Download Chapter 10 notes finished

 Chapter 10- Mediterranean Society: The Greek Phase
 Early Development in Greek Society
 Homer: A Poet and the Sea
 Homer composed the two great epic poems of ancient Greece, the Iliad and the Odyssey
 The epics he wrote deeply affected the development of classical Greek literature and thought
 The two tails, centered around the Trojan War, described the difficulties faced by Greek warriors
 Not just from other soldiers, but deities and monsters, conflicts among themselves, psychological barriers
 Apart from their significance as literary masterpieces, the Iliad and the Odyssey attested to the frequency and
normalcy of travel, communication, and interaction in the Mediterranean basin
 Already by this time, Phoenician merchants had established links between lands and peoples all over the Med
 During the Classical era, the Med basin became more tightly integrated as the Greeks (and Romans) organized
commercial exchanges throughout the region
 Under Greek and Roman supervision, the Med served not as a barrier but as a highway linking all parts of the
Med
 Anatolia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, north Africa, and even southern Russia
 The World of the Polis
 Chaos in the Eastern Mediterranean
 About 1200 bce the Mycenaean people engaged in a conflict with the city of Troy in Anatolia
 This coincided with invasions of foreign mariners in the Mycenaean homeland
 From 1100-800 bce chaos reigned in the eastern Med region
 Invasions and civil disturbances made it impossible to maintain stable gov’ts or productive farming
 Mycenaean palaces fell into ruin, population sharply fell, and people abandoned their settlements
 Many inhabitants of the Greek peninsula fled to the islands of the Aegean, Anatolia, or Cyprus
 Linear A and Linear B languages disappeared
 Both of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey reflect the hectic time period
 Portray a society riven with conflict
 The Polis
 With no centralized state, local institutions took the lead in restoring political order in Greece
 The most important institution was the city-state, polis
 The term polis originally referred to a citadel or fortified site
 Offered refuge for local ppl during an emergency
 These sites attracted increasing populations, many of them gradually became lively commercial centers
 They took on an increasingly urban character
 Extended their authority over surrounding areas
 They levied taxes on the surrounding lands, appropriated a portion of their surplus to support the urban
population
 By about 800 bce many of the poleis had become busy city-states
 Functioned as the principal centers of Greek society
 The polis took many political forms
 Much of this is due to the poleis emerging independently
 Elaborated their traditions with little outside influence
 Others arose due to different rates of economic development
 A few of the poleis developed as small monarchies
 Most were under the rule of local notables as an oligarchy
 Some fell into the hands of generals or ambitious politicians- “tyrants”- who gained it by irregular means
 Sparta
 Sparta was situated in a fertile region of the Peloponnesus
 As their pop and econ expanded in the 7th and 8th centuries bce, the Spartans extended their control over the
Peloponnesus

They reduced neighbors to the state of helots, servants of the Spartan state
 They were not slaves but they were not free
 Could form families but could not leave the land
 Their role was to provide farm labor and keep Sparta supplied w/food
 By the 6th century bce, the helots outnumbered Spartan citizens by more than ten to one
 With their large helot population, the Spartans were able to cultivate the Peloponnesus efficiently
 Also faced the constant threat of rebellion
 As a result, the Spartans devoted most of their resources to maintaining a powerful and disciplined
military machine
 Spartan Society
 In theory the Spartans were all equal
 To discourage the creation of social/econ classes, the Spartans observed an austere lifestyle by policy
 No jewelry or elaborate clothes
 No pampering with luxury or accumulation of wealth on a large scale
 They did not even circulate coins of precious metals
 Used iron bars for money
 Distinction in Spartan society came from military prowess, talent, and discipline
 Spartans cultivated this from an early age
 All boys left their homes at 7 and went to live in a barracks to undergo physical training
 At 20 they began active military service, which they continued until retirement
