Harrison

Early Years__**
 * __Welcome to Harrison’s Page

Welcome to Harrison Gaudet’s main page, in the sections listed below I will describe to you the early years of classical ancient Greece and the rise of this empire. Classical Greece was an advanced culture that influenced major parts of the future powerful Roman empire and also still today has huge effects on the way, western and eastern civilizations live. The major parts of the rise occurred during the 6th century B.C. and through the 5th and 4th century. Classical Greece is often overlooked for several of it's greatest accomplishments, some such as democracy and the creation of the Acropolis, Athens Parthenon and other polis's are still held close to us to this day.


 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) Research Summary
 * 3) Essay
 * 4) Bibliography>

**Research Summary**
 * 1) Climate and Geographic factors
 * 2) Events and Leaders
 * 3) Science and Mathematical Contributions
 * 4) Art, Literature and Music
 * 5) Socio-Political Structure
 * 6) Agriculture and Economy

__** Climate and Geographic factors **__:

- Entire area smaller than state of Alabama ([|Central Intelligence Agency]) - Total 130,800 sq/km if land ([|Central Intelligence Agency]) - 12,676 km of coastline ([|Central Intelligence Agency]) -4/5th’s covered by mountains ([|Cyrstal Links]) - Over 6,000 islands ([|Greek Tourism Organization]) -Only 227 inhabited ([|Greek Tourism Organization]) - Largest mountain is Mt. Olympus (9,570ft) ([|Central Intelligence Agency]) - Mountain range Pindus average height of 8,700ft ([|Cyrstal Links]) - Mediterranean climate/temperate ([|Central Intelligence Agency]) - Mild/rainy winters and warm/dry summers ([|Central Intelligence Agency]) - Cold season last: mid-Oct. to March ([|Alpha & Omega]) - Jan. Feb. coldest months between 5-10 degrees ([|Alpha & Omega]) - No land area is more than 35 miles from water (Morris and Powell 79)  - Can see entire area of Greece from the largest mountain (Morris and Powell 79)  - Greece wasn't together in ancient times, rather separate city states due to the seperation by the mountains (Morris and Powell 80)

 -Many leaders, depends on the city state which you belonged to (Nagle) - Athens overthrows it's tyrant leader (Nagle) -Democracy is invented (Nagle) -Greco-Persian wars occur (Nagle) - Major expansion and rise of all city states occur over a brief period of time (Nagle) - Fall of Classical Greece begins (Nagle)
 * __Events and Leaders:__**

 - Main contributions were from Philosophy [|(A history of Ancient Greece)] - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle most famous [|(A history of Ancient Greece)] - Eratosthenes of Alexandria first to measure Earths circumference (A history of Ancient Greece) - Euclid create ‘Elements’ [|(A history of Ancient Greece)] - Archimedes helped to find measurement of a circle and value of ‘pi’ [|(A history of Ancient Greece)]
 * __Science and Math:__**

-Acropolis translated into Greek means "City on top" ([|Encyclopædia Britannica]) -Often centrally located and one in every polis ([|Encyclopædia Britannica]) - On higher ground than the rest of the polis ([|Encyclopædia Britannica]) - Had several structures, at least one for high ranking municipal officials and another religious temple or scared site ([|Encyclopædia Britannica]) - Seen as home for the gods and treated as the heart of the polis, often invading armies would leave the acropolis's standing ([|Encyclopædia Britannica]) - It was on high ground because of its military advantage and also because it was seen as being closer to the gods ([|Encyclopædia Britannica]) -Architecture and sculptures made up a huge part of classical Greek art (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) -Often very similar works of arts as other ancient civilizations around that time period (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) -Drama and poetry also became a large part of society (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - Earlier plays had only one actor and a chorus (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - Playwrights Aeschylus increased actors to two and Sophocles to three (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) -masks were worn by everybody (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - comedy and tragedy biggest genres (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) -Most were produced during 5th century B.C. (Nagle 181) -Entire towns were plays, given financing by government and had years to perfect plays involving entire cities (Nagle) -Professional actors were hired and paid at the cities expense (Nagle 181) -plays were free to everybody (Nagle 181) - audiences watched plays from dawn till dusk without breaks (Nagle 181) -Greeks borrowed techniques from Egypt, created kouroi, a man with straight arms, fist clenched and feet flat with a very unnatural human look (Morris and Powell 177) - Difference between Greek and Egyptian sculptures were Greek were nude and Egypt ones were always clothed (Morris and Powell 180) - Most art in other civilizations never changed over centuries (Morris and Powell 180) -Greek styles changed by the decade (Morris and Powell 180) - Greek sculptors were the first to observe real human body's and not human body's from sketchbooks (Morris and Powell 181) - Only wealthy could afford sculptures because it was expensive to transport rocks from either high in the mountains or farther away, and to hire a skilled sculptor (Morris and Powell 181) -1 Reason for great Greek architecture was the fact that gods were heavily worshiped, huge temples would be constructed, and temple funds would be put in front of funds during war times (Morris and Powell 183) - Doric and Ionic columns were often the first and most time consuming things to construct (Morris and Powell 184) -Columns were constructed to represent the two main Greek ethnic divisions and a third was added on in the 5th century B.C. (Morris and Powell 184) -Greek houses often had up to sixteen rooms with one courtyard in the middle, they also had one small door which provided access to the street, most of the buildings on looked like blank walls (Morris and Powell 184) -Often cities would compete to make bigger temples, sometime they would copy each other exactly except one was a few feet longer (Morris and Powell 184)
 * __Art, Literature and Music:__**

