THE ORIGINS AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF HELLENIC GREECE
- How did the polis embody key aspects of Greek society and culture? Is it fair to say that, in a sense, the polis was the essence of Greek civilization? Why or why not?
- Compare and contrast Sparta and Athens. To what extent do these two city-states represent different solutions to the same basic challenges?
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- What were the causes and consequences of the Peloponnesian War?
- How was Athens’s emergence as an imperial power reflected in Athenian thought and culture?
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- Why did Alexander’s empire split apart shortly after his death? What impact did this political fragmentation have on the development of the Hellenistic world?
- What characterized the relationship between Greeks and Easterners in the Hellenistic period? To what extent were Easterners “Hellenized”?
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LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD
- Classical Greece was a period of almost constant warfare. With this in mind, compare and contrast classical Greece with earlier periods of endemic warfare in the Near East. What factors seem to have been conducive to peace in the ancient world? What conditions tended to produce war?
- How would you explain the enduring influence of Greek ideas and ideals? What examples of the continuing influence of Greek culture can you identify in the contemporary world?
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