2.1 Ancient Greece: the start of European Civilisation -T-

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 1

 The Time of Greeks and Romans

2.1 Life in a Greek city-state

p. 58 + 59

What do you already know about the Greeks in terms of culture, sports, architecture, religion, etc.?

Why do you think that we'll discuss the time of the Greeks?

Why do we study Ancient Greece? Because of its legacy!  .

LEGACY: anything that is handed down from the past and that leaves a mark on the world today.

What was the legacy of ancient Greece?

The ancient Greeks left a long standing mark on the modern world by developing new government systems called democracy, architecture, sports, art, theater, philosophy, science, mathematics, and by inventing new technologies.

What is ancient Greece remembered for?

Ancient Greece is remembered for developing democracy, inventing Western philosophy, realistic art, developing theater like comedy and tragedy, the Olympic Games, inventing pi, and the Pythagoras theorem.

Why is ancient Greece important to Western civilization?

Ancient Greece helped explain the world through the laws of nature by inventing Western philosophy, democracy, the arts, and through several scientific inventions.

What did the ancient Greeks invent?

The ancient Greeks invented many things still used today. For instance, they invented Western philosophy, pi, the Pythagoras theorem, geometry, and the most important item they invented was a form of government called democracy.

What you can explain /  do after this lesson

• What a polis is;
• Why trade was important for the Greeks
• Out of what social layers a Greek society consisted during the Antiquity
• Why the Greeks created colonies

Word Duty

Social layers: groups of people who differ from each other in wealth, power and prestige.

Colony: a new city that was started overseas

Polis (plural: poleis): Greek city-state

Agora: the main marketplace in a polis

Acropolis: the inner keep of the city where most of the temples were

Slave: person owned by someone else, slaves were at the bottom of the social pyramid

Middle class: social layer of merchants and such individuals

Lower class: (poor) working people with little power

Upper class: ruling class of people

KEY WORDS

Assignment for the all lessons that have yet to come:

Write down every word that you find difficult, for instance when:

1. You don't know what the word means in Dutch
2. You don't know what the word means/have never seen the word

Make your own personal dictionary (PIF-list), filled with the words you find difficult. 

It contains:

1. The difficult word
2. The Dutch translation
3. The meaning of the word

Introduction

Most historians say that European civilisation starts with the Greeks. The people lived divided over independent city-states. Athens and Sparta were the most powerful ones. The city-states were filled with many people, all of them in different social layers. Slavery was normal to them and fighting in the army was only for the rich.

Geography of Greece

• Greece is a country that borders the Mediterranean Sea. It has many high mountains, rocky ground and islands.
• No fertile ground close together > mainly herding sheeps and goats
• Few patches of fertile ground > grains, olives and figs

Sometimes they needed to do something more drastic. 

• Start a new city, or colony with strong links to the old city
• The colony could trade food with the 'mainland'
• Greece has difficult terrain (high mountains) > the sea as their highways
• What is important if you travel a lot via sea? 

source 2.1.1

Map of Ancient Greece, around 500 BC, modern illustration

source 2.1.2

Today, Greece still has high mountains and rocky grounds.

The Greek city states

• Greek cities were so powerful that they also controlled surrounding lands. > these cities became independent states, with their own government, coins and army. 
• Such a city is called a city-state. The Greek word for this is polis (plural: poleis). 
• These poleis would act as small countries.
• Not all poleis were exactly the same 

In China the priests wrote on turtle shells.

source 2.1.4

The Acropolis of Athens, painted by Leo von Klenze (1846)

source 2.1.5

Athens, 2018

Assignment

On the next slide, we'll find a short video about what Athens looks like according to the makers of the game Assassin's Creed. 

1) Write down at least 5 things that you see that can be linked to Ancient Greece.

2)  Do you think it is realistic what is shown to you in the video? 3) What makes you think that?

Can we say that ancient Greece was: 

A: one country (a unified state, like the Netherlands today) ? Or, 

B: a collection of different countries (city states) ?

There are arguments for both. For example:

A: One country, because: The people in the different poleis all shared the same:

              - language

              - gods

              - culture

B: Different countries, because the city states had different:

              - governments

              - coins

                And they often fought wars against each other.

Greece: One country or several countries?

Trading across the Mediterranean

• Merchants > people that sailed from harbour to harbour to buy goods cheap and sell these goods elsewhere for a lot of money. 

• Most money could be made by trading olives.
• Fresh olives were not that valuable, but olive oil was. It was sold all over the Mediterranean Sea, as was Greek wine

source 2.1.6

A trireme: a warship with three rows of rowers (present-day replica).

Classes in ancient Greece

In history we call groups of merchants the middle class. People who only work and do not have a lot of wealth are called the lower class. People with the most property, the rich and powerful, are called the upper class. This class owned land and made money by selling woods and crops from the land, or renting out land. Of course they did work with traders, but they said the land was their source of income.

Free men and foreigners

• Not everyone is equal > social layers
• In Athens you have: citizens, foreigners (metoiks), free man and slaves
• Metoiks were the people born in a different polis > not allowed to own land or have a say in politics.
• Free man > allowed to own land or run a business, but not rich enough so no say in politics.
• The rights that women had depended on the polis where they lived: in Sparta they were allowed to own land and run a business, but in most city-states they were not.

source 2.1.9

Men discuss politics in the Athenian Agora (colour lithograph), Herget, Herbert M. (1885-1950), National Geographic Creative

Slaves

• Bottom of the social pyramid
• Rights depended on the polis > some more important than others
• Teachers, advisors > well educated and expensive.
• Work hard in fields or mines 
• Both scenarios no freedom!

• How do you become a slave?
• Too much debt,
• Birth,
• War prisoners.

Slaves could always be sold again. Sometimes slaves could even buy their own freedom: in this case they became free men.

2.1.11

A painting of slaves working in a silver mine (5th century BC).

Homework

Read the text of chapter 2.1 Life in a Greek city-state

Do the exercises of chapter 2.1, p. 62

ex. 3 to 9

What have you learned today about Ancient Greece?

Next class

We'll discuss your homework questions.

We'll discuss what historical sources are and what they can tell us.