The Greek City-States

The Dorians who invaded Mycenai are the people we think of when we think of the ancient Greeks

Details of the times of the Dorian invasion are very fuzzy:•Literacy was lost after invasion (later, Phoenician alphabet adopted)•Much information about this time comes from poems by a Greek poet named Homer

“Greeks” = Roman wordCalled themselves “Hellenes”, and their land “Hellas”Role of Geography:• Rocky land not much good for farming (less than 1/3 can be farmed)•Really only good for goat-raising•Much poverty•Mountains, gulfs prevented overland communication•no large states/empires possible

•Instead, all city states united by the Aegean Sea

Religion•Strangely human gods (jealous, fickle, etc)•Lived on Mount Olympus, ruled by Zeus•Dead went to Hades – scary idea!Social structure

•Monarchs gave way to aristocracies – rule by upper class•All citizens still have equal voice in informal direct democrazy •Acropolis was key – place where all public matters discussed•Greeks refused idea of a state larger than a day’s walk away from this

•How to combat poverty? Make colonies (trade resources)•Some city states (Miletus) spawned over 80!•Spread of Greek culture around the world•Helped economic problems

•Colonization brought uneven wealth (common people still hungry)•Common people turned to tyrants to seize land/control from nobility (violent revolutions)

•Forced nobles to accept more regulated forms of government•Sparta: Oligarchy•Athens: Democracy (more developed than before)