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Ancient Greece
The ancient greek civilization starts around 3200 BC with the Cycladic civilization [followed by the Minoan (2700 BC) and the Mycenean civilization (1600 BC)] and flourished from the 7th century BC to the 2nd century AD, especially in the 5th century BC with the city-states of Athens and Sparta.
10,833 Questions
Greece is a very rocky place which makes it very hard to grow food.
How many Persians fought against the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae?
Who was there
The 300 Spartans were Spartan king Leonidas' bodyguard. Sparta was concerned with defending its own land from a Persian amphibious raid, and so was not about to send off a main force. Leonidas also had about 2,000 serf-light infantry. There were also about 4,000 warriors from those Greek states in the Thermopylai area which had not already gone over to the Persians.
How do we tell who won?
Who won hangs on the objectives of the both sides, and who was successful in achieving them.
What were the objectives and outcomes?
The Persian objective was to capture peninsular Greece to establish an ethnic frontier, as the latter had been supporting revolution in the Greek cities along the coast of Asia Minor, which was part of the Persian Empire. Xerxes had a large land force of about 150,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry, and 600 warships with 120,000 crewmen.
The Persian war fleet was superior to the Greek one, so it provided both outflanking amphibious capability and protection for the resupply fleet; the amphibious capability meant the Greek forces could not concentrate, remaining at home defending their cities, and so able to be picked off one by one.
The Greek strategy was to neutralise this war fleet, both to even up the operational mobility equation and, by depriving the Persians of their essential sea supply route, ultimately force their withdrawal. Given the inequality of the fleets, the Greeks determined to force sea engagements in narrow waters to minimise the effect of the opposing superior ships and numbers: they closed the land route to the south at the Thermopylai pass to force a Persian outflanking amphibious operation in the adjacent strait. When three days of naval engagements failed to give a Greek victory, and the Thermopylai position was outflanked on land, the fleet withdrew to the strait between Salamis and Athens, and by a stratagem of splitting the Persian fleet, defeated the main force and so exposed the sea supply line.
With no resupply, Xerxes was obliged to take half his army back to Asia Minor and the remaining part had to withdraw and winter in northern Greece. The following spring the southern Greek states, no longer threatened by enemy amphibious landings, were able to concentrate in full strength at Plataia and defeat the remaining Persian army and its Greek allies. In parallel, the Greek naval forces captured the rump of the Persian fleet at Mykale in Asia Minor.
Romantic stories of the stand at Thermopylai, based on it being designed to defeat the invasion, conceal the real strategies of both adversaries. The centre of gravity of the might of Persia outside Asia was its Egyptian, Phoenician and Asian-Greek war fleet. Its neutralisation mandated a critical enemy land force reduction and removed the threat of amphibious invasion of the Peloponnese states, allowing them to concentrate against the reduced enemy land forces.
So who won at Thermopylai?
The Persians continued with their invasion until stopped elsewhere.
The Greeks lost the naval engagement offshore, which was set up by the Thermopylai defence, so the latter was to no avail. When Leonidas got news of the Persian outflanking of his position through the mountains, he sent the other contingents off to get inside the walls of friendly cities so that they wouldn't be ridden down in open country by the Persian cavalry when they broke through. He kept the Theban contingent as they were suspected of having already gone over to the Persians, and set up a last stand with his 300 Spartan hoplites and 2,000 serf-light infantry to give the dismissed contingents a head start. The Thebans quickly surrendered and the Spartan 2,300 went down to a man. The other contingents took the benefit of this sacrifice and got away safely.
What form of democracy was used by the Greek city states?
Radical/absolute democracy.
This means that all citizens (not every person there, just ones who qualified for citizenship.. another thing all together) got to vote. This is different from American democracy where we vote for candidates who then make decisions on our behalf, which is actually a Republic.
What did the people of Greece's many city-states have in common?
The Greek city-states had many things in common.
They were not forced to believe - they simply believed in them. They spoke the same language. That had a common culture - their love of beauty and competition to name two. Their city-states were located on the same peninsula.
What kinds of religious art did the ancient indias create?
Many of their paintings and sculptures illustrated either hindu and buddhist teachings.
What did the Greeks buy using coins?
Greeks bought things like silks and gold jewellery. Most of the time they grew or raised their own food, so they only needed to buy other things they couldn't get themselves.
Who were the principal Greek gods?
Zeus, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hades, Poseidon, Hermes, Apollo, and Athena were the principal Olympic gods.
Rome was governed in lots of different ways. The most powerful person was the senate. Plebebians were ordinary people. The slaves had no rights
What temple of Delphi honors which Greek god?
There were several temples in Delhi. The most famous one was Temple of Apollo, which hosted the Pythia, more commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi. Apollo was an oracular god.
Why were masks so important in Greek theatre?
