2/24/2014: Sparta and Athens

LO3: Citizens and Communities: The Greek City-States:

• Vocab:
• acropolis- the high fortified citadel and religious center of an ancient Greek town.
• hoplite- a heavily armed and armored citizen-soldier of ancient Greece.
• phalanx- a unit of several hundred hoplites, who closed ranks by joining shields when approaching the enemy.
• monarchy- a state in which supreme power is held by a single, usual hereditary ruler(a monarch)
• oligarchy- a state in which supreme power is held by a small group.
• triremes- massive fighting vessels with three banks of oars, used to ram or board enemy ships.
• tyranny- rule by self-proclaimed dictator and tator(tyrant).
• democracy- in ancient Greece, a form of government in which all adult male citizens were entitled to take part in celebration.
• helots- noncitizens forced to work for landholders in the ancient city-state of Sparta. 
• aristocrats- members of prominent and long-established Athenian families.
• ostracism- Banishment for ten years by majority vote of the Athenian Assembly.
• 
  
• Greek City-states :
• small places, generally consist of no more than a town and a few square miles of countryside.
• Athens and Sparta were giants among city-states 
• about the size of a couple US countries
• each only had about a few thousand people
• the Greek city-states were the first to name there people by the Greek word "polites" meaning citizens.
• the male citizens went to war for the Greeks
• they had to pay for the things that they carried into war with them 
• such as bronze helmets and armor, round shields, long spears with iron blades, and short iron swords.
• "Alongside Mesopotamia and Egypt there now appeared a third great civilization: that of classical Greece." 
• city-states founded by powerful families 

Sparta: The Military Ideal

• decedents of the Greeks who conquered part of the southern mainland.
• they pushed westward because they couldn't grow anything 
• they had to accept a government 
• this helped hold down the Messenians
• they had been rebelling and causing havoc 
• no one knows when or how the government was decided on but it was 
• the citizens could approve or disapprove the laws the elders wrote up
• to protect themselves they sealed off all of their boarders to foreigners
• "Instead of softening their feet with shoes, his rule was to make them hardy through going barefoot....Instead of pampering them with a variety of clothes, his rule was to habituate them to a single garment the whole year through, thinking that so they would be better prepared to withstand the variations of heat and cold."

Athens: Freedom and Power

• The Athenians didn't agree with the way the Spartan's lived
• difference of Athens to Sparta
• Sparta was agricultural and landlocked, and Athens were prosperous and had access to the sea
• Sparta had a powerful army and Athens had a strong navy
• Sparta was isolated from everyone and Athens welcomed foriegn ideas and visitors
• Sparta was a controlled society and Athenians were proud of their free way of life.
• Spartans had physical fitness and military courage and Athenians had literature and art

Way of life:

• most slaves were treated fairly 
• women were not a big part of the democracy 

Greek Words: