March 25, 2011

Today in class we got back alot of papers. Also, we finished going over the test on Greece. Jordan had a shadow in class which was really funny because Mr.Schick picked on him at the beginning of class. Later on we got donuts and discussed our projects that are due when we come back from spring break.

March 24, 2011

Today in class we got our Ancient Greece tests back. I got an 83 on mine which isn't nearly as bad as I thought I did. Most of the ones i got wrong were about kings and the rulers of Persia. The test brought my grade from an 87 to 86 even though I was hoping to get an A for this quarter. Its my first B in this class! My quarter grades aren't as good as they usually are, thats probably because lacrosse just started.

March 23, 2011

Today in class we took the hardest test ever. It was like 30 questions on Greece, but there are so many names and things to remember that I think I did really really bad. I even had t stay after school because it took so long! The last question asked who Mr. Schick's favorite person was but I just guessed Socrates because I had no idea!

March 21, 2011

More Movie Notes

1. Pericles treated Aspsia, the prostitute like she was a person
2. Theatre was a huge part of Ancient Greece and Athens, audiences often booed and hissed if it was bad or cried if it was good
3. Oedipus was a king who married his own mother and had sex with her, but he didn't know it was her. He later clawed his eyes out so he didn't have to see the people look at him with disgust
4. Athens 431 B.C. Pericles showed the Athenians his plans to start a war with Sparta, which was a huge mistake
5. Athens could defeat Sparta on land because Sparta's strength was in their navy
6. 
   

March 18, 2011

More notes on the movie:

1. Themistocles was one of Athens greatest leaders, he used the most advanced weapon around, the trireme.
2. The trireme is a huge boat that was very expensive and used as a weapon at sea
3. Themistocles wanted to build a fleet against Aegea not Persia
4. Themistocles built a fleet of 200 triremes
5. The Persian King Darius died and Xerxes, his son took over
6. In 480 B.C. the Persian army set out for Greece
7. Oracle at Delphi- where the Greeks went to discover their future
8. Delphi was considered to be the central of the universe
9. Delphi warned them that they were coming and to run 
10. When they came back the second time she said that the wooden wall only will not fail
11. Themistocles had his troops meet at Salamis 
12. The Persians went onto the Athenians acropolis and burned it
13. The Persians gathered a fleet 4 times as big as the Greeks forces
14. Xerxes wants to fight in a narrow body of water between Salamis and Athens, but it would be hard to get the Persians there because they were very intelligent
15. The Persians lost and the Greeks won at Salamis
16. The battle at Salamis broke the Persian army
17. The Athenians had control over the military in the eastern Mediterranean 
18. Athens had dominate power in less then one generation
19. Pebbles decided everything around the government in Athens
20. People took a vote on who could be kicked out of the city
21. Themistocles was apostrophized/ kicked out because he had too much power
22. Themistocles died in Persia while in exile
23. Pericles was the king to step in after Themistocles, he was the king during the best time in Athens
24. Pericles wanted to make a city whose greatness would be admired
25. Pericles wanted to build a Parthenon right in the center of Athens as a tribute to Athena
26. It took 15 years to build the Parthenon
27. The statue is now lost ( 40 feet tall, gold and ivory)
28. The Parthenon Frieze went around the inner wall of the temple and its only a few inches thick
29. The monuments that Pericles built for his people are still on top of the acropolis
30. Pericles divorced his wife and went off with Aspsia who was an escort
31. People joke that Aspsia actually wrote Pericles speeches
32. They had tragedies and comedies
33. 
    

March 16, 2011- Extra Notes on the video

Cleisthinese took rule in 508 B.C.

1. Born in 570 B.C.
2. Was an aristocrat (high up in hierarchy)
3. Athens was built around the acropolis

Greece was divided into city states

Traveling bards traveled through towns and cities and told stories

The Iliad (Trojan Wars) and The Odyssey (Adventures of coming home from the Trojan War) were the most told stories

Homer was a blind person who read and sang stories

Pisistratus was Cleisthinese brother in law and he was also a tyrant

The girl Pisistratus was with claimed to be Athena

Pisistratus was extremely intelligent, he understood that if he wanted to stay in control that he has to find allies. he first turned to the common people, he cut back taxes and created loans

Grain, Swordfish, wine, gold, silver, art, and finery, were all products that people sold and traded

Pottery wasn't a big deal, but what was inside was important

527 B.C. Pisistratus died and his son Hippias took over

In 514 B.C. Hippias's brother was murdered and so he went to find the man and he tortured them, including the murderer's wife

The freedom that they had under Pisistratus was taken away by his son after he died, he did this because he thought people were out to get him

Cleisthinese decided that he wanted to over throw Hippias

March 14,2011

1. 3/4 of Greece is mountains
2. About 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas
3. They had skilled sailors
4. Poor natural resources
5. Developed small independent communities
6. Only 20% suitable for farming
7. Fertile valleys covered 1/4 of peninsula
8. Ate grapes, grain, and olives
9. Lack of recourses led to Greek colonization
10. Temperature ranges from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer
11. Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge protected by a 20 ft. thick wall
12. Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 B.C. 
13. 1400 B.C. Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language
14. 1200 B.C. sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palaces
15. The Dorians economy collapsed and they were less advanced, they moved in war-torn regions
16. Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages"
17. Homer recorded stories of the Trojan War in the Illiad and the Odyssey
18. Arete mean virtual excellence 
19. Epics are narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds
20. Myths were  created to explain creation
21. Zeus- leader of the Gods
22. Hera- Zeus's wife
23. Athena- God of Wisdom

March 11,2011

The Greeks Video

1. The town of Athens was built around a rock and it allowed them to hold off their enemies
2. Reading and writing was rare for the Athenians and their life expectancy was less than 15 years old
3. Greece has too many mountains to seem to be a great empire
4. Greece was divided into many city states
5. Athens, Argos, Corinth, and Sparta were all city states
6. The Spartans were raised to be soldiers, their live revolved around discipline and war
7. The Spartans wore red to conceal their blood or their neighbors
8. Cleisthinese, the ruler of Athens wanted his people to be free and successful
9. Stories were a big part of Greece and Athens
10. The Illiet and the Odyssey were huge stories back in ancient Greece and they are still preserved today
11. Athena was the goddess of Athens and Cleisthinese brother in law, Psistratus was a ruler of Athens also
12. Psistratus introduced free loans to people and slowly began to transform the city
13. Olives were very useful and well grown in Greece, they invented olive oil and spread it to other countries
14. The vase was the first great artistic legacy, but the potters were very low on the hierarchy
15. Psistratus died and his son Hippias then became king 
16. Hippias executed his brother's murderer and even tortured one of their wives to death
17. Hippias was a tyrant and this caused problems because Cleisthinese wanted to overthrow him
18. Olympia is where the Olympics were started, the Olympic games could be fought between two people of any class
19. In the ancient Olympics the wrestled, boxed, and rode chariots, the real honor was that the winner would be known throughout Greece
20. Isagoras sent a message to the Spartans to help him invade Athens
21. Isagoras climbed the Acropolis in Athens with a few people and they stayed up there for 4 days until he was forced to surrender 
22.  508 BC Athens defeated their invaders and they started to become more powerful
23. The marathon was invented when a messenger had to run and inform someone that the Persian Empire was going to attack
24. The Persian Empire stretched from India to Turkey
25. The Athenians eventually slaughtered alot of the Persians in just one day
26. Themistocles was an Athenian leader and had risen through democracy
27.  Themistocles used huge ships that were very fast and useful
28. The Athenians discovered silver in their territory
29. The money that the got from silver was either to build a fleet against Persia or Eggia(a city state)
30. Xerxes who ruled Persia built a huge army of about 2 million men marched towards Greece
31. Themistocles burnt the temples in Salamis
32. 
    

March 10,2011

Ancient Greece

1. Sparta was a major city and was well known for their army and was the leader of all Greek forces
2. Peloponnese was at the heart of Ancient Greece 
3. The Greek Revolution broke out in Peloponnese in 1821
4. Was the scene of the Peloponnesian War
5. The Persian Empire was the greatest empire in the entire ancient world
6. Cyrus was one of the best Persian kings and he also conquered alot of other empires
7. The Greeks did not like the Persians because the Persians drafted them into their army
8. The Greeks started to call together counsels and the Persians didn't like this so they destroyed their whole city
9. Herodotus was a Greek historian
10. Ionia is the ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present day Turkey
11. Ionia was founded by Greek colonists from the other side of the Aegean Sea
12. A large part of Ionia was covered in mountains but they also had extremely fertile valleys with many rivers
13. Barbarians were people living north of the Roman Empire
14. Cyrus founded the first world empire after defeating the median dynasty and uniting the Medes with the Persians
15. His to sons, Cambyses 1 and Arsames ruled after he died
16. The Cyrus cylinder was discovered in Babylon. It includes the detailed account of Cyrus and his conquest of Babylon
17. Darius the Great was the King of Persia from 521-486 BC, he was one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid Dynasty
18. During the Battle of Marathon the Greeks left their homeland and went to Ionia
19. The Greeks didn't like the way the Persians ruled so they stepped in
20. The Battle of Marathon is part of the Persian War
21. The Greeks won the Battle of Marathon by encircling the Perisans
22. Xerxes was the king on Persia in 486 BC
23. When Xerxes came into power he started to plan to invade Greece, first by land then by sea
24. The Bridge of Hellespont was created by Xerxes demanding boats to connect together and create a bridge
25. The Bridge of Hellespont was used for Xerxes men to cross from Asia to Europe but it was destroyed in a huge storm
26. Leonidas was a king of Sparta, he formed an army of 4,000-7,000 men to fight in the Battle of Thermopylae where he later died
27. The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between the Greeks combined with the Spartans against the Persians
28.  During two full days of battle, the small force led by King Leonidas I of Sparta blocked the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass, a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing a small path that led behind the Greek lines

