Download Archaic Greece and Classical Greece: the Introduction to Greek

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Archaic Greece and Classical Greece: the Introduction to Greek
Warfare
Introduction to the Lyric or Archaic Age of Greek History
After the collapse of the Minoan and Mycenaean societies, Greece went
through a period historians call the Dark Ages, circa 1100-800 B.C.E.
Mainland Greece was invaded by the “Sea People” as the Ancient Egyptians
called them. Greek historians call them the Dorians. These people were not
literate, and the small vestiges of writing that had hitherto been evident in
the previous ages was lost, and the Greek written language was gone. Two
major enhancements did develop, which were the evolution of the polis or
city-state and the colonization of Western Anatolia. Each of these city-states
had a market place or agora, an acropolis or elevated area, and their own
patron god or goddess. These poleis consisted of a town and the
surrounding countryside where the people went daily to tend their crops or
animals. As the populations grew, there was not enough arable land for
farming, so the Greeks left for other islands, and what is now the Western
coast of Turkey. These areas were similar in climate and soil to Greece, but
thinly populated. Later on in the lyric or archaic age more migrations
occurred to North Africa, Southern Italy, Southern France, Spain, and the
Black Sea region.
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Development of Various Forms of Governments for the Greek citystates in the Lyric or Archaic Age
In the next age defined as the Lyric or Archaic age by scholars, more
dramatic changes occurred. This period of Greek history lasted from circa
800-500 B.C.E. Various forms of governmental structures evolved over the
centuries, and varied from city-state to city-state. Usually hereditary
monarchies began in the ninth century B.C.E., where rule was by one man
without absolute power. In the eighth century B.C.E. oligarchies or rule by
the few were dominant. Rule by dictator or tyrant in the seventh century
B.C.E., was where usurpers ruled without legal authority, although not all
were oppressive. In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. democracies
surfaced as the common form of government, especially in Athens. Since
more information is available to reconstruct the history of ancient Greece in
Sparta and Athens, detailed information comparing and contrasting them is
feasible.
Comparison of the political structure of the city-states of Athens and
Sparta: Athens
Athens developed a prosperous trade and urban culture that ultimately
led to its successful political structure called a democracy after a series of
reforms. Solon (639-559 B.C.E.) is considered the founder of Athenian
democracy. He formulated a constitution that reduced the powers of the
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politically privileged nobles, and he created a new popular assembly open to
all freemen. While this led to strife, it ultimately worked. Nearly six
hundred nobles elected Solon archon, which was the chief magistrate of the
polis.1 Cleisthenes in 510 B.C.E. made some significant changes and he is
also known as the father of Athenian democracy. He used deme as the basis
for democracy. The deme was a grouping of Athenians for governmental
purposes, and eventually there were two hundred demes similar to modern
ward or parish systems. He also enlarged the legislative authority of the
Assembly to all male citizens who were born in Athens. This assembly met
on Pnyx Hill, where the speaker’s podium faced a natural hillside
amphitheater seating 18,000 persons. Once a year all male citizens were
asked to vote on whether someone in the city ought to be banned as they
might become a difficult or potentially dangerous politician. They needed
not to have committed a crime, but were tending towards becoming a
tyrant. All citizens who wanted to ban someone wrote his name on a piece
of broken pottery or ostrakon, which is where we get the word ostracism.
These ostrakons were deposited in the ballot box. Six thousands votes were
needed to send a man into exile for ten years. As the assembly of all the
citizens was usually too unwieldy, routine business was given to a council of
five hundred representatives from the demes. This system attained full
perfection in the Age of Pericles 461-429 B.C.E. A board of ten generals
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America’s Senators are also referred to as Solons.
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rose to positions roughly comparable to the British or American Cabinet, and
they managed the army, navy, finances, and foreign affairs. Terms were
one year, but eligible for reelection indefinitely.
