Download western civilization 2311 lecture notes

Document related concepts

Military of ancient Rome wikipedia , lookup

Food and dining in the Roman Empire wikipedia , lookup

Roman historiography wikipedia , lookup

Education in ancient Rome wikipedia , lookup

Roman army of the late Republic wikipedia , lookup

Constitutional reforms of Sulla wikipedia , lookup

Travel in Classical antiquity wikipedia , lookup

Early Roman army wikipedia , lookup

Roman agriculture wikipedia , lookup

Culture of ancient Rome wikipedia , lookup

Roman economy wikipedia , lookup

History of the Roman Constitution wikipedia , lookup

Transcript
WESTERN CIVILIZATION 2311 LECTURE
NOTES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lecture 1 - The Ancient Near East
Lecture 2 - On the Edge of Civilization
Lecture 3 - The Foundations of Hellenic Society
Lecture 4 - Greek Civilization
Lecture 5 – The Greek Golden Age
Lecture 6 – Philip, Alexander and Macedon
Lecture 7 – The Hellenic World after Alexander
Lecture 8 – The Foundations of Rome
Lecture 9 – The Roman Army
Lecture 10 – The Fall of the Republic
Lecture 11 – Christianity from Jesus to Constantine
Lecture 12 - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Lecture 13 – Barbarians at the Gates
Lecture 14 – The Dark Ages 300-1000
Lecture 15 – The World of Late Antiquity Byzantium and Islam
Lecture 16 – The Germanic West
Lecture 17 – The Fury of the Northmen
Lecture 18 – The Feudal World
Lecture 19 – The Age of the Crusades
Lecture 20 – The Crusades
Lecture 21 -
Lecture 6 - Roman Society and Civilization
Lecture 7 - Christianity and the Roman Empire
LECTURE 1 - THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
A. Origins of Civilizations
a. The Fertile Crescent
i. Written history is 6000 years old
ii. People settled this area in the paleo-lithic era.
b. Race and Ethnicity
i. Mesopotamia was a cosmopolitan area, a mixture between Semitic, IndoEuropean and African Stock.
ii. The Upper Tigris and Euphrates were more Semitic, the lower more
heterogeneous.
B. Sumer and Akkad
a. Sumer (3500-2334)
i. From the opening of the bronze age to the conquest of Akkad
b. Akkad –
i. Akkadians
1. From the north Tigris.
ii. Sargon I the Great (2334-2279)
1. King of Akkad
2. Annexes Sumerian City States
iii. Post Sargon
1. Ineffective rulers, internal revolts and barbarian attacks
c. The Civil Wars
i. Guti Herders (2180-2120)
1. From the Zargos Mountains
2. Their ineffective rule allowed Sumerian City States to Revitalize
ii. Third Dynasty of Ur (2112-2004)
1. Umammu – establishes short-lived control
2. First law code that allowed for compensation
3. Elamites from Iran end the dynasty
4. Amorites – Semitic people immigrate into the area and
assimilated
C. Babylon
a. Consolidation
i. Amorite control of Sumer and Akkad
ii. Very diverse population
iii. Adopted Sumerian Culture, Beliefs and Political Organization
b. Hammurabi
i. 43 years reign
ii. Hammurabi Code
1. Divinely given
2. Was very secular
3. Trial by ordeal or judicial proceeding
iii. Built Temples and Supported Priest class
c. Quote (Durant, 222) – It is almost a law of history that the same wealth that
generates a civilization announces its decay. For wealth produces ease as well as
art; it softens a people to the ways of luxury and peace, and invites invasion from
stronger hungrier mouths.
d. Kassite Invasion
i. Raided after the death of Hammurabi
ii. Ruled Babylon for 600 years.
e. Nebuchnezzar II
i. Revitalized and Liberated Babylon
ii. Extends control to Syria and Palestine
iii. Sack Jerusalem and invaded Egypt.
D. The Assyrian Empire
a. Quote – (Durant, 265) Sumeria was to Babylon and Babylon to Assyria, what
Crete was to Greece and Greece to Rome: the first created a civilization, the
second developed it to its height, the third inherited it, added little to it,
protected it, and transmitted it as a dying gift to the encompassing and
victorious barbarians.
b. Consolidation
i. Mixed Semite, Kurdish
ii. While Babylon was under the Kassites, Assyrians united.
c. Dynasties
i. Rulers usually died by violence or coups
ii. Ashurbanipal
1. Destroys Elamites
2. Quote- The severed head of the Elamite King was brought to
Ashurbanipal as he feasted with his queen in the palace garden;
he had the head raised on a pole in the midst of his guests, and
the royal revel went on.
3. Quote – (Durant 276) – “ My war chariots crush men and
beasts…the monuments which I erect are made of human corpses
from which I have cut off the head and limbs. I cut off the hands
of all those whom I capture alive. “
d. Empire
i. Largest of the Mesopotamian Empires
ii. It was liberally ran
1. States had to reconquered constantly
2. Finally they had to kill or export capitves
e. Army was the chief function of state
i. Main contribution to civilization was the art of war
1. Iron weapons and armor
2. Tactics of rapid movement
ii. Soldiers
1. Rewarded by the amount of heads
2. Severe to occupied populations
a. Flaying
b. Roasting
f. Fall of Assyria
i. Ashurbanipal died in 626
ii. Capital Niveveh sacked in 612
E. Mesopotamian Statecraft and Society
a. Political Organization
i. Lugal- priest/King
1. Claimed divine right
ii. Theocracy over a pantheon of gods.
b. Economics
i. Credit system
ii. extensive trade as far as Indus Valley and Egypt.
c. Marriage and the Family
i. Sumerian Marriage and the Family
1. Marriage
a. Monogamous – with exceptions
i. Toleration of concubine, but there were securities
to guarantee the position of the first wife.
ii. Barren wife could be divorced, or he could take a
second wife.
iii. Second wife obligated “to wash the feet of the first
and to carry her chair to the temple of the god’
iv. Wife usually presented a personal slave as second
wife. First wife could then dispose of her if there
was a challenge
v. Bible story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar
b. Marriage was very property oriented
c. Marriages arranged with a dowry
i. Dowries were controlled by the women
ii. With divorce dowry went with woman
d. Ceremony had contract and a seal
2. Children
a. You could disinherit children.
ii. Babylonian Marriage and Family
1. Trial marriages
2. Arranged Marriages
a. Monogamous and Faithful
i. Adulterous wife could be killed or turned out
naked.
ii. Upper class women guarded by Eunuchs
3. Divorce
a. Only men could initiate with certain exceptions
iii. Assyrian Marriage and Family
1. Militaristic Civilization
a. Encourages high-birth rate
b. Sever punishments for abortions
2. Women
a. Veiled in public
b. Wives often remained in their fathers house
d. Class and Status
i. Sumerian Class and Status
1. 3 classes
a. Amelu- Patrician class
i. Treated different under the law
1. if victim, aggressors punished more severely
2. if aggressor, he is punished more severely
3. they filled the ranks of the professional
army
b. Mushkinu – bourgeois, craftsmen, soldiers and laborers
i. In property rights he was equal to the amelu
c. Slaves
ii. Babylonian Class and Status
1. No primogeniture
a. Checked the growth of concentration of wealth
iii. Assyrian Class and Status
1. Patricians and Nobles
a. Usually Assyrians like landed gentry
2. Craftsman and Professionals
a. Usually Babylonians
b. Organized into guilds
3. Unskilled Freemen and Peasants
4. Slaves
a. Usually bald and pierced.
e. Law and Punishment
i. Sumerian Law and Punishment
1. Perhaps based on early custom
2. Could have been the basis of code Hammurabi
a. Sumerian punishment were more lenient
b. Eye for Eye in punishments involving assault or injury
i. Legality was not universal, rich men were just
fined.
c. Oaths could be given verbally- Transaction required
“tablets”
3. Court System
a. Judges were priest
b. Mediators were used for smaller disputes
c. Use of precedent
d. No reverse decisions
4. Capital punishment
ii. Babylonian Law
1. Based on Sumerian Law
2. More lenient
a. Payments instead of physical punishment
3. Capital punishment
F. Mesopotamian Myth and Religion
a. Sumerian Myth and Religion
i. Polytheism and Origins
1. Sumerians were polytheistic. (Sun Worship)
2. Creation myth – a primitive paradise and a terrible flood because
of the sin of an ancient king.
a. Wooley – discovers eight foot layer of clay from a flood.
b. 432,000 years of dynasties before the flood.
3. Many of the gods ruled before the flood. (Tammuz, Gilgamesh)
ii. The Afterlife
1. Misery and shadow – tombs to prepare and support deceased
family members
2. No heaven or hell
3. Prayers were for tangible things
iii. Sumerian Religion
1. Gods
a. There was a pantheon of gods, each city state had a patron
god.
iv. Functions of the Temples
1. Primary functions
a. Housed priests
b. Centers of education and manufacturing
c. Supported by offerings from people and state.
d. Temple Prostitution
i. Not a disgrace but honored
2. Latent Functions
b. Babylonian Myth and Religion
i. Origins and Creation
1. Mostly borrowed from Sumer
2. Come down to western Civilizaiton through Jews
3. Origin
a. In the beginning there was chaos
b. Tiamut- one god wanted to kill all others
c. Marduk stops her and splits her into sky and earth.
d. Marduk makes man out of clay and his blood.
e. Later floods the Earth because of the wickedness of man
ii. The Afterlife
1. Aralu- (hades) a place of punishment
a. It was cold and miserable
b. Food and implements left in tombs.
iii. Differences in Temple Prostitution
1. Once in your life women had to go be a prostitute
2. Like a sexual auction
3. Women can’t refuse and cannot leave until they had one sexual
encounter
4. Pretty women get to leave sooner
5. Some stayed for 3-4 years
iv. The Epic of Gilgamesh
1. The Epic
a. Account of the Flood
2. Gilgamesh
a. Was like Adonis or Samson
b. King of Uruk
c. He was overzealous and worked the people hard
d. People prayed for gods to help
e. Gods create a brother for Gilgamesh (Engidu)
3. Balta-atrua – The Babylonian Job
c. Assyrian Myth and Religion
i. Ashur was Sun-god
1. warlike
G. Egypt
a. Geography, Origins and Race
i. The Nile Delta
1. 4,000 mile river
2. Seasonal flooding
3. Some of the richest farm land in the world.
4. Surrounded by desert and mountains which isolated and
incubated their culture.
5. Canals not native, irrigation and land clearing
ii. Napoleon
1. Rosetta Stone
iii. Origins
1. 4000-3000 is best guess
2. The peoples of Egypt were a mix of different ethnic groups.
iv. Predynastic Egypt – (?-3100)
b. The Periodization of Egypt
i. PreDynastic - ?- 3100
ii. Early Dynastic 3100-2686
iii. Old Kingdom 2686-2181
iv. The First Intermediate Period 2181-2040
v. The Middle Kingdom 2040-1674
vi. The Second Intermediate Period 1674 - 1552
vii. The New Kingdom 1552 - 1069
viii. The Late Period 1069-332
c. Political Organization and Government
i. Nomes
1. Population along river divided into nomes
2. Nomes or nomarchs were like feudal lords
ii. Vizier
1. Prime minister, chief justice, head of treasury
iii. Pharaohs
1. Autocratic political and religious control
a. They were high priest, controlled economy
b. They owned all the land
2. Enforcement
a. Pharaohs worked tirelessly
b. Kept hostages to ensure loyalty
3. Quote – (163) “”Twenty officials collaborated to take care of his
toilet: barbers who were permitted only to shave him and cut his
hair, hairdressers who adjusted the royal cowl and diadem to his
head, manicurists who cut and polished his nails, perfumers who
deodorized his body, blackened his eyelids with kohl, and
reddened his cheeks and lips with rouge. “
d. Statecraft
i. Monopoly on trade
ii. Bureaucracy manned by royal appointees – vizier
iii. The State and Religion
e. Old Kingdom (2686-2182)
i. Imhotep
1. Artist and scientist for King Zoser
2. Develops use of mud brick
ii. The Pyramid Age
iii. First Intermediate Period
1. Collapse of Central Authority
2. Feudal Lords took over
3. Ended in 2050 – Menuuhotep of Thebes overcame rivals and
established 11th dynasty.
f. Middle Kingdom (2040-1674)
i. 11th and 12th Dynasties
1. Consolidated power
2. Extended Empire
3. Land Improvement
ii. Writing Speaks of Pessimism and skepticism
1. Quote – (Durant 194) Would that there might be an end of men,
that there might be no conception, no birth. If the land would but
cease from noise, and strife be no more”
2. Result of invasion.
iii. Second Intermediate Period (1674-1552)
1. Hyksos Invasion
a. Warlords from Palestine
b. Assimilated to Egyptian Culture
c. New Weapons
i. Horse
ii. Composite bow
iii. War chariot
iv. Bronze armor
g. The Heretic King and the New Kingdom (1552-1069)
i. Empire – Adopts new military techniques from the invaders
1. Thutmose I –
a. Consolidate power and invaded Syria
2. Queen Hatshepsut
a. Tradition needed a man
b. 22 year rule – after which Syria revolted
3. Thutmose III –
a. Quells revolts
b. Expands Empire
ii. Ikhnaton
1. Religious Reforms
a. Aton – Monotheistic god – transient being
b. Many historians believe it was because of unification of
Mediterranean world under Egypt leadership
c. Declares all other gods illegal
2. Conflict with the Priests
a. Alienates them
b. People continue to worship other gods secretly.
3. Hittite Invasion
a. Ikhnaton does nothing to protect client states
b. All colonies in revolt
c. He dies at 30 in 1362
h. Agriculture, Industry and the Economy
i.
j.
i. Land Use
1. All land owned by Pharaoh
2. Tax to use the land – 10-20%
ii. Corveeiii. Industry
1. Mines were state controlled
a. Worked by prisoners
b. And criminals
2. Workers
a. Quote – (160) “Machinery was rare because muscle was
cheap”
b. Most were free men
c. Artisans worked under and overseer
d. Strikes frequent
3. Scribes
a. Took census
b. Accessed taxes
c. Recorded weather
d. Estimated harvest
e. All levels of the state
Law, Government and Education
i. Property Law
1. As intricate as now
2. Only area where there was equality before the law.
ii. Courts
1. Perjury was punished by death
2. Torture was used to get confessions
iii. Punishment
1. Strangling, beheading, burning a stake, being embalmed
iv. Vizier
1. Prime minister, chief justice, head of treasury
Morals and Manners
i. Royal Incest
1. Kings often married sister or daughter
2. Spread to commoners
3. About 2/3 of the population did it.
ii. Divorce
1. Early on they are rare, later as the population became decadent
they became more frequent
iii. Gender
1. Women held high legal status
2. Owned property
a. Estates and property through female line
i. Perhaps led to sister-marrying
3. Quote (165) – If thou are successful and hast furnished thy house
and lovest the wife of thy bosom, then fill her stomach and clothe
her back….Make glad her heart during that time thou hast her, for
she is a field profitable to its owner…if thou oppose her it will
mean thy ruin. “
iv. Courtship
1. Women were the aggressors
2. They gave their dead pornography
v. Sex
1. Sodomy
2. Girls blossomed early
3. Temple prostitution on a small scale.
vi. Upper Class
1. Were white – hinting at Asiatic Origin
2. Wore wigs, make-up, and perfumes
vii. Commoners
1. Most did not wear clothes until puberty
2. Clothing increased with wealth
k. Science and Medicine
i. Education
1. Temple Schools
a. Produced scribes
i. Education was mainly copying tests
2. Higher Education
a. You could advance to the school of government
ii. The Paper Revolution
1. They invented paper which is still legible
iii. Writing
1. First pictorial
2. Then iconographic when explaining abstract ideas
3. They never completely adopted alphabetic system
l.
iv. Science and Mathematics
1. Math
a. Developed early
b. Nile fluctuations depended on careful record keeping
c. Clumsy number system
2. Calendar –
a. 3 seasons, Four Months Each, 30 days in a month
b. 5 days celebration at the end to correct calendar.
3. Medicine
a. Disease
i. Was caused by possession
ii. Treated with amulets
b. Ethical Code
i. Basis of Hippocratic Oath
c. Drugs
i. Extensive pharmacopeia
1. Feces, book boiled in oil.
d. Sanitation
i. Circumcisions
ii. enemas
Religion and Myth
i. Creation Myth
1. Sky was a vault of a great cow belly – Hathor the Great Cow
2. Sky and Earth copulated and created all things
ii. Afterlife
1. Immortality
a. Like death and life cycles
b. Happy Field of Food
c. You have to pass trials by boatman
i. Talismans and scarabs were sacred to help
transition
ii. Or you could by the book of the dead.
iii. Gods
1. Ra – Sun-god – the divine calf that was reborn
a. Other names (amon and ptah)
2. Horus – Sun-god – turned into a falcon
3. Osiris- a bull or ram – fertility
a. Depicted with 3 penises
b. Anhk.
4. Set – God of desiccation
a. Counterpart of Osiris
iv. Ka – Soul – departed body after death
1. Seated in abdomen not head.
v. Temples
1. Priest were hereditary and dominated the educated classes
2. Were props of the throne
3. Richer than aristocracy
vi. Practice
1. Very superstitious
m. Decline and Fall
i. Tutankhamun
1. Restores Religious liberties
2. Reigns peacefully
ii. Ramesses II
1. Last of the Great Pharaohs
2. Starts gold mining again
3. Recovers Palestine
4. Has 150 kids
5. Created a class of people who ruled for 400 years
6. D. 1225 at 90 years of age
iii. Decline
1. Theocratic Rule
a. Clergy usurps Pharaohs
b. Causes general decline
2. Frontier Troubles
a. Other nations growing in power
i. Dorians and Achaeans take Mediterranean
3. Invasions
a. Libyan 954
b. Ethiopians 722
c. Assyrians 674
d. Persians 525
e. Alexander 332
f. Romans 48
LECTURE 2 - ON THE EDGE OF CIVIL IZATION
A. Indo-European
a. Quote (285) – “…in the days of Nebuchnezzar, would have seemed like an ocean
in which vast swarms of human beings moved about in turmoil, forming and
dissolving groups, enslaving and being enslaved, eating and being eaten, killing
and getting killed, endlessly. “
b. Quote (285) – “Throughout the history of the Near East such nomads were a
peril to the more settled kingdoms which they almost surrounded; periodically
droughts would fling them upon these richer regions, necessitation frequent
wars, and perpetual readiness for war”
B. Hittites
a. Originated in eastern Europe
b. Reached Height of Empire in 1400 bc.
c. Collapsed 1180 (Bronze Age Collapse)
d. Pictographic Writing
e. Inherit a version Hammurabi
i. Left to right then right to left.
ii. They taught Crete the use of clay tablets
f. Interbred with Hebrews
g. Military Campaigns
i. Sacked Syria and Babylon
ii. King Mutawalli - Defeated by Ramesses II Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC) is
the oldest recorded battle.
