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Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece Study Guide
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Peninsula | a piece of land nearly surrounded by water |
| Bard | someone who writes or performs epic poems or stories about heroes and their deeds |
| Colony | a group of people living in a new territory with close ties to their homeland; the new territory itself |
| Polis | a Greek city-state |
| Agora | a gathering place or marketplace in ancient Greece |
| Phalanx | a group of armed foot soldiers in ancient Greece arranged close together in rows |
| Tyrant | an absolute ruler unrestrained by law |
| Oligarchy | a government in which a small group has control |
| Democracy | a government by the people |
| Helots | enslaved people in ancient Sparta |
| Ephor | a high-ranking government official in Sparta who was elected by the council of elders |
| Satrapy | a province in ancient Persia |
| Satrap | the governor of a province in ancient Persia |
| Zoroastrianism | a Persian religion based on the belief in one god and founded by the religious teacher Zoroaster |
| Direct democracy | a form of democracy in which all citizens can participate firsthand in the decision-making process |
| Representative democracy | a form of democracy in which citizens elect officials to govern on their behalf |
| Philosopher | a person who searches for wisdom or enlightenment |
| Physical Geography of Greece | located on Balkan Peninsula; stretched into Mediterranean Sea; mountainous terrain |
| How did the geography of Greece prevent a unified country of Greece? | due to the mountainous terrain; transportation and communication was extremely hard in this terrain; thus, Greece was a region made up of numerous city-states |
| Minoans | earliest civilization in vicinity of Greece; lived on Island of Crete; palace at Knossos is major architectural ruins; culture suddenly died out |
| Mycenaeans | lived on the mainland of Greece; constructed fortress city of Mycenae ; thought to be Greeks that fought at Troy; culture ended with Dark Age |
| The Dark Ages in Greek history | period where all advancement stopped; Dorians invaded; famine due to food shortages; political centralization vanished |
| City –state | the city and all the land around it that was controlled by that city; comes from word polis; early ones were built on hill tops called acropolis |
| Barbarians | term used by Greeks to refer to all people who were not Greeks |
| Greco-Persian War | series of conflicts due to Persia wanting to defeat and control the Greeks |
| Battle of Salamis | naval battle between Athenian Navy and Persian Navy; Persians defeated; caused Xerxes to return to Persia leaving 1/3 of his army to fight the Greeks; the Persians were defeated |
| Monarchy | rule by one; chosen king because your father was king |
| Aristocracy | rule by the best; group of aristocrats believed themselves to be the best suited for ruling |
| Oligarchy | rule by a few rather than one or many; king was removed by this group and a committee was formed to rule |
| Tyranny | bad form of one man rule; imposed by one man that rose to power by the discontent of the the lower classes; rules for his best interest alone; promises to help the lower classes and then forgets about them after he seizes power |
| Direct Democracy | when each citizen is allowed to participate directly in the process of governing |
| Athens | city-state that introduced the concept of Democracy; very open society; one of the most powerful city-states |
| Pericles | ruler of Athens that introduced Democracy at its fullest extent during his time |
| Sparta | city-state that did not progress beyond Oligarchy; felt like an armed military camp; strangers were not welcomed in Sparta; military presence so strong because they feared a revolt by the Helots |
| Socrates | questioned what was right or what was wrong; looked for answers through logical analysis; developed a method of asking questions to lead to students to find answers to their questions inside of themselves |
| Plato | student of Socrates; believed people could be split between three classes - workers who would produce the necessities of life, the warriors to guard the state from its enemies, and philosophers who would rule in the best interest of the people |
| Aristotle | student of Plato; first great Greek scientist; believed analysis of data would furnish answers to all questions |
| Greek Alphabet | alphabet adopted from Phoenicians who created an alphabet but did not include vowel; Greeks took alphabet and added vowels |
| Homer | a blind bard that wrote epic poems that used the gods and gave the qualities of a hero |
| Iliad | epic poem that told of the Trojan War |
| Odyssey | epic poem that told of the return of Odysseus or Ulysses(the hero) home after the war |
| What was the purpose of myths? | to explain things that man had not explanation for |
| Zeus | head of the Greek gods |
| Poseidon | brother of Zeus; god of the oceans and seas |
| Macedonia | kingdom north of Greece; Macedonians considered themselves to be Greeks but the Greeks would not accept them |
| Philip II | King of Macedonia; conquered a portion of Greece; did not punish the Greeks as he wanted them to be loyal to him; poisoned so his son could become king |
| Alexander the Great | never lost a battle; conquered the known world around the Mediterranean; spread Greek culture; tried to invade India but soldiers wanted to return home; he returned to his capital of Babylon and died |
| How did Alexander spread the Greek culture? | Greek became the language of the world; spread Greek architecture by founding 16 cities named Alexandra; most famous one in Egypt; spread Greek philosophy and alphabet |
| What happened to Alexander's empire after his death? | it was divided between his top four generals |
| Hellenistic Age | 200 year period after the death of Alexander; ended with the domination of Rome |