Pericles held the position of President or commander-in-chief for thirty
years. He was really a benevolent dictator, but subject to approval of the
Assembly. Pericles became the leader because he was the best orator. He
and his mistress and then wife, Aspasia from Miletus, together built the
Parthenon in honor of the goddess Athena, and beautified other parts of
Athens with money from the Delian League. In the famous funeral oration
by Pericles in 431 B.C.E. (probably co-authored by Aspasia), while honoring
the fallen warriors of the ongoing Peloponnesian War, historians call Pericles’
speech a mighty tribute to democracy: “We are called a democracy for the
administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while the
law secures equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, the claim of
excellence is also recognized. Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may
benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his condition.”2 Athens’ legal
system was another clear sign of its democratic elements. Accusations were
heard and judgments were given by enormous juries of from fifty to one
thousand plus citizens. These juries were selected from the six thousand
people who were chosen by random lot each year. Athens had no
professional lawyers, and its citizens were discouraged from bringing
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Herodotus
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nuisance suits. If the accuser was not able to persuade at least 20% of the
jury to vote to convict, the accuser had to pay a heavy fine. While there
was no uniform penal code, respected laws had developed that were
different from Mosaic or Babylonian laws. Greek law was not intended to
carry out the will of either an omnipotent monarch or of a deity. Greek law
was aimed entirely at improving the lot of humans. These ideas were
passed on to the Romans, and ultimately to modern law codes. Novel ways
of dealing with the punishment of crimes were evident for the Greeks. For
example, in the case of accidental homicide, there was a prescribed route in
Athens for the perpetrator to leave town. As long as the killer stuck to the
route he was safe from revenge, and he had to stay out of town until the
dead man’s relatives forgave him. For the most serious crimes, citizens had
to drink poison from the hemlock bush. Death came quickly and without
great suffering. Socrates’ demise will be discussed later. In Athenian
democracy there was no separation of powers as the citizens directly
participated in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. There were
no career bureaucrats, and there was one vote per person regardless of
one’s wealth. Majority ruled. Citizens spent hours every day arguing
politics. No one was allowed to say anything considered actually dangerous
to the state or insulting to the gods. Politics were therefore considered
man’s natural occupation. Someone who did not interest himself in politics
was both scorned and pitied. Pericles stated: “A man who shirked
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responsibilities of citizenship was regarded as a useless character.”
Athenian citizens were more ambitious for glory and power in civic affairs or
war than acquiring personal wealth or social status within the private
society.
Sparta
Sparta was the other major city-state that did not go in the direction
of Athens with democratic rule, but instead evolved into a form resembling a
modern elite dictatorship in various nations of the world. Why did this
occur? Their location was more isolated surrounded by mountains, lack of
good harbors, and they were economically backward. Sparta resembled
early near Eastern monarchies and modern totalitarian regimes. They even
had secret police agents among the helots to head off uprisings. There was
no middle class that arose to aid the common people and the Spartans’ main
endeavor was fighting. Not content to live in the area originally conquered
as part of the Dorian invasion in the Dark Ages, the Spartans desired more
fertile land. They succeeded in conquering Messenia and annexed the area.
An unsuccessful revolt by Messenia led to a tremendous crackdown, and the
Spartans murdered or expelled the leaders of the revolt. The rest of the
people were turned into slaves called helots. Thereafter, Spartan’s foreign
policy was basically defensive. They had two kings, but most of the power
was vested in a Board of Governors of five men, called the Ephorate.
It
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controlled all aspects of Spartan society: education, distribution of property,
veto power over all legislation, and most egregious was they determined the
fate of all newborn infants. If they were sickly or too many were born, then
the infants were exposed or thrown off the cliffs. Because of these draconian
practices, Sparta eventually became the leading military power in Greece.
The Helots or slaves did the farming work as Spartans considered agriculture
labor demeaning, while many of the Athenians did some of their own
farming. Every Spartan man was allotted land and given state-owned helots
to work it. Every year the Spartan Government officially declared war on
their helots. This was done not to engage in actual battle, but to justify their
treatment of them. As officially at war with the Helots, the Spartans could
kill them without a trial. No other polis was like this.
Spartan Military, Cultural and Social Customs
When the Spartan boys reached seven there were taken from their
families to be raised and trained in their age cohort. These young males
were never given enough food to satisfy their hunger, so they were
encouraged to steal food, and whatever else they needed. Even after
Spartan men finished active duty and married, they took their meals with
men of the same age instead of with their families. Their fearless courage in
war especially against the Persians was legendary. When told the Persians
were so numerous at one battle and that Persian arrows would blot out the
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sun, then one Spartan replied: “Good, we will fight in the shade.” With their
long flowing hair and brevity of speech, the Spartans impressed other
Greeks as living remnants of the Heroic Age. Life for the Spartans had
merits that the adjective Spartan suggests. The English word Spartan
means stoic, frugal, and highly disciplined. Spartan citizens were intensely
patriotic and dominated most of the states in the Peloponnesus. It is said
that they were not addicted to idle talk, and the adjective laconic, name of
the Spartan plain was another characteristic of these people.
Yet Sparta
was undermined by its system, for in the prime of her society in the fifth
century B.C.E. it is estimated there were only about four thousand adult
male citizens, and its preoccupation with military achievements arrested her
cultural development. After the sixth century B.C.E., Sparta contributed
almost nothing to Greek greatness in sculpture, architecture, drama,
literature, and philosophy. Fear became the foundation of the Spartan
state: fear of money, rebellion, defeat by foreign troops, and of foreign
ideas. Fear explains their conservatism and their resistance to change.
They discouraged outside travel, and even prohibited trade with the outside
world.
Family and marriage customs of the Spartans were different from the
rest of the Greeks too. Husbands carried off their wives on their wedding
nights by a show of force. According to the Roman writer, Plutarch, because
they saw so little of them afterwards, it sometimes happened that men had
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children before they ever saw their wives’ faces in daylight. Wives main
duty was to produce vigorous offspring. Young maidens engaged in
gymnastics and other vigorous sports to achieve the ideal body type for
fertility. Wives and mothers were not to lament if their loved ones were
killed in war as it was more heroic to die that way than return after losing a
war. The soldiers were told to come home “with” your shield or “on” it.
Greek Warfare in the Classical Period
From 500-338 B.C.E. this period of history is referred to as the
Classical Greek period. While many notable creative cultural advances were
made, omnipresent war was usually in tandem with these other activities.
Warfare was tremendously exciting to the Greeks. Participation in war as in
politics was man’s natural occupation. There was a sense of camaraderie in
the army. Fighting and winning with their friends developed a psychological
high that nothing in peacetime could duplicate. War was considered a
confrontation between two willing political communities carried out according
to rules of war. A declaration of war was necessary, and made after
deliberation of the kings or council and assembly. All Greek citizens
engaged in physical exercise for the purpose of keeping fit for battle. The
Olympic Games was a natural outgrowth of this. Spartans wore magenta
tunics and scarlet cloaks so the blood would not show. The government
presented the formal cause of war: self defense, gross impiety, or
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immorality of the enemy. Most wars saw the final results generally
inconclusive. If one side clearly won then the other side had to surrender.
This was humiliating and devastating as all citizens’ possessions and
property went to the victors, and the women and children became slaves of
winners. Sons of citizens all trained in warfare. In most Greek cities, young
men eighteen to thirty spent almost all of their time in military activities, but
also might be called to participate in war into their sixties. Early Greeks
fought with their men in chariots, but in the classical period most of the
armies were composed of infantrymen called hoplites. Foot soldiers were a
lot cheaper than horses and chariots. Everyone provided their own armor
and weapons. They had a round shield, breastplate, bronze helmet that
covered the top of the head and much of the face with often a plume or
crest on top. Greaves were often worn, but no shoes were worn into battle.
The main weapons were the sword, short spear, and longer javelins for
throwing. Wealthy men rode horses since they could afford the monetary
outlay. As there were no saddles or stirrups riding was difficult in battle, but
they served as the military commanders. Naval battles were rare except for
the wars against the Persians. At this time Athens was able to dominate the
peninsula because her fleet was made up of triremes. Before grappling and
boarding operations began, the ship rammed other ships with its metal prow
almost like a torpedo.
Wars between the Greeks and Persians
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When the Greek Ionian cities revolted against their Persian rulers in
494 B.C.E, Athens initially intervened to aid them. Initially the Persians
were able to subdue all the Greek city-states except Sparta and Athens.
With their Royal Road and great supply network, the Persians made use of
these advancements. When 100,000 Persians went up against 20,000
Athenians formally at the Battle of Marathon, they were trounced. It is said
that the Greek success was due to the phalanx formation eight rows deep.
Spartan’s army arrived too late to fight. Not only was this one of the most
decisive battles in history, but this battle has been immortalized when a
runner from this battle raced to Athens to bring the triumphal news, only to
fall dead upon arrival, but the distance of 26.2 miles is now the mileage for
the Marathon races world-wide. In 480 B.C.E. Xerxes, the Persian emperor
led another massive attack on the Greeks, one at the Pass of Thermopylae,
which the Greeks lost, but the Spartans achieved immortality with three
hundred hoplites supposedly detaining the Persians long enough for the rest
of the Greek army to go on the offensive.3 Athens was defeated then, but in
a short time the Athenian navy defeated the Persian navy at the Battle of
Salamis. One final battle between the Greeks and Persians in 479 B.C.E. at
Plataea, led to the final defeat of the Persians. Herodotus, ( circa 485-425
B.C.E.) who is considered the father of history writing, wrote his History of
the Greek and Persian Wars, which became one of the most entertaining
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Hollywood has immortalized this event in history with its movie 300
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books ever written as he included the history, customs and beliefs of the
Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, and Scythians, bringing to life these cultures.
Peloponnesian War
When the Persian Wars ended, Sparta and Athens dominated the
Greek world. Pericles organized Athens into a confederacy of other Greek
city-states, dependent on her naval strength called the Delian League.
Meanwhile Sparta was becoming paranoid of Athens’ growing strength and
aggressive imperialism. Sparta then formed the Spartan League with her
allies, with Sparta supreme on land and Athens on the sea. These two
leagues then began the Peloponnesian War that lasted from 431-404 B.C.E.
There was extreme brutalization on both sides, and the Greek exiled general
and first scientific Historian, Thucydides, produced a great work on this
conflict. “My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an
immediate public, but was done to last forever.”
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When Persia assisted
Sparta she was victorious. Plague devastated Athens in 430 B.C.E., claiming
thousands of lives, including Pericles. While the Spartan League officially
won the war, both leagues were devastated, and this war would eventually
see the downfall of the Greek world when the Macedonian King Philip and
then his son Alexander the Great would conquer the Greeks and continue on
to victory over the Persians.
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Thucydides The Peloponnesian War