Page 139 Questions

1)   Direct Democracy- A form of government used in Ancient Greece in which the citizens rule directly and not through representatives.
      Classical Art- Art with has values of harmony, order, balance, and proportion.
      Tragedy- A serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, and betrayal.
       Comedy- A play filled with slapstick situations and crude humor.
       Peloponnesian War- A war fought between Athens and Sparta.
       Philosopher- A "thinker" about logic and how the universe works.
       Socrates- A philosopher who was put to death for corrupting Athenian youth and going against the Athenian government. Socratic Method.
       Plato- One of Socrates' students.
       Aristotle- One of Plato's students.

2) I think Pericles' goal of strengthening the Athenian democracy had the most impact on the modern world, because if he hadn't continued with democracy and making it work, they would have moved to a different kind of government, and there would be no democracy anywhere in the world today. Many countries would not be the same if democracy had been forgotten about.

3) Pericles increased the number of public officials who were paid salaries, before the positions were unpaid. now everyone rich or poor could participate in the government. More people participated in the government when it was more available for everyone to join in.


5) I think they found Socrates' ideas disturbing because they were brand new ideas to them and when people don't know something that some else does they normally don't believe it. The people were told to believe what their government said so they did not believe the things that Socrates were saying and teaching them.

The Test

Hey Blog!

The Greece test was easier that I thought I was going to be. I think I did pretty good, but I just checked and I know I got the question about the percentage of mountainous land on Greece. I put 1/4 and it was supposed to be 3/4. Other than that questions I feel pretty confident about the rest of the test. I hope that it brings my grade up because right now I have an 84 and I want to bring I up before the end of the 3rd quarter. I studied using a quizlet and the power point and my notes so I made sure I had all the necessary information. I also studied during lunch which was right before western civ class. OK bye.

Moving towards democracy

Hey blog!

Here are my notes on Greece from today:

• Draco (621 BCE): Draconian- Un-necessarily harsh
• All Athenians rich or poor are equal under the law
• Death is the punishment for many crimes
• Debt slavery is OK (work as slave to repay debts)
• Solon's reforms (594 BCE)
• Outlaws debt slavery
• All Athenian citizens can speak at the assembly
• Any citizens can press charges against wrongdoers
• More reforms before 500 BCE
• Allowed all citizens to submit laws for debate at the assembly
• Created the Council of Five Hundred
• Members chosen at random, to counsel the assembly
• Leading to democracy
• Only free adult male property owners born in Athens were considered citizens
• No women, slaves, or "Foreigners"
• Hippias was a tyrant who ruled from 527 to 510 BCE
• His brother was murdered and caused his rule to become harsh
• Eventually he was expelled from Athens (ostracized)
• In revenge he began working with the Person king Darius I, helping them invade marathon
• With Hippias gone, Isagoras and Cleisthenes (both were aristocrats) 
• engage in a power struggle
• Isagoras had support from upperclass and Sparta
• Cleisthenes has middle class (majority)
• Isagoras wins, becomes archon eponymous
• Ostracizes Cleisthenes
• Supporters (ordinary citizens) revolt against Isagorus' tyranny
• Trap Isagoras on the acropolis for 2 days- on the 3rd day he fled and was banished
• 508 BCE
• Cleisthenes= member of the elite
• very rich
• insulated from the "hoi polloi"
• crafty politician
• tapped into talents of middle class citizens
• no women yet
• Huge step in getting regular people involved in the government
• first democracy had limits
• After several years, Athens practiced direct democracy
• The state is ruled by its citizens 
• Rule based on citizenship
• majority rule decides vote
• in agora, citizens argues, made speeches then voted with white stones (yes) or black stones (no)
• First practiced in Athens under Cleisthenes by around 500 BCE

Government in Greece

Today in class we took some notes o the types of government in Greece. Here are my notes:

• During 7th and 6th centuries BCE, aristocrats ran most of Greece
• Rich people wielded much more influence in society + help much more gov power than the middle class or the poor
• Aristocrats- members of the ruling class
• Attended symposiums, meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine, poetry, performances by dancers + acrobats and the company of hetaeras (escorts) while discussing politics
• exclusive club
• no women (except entertainment)
• no middle class
• no slaves
• sometimes aristocrats fall out of power -> set up shadow gov (tyranny)
• Aristocrats would form alliances with Hoplites (well- armed soldiers) set up alternative form of gov called a tyranny
• Tyrant: someone who rules outside the framework of the polis
• Modern: abuse of power

Pop quiz day

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Today we took a pop quiz :( I got 2 wrong. The one about Crete and about the Mycenaeans. My grade is a still an 84. I want to get it up to ad A but I don't know if I will get it up. We also took more notes on Greece. Here are the terms:

• Direct democracy- a form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives
• Classical art- values of harmony, order, balance, and proportion
• Tragedy- a serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, or betrayal
• Comedy- a play filled with slapstick situations and crude humor
• Peloponnesian War- A war between Athens and Sparta
• Philosophers- Thinkers about logic and the universe
• Socrates- a philosopher who was put to death for corrupting youth
• Plato- A student of Socrates
• Aristotle- One of Plato's students

Here are the notes:

• Pericles led Athens during much of its golden age
• he had popular support for 32 years
• Skillful politician, speakers and a respected general 
• he dominated the life of Athens from 461 to 429 BC
• He had 3 goals:
• Strengthen Athenian democracy
• to hold and strengthen the empire
• to glorify Athens
• he increased the number of public officials who were paid salaries
• most were unpaid before
• now poor people could serve
• Introduced direct democracy
• Athens defeated the Persians 

Ancient Greece

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Today we took more notes on Ancient Greece:

• Although fertile valleys cover 1/4 of the peninsula only 20% is arable (farmable)
• Greek diet consisted of grains, grapes, olives and fish
• lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• Temperatures ranged from mid 40s in winter to low 80s in the summer
• Mycenaeans:
• influence began around 2000 BCE
• located on a rocky ridge on Peloponnesus, protected by a 20 foot- thick wall
• kings dominated Greece from 1600-1100 BCE
• controlled trade
• 1400 BCE- Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan Culture
• *Cultural Diffusion*
• writing system, language, art, politics, literature, religion
• Around 1200 BCE the mysterious "sea people" began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace
• Dorians moved into war-torn region
• Dominated from 1150-750 BCE
• less advanced 
• trade based economy collapsed
• writing disappeared for 400 years
• Greek oral tradition- stories passed on by word of mouth 
• Homer lived at the end of these "greek dark ages"
• composed stories (epics) of the Trojan War c. 750-700 BCE
• The Iliad- possibly one of the last conquest of the Mycenaeans (The Trojan War)
• The Odyssey- Odysseus attempts to return home after Trojan War, being thwarted by the angry god of the sea, Poseidon 
• The Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter
• Homeric Question : homer may have been a mythical creation himself
• blind wandering minstrel; a heroic figure 
• Did he exist?

Philosophy

Whats up blog!!!

Today we talked more about philosophy and about if school is a good place for learning or not. We talked about what the allegory of the cave means in real life. We looked at a picture of a pipe that Sia this is not a pipe, because it was actually a picture of a drawing of a painting of a pipe. This was philosophy because it made us think about what it meant when it said it wasn't a pipe. We had to make a conclusion about what it actually was after taking time to think about it. We also started learning more about Ancient Greece. Here are my notes from today:

• The the worlds greatest civilizations were located on water.
• Mesopotamia- Tigris/Euphrates
• Egypt- Nile
• India- Indus
• China- Huang He
• Greece- Mediterranean Sea, Ionia sea, Aegean Sea, Adriatic Sea

Culture of the mountains and the sea

be able to identify:

• Aegean Sea
• Ionian Sea
• Adriatic Sea
• Peloponnesus
• Athens
• Sparta
• Crete
• Asian Minor
• Macedonia
• many skilled sailors, shipbuilders, farmers, metalworkers, weavers, and potters
• people were loyal to small, developed, independent communities
• difficult to unite all of Greece because of terrain
• 50,949 sq miles
• Small in size HUGE in influence

The Cave Video

Hey Bog :)


One Friday we watched a video handout Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It went into depth about what it all meant. One out front he video was, "The effect of education and the lack of it on our nature." This means that education effects how humans act towards each other. There was an obvious difference between the shadows of objects and the actual objects. The person that was brought out of the cave saw this differences and was enlightened. The video said he was a "hearer to the true nature of being". The video also said that cave dwellers are what humans were before philosophy and that the sun is the light of reason, because when the cave dwellers saw the sun he understood the real world. We all start in the cave, but through education we come out of the cave. And the way out of the cave is through philosophy.

Plato's Allegory of the cave

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Today Mr. Schick and Izzy read Plato's Allegory of the cave. The first part described what was happening inside the cave. There were some prisoners shackled so that they could not move their bodies or their heads. They had been in the cave their entire lives and had never seen the outside world or the sunlight. The prisoners were shackled so that they were forced to look at a wall. Behind them was a small wall and a walkway infant of a fire. From behind the wall the guards would hold up objects in front of the fire which would reflect shadows onto the wall that the prisoners were looking at. When the people would do that they would say what the objects were to the people. The objects were just shadows so they were unclear to the prisoners. The prisoners were forced to believe what they were seeing and being told, because that's all they knew, so they didn't think to question if what they were seeing was realer not. Part 2 was when one of the prisoners was dragged out of the underground cave. It talked about whether or not the prisoner would believe what they were seeing and if they would trust what they knew before or if they would trust the new things that they're seeing. Part 3 was when they took the prisoner out and walked he up a mountain his eyes were burned because of the sunlight that they had never seen before. He couldn't see that full world around him because he was shielding his eyes. This part talked about how he learned that the sun grants the seasons and time and changes around him and that the sun governs everything around it. later on he got used to the brightness and could see the world around him and even look directly at the sun. He considered himself lucky for seeing the outside world, but it also considered the fact that he could also envy the people still inside the cave. He went back to the cave and his eyes were once again filled with darkness. He told them what he saw and they didn't believe him and they ridiculed him for it. They aid it wasn't worth going outside and ruining his eyes. They eventually kill him for his new knowledge. The message of the story is that if you have a new outlook on something or a different opinion on something or you know something that others do not, people won't be openminded or believe what you are saying. Because the world is close minded to people who are different. It also shows that seeing the full truth can be difficult but once you do it is worth it.

Notes from pages 127-133

Terms:

• POLIS: the mane for a city-state
• ACROPOLIS: The fortified hilltop where citizens gathered to discuss city gov
• MONARCHY: A government ruled by a single person like a king or queen
• ARISTOCRACY: A government ruled by a small group of noble, landowning families
• OLIGARCHY: A government ruled by a few powerful people
• TYRANT: Powerful individuals/nobles that seized control of the government by appealing to the common people for support.
• DEMOCRACY: Government ruled by the people
• HELOTS: Peasants forced to stay on the land they worked on
• PHALANX: A fighting formation that became the most powerful fighting for in the ancient world
• PERSIAN WARS: Wars between Greece and the Persian Empire

NOTES:

