Ancient Greece Notes Part I

Minoans

A.  Begun around 2600 BC on Crete
B.  Peaked around 1700 - 14550 BC
    1.  Was egalitarian - women and men were equal
    2.  Villages were open (not fortified) and centered around a shrine
    3.  Based on the ocean - thalassocracy
    4.  Favorite sport was bull wrestling
C.  Declined due to a volcano or earthquake
D. Accomplishments
   1.  Bronze/Gold working
   2.  Written language
   3.  Trade routes

Mycenaeans

A.  Invaded the remnants of the Minoans
B.  Mixed with locals and took over parts of their culture
C.  Lived in fortified cities (commoners moved inside during times of trouble)
D.  Had powerful army and navy
E.  Collapsed around 1100 BC when invaded by the Dorians who had iron weapons
    1.  Dorians had superior weapons (iron)
    2.  Ushered in a "dark age" characterized by warfare, disrupted trade, and the loss of written language
F.  Contributions to Greece
   1.  Navigation
   2.  Pottery-making
   3.  Metal-working
   4.  Myths and Legends
   5.  Religious practices

Trade
A.  Was necessary for survival because Greeks could not feed all of their people
B.  Traded away:
    1.  Olive Oil
    2.  Wine
    3.  Pottery
    4.  Fish
    5.  Wool
C.  Trade for:
   1.  Slaves
   2.  Timber
   3.  Grain
   4.  Metals
   5.  Papyrus
   6.  Dyes
   7.  Coins
   8.  Ideas (geometry from Egypt, alphabet from Phoenicia)

City-States
A.  Sparta
   1.  Founded by the Dorians
   2.  Set up military government to control helots
       a.  helots = slaves
       b.  outnumbered Spartans by as much as 10 to 1
   3.  Goal = to produce strong-bodied, fearless men and women
       a.  Sickly babies left to die
       b.  Children sent to military school at age 7
           1.  trained for 23 years
           2.  became citizen at age 30
       c.  Women trained in gymnastics and physical endurance
   4.  Were known as brave and powerful warriors
B.  Athens
   1.  Largest City-state
   2.  Goal = to develop the mind as well as the body
   3.  Established the 1st democracy
       a.  Began with nobles gaining power over king
       b.  Choose a group (archons) to rule the city-state
       c.  Harsh laws recorded by Draco (avoid abuse of laws by            archons)
       d.  Solon increased power of lower and middle class men in            about 594 B.C. by abolishing slavery for debt and establishing jury system (all free men eligible)
       e.  Pysistratus seized power as a tyrant in 546 BC but did do much to expand Athens as a cultural center
       f.  Cleisthenes reformed the system again by dividing Athens into 10 districts and beginning the system of ostracism (expulsion from Athens for 10 years if the Assembly believed you were a threat to the city-state)   

Greek Assembly

A.  First democratic government
B.  Was a direct democracy - people actually vote on all laws/issues (as opposed to representative democracy - vote for people to represent you)
C.  Procedures
    1.  Select City Council
        a.  Divide the city-state into 10 districts
        b.  Select 50 citizens (free males) from each district to compose city council (by lots)
   2.  City Council selects issues to be discussed at the assembly
       a.  Each member has a chance to raise an issue
       b.  Council records issues to be discussed/voted upon at the assembly
   3.  Assembly meets to discuss issues
       a.  List of issues presented by the City Council
       b.  Assembly divides into committees to discuss issues
       c.  Speeches made on both sides of each issue
   4.  Assembly votes on issues
       a.  Positions read by City Council
       b.  Each citizen gets to vote for a position on each issue
   5.  Assembly presents new laws to the City-state