Ancient Greece

Athens' democracy consisted mostly of the occasional plebiscite, comparable with today's referendum. Only freeborn male citizens could participate; women were considered mere 'possessions' of their husbands or fathers who had power of even life and death over them. There were no 'democratic' institutions. The plebiscites mentioned above were usually carefully orchestrated. Which was easy, because the ordinary citizens of Athens all were 'clients' of one or another important family to which they were loyalty-bound and who they visited on a regular basis to pay their respects or to ask for favors or protection..

In terms of day-to-day government Athens was an Oligarchy, run by the members of a small group of rich and powerful families. The idea of Athens being the 'cradle of democracy' is largely an invention of 19th century poet Lord Tennyson who in this way (and succesfully) drummed up support from Britain and France for Greece's revolution against its Ottoman overlords.

The city became submerged in the sea, with only some artefacts recovered. We have to rely on the historical record which describes the efforts of the Ptolemies to establish as the city as the main centre of culture, art, learning and and science.

Early ancient Greek phalanxes had the distinctive tendency to drift to the right side on a battlefield as they advanced. The reason for this was that the soldiers carried their large shields on the left arm because it safeguarded his comrades unshielded right side. This was not planned however, each soldier unconsciously moved toward his right side.

they taught them ways to work with bronze, built ships, and ways to navigate on the sea with the sun and stars.

Their systems initially developed in parallel, becoming limited democracies. Then Athens went further under the influence of Pericles who used a radical democracy to suppress his political opponents. This radical democracy led Athens into misadventures and a long war which it lost, and it eventually reverted to a limited democracy.

It's rugged mountains, poor soils,rivers, sea coasts separated settling tribes who formed separate independent city-states which defended their independence fiercely, resulting in continuing warfare. Their fecundity and limited arable land resulted in over-population, so the surplus were periodically shipped off to seize land in other locations around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, resulting in over 2,000 independent city-states.

i have no clue

The acropolis was primarily the high ground which provided a defensive fortress,, and also provided temples for the gods and also a repository for assets placed under protection of the gods.

The agora was a meeting ground which also was used as a market, usually surrounded by public buildings.

It provided a means of trade, migration and warfare.

There was no attempt by the over 2,000 independent city-states to unite. The reality was that they each greatly valued their own independence and fought endlessly to maintain it. They united in various and ever-changing groups to oppose other cities and groups. So the struggle was to stay un-united - indepndent, not to be united and be dominated by others in the name of unity.

Philosophy was not invented, it evolved as different people proposed different ideas. Philosophy then included what we today call science.

During its so-called golden age, Athens was rich enough to attract philosophers from around the Greek world - including such examples as Euclid (mathematics), Plato (metaphysics, politics, dialectic), Aristotle (ethics, psychology, five elements, motion, optics), Theophrastus (logic, physics, ethics).

It was the tradition of the ancient Greek Theatre and the style is also to be found in the modern world in some Asian theatre traditions. The mask defines the character/mood of the character and the audiences learn to associate certain mask faces with particular roles.

We, as an audience, find out different aspects of each of these character's personalities in Book 1.

During the assembly that Achilles calls, he calls for a seer to be summoned to see why Apollo is angry and has sent them the plague, illustrating his desire for things to be put right. Agamemnon is resentful at being told what to do, showing his need to remain in control.

Achilles speaks directly to Agamemnon calling him greedy, showing that he has no respect for the King after dishonouring him (Agamemnon has distributed the prizes, that the army has won, unequally, according to Achilles. He is their best fighter and thus demands more rewards than the other fighters, but Agamemnon refuses). Achilles then tells his leader that it would be in their best interests to give back the girl, Chryseis to her father and accept the ransom offered by him. He promises that he and his men will over-reward Agamemnon for this deed, if he would just see it through. Achilles speaks of Gods while referring to this, emphasising the importance of the situation and his deeper respect for them than Agamemnon.

Agamemnon refuses to go back on what he has already decided, regarding Chryseis, in fear that it will make him look like a weak leader, but in fact, it would be quite the opposite. Agamemnon gives an insecure speech, but tries too hard maintain his status. He jumps to conclusions, accusing Achilles of tricking him into giving the girl back, so he can keep his own, Briseis, safe. However, this is not strictly true.

Achilles proceeds to insult his leader more, calling him self centred and a swine. He tells him that he didn't even want to come to fight as he had no grudge against the Trojans, but only came to gain glory for Agamemnon, as did the rest of their army. He tells him that he has been cheated out of his booty as he does all the fighting and doesn't get any larger reward than the others for his bravery and also Agamemnon takes the most of it for himself.

Achilles becomes a little melodramatic and declares that he will return home, leaving the army without his help. Agamemnon replies patronisingly that he should leave, then and can do without him (which he obviously can't). He suddenly leaps to his last resort of trying to maintain a higher status than Achilles, attempting to reprimand him in front of the whole army, declaring that he will take away his prize. But this is showing his desperation as he is not quite in control.

Athena intervenes, just when Achilles is about to kill Agamemnon, and instead of killing the King, Achilles proceeds to insult him, emphasising his respect for the Gods. But he pushes his luck with Agamemnon, and tells him that he will regret having hurt his pride and wishes the Greek army to fall by Hector's hand. We learn that Achilles is not afraid to escalate the situation in defending his honour.

Ancient Greece did not have hot beverages. Beer, wine and water were the beverages that they drank.

The 'democratic' reforms of Cleisthenes were a very complicated revision of religious and tribal associations that had endured for centuries.

Geographically Athens and Sparta are very close but have different values, lifestyles, and cultures. Athens has a population of 140,000 while Sparta has 100,000 inhabitants

Tyrants usually preceded democracy. They were appointed in various cities by popular will to get rid of the aristocratic cliques and run a city-state to the general benefit of the people rather than the vested interested of a few. A tyrant had to maintain a bodyguard to protect himself from the aristocrats, and to hire them had to impose a tax on the people, which eventually made the tyrant as unpopular as the aristocrats had been. So the cities progressively expelled the tyrants and some tried the experiment with democracy - with mixed success.

Failures with democracy resulted in some cases in a return to aristocrats, monarchs or tyrants to sort out the mess. Most cities then turned to a compromise of a form of limited democracy where the magistrates allowed the people to vote yes or no on issues they put before them.

Greece was comprised of a couple of thousand independent city-states spread around the Mediterranean and Black Seas. They were based on subsistence agriculture and fishing, and most cities remained poor and marginal at subsistence level.

However a few dozen developed trading fleets, mines and manufactured and artistic goods, which spread their trade along with the cities they colonised.

The Greek worshipped many gods, which all had superhuman powers but also human emotions and weaknesses.

he snuck in the trojen horse

Yes. They used drachmas.

In ancient Greece, there is an assembly of citizens who come and vote while in U.S today, we elect on representatives who vote on laws for us.

-Kid in MRs. Locicero's class from JFS (ayan patel)

true

It was direct democracy - the citizens in assembly made the decisions.

Ours is representative democracy - elected parliamentarians make decisions in parliament, not necessarily the ones we want.

Hades, for all the wealth of the underworld (it's mineral and seedlings) is his domain.