Lesson 1 Cycladic Culture The Cyclades are a group of about 200
islands located east of the Greek mainland in the southern Aegean
Sea. In about 3000 B.C. the Cycladic culture began on these
islands. Most Cycladic people made their living by fishing and
trading, and others were farmers who grew grapes, olives, and other
crops. Today, all that is known about the Cycladic culture and its
people comes from studying artifacts. Many questions cant be
answered because of this. After about 2000 B.C. the Cycladic
culture began to weaken.
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Lesson 1 Minoan Culture The Minoan culture began on the island
of Crete in about 2700 B.C. Minos, the King of Crete, named the
culture Minoan. The Minoan culture began as an agricultural
society. In about 2000 B.C. the Minoans began to build large,
richly decorated palaces. The largest palace was at Knossos. It
stood three stories high and covered an area about the size of
three football fields. The Minoans had both a counting system and a
writing system for keeping records of their trade. By the 1100 B.C.
the Minoan culture had disappeared.
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Lesson 1 Mycenaean Culture The Mycenaean culture takes its name
from the city of Mycenae. The city was located on the large
southern peninsula of Greece called the Peloponnesus. By the 1500s
B.C. the Mycenaeans had become the dominant culture in the area. As
a result of trading, the Mycenaeans learned Minoan ways and adapted
them to fit their own culture. They borrowed Minoan art styles and
writing. The Mycenaeans adapted the writing to suit their own
language, an early form of Greek. In about 1200 B.C. The Mycenaeans
culture suddenly came to an end. A large earthquake destroyed many
Mycenaean settlements. Some people rebuilt their homes, some moved
away.
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Lesson 1 Trojan Culture The Trojan culture was centered in the
ancient city of Troy, in Asia Minor. The Trojans farmed, raised
horses, and herded sheep. They also traded with the Mycenaeans and
other cultures. Most historians believed that the Mycenaeans
invaded and destroyed Troy around 1250 B.C. For ten years the
Mycenaeans tried to capture the city of Troy. The high stone walls
of Troy seemed impossible to break through. Odysseus workers built
a huge, wooden horse. When the horse was finished, some Mycenaean
soldiers hid inside it. The Mycenaeans left the horse at the gates
of the Troy, the boarded their ships, and pretended to leave.
Believing the horse to be a peace offering, the Trojans pulled it
into their city. That night the Mycenaean soldiers crawled out of
their hiding place. They opened the city gates and let the rest of
the Mycenaean army. By morning they had defeated the Trojans and
burned down the city of Troy.
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Lesson 2 Rise of the City-States The making of Classical Greek
civilization began with the rise of the city-states. City-states
were formed as people living in neighboring villages joined to
protect themselves from outside dangers. Many of the groups built
walled forts for safety during enemy attacks. Each fort usually was
built on a acropolis, or a hilltop. Over time, villages grew into
cities around the acropolis. Houses, public buildings, and an
open-air market called, an agora, stood below the acropolis. Most
city-states were located in coastal areas and had economies based
on trade. Neighboring city-states often fought over lands that lay
between them. As a result of the struggles, some city-states grew
in importance and size. Among the best-known and most powerful
Greek city-states were Athens and Sparta. Over time, these town
city-states developed very different economies and
governments.
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Lesson 2 Athens The city-states of Athens was located on
Attica. After the Dark age, Athens was ruled by an aristocracy. In
594 B.C. the Athenians asked a leader named, Solon to make changes,
in their government, because sometimes the leaders struggle with
one another for control of the city-states, so Solon divided them
into classes. Each year, a drawing was held to select a council of
500 male citizens. The council suggested laws for the assembly and
decided on government policies. A policy is a plan of action In 508
B.C. more reforms made the Athenian city-state into the worlds
first democracy. Immigrants and slaves, both male and female, were
not allowed to take part in the government. Most Athenian slaves
were people from the neighboring areas who had been captured in a
war. Athenian slaves were owned by private citizens. They can be
sold or bought as property.
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Lesson 2 Sparta The city-state of Sparta had a island location
from the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Its inland location caused Sparta
to develop a military economy. Sparta used a governing system known
as oligarchy. In an oligarchy, a few people from the ruling class
make decisions for everyone. Spartan society was made up of three
classes. Only the men in the ruling class were considered Spartan
citizen. The Dorians had enslaved the people already living in the
area. These slaves formed the second and largest class in the
Spartan society. People in the lower class outnumbered Spartan
citizens by as much as ten to one. This caused citizens to fear the
lower classes. Fear of rebellion from within and attack from
outside led the Spartan citizens to focus on their military.
