Rise of the Persians

This week in Ancient History, students are exploring the rise of Persia and Greece not just as places on a map but as two very different ways of organizing human society. Persia built a powerful and orderly empire ruled by kings and laws, while Greece developed small self governing city states where citizens took responsibility for their own communities. Students are learning to compare these two systems and to think about a big timeless question. Is safety more important than freedom. Through a structured writing activity, students explain why these opposing ideas led to conflict and why the Greeks chose self government over being ruled by a distant empire.