Athens

The Golden Age of Athens

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1. The principle of direct democracy through the Citizens Assembly (which was open to all citizens) was created in Athens

• It directed foreign policy, created laws, and serves as the basis of modern democracy (including American democracy)

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​Direct Democracy

Open Ended

What is direct democracy? What is one positive and one negative of the system of direct democracy used in Athens?

1. Art, Literature, and philosophy flourished during Greece’s Golden Age

   1. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were important philosophers

   2. Architecture such as the Parthenon and Acropolis have been copied for centuries.  

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​Athens-Culture

​Eratosthenes – was a geographer who showed that the earth was round.  He also calculated the earth’s circumference and created the sieve which discovered all prime numbers.  

1. Archimedes – is the most famous mathematician of antiquity.  He greatly advanced geometry and  studied levers and pulleys, measured volume and density, & designed catapults

​Science and Math

1. Greeks like the stringed lyre and the flute.  Musical scales were invented in Greece.

   • Greek historians told stories of the past while Greek writers completed the first known comedies and tragedies.  

   • Greeks then watched these plays in open outdoor theaters known as amphitheaters.

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​Music and Literature

Multiple Choice

The Athenians influenced society today through all of the following EXCEPT..

• Science and Math

• Literature and Art

• Music and Plays

• Food and Clothing