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Lesson 2 To be Greek Since the city-states were independent,
people did not think of themselves as belonging to a country as
Americans do. The different city-states had a cultural identity or
connection with one another. Over time, this common cultural
identity helped think of themselves as a single civilization. The
Olympic games were held every four years to honor Zeus. The ancient
games were held from about 776 B.C. to A.D. 393. Writing helped
bring the city-states together. In the 700 B.C. the Greeks
developed a writing system based on the one used by the Phoenician
traders. The word alphabet comes from the names of the two first
two Greek letters, alpha and beta. A common mythology, religion,
activities, and language, helped unite the Greeks as a people. It
also set them apart from others living in the Mediterranean region.
The Greeks called anyone who could not speak Greek a
barbarian.
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Lesson 3 The Persian Wars For hundreds of years the Greek
city-states fought over land and trade. During the 500 B.C.
century, Persia built a huge empire that included Assyria,
Babylonia, Egypt, and the Greek city-states in Asia Minor.
Citizens-soldiers from Athens met a larger Persian force on the
plain of Marathon, not far from Athens. Even though the Persians
had more soldiers, well-trained Athenians managed to defeat them in
just one day of fighting. In 480 B.C. the Persians invaded the
Balkan Peninsula. At this time Xerxes, the son of David I, attacked
by land and sea. Greeks formed a league to protect themselves. A
league is a group of allies. After the Persian Wars, Athens made
new allies. City-states from Attica, Asia Minor, and some of the
Aegean Islands joined Athens to form a Delian League.
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Lesson 3 The Age of Pericles After the defeat of the Persians,
the Athenians felt great pride in their new leadership position.
During much of this time, Athens was led by Pericles, a member of
the city- states wealthy ruling class. Pericles was a relative of
Cleisthenes, the Athenian leader who had taken governing authority
away from the aristocracy and given it to the city-states assembly.
In about 460 B.C. Pericles was elected as a leader in the Athenian
government. Over the next few years, he made many important
changes. At first, only elected officials were paid. In time, all
government officials both elected and appointed received pay. In
457 B.C. Pericles gave male citizens of any class the right to hold
nearly any government office. Pericles believed that every male
citizens, not just wealthy citizens, had a right to take part in
the government.
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Lesson 3 Achievements of the golden Age Pericles supported
writers, such as Herodotus, an early historian. Herodotus explained
that he wrote a history of the Persian Wars to record the
astonishing achievements of our own and of other peoples. Even
today many people still read the works of Herodotus and of other
writers of the Golden Age. Aristophanes chose to write comedies.
His comedies usually made fun of political leaders or ideas that he
did not agree with. One of the great scientists of Greek was
Hippocrates. He showed that illness came from natural causes. Many
people at that time believed that illnesses were punishments for
angering the gods. Hippocrates wrote rules of behavior for doctors,
and that is perhaps why he is best remembered. Today doctors still
follow these rules. Sophocles wrote tragedies with unhappy endings.
During the Golden Age, scientists studied nature and human life.
Some of their findings changed the way that people viewed their
world.
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Lesson 3 The End of the Golden Age Pericles wanted to make
Athens a powerful city-state, so the soldiers were sent to conquer
lands in Egypt. In 431 B.C. Sparta and its allies in the
Peloponnesian League went to war against Athens and its allies. In
430 B.C. plague deadly disease, broke out and spread quickly
through the city. Many people died, including one-fourth of the
Athenian army and Pericles himself. For the next 27 years, the two
leagues (Sparta and Athens) fought each other. The Athenian navy
defended the Athens. Without the wise leadership of Pericles, the
members of the Athenian assembly began to follow demagogues. A
demagogue is a leader who stirs up the feeling and fears of people
to gain personal power. In 404 B.C. Athens surrendered to Sparta.
Sparta quickly replaced the Athenian democracy with an oligarchy
like its own. However, the Athenians soon rebelled, or resists
authority, and for a time Athens was a democracy once again.
