The Civilians Of Ancient Greece

The Greeks occupied such a minute space of land compared to the rest of the world, and their existence is a mere flicker in time, yet their influence on civilization today is significant and obvious. So how did they do it? The Ancient Greeks were not perfect by any means; they practiced slavery, sacrificing, forced men to become warriors, confined women to the home, and were sometimes plagued by disease. Despite their pitfalls, the Greeks were still able to rise to become a major influential power due to their feeling of purpose, which was to be the best. It was not religion nor war that propelled them forward, but this feeling of wanting to be the best in everything. Essentially, the Greeks wanted to achieve arete, or excellence of any kind. As a result, the Greeks were excellent philosophers, warriors, artists, architects, actors, and so much more. There are many aspects of Greek life that influence civilization today, and it is all due to the Greek’s belief in achieving arete.

Sedentary Farmers: The Persians originated as agrarian villagers, nomadic horse and sheep breeders during the Bronze Age in central Asia south of the Ural Mountains and settled the Fertile Crescent. They depended on rain fed agriculture. The crops that the Persians grew include wheat, barely, chickpea, garden pea, cantaloupe, pomegranates, onions, spinach, pistachio

From the struggles the people who lived in Ancient Greece had to face to the positives, geography has always had a great influence on Greece and how the people there survived. Two big positives being the climate which was perfect for growing valuable olive trees and another positive being the seas that surrounded Greece and allowed the Greeks to trade and help them in many other ways. Two big negatives being the rocky, mountainous terrain and another negative being the common volcano eruptions and earthquakes. Although Ancient Greece had its negatives so does every country and it were these pros and cons that helped the Greeks develop essential survival skills.

In the early stages of Greek warfare soldiers used makeshift weapons and volunteer soldiers were sometimes paid. However, as years went by the need arose to have a permanent army. As armies increased in size and strength, so did the length of battles. Fighting went from a few hours to years of wars. Soldier rank was based on class and economic standing. The highest ranked were the Pentakusiomedimnoi, which means "five-hundred-bushel men". The second ranked were the Hippeis. They maintained a horse and fought in the calvary. The third rank were the Zeugitai. They used armor if they could afford it. The poorest class was the Thetes. They were hired laborers and did such jobs as archers, lightly-armed land fighters, or oarsmen in the

Greek: Geography played an important role in the development of Gee civilization. The mountains and the sea played especially significant roles in the development of Greek history. Much of Greece consists of small plains river valleys surrounded by high mountain ranges. The mountain isolated Greeks from one another, causing different Greek communities to develop their own ways of life. The sea also influenced the evolution of Greek society. The Greeks lived on a number of islands to the west, south, and east of the Greek mainland. By 2800 B.C, a Bronze Age civilization that used metals, especially bronze, in making weapons had been established on the large island of Crete,

The geography of the Greek peninsula pose difficult challenges for its inhabitants due to its mountainous terrain and rocky soil which yielded only small harvests of grain, and the southern Balkan mountains which hindered travel and communication. Thus, early Greek society depended heavily on maritime trade and the integration of the Mediterranean Basin up until the construction of modern roads. Trade and commerce flourished resulting in population growth and more colonies. Although Greece produced only small harvests of grain, it was ideal for the production of olive oil and wine, which could be exchanged for grain and other items. This led to broader sense of Greek community throughout the Mediterranean world. Due to the sense of community

Since the greeks were near the ocean they fished and they had a strong naval force. This all started when the Greeks realized that if they needed to send message or explore a potential land domination, the Greeks would need a strong naval force. They also realized that if they became the best at navigations they would own the mediterranean and dominate the sea. A strong naval force was important because no other colony was apprehensive of the seas as much as Greece.

War are very common in ancient Greece. The greeks lived in a little city-states, each one like a small town in the United States today. sometimes other people invaded Greece, there would be wars to defend the city-states. Sometimes the city-states fought together and sometimes they didn't.

The Greek ideal of democracy resurfaced during the early part of the Modern Era. As the Spirit of Enlightenment

Greece is a country that is surrounded by mostly water, and the sea has played an important role in its history ( "Ancient Greek Colonization..”). The ancient Greeks were often known to be called “seafarers” looking for opportunities for trade and founding new coastal sites along the Mediterranean sea. Trading stations were the furthest outposts of Greek culture. At these trading stations, Greek goods, such as bronze, silver, olive oil, wine and pottery were exchanged for more luxurious items (“Ancient Greek Colonization..”). Also, well-established maritime routes around the Mediterranean sea enabled foreigners to travel to Greece. After the military campaign of Alexander the Great, a lot more intense trade routes were opened across Asia. These trade routes extended as far as Afghanistan and the Indus River Valley (“Ancient Greek Colonization..”). Not only did these trade routes help with trading goods, it always helped in introducing Greece to new cultures and in spreading Greek culture throughout Europe.The spread of these cultures can be known as cultural diffusion

In ancient Greece the coastal region and positioning towards the sea greatly benefitted the Greeks because it meant that by ship they could travel to areas which would effectively benefit them. (Citation Ancient Greece #43-47) An example of this is that the dented coastline provided an amazing docking area and the position of Greece towards the sea. This provided an efficient means of transportation to do things such as communicate.

Greece was one of the earliest civilizations to arise in the ancient world, and it has made humongous progress until today, the 21st century. The history of modern Greece strated when they gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. Many of the cities adopted a form of democracy and cared for the rights of the people, while exhibiting traits of a strong government. But these types of governments only could stay alive with virtuous people running it. Unfortunately, in the modern world, most politicians only worry about how laws would affect them and their money, so democracy are not the most reliable.

Ancient Greece was made up of many very competitive rivalrous city-states. Greece has a very mountainous, treacherous terrain, that added a lot of difficulty to having one powerful centralized government over all of the land. Greece being surrounded by the Mediterranean and over 2000 islands, made colonization and exploration very easy for a small nation to accomplish. The easily navigable sea made it possible for the small states to respond to a crisis very quickly. The Greeks were also very protective about their freedom, so protective that the Greeks often took violent measures to keep it. Anyone who did conquer all of Greece were not kings but tyrant and they did not keep power for

A polis, though divided by physical features, was much more than a mere region it was a community of people. To the Greeks, the polis clearly meant more than the modern description of a city-state. Qualities like a sense of security and peace, liberty of social interaction and thoughts, self-sufficiency, and a feeling of togetherness made the polis a prized possession. It was a way of life for the Greeks in the political, moral, cultural, and economic sense. The Greeks were a piece of the polis, and the polis was a piece of them. In addition, the polis allowed speech and thoughts to be shared freely. People of a polis socialized daily about things such as politics, the arts, and news around the polis. This was generally done in the Agora which

Plato, one of the most influential philosophers of western culture, was born in Athens of aristocratic parents, and as a young man witnessed the defeat of his city-state, by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War. Around the age of twenty-one, Plato became a follower of Socrates who is best known as a questioner of everything and everyone. Plato studied the Socrates style of teaching, otherwise known as the Socratic Method, involved asking questions until his students had arrived at their own understanding. After the devastating fall of Athens, Plato’s teacher Socrates, was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and was sentenced to death by his fellow citizens. The execution of Socrates left Plato so resentful that he left Athens to travel and study in other parts of the world. He later returned to Athens, and “it was during this period, 387-360 B.C., that he composed The Republic,” in which he outlined the nature of the just man and the ideal state (Plato, 1). One might wonder how a society based on this outline might function, and what it may look like: So I will build upon the ideas of Plato by demonstrating a society with socio-political organization with The Republic as a guide.