History 111  David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Com. College Lecture 8. Ancient Greece

The Greeks established far-reaching colonies and their merchant fleets stimulated commercial and cultural interactions between peoples of distant lands.  Greek merchants, soldiers, and administrators were prominent in the extensive empires of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic rulers that followed, leaving a rich and enduring cultural legacy.

Greek Beginnings_________________________
	The Minoans       Generally considered to be the first of the Greek civilizations, the Bronze Age culture that flourished on the large island of Crete was later named after the legendary King Minos.  Crete had been inhabited since 7000 BCE and its population grew gradually as immigrants from Anatolia and nearby Aegean islands arrived.  (The Aegean Sea [see map01] is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek peninsula on the west and Asia Minor on the east.)       The Minoan civilization flourished in Bronze-Age Crete from around 2800 to 1450 BCE.  They developed a complex society built around religion and material wealth.  The Minoans had a system of political, economic, and social organization centered around several palaces on Crete.  Between 1900 and 1700 BCE grand palaces were built at Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia, and Zakrose.  The Minoans constructed large sanctuaries throughout the countryside, in caves and on peaks, where legend has it that sacrificial victims were brought to appease the gods.  Remarkably, some of their luxurious palaces had indoor plumbing, flush toilets, and drainage systems.      The landscape of southern Greece and the Aegean islands is rocky and arid, which small plains lying between ranges of hills.  Sharply indented coastlines, natural harbors, and small islands stimulated sea travel.   Lacking metals and timber, the Minoans had to import these commodities from surrounding areas.  Accordingly, they became legendary for their merchant fleets supported by a powerful navy.       Crete was a principle center of Mediterranean commerce, with ships sailing to Greece, Anatolia, Phoenicia, and Egypt, where the Minoans traded fine ceramics, jewelry, wine, olive oil, and wool for grains, textiles, and manufactured goods.  They also developed a form of written script for administrative records.  After 1600 BCE the Minoans established colonies on Cyprus and many islands in the Aegean.  The Minoan civilization reached its peak around 1500 BCE.  Their wealth attracted a series of invaders, and by 1100 BCE Crete had fallen under foreign domination. The Mycenaeans       The earliest people on the Greek mainland to leave archaeological evidence of a highly structured society are the Mycenaeans.  The sudden appearance of these people and their culture in mainland Greece is puzzling to historians.  Beginning around 2200 BCE, migratory Indo-Europeans filtered into the Greek peninsula.  By 1600 BCE they had developed an advanced palace culture along similar lines to that of the Minoans who flourished on Crete.  Apparently they accumulated power and wealth by adopting Minoan ideas and practices: palaces, a centralized economy, an organized administrative bureaucracy, and Minoan architecture and pottery.       The Mycenaeans built massive stone fortresses and palaces throughout the southern part of the Greek peninsula, known as Peloponnesus [see map02].  These fortified sites attracted more settlers, who built small agricultural communities, the most important being Mycenae, thus they are known as the Mycenaeans.  From 1500 to 1100 BCE the Mycenaeans expanded their influence, overpowered Minoan society, and took over Cretan palaces (destroying all but Knossos).  They also established settlements in Anatolia, Sicily, and southern Italy.       The Mycenaeans were tough, warlike and acquisitive.  It's been said that "they traded with neighbors who were strong and took from those who were weak."  This brought them into conflict with the Hittite kings of Anatolia.  For unclear reasons, various migratory people moved into the region around 1200 BCE, destroyed the Hittite kingdom, and eventually brought pressure to bear on the Mycenaeans.  Historians speculate that the ruling class, who depended on imports of vital commodities and profits from trade, might have suffered political collapse from internal unrest as much as from foreign invasion. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey       Much of what we know about the early Aegean period, including the Mycenaeans, can be traced back to two epic poems attributed to an Ionian named Homer.   Some modern scholars question whether Homer ever even existed, suggesting that anonymous scribes may have collected stories and committed them to writing in his name.        Regardless, the stories profoundly influenced the development of classical Greece.  The Iliad and the Odyssey focus on the Trojan War and its aftermath.  It is a historical fact that the war itself did take place around 1200 BCE.  The circumstances as attributed to the poetry of Homer, on the other hand, are more mythical than historical.       According to Homer and legend, Helen, the wife of Spartan King Menelaus, was abducted by Paris, Prince of Troy.  Menelaus combined forces with his brother Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, who led an attack on Troy.  The story of the Iliad centers on the role of the Greek hero Achilles.  Homer wrote that the Greeks defeated Troy with a giant wooden horse (filled with men) presented as an apparent gift.  In the Odyssey, Homer concentrates on the travels of Odysseus following the war.  (The 2004 movie adaptation of the Odyssey, "Troy," starred Brad Pitt as Achilles.)       Scholars generally agree that both stories are a mixture of historical events, myths, and folk tales.  Their importance is what they reveal about traditions and values of the Mycenaeans.  Honor and courage were emphasized as the core virtues of aristocratic warriors.  As Duiker and Spielvogel explain, "The epics gave the Greeks an idealized past, a legendary age of heroes, and the poems became standard texts for the education of generations of Greek males."   Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal, so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremost nor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory.  But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us in their thousands, no man can turn aside nor escape them, let us go on and win glory for ourselves or yield it to others. . . . I know that it is the cowards who walk out of the fighting, but if one is to win honor in battle, he must by all means stand his ground strongly, whether he be struck or strike down another. [Excerpts from the Iliad]