 Also had vigorous exercises for women so they would produce strong children
 Women were married 18-20, but did not live with their husband until 30 when the men left the barracks
 By the 4th century bce, Spartan society had lost much of its ascetic harshness
 Aristocratic families had accumulated wealth, and Spartans had developed a taste for luxury in food and dress
 Still, Spartan society stood on the foundation of military discipline
 Sparta sought to maintain public order and discourage rebellion by creating a military state
 Athens
 In Athens as in Sparta, population growth and econ development caused political and social strain
 The Athenians relieved tension by establishing a gov’t based on democratic principles
 Where Sparta sought to impose order by force, Athens wanted to negotiate order
 Negotiated order among the various groups of the city
 Official positions were not open to everyone
 Only free adult males from Athens played a role in public affairs
 Foreigners and women had no direct voice
 In seeking to resolve social problems, Athenians opened gov’t offices to all male citizens and broadened the
base of political participation
 Athenian Society
 In the 7th century bce, an increasing volume of maritime trade brought prosperity to Attica, the region around
Athens
 The main winners of this newfound wealth were aristocratic landowners who also controlled Athenian gov’t
 As their wealth grew, the aristocrats increased their landholdings and cultivated them with more efficiency
 Owners of small plots could not compete, falling into debt
 Competitive pressure often forced them to sell their land to aristocrats
 Debt burdens would sometimes overwhelm them and push them into slavery
 In the early 6th century bce, Attica had a large and growing class of ppl unhappy with the structure of society
 Poised to engage in war against their wealthy neighbors
 Many poleis that had similar economic conditions suffered brutal civil war for decades between the aristocrats
and less privileged classes
 In Athens, an aristocrat served as a mediator between the classes
 Created a solution to the class conflict in Athens
 Solon and Athenian Democracy
 Solon forged a compromise
 Allowed aristocrats to keep their lands
 The less privileged preferred them to have their land confiscated and redistribute them to the landless
 He also cancelled debts, forbade debt slavery, and liberated those who were already enslaved for debts
 To ensure the aristocrats would not undermine his reforms, Solon gave the commoners representation
 Opened the councils of the polis to any citizen wealthy enough to devote time to public affairs, regardless
of lineage
 Later reformers went further
 During the late 6th and 5th centuries bce, Athenian leaders increased opportunities for commoners to
participate in gov’t
 Paid salaries to officeholders so they didn’t have to be rich to participate
 Pericles
 These reforms gradually transformed Athens into a more democratic state
 The high tide of Athenian power and prosperity came under Pericles
 While an aristocrat, he was the most popular leader of his time (r.461-429 bce)
 Wielded enormous personal influence in a gov’t with hundreds of officeholders from the common classes
 Supported building programs that provided employment for thousands
 Under Pericles, Athens became the most sophisticated of the poleis
 Community of scientists, philosophers, poets, dramatists, artists, and architects
 “The education of Greece”
 Greece and the Larger World
 As the poleis prospered, Greeks became prominent in the larger Med basin
 Established colonies along the shores of the Med and the Black Sea
 Traded throughout the region
 Eventually, their political and economic interests brought them into conflict with the expanding Persian empire
 During the 5th century bce, a series of wars between the Greeks and Persians ended in stalemate
 The 4th century, Alexander of Macedon toppled the Achaemenid empire
 Built an empire from Greece to Egypt to India
 Created a vast zone of trade and communication that encouraged commercial and cultural exchange on an
unprecedented scale
 Greek Colonization
 By 800 bce the poleis were emerging as centers of political organization in Greece
 During the next century, increasing pop strained the resources of the resource-poor area (rocky peninsula)
 To relieve these pressures, the Greeks established colonies in other areas of the Med
 Founded 400+ colonies in the Med and Black Seas between the mid-8th and late 6th centuries bce
 Established the first in the central Med
 The most popular were Sicily and southern Italy, esp around modern Naples