1. Ramesses called the Hittites “the feminine one” because of their
long hair.
iii. They perfected the Chariot (Wheel Moved to Center)
C. Armenians – Ararat in the bible
a. North of Assyria
b. Were stable and independent until Persia
c. Argistis II – greatest king (708 BC)
D. Scythians –
a. Scythes or Sakas – Origins
i. Spoken a Iranian dialect,
ii. The may have migrated from Siberia to Ukraine
iii. Half Mongol and half European
iv. Most of what we know is from Herodotus.
b. Shores of the Black Sea
i. Greek set up many cities just to trade with them
ii. They were profitable in the Eurasian slave trade
c. Lifestyle
i. Lived in wagons, horse culture and mostly nomadic
ii. A Scythian king challenged King Darius of Persian to find and destroy their
idols and temples because they had none.
iii. Drank blood of enemies, used scalps as napkins
iv. The built burial dirt mounds with vaulted ceilings and tombs.
v. They killed their slaves with them when they died, sometimes burying
with their wagons and horses. Similar to practices in Siberia.
d. Military Expansion
i. Swept through Western Asia 630-610
ii. Fought the Persians the same time the Greeks were fighting them.
iii. The Scythians survive until modern times, Kazakstan.
E. Semitic Peoples
a. From the Son of Noah (Shem) on the theory that they were derived from him.
b. Originated from Arabia
c. Successions of migrations out of that region
d. Stoic culture with little religion until Islam
F. Phoenicians – 1200-539 BC
a. They were Semitic
b. Liberated from Egypt 1200
c. Traded as far as Britain and the Black Sea
d. Engaged in piracy, and trickery on the high sea
e. Establish Commercial Outpost
i. Carthage
ii. Rhodes – where Greeks and Phoenicians traded.
iii. Cadiz
iv. Sardinia – largest Phoenician industrial center, glass and jewelry
f. Trade and Industry
i. They exported cedar and dyes from where they get there name.
ii. Traded as far as Britain, West Africa and the Black Sea
iii. They traded Greek pottery, sculptures and jewelry to Africans for gold.
g. Worship Canaanite gods like Baal –
i. Becomes Beelzebub “lord of the flies”
ii. Because the Jews compared Baal to crap and his followers the flies.
h. The Phoenician alphabet was one of the first (consonantal) alphabets with
a strict and consistent form.
i. Adopted by Greeks and through Med. Culture.
G. Persians
a. Around 2000, Indo-Iranians moved into the Iranian plateau
b. Originally a client state of the Assyrians, they achieved independence in
the 7th century under the Medes leadership
c. With the Babylonians and Scythians they assisted in the dismantling of the
Assyrian Empire.
d. The Median clans rule was ended by revolt of Cyrus
e. The Persian Empire 559-330
H. Judea
a. Influence and Geography
i. Greater than Babylon
ii. Geographically a small region
1. Area inhabited from 40,000
2. Origins of people 2000-1600
a. Jericho was a vassal of Egypt
3. Midway between the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates
4. This brought trade and war.
iii. Climate
1. Arid – Rain kept in underground cisterns
2. When conquered the desert would take over.
b. Origins
i. Jews believe they came from UR in 2200.
ii. They migrated or were enslaved by Egypt
iii. Egyptian Historian – Manetho - Says Moses was an Egyptian Priest sent
as missionary to Jews.
c. Trade
i. Caravans from all over crossed through Judea.
ii. Solomon build fleet on the Red Sea
iii. Solomon tax caravans and traders
iv. State monopoly on yarn, horses and chariots.
d. Moses –
i. Led the Jews to Mt. Sinai
ii. Were nomadic for 40 years (conquered Canaan under Gideon)
1. Slaughters 12,000 people
e. Tribes
i. These clans Rarely intermarried
ii. Elder Councils under a patriarchy
iii. Occasionally they unite under one leader temporarily
f. King Solomon
i. Brought industry and peace to Judea
ii. He was epicurean
iii. Built temple but his house was four times bigger.
iv. 60-80 wives
v. Built forts
vi. He tries to unite all tribes by redrawing districts but this fails
vii. Builds altars to his wives gods, temple upkeep is costly
viii. People become less happy
g. Religion
i. Polytheism – they were Bedouins who worships spirits and a pantheon.
1. Golden Calf – Bull worship
2. Yahweh was a vegetarian
3. Serpent Worship
ii. Yahweh – was patron god of Jerusalem
1. Formed into national god
2. From the Canaan god Yahu
3. He is stern, warlike and deceitful
4. He was like god of thunder
5. Quote (310) – He will have no pacifist nonsense; he knows that
even a Promised land can be won, and held, only by the sword’ he
is a god of was because he has to be; it will take centuries of
military defeat, political subjugation, and moral development, to
transform him into the gentle and loving Father of Christ. “
iii. Other Gods
1. First Commandment was no other gods before me.
2. Ba’alsabub – god of another Jewish tribe
3. Even Babylonian gods were worshipped
iv. Religious unity
1. Under David and Solomon worship centered around Yahweh
v. Theology
1. Early it was a religion of fear
2. Sin- led to virtue – led to sacrifice
3. Little reference to afterlife
4. Priest performed the “mysteries of faith”
5. Priest close caste of people and hereditary.
LECTURE 3 - THE FOUNDATIONS OF HELLENIC CIVILIZATIONS
A. Minoan Civilization 2000-1375
i. Named After Semi-Mythical King Minos
ii. Origins 4000 BC
iii. By 2000 BC the cities are flourishing
iv. They were a maritime commercial state
1. ruled through two things - palace cities and maritime trade
v. Was the foundation of later Greek culture and civilization
vi. Arthur Evans- Excavations of Knossos in 1900
b. Origins and Geography
i. The People were of Indo-European Stock
ii. May have come from the Balkans
iii. Good Agriculture and Strategic location
c. Economy
i. Took advantage of strategic location
ii. Dominated maritime trade from Crete.
d. Palaces
i. Palaces were the center of Minoan life
ii. Economic, and religious centers as well as barracks and residence of king
1. Knossos
2. Phaistos
3. Zakros
4. Mallia
e. Religion and Myth
i. Myths
1. Daedalus and the Labyrinth
2. Worshipped bulls, had bullfights or bull grappling
f. Culture
i. Art and culture a mix between Asia and Egypt
ii. They wrote in hieroglyphs like Egypt.
g. Decline
i. Most of what we know is from Archeology
ii. Around 1500 BC, Mt Thera Erupted
iii. Mycenaean’s seized it approximately 1400
iv. Most Cities destroyed by invasion or fire
1. Invasion more likely because all cities destroyed at nearly same
time.
B. The Mycenaean (1550-1150)
a. Migration and Origin
i. Beginning in 1800 – Migration
ii. From Anatolia or the Balkans
iii. Absorbed the neo-lithic Minoans and Mainland Greeks
b. Homer – The Iliad and Odyssey
i.
The stories of the siege of Troy
ii.
Probably wrote of contemporary culture and values
1. In Epic they cremate, in reality they have tombs
c. The Conquest of Crete
i.
By 1500 the Mycenaean were trading with Minoan Crete
ii.
Within 50 years they conquered
C. Mycenaean Society
a. The polis
i. Town center
ii. It had a common theoretical heritage and common ancestry
iii. It was the center of civilized and cultural life.
b. Government
i. Military Caste
1. They were the most powerful and were hereditary
2. Most cities had a King supported by aristocracy
c. Class and Economy
i. Richest were herders
ii. Land Ownership was by family or clan
iii. Most production is in the home
iv. Craftsman are always free
v. Slavery was common
vi. Trade was slow and dangerous
d. Morals
i. Very hospitable to guest
ii. Quote: “from Zeus all strangers and beggars
iii. They could be cruel, life was cheap.
D. Warfare
a. The Mycenaean were more warlike than Minoans
b. Champions
iv. Early in Mycenaean War there were champions who fought in individual
combat
v. They later adopted military formations
c. Hoplite Phalanx
vi. Made up of aristocratic class
vii. This formation made them move toward representative government
viii. Men who fought could not be denied a voice
E. Dark Age Migrations 1200-700
a. AKA Dorian Invasion – Greeks believed that people from the North entered the
Aegean (Herculades)
b. Modern thought is that they were there all along and came to power.
c. Whatever the cause this cause the Mycenaean to seek refuge in Ionia
d. Phoenicians took advantage of the decline of Mycenaean, later Achaeans would
adopt their alphabet.
F. Classical Greece - 700-500
a. Greek Colonies
i. Colonies established in successive waves from 700-480
ii. Lack of arable land and growing population led to colonization
iii. primogeniture, so younger sons sought fortune
iv. colonies were a safety valve.
b. Dorian and Ionian
c. The Polis and Government
i. Greek Democracy
1. Began to replace kingships
2. There were many limitations and variations
a. Only landholding men could vote
b. Had to serve in military
d. Culture and Religion
i.
The Arts
1. Traveling minstrels sang
2. They were not big on literacy
ii.
Delphi and the Oracle of Apollo
a. It was not a church, rather a sacred space with temple
b. Delphi was the center of the Greek Universe
c. Stored goods and offerings
d. Often mediated between city states
e. Society and Morals
iii.
Gender
3. (50) “Achaean Society is a patriarchal despotism tempered with
the beauty and anger of women, and the fierce tenderness of
parental love.”
4. Women serve as workers of the home
iv.
v.
5. They are educated in the domestic arts
Family
6. Provided social order
7. Earlier they may have been matriarchal
8. Family lives multigenerational.
Marriage –
9. By purchase – father gives dowry
c. Quote- Beneath a blaze of torches they led the brides
from their chambers through the city… the young men
whirled in the dance.
