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Classical Greece
and
Hellenization
Classical Greece (750-336 BCE)
• Independent and
combative city-states
(polis)
– Suspended conflict
every four years for
the Olympic games
• Geographically isolated
– Mountains and poor soil limited food production
– Colonies for iron and food: Italy, Spain, around the
Black Sea
Classical Greece
Greek Colonization
• Produced and traded olive oil, wine, pottery,
metalwork (silver, gold, iron, copper)
Athenian Government
• Solon and Cleisthenes removed power from Athenian
aristocracy in the 500s BCE
– Strengthened democracy: rule by the people
• Tyrant: ruler who seized power with lower class
support
• The Assembly was
center of public life for
citizens
• Public officials chosen by
lot and paid
• Citizenship: all free, adult Greek males who had
completed military service (10% of population)
Greek Women and Slaves
• Athens
– Women had no political rights,
education; restricted to the home
– Slaves were 1/3 of the
population, almost every
household owned slaves
• Sparta
– Women were revered for having children
– Women governed Sparta while men are at war
– Helots: conquered and enslaved peoples owned by
the state, outnumbered Spartans 10:1
Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BCE)
• Ionian cities revolted against Persia
– Supported by Greeks
– Persia invaded twice
• Battle of Marathon (490
BCE)
– Darius was defeated
• Battles of Thermopylae
and Salamis (480 BCE)
– Xerxes was defeated
Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BCE)
Pericles (r. 461-429 BCE)
• Athenian politician and general
– Granted more power to the people
in the Assembly
– Used control of the Delian League to
build an empire
• Oversaw Athens during its golden
age (ca. 480-404 BCE)
– Numerous plays performed and
massive building projects
• Led Athens during start of the
Peloponnesian War
Parthenon
• Temple to Athena on the Acropolis
• Built 447-438 BCE during Pericles’ rule
Greek Religion
• Polytheistic
• Gods had human
characteristics
– Represented specific aspects of
life and human characteristics
– Resided on Mount Olympus
– Zeus, Athena, Poseidon
• Rise of history, philosophy in 5th
century BCE began to erode the
importance of the gods
Greek Rational Philosophy
• Emphasized argument, logic, questioning of
assumptions
– Confidence in human reason
• Relied on observation and evidence (instead of the
gods) to explain the world
• Socrates (ca. 470399 BCE)
– Constantly
questioned his
students’ logic
– Challenged wealth and power, favored wisdom and
virtue
– Charged with “corrupting” the Athenian youth
Greek Philosophers
• Plato (428-348 BCE)
– Championed rule of society by a
philosopher-king and highly-educated
elites in The Republic
– Founded the Academy to instruct
students to question others’ ideas
• Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
– Valued empirical observation and
ethics
– Taught the Golden Mean: avoiding
either extreme in behavior
– Wrote about nearly every subject
• Herodotus
Greek Thinkers
– Tried to explain history without using the
gods
• Pythagoras
– Proponent of spherical earth and
heliocentric model of the solar system
• Democritus
– Believed matter was
formed by tiny, uncuttable
particles
• Hippocrates
– Imbalance in the “four
humors” caused sickness,
diagnosed epilepsy
Four Humors/Temperaments
• Phlegmatic
– Phlegm
– Water
• Melancholic
– Black bile
– Earth
• Choleric
– Yellow bile
– Fire
• Sanguine
– Blood
– Air
Greek Drama
• Tragedy and comedy
– Used to mock vanity of leaders, show interactions
between gods and men
– Attendance was seen as a civic duty
• Greek playwrights: Aeschylus, Euripides,
Sophocles
Greek Art
Classical Orders
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)
• Sparta fought against growing Athenian
empire
• Sparta and its allies defeated Athens
– All of Greece was weakened
Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE)
• Macedonian king and general
– Became king of Macedon at age 20
• Defeated the Persian Empire
• Extended empire as far as the
Indus River
• Never lost a battle
• Adopted Persian customs and dress
– “Shahanshah” and proskynesis
– Incorporated Persians into his army
– Required generals to marry Persian women
Alexander’s Military
Battle of Issus (333 BCE)
Alexander’s Empire
Hellenization
• Spread of Greek culture and fusion with local
cultures
• Over 20 cities founded
– Monuments, theatres, markets, assemblies, gymnasia
– Alexandria in Egypt: bustling port, library, lighthouse
• Greek became the language of culture and the elite
• Greeks immigrated throughout the Middle East
Hellenistic Cultures
• Greeks became the ruling
class throughout the
Middle and Near East
• Ptolemy (r. 323-282 BCE):
ruled Egypt as a pharaoh
– Preferential laws for Greeks
in Egypt
• Seleucus (r. 305-281 BCE): ruled Mesopotamia
and Persia
• Menander (r. 165-130 BCE): later Greek ruler of
Bactria who converted to Buddhism
Division of Alexander’s Empire
Influence on Art
• Greek
influence on
Indian art
– Buddha was
first shown in
human form
– Clothing and
face
resembled
Greek god
Apollo