Ancient Greece and Rome - Activity 1. Greek City-

States (Athens vs. Sparta)

*** If you have not gone through the preparation of this topic yet, please click here. ***

*** The red circle(s) on the screen shots indicate the location of the tool or button you must use. ***

1. We will start a new map. If ArcGIS Explorer Online is not opened now, go to “explorer.arcgis.com.” Then

click “New Map.”

2. Let’s save the map first. Click the “Save” button on the toolbar.

3. Give the map a title. You can add tags to be searchable by others. Once you fill out the form, click “Save.”

4. We will use the imagery basemap to see the topology of Ancient Greece. Click the “Basemap” tool, and then

click the “Imagery” option.

5. Move the map to see Greece. At this point, you might need to discuss the definition of a city-state, list some

of the major city-states, and contrast this type of ancient political organization with what students are familiar

with today. Also, you can show topology of Greece—many mountains and few plains—to discuss how the

small city-states were situated with respect to this terrain and perhaps also why it might have been difficult to

organize larger city-states. The darker green color means mountains, and the brown color means plains. When

you work with students, it might be better to have a wall map of Europe available for reference.

6. Let’s mark major city-states on the map by adding a point feature. Major city-states are listed below. Some of

these are in today’s Greece, and some are in Turkey because the Greeks settled all around the Aegean. You

need to search for these places using their current names, rather than their ancient ones.

Country No. Ancient

Name Current Name

Greece

1 Sparta Sparti

2 Athens Athens

3 Corinth Korinthos

4 Megara Megara

5 Argos Argos

6 Crete Kriti

7 Rhodes Rodos

8 Thebes Thiva

9 Delos Mykonos

10 Delphi Delfoi

11 Mytilene Mytilini

Turkey

12 Troy near Canakkale

13 Ephesus near Selcuk

14 Miletus near Didim

15 Halicarnassus Bodrum

7. Now I will show you how to mark their locations. First, find the locations of these cities. Type “Sparti” in the

“Find Places” box in the upper-right corner, and hit the enter key. You might see the message “Map data not yet

available” because there is no detailed map data at this scale. Therefore, we need to zoom out until we can see

the map. Once you mouse-over the bottom-left corner, you will see the navigator. If your mouse has a wheel,

you can use the wheel to zoom in (scrolling up) and out (scrolling down).

8. Zoom out from the map until you can see the location of Sparti in Greece.

9. Click the “+” sign, and then choose “Map Notes.”

10. Now you can see a green point symbol.

11. You can also add the label for the point on the map by adding a text box. Click the “Add features” tool on

the left side of your map.

12. Click “Text.”

13. Click right next to the symbol on the map. You can change the location of the text box later. Type its

ancient name, “Sparta.” You can change the text color, size, and style on the “Change Symbol” panel.

14. Once you are done, click “Done.”

15. Follow the previous steps from #7 to #14 for the other city-states (go to the above table). Just in case, save

your map frequently.

16. Your map may look like the following:

17. Athens and Sparta were two of the major city-states. You might want to explain different characteristics

between these two city-states to students. Let’s change the point symbols of Athens and Sparta to other ones to

make them easily distinguishable among other city-states.

18. Click the point symbol of Athens, and then choose “Edit.” Then click “Change Symbol.”

19. In the Symbol palette, pick one you would like to change to.

20. Repeat the steps # 18 and #19 for Sparta. Your map may look like the following:

21. Now we will add information about Athens and Sparta in the pop-ups. Click the point symbol, and then

choose “Edit.” Then click “Edit Pop-up.”

22. In the pop-up, you can add information about Athens and Sparta like the following. You can use your own

pictures by searching related images on the web, or use the ones that I provide here: Images of Athens and

Sparta. If you do not know how to find the URL of an image, please click here. Once you are done, click “OK.”

23. Repeat the previous steps #21 and #22 for Sparta. In the pop-up, add the following information. Again, you

can add more information in the “Description” box.

24. Once you click the point symbols of Athens and Sparta, you can see their information and related pictures

like the following:

(Image source: By Thermos [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons)

(Image source: By Κούμαρης Νικόλαος, via Wikimedia Commons)

Discussion questions

o Why were there so many small city-states in Ancient Greece? Why did they not make one big

country?

o Why were Athens and Sparta so different? What factors might account for their different politics,

industry, and military strengths?

o Were there any conflicts between Athens and Sparta? What were the causes of these conflicts?