6 a.m. With an early morning coffee in hand, I begin making a few notes about the two chapters I read yesterday.

The Greek Archaic Age refers to the years 750 - 500 B.C. It is worth noting that this is a modern designation based on the features of their sculpture. The Greeks at the time simply lived the era.

Oh, oh - another thought! The question that arises is how "deeply" I wish to study a topic - in this case ancient Greek history. I seem to be falling into the trap of primarily identifying a few key dates and events (usually battles) and a few key people. In fairness, this is a good way to begin, since it allows me to fix a number ot activities on a timeline. However I am reminded of the French historian Fernand Braudel who focused more on a description of everyday living conditions. This could lead to a reading of his 3 volume history of Europe in the 15th to 18th centuries. I will hold that thought for the moment. First to complete my study of ancient Greece, and then to decide if I stay with the chronology and start reading about the Romans. These potential tangents are the main difference between self-directed learning and school-imposed learning.

The primary development during this period was the evolution of the city-state. Basically this consisted of an urban center plus the surrounding country side. The geography of the region helped keep the different areas separate and relatively small (since there was not much arable land). With the collapse of the Mycenian civilization about 1000 B.C. there was no large powerful group to control the area. In the latter part of this period many of the urban centres built walls to protect themselves from other city-states. Slavery became fairly common - the slaves being people captured from battles or by trade. In most cases the slaves would also be what we call ethnically as Greeks. The existence of slaves provided for more leisure time on the part of the urban dwellers which in turn permitted the pursuit of other more cultural pursuits such as the making of decorative pottery and sculpture. However the presence of a large number of slaves also meant that there had to be a large military presence to ensure they did not revolt. This was particularly a problem for Sparta, who had been very successful militarily taking control of much of the area south of the Gulf of Corinth. This was also the age of iron and much better weaponry. Within the city, many of the buildings consisted of a central courtyard with the various rooms providing a wall around it. These would be occupied by the more wealthy people, whereas poorer people likely lived in small, free standing houses. Such a system provided privacy and was also much easier to defend since the buildings all were adjoining. Such a style is still in evidence in much of Europe today.

At this point I decide to try typing the words "ancient Greek architecture" into a search engine. Wow!! Sites galore. This also provides a link to book at amazon.com called Architecture and Meaning on the Athenian Acropolis. From here there is also a link to other books with titles like "Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece" and "Ancient Greece : A Political, Social, and Cultural History". A quick check with Chapters indicates that all three books are available in Canada. The web contains to amaze me! Browsing the titles in amazon.com I note: "The Ancient City : Life in Classical Athens & Rome" (available at Chapters) and "Celebrating Homer's Landscapes: Troy And Ithaca Revisited" and "Herodotus: The Histories (Penguin Classics)" (also at Chapters). I have spent over an hur simply browsing titles and reviews at amazon. It really does give one a good sense of what is available. This is not traditional learning, but I think it is an important new approach to supplement traditional approaches such as reading one book (the text) from cover to cover.

Beginning around 750 B.C. the Greeks began colonizing along much of the Mediterranean shoreline, particularly Italy and Sicily, as well as along Turkey and the Black Sea.

Pottery became a well-developed craft with decorations being an important feature. Corinth and later Athens became the major centers for such work. Writing, using a variant of the Phoenician alphabet began to become established. this would lead to the much of the literature and plays during the next Classical period.

Athens in particular developed the notion of citizenship and democracy during this period. One of the basic driving forces behing this idea was that of fairness and equity of treatment regardless of social or economic standing.

During the Archaic Age three main political approaches were all prevlent in Greece. The idea of a monarchy had disappeared with the fall of the Mycenian civilization. In its place there was:

• oligarchy (rule by a small elite) [Sparta is the best example of this]
• tyranny (rule by force)
• democracy (rule by popular majority) [Athens is the best example of this]

This was a nice reminder of what an oligarchy is. I was familiar with the word, but would have been hard pressed to say what it meant.

When the land near Sparta became insufficient to support the Spartan population they attacked their neighbours, the Messenians, (first and second Messenian wars: 730 - 710 B.C. and 640 - 630 B.C.) and soon controlled almost all of the Peloponnesian peninsula. The captured Messenians were given the status of helot (a slave belonging to Sparta, but not to an individual). The total population of helots soon outnumbered that of the Spartans, putting additional pressure on the Spartan army.

In Athens the road to democracy was quite rocky. The elite made many attempts to establish an oligarchy and an Athenian called Draco was asked to establish a code of laws to promote stability and equality. However his measures were too harsh (Draconian) and a civil war seemd likely. Another attempt was made by a man called Solon which stabilized the situation (594 B.C.). However in 546 B.C. a man called Pisistratus successfully established himself as Athen's first tyrant. His son Hippias inherited the position. Another wealthy family enlisted the aid of the Spartans to help remove Hippias and soon after a democracy was re-established under the leadership of Cleisthenes - considered the founder of democracy in Athens during the Classical period.

The Greeks in Ionia (Turkey) began to develop a new way of thinking about the relationship of man to nature, arguing that nature was regular and could be understood rather than nature being at the whim of the gods. These first natural philosophers used argument, reason and evidence to support their interpretations. This was the first crucial step toward science and philosophy. Thales and Anaximander (610 - 540 B.C.) as well as Pythagorus (530 B.C.) were notables of this period.

A great morning! 3 hours - I began by trying to summarize a few important points from two chapters and ended up finding the titles for a number of interesting books plus some incredible web sites for some important biographies.