Greek Legacy

Our goals for this lesson are to learn about the Golden Age of Ancient Greece. To do that, we need to be able to compare and contrast Athenian democracy and U.S. democracy. Second, describe what happened during the Peloponnesian War, Athens versus Sparta. Lastly, describe the cultural contributions of Ancient Greece. We have one last thing before we get started that we also need to do. Our vocabulary. First of all, drama and philosophy, they are your academic vocabulary. Lot, direct democracy, tragedy, and tribute, they are your domain-specific vocabulary. Are you about ready to begin our adventure? Are you excited? Here we go! Before we start, let's take another look at our lesson question. How did Ancient Greece have a lasting impact on the world? We're going to do this in three phases. First, we're going to examine Athenian democracy. Second, we're going to look at the Peloponnesian War. Third, we're going to look at arts and sciences. First, let's take a quick peek at Greek architecture and American architecture. Do you think they look alike? Take a look at these two buildings. What do you see that's similar? Take a second and let's see if you can find what I find. First, here are the columns. You can see them in both. Second, the engraving on the top of the building. Also there. Third, the walk-up. There are many, many influences in these two buildings. Too many to list. But the influence of Greek architecture, including the use of columns, is widespread. Not just in Washington, D.C., but throughout the United States. Okay, let's check back on our lesson question. What we're working on is how did Ancient Greece have a lasting impact on the world? Clearly we saw what an impact architecture has. Now let's check in with Athenian democracy. You can't really talk about Athenian democracy without talking about this man, Pericles. He was in charge of Athens during the Golden Age of Greece. And he had three goals. To build and strengthen Athenian democracy. To grow and strengthen the Athenian Empire. And to glorify Athens. Let's take a closer look at Athenian democracy at this time. Pericles introduced a new kind of democracy. Direct democracy. Before him, Athens had representative democracy. Now if you remember what that meant, it meant that rule by people. Direct democracy meant that you could participate in government if you were chosen by lot. That meant you put your name in and if you got chosen, you participated. He also increased the number of paid officials. Now I want to remind you, still, only male citizens could vote. Let's take a look at something Pericles wrote. This is his funeral oration. Now you need to know, this is a primary source document. A primary source document means it was written by the person who said it or by someone who heard him say it. Not years after, nothing like that. Now I'm going to read you the document and I want you to keep an eye out for anything that looks familiar to be in our American founding documents. It is true that we are called a democracy. Because power is in the hands of the many and not the few. Everyone is equal before the law. When a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is chosen for public service. Not as a matter of privilege, but as a reward for his abilities. Neither is poverty an obstacle. A man may benefit his country whatever his social class. Now I have a question for you. What does the first sentence say about who has power? What does the second sentence say about the law and about class? Everyone is equal. Law and class, where is it? It's a reward for abilities and you can benefit your country whatever your social class. So what we can take from this is that ability, not class, should determine your right to serve. Let's compare Athenian democracy to U.S. democracy. Now when you want to compare and contrast things, a really good way to do it is create a chart like the one you see here. It helps you organize your ideas and get everything in one place. Okay, so here we have a direct democracy versus a representative democracy. Slightly different. In Athens, free male Athenians can vote. In the United States, citizens over the age of 18, including women. In Athens, you have a three-piece legislature. In the United States, you also have three pieces. They are different, slightly, but three pieces nonetheless. In Athens, leaders are chosen by lot. In the United States, leaders are elected. Kind of the same. I think we might be ready to revisit our lesson question. Okay, here we are again at our lesson question. How did ancient Greece have a lasting impact on the world? We looked at Athenian democracy. We looked at, specifically, the similarities and differences between Athens and the United States. Now we're going to move on to the Peloponnesian War. Now I want you to think about a couple things before we move on. The Athenian Empire has grown. They've become very powerful. Do you think the other city-states are going to like that? Well, I'm not sure. Let's find out. After the end of the Persian Wars, the Delian League was founded. It was founded to collect money just in case the Persians ever invaded again. And all the city-states paid money into it, that wanted to. Here was the problem with that. A few years after the Delian League was formed, Athens took it over. They took it, moved it to Athens, and started using it to pay money to do whatever they wanted. Beautify their city, pay taxes, anything. This angered many city-states. Athens also started ruling these other city-states without giving them a voice in government. Now remember, here's Athens on this port right here near the sea. You've got other city-states, Corinth, Mycenae, all of these other city-states. They were forcing, Athens was forcing them to pay tribute, meaning pay money. You love us. You're on our side. They're also using their military to enforce obedience. Now, meanwhile, Sparta, they are still upset at the loss of their king, Leonidas, from the Persian Wars. He was their hero. Now when you put all this together, what do you get? A Peloponnesian War. Cities in the Delian League revolted against Athens. Sparta was threatened by Athens' growing power, and boom, the Peloponnesian War. Alright, so the Peloponnesian War broke out. Now, the first thing you need to know, and everybody always wants to know, why is it called the Peloponnesian War? Why not the Sparta-Athens War? Well, here's why. Do you see this area on the map? This is called the Peloponnesus. It's just this area of land between the two city-states. Think of it kind of like a desert or a savanna. Just an area that you can go, you can fight, you can do whatever you want. So, back to the war. Sparta suited up and went to meet Athens on the battlefield. They did. They beat them. They destroyed them. They were very successful. They got Athens on the retreat. Athens actually retreated into their gates. And you're thinking, oh, this is very good for the Spartans. Well, yes and no, because the Athenian gates are so high, Sparta can't breach them. And also remember, Athens is partially surrounded by water, so they're safe on that side. So, what did the Spartans do? They sit and they wait. Now, during this time, a plague broke out in Athens. It killed one-third of the population, including the beloved Pericles. The war continued for almost 30 years. Sometimes the Athenians would come out and meet the Spartans in battle. Sometimes they'd wait. Athens finally forced to surrender, and it brought an end to their empire. So, let's see what it did. Athens, after the war, was their empire over? Well, maybe. It kind of began the decline of Greece's golden age. Their democratic government failed. They lost power and influence. Their economy went into decline. Money, they spiraled. They owed so many city-states money. There was just no cause to see what they could do. Okay, here we are back at our lesson question. Let's see how we're doing. How did ancient Greece have a lasting impact on the world? First, we talked about Athenian democracy and how it resembled U.S. democracy. Just now, the Peloponnesian War and how it kind of ended the Athenian Empire. Now we're ready to talk about arts and sciences. Here we go. One simply can't talk about the Greeks without talking about theater. The Greeks invented drama and built some of the first theaters, just like the one you see here. This is the Theater to Dionysus in Athens, and it's actually just below the Parthenon. Now, as you can see, it's got a round stage. Here are the folks. Interesting fact, men and women can't sit together. And these theaters can be found all around the Greek, the Greek city-states, Epidaurus, Athens, Delphi, on and on. Now, they invented drama, and you should know some of the drama included comedies, amusing stories, they had happy endings, tragedies, which are serious stories about human emotions, often with sad or tragic heroes. Another big piece of Greek everyday life is sculpture. In the classical age, Greek sculpture was characterized by what you can see here. This is a sculpture of Athena, and I can tell that because of her helmet. The sculpture is characterized by ideal, lifelike bodies, calmness, or little emotion. And you should know, we're going to revisit this idea in a few hundred to a thousand years. Here we have a timeline. Now, these are great to keep things in perspective. I want to show you a couple of things that were going on that we've discussed. First and foremost, Heracles. Heracles was born 495 BCE. We've also got Herodotus. We just learned about him. He wrote his Histories, the foremost book on, you guessed it, Greek history. The Peloponnesian War, and the birth of Aristotle. But guess what? Also at that time, you have Rome, and Alexander becoming king. Never forget that when you're studying history, other things are going on all around the world.