• A polis was made up of a city and the surrounding countryside
• had between 50-500 square miles of territory
• fewer than 10,000 residents
• City states had different forms of gov
• monarchy
• aristocracy 
• oligarchy
• Clashes between rulers and common people
• Tyrants sometimes took control 
• nor considered harsh/cruel
• provided jobs and housing for people
• Representative gov became more common
• Athens
• power struggles between rich and poor
• Moved towards democracy
• Draco took power in 621 BC
• Developed a legal code
• Rich and poor under law are equal
• punished criminals with death 
• debt slavery
• Solon came to power in 594 BC
• no citizen shall own another citizen (no slavery)
• Top 3 classes could hold government office
• All could participate in the Athenian Assembly
• Cleisthenes came to power around 500 BC
• Council of Five Hundred
• limited democracy
• Wealthy fans received formal education
• started at age 7
• grammar, reading, poetry, history, math, music
• Boy: logic and public speaking
• military school
• Girls stayed home
• some learned to read and write
• Sparta
• military state
• conquered Messenia
• they revolted
• did not succeed
• Gov had branches
• Council of elders
• Spartan men were expected to serve in army until age 60
• Girls ran, wrestled, played sports
• had freedom
• Persian Wars
• rich saved in armies
• later ordinary citizens could afford it
• Persians conquered coast of Anatolia which belonged to Greece
• Started war
• Greece revolted

*fighting back and forth*

• Greece eventually won
• Florished after war
• Golden Age

Ancient Greece Questions

Page 126 Questions #1, 3, 4, 5

1) Mycenaean: The people that settled on the Greek mainland around 2000 BC.
     Trojan War: A 10 year war against the Mycenaeans and Troy
     Dorians: A group of people that settled into the war-torn countryside after the Trojan War around 1200 BC.
     Homer: A blind man who was said to be the greatest star teller in Greece
     Epics: Narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds.
     Myths: Traditional Stories


3) Nearness to the sea, gave Greeks many transportation routes and it connected Greece with other societies around them. They traded with other lands to get the resources that they needed. The different cultures they were trying with impacted Greece because of cultural diffusion.

4) The Mycenaeans adopted the Minoan writing system and turned it into Greek and they decorated vases with Minoan designs. The Minoans influenced the religions practices, art, politics, and literature.

5) The epics were important to the Greeks in the Dorian period, because their economy collapsed and they stopped writing things down for about 400 years. So in order to learn their history they heard stories about the past in the form of epics.

Quiz

Hi Blog!

Today we took the Ancient Egypt quiz. I hope I did okay, because I wasn't sure about some of my answers. We also took notes on classical Greece. Here is the vocab from this unit.

Mycenaean: The people who settled on the greek mainland around 2000 BC
Trojan War: A 10 year war that the Mycenaeans fought against Troy
Dorains: A group of people that settled into the war torn countryside after the Trojan War
Homer:A great, blind story teller who wrote long narrative poems
Epics: Narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds
Myths: Traditional stories

Here are my notes so far:

• Ancient Greece consisted of mountainous peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea
• Included about 2,000 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas
• The Aegean, Ionian, and Black seas were important transportation routes
• Connected Greece with other societies
• Greece lacked natural resources such as timber, precious metals, and usable farmland
• Mountains covered about 3/4 of ancient greece
• Caused different regions to form
• Independent communities within each valley and its surrounding mountains
• Fertile valleys covered about 1/4 of Greece 

Quiz Tomorrow

Hey Blog,

We have a 75- point quiz tomorrow on Ancient Egypt. I have payed attention in class, so I already know most of the material. I will study tonight and before the quiz. I will study off of my notes and off of the slide show on Mr.Schick's blog. Today we watched a video on mummification. It was pretty cool. The mummy was buried with a bird. And his lungs were left in his body. We also listened to some strange song in like French or something. It was interesting.

More on Egypt

Hey Blog!!!

Today we learned more about ancient Egypt. Here are some notes:

• Earliest Egyptian writing formed c. 3100 BC and were small pictures known as hieroglyphics
• Egyptian script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made from mashed Nile reeds.
• Papyrus, the precursor topper was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of seasonal cycles
• Due to their excellent knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for a number of common ailments,
• Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transportation ability on the Nile
• The pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered marble, but the marble was later stripped off during the Muslim Conquest.
• The Temple of Amon at Karnak is the largest religious building in the world, also made out of huge blocks of stone
• Stone sculptures and interior painting depicted humans and gods in a series of regulated poses, often in profile and without perspective, but were highly effective