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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
Due to the physical features separating the city-states in ancient Greece each had different?
Each had their own government systems, some alike, some different.
What was the job of a whip bearer in Ancient Greece?
The name came from the play Ajax by Sophocles, where one of his titles is 'whip bearer' - he flayed his opponents.
After the Persian Empire agreed to peace, Athens turned the Delian League of 180 city-states, which it lad against Persia in the latter stages of the war, into an empire of fits own. It used this financial and military power to stand over other city states outside its empire, seeking to dominate the Greek world. This brought it into conflict with the Peloponnese League of city-states led by Sparta. The final straw was Athens bringing its neighbour the Peloponnesian city-state Megara to ruin by spitefully obstructing its trade. Magara appealed to Sparta who asked Athens to back off. An over-confident Athens persisted and war broke out - a 27-year conflict which devastated the Greek world. Athens lost, was stripped of its empire and became a second rate power.
How did the city walls and acropolises benefit Greek city-states?
The acropolis was established as a hill fort as refuge against invading neighbours or nomads. As a city grew up, it was often walled for the same reason.
Why did the people of Greece establish houses in the valleys between the mountains?
That is where the fertile land and water supply was.
Did Philip II bribe some Greek city-states to join his army?
He bribed some cities to join his confederation, and their armies became available to him. Others were brought in by force. The Greeks were famous for their venality - Xerxes added 40,000 Greek city-state soldiers to his invading army.
Philip famously said that he could take any city as long as it had a path up which he could drive a donkey laden with gold.
How was Greece geography different from that of other early civilizations?
The Greeks settled along short river valleys separated by mountains. Other early civilisations were on land which was subject to inundation by large rivers and flooding as in Egypt, Mesopotamia and China.
What was the Greek military trick horse?
The tale is that it was used by the Greeks to smuggle soldiers in its belly into Troy to capture the city.
What is an Assembly and Council?
An assembly is a meeting of the citizens. A council is a group who conduct state business in between the meetings of the assembly, and implement its decisions.
The first democracy was a limited democracy introduced by Cleisthenes in 507 BCE after expulsion of the tyrant. Voting was limited to landowners.
This democracy was replaced by an oligarchy to lead during the Persian War. A broader democracy of citizens was reintroduced byEphialtes in 461 BCE.
He was assassinated and his deputy Pericles introduced radical democracy of all Athenian adult males in 444 BCE after expelling the competing landowner party in the assembly.
What is a skein in Greek theatre?
The word is skene (today morphed into 'scene') - it was a building behind the playing area that was originally a hut for the changing of masks and costumes but eventually became the background in front of which the drama or comedy was enacted. .
How did people adapt to their environment in ancient Greece?
They farmed, fished, traded, and did other trades and work according to their status and the location of their city-state.
How did the ancient Greeks describe the elemental world around them?
They had over 2,000 gods who were associated with the various aspect of the physical world and its events. Before scientific explanations were available, this was the answer. Even today, billions ignore established science and use gods as an answer for even well-known things.
Which two seas did ancient Greeks depend on?
The Mediterranean and Black seas, around the littorals of which their 2,000-odd independent city-states were located.
They were loyal to their gods, their families and also to their city-state unless someone offered them a large enough bribe. In the Persian invasion, a third of the cities accepted the bribe and joined the Persians. About 30 cities continues an opposition which was successful.
The Greeks set up cities on the coasts of what countries?
Around the littorals of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, from today's Spain to today's Ukraine. There were no countries as we would call them today - peoples and tribes only. The over-prolific Greeks could not sustain their growing populations sent out their surplus people by sea to seize land and establish new city-states, establishing over 2,000.
