Greek Flashcards
(30 cards)
Land
a) Almost the opposite of the Nile/Mesopotamian civilizations in the physical respect
i) Harsh land
ii) Mountainous
(1) Broken up into small valleys
iii) Lack of rivers
(1) Existing rivers were muddy
iv) Also, lacking in minerals
b) Nuclear settlement
i) Situated around a well or spring
c) The sea
appealed to the Greeks
i) Very close it
ii) Many Greeks could see it
iii) Counterpoise to the land
iv) Good for trade
v) Very “tide-less”
polis/poleis
i) Athens was a polis
(1) Large polis (about 1000 square miles)
(a) Average was a tenth of that
(2) Each polis is independent
(3) Law was different per each polis
(4) When counting population
(a) Women and children did not count
(b) Metics (resident foreigners) did not count
(c) Slaves did not count
(i) Not even considered human
e) Ostracism
i) Derived from Greek term for broken pottery
ii) People would write the name of an individual that they feel they would be better off without
(1) If someone got enough “votes” they would be exiled for 10 year
distas
f) About 1200 BC Eastern Mediterranean
i) This commenced the start of the “Dark Age” or the “Homeric Age”
(1) Collapse of society and economy
(2) Economies were kept within a family
(a) Produced and consumed what they needed
(b) Trading was still needed for salt and iron
(3) There was a fall in law and order
(4) Collapse in literacy
g) The Archaic Period
800BC–>500BC
Archaic Economy and population
have increased
(a) Greeks discovered the value of using coins/money in place of bartering
Archaic Slavery
was different in terms of use
(a) Attitude towards it was different
(b) Silver mine called Laurium in Athens was worked by slaves
(i) Slaves had a quota they had to fill
(ii) Slave life expectancy was 11 months in the mines
(c) Slaves tended to be people who fell through the ranks in the polis due to not doing well economically
(d) The other slaves were captured people from different civilizations
Sappho
a female poet
(a) Poems were about the mental/emotional state of people’s minds
(i) Genre was called Lyric
(6) Greek Drama
(a) More sophisticated than epics
(b) Had a chorus
(c) Many more interactions
(7) Olympics
(1) started in 776BC
(a) Only available for the Greeks
(10) 4 Coping Mechanisms to the deal with the times
(a) Infanticide
(i) To lower population
(b) Colonization
(i) Make members of the younger generation to leave and found a new polis to start a new population at
(c) Tyranny
(i) Enforcing power
(ii) Many poleis experienced this
(d) Religion
(i) A way to handle social tension
(ii) Apollo
1. Sun God
(iii) Dionysus
1. Wine God
(iv) Dementer/Persephone
1. Agriculture and Fertility Goddesses
(v) Orpheus/Eurydice
1. Music
h) Athens
i) The other superpower of the Greek world besides Sparta
Athens slavery
ii) Was troubled by the problem of slavery
(1) Many came from warfare
(2) Others were the losers in society
(a) Fallen through the ranks
Athens coping Mechanisms
(a) Infanticide
(i) Was a last resort
(ii) Started to slowly fade out
(b) Colonization
(i) Was not typically practiced
1. Did have other separate poleis for strategic reasons though
(c) Tyranny
(i) Many instances of tyranny occurred
1. One example is Drako (620 BC)
a. Identified in Athenian history as a large tyrant
b. Wrote down a law
i. The law was whatever the Aristocrats stated. Typically favored themselves
(d) Religion
(i) Mainly of Dionysian following
(ii) Eleusis was the center of worship
(iii) Was a mystery religion
1. Meant to compensate the losers in society
a. ie. Everything happens for a reason
i) Solon
594 BC)
i) Was identified as a very wise & principled man
ii) Was voted to rule for 10 years
(1) To get the society together
iii) Was thought to be descended from an Aristocratic father and trader class mother
(1) Was though odd due to the difference in societal status
Solon’s System Change
iv) Tried to change the system
(1) Passed of series of ordinates that were effective immediate
(a) Outlawed personal indebting
(i) People could not turn themselves into slaves
(ii) Sent out agents to go buy back Athenians that were sold into slavery
