temple, the Parthenon, was dedicated to the goddess Athena. Its builders sought to convey a sense of perfect balance to reflect the harmony and order of the universe.
2. In ancient times, a towering figure of Athena, covered in gold and ivory, stood inside the Parthenon. Early Greek sculptors carved figures in rigid poses, perhaps imitating Egyptian styles. By 450 B.C., Greek sculptors had developed a new style that emphasized natural poses, such as athletes in motion.
3. The only Greek painting to survive are on vases and other pottery. They offer intriguing views of Greek life.
E. Poetry and Drama
1. The first Greek plays evolved out of religious festivals, especially those held in Athens to honor Dionysus, god of fertility and wine.
2. Plays were performed outdoors in large theaters gouged out of the sides of hills. There was little or no scenery. Actors wore elaborate costumes and stylized masks.
3. The greatest Athenian playwrights wrote tragedies, plays that told stories of human suffering that usually ended in disaster.
F. The Writing of History
1. Greeks applied observation, reason, and logic to the study of history.
2. Herodotus is often called the �Father of History� because he went beyond listening to rulers or retelling ancient legends.
3. Thucydides, a few years younger than Herodotus, wrote about the Peloponnesian War, a much less happy subject for the Greeks. Although he was an Athenian he tried to be fair to both sides.
V. Alexander and the Hellenistic Age
A. Macedonian Ambitions
1. To the Greeks, the rugged, mountainous kingdom of Macedonia was a backward, half civilized land. The rulers of this frontier land, in fact, were of Greek origin and maintained ties to their Greek neighbors.
2. Philip built a superb army and hired foreign captains to train his troops. Through treaties, bribery, and diplomacy, he formed alliances with many Greek city-states.
3. When Philip defeated Athens and Thebes all of Greece fell under his control.
B. A Mighty Conqueror
1. Alexander planned to invade Persia and in 334 B.C. he had enough ships to cross the Dardanelles. He won his first victory against Persia and moved from victory to victory. In 331 B.C. he seized the Persian capitals.
2. In 326 B.C. his troops for the first time faced soldiers mounted on elephants.
3. After Alexander died of fever the land he had conquered was spilt into three by three generals. Macedonia to one, Greece to one, and most of Persia to another.
C. The Legacy of Alexander
1. Alexander�s most lasting achievement was the spread of Greek culture.
2. Across his far-flug empire he founded many new cities, most off them named after him. Soldiers, traders, and artisans surged out off Greece to settle these new cities.
3. Paintings, statues, and legal codes reveal that women were no longer restricted to their houses in the Hellenistic period. More women learned to read and write. Some became poets and philosophers.
D. Looking Ahead
1. During the Hellenistic period, a powerful new state, Rome, came to dominate the Mediterranean world. By then, the Greeks had already made their greatest contributions.
2. Greek ideas about law, freedom, justice, and government have influenced political thinking to the present day. In the arts and sciences, Greek works became a standard of excellence for later people of Europe.
3. These achievements were especially remarkable because they were produced by a scattering of tiny city-states whose bitter rivalries cost them their freedom.