All About: Glorious Greeks

By P S Quick

This book, filled with amazing facts and photographs, describes what life was like for ancient Greeks. It gives an in-depth account of all aspects of life and people of the time - including sections about the Olympics, Gods, heroes, the Trojan War, city-states, famous people and much more!

The ‘All About’ series is an educational collection of books from P S Quick, and is targeted to interest 7 to 11 year olds - but will fascinate readers of all ages. At the end of each book there is a quiz section for the reader, featuring 150 questions and answers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AUK Academic
• Release date: Mar 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781782345657

Book preview

Title Page

ALL ABOUT

GLORIOUS GREEKS

P S Quick

Publisher Information

Published in 2013 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

The right of P S Quick to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright © 2013 P S Quick

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Picture Credits:

Archaic Greece

Greek pottery showing soldier courtesy of Giovanni Dall’Orto

Greek pottery showing javelin thrower courtesy of Marie-Lan Nguyen

Classical period:

House ruins courtesy of Marcuscalabresus

Sculpture of Alexander the Great courtesy of Dall’Orto/ Wikimedia Commons

Pottery showing Hades courtesy of Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons

Introduction

This book, filled with amazing facts and photographs, describes what life was like for Ancient Greeks. It gives an in-depth account of all aspects of life and people of the time - including sections about the Olympics, Gods, heroes, the Trojan War, city-states, famous people and much more!

The ‘All About’ series is an educational collection of books from P S Quick, and is targeted to interest 7 to 11 year olds - but will fascinate readers of all ages. At the end of each book there is a quiz section for the reader, featuring 150 questions and answers.

A Landscape Shapes History

The landscape of Greece has shaped its history from the earliest times. Three quarters of Greece is covered by mountains which meant, in ancient times, it was really difficult to travel from place to place. Unlike Egypt, that had the ‘Gift of the Nile’, Greece had no major rivers so travelling and transporting goods was difficult within the country itself and its islands were rocky too.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by seas; the larger Mediterranean Sea and the smaller Aegean and Ionian seas. The Greeks were talented shipbuilders and sailors and so most cities were built on harbours. With little land available for farming, and few natural resources such as precious metals, the Greeks explored surrounding lands trading goods and knowledge.

The Bronze Age: The Earliest People

The Greeks lived not only in mainland Greece and its islands but also settled in the area we now know as Turkey, Bulgaria and other places around the Mediterranean Sea.

The first Greek civilizations lived about 5000 years ago but the period that most people associate with the Ancient Greeks was about 2500 years ago, when the Greeks created a way of life that was so admired it has become known as ‘The birthplace of Western Civilization’.

The Minoans

The Minoans, who lived on the island of Crete, from about 2000 BC, were the first civilization in this area and were named after their king Minos. They were very advanced for the time and even the poorest people lived in houses that had a number of rooms. Their wealth came from trading with other nations. It is also suggested they worked as soldiers for the Egyptians who paid them in gold.

They even had facilities such as running water. The