Unit 4: Key Words and Definitions

Key Words:

Topography: The land forms or surface of a region.

Colony: A group of people who left the Greek polis and established in settlements in a new land that had the same social and political structure as the polis.

Classical Age: It was the Golden Age of the Greek civilisation, when Sparta and Athens were the most important polis.

Oligarchy: Political system in which the power is held by a minority, in Ancient Greece it was the aristocracy.

Polis: Greek city-states which kept their own laws and independent governments.

Myth: They were tales of Gods and humans told by the Greeks to explain life.

Homer: Greek poet who wrote two epic poems, the Illiad and the Oddysey. These are two of the most important literaty works of Greek literature.

Alexander the Great: King of Macedonia and conqueror of the Persian Empire. He is considered one of the greatest military geniuses of all times. After he died in 323 B.C. his empire was divided.