-polis is the route of political [|(Hooker)] - Greeks used to live in separate kingdoms, but split into tribes [|(Hooker)] -As trade increased between tribes trade increased and many town centers with markets became built [|(Hooker)] -Polis's were used for keeping a city safe [|(Hooker)] -Sparta largest and possibly most famous polis with 3000 sq. miles of land [|(Hooker)] -Most small sized polis's allowed for democracy to take place more easily [|(Hooker)] - Most polis's started out as monarchy's [|(Hooker)] -Monarchies were overthrown within years and some started to experiment with such systems as : oligarchy, timocracy, tyranny and democracy [|(Hooker)] - Oligarchy (rule by the few) was the most popular [|(Hooker)] - some polis's used two different systems, such as Sparta, which was ruled by two kings and overseen by a democratic assembly [|(Hooker)] -Polis's were city states, which controlled most of Greece, they were often ruled by the people and their armies were also civilians with light arms ready to defend the city (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - Polis translation means 'city' (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - Greeks thought city wasn't geographical or just defined by a great structure, it was thought of as a group of citizens (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - Geography and major structures in fact did play an important role in defining polis's to the Greeks (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - Even people outside the main city (especially farmers) were also included in polis's (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) -Legal citizenship was the highest distinction in a polis (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - Only warriors and the rich would become legal citizens but later on equality between all people started (Winks and Mattern-Parkes) - People who would not even be considered for citizenship were; slaves, poor, people who didn't own land, aliens and several other niche sections (Winks and Mattern-Parkes)
 * __Socio-Political Structure:__**

-Greeks in a very rocky environment and mountainous regions often separated from other city states which would be very useful in a flat environment because they were part of the same country (Nagle) - They established a system where plots were divided evenly between the rich and poor (Nagle) -they created a system where the rich would provide basic services to other land owners such as bringing water from the sea ect. (Nagle) - Slaves were common, but the legalization of slaves were up to the city states democratically elected government, and often enforced by the movement (Nagle) - A large amount of land was also owned by the city states, often set aside for future constructions of temples or polis's, they would often represent up to 1/10 of the entire usable land (Nagle) -The Greeks were some of the first recorded civilization to lay fields fallow during the rainy season (Morris and Powell) -Often in a 2 year form, but they had tried to do a three year form but ran into problems because of their lack of power and the state of most Greek soil (Morris and Powell) -The Greeks didn't use manure on the crops due to the lack of cows, but often left the weeds in the ground to add to the soil (Morris and Powell) - Main Greek diet was barley and macaroni wheat (Nagle) - Barley was found early on to have been the least time consuming and had better nutrient attributes than macaroni wheat, 60% of all wheat was barley (Nagle) -Greeks were always trying to catch up to demand, 73% of all people where involved in agriculture in classical Greece (Nagle) -Grapes were also good for the rocky Greek environment but were hard to look after (Nagle) - Olives also used but would be very hard to turn profitable (Nagle) -Orchards and other fruits were also popular but due to the limited amount of land, were not really used (Nagle) - Economy was centered on trade with other polis's (Morris and Powell) - Agora was a large open space which severed as a meeting place and also a place for commerce (Morris and Powell) - Located close to the center of the city or near the harbour (Morris and Powell) -Large polis's such as Athens had separate sectors of Agoras for different types of commerce (Morris and Powell) - Men on trail were forbidden from entering the Agora until trial had ended (Morris and Powell)
 * __Agricutlure and Economy:__**

