GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE

ATHENS

The civilization of Greece stretched over

centuries but the golden age of Greece

was between 4^th and 5^th century BC.  

This period is named the classical age. 

The people in that era looked at themselves 

as special and called themselves Hellenes 

and their country as Hellas. 

All the non-Greeks were called

barbaroi (barbarians)

Unlike the Persians who had tyrannical rulers the Greeks lived in poleis (city-states)? They had laws which were known to everybody. In this kind of poleis the Greek citizens had a special kind of freedom.

The Greek mountainous and bare countryside had a great influence on the development of this civilization. It was easier to cross the sea than to cross the mountains to reach the next community. Greece had all a common language and religion but each poleis had its own government and laws.

The poleis were mostly self sufficient. People had their own area and grew wheat, vines, or olives, according to the religion. They used oxen as draught animals and sheep and goats for wool and milk.

Since there were not much land or political trouble the poleis sent groups of settlers to start a colony else where. In 550 BC there were many Greek settlements around the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea. This also spread the Greek culture right across Europe.

A Poleis usually had never more than 5,000 citizens. Athens was the largest with anything between 30,000 to 40,000 citizens. These are only counting the citizen and adding to it the wives, children, foreigners it would be altogether come to a 300,000 to 400,000 people.

Since the poleis were small it meant the government was very close to deal with. During the classical period there were different styles of governments. A poleis could either be democratic in which every citizen shared the right to make the policy and laws. In an oligarchy the power only were in a few hands of leading citizen. 

Sparta stayed old-fashion so to speak and kept its extra ordinarbe system of having two kings at the same time. Furthermore, a committee of five elected ephors (magistrates and advisors).

In this era only citizen were allowed to vote. Women, slaves and foreigners were not allowed to be citizens.  To be a citizen had both advantages and disadvantages.  A citizen had certain rights but also duties.  He had to take full part in the life of the community. This meant that he had to take turns as a soldier, sailor, law-maker, judge and an official.

Since Greece has a warm climate people lived a more open and sociable life. Especially men are mostly at the centre of the poleis at the agora (meeting place) which is close to the Acropolis. It was next to the temple and gymnasium where men could exercise or have an oil massage. The gymnasium was also a place for conversation.  Philosophers taught their pupils there. Either in the open air or if it rains under wide colonnades.

The Greek people did not spend a great amount on their private houses but built magnificent temples, open-air theatres or gymnasiums. Some theatres could seats 15,000.

The Spartan trained their girls in sport to make them fit mothers to bear great warriors. The rest of Greece the women stayed at home and look after the home and children. They had no say in political life, of the poleis.

The ancient Greeks were highly strung and if they did not fight amongst each other they closed ranks and fought foreign invaders. In 490-449 BC they united to defeat the Persians and shortly after that the Peloponnesian wars began in 431.  It developed into a 21 year struggle between the main states Athens and Sparta for the leadership of Greece.  As usual other cities became involved and soon the whole Greek world was involved. At the end Sparta emerged victoriously.

SPARTAN HOPLITE

TRIREME

Athens had powerful and efficient navy. Sparta had a hoplite army. Sparta’s life was nothing but training and producing a nation of great warriors. They were so determined that sickly babies were left on hillsides to die. At the age of seven the boy was taken away from home and put through a rigorous military training till they were 20.  After that the Spartans warriors slept and ate together and were mostly in arms. This did nothing for the Spartan population and they soon declined. Athens with its leisurely life and cultured prospered.

GREEK INFLUENCE

What was passed on by the ancient Greeks was not the political system of government but the very foundation of our learning and culture. The Greeks gave us the playwrights Sophocles, Aechylus and Aristophanes, poets like Homer and Sappho. Pioneers in mathematics were Pythagoras and Euclid who introduced the rules of geometry and arithmetic. Hippocrates gave medical observation and reason to work out what was wrong with the sick. He did not believe that illnesses were sent by gods.

Herotus and Thycydides were the world’s first historians. Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had influenced of the great philosophers.

SPORT AND WAR

Horses were a luxury in Greece and only the very wealthy could afford to keep horses. Chariots were used less and less in warfare to avoid the valuable horses and wagons lost. However, the four-horse chariot races were more than skilful and highly dangerous. It was included into the Olympic Games from 680 BC and was a very popular event.

GREEK GODS

Greeks worshipped a large, quarrelsome family of gods. They lived on Mount Olympus which is the highest mountain in Greece. The head is Zeus ruling over the sky.  His wife Hera was the guardian of marriage. Zeus brothers Poseidon and Pluto ruled the sea and the underworld. Demeter god of harvest. Persephone goddess of death and rebirth. Apollo was the sun god.

GREEK ANCIENT POTTERY FROM  4TH  CENTURY BCAdd caption