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What were polis?
- independent political and cultural units; city-states in ancient Greece
- originally referred only to citadel
- location determined by availability of farmland and natural fortress
- usually placed well inland or far enough
- from sea to avoid pirate attacks
- examples: Athens and Sparta
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What was the Age of Homer?
- dark ages
- Epic poems: Iliad and Odyssey traditionally oral poetry, versed in rhythmic formulas to aid in memory
- Mycenaean Age
- heroes cremated
- kings were limited in ability in power, needed to consult with counsel of noblemen
- society was divided into classes; nobles, thetes, and slaves
- thetes; worked land, were landless laborers
- schoolbook of Greeks
- highest virtue was "arete", courage in the most general sense, and the excellence proper to a hero
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What was the hoplite phalanx?
- military strategy
- 8th century B.C.E, chief element in Greek warfare
- heavily armed infantryman, fought with a spear and large shield
- arrayed close in order, to form a phalanx
- usual hoplite battle was between the armies of two poleis quarreling over land
- rise created a bond between aristocrats and family farmers who fought side by side
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What were the Persian Wars?
- Athens and Sparta had common enemy: Persia
- 1st Persian War: win at Marathon (490)
- 2nd Persian War: win at Thermopylae and Platea
- Greeks thwart a takeover and continue to thrive
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What was the battle of Marathon?
- 490 B.C.E. Athenian victory, instilled them with confidence and pride in their polis
- defeat would of destroyed Athenian freedom and lead to conquest of all mainland Greece
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What was the Delian League?
- an alliance between Greeks of Asia Minor and other Greek cities on Aegean with the Athenians
- swore themselves to a permanent alliance, vowed to free Greeks under Persian rule, to protect against a Persian return and obtain compensation from Persians by attacking their lands and taking booty
- members
forced some states into league, prevented others from leaving
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What was the Peloponnesian War?
- victory doesn't lead to harmony in Greece
- created the Delian League under Pericles
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