Ancient Greek Social Environment

Currently we are living in a time with fast connections, global exchange and the possibility of worldwide communication. We are able to ship products from one side of the world to the other, within an extremely short amount time. It almost seems unthinkable that these kinds of global trading connections existed before the first century, but nonetheless they were already present the ancient Greek civilization. When looking at how ancient Greece was influenced by the trade with other civilizations, it is shown that commercial trade had an immense effect on the social structure and the politics of the Greek society.

Greece is known today as the origin of Mathematics, philosophy, art and many other disciplines. For our purposes, we may recognize that Greek art transformed throughout the different eras and was particularly influential on other cultures during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. We may wonder how the Greeks came to be such a thriving, unique and forward-thinking society; this question can be answered if we look into the common philosophical and cultural attitudes such as idealism, naturalism and rationalism. These attitudes influenced the approach of Greek artists during various times, and occasionally, we may find more than one of these attitudes in a single piece of art.

Basing at the “strayer” argument, he argued that among the factors that contributed to Mediterranean area adapting to Greek culture were because of the political development, whereby he said that availability of the mountainous terrain facilitated the elaboration of the towns and the city states. Moreover, most Greeks cities were designed in a way that they were able to support and promote commercial activities such as trade. Therefore, comparing many features in Greek culture and those of the areas such as in Mediterranean contributed to the lasting effects of Greek culture and its spread throughout the Mediterranean world.

There were many different aspects to the Spartan cultural life which ancient sources and evidence have provided insight and knowledge for our modern societies. These features include art, architecture, writing and literature, and Greek writer’s views of Sparta. The Spartan cultural life also gives us knowledge into other aspects of Spartan life and the society in which they lived.

boy at age 6 was to begin his training to join the Spartan army where

1. How does the physical geography and climate of ancient Greece contribute to Greek individualism?

The extended family is central to Greek culture and is the basis of their social structure.

Regarding the Greek polis, I believe it plays an important role in the forming of competiting but not necessarily incompatible Greek cultures and identities as well as how social organization and political structure evolved. The mountainous area of Greece lead to the division of Greece based on the available flat lands (The Ohio State University, n.d.). Several settlements in a region would have merged together (or subjugated by others in the same region) throughout the Archaic period, followed by urbanization (The Saylor Foundation, n.d.). We can see the evidence of this in Sparta's dual kingship (Brand, n.d.). Early in the period, subsistence based farming might have been practiced, but as the polis developed, social order also evolved and

The mountains made it difficult to trade and communicate through land (Geography Shapes Greek Life). With mountains covering most of the land, it divided ancient Greece into smaller city-states. Because of that, it took weeks to travel from place to place, thus limiting trade and communication. With the lack of trade and communication, it was difficult for ancient Greece to

The Greeks wore light, loose clothes as the weather was hot for most of the year. Long pieces of colourful fabric were used to make the Greek clothes.

Dear fellows Athenians in today assembly I wanted to talk about money. I think everybody should have a job if they choose to, if they don’t then that it ok. By making money if we give women citizenship then women could make weaving and sell them to public. The money that women make will half go to the economy and half will go to themselves. We Athenians could also make money by charging men who want to get full training in the army. If men paid the money for there training then we Athenians could build a new government. That government will help people who are not so wealthy earn money to get back on their feet. Also by making

After serving in the army Citizens were expected to be government officials and take part in the Jury.

During the early days of the Church, monastic life began in the vast solitudes of the Thebais, in Upper Egypt. It soon extended to Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and even beyond the limits of the Roman Empire. St Jerome, just before the Middle Ages, wrote, “We daily receive troops of monks from India, Persia, and Ethiopia.”

The vast environment of Ancient Greece did not only carry an extremely unique and rich formation of land but also benefitted and effected the life of the people who lived there, through Transportation via the Coastline, Climate, and the Terrain and Landscape.

In contrast, ancient Greece’s terrain proved to be difficult. The area was covered in rugged mountains and valleys filled with rocky soils. This was less-than desired for the production of prominent crops like wheat, but an ideal location for the growing of grapes and olives. The Greek civilizations instead focused on nautical trade, gaining authority of the most competitive waterway and natural resource of the time, the Mediterranean Sea (Acrobatiq, 2014, p. 40).