The conventions of the day only allowed three actors with speaking roles to be used. The masks let them change roles with the most simplest and quickest of actions and allowed one part to be played by anyone. The masks were usually caricatures of famous people or extreme emotions e.g. an unnecessarily large smile, so they could also display who/what that character was supposed to be.
Why did ancient Greeks visit Delphi?
The Greeks visited Delphi so they could get advise from the god Apollo.
Which element from Greek and Roman governments have been adopted in the American legal system?
Property rights. Trial by jury. Prosecution and defence. Punishment by fine, execution or loss of citizenship.
However this is hardly a direct adaption by America from the Greek and Roman systems - these systems fed into European countries, and America adapted them from those European countries which founded and influences its development.
Why did members of the Delian league resent Athens's power?
The money they paid to the league funds to secure them from the Persians was used by Athens to fund its fleet, and when peace was arranged with the Persians, Athens continued to collect the money and use it to beautify the city, keep half its people in public employment, and keep a hundred ships at sea collecting the money by force where necessary.
What is brief summary about peloponnesian war?
It involved the Greek in a destructive struggle for ascendancy between the Athenian empire, and the Peloponnesian league led by Sparta. It led to the dissolution of the Athenian empire, massive destruction in the Greek world, and solved little, with inter-city warfare continuing on amongst realigned allies afterwards.
In what order did the following peoples dominate Greece (Myceneans Macedonians Dorians)?
It would be helpful if you gave the three peoples you are interested in knowing about, as many peoples dominated Greece over several thousand years.
One answer could be Achaeans, Dorians and Macedonians.
Another could be Hellenes, Romans and Turks,
etc etc.
Why did ancient Greeks believe in mythical creatures?
== == The "Dark Ages" or "Middle Ages" are not unique for their superstitions and mythology. There has yet to be a race of human beings that has not produced or embraced a set of superstitions or fables. While indeed such things helped explain the unknown, it was seldom comforting filling the unknown with mysterious beings that were even more threatening.
Many of these mythologies and superstitions were brought over and adapted from the paganism of the barbarian tribes that over the centuries converted and became the Christians of the Middle Ages. In the face of intolerant Christian theology all ancient religions with their gods became superstitious practices that served demons. Since people believed in demons, it was easy to imagine the demons had taken specific forms and identities with which to taunt and injure the human race. What is remarkable is how often European tales speak of religious objects as means of warding off such creatures, often these were metaphors for how Christianity was more powerful than the old gods and pagan practices. The older mythologies speak of potions and protective words, pagan throwbacks, and thus often people that tried such things were associated with paganism and labeled as witches or warlocks since even good pagan charms must come from the devil. Add to this the frailty of life with sickness, famine, war and death a very close reality. Further, the Middle Ages were riddled with wonder workers, both saints and sinners. While the modern age may scoff at some of the claims, thousands witnessed events such as the raising of the dead, healings, weather shifting and strange victories and defeats. Fledging science was often mixed with superstition involving incantations and special ingredients since the knowledge just was not there to think success could be achieved otherwise.
The modern world is just as susceptible to mythology and superstition. In fact, a case could be made that the modern world is absolutely obsessed with such things, just as much if not more than any other time period in history. Just a hundred years ago the city of Los Angeles, so convinced by the blathering of drifter, awarded the man funding and equipment to make an excavation in what is now downtown LA to find the underground city of the Lizard people. He used up the money and disappeared after a week. Seriously, look it up. Apartment buildings are still constructed without a 13th floor. Presidents of recent memory and Prime Ministers, the same who brought us into the technological age, are known to have consulted astrologists. Our newspapers contain horoscopes, our store fronts feature psychics and people base success and failure on certain personal routines, clothes, words and lucky objects. Our mythology now is featured in comic books and TV shows depicting people with astounding abilities, heavenly bodies and impossible wealth. Many would scoff saying that we know such things are not real, yet if one combines all the surgeries, special devices, drugs and foods, dietary programs, seminars we are looking at billions of dollars and hours spent in the pursuit of our gods and goddesses, not to mention the money that is spent on therapy for failing to live the dream.
How do yu say 'i love you' in ancient Greek?
enagkalismee keh aspasmee
the stress is at the last syllable of each word.
εναγκαλισμοί και ασπασμοί
If is not really possible to answer this question if it does not specify what the following is. I will assume that it refers to democracy because this is seen the most important political legacy of the Greeks.
What do the Greeks believe in?
The Greeks had a complex mythology. They believed in divine beings, known as gods and goddesses, to explain natural phenomenas such as thunder, lightning, and death. The most poweerfull gods and goddesses were known as Olympians. They lived in Mt. Olympus. There mythology is probaly the best known mythology.
What is the modern name for the greek colony Massilia called?
I believe it is the French city of Marseilles.
