1. Aegean

Sea2. Homer

3. Achilles 4. Hector

5. Minoan

6. Dorians

7. Hellenic8. Zeus

9. Apollo10.

Aphrodite

• 1. It is know as the cradle of Western Civilization• 2. The blind poet who influenced Greek Religionand wrote the Iliad and The Odyssey.• 3-4. Known as the two heroes of Iliad.• 5. This civilization was named after the legendary king

Minos.• 6. Regarded as the illiterate people who moved to Southern Greece.• 7. Known as the Golden Age of Greek Civilization.• 8. Known as the most important Greek god, God of

Thunder.• 9. Known as the god of music, prophecy, medicine, and

rational thinking.• 10. Known as the goddess of love and beauty

The Development of the Greek City-States

•Independent city-states developed in Greece as the Hellenic age began.

•City-states grew out of earlier village that had been built on mountains and scattered islands.

•The arrangement of the geography of Greece encouraged the development of small and separated communities.

Athens and Sparta

• Independent communities

Qualities of the City-States:

•Had forts on hills and mountaintops built for protection

•City states are also called Polis

Athens and Sparta

Athens

Sparta

Polis• The Polis is the center of Greek community

life• The ideal size of a Polis was about 5,000

male citizens, the only gender counted in official records

• Develops around forts• The Greek city-states were small; the

largest, Sparta, covered about 3,200 sq. miles

• Many city-states were smaller, and a few were larger. Athens, the largest in population, had about 35,000 male citizens in the middle of 500 BC. The rest of the population of 350,000 consisted of women, children, foreign residents and slaves

Back to Athens and Sparta

Sparta

• Settled by Dorians who occupied part of the Southern Peninsula of Greece, the Peloponnesus.

• 800 BC- Spartans conquered nearby regions and forced many of the people to work as farm-laborers, or Helots. Helots worked on for the Polis on the farms of Sparta. Helots out numbered the Spartans by 10 to 1. The Spartans lived in constant fear of revolt so they established a strong military government to maintain order.

Aim of the Spartans

• To produce strong-bodied, fearless people• Every stage of a Spartan’s life is planned

– Sickly babies were left to die– At the age of seven, a Spartan boy will be moved

into a military barracks– He will stay there until he turns thirty, toughening

his body, learning discipline and training for war– Winter and summer he went barefoot and wore

only a short tunic– He learned to be brave and cunning and to endure

pain. Spartan women also were trained in gymnastics and physical endurance

Aim of the Spartans

• To produce strong-bodied, fearless people• Every stage of a Spartan’s life is planned

– Sickly babies were left to die– At the age of seven, a Spartan boy will be moved

into a military barracks– He will stay there until he turns thirty, toughening

his body, learning discipline and training for war– Winter and summer he went barefoot and wore

only a short tunic– He learned to be brave and cunning and to endure

pain. Spartan women also were trained in gymnastics and physical endurance

After the War…

• Spartans were expected to marry, but the family was regarded as less important than the polis

• The polis gave each family land and helots to farm it

• Women had the responsibility of managing their farms and households

• Men of Sparta spent more time fighting or practicing military skills. They spent leisure time at a soldier’s club. Even after retiring at age of 60, Spartan men served the government or military schools of the polis

Back to Athens and Sparta

Athens

• The Athenians were great artists, play-wrights, poets and thinkers.

• Athens became the commercial & cultural center of Greece.

• Women were educated only in the skills needed to run a household.

• Athenians believed that man’s life was empty if he failed to use his mind and develop all his talents.

• Athens took the head in the creation of democracy, which comes from a Greek word meaning “rule by the people”.

• They chose a group of officials known as archons to rule the polis.

• Archons tended to favor the upper class.

• The merchants, artisans & farmers of Athens began to protest against their (archons) rule.

The Athenians develop new ideas of government

.

Athenians laws were written.

• In 621 B.C. an aristocrat named Draco drew up the first written code of laws for Athens.

• The laws were harsh, and Draco’s code did not change them.

