The Greeks Crucible of Civilization

• cleisthenes would see the ordinary people try at freeedom
• born around 570 BC
• taught he was an aristocrat, member of ruling class
• aristocrats control everything that happened
• acropolis steep sided, bare rock, strongghold
• reading and writing was a rare skill
• life expectancy at birth was 15 years
• life extremely tough
• common people had no part, no share, in anything
• civilizations usually grew up around rivers, but not greece
• fragmented world
• divided into city states, fiercely independent, own cultures
• corinthians dominated greek trade
• sparta, military power
• lives structured around discipline and war
• lives stripped of comfort
• greek mythology inspired the greeks 
• the iliad and the odyssey, composed by homer
• the vision of the hero was the model that cleisthenes was brought up to follow
• Pysistritis seized control of government as a tyrant
• turned to the common athenians for support
• reduced taxes, offered athenians a chance of prosperity
• olives were mostly grown in athens
• good product for trade
• greece is in the middle of most ancient civilizations
• the vase, athens first great artistic legacy
• hippias started to rule athens with fair hand but soon changed
• 514 hippias brother was murdered, his behavior changes
• tortured and killed suspects/murderers
• cleisthenes tried to overthrow hippias
• hippias banished from athens, forever
• olympics were a chance for any greeks to display any heroic qualities
• isagoris was another athenian aristocrat
• had support of spartans
• athenian assemby would gather every 9 days