Rise of the Great Poleis_____________________

The Greek Dark Ages       The mountainous and rocky terrain of the Greek peninsula yielded only small harvests of grain, and the southern Balkan mountains hindered land travel; consequently Greek depended heavily on maritime trade.  The Greeks concentrated on cultivating olives and grapes for the production of olive oil and wine, which merchants traded throughout the region.  By 800 BCE, Greek trade and slave labor had generated substantial wealth, generating prosperity and leisure time.  (Slaves included debtors, prisoners of war, and captives from Africa.)  The best known of the various Panhellenic festivals was an athletic competition called the Olympic games, held every four years.       Between 1100 and 800 BCE, chaos reigned throughout the eastern Mediterranean region as various foreign mariners invaded, civil disturbances were widespread, and agricultural production was disrupted.  Cities fell into ruin, and the population scattered and sharply declined.  This period is known as the Greek Dark Ages.        In the absence of a centralized state or empire, local institutions took the lead in restoring political order after the decline of Mycenaean society.  By 800 BCE strong city-states emerged from settlements located on the fertile plains between the mountains or near the coast.  Separated by geography and operating independently from each other, these poleis (plural of polis) became prosperous commercial centers.  Because of differing styles of governance, coalitions for defense against foreign enemies were short-lived, and Ancient Greece was mostly a divided nation.       The most important of the poleis were Athens and Sparta, whose opposing lifestyles resulted in a rivalry that lasted for five centuries.  Athens, the largest city-state, had a peak population of 250,000 people.  Between 500 and 300 BCE Athens experienced tremendous economic, political, and cultural development.  With the removal of the "tyrant" King Pisistratus, Athenians embarked upon a period of democratic rule that lasted for two centuries.  Athens       The city of Athens is considered the cradle of Western Civilization and the birthplace of democracy.  To Athenians, democracy was based on the ideals of liberty and equality; the word itself means "the rule of the people."  Under the leadership of the aristocratic reformer Cleisthenes, Athenian government was comprised of the Areopagus (high court), the Council of Five Hundred, and the Assembly (a legislative body comprised of all free male citizens).        The peak of Athenian democracy came under the leadership of Pericles from 461 to 429 BCE.  A gifted statesman, orator and general, Pericles is famous for promoting arts and literature, making Athens the cultural center of Ancient Greece.  He is responsible for iconic Parthenon, built upon the Acropolis.        During this period, Athens became the most sophisticated of the Greek city-states, with a vibrant community of scientists, philosophers, poets, dramatists, artists, and architects.  Athens was the birthplace of Socrates (and home of his Akademia), Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers and writers.    Sparta       Sparta was situated below Athens in a fertile region of the Greek peninsula.  The needs of their growing population prompted the Spartans to invade and conquer the neighboring territory of Mycenaea around 725 BCE.  The subjugated Mycenaeans became agricultural serfs (called helots), whose role was to keep the Spartans supplied with food.  The Mycenaeans, who outnumbered the Spartans by ten to one, launched an unsuccessful revolt in 640 BCE.  After suppressing the rebellion, the Spartans developed a powerful military state to maintain security and stability.       The life of a Spartan male was a life of discipline, self-denial, and simplicity.  They did not surround themselves with luxuries such as jewelry or fancy clothes, expensive foods, or opportunities for leisure.  (To this day, the adjective Spartan refers to a lifestyle of simplicity, frugality, and austerity.)  The ideology of Sparta was oriented around the state.  The individual lived and died for the state. The combination of this ideology, the education of Spartan males, and the disciplined maintenance of a standing army gave the Spartans the stability that had been threatened so dramatically in the Mycenaean revolt.  [See Research Brief: Plutarch on Sparta.]       The Spartan military-educational system was perhaps its most remarkable feature.  The state determined whether children, both male and female, were strong enough when they were born; weakling infants were left in the hills to die of exposure.  Abandoning weak or sickly children was not uncommon in the Greek world, but Sparta institutionalized it as a state activity.       At the age of seven, every male Spartan was sent live in military school.  Boys lives in barracks and were taught athletics, physical and moral strength, discipline, toughness, and skills for combat and survival.  At 20, after thirteen years of training, the Spartan became a soldier.  The Spartan soldier spent his life with his fellow soldiers; he lived in barracks and ate all his meals in dining halls.  Each soldier was granted a piece of land, which he probably never saw, that was farmed by the helots.  Once married, he did not live with his wife.  At the age of 30, he became an "equal" (allowed to vote in the assembly) and was allowed to live in his own house with his family.  He continued to serve in the military until the age of sixty.       Spartan society was comprised of three classes: the Spartiate (native Spartans) who served in the army and had full political and legal rights, the perioeci (essentially a merchant class of resident aliens), and the servile class of helots.  Government consisted of four parts: (1) a two-king monarchy, (2) a small ruling oligarchy called the ephorate, (3) a council of elder nobles that served as a policy-making and judicial body, and (4) an assembly of all the Spartiate males that selected the council and voted on council proposals.  Most important was the ephorate.  Comprised of five men, the ephorate led the council, ran the military and educational institutions, and had the power to veto decisions made by the assembly.  The ephorate could even depose the kings if necessary.       By the time of the Persian invasion in 490 BCE, Sparta had formed alliances with neighboring states in the Southern part of Greece, called the Peloponnesus, and its power rivaled that of Athens.