 These colonies provided merchants with fertile fields that yielded large farming surplus but also gave convenient
access to the mines of central Italy (copper, zinc, tin, iron)
 By the 6th century bce, more Greeks lived in the Italian colonies than in the Greek peninsula
 By 600 bce had even gone to colonize modern France
 Greek Colonies
 Greece also created colonies in the eastern Med and Black Sea
 Hundreds of islands in the Aegean appealed to the maritime Greeks
 Also settled in Anatolia, where the Greeks had created communities after 1100 bce
 During the 8th and 7th centuries, Greeks ventured into the Black Sea in large numbers, establishing colonies
 Offered merchants access to grain, fish, furs, timber, honey, wax, gold, amber, and slaves in southern Russia
for sale in Greek markets in the Med
 Unlike their contemporaries in classical Persia, China, and India, the Greeks did not build a centralized state
 Greek colonization was not a controlled process; rather, was a case-by-case response of individual poleis to
population pressures
 Colonies themselves soon became independent, relying on their own resources and charting their own future
 Effects of Greek Colonization
 Greek colonization, despite the independence of each colony, created more interaction, communication, and
exchange than ever before in the Med basin
 The colonies facilitated trade between their regions and the poleis in peninsular Greece and Anatolia
 At the same time, colonization spread Greek language and culture throughout the region
 Greek presence also quickened the tempo of social life, esp in the west Med and Black Sea
 Except for a few Phoenician colonies in the west Med, these regions were mostly home to small-scale farming
societies of clans
 As Greek merchants brought wealth in these areas, local clan leaders built small states in areas where trade
was strong
 Greek colonization had important political and social effects throughout the Med basin
 Conflict with Persia
 During the 5th century bce, their links abroad brought them into direct conflict with the Persian empire in the
Persian Wars (500-479 bce)
 As the Persian emperors Cyrus and Darius I tightened their grip on Anatolia, the Greek cities on the Ionian
coast became restless
 In 500 bce, they revolted against Persian rule, expelling the Achaemenid satrap
 Supporting their fellow Greeks, the Athenians sent a fleet to aid the Ionian Greeks
 Darius repressed the Greek rebellion in 493 bce
 The Persian War
 To punish the Athenians and halt any future interference, Darius mounted a campaign against peninsular Greece
 Although greatly outnumbered, the Athenians routed the Persian army at the battle of Marathon, then
marched back to Athens in time to fight off the Persian fleet (490 bce)
 Ten years later, Xerxes decided to avenge Darius’ loss
 In 480 bce, he dispatched a 100k strong army and a fleet of 1k ships to defeat the Greeks
 After being delayed by the Spartans at Thermopylae, the Persians captured and burned Athens
 A Greek fleet led by Athenians shattered the Persian navy at Salamis
 The following year, a Greek force routed the Persians at Plataea, sending the Persians into retreat
 The two civs continued to skirmish intermittently for a century+, with no more full-scale wars
 The Persians were unwilling to invest resources in the effort to conquer small and distant Greece
 Faced domestic problems that forced them to look inward
 The Greeks did not have the resource or desire to challenge the Persians
 The Delian League
 Once the Persians retreated permanently, conflict arose amongst the poleis themselves
 After the Persian War, the poleis created an alliance known as the Delian League
 Wanted to discourage further Persian action in Greece
 Due to its superior fleet, Athens became the leader of the alliance
 Athens supplied the league’s military force
 Others contributed financial support, largely going to the Athenian treasury
 These contributions would finance much of the Athenian bureaucracy and construction projects that
employed thousands of Athenians during the era of Pericles
 In the absence of the continuing Persian threat, the other poleis resented having to make contribution that
seemed to benefit only the Athenians
 The Peloponnesian War
 The tensions resulted in a bitter and destructive civil war conflict known as the Peloponnesian War (431-404
bce)
 Both in peninsular Greece and throughout the larger Greek world, the poleis divided themselves into two
armed camps
 Leaders of each side were Sparta and Athens, the two most powerful of the poleis and the contenders for