10. Love comes after marriage
LECTURE 4 - GREEK CIVILIZATION
A. Sparta
a. The Conquest of Messina
1. in the 700-600, Sparta engaged in a protracted struggle with neighboring
Messina
2. Messina was subjugated and population reduced to helots
b. Eunomia and the Foundation of the Spartan State
1. Eunomia (good order)
2. Lycurgus - the legendary lawgiver gave the Spartans a constitution.
3. Dual kingships
c. Spartiates, Perioici and Helots
1. Full citizenship was restricted to the elites (Spartiates)
2. Neighboring communities, the Perioici were allowed autonomy
i. subject to the Spartan Army
3. Helots
i. Supporting the entire system were a class of serfs
ii. They worked the land and accompanied masters in war.
d. Spartan Institutions
1. Agoge - education system
i. raised boys away from their families to grow up as warriors.
2. crypteia - secret commission, boys would be forced to live off land and learn
endurance
a. to build endurance
b. they could kill helots they came across
3. syssition - common messes - contributed produce of the land to a common
pool.
a. while a soldier they lived in commune
e. Closed Society
1. various occasions they expelled all foreigners referred to as xenelasia
2. commerce restricted for fear of foreign ideas, they used bars instead of coins
B. Athens and Attica
1. Attica
a. Is the geographic region of control
2. Class and Caste in Athens
a. 3 classes of citizens
i. Eupatrids – oligarchs
1. They ruled for centuries
2. They were citizens
ii. Hippes – (citizen) homeowners
iii. Zeugitat – (citizen) people who could afford armor
b. Thetes – Non-citizens – hired labor, used as light infantry
3. Economic Classes
a. Eupatrid – landowning elites, usually absentee landlords
i. They loan money and merchants make them profits on investments
b. Demiurgoi – skilled craftsmen, free laborers
i. This is rising merchant class
c. Georgoi – landless peasants
4. Land Ownership
a. Quote- Some of these peasants had once held extensive tracts; but their wives
had been more fertile than their land, and in the course of generation their
holdings had been divided and redivided among their sons.
b. Collective ownership of earlier periods was ending
c. Fences and hedges
i. Marks the dwindling jealous ownership
d. People mortgaged their farms and became sharecroppers
e. Quote – Aristotle “a few proprietors, owned all the soil and the cultivators with
their wives and children were liable to be sold as slaves. “
5. Draconian Reforms
a. Approx 620
b. Draco
c. Attica has codified written law system
d. The state would replace fued vengeance with law
e. Reforms also gave demurigoi access to higher levels of government.
f. Remembered for his penal code
6. Solonian Revolution
a. Solon
i. His father went broke trying to help the people
ii. Solon was a merchant
1. He made money and traveled the ancient world.
iii. He came to power at a time when dictators were taking over cities.
b. Economic Reform
i. He cancelled all debt
1. This freed all serfs and then forbid that enslavement
2. It was rumored that he told his buddies and they bought land
and had debts wiped
ii. Coinage
1. He abandoned Phoenician coinage and measurements
2. This checked inflation and help the peasant
c. Taxes
i. Poor exempted from taxation
ii. Graduated income tax
d. Other Reforms
i. Pardoned political prisoners
ii. Repealed draconian punishments
iii. Law applies to all classes
iv. Forbid food exports
v. Laziness became a crime
vi. State prostitution legalized and taxed
e. Moral Reform
i. Marriage
1. Limited dowries
2. Marriage should be for affection and childrearing
ii. Women only allowed 3 outfits
iii. When asked why he would not legislate men “a wife is a heavy load to
carry”
iv. Crime to speak evil of the dead and public officials
v. Condemned pompous ceremonies
vi. Seditious people lose citizenship
f. The Importance of Solonian Reform
i. He did not say laws derived from gods
ii. Became the basis of Athenian law for 500 years through democracy and
dictatorship
iii. Radicals criticized him for the failure to establish equality of possessions
iv. Anarcharis - Quote – “the wise would plead and the fools decide…no
lasting justice can be established for men, since the strong or clever will
twist to their advantage any laws that are made; the law is a spiders web
that catches little flies and lets the big bugs go.”
7. Pesistratus the Tyrant
a. After Solon left Athens to travel 3 groups struggle for power
i. Merchants
ii. Landowners
iii. Peasants and laborers
b. Pesistratus
i. Become demagogue
ii. Champion of the lower classes
iii. He displays a wound in public forum and request bodyguards
iv. He hires 400 and seizes government
c. Positive Contributions
i. Brings order
ii. Banishes some opponents and gives peasants land.
iii. Made some changes to constitution
iv. Brought structure to Athens
v. Large public works projects
vi. Avoided military conflicts in favor of trade.
d. His Sons (Hippacarus)
i. 527 he retired left his sons in charge
ii. Things went poorly and people clamored for the end of dictatorship
iii. The Story of Harmodius and Aristogenton – the Love Triangle and
Martyrs
THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE 500- 323
A. The Persian War 500-479
a. Persian Conquest
i. at the end of 6th century Persia conquered Ionia
ii. They occupied Thrace
b. Greek Revolt
i. dissatisfied with Persian Rule Ionia revolted in 499
ii. Persians blamed mainland Greeks for the distress
iii. Persians conquered Thrace and Macedon but their fleet was destroyed in
492
c. The First Persian War 490
i. Darius I - had 25,000 men
ii. underestimated the Greeks
iii. The Athenians led my Militades, mobilized Attica and quickly mobilized
10000 troops
iv. The Battle of Marathon
1. 26 miles from Athens
2. According to Herodotus, the Persians were pushed into the sea
3. They lost 6400 men supposedly
4. This was probably a raid rather than conquest
d. The Second Persian War 480-479
i. Xerxes, Darius Son, mobilized another army (100,000)
1. Xerxes first had to quell internal rebellion
2. By 480 he launched a full scale invasion of Greece
3. Quote – Herodotus - first gave Xerxes a feeling of deep selfsatisfaction, but later he began to weep. When his uncle, Artabanus (the
one who had at first freely expressed his opinion and advised Xerxes not
to attack Greece) noticed that Xerxes was crying he said, `My lord, a
short while ago you were feeling happy with your situation and now you
are weeping. What a total change of mood!’ `Yes,” Xerxes answered. `I
was reflecting on things and it occurred to me how short the sum total of
human life is, which made me feel compassion. Look at all these people –
but not one of them will still be alive in a hundred years’ time’(VII.45-46)
ii. They crossed the Hellespont and advanced toward Greece
1. Quote – Herodotus - The Phoenicians and the Egyptians who had been
assigned the task set about building their bridges (the Phoenicians using
white flax and the Egyptians papyrus), taking Abydus as their starting
point and directing their efforts towards the headland on the opposite
coast – a distance of seven stades. They had just finished bridging the
straits when a violent storm erupted which completely smashed and
destroyed everything. This news made Xerxes furious. He ordered his
men to give the Hellespont three hundred lashes and to sink a pair of
shackles into the sea. I once heard that they also dispatched men to
brand the Hellespont as well. Be that as it may, he did tell the men he had
thrashing the sea to revile it in terms you would never hear from a Greek.
“Bitter water,” they said, this is your punishment for wronging your
master when he did no wrong to you. King Xerxes will cross you, with or
without your consent. People are right not to sacrifice to a muddy,
brackish stream like you!” So the sea was punished at his orders and he
had the supervisors of the bridging of the Hellespont beheaded. The men
assigned this grotesque task carried out their orders and another team of
engineers managed to bridge the Hellespont (VII.34-36).
2. Greeks were slow to respond because of internal division
3. Athens begins construction of a fleet with help from their silver
mines
4. They abandoned the north
iii. Leonidas and the Spartans The Battle of Thermopylae
1. Formal defeat but moral victory
2. The Spartans were shamed from not showing up to defend Athens
at Marathon.
iv. The Persians Sacked Athens
v. Greek city-states united
vi. The Battle of Salamis 1. the real test was the battle at sea
2. Athenians built a fleet of 200 under the leadership of
Themistocles
3. Other city-states joined Athens and met Persians at the bay of
salamis
4. September 20, 480.
vii. Persian Withdrawal
1. without the support of the navy the Persian army had to with
draw from Greece
e. The Legacy
i. The word freedom enters the Greek vocabulary – eleutheria
ii. Freedom to remain independent from outside forces
iii. Provoked the Reevaluation of identity
1. Persians were seen as weak and effeminate
2. “the invention of the Barbarian” in Western Civilization
B. Athenian Ascendancy 479-431
a. After Persian Wars Athenian Navy Dominated Sea
b. The Delian League
i. created to counter threat from Persia that never materialized
ii. Athens controlled the treasury and policy and soon dominated the league
iii. Members of the league could contribute ship or money, most chose
money.