(b) No outsourcing grain
(i) All Athens grain was sold within Athens
(ii) A lot of Aristocrats turned to wine and olive production as they could export it
1. Had negative impacts
(c) Began an industrialization production
(i) Pottery industry
(ii) Had a good supply of clay
(iii) Overtook Corins in the industry
(iv) Athens made good money off this
1. Allowed for the importing of grain
(d) Overhaul of Justice System
(i) Divided the citizen policy into 4 groups
1. Those who had an income of 500+ bushels of grain
a. the rich
2. Knights, those who fought from horseback
a. Relatively rich
3. Zeugitai
a. The yoke (oxen-driven carriage) men
b. Well off
4. Thetes
a. Bottom of the barrel
(ii) People could rise through the ranks unlike previous
j) Ecclesia
i) Refers to churchlike structure/area
ii) Used for worship
k) Kleisthes
(Ruler in/around 508 BC)
i) Turned his attention to the council
(1) A small group used to help prepare for big assemblies
ii) 4 tribes in Athens
(1) ¾ correlated very strongly between their geographical placement and economic income
(a) One was correlated with plains and soil
(b) One was correlated with mountains
(c) One was correlated with coast
(2) Kleisthes got rid of these 4
(a) Made 10 new ones
(i) Each tribe had a little bit of every geographical impute
1. They were all the same and homogenous
iii) Restructured the council
(1) At the beginning of the year each tribe, via a draw, council members were selected
(a) 50 members/tribe
(2) Via another draw, one tribe was selected to have their council members be the council for the first 10th of the year
(a) This was done until each tribe had their shot at having council members
(b) This allowed for no tribe to be able to plot things and rise to too much power
(i) No coup de ta could be plotted
(3) A chairman, via draw, was selected daily from the 50 members of council
(a) If an assembly happened that day, the council chairman was also the assembly chairman
(4) Once you were selected to be part of the council, your name had to wait 10 years to re-enter the draw
iv) About 20-25% of the citizens were involved in polis work
v) By doing all this, there developed an early form of government very close to that of democracy came into be
l) Persians
i) At about 500 BC, due to expansion, the Persians starting butting into Greek polis by the Mediterranean
ii) Iona polis
(1) An area where Ionian dialect was spoken
(a) Where current day turkey is
(2) Some tried to rebel against the Persians
(a) Athens sent ships to observe and patrol off the coast of Iona
(i) Persians were outraged as they felt they had influence over that area
Persian Wars
iii) Persians crossed over from Asia to Europe in 490 BC, Persians started moving down towards Athens
(1) The Athenian army marched north to take on the Persians
(a) The only polis that helped Athens during this war provided 1000 troops
(b) The Athenians overcame the odds and won
(c) Battle took place in Marathon
(d) This was the 1st battle of the Persian War
iv) After 490BC, a new rich vein of silver was discovered at Laurium
(1) They had an assembly meeting over what to do with the silver
(a) 2 sides emerged in this debate
(i) Equal share to all citizens
(ii) To spend the money to develop a naval force
1. This idea won
2. Athenian navy grew
v) The Persians lost the 2nd battle
(1) Athens had help from several poleis this time
(a) Also, included Sparta
(i) A Spartan army moved into a chokepoint by a place called Thermopylae
1. Hoped to stop the Persians there
a. A Greek traitor told Persians of a flank
i. The Persians destroyed the Spartans quickly
ii. Persians continued their advance
(2) Athenians abandoned the area of Athens itself and moved south to the islands via their navy
(a) With their naval force the Athenians won the war against the Persians at Salamis
(i) This caused the Persian king to call for a retreat
(3) Rise in Greek confidence due to the won war
(a) Helps with why this era was called the golden age
(i) Rise in culture
Barbarians
vi) Non-Greeks were called barbarians
(1) Due to the Bar-Bar sounds some barbarians made
(2) Greeks looked down on them
