Question

The first lesson is on Ancient Greece.
Ancient Greece is crucial to understanding Western History and World History as a whole.
Here’s a basic rundown of some important information about Ancient Greece:
Athens is considered the birthplace of democracy.

The Battle of Marathon is where the Athenians beat back the invading Persians. The sea battle outside of Athens is what actually won that war. The Athenian General was named Miltiades.

Spartan society was severe and harsh.

The Trojan War was a long war and where we get both “a Trojan horse” from and Homer’s Illiad.

Greece is where we get the scholastic system from thanks to Aristotle.

Alexander the Great never lost a battle and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. When Alexander died his empire was split in 4 among four of his generals. Cassander in Greece and Macedonia, Lysimachus in Asia Minor, The Seleucid Empire, and Ptolemaic Egypt.

Greece was conquered by Rome who would become the next great empire.

In this thread I will be going in depth on these events and more and will be more than happy to answer any questions anyone might have on any of the subjects.

Answer 1

Let’s begin by talking about democracy. Most of the western world lives in a democracy of some sort (whether or not it feels like it). Athens is credited with starting democracy as we know it, but here’s some important things to consider. 1. Athens was not a pure or “direct” democracy. Only men could vote and only free men could vote. This means that women and slaves were not allowed to cast a vote.
2. There has never been a pure or “direct” democracy in the history of the entire world. A true or “direct” democracy is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as: “ democracy in which the power is exercised directly by the people rather than through representatives” Athens had a governing body known as the Boule they were 500 ordinary citizens who were responsible for deciding the fate of the Athenian people. They did things such as sentence Socrates to death for “corrupting the youth” because he didn’t believe in the war that they were fighting at the time.

Answer 2

:O

Answer 3

Are you learning this in school or smth?

Answer 4

I’ve already learned it. I just thought I’d help people out if they’re learning it.

Answer 5

:O

Answer 6

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 B.C.E. This was the first attempt by the Persians under King Darius to conquer Greece. (If you’re worried about Darius don’t be he’ll be back). Athens and Sparta were two of the bigger city states in Greece. Athens decided to request Sparta’s help with defeating the Persians. Unfortunately for the Athenians the Spartans were in the midst of a religious celebration. (They were partying too hard). So the Athenians had to fight alone.

The Greeks had a nasty habit of sticking their nose where it didn’t belong. One of the examples of these oversteps is the Ionian revolt against Persia. The Greeks sent help to the Ionians and Persia was none to pleased about it. So they sent an invading force to mainland Greece. The invasion reached its climax at the Battle of Marathon. The Persians landed a force around the small town of Marathon. Miltiades the Athenian General had a small force of troops. They were able to cut off the Persians so they couldn’t advance passed them.

The Greeks used a formation called the phalanx this is where soldiers would stand shoulder to shoulder with shields and huge pikes they would all push their pikes forward and thus create essentially a giant shish kebab. For this particular battle since the Athenians were outnumbered they decided to thin out their center in order to match the Persians in width. The Athenians then marched onwards towards the Persians and they had to move at a rapid pace in order to gain the edge as far as terrain is concerned. They were able to gain this advantage and soundly defeated the Persians. This proved to the world that Persia (the largest empire in the world at this time) could be beaten.

Pheidippides was tasked with running back to Athens to tell the news. You might have recognized the name Marathon from somewhere. A marathon is the same distance Marathon was to Athens. Pheidippides ran the entire way back to Athens and let the people know what had happened and then collapsed and died. He had run an entire marathon after fighting a battle so he died of exhaustion. The Persians were humiliated by this defeat and would be back for vengeance in due time.