1. Thucyides "paying for their own enslavement"
iv. The Athenian shipyards were always building much of it paid for by the
league
c. Pericles
i. He came for wealthy aristocrat family.
ii. supported the demos faction.
iii. he was elected and reelected from 467-428
d. Periclean Reform i. Expanded courts
ii. allowed free classes access to archonship
iii. limit foreign miscegenation
iv. Walled in Athens and its docks
e. Athens Rebuilt
i. In 449 BC Pericles proposes the creation of a fund of
5000 talents from the reserve funds of the Delian
League.
ii. From 447 to 438 the Parthenon is constructed.
iii. From 437 to 432 the Propylaea is constructed.
f. Opposition to Pericles
i. Oligarchs from Athens incited Spartans to attack
ii. Sparta defeated Athens at Tanagra 457 but oligarchs failed to incite
revolution
iii. Pericles does not seek revenge
g. Pericles and Aspasia
i. hetaria - a woman who does not marry to live freely as men.
ii. 450 - She opened a school for girls in Athens
iii. Pericles divorced his wife to be with Aspasia
iv. She became the uncrowned Queen of Athens
v. opponents criticized him for
1. squandering public funds
2. abusing free speech
3. defaming his home with Aspasia
vi. Pericles died in 429
C. The Peloponnesian War
a. Origins of the War
i. Personal Cause - Pericles started the war because Megara offended
Aspasia
b. Actual Cause
i. Athens wanted possession of Corinth a key to trade.
ii. Sparta did not want to fight but Athens spread democracy which was a
threat to Spartan land-holding classes.
iii. Modern Scholars say it was Corinth
c. Athens and Sparta in Summary
i. Athens although a democracy was an imperial power
1. Its navy dominated trade
2. Exacted tribute, had governors and garrisons in the Delian League
ii. Spartan Unequal Confederation
1. Allied states did not pay tribute, but contributed to a war fund
2. Primarily a land power
3. Allied with Thebes and Corinth
4. Countered by Argos
d. Rebellions
i. Thucydides' Cleon while addressing the Athenian Senate, "You should
remember that your empire is a despotism exercised over unwilling
subjects who are always conspiring against you; they do not obey in
return for any kindness which you do them to your own injury, but so far
as you are their master; they have no love for you, but they are held
down by force."
ii. Aegina 457
iii. Euboea 446
iv. Samos 440
v. Many of these cities appealed to Sparta for protection.
e. The Peloponnesian League
i. Sparta was tied by alliances to a number of other
Peloponnesian states.
ii. The Peloponnesian states were not subject to tribute,
but they paid into a collective war fund.
iii. The Peloponnesian League was primarily an alliance of
land-powers and did not emphasize naval supremacy.
iv. Sparta's allies included powerful states such as Thebes
and Corinth.
v. Spartan power was also balanced by a powerful hostile
neighbor, Argos.
f.
i. Athens began to embargo certain city-states with its control of the sea
ii. Pericles wanted Sparta to open up Laconia to trade, Sparta refused
iii. As a prerequisite to peace, Sparta wanted Athens to recognize the
independence of city-states and surrender their empire.
g. Plague in Athens and Revolt in Sparta
i. Athens destroyed the Peloponnese coastline, were relying on the Navy to
win the war.
ii. most Athenians wanted to come out and fight.
iii. The crowding in Athens caused a Plague, probably malaria, a quarter of
the population died.
iv. People began to turn on Pericles.
v. Slave revolt in Sparta
h. Uneasy Truce
i. Peace of Nicias 421
ii. only lasted six years
iii. Alcibiades - Athenian broke the truce and to take Sicily
D. Thucydides and the Patterns of History
a. Thucydides tried to analyze history for truth, for Herodutus history included
heavenly intervention, cosmic justice and divine retribution.
b. Thucydides patterns of human affairs
i. Weakness invites the domination of the stronger
ii. Power always seeks to increase
iii. Necessity is the engine of history
iv. Leaders must impose their will on those they lead.
E. The Sicilian Expedition
a. Egestaians (weak) called upon Athenians for help.
i. They inevitably call for their own domination
b. Dissent and Disaster
i. Battle of Syracuse – 415
ii. In the winter of 414 – both sides built fortifications to get the upper hand
iii. Climax of the renewed war
1. Summer 413 – Demoshenes (Athens) leads attack that ends with
disaster
2. Athens were dazed and confused in the darkness and wracked by
disease
3. Syracuse fleet blocks off escape, Athenian fleet destroyed.
iv. The final battle took place on land and sea
1. Athens fleet destroyed
2. Army watches and splits in two
a. Column under Nicias is slaughtered
b. Column under Demosthenes surrenders and are enslaved
F. Athens after the Peloponnesian War
a. Occupation by the Spartan Army
i. Democracy suspended, Spartan Oligarchs in control
1. Among them was Critias, uncle of Plato and student of Socrates
ii. After a short period, democracy was restored but their was a lot of
leftover resentment
iii. Socrates was Arrested
1. Charges –
a. Corrupting the youth
b. Disavowing the Gods
c. Impiety
2. Real Reason – being the teacher of Critias
iv. Was he a Martyr?
1. The self proclaimed intellectual and moral superiority of the
Socratics
2. Socrates was combatant in the past
a. He opposed a trial in 406 against generals
b. He touted that Apollo declared him the wisest man alive
c. At his hearing to decide his punishment, he argued that he
“should” be given food and board for life
d. He refused to escape
b. Trial of Socrates
G. Greek Myth and Legend
a. The importance of Greek Myth
i. You cannot understand Greek life without the knowledge of its legends
and beliefs
b. Dogma and the Cosmos
i. No sacred text
1. Religion was very fluid with competing stories
2. No theological debates
c. The Deluge
i. According to them the 15th century
1. Deucalion- the Greek Noah
2. His son Hellen was the father of the Greeks.
d. The Pantheon of Gods
i. Gods were immortal but not all-powerful
ii. They were subject to Fate
iii. They had once rebelled and overthrown an earlier dynasty of Gods
iv. There were 7 classifications of Greek gods
1. Sky gods –
a. Uranus (Sky)or Helios (Sun)
b. There was not much sun worship
2. Earth Gods
a. Most gods resided in the Earth
b. Gaea – mother goddess
i. Pregnant through the rains (Uranus)
c. There was a pantheon of gods for each river, mountain
and ocean
3. Fertility Gods
a. A host of them as well (Priapus)
b. Greeks wore phallic symbols
c. The phallus depicted at festivals with lusty humor
4. Animal Gods
5. Subterranean Gods
6. Ancestor and Hero Gods
a. Hercules – ½ god, son of Zeus
b. Hera keeps trying to kill him
7. Olympians
a. Zeus – God of Heaven and Storms
b. Ares – God of War
c. Poseidon – God of the Sea
d. Apollo – God of the Sun
e. Aphrodite – Goddess of Fertility and Reproduction
f. Athena – Goddess of Wisdom
v. Patron Gods
1. Usually for each city
vi. Religious Practice
1. Was fundamentally public and civic
2. A temporal reward system by offering the god sacrifices, gifts to
temples and prayers.
3. Olympic Festivals
a. Each city worshipped in its own festivals
b. There were pan-hellenic religious festivals, the most
important was the Olympic Festival
c. First held in 776, the year the Greek calendar begins
d. Prayers, sacrifices and ritual sports
4. The Oracle at Delphi
a. Prophecy was of the utmost importance
b. They believed that the gods knew and controlled the
future and If properly placated would reveal secrets.
c. Female prophets could ask about the future
d. Great leaders, always consulted the oracles
e. Prophecies were always cryptic and usually allowed people
to make their own decisions.
5. Sacrifices
a. Faith was a personal matter, religion was public for the
good of the community
b. The principal act was Sacrifice
c. During religious festival
d. Apatouria – for young men becoming citizens, they would
be introduced to their fathers friends
e. Brauron – for girls 12-14 in a festival to Artemis
f. Anthesteria – was a ritual to ward off evil from the home,
performed at the same time by everyone.
6. Mystery Cults
a. Initiates of cults would experience and epiphany by the
god or goddess
i. The Cult of Demeter and Core
1. Rooted in the Dark Ages
2. Agrarian Cult
3. Legend Persephone from Demeter (her
mother) was abducted by Hades
a. 3 parts descent- the search – the
ascent
b. Received benefits in the afterlife
c. Only requirement was no murder or
freedom from “blood guilt”
d. Slaves were allowed
e. Sometimes they would take drugs
f. Pennyroyal
ii. Dionysian Mysteries
1. Ritual which used intoxicants, dance and
music
2. Liberating individuals to a natural state free
from social constraints
3. Used Wine as sacrament and was similar to
other practices throughout the Med.
a. You were possessed by the gods
spirit
4. Predated Greek Civilization – probably
about 6000 BC, when wine came in to
Mesopotamia
5. Staggering was called the Dionysus Gait
H. Sex and Gender in Greece
a. Homosexulity
i. Theban Sacred Band
1. Consisted of lovers, they would fight harder
ii. Celebrated Male Beauty
iii. Homosexualuty and Masculinity went hand in hand
iv. Greeks were very clear about the role
1. Erastes – (Lover) the older partner, the active partner
2. Eromenos (beloved) – the younger or passive
v. Masculinity – was defined as action and superiority
vi. In practice
1. Upper Class, as farmers had little time to seduce
2. Boys courted openly
3. Older men bought presents to win favor
4. The relationship was supposed to be educational
5. It was dishonorable to be passive after marrying age
b. Women
i. We know little of the life of Greek women
ii. Hesiod’s poems depict women as a source of evil
1. Pandora – women are given to men because of their evil behavior
iii. Homer is a little more positive but not entirely
1. Women caused the Trojan War but made it worth fighting
iv. The Bee
1. Often an allegory for women in Greek literature
2. Ideals of A Good Wife
a. Controls household
b. Raises children
c. Needs to be industrious
d. Should remain in the home
e. Create a self sufficient home.
3. Pericles – the greatest glory for women is not to be talked about
by men
4. Law Courts say the same
v. Perception of Women
1. They believed women were driven by emotion and passion which
might erupt at any minute
2. Connections to the Cult of Dionysus
I. Slavery in Greece – Was Greek Democracy Based on Slavery?
a. Slaves in the Economy
1. Slavery had always been a Greek institution
2. Even the poorest Athenians were expected to own a slave
a. Not being able to own one was a sign of destitution
3. Usually slave were set up in a workshop, either working beside or
under the supervision of a free man
4. Female slaves worked in the household
ii. State owned slaves
1. Either owned be the state or leased from citizens
a. Refuse collection
b. Assist public officials
c. Put in the mines
iii. Farm Slaves
b. Attitudes about Slavery
i. Slaves were everywhere a natural component to society
ii. Democracy required citizens, which required Schole, “freedom from
work”
1. Therefore citizens depended on slaves
iii. Aristotles Argument
1. Universe exist in a state of tension between the dominant and
subordinate, so slavery was natural
2. Nature is best served when the two conditions are observed
3. Harmony exist when
a. Men rule women
b. Domesticated vs wild animals
c. It is better to rule a man rather than an animal
4. Slavery is the ultimate application of the principle of dominance
5. The only conclusion possible is that a slave is a man
who by nature is capable of belonging to another
and therefore does. The final proof that certain
men deserve to be slaves is that they are slaves.
c. Schole to School
i. Institutions to separate men of the mind from men who worked
physically
ii. Begins a distinction between high and low culture
iii.
iv.
J. Science in Greek
a. Athens had an intellectual Climate
b. Prosperity led to a traffic of ideas, teachers, and philosophers flooded into the
city
i. Gorgias of Leontini – whose lessons in rhetoric emphasized opposition
1. The Antithesis
ii. Protagoras of Abdera – “man is the measure of all things”
iii. Hippocrates – the founder of scientific medicine
MACEDON, PHILIP AND ALEXANDER
A. Macedon
a. Land of Mountains and valleys, with a broad fertile plain by the sea
b. Ruled by local oligarchs
c. Quote – (465) “Macedon, … was still for the most part a barbarous country of
hardy but letterless mountaineers when Philip came to the throne…indeed, to
the end of its career, though it used Greek as its official language it contributed
no author or artist or scientist or philosopher to the life of Greece. “
d. The Major Contribution was to its military formations.
B. Phillip II
a. Early rule
i. He took throne in 359, lived in Thebes in his young life.
ii. Pacifying local northern tribes
iii.
b. Government
i. Was a Aristocratic Monarchy
ii. He was an opportunist expanding his power where he could
iii. This brought him into trouble with Athens
iv. With Negations and shrewd diplomacy he annexed all lands up to the
Hellespont
c. The Macedonian Military
i. While most of Greece was fighting internally, Macedon built its strength
ii. They improved the Hoplite formation
iii. The Phalanx
1. Larger spears to interlock soldiers
2. 16,000 men nearly impenetrable
3. 16 ranks deep.
iv. Use of Cavalry to protect flanks
v. Light Infantry to skirmish
d. Phillip Moved South
i. He recovered coastal Macedon from Athens
ii. Late 350’s he was appointed commander of the Thessalians
iii. Sacred War (357-346) where he fought for control of the Oracle at Delphi
1. Athenians blocked him and Philip retreated
iv. Athens weakened by revolt of many of their allies, Philip was an
opportunist. He took advantage of this.
e. The Peace of Philocrates 346
i. Unable to fight Philip Militarily Athens sued for peace
ii. Philip gained control of Delphi and access to Southern Greece
C. Philip and Pan-Hellenism
a. Philip did not present himself as a conqueror
b. He designed a new League to make war on the Persians and he would serves as
commander
c. The Persian Crusade was not an original idea
i. Most Greeks wanted it
ii. Isocrates – orator and pamphleteer promoted the idea that if Greeks
could overcome their differences they could challenge the Persians
d. The Death of Philip II
i. He was assassinated before he could lead the Persian Campaign
ii. At the time of his death his army had secured the crossing into Asia
D. Alexander the Great
a. The Character
i. He was a great student, played harp, sports
ii. Very ambitious
iii. Always found in the thickest part of the battle
b. Rise to Power
i. Fathers Wedding
1. Phillip tried monogamy, it didn’t work
2. He then was to marry another wife, the daughter of a general
Attalus
3. At the betrothal feast, Attalus toast to their future marriage,
hoping for a full Macedonian heir, Alexander’s mother was only
half.
4. Alexander – “So what does that make me, a bastard, you villain?”
a. Philip and Alexander drew swords
b. Later they would reconcile
5. In 336, as Philip celebrated his marriage, Philip was stabbed to
death as he entered the Theater.
E. Alexander and Persia
a. The New Achilles
i. He grew up under the belief that through his mother he was descended
from Achilles
ii. Invasion of Persia was the achievement of fathers ambition and to finish
what Achilles had begun
b. Barbarism
i. Tutored by Aristotle
1. May have acquired the belief of Persian inferiority
2. Xenophon – had proven the superiority of the hoplite
c. Attack on Persia
i. Began his invasion in 334, his last time in Europe
ii. Fought and won two early engagement, giving Ionian Greeks Self-rule
d. Egypt and Syria
i. Tyre – He attacked Phoenician fleet being paid by the Persians
1. Lots of resistance
2. Alexander allowed his men to massacre 8000 people, sold 30000
into slavery
3. Later he regretted it
4. Later Jerusalem surrendered easily and no massacre
ii. Marched south to Phoenicia and Egypt to secure his flanks
1. While in Egypt he builds walls to new city Alexandria to protect
Greek merchants
e. Gaugamela
i. Persians had multiethnic army
ii. Combination of Arms favors the Greeks, infantry, skirmishes and cavalry,
despite superiority of Persian numbers
iii. Darius III – flees and is killed by his other generals.
iv. Alexander takes Babylon, shares spoils
v. Defeats Darius at Gaugamela and Took over as Persian King
f. The Winter March
i. Very shortly after Mesopotamia cities were liberated
ii. Alexander hastily crossed the mountains to seize Persepolis
1. He also seized the Persian Treasury
2. 300 million talents
iii. Quote – Here again his good judgment left him, and he burned the
magnificent city to the ground. His soldiers looted the houses, ravaged
the women and killed the men. Perhaps they had been infuriated by
seeing, on their approach to the town, 800 Greeks who, for various
reasons, had suffered mutilation at the hands of Persians, by cutting off
of legs, arms or ears, or the gouging out of the eyes. Alexander, moved to
tears by the sight, gave them lands and assigned dependents to work for
them. “
iv. Quote – On taking the Bessus – the Persian general who killed Darius III –
“Near Bokhara his men captured Bessus, who had slain Darius. Alexander,
suddenly making himself the avenger of the Great King, had Bessus
whipped almost to death, had his nose and ears cut off, and then sent
him to Ectbatana, where he was execute by having his arms tied to one,
and his legs to the other, of the two trees which had been drawn
together by ropes, so that when the ropes were cut pulled the body to
pieces
F. Alexander and the East
a. Further East
i. After Persian Conquest he marched East
ii. Conquered territories to the Indus River
iii. He spent nine years in Asia
b. Alexander’s Rule in Persia
i. To be successful in Persia, he would need to use Persian Administration
ii. He encouraged soldiers to marry Persians women
iii. Marriages
1. He marries Darius daughter (Statira) and Bacctraian Princess
(Parysatis) daughter of Artaxerxes III
2. He even pays his soldiers dowries (20 million)
iv. Opens Mesopotamia to Greek Colonization
v. Drafts 30,0000 Persians
c. The Death of A God
i. Many of his men thought that Persian Culture was Changing him
ii. 324 – He proclaimed himself the son of Zeus-Amon
1. Perhaps to make his rule more palatable to the Eastern peoples
2. Most Greek states could accept, it was in their culture
iii. To his men he said after getting grazed by an arrow , “ This you see is
blood, and not such ichor that flows from wounds of Immortals”
iv. He continued to offer sacrifice to the gods.
v. He demanded that Greeks prostrate themselves in his presence as
Eastern people had done
d. The Mutiny
i. Philotas – son of a general
1. Entered a conspiracy to kill Alexander
2. He was captured and Alexander tortured a confession that
implicated his father,
3. Philotas – was stoned to death by the Greek soldiers.
ii. Tensions Grew between him and his solders
1. Alex. Became lonely and isolated and paranoid
2. He began drinking a lot
3. More Assassination attempts
4. He announced that he would send the eldest son of each man
home
a. Other soldiers asked if they all could go home
b. “Go back and report that you deserted your king and left
him to the protection of conquered foreigners. “
c. The soldiers begged his apologies and reinstatement
before they returned home. .
iii. Returned to Babylon in 323
1. Began to drink more
2. He drank six quarts of wine to win a wager and heavily the next
night
3. He caught fever died at 33
4. When asked who should get his empire he said “The Strongest”
G. Contributions of Alexander
a. Put and end to the fighting between city states
b. Sacrificed a little local freedoms to create a larger system of stability that had yet
to be seen in Europe
c. Broke the barrier between Greek and “barbarian”
d. Prepared for a Cosmopolitan Hellenistic Age
H. Durant “IT was just as well that he died at his zenith; added years would almost surely
have brought him disillusionment. Perhaps if he had lived he might have learned – as he
was beginning to love statesmanship more than war. But he had undertaken too much;
the strain of holding his swollen realm together, and watching all its parts, was probably
disordering his brilliant mind. Energy is only half of genius; the other half is harness; and
alexander was all energy. We miss in him – though we have no right to expect – the
calm maturity of Caesar, or the subtle wisdom of Augustus. We admire him as we
admire Napoleon, because he stood alone against half the world and because he
encourages us with the thought of the incredible power that lies potential in the
individual soul. “
I. Quote – Hellenistic Greece did not feel Alexander’s Death as “ the end of an age”; it
looked upon him as the beginning of “modern” times, and as a symbol of vigorous youth
rather than a factor in decay; it was convinced that it had no entered upon its richest
maturity”
GREECE AFTER ALEXANDER
A. The New Greek World
a. Alexander no doubt had expanded the empire.
b. But there was little cohesion to it.
c. It was loosely bound together by language, communication, custom and faith
d. Three Major Monarchies Emerged
i. Macedonia
ii. Seleucia
iii. Egypt
B. Problems with Unity
a. Size and diversity made unification and standardization impossible
b. All thoughts of democracy dismissed
c. It also makes the study of this period as a continuity of Greek history difficult
C. Five divisions and Leaders
a. 321
b. Antipater – Macedon and Greece
c. Lysimachus – Thrace
d. Antigonus – Asia Minor
e. Seleucus – Babylon
f. Ptolemy – Egypt
g. From this point monarchies will rule Europe until the French Revolution.
h. Quote – The Basic principle of democracy is freedom inviting chaos; the basic
principle of monarchy is power inviting tyranny, revolution and war
i. Examples
1. When Antipater died, Athens revolted and killed Antipater’s
governor
a. Cassander (Antipater’s son) retook the city and
reestablished order
2. Antigonus – wanted to unite all the empire under one rule
a. Lost battle as Ipsus in 301
b. The lost Asia Minor to Seleucus I
3. There are numerous other examples of the new Greek
Monarchies fighting each other.
D. The Seleucid Empire
a. Seleucus – one of Alexander’s Generals
b. His empire would survive until the armies of Mohammed
c. His kingdom included
i. Elam
ii. Sumeria
iii. Persia
iv. Babylonia
v. Assyria
vi. Phoenicia
vii. And Parts of Asia Minor
d. Placed his capital at Babylon (Bagdad)
i. Within 50 years it had a population of 600’000
ii. Asians dominated by Greeks
e. Seleucus was assassinated in 281
i. After his death his empire began to break apart under racial strife,
struggles for the throne and barbarian invasions from all directions
ii. Antiochus III – would reunited the Empire through countless wars
1. He would eventually lose Syria and Phoenicia to Ptolemy IV
2. Lost to Rome at Thermopile so he concentrated on the East
f. Seleucid Civilization
i. Brought Tigris and Euphrates region back to former glory
1. Irrigation and canals reconstructed
ii. Commerce
1. Issued stable currency to conduct international trade
a. The region was bartering for nearly 400 years
b. Great road system left from the Persians assisted trade
iii. Government
1. Monarchy was more Asian, as in absolute
2. There was no assembly
3. Court was planned on the Oriental Style
a. Only the speech and writing was Greek
b. Stability rested on the Greek Population, so the
encouraged migration
E. Pergamum
a. As the Seleucid Empire collapsed a number of smaller Kingdoms rose the Near
East was plagued by war
b. Gauls Invade but were stopped by a Pergamum King
c. At the Death of Attalus II (139) he distrusted his sons to rule, so he bequeathed
his Kingdom to Rome.
F. Hellenism and Jews
a. Judea was caught between Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire
i. First they were under Ptolemy control
ii. Seleucid was dissatisfied with this because they were cut off from
Mediterranean
b. There was some conflict between Hellenic and Hebraic ways of life
i. Greek settlements surrounded Judea
1. Samaria, Meapolis, Polis (Haifa) Gaza, Acco (Acre)
2. Cities with Greek gods and temples
3. Greeks were devoted to science and art, pleasure and
homosexuality
ii. Jews allowed Relative autonomy
iii. Intermarriage was forbidden
iv. The Jews were an agricultural people, had not yet become merchants
1. 1st Century Jewish historian Josephus said “we are not a
commercial people”
2. They lived simple
v. The Jews did not like Greek superstition and fortunetelling
vi. Hellenic culture brought in the “bad” to Jewish society
c. Chasidim – Cult “The Pious”
i. Began around 300 BC
ii. You joined with a pledge to abstain from drinking for periods of time
iii. There were extremist, who preached against all forms of pleasure
d. The Capture of Jerusalem
i. In 198 Antiochus III (Seleucid) captures Jerusalem
ii. Jew were tired of Egyptian yoke, so they supported and welcomed the
change
iii. Antiochus IV began overly taxing them
e. Conflict of Religion
i. Menalaus – High Priest
1. Selected by Antiochus IV because he promised to Hellenize
Jerusalem
2. Yahweh = Zeus
3. Some Jews offered sacrifice to Greek gods
ii. These actions pushed many Jews to Chadism
iii. After Antiochus IV was defeated in Egypt, the Jews heard he had died.
iv. They revolted against Hellenizing faction, massacred them to cleanse the
temple
v. Antiochus IV was not dead
1. He thought the Jews had sabotaged his campaign in Egypt and
were conspiring to rejoin Egypt
2. He marched on Jerusalem and massacred thousands
3. Menalaus – was reinstalled as High Priest
4. Issues compulsory Hellenization of All Jews 167
5. Rededicates Temple to Zeus, no Sabbath and no circumcision
(capital crime)
vi. Most of Jerusalem burned
vii. Population sold into slavery or fled to caves
viii. Foreign peoples were brought in to settle.
f. Mattathias
i. Among the group that fled with his five sons
1. Johannan, Simon, Judas, Eleazar and Johnathan
ii. Agents of Antiochus found them, the old Matt. Said
iii. Q “Even should all the people in the Kingdom obey the order to depart
from the faith of their fathers, I am my sons will abide by the Covenant of
our ancestors”
iv. One of the group, move toward the altar to make the proper Greek
sacrifice, Matthias killed him and Antiochus IV agent.
v. Matthias led the group into the mountains of Ephraim
1. Chadism kept alive.
2. He died, left his son Judas in charge, he was called Maccabee “the
hammer”
3. They would raid from the mountains where “they lived in the
manner of the beast, feeding on herbs>”
4. They would kill backsliders and circumcise people
vi. Antiochus sent Syrian Greeks to Kill these Jewish rebels
1. 166 – a battle poorly armed Jews won
2. Antiochus sent a larger force.
a. The general was so confident of victory he brought a slave
trader with him who already took bids on the Jews to be
captured
3. Battle of Mizpah – the Jews defeat the larger force
a. Jerusalem fell to Judas without resistance
b. He destroyed pagan altars
c. Orthodox Jews returned in 164.
vii. Antiochus sent another army to recapture the city
1. As the army marched toward Jerusalem, Antiochus died (163)
2. The general, seeing that his army could be put to better use
elsewhere offered the Jews religious freedom
3. Most Chadism accepted the Maccabees refused
a. They wanted political autonomy as well
b. The Maccabees began massacring the pro-Hellenic
factions
viii. The New Jewish State
a. Judas died in 161, slain in battle
b. His brother Johnathan, led the Maccabees
i. He was slain in battle in 143
c. Simon – the last surviving brother
i. Named high priest and general
ii. First year of his reign was a new era in Jewish
history
1. Issued coins for first time.
G. Ptolemaic Egypt –
a. Ptolemy
i. Alexander’s best general
ii. Married Alex. Mistress Thais
iii. Unlike other successors of Alexander, he preferred to strengthen his rule
over a foreign population rather than try to expand his empire
1. Built fleets
2. Helped preserve the independence of Macedon
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
iv. His empire controlled the Hellespont and Eastern Med.
v. He built the library of Alexandria
vi. In 285 – he stepped down at 82 years old.
1. He appointed his second son, Ptolemy Philadephus the next King
Ptolemy II
i. Adhered to the philosophy of Cyrene
1. Monochronos hedone – every pleasure that the moment gave
2. Drank and ate himself to obesity
3. Had mistresses, divorced his wife and married his sister (Arsinoe)
a. She ran the empires wars while he ran the chefs and
scholars
4. He feared death greatly, searched for the elixir of life from
Egyptian Priests
5. He died in 246 – Succeed by Ptolemy Euergetes (well doer)
Ptolemy III
i. He was the warrior
ii. Fought in the East
iii. Almost toppled the Seleucids, weakened them for Rome.
Other rulers
i. Allowed Greek rule in Egypt to fall apart
ii. Macedon and Seleucia would dismember the empire of Ptolemaic Egypt
iii. This would allow the romans easy pickings made a protectorate in 205.
The Ptolemaic State
i. Socialist
1. Royal ownership of land was the tradition
2. Farmers turned over the largest parts of their crop to the state
3. In essence, Egypt was a vast state owned farm.
a. People told what crops to grow
4. Livestock and draft animals could be requisitioned by the state
ii. Exceptions 1. Farmers owned their own houses and gardens
2. People began demanding the enforcement of inheritance
a. By the first century common property was disappearing
Agricultural Inventions
i. Inventions
ii. Shadif replaced by noria
iii. The Archimedes Screw
iv. Greek engineers drained lakes and swamps, made more arable land
g. The Fate of Ptolemaic Egypt
i. Like in Judea, Greek culture was eventually surrendered to native beliefs
ii. Greeks never learned the native languages
iii. Outside of Alexandria people maintained their own cultures and
languages
iv. Greeks never bothered to build cities south of the delta
v. Quote “The Egyptian priests, shorn of wealth and power, and dependent
for their sustenance upon grants of money from the state, waited
patiently for the Greek wave to recede. In the end it was not Hellenism
that won in Alexandria, by mysticism now laid the foundations of NewPlatonism and he medley of promissory cults that competed for the
Alexandrian soul in the centuries that surrounded the birth of Christ.
Osiris as Seprapis became the favorite god of the later Egyptians, and of
many Egyptians Greeks; Isis regained popularity as goddess of women
and motherhood.
vi. Isis was later worshipped in the Christian Mary and Seraphis , Christ.
H. The End of Hellenic Era
a. What caused the Decline of Greek Civilization
i. Decline and deterioration of the population
1. Wastage of fratricidal war
2. Killing men of ability through war, revolution and counter
revolution
ii. Decline in morality
iii. Disturbance of Economics by political disorder
iv. Replacement of civilian soldiers by mercenaries
v. Deforestation and exhaustion of the soil
vi. Depletion of precious metals
vii. Migration of trade routes
viii. Corruption of democracy
ix. All of these happened to Greece while Rome was in its infancy
THE FOUNDATION OF THE ROME
Quote – Polybuis “Who is so worthless or indolent as of polity the Romans in less that fiftythree years have succeeded in subjugating the whole inhabited world to their sole government
– a thing unique in history? Who is so passionately devoted to other studies as to regard
anything of greater moment than the acquisition of this knowledge”
A. Legend of Romulus and Remus
a. A local young king, Numitor was overthrown by his younger brother, Amulius
b. Amulius – killed his nephew and made his niece become a vestal virgin (30 year
service)
i. This would prevent rival claimants to the throne
c. Rhea Silva (the Niece)
i. She was raped by the God Mars
ii. She had twin sons
iii. Romulus and Remus
iv. They punished her by throwing her into a river. The god of the River
married her
v. The Babies were put in a reed basket, found by she-wolf
1. Latin – Lupa means wolf and prostitute
vi. Amulius was killed in battle and Numitor was restored
vii. Found Romulus and Remus
1. They decided to build a city where the basket came ashore.
viii. Laid out the plans for the city with a white cow and bull
ix. Remus begins mocking Romulus by jumping furrows
x. Romulus Kills him.
xi. Romulus realizing they were short on women, abuducted 600 women
from a neighboring tribe.
d. Other legends
i. Aenaus – half god who fought against the Greeks in the Trojan War
1. He escaped and founded the clan that Romulus and Remus come
from.
e. The Aeneid
i. Augustus commission Virgil
ii. Presented the legend, became the most famous poem in the Roman era.
iii. Quote (Virgil) – “Now Aeneas looking out from the glassy ocean, sees a
vast strch of forest. The River Timners pleasant stream flows through it
before bursting into the sea in swirling eddies made yellow by the
copious sandy sediment. Above and all around, different kinds of birds
indigenous to the river banks and reaches sweeten the air with song as
the dart amoun the trees. Having ordered his companions to change
course and steer for land, Aeneas is elated as he makes the river;s shade.
“
iv. Aeneaus marries the doughter of local etriscan king
B. The Birth of Rome
a. Georgraphy of the Italian Penninsula
i. Great soil and many natural resources
ii. Three Rivers, Tiber, Arno and Po
iii. Plains are fertile
b. Pre-Roman Italians
i. Before Greek colonizers and Etruscans Humans inhabited region since
the stone Age
ii. Literary sources do not become available until the 5th century
iii. At least forty languages and dialects have been determined
c. Etruscan Influence
i. Across the Tiber to the North
ii. Between 650-600, Etruscans invaded Latium
iii. Villages from the hills of Rome either united in defense or to align with
Etruscan policy.
iv. Art and Architecture was handed to the romans
v. By the 3rd century the Etruscan Areas were absorbed, by the !st Century
they ceased to exist as a cultural group.
C. The Regal Period (753-509)
a. Traditions of the Kings
i. There were seven kings in the so-called Regal Period, 753–509 BC. They
were, in order: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullius Hostilius, Ancius
Marcius (the Latin or Sabine Kings), Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius,
Tarquinius Superbus (the two Tarquins were Etruscans).
ii. Each king had a set of stories attached to him.
b. Livy – Our Primary Source
i. Livy had access to now lost written accounts of earlier writers, but from
later than the Regal Period
ii. Mostly received as legend
iii. First Historical King – Numa Pompilius
c. Law and Politics
i. Firstly Kings were elected
1. By a council of Nobles
2. Between the kings, there was an interrex who held office
3. The Roots of the Roman Constitution was under the kings
ii. Powers
1. Capital punishment
2. Public works
3. Foreign relations
4. Maintenance of religion
iii. His litter carried rods with axe in center
1. Punishment could be metted out
2. Becomes symbol of roman authority
d. Regal Society –
i. Class and Clientage
1. Free born – broad distinction between citizen and non-citizen
2. Citizens broken into “tribes”
a. Originally there were three
b. Later reached 35
3. Duties of a Citizen
a. Chief duty was military service
b. Early on like in Greece
i. Citizen/military class was limited to the land
owning aristocracy
4. Prominent Families and Common Families
a. Social system of clientship (clientela)
b. A Patron granted favors, in return for loyalty, support and
respect
ii. Politics
1. The state was controlled more by aristocrats more than king.
a. Kings were chosen by the Senate
2. Servian Constitution
a. Illustrates a lot of the problems
i.
D. Overthrow of the Monarchy
a. King Tarquinus Superbus – last king of Rome
i. Poor ruler with unpopular policies
b. Rape of Lucretia
i. She commits suicide
ii. Lucius Junuis Brutus – a friend of the family
1. Promises retaliation
iii. Oath of Brutus
1. By this guiltless blood before the kingly injustice I swear –
you and the gods as my witnesses – I make myself the one
who will prosecute, by what force I am able, Lucius
Tarquinius Superbus along with his wicked wife and the
whole house of his freeborn children by sword, by fire, by
any means hence, so that neither they nor any one else be
suffered to rule Rome.
c. The Coup
i. Tarquinius – forced to flee Rome to neighbor kingdom
ii. A counter-revolution to restore the monarchy
iii. Brutus has to kill the Kings two sons.
d. Historical Problems with the Story
i. Like a lot of Roman sources the real reason is hidden behind
romantic and heroic stories.
ii. Transition to Republic was probably gradual and growing
The Early Roman Republic
A. Formation of the Government
a. Evolved over time.
b. Consuls – Two men shared executive power
c. Two Assemblies
i. Comitia curiata
ii. Comitia cenuriata
B. Roman Law
TABLE IV. PATERNAL POWER
1. A NOTABLY DEFORMED CHILD SHALL BE KILLED IMMEDIATELY.
2A. TO A FATHER ...SHALL BE GIVEN OVER A SON THE POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
2B. IF A FATHER THRICE SURRENDERS A SON FOR SALE THE SON SHALL BE FREE FROM THE
FATHER.
3. TO REPUDIATE HIS WIFE HER HUSBAND SHALL ORDER HER... TO HAVE HER OWN
PROPERTY FOR HERSELF, SHALL TAKE THE KEYS, SHALL EXPEL HER.
4. A CHILD BORN WITHIN TEN MONTHS OF THE FATHER'S DEATH SHALL ENTER INTO THE
INHERITANCE ...
TABLE V. INHERITANCE AND GUARDIANSHIP
1. ...WOMEN, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE OF FULL AGE, BECAUSE OF THEIR LEVITY OF MIND
SHALL BE UNDER GUARDIANSHIP ... EXCEPT VESTAL VIRGINS, WHO Â… SHALL BE FREE
FROM GUARDIANSHIP ...
2. THE CONVEYABLE PO SSESSIONS OF A WOMAN WHO IS UNDER GUARDIANSHIP OF MALE
AGNATES SHALL NOT BE ACQUIRED BY PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHT UNLESS THEY ARE
TRANSFERRED BY HERSELF WITH THE AUTHORIZATION OF HER GUARDIAN ...
3. ACCORDING AS A PE RSON HAS MADE BEQUEST REGARDING HIS PERSONAL PROPERTY
OR THE GUARDIANSHIP OF HIS ESTATE SO SHALL BE THE LAW.
4. IF ANYONE WHO HAS NO DIRECT HEIR DIES NEAREST MALE AGNATE SHALL HAVE THE
ESTATE.
5. IF THERE IS NOT A MALE AGNATE THE MALE CLANSMEN SHALL HAVE THE ESTATE.
6. PERSONS FOR WHOM BY WILL ... A GUARDIAN IS NOT GIVEN, FOR THEM ... THEIR MALE
AGNATES SHALL BE GUARDIANS. IF A PERSON IS INSANE AUTHORITY OVER HIM AND HIS
PERSONAL PROPERTY SHALL BELONG TO HIS MALE AGNATES AND IN DEFAULT OF THESE
TO HIS MALE CLANSMEN.
7B. ... BUT IF THERE IS NOT A GUARDIAN FOR HIM ...
7C. ... ADMINISTRATION OF HIS OWN GOODS SHALL BE FORBIDDEN TO A SPENDTHRIFT. ...
A SPENDTHRIFT, WHO IS FORBIDDEN FROM ADMINISTERING HIS OWN GOODS, SHALL BE ...
UNDER GUARDIANSHIP OF HIS MALE AGNATES.
8. IF A ROMAN CITIZE N FREEDMAN DIES INTESTATE WITHOUT A DIRECT HEIR, TO HIS
PATRON SHALL FALL THE INHERITANCE ...SAID HOUSEHOLD ... INTO SAID HOUSEHOLD.
9. THOSE ITEMS THAT ARE IN THE CATEGORY OF ACCOUNTS DUE TO THE DECEASED
...SHALL BE DIVIDED AMONG THE HEIRS BY ORDINARY OPERATION OF LAW IN
PROPORTION TO THEIR SHARES OF THE INHERITANCE. ... DEBTS OF THE ESTATE OF A
DECEASED SHALL BE DIVIDED, ACCORDING TO LAW, AMONG THE HEIRS,
PROPORTIONATELY TO THE SHARE OF THE INHERITANCE THAT EACH ACQUIRES.
10. ...ACTION FOR DIVISION OF AN ESTATE SHALL BE AVAILABLE FOR JOINT HEIRS WISHING
TO WITHDRAW FROM COMMON AND EQUAL PARTICIPATION ...
C. Roman Citizenship
a. Was a political and legal status, not cultural
i. So it did not offend local customs within the Empire
b. They needed Military Power
i. Ex formula togatorum
ii. “military service of the togated peoples
c. Categories of Citizens
i. Roman Citizens
1. Full Rights
2. Vote in Assemblies
3. Hold office
4. Serve in the Senