2. 800 B.C. Greece began building settlements
again
Started with small villages, grew into towns, &
towns joined with nearby villages to create a polis
or city state
3. Rise of City-States
Built walled fortresses or acropolis on top of hills for protection
Acropolis became center for daily life
Houses, temples, & open air markets and gathering places called agora
were found outside acropolis
Kings or tyrants (someone who took control of a government by force and
rules alone) ruled city states at first
Made all political decisions
In time city states developed their own way of governing
Aristocracy (wealthy ruling class) sometimes shared power with the king
Comprised of landowners & merchants
In other city states all free men rich or poor took part in gov’t
Met in an assembly to make all decisions for the whole community
Most city states had fewer than 5,000 people
Overcrowding eventually caused people to find new places to live
Colonies developed in Asia Minor, southern Europe, & northern
Africa
New colonies brought new natural resources & trade markets
Greek ideas & customs also spread
Rivalries grew between city states
Began fighting over control of areas of Greece
4. Sparta
Ancient civilization focused on physical activity
Descendants of Dorian settlers
Leaders believed through military strength they
could control a city state ten times as large
Sparta was filled with slaves
250,000 slaves & 25,000 citizens
Formed a military culture to protect themselves
against a slave revolt
Children were put into training camps at age 7.
Girls returned home after several years of
training, but boys trained for war until 30
Men at 30 were allowed to become citizens, marry
& have families
Not free from army duty until 60
5. Army Camps
Taught Spartans to obey leaders
without question
Never give up a battle, even when
wounded
Wore red uniforms to hide their wounds
Was a disgrace to lose
Greatest honor was to die defending
their land
6. Women in Sparta
Had fewer rights than men
Ran their homes & handled business
matters
May have owned 2/5 of the land in
Sparta
7. Way of Life
Lived simple & sparse way of life
By law everyone ate “in common, of the same bread &
same meat”
Trading was discouraged
New ideas may bring unwanted change
Citizens rarely allowed to travel outside their city state
Depended on themselves & their resources
Way of life changed little over time
Sparta had two kings with little authority except in
time of war
Had assembly of citizens, but also very weak
5 wealthy landowners called ephors or small ruling
group controlled the gov’t
Made all decisions for Sparta
Strict gov’t that was admired by many throughout Greece
8. Athens
Main city state in southern uplands
Young men were required to serve in the army only in
time of war
Gov’t encouraged people to take part in community
decisions
Grew into a system of democracy (rule by the people)
Solon, Athenian leader, helped bring democracy to Athens
around 594 B.C.
People had more rights in gov’t under him
508 B.C. Cleisthenes allowed people to play even greater
roles in gov’t
500 B.C. every free adult male over 20 was considered a
citizen of Athens
Citizens took part in city state’s assembly called
Ecclesia
Every member had 1 vote
Decisions were made by majority rule
Kept any one person from taking control of Athens
9. At special meetings a person could be exiled for
10 years if they received 6,000 ostraca or broken
pieces of clay pots
English word ostracism “act of shutting someone
out”
Athenian democracy did not include everyone
Women could not take part in gov’t & did not count
as citizens
Did manage the family budget & household
Slaves also did not have a part in democracy even
though they made up 1/3 of population & did
most of the work giving citizens the time to take
part in democracy
10. To Be “Greek”
During this time there was no sense of belonging to a
single country
People id with city state instead
People did feel a culture connection or cultural identity
with one another
All Greeks called themselves Hellenes because they
believed they had a common ancestor, the hero Hellen
Ancient myth said that Hellen alone survived a
flood long ago
Also shared religion
Cultural ID was seen in various activities
Olympic Games brought city states together in
peace
Began about 776 B.C.
Meet every 4 years to compete in athletic
contests to honor the god Zeus (gods
controlled daily events in the world)
Common written language brought city states together
Developed an alphabet based on the alphabet of
the Phoenicians
1st letter was alpha, 2nd beta (English word
alphabet comes from these Greek letters)
