LO3

Citizens and Communities: The Greek City-States

• tribal communities of the dark ages developed into City-States
• City-States were small places, population not more than a town, and a few square miles of surrounding countryside
• Athens and Sparta were the size of a U.S. county
• Population only around a few thousand
• Athens thou once reached 250,000
• The town was usually built around a hill where the acropolis was built
• the acropolis was a combination of a fortress and a temple
• Fortresses and temples were both important to the Greeks
• Extremely competitive communities that continually fought one another
• Their most important civic was to worship the god or goddess on which their community was based on
• Athens was the city of Athena
• Greeks developed around the time the Assyrians were reaching for power westward from Mesopotamia
• Greece was protected by many miles of land and water
• No overall empire so city-states fended for themselves
• They could not afford soldiers or large Calvary forces
• Relied on their male citizens to make up the army
• People who could afford to equipped themselves with swords
• Types of main government
• monarchy
• oligarchy
• tyranny
• democracy
• Tyranny was not successful
• Women didn't have power in the government
• Sparta was a civilization that was all military minded
• conquered the southern mainland
• at seven boys were taken into military training
• aloud to get married at 20
• women went into training for child barring
• they paid money to fight
• Athens was the exact opposite of Sparta
• thought Sparta's way of life way stupid
• Athens was better with navy
• Athens was a war like city-state with peace
• wealthiest city-state
• traded
• went into training for battle at 18 for only 2 years
• educated
• many forms of government
• two points in time
• War with the Persians
• golden age lasted from 460 B.C. to 430 B.c.
• Athens was defeated and lost confidence
• Athens had meeting once a week
• met a agora then hills
• voting was by show of hands
• slaves were more free then American slaves
• women had to be escorted from their house by a close male relative