Topic 3-6

The Alphabet

800 BCE

The Ionian Greeks received their alphabet from the Phoenicians. Working off of the Phoenician version, the Ionian Greeks developed their own syllabic alphabet. The earlier system, Linear B, vanished during the Dark Age. This system of writing was flexible and relatively easy to learn. The Greeks started recording their own literature, poetry, and drama soon after the advancement of the alphabet was made. The earliest surviving Greek literature dates from around 800 - 750 BCE.

The Olympics

776 BCE

The Olympic games were a combination of religious festivals and competitions in which aristos from each city competed in various sports. The Olympics were extraordinary not just in their longevity, but because Greeks from the entire world of Greek settlements came to them. Wars were temporarily suspended because the Olympics were dedicated to Zeus, the chief Greek god. There were no second prizes because Greek culture was hugely competitive. The defeated were humiliated, winners were victorious

The Spartans

650 BCE

Spartan culture was among the most extreme forms of militarism the world has ever seen. Spartan boys were taken from their parents when they were seven to live in barracks. They were regularly beaten, a form of discipline and to bear the pain. Spartan boys were trained constantly in combat, maneuvering, and physical endurance. When it was time for young Spartans to marry, the young man would brawl his way into the family home of his bride-to-be, fighting her relatives until he could kidnap her.

Philosophy was Invented

624 BCE

The word "philosophy" literally means "love of knowledge," and in
In the ancient world the people we might identify as Greek "scientists" were simply regarded as philosophers by their fellow
Greeks, the ones who happened to be especially interested in how the world worked and what things were made of. Unlike earlier thinkers, the Greek scientists sought to understand the operation of the universe on its own terms, without simply writing off the details to the will of the gods.

The Athens

600 BCE

The Athenians celebrated art, music, and drama. While it still controlled a large slave population, it is also remembered as
the birthplace of democracy. Athens was rich and populous: the population of Attica was about 600,000 and Athens was a major force in Mediterranean trade. That wealth led to conflicts over its distribution among the citizens, in turn prompting some political experiments. Athens witnessed a series of struggles and compromises between the aristocrat's wealthy land

The Persian War

490 BCE

When the Greek cities of Ionia rose up against Persian rule, Darius vowed to make an example not just of them, but of the Greek poleis that had aided them, including Athens. This led to the Persian
War. It is remembered in part because it pitted an underdog, Greece, against a massive empire, Persia. It is remembered because the underdog won, at least initially. The war began in 490 BCE, when the Persians, with about 25,000 men, landed at Marathon, a town 26 miles from Athens.

The Persian War

490 BCE

The Athenians sent a renowned runner, Pheidippides, to Sparta
(about 140 miles from Athens) to ask for help. The Spartans agreed but said that they could only send reinforcements
when their religious ceremonies were completed in a few days. Pheidippides ran back to Athens with the bad news, but by then the Athenians were already engaged with the Persians. This was huge for Greece considering they went up against such a big power.

The Peloponessian War

431 BCE

The Spartans were unquestionably superior in land warfare, while the Athenians had a seemingly unstoppable navy. The Spartans and their allies repeatedly invaded Athenian territory, but the Athenians were smart enough to have built strong fortifications that held the Spartans off. The Athenians, in turn, attacked Spartan settlements and positions overseas and used their navy to bring in supplies. While Sparta could not take Athens itself, Athens was essentially under siege for decades.

Creation of Drama

430 BCE

One of the major cultural innovations of the Greeks was the creation of drama. Specifically, the celebrations of the god Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, brought about the first recognizable “plays” and “actors.” The religious festivals devoted to Dionysus involved a lot of celebrating. Greek writers started scripting these performances, eventually creating what we now recognize as plays. A prominent feature of Greek drama leftover from the Dionysian rituals remained the chorus.

Keeping History

420 BCE

It was the Greeks that came up with history in the same sense that the term is used today, a narrative based on historical events that try to explain what happened and why it happened the way. In other words, history is not just about listing facts, it is about explaining human motivations. Likewise, the Greeks were the first to systematically employ the essential historical method of using primary sources written or experienced at the time as the basis of historical research.

The Teaching Line

322 BCE

The men who became the most famous Greek philosophers of all time were actually involved with each other in a very interesting way. They were a three a person line of teachers and students.
Socrates taught Plato who taught Aristotle who went on to be the personal tutor of Alexander the Great for a time. It is one of the most remarkable intellectual lineages in history three of the greatest thinkers of Greek civilization and one of the greatest military and political leaders.