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Lesson 3 The Greek Philosophers One of the philosophers,
Socrates, called himself the citys gadfly, after an insect that
bites horses and makes them jump. Socrates used criticism of the
government to sting Athenians into thinking about life and the best
way to live it. Criticism would be more welcome in Pericles day,
but instead it annoyed the leaders of Athens In 399 B.C. an
Athenian court found Socrates guilty of teaching dangerous ideas to
the citys young people. The court ordered Socrates to end his own
life by drinking poison. Even though his family and friends wanted
him to live, but Socrates felt that it is important to obey the law
so he drank the poison. One of Socrates students was Plato, he said
that a ruler should be a person of good character or someone who is
wise. He believed it was possible to become a good ruler by
studying hard and by loving wisdom. He felt that philosophers would
make the best rulers.
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Lesson 4 The Making of an Emperor Alexander was born in 356
B.C. in Macedonia. His father was Philip II, a Macedonian who had
spent of his boyhood Geek lands. His mother, Olympia, was Greek.
Both parents wanted to pass on to their son their love of Greek
culture. To do this, his parents hired the Greek philosopher
Aristotle to be Alexanders teacher. Alexander s schooling ended at
age 16, when his father called him away to fight in the army. His
father taught him to be a fearless warrior. In 338 B.C. 18-year-old
Alexander commanded the cavalry, or soldiers who fought on
horseback, in Philips army. The Battle of Chaeronea brought most of
the Greek peninsula under Macedonia control. Philip next prepared
to invade the Persian Empire in Asia, but before he could do so, he
was killed by one of his bodyguards. In 336 B.C. Philips rule
passed to Alexander, then 20 years old. In 335 B.C. Alexanders army
attacked the rebelling Greek city of Thebes and destroyed it. About
30,000 people in the city were sold into slavery.
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Lesson 4 The Building of an Empire In 334 B.C. Alexander led an
army of more than 35,000 soldiers from southern Europe to Asia
Minor, and won and it gave him more wealth and glory. One by one,
Alexander conquered the cities along the coast of Asia Minor. A
famous legend tells about Alexanders adventures in Gordium. King
Gordius had tied a difficult knot to his chariot, stating that
whoever untied it would rule all of Asia. When Alexander arrived,
he cut the Gordian knot with his sword and was crowned king of the
city. By 333 B.C. Alexander and his army had reached the coast of
Syria. From there they marched south into Phoenicia to capture its
port cities. Alexander had difficulty taking the port of Tyre
because it was on an island about one-half mile offshore. A legend
says that Alexander ordered workers to build a causeway, or land
bridge, out to the island. This changed the island into a
peninsula, which it remains today. After seven months of fighting,
the people of Tyre surrendered in 332 B.C.
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Lesson 4 The Building of an Empire Alexander went to Egypt,
which was under Persian control. They greeted him warmly because
they were thankful to be free from Persian rule. They crowned
Alexander as their Pharaoh. When Alexander went to Gaugamela,
Alexander defeated the much larger Persian army and forced the
emperor, Darius III, to flee. Next, Alexander captured the Persian
cities of Babylon and Persepolis. By 330 B.C. Alexander and his
army moved north toward the Caspian Sea to find Darius. The
once-mighty Persian emperor had lost so much power that he was
killed by members of his own court. With the death of Darius,
Alexander became the most powerful ruler in southwestern Asia. He
began to be called Alexander the Great.
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Lesson 4 The End of the Empire Alexander the Great ruled a wide
area, but he wanted still more lands. While he was in Bactria,
Alexander married the Bactria princess Roxane. In 326 B.C.
Alexander and his army were on the move again. They reached the
upper Indus River, and Alexander planned to push on from there to
the Ganges River. However, his weary soldiers refused to follow
him. Disappointed, Alexander ordered his army to return home. By
the time he reached Babylon, Alexander was already planning new
expeditions. He wanted to lead the journeys deeper into northern
Africa and the into the Arabian Peninsula. However, in 323 B.C.
Alexander became seriously ill with a fever. He died shortly before
his thirty-third birthday. No leader proved strong enough to
replace Alexander the Great. His empire quickly split into many
parts, the largest of which were Egypt, Macedonia, and Syria.
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Lesson 4 Alexanders Legacy Alexander the Great and his army
came into contact with many different cultures. Many of the
conquered people learned to speak and write in Greek and to follow
Greek customs. The period of Alexanders rule and several centuries
after his death are known as the Hellenistic Age. Like the Golden
Age, the Hellenistic Age was a time of achievement. As Alexander
the Great spread his empire, he built new cities. Many of them were
named Alexandria in his honor. The cities became centers of
learning and helped spread Greek culture. In time, Alexandria,
Egypt, equaled Athens as a center of Greek culture.