Movie Notes 3/16/11

• 508 BC, the people revolted against their government
• Cleisthenes
• 570 BC Cleisthenes was born
• aristocrat - greeks word for member of the ruling class, had wealth
• town was built around the acropolis - big outcropping of rock
• common athenians were mostly middle-class
• followed under aristocratic rule
• it was impossible for one ruler to dominate this fragmented places
• divided into city states
• because they were separated by all these mts., all of Greece was not united
• competed for trade dollars, claimed war on eachother
• rivals (especialyl Athens and Sparta)
• one city-state with military power
• Sparta
• brought up from birth to be soldiers
• lives structred around discipline and war
• brought up to put up with anything
• Cleisthenes was always one to be powered by a dream
• bards sang stories of ancient heroes
• Homer wrote the Illiad and the Odyssey
• Odyessey is the story of Odysseus and his journey back home over 10 years
• tyrant
• Pisistratus- excellent polition, Cleisthenes's brother-in-law
• turned to the common athenians for support
• treating the regular people really well
• cuts taxes on people
• lent them money, if they wanted to grow anything themselves