March 9, 2011

Today in class I had to make up the test on Egypt which took a while and was moderately hard.

March 7, 2011

I was not in class today because I'm really sick. I laid in bed all day and watched really corny scary movies off of ondemand. I probably won't be in school tomorrow either.

March 4, 2011

Economy:

1. Tourism brings in money
2. Oil, natural gas, and manufacturing is another way they make money
3. Agriculture- making most of their limited arable land (3%) 
4. They grow cotton, corn, rice, wheat, fava beans
5. The old pattern of dealing with the Nile has been changed since the 1970 building of the Aswan High Dam
6. The dam controls the flooding of the Nile, and increases the amount of reclaimed land

Demographics:

1. 79 million people- biggest population of Middle eastern nations
2. Official language is Arabic but they teach some people French, German, and English
3. Religion- 90% Muslim, most of the rest is Christian, but Egypt is ranked 12th in the world for religious violence and ranked 5th for worst religious freedom

Politics, Government, and Revolution:

1. In 1922 end of protectorate with the United Kingdom
2. In 1953 Egypt declared a republic
3. In 1954-1970 ruled by Gamal Nasser
4. 1970-1981 ruled by Anwar Sadat. He attacked Israel over Sinai Peninsula and was assassinated in 1981 after trying to make peace
5. From 1981-2011 Hosni Mubarak ruled, helped in the Iraq war but he was driven from office last month

Whats Next?

1. Egypt is currently being run by a military junta, but democratic elections are scheduled for September
2. Some people want Mubarak arrested for stealing money from the government
3. Libya has been ruled by Muammar Gaddafi since 1969 and he is violently opposing their uprising. Libya may even descend into a full civil war
4. The east is controlled by rebels but he still is captain

March 3, 2011

Today in class we watched a short video clip on Egypt. After that we took turns teaching the class because Mr.Schick was tired. We discussed pharaohs, pyramids, and life in Egypt and we also talked alot about the Nile river. The Nile river was what helped the Egyptians survive and flourish. Basically all of class we talked and discussed, we haven't done a project on Egypt yet which is surprising. Also, we have a test Monday.

March 2 and 3, 2011

Geography

1. Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River
2. Water for drinking, irrigating, and bathing comes from the Nile
3. Every July it floods
4. Every October it leaves behind a rich soil
5. The delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile silt
6. Managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation 

Pyramids

1. The Great Sphinx of Giza was built in 2555-2532 BC, it is a recumbent lion with with a human's head. It is also the oldest monumental statue in the world

Daily Life

1. Pharaoh, Government officials, Soldiers, Scribes, Merchants, Artisian, Farmers, Slaves and servants
2. Raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions- benefited from irrigation of the Nile
3. Artisans carved statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes in the after life
4. Money/barter system was used- merchants might accept bags of grain for payment- late, no coinage came about
5. Scribes kept records, told stories, wrote poetry described anatomy and medical treatments
6. Scribes wrote hieroglyphs and in hieratic
7. Soldiers used wooden weapons (bow and arrows, spears) with bronze tips and might ride chariots
8. Upper class, known as the white kilt class, consist of priests, physicians, and engineers
9. Religious and political leaders were the highest in the hierarchy

Pharaohs

1. The political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: "Lord of the Two Lands'
2. He owned all land, made all laws, collected taxes, and defended Egypt against foreigners
3. Hatshepsut was a woman who served as a pharaoh
4. Cleopatra VII also served as a pharaoh, but much later (51-30 BC)