The Hellenistic Empire_____________________
	The Persian Wars       To relieve their population pressures, the Greeks began to establish colonies in other parts of the Mediterranean basin.  Between 800 and 600 BCE they founded more than four hundred colonies.  The most popular sites were Sicily and southern Italy but they also spread to the Black Sea.  These colonies provided fertile fields that yielded agricultural surpluses and also access to copper, zinc, tin, and iron ore.  Merchants also acquired rich supplies of grain, fish, furs, timber, honey, wax, gold, and amber.  Colonization spread Greek language, culture, and political traditions throughout the region.       Eventually the expansion of Greece led to conflict with the powerful Achaemenid (Persian) empire, ruled by Darius the Great, resulting in the period known as the Persian Wars (500-479 BCE).  The conflict began with a rebellion on the Ionian coast in 500 BCE that was crushed by Darius in 493 BCE.        The son of Darius, who took the name Xerxes [p. zurk-seez] then launched a punitive attack on Greece, which he blamed for inciting the Ionian revolt.  Though greatly outnumbered, the Athenians routed the million-man Persian army (including 10,000 elite warriors called the Persian Immortals) in the battle of Marathon.  The Greeks employed heavily-armed infantrymen called hoplites.  Wearing bronze or leather helmets, breastplates and shin guards, each soldier carried a short sword and a 9-foot spear.  Deployed in a tight unit called a phalanx, several ranks deep, the hoplites were a highly effective fighting force. The Peloponnesian War       Fighting continued intermittently for a century without decisive results.  The Persian Wars initiated a serious internal conflict among the Greek poleis resulting in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE).  The cause was an alliance called the Delian League, formed to resist the Persian threat.  Athens, with its powerful navy, became the leader of the Delian League.  Athens had suffered much destruction at the hands of the Persians, and Pericles used funds from the Delian League to rebuild the city.        Sparta and the other states around Athens grew increasingly antagonistic toward Athens, and the poleis split into two rival alliances, one led by Athens and the other by Sparta.  In the first year of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans and their allies attacked Athens and tried to draw the Athenian army outside of its protective walls, to no avail.  In the second year, plague wiped out much of the population of Athens and took the life of Pericles.  Still, the Athenians held out for another 25 years.  Finally, in 405 BCE the Athenian fleet was destroyed; the Athenians were starved into submission by a siege and forced to surrender in 404 BCE. Alexander the Great       Prior to the reign of Philip II (359-366 BCE), the kingdom of Macedon was a frontier state.  Philip transformed Macedonia into a powerful state that unified all of Greece.  He intended to launch an invasion of Persia but he was assassinated.  His 20-year old son Alexander, a brilliant military strategist and inspiring leader, inherited a large, well-equipped and experienced army.        By 331 BCE, Alexander the Great had conquered Ionia, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.  The following year he destroyed the Achaemenid palace and established himself as the emperor of Persia.  Alexander had larger ambitions and in 327 BCE he invaded India, but his army was overextended and compelled him to withdraw.  In 323 BCE Alexander became ill and died at the age of thirty-three.       Upon Alexander's death, his generals divided up the empire into three large states.  Antigonus ruled Greece and Macedon; Ptolemy ruled Egypt; and Seleucus ruled the former Achaemenid empire.  The period of Alexander and his successors is known as the Hellenistic (Greek) Age, an era when Greek cultural traditions spread from Egypt to India.        The wealthiest of the Hellenistic empires was Ptolemaic Egypt.  The Greeks efficiently organized agriculture--maintaining irrigation networks and monitoring crop cultivation--and tax collection.  They established government monopolies on the must lucrative industries such as textiles, salt-making, and the brewing of beer.  Much of the Egyptian wealth flowed to the Ptolemaic capital of Alexandria, located at the mouth of the Nile.  Alexandria's large harbor could accommodate over 1,000 ships at one time, and the city became one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean.  It also became the cultural capital of the Hellenistic world, with a museum, university, and library.