Greek hegemony
 In 404 bce, the Spartans and their allies forced the Athenians to surrender
 Sparta’s victory generated new jealousies, and conflicts broke out again
 During the next decade, hegemony passed to Sparta, Thebes, Corinth, and other poleis
 The Peloponnesian War was both debilitating and demoralizing
 The historian Thucydides wrote a detailed history of the war
 Despite being a native Athenian, he did not hide the fact that the Athenians and others adopted brutal tactics
 Athens:
 Bullied smaller communities
 Disregarded the interests and concerns of other poleis
 Insisted that allies toe the Athenian line
 Subjected insubordinate communities to severe punishment
 (Melos)
 As a result of this and other atrocities, Athens lost its reputation as the moral and intellectual leader of the
Greeks
 Became known as an arrogant and insensitive imperialist power
 As the Peloponnesian War divided and weakened the Greek poleis, a new formidable power took shape
 The Macedonians and the Coming of Empire
 The Kingdom of Macedon
 Until the 4th century bce, the kingdom of Macedon was a frontier state
 Cultivators and sheepherders who migrated seasonally
 Had a king, but mostly semiautonomous clans controlled politics
 Proximity to the wealthy Greeks changed Macedon
 From the 7th century bce, the Greeks traded with Macedon
 Exchanged grain, timber, and other natural resources in exchange for olive oil, wine, and finished
products
 Macedonian political and social elites became well acquainted with Greek merchants and their society
 Controlled the Macedon side of trade
 Philip of Macedon
 During the reign of King Philip II (r. 359-336 bce), Macedon went through a huge transformation
 He built a powerful military
 Allowed him to overcome the traditional clans, making himself ruler of Macedon
 His military was composed of small landowners and aristocratic cavalry
 They became nearly invincible
 When Philip had consolidated his hold on Macedon, he turned his attention to bigger prizes: Greece and Persia
 During the years that followed, Philip moved into northern Greece
 Annexed poleis and their surrounding areas
 The poleis recognized the threat, but the Peloponnesian War had corrupted the atmosphere and they refused
to ally together
 Philip faced nothing more than small forces of shifting and temporary alliances
 By 338 bce, he had overcome all organized resistance and brought Greece under his control
 Alexander of Macedon
 Philip intended to leap into Persia from Greece
 Did not have the opportunity to do this b/c he was assassinated by a bodyguard in 336 bce
 The invasion of Persia fell to his son, Alexander of Macedon aka Alexander the Great
 Alexander’s Conquest
 Assembled an army of 48k; a brilliant strategist and inspired leader, inherited a well-equipped, well-disciplined,
highly spirited veteran force from his father
 333 bce, subjected Ionia and Anatolia to his control
 Next year, held Syria, Palestine, and Egypt
 331 bce, controlled the Mesopotamian; took Pasargadae and burned the Achaemenid palace at Persepolis
 Established himself as emperor of Persia after the assassination of the last Ach ruler in 330 bce
 By 327 bce, had crossed the Indus River and entered the Punjab
 Subjected local rulers and would have continued but his soldiers refused to go any further from home
 Returned to Susa in Mesopotamia in 324 to celebrate their exploits in a continuous feasting
 June of 323, Alexander fell ill and died at 33
 Did not live long enough to construct a genuine state or develop a system of admin
 Established cities throughout the lands he conquered, naming about 70 of them Alexandria after himself
 Had some ideas such as marrying his officers to Persian women to create a multiethnic ruling class
 Was relying on existing admin structures (satrapies) to control the land he conquered
 The Hellenistic Empires
 Alexander’s generals split up his realm into 3 parts by 275 bce
 Antigonus took Greece and Macedon
 Ruled the area until the Romans took over the eastern Med in the 2nd century bce
 Ptolemy took Egypt
 The Ptolemaic dynasty ruled until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 31 bce
 Seleucus took the former Achaemenid empire from Bactria to Anatolia, the largest part
 Ruled until the Parthians displaced them during the 2nd century bce
 The Hellenistic Era
 The age of Alexander and his successors is referred to as the Hellenistic Age
 An era when Greek cultural traditions expanded their influence beyond Greece to a larger world