• The archons who served as judges could interpret the laws as they pleased.

Athenians Laws

• Solon makes political reforms• During this time, nobles owned most

farmlands and most of the farmers were in debt to them.

• The nobles were harsh people.• Some peasants who cannot pay their debts

either lost their lands or became slaves as a way of paying their debts.

• Even today harsh laws are called draconian law.

• The aristocrats passed the problem to a statesman, poet & merchant named Solon.

• He was regarded as a very wise and just person.

• Given full power, Solon made many changes.

• He cancelled the debts of the poor, free those who were enslaved, and made slavery for debt illegal.

• He replaced many of Draco’s law.• Solon decreased the power of the nobles.• Athenian citizens were divided into four

classes and it was based on wealth and not on noble birth.

• This gave the chance for the three highest ranks and the four classes to hold power.

• Also the merchants were given the chance to have a say in the government.

• All male citizens could become a member of the assembly and the lawmaking body could serve on juries.

• To improve farmers prosperity, Solon encouraged them to grow new crops.

• Oil and wine were exported and Athens trade grew quickly.

• The young people were taught a skill or trade and granted Athenian citizenship to artisans from other cities.

• Athens's prosperity grew as other handicrafts were traded through the Mediterranean.

• The reforms didn’t satisfy the nobles or lower class but the assembly pledged to abide by them.

• Solon, himself, resigned his office and traveled abroad

Pisistratus Promotes Cultural Life

• A politician named Pisistratus gained the support of the poor and was the firm ruler of Athens

• In ancient Greece, the sole ruler of a polis is called a tyrant– Tyrants used opposive measures

therefore developing the meaning of tyrant as a person who rules harshly

• Although a tyrant, he gave more land to farmers

• Pisistratus also promoted Athenian culture life– He encouraged sculptors and painters

and sponsored drama festivals– He had Homer epics collected and gave

prices for public readings of them– His promotion of the arts laid the

foundation for Athens to become the cultural center of Greece.

Cleisthenes Established more Democratic Practices

• Cleisthenes headed the political party that opposes tyrants

• Cleisthenes reformed the political system and divided Athens into ten areas called demes (deemz)– Fifty men from each deme served as in an

Advisory Council– All male citizens could vote in the

assembly

• Cleisthenes started a new practice, that recquired Athenians to point out and vote anyone they believed was a threat to Athens. If 6,000 votes were cast against a particular person, he was forced to leave Athens for 10 years

• They wrote the votes on a piece of broken pottery known as ostralum, this practice became known as ostracism– Few people were actually ostracized, but

the custom gave citizens more power

Thanks for listening!

SCARY!

Fearless!

STRONG!

Crazy!

POWERFUL!Unstoppable!

Wicked-sick!

owning!

Monster kill!God-like!

pretty!

BACK

S

Polis

Back to Polis

Solon

an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and Lyric poet, renowned as a founding

father of the Athenian polis. The travel writer, Pausanias,

listed Solon among the Seven Sages of the ancient

world.BACK

PisistratusPisistratus did a good job as tyrant, even though the other rich men kept trying to get rid of him so they could

have their oligarchy back again. Pisistratus taxed everybody equally (instead of taxing the rich less than

everyone else), and he organized ways for the government to lend money at fair rates to farmers so they wouldn't

have to borrow money from rich people. Pisistratus (pie-SISS-trat-uss) used the

tax money to build roads and new public water fountains and new temples

for the gods and many other useful things.

www.historyforkids.orgBACK

Cleisthenes

Credited with having established democracy in Athens, Cleisthenes'

reforms at the end of the 6th Century BC made possible the Golden Age of

Athenian civilization that would follow in the 5th Century BC. Born

into one of the city's foremost political dynasties, he became the

unlikely champion of the people when they rebelled against tyranny.

BACK

1.Enumerate the qualities of a city-state?

2.Explain what is a Polis? 3.Make a table of

comparison between Sparta and Athens in terms of its government, culture, and daily activities