1. Section 2
City States & Greek Culture

2.  800 B.C. Greece began building settlements
again
 Started with small villages, grew into towns, &
towns joined with nearby villages to create a polis
or city state

3. Rise of City-States
 Built walled fortresses or acropolis on top of hills for protection
 Acropolis became center for daily life
 Houses, temples, & open air markets and gathering places called agora
were found outside acropolis
 Kings or tyrants (someone who took control of a government by force and
rules alone) ruled city states at first
 Made all political decisions
 In time city states developed their own way of governing
 Aristocracy (wealthy ruling class) sometimes shared power with the king
 Comprised of landowners & merchants
 In other city states all free men rich or poor took part in gov’t
 Met in an assembly to make all decisions for the whole community
 Most city states had fewer than 5,000 people
 Overcrowding eventually caused people to find new places to live
 Colonies developed in Asia Minor, southern Europe, & northern
Africa
 New colonies brought new natural resources & trade markets
 Greek ideas & customs also spread
 Rivalries grew between city states
 Began fighting over control of areas of Greece

4. Sparta
 Ancient civilization focused on physical activity
 Descendants of Dorian settlers
 Leaders believed through military strength they
could control a city state ten times as large
 Sparta was filled with slaves
 250,000 slaves & 25,000 citizens
 Formed a military culture to protect themselves
against a slave revolt
 Children were put into training camps at age 7.
Girls returned home after several years of
training, but boys trained for war until 30
 Men at 30 were allowed to become citizens, marry
& have families
 Not free from army duty until 60

5. Army Camps
 Taught Spartans to obey leaders
without question
 Never give up a battle, even when
wounded
 Wore red uniforms to hide their wounds
 Was a disgrace to lose
 Greatest honor was to die defending
their land

6. Women in Sparta
 Had fewer rights than men
 Ran their homes & handled business
matters
 May have owned 2/5 of the land in
Sparta

7. Way of Life
 Lived simple & sparse way of life
 By law everyone ate “in common, of the same bread &
same meat”
 Trading was discouraged
 New ideas may bring unwanted change
 Citizens rarely allowed to travel outside their city state
 Depended on themselves & their resources
 Way of life changed little over time
 Sparta had two kings with little authority except in
time of war
 Had assembly of citizens, but also very weak
 5 wealthy landowners called ephors or small ruling
group controlled the gov’t
 Made all decisions for Sparta
 Strict gov’t that was admired by many throughout Greece

8. Athens
 Main city state in southern uplands
 Young men were required to serve in the army only in
time of war
 Gov’t encouraged people to take part in community
decisions
 Grew into a system of democracy (rule by the people)
 Solon, Athenian leader, helped bring democracy to Athens
around 594 B.C.
 People had more rights in gov’t under him
 508 B.C. Cleisthenes allowed people to play even greater
roles in gov’t
 500 B.C. every free adult male over 20 was considered a
citizen of Athens
 Citizens took part in city state’s assembly called
Ecclesia
 Every member had 1 vote
 Decisions were made by majority rule
 Kept any one person from taking control of Athens

9.  At special meetings a person could be exiled for
10 years if they received 6,000 ostraca or broken
pieces of clay pots
 English word ostracism “act of shutting someone
out”
 Athenian democracy did not include everyone
 Women could not take part in gov’t & did not count
as citizens
 Did manage the family budget & household
 Slaves also did not have a part in democracy even
though they made up 1/3 of population & did
most of the work giving citizens the time to take
part in democracy

10. To Be “Greek”
 During this time there was no sense of belonging to a
single country
 People id with city state instead
 People did feel a culture connection or cultural identity
with one another
 All Greeks called themselves Hellenes because they
believed they had a common ancestor, the hero Hellen
 Ancient myth said that Hellen alone survived a
flood long ago
 Also shared religion
 Cultural ID was seen in various activities
 Olympic Games brought city states together in
peace
 Began about 776 B.C.
 Meet every 4 years to compete in athletic
contests to honor the god Zeus (gods
controlled daily events in the world)
 Common written language brought city states together
 Developed an alphabet based on the alphabet of
the Phoenicians
 1st letter was alpha, 2nd beta (English word
alphabet comes from these Greek letters)