 During the centuries between Alexander’s death and the expansion of the Roman empire, the Hellenistic empires
governed cosmopolitan societies
 Sponsored interactions between peoples from Greece to India
 Like classical Persia, China, and India, the Hellenistic empires integrated the economies and societies of distant
regions
 Facilitated trade, making it possible for beliefs, values, and religions to spread over great distances than ever
before
 The Antigonid Empire
 While the Antigonid realm was the smallest of the Hellenistic empires, it benefited from the new order the most
 The Greek poleis constantly wanted to retain their independence
 Formed defensive leagues that stoutly resisted Antigonid efforts to control the area
 The poleis often struck bargains w/the Antigonids, offering to recognize their rule
 In exchange, received tax relief and local autonomy
 Internal social tensions flared
 Greeks faced continual problems of land and its equitable distribution
 However, cities such as Athens and Corinth flourished during the Hellenistic Era
 Enormous volumes of trade passed through the ports of the Antigonids
 The overpopulated Greek peninsula sent out large #s of colonists to newly founded cities
 Esp to the Seleucid empire
 The Ptolemaic Empire
 The wealthiest of the three empires was Ptolemaic Egypt
 The Greek/Macedonian rulers did not interfere in Egyptian society
 Simply created an efficient organization of farming, industry, and tax collection
 They maintained the irrigation networks and monitored the cultivation of crops and the payment of taxes
 Established royal monopolies over the most lucrative of industries (textiles, salt making, beer brewing)
 Alexandria
 Much of Egypt’s wealth flowed to the Ptolemaic capital of Alexandria
 At the mouth of the Nile, it became much more than a bureaucratic center
 The harbor was able to hold 1,200 ships
 The city quickly became the most important port in the Med
 Its wealth attracted migrants from all parts of the Med basin and beyond
 A cosmopolitan society
 Became the cultural capital of the Hellenistic world
 Site of the Alexandria Museum
 A state-financed institute of higher learning where scholars carried on research
 Site of the Alexandria Library
 Supported the museum research and had more than 700,000 works
 The Seleucid Empire
 It was in the Seleucid realm the Hellenistic influence reached its greatest extent
 The main channels of that influence were the cities that Alexander and his successors founded in the former
Persian empire
 Most were small settlements intended to serve as fortified sites or admin centers
 Some developed into huge commercial centers
 Greek and Macedonian colonists flocked to these cities
 Joined the rank of imperial bureaucrats and admin
 The colonists, while few in number in relation, the colonists created a Med-style urban society
 Influenced areas as far as Bactria and India
 Ashoka of India had his edicts promulgated in Greek and Aramaic, two most common languages of the
Hellenistic empires
 Greeks in Bactria
 Archaeological excavations have thrown light onto a Greek settlement in Bactria (Afghanistan) named Ai
Khanum
 As part of the Seleucid empire, Bactria was in constant communication w/Greece and the Med
 After about 250 bce, the governors of Bactria withdrew from the Seleucid empire and established an independent
Greek kingdom
 Excavations showed the inhabitants spoke Greek language, dressed in Greek fashion, read Greek lit and
philosophy, and constructed buildings in Greek style
 At the same time, while honoring the Greek gods, they also welcomed Persian and central Asian deities in
their midst
 Some Greeks even converted to Buddhism- even King Menander (r.155-130 bce)
 Much like the Achaemenids before them, the Hellenistic rulers created a thin, supervising veneer over longestablished societies that largely continued to observe inherited customs
 Brought distant lands into interaction by way of trade and exchange
 The Fruits of Trade: Greek Economy and Society
 The geography of the peninsula was a challenge for its inhabitants
 Yielded small harvests of grain
 Southern Balkans hurt travel and communication
 Until the construction of modern roads, most of Greece was better accessed via sea
 Due to this, early Greek society heavily depended on maritime trade
 Trade and the Integration of the Mediterranean Basin
 Trade
 Much of Greece was ideal for the production of olives and grapes but not grains

W/the establishment of the poleis, the Greeks discovered they could focus on olive oil and wine and make
serious money