Classical Greek Culture____________________
	Socrates and Plato       The Greeks certainly had their fascination with mythology, magic, and spirituality, but an important feature of classical Greek culture was the development of rational philosophy.  Most Greeks of the classical era were literate but lacked advanced education, so they turned to traditional religion and simple philosophy for guidance with matters of behavior and faith.  The most popular Hellenistic philosophers at the time were the Epicureans (who emphasized the importance of pleasure), Skeptics (who advised against taking firm positions on issues), and Stoics (who advocated humanitarian behavior and harmony with reason and nature).       While much less popular in his own lifetime, a thoughtful Athenian named Socrates (470-399 BCE) was a pivotal figure whose teaching had a profound influence.  Socrates did not commit his thoughts to writing, but his student Plato (430-347 BCE) composed written dialogues representing Socrates' views.  He insisted that honor and integrity were more important than wealth or fame.        In expressing his views on the need for social justice, Socrates enraged the authorities, and he was tried for corrupting young Athenian men who joined him in the marketplace to discuss moral and ethical issues.  A jury of Athenian citizens condemned him to death in 399 BCE, and he drank a lethal potion of hemlock.       Inspired by his mentor's reflections, Plato developed an elaborate philosophy that articulated a systemic vision of the world and human society.  The cornerstone of Plato's thinking was his theory of Forms (Ideas).  Perplexed by the ambiguities of abstractions such as virtue, honesty, courage, truth, and beauty, Plato argued that the world in which we live is not one of genuine reality at all, but only a pale and imperfect reflection of the world of Forms.  In his most famous dialogue, "The Republic," Plato advocated an intellectual aristocracy of philosopher-kings with the wisdom to obtain a clearer understanding of Forms.      Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil. Man is a tame or civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill-educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.       Aristotle (384-322 BCE), a student of Plato, elaborated on his teacher's abstract philosophy, shifting the focus to logic.  Unlike Plato, Aristotle believed that philosophers could rely on their senses to provide accurate information about the world and use reason to sort out its mysteries.  He devised rigorous rules of logic to construct powerful and compelling arguments.  The Greek philosophers deeply influenced Christian and Islamic theologians who sought to provide an intellectual framework for understanding both the earthly and spiritual worlds.    Greek Mythology       Greek religion did not provide much in the way of spiritual or moral guidance.  Instead, it provided a means for coping with earthly challenges.  Rituals and festivals were enormously important as displays of winning the good favor of the gods.  The Greeks recognized many deities identified though an elaborate mythology: earth generated the sky, producing day, night, sun, moon, and other natural phenomena, and struggles between the gods led to a hierarchy for maintaining order.        According to Greek mythology, Zeus, grandson of the earth and sky gods, overthrew the Titans to become king of the gods.  Then he established a pantheon of deities including the Olympians--supreme gods who resided atop Mount Olympus, such as Apollo (responsible for promoting wisdom and justice), and Fortune (who brought unexpected opportunities and challenges)--and various lesser gods of the countryside including Nymphs, Dryads, Nereids, Satyrs, and Furies (who punished anyone who violated divine laws).       Classical Greek literature examined the relationship between humans and the gods with reflections on ethics, morality, happiness, and tragedy.  The dramas written by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes have fascinated people from 500 BCE to the present.

Lecture 9. The Roman Empire