ANCIENT GREECE

Grace Giger and Ben Esser

Economy
■ Something that Is very important about their economy is the imported goods
– Because the soil is poor, they depend greatly on agricultural trade
■ Farming is an intense labor
– Wheat, olives, grapes, and herbs are some of the crops. Livestock was also
very important
■ In Greece, there is a system that they call eisphorá
– This is when the country was only taxed when the people were in need of
money. It mostly is when a war is going on.
■ They used a currency that was called Drachma
– A worker could earn up to approximately two Drachma a day
Political Structure

■ Greece has a variety of governments because they were

broken up into city-states and also the government had
changed over time
– The main governments are monarchies,
oligarchies, tyrannies, and democracies
■ There were many forms over the years from the ancient
Greeks
■ Alexander the Great III became a powerful king and he
conquered the Great Persian Empire
– Something that he did was he destroyed his
own cities so that he could warn other
countries not to rebel
■ Aristotle was a famous philosopher in Ancient Greece
Social Structure
■ Greece was broken down into 4 main classes which are:
– The High Class
– The Middle Class
– The Low Class
– Slaves
■ The High/Upper Class
– The Upper class was the highest and made the lower class do all of the work. They
owned slaved and put them hard to work. This class did not have jobs and a very small
class
■ The Middle class
– The middle class was mostly made up of artists, craftsmen, merchants, contractors,
and managers
■ The Low class
– Most people in this class were slaves at one point. Is basically slaves who had enough
money to buy themselves freedom
■ Slaves
– They were owned by the higher classes. They were paid little and put to work. Sometimes
beaten or starved
Culture

■ The Greeks were very religious and they worshiped many Gods.
■ Women had very little freedom while the men spent time in the fields, overseeing or
working the crops, sailing, hunting, in manufacturing or in trade
■ Something that was very important to the Greeks was dancing. They believed that it
helped the body both physically and emotionally
■ The Greeks loved to tell stories. They loved to tell fables and myths
■ Clothes in Greece were very simple. Men and women usually wore linen in the summer
and wool in the winter. Families made their own clothes which were simple and easy to
make.
■ The Greek culture and society made jewelry such as bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and
rings
– The more jewels the necklace had, the more wealthy they were
Greek Gods

■ Zeus- God of the Sky

■ Hara- Goddess of Marriage
■ Poseidon- God of the sea
■ Ares- God of War
■ Aeolus- God of Wind and Air
■ Demeter- Goddess of Agriculture
Facts

■ The ancient Greeks were the first Europeans to read and write the Alphabet
■ Greece was the first to make a democracy in the government system
■ Birds, dogs, goats, tortoises, and mice were all popular pets. Cats were not common pets.
■ Greece's weather is affected by the Mediterranean climate
■ The Greek language is Greek
■ Theaters were established in Ancient Greece
■ It is surrounded by three seas
– The Ionian Sea
– The Aegean Sea
– The Libyan Sea