 Would trade these products around the Med, and returned with ample amounts of grains that they couldn’t
produce
 By the 8th century, trade had generated prosperity in the Greek world
 Merchants and mariners linked Greek communities throughout the Med area
 The population of all these communities grew dramatically
 Encouraged further colonization
 In the colonies, merchants offered Greek olive oil and wine for local products
 Grain from Egypt, Sicily, and south Russia
 Salted Fish from Spain and Black Sea
 Timber and pitch from Macedon
 Tin from Anatolia
 Slaves from Egypt and Russia
 Vessels of 400 ton capacity was common, some 1000 tons
 Some cities, like Corinth and Athens, depended on trade more than farming for their livelihood and prosperity
 Commercial and Economic Organization
 Large amounts of trade promoted commercial and economic organization in the Med basin
 In Greece, shipowners, lenders, and merchants formed partnerships to spread the risk of commercial
ventures
 A merchant would borrow money from a banker to purchase cargo, rented space from a shipowner, who
transported the goods and returned the profit to the merchant
 If there was a shipwreck, the contract was void, w/the merchant and lender absorbing the losses
 The production of farmers and artisans filled the holds of Med vessels
 Panhellenic Festivals
 Trade links between the Greeks and their colonies contributed to a sense of a larger Greek community
 Colonists recognized the same gods as their cousins
 Spoke Greek dialects
 Maintained commercial relationships w/their native communities
 Greeks from all parts gathered periodically to participate in panhellenic festivals to reinforce their common bonds
 Many of these featured athletic, literary, or musical contests where individuals sought glory for their polis
 The Olympic Games
 Best known of the festivals were the Olympic Games
 In 776 bce Greek communities from all over sent their best athletes to the polis of Olympia to engage in
contests of speed, strength, and skill
 Winners of events received olive wreaths and became celebrated in their poleis
 Took place every four years for more than a millennium before disappearing
 While they were not united politically, by the 6th century bce Greek communities had established a sense of
collective identity
 During the Hellenistic era, trade drew the Greeks into the larger world of commerce and communication as
colonists and traders expanded their range of operations through Alexander’s empire
 Caravans linked Bactria and Persia to the western regions of the Hellenistic world
 Dependent on horses and donkeys, caravans could not transport bulky items, but rather luxury products
(gems, jewelry, perfumes, oils)
 Had high value in relation to their weight, allowing merchants to make profit and take care of the caravan
 Bulkier goods traveled the sea lanes of the Med, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea
 Family and Society
 Patriarchal Society
 With the establishment of poleis in the 8th century bce, the nature of Greek family and society came into clearer
focus
 Adopted strictly patriarchal family structures
 Male families ruled their households
 Fathers had the right to decide whether to keep infants born to their wives
 Couldn’t legally kill them, but could abandon newborns in the mountains or countryside
 Greek women fell under the authority of their fathers, husbands, or sons
 Upper-class women in poleis spent most of their time in the family home
 Ventured outside w/servants or chaperones, often wearing veils to discourage the attention of men
 In most places, women could not own landed property, but sometimes operated small businesses
 The only public position open to Greek women was a priestess in a religious cult
 Sparta was a special case- participated in athletic events, joined in public festivals, took up arms to defend
 Even here, men were still family authorities and determined state policies
 The Cultural Life of Classical Greece
 As the Greek merchants moved through the Med, they became acquainted w/cultural traditions of Mesop and
Egypt
 Learned astronomy, science, math, medicine, and magic from the Babylonians; geometry, medicine, and
divination from the Egyptians
 Drew inspiration from the myths, religious beliefs, art, and architecture style of Mesop and Egypt
 About 800 bce they adapted the Phoenician alphabet to their language
 Added symbols for vowels, creating an exceptionally flexible system for representing speech in written
form
 Rational Thought and Philosophy
 Greek Science and Mathematics
 As early as 7th century bce, Greek thinkers of the Ionian coast were working w/science and math knowledge from
Mesop and Egypt
 Did not accept the fanciful stories of the Greek myths, which attributed creation of the world to the gods
 Instead, they started a tradition where Greek scientists relied on observable evidence, rational thought, and
human reason to explain the world through natural processes
 Thales & eclipse; Democritus & atoms
 Pythagoras developed a systematic approach to math
 Hippocrates wanted to bsae medical practice on the understanding of human anatomy and physiology
 Greek science was remarkable for its reliance on human reason to understand the world
 Served as a rich foundation for later scientific developments throughout the Med basin in both the Christian
and Muslims worlds
 Greek Philosophy
 The most distinct expression of classical Greek thought was philosophy
 Brought reason to human issues
 The pivotal figure in the development of philosophy was Socrates (470-399 bce)
 An Athenian driven by an urge to understand human beings and affairs
 Socrates
 Socrates’ discipline Plato later composed dialogues that represented Socrates’ view
 Did not write anything himself
 He did not pose his views assertively; he posed questions that encouraged reflection on human issues
 Ethics and morality
 Suggested that human beings could lead ethical lives
 Honor was far more important than wealth or fame
 Scorned those who preferred public accolades to personal integrity
 Insisted on the need to reflect on the purposes and goals of life

“The unexamined life is not worth living”- humans have an obligation to strive for personal integrity, behave
honorably, and work towards the construction of a just society
 Often played the role of a “gadfly” who subjected traditional ethical teachings to critical scrutiny
 This outraged some of his fellow citizens
 Brought him to trial on charges that he encouraged immorality and corrupted the Athenian youths who
joined him in the marketplace for his discussions
 A jury of Athenian citizens condemned him to death
 In 399 bce, Socrates drank hemlock and died with his friends
 Plato
 Socrates’ influence survived in the work of his best disciple, Plato (430-347 bce) and Plato’s disciple Aristotle
 Plato elaborated a systematic philosophy of great subtlety
 Presented his thoughts in a series of dialogues w/Socrates as the principal speaker
 As time passed, Plato gradually formulated his own vision of the world and human society
 The cornerstone of his ideas was the Theory of Forms or Ideas
 How was it possible to understand virtue as an abstract quality?
 Plato developed a belief that the world we live in was not the only world
 It was not the world of genuine reality, only a pale and imperfect reflection of the world of Forms or
Ideas
 Displays of virtue imperfectly reflected the ideal qualities
 Only by entering the world of Forms or Ideas was it possible to understand the true nature of virtue and
other qualities
 The secret of the world were available only to philosophers
 Though abstract, Plato’s thought had important political and social implications
 In the Republic, Plato created an ideal state based on his views
 Held that the best state was one where philosophers ruled as kings or kings were themselves philosophers
 Advocated an intellectual aristocracy
 Aristotle
 Aristotle elaborated a philosophy that equaled Plato’s works in its influence
 Though a disciple of Plato, came to distrust the theory of Forms or Ideas
 Considered it an artificial intellectual construct unnecessary for understanding the world
 Aristotle believed we could rely on our senses to provide accurate info about the world
 Depend on that to sort out the mysteries of the world
 Explored the nature of reality in metaphysical works
 Created the rigorous rules of logic in an effort to construct powerful arguments
 Also wrote on biology, physics, astronomy, politics, ethics, and lit
 Created such a coherent view of the world, the Christian philosophers of medieval Europe called him “the master
of those who know”
 The Greek philosophers deeply influenced the development of European and Islamic cultural traditions
 Until the 17th century bce, most Euro philosophers regarded Greeks as intellectual authorities
 Christians and Islamic theologians harmonized their religious convictions with the philosophical views of
Plato and Aristotle
 Like philosophical and religious figures in other societies, Plato and Aristotle provided a powerful intellectual
framework that shaped thought about the world and human affairs for millennia.