Ancient Greece
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Ancient Greece was a large area where people spoke Greek. It was much bigger than the Greece we know today.
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[change] Early history
In the 8th century BC the Greeks learned how to read and write. They learned about the alphabet from another ancient people, the Phoenicians. There was not one country but many little countries called "city states".
The number of Greeks grew and soon they could not grow enough food for all the people. When this happened, a city would send people off to start a new city. Because the terrain was rough, most travel was by the sea. For this reason, many new cities were established along the coastline. First new cities were started in Anatolia and then in the Black sea, in Cyprus, in southern Italy and in Sicily, by the sea in what today is Libya. They even started a city, Naucratis, on the river Nile in Egypt. The cities of today, Syracuse, Naples, Marseilles, and Istanbul started as the Greek cities Syracusa, Neapolis, Massilia and Byzantium.
By the 6th century some cities became much more important than the others. They were Corinth, Thebes, Sparta, and Athens.
The Spartans were very good soldiers. They defeated the people who lived near them and those people had to farm the land for the Spartans. These people called helots had to give the Spartans part of the food they grew and so the Spartans didn't have to work. Instead, they learned how to be better soldiers. There were not many Spartans but there were many helots. "What if the helots rebel?", thought the Spartans. They were afraid of that. To stop the helots rebelling they sometimes did bad things to the helots. The Spartans wanted the helots to be afraid of them so that the helots would not rebel and fight to be free. The Spartans had two kings who led them in war. They were also ruled by a group of old men called the Gerousia.
Athens became a democracy in 510 BC. The men came to a place in the center of the city and decided what to do. It was the first place in the world where the people decided what their country should do. They would talk and then vote on what to do. But the women didn't vote. They didn't have helots like Sparta but they had slaves. These slaves were owned by their master and could be sold to someone else. The Athenian slaves were less free than the Spartan helots but the Athenians were not afraid of their slaves so they were nicer to their slaves. Every year, they elected 8 generals who led them in war.
[change] Greco-Persian Wars
In 499 BC, the Greek cities in Anatolia rebelled. They didn't want Persia to rule them anymore. Athens sent 20 ships to fight the Persians on the sea. The Greeks in Anatolia were defeated. The Persian King, Darius decided to punish Athens. He sent soldiers and ships to fight Athens. Athens asked for help from Sparta. Sparta wanted to help but couldn't. Athens sent her soldiers against the Persian soldiers and at the Battle of Marathon (in 490 BC) they defeated the Persians. Then the help from Sparta came.
Ephialtes and Anopaia: Unfortunately for Leonidas, after a couple of days, a medizing traitor named Ephialtes led the Persians around the pass behind the Greek army. The name of Ephialtes' path behind the pass at Thermopylae (which means "hot gates") is Anopaea (or Anopaia); its exact location is debated. Leonidas sent away most of the amassed troops. Greeks Fight the Immortals: On the third day, Leonidas led his 300 Spartan hoplites (elite troops selected because they had living sons back home) plus the allied Thespians and Thebans against Xerxes and his army of "100,000 Immortals." The Spartan-led forces fought this unstoppable Persian force to their deaths in order to block the pass long enough to keep Xerxes and his army occupied while the rest of the Greek army escaped. The Aristeia of Dieneces: According to Cartledge, the Spartan Dieneces was so virtuous (aristeia relates to virtue and to the reward given the most honored soldier, which in this battle was Dieneces) that when he was told that there were so many Persian archers that the sky would grow dark with the flying missiles, his laconic reply was: "So much the better -- we shall fight them in the shade." Spartan boys were trained in night raids, so although this was a show of bravery, there was more to it.
After Thermopylae many Greeks wanted to go south to the Peloponnese. Because of the sea the way into the Peloponnese is very narrow. Many wanted to fight the Persians where it is very narrow, by the city of Corinth. Athens was north of Corinth and she had many ships. Athens' leader Themistocles wanted to fight the Persians by the island of Salamis. Xerxes decided to send his fleet against the Greek fleet before the Greek ships could go to the Peloponnese and the Greek fleet defeated the Persians. Xerxes then went home with many of his soldiers but a Persian army stayed in Greece. This army was defeated at the Battle of Platea in 479 BC.
[change] Athens against Sparta
After the Persians were defeated at Platea, the Spartans did very little. However Persia sent its ships across the sea to help Greek cities in Anatolia fight for their freedom. Athens asked the Greek cities on the islands in the Aegean and in Anatolia to join her. These cities agreed because they were afraid of Persia. These cities formed the Delian League and Athens was their leader. Many of the cities had to pay Athens money. Athens used the money to build many ships. Sparta was still strong on land, but Athens was stronger on the sea. Several times there was war between Athens and Sparta. Then Athens decided to send many ships to Sicily to fight against the city Syracuse. Sparta sent help to Syracuse, and Athens was defeated. None of the Athenian ships came back. Now Sparta decided to build ships to fight Athens. It took a long time for Sparta to defeat Athens but then at the Battle of Aegospotami the Spartans destroyed most of Athens's ships. The Athenians used a highly advanced type of ship known only as triremes. These highly advanced battle craft were equipped with sophisticated combat systems, and were propelled by an armada of extremely buff men. On the front of the trireme was a large bronze ram. The trireme would row itself at an enemy boat very fast, and ram a hole into its hull. This was the most effective way for the trireme to destroy other boats. Sometimes, the soldiers (called hoplites) on the trireme would board the ship and keep it for their own.
[change] Other websites
- Ancient Greece — links for Middle School students from Courtenay Middle School