The most significant lessons that we can learn from classical Greece are the superior political systems, their government programs and the way that they implemented separate city states. The Greeks during the classical period, had excellent political systems, they are the inventors of democracy and implemented their system with great efficiency (Winks and Mattern-Parkes), which is often regarded as one of the best use of democracy to this day. Over the years, many countries have added their own twist on too democracy (Center for the study of democracy), none coming even close to creating a true democracy with such efficiency as the Greeks  (Winks and Mattern-Parkes). As many countries political democracy's are plagued with such issues as, low voter turnout, miss representation and corruption, this was never true with the Greeks. The Greeks put forth a democratic society in its purest form, one where the people ruled and were not represented by big shot political figures, anybody could easily become leader and had an equal opportunity as everybody else (Morris and Powell). They didn't have problems with low voter turnout because everybody was so passionate about their local polis that they would always vote, corruption was not an issue because the polis's were never very large and leaders could be watched very closely (Winks and Mattern-Parkes). In conclusion, if modern governments would take a step back and follow the Greeks, politics would be much more effective, and a lot of the issues we have today would be resolved. Another thing that we can learn from the Greeks is the way the government supported religion and art and also how they created small communities and gave them almost all the power (Nagle). The classical Greeks were famous for the dedication to art as well as religion, often during times of war, spending on constructing new warships or training citizens to become fighters were triumphed by creating large religious temples, or paying for the poor to be able to attend dramatic plays (Nagle). This spending was excellent for local polis's to create a sense of equality no matter the social class and also allowed for stunning creations of plays and art (Nagle). If we were to use this today, poverty would become less of an issue and the arts would steadily increase. One other major development that led to the ultimate success and then failure of the Greek were their city states, or better known as polis's (Hooker). The Greeks gave much of the power to the local polis's were excellent, local issues could be resolved without it having effects on other areas that didn't have those issues, as well trade was increased dramatically (Hooker). But there was a downside to this, often these polis's would disagree on strategies to defend Greece as a whole and would often fight each other instead of focusing on other problems such as the Persians (Nagle). I think that if we were to separate countries into city states, we would need to be very cautious and would probably even have to instate a head of the polis's or a panel so that things could be easily coordinated. I think that most of the things that the Greeks did would help us today and that studying the past can only help us, epically the Greeks. Their use of political systems, their contributions to the arts, their polis's and many other countless things would be very useful if put to use right. I think that we should start looking at the things that made Greece good, and also the things that led to the ultimate destruction of Greece to avoid the destruction of our society.
 * __ESSAY__**

__**Bibliography**__:

__Climate and Geographic Factors__ Alpha & Omega. __Weather in Greece.__ 01 05 2009 . Central Intelligence Agency. __CIA World Factbook: Greece.__ 01 05 2009 . Cyrstal Links. __Geograhy of Greece.__ 01 05 2009 . Greek Tourism Organization. __Travel Guide: Greek Islands.__ 01 05 09 .

__Events and Leaders__ Nagle, D. Brendan. __The Ancient World: A social and Cultural History (Sixth Edition).__ Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2006.

__Science and Math__ __A history of Ancient Greece.__ 01 05 09 .

__Art, Literature and Music__ Morris, Ian and Barry B. Powell. __The Greeks.__ Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005. Nagle, D. Brendan. __The Ancient World: A social and Cultural History (Sixth Edition).__ Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2006. Winks, Robin W. and Susan P. Mattern-Parkes. __The Ancient Mediterranean World.__ New York,NY: Oxford, 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica. __Acropolis.__ 01 05 2009 .

__Socio-Political Structure__ Hooker, Richard. __Polis- Washington State.__ 12 07 1999. 01 05 2009 . Winks, Robin W. and Susan P. Mattern-Parkes. __The Ancient Mediterranean World.__ New York,NY: Oxford, 2004.

__Pictures__ Figure 1: [] Figure 2: [] Fiure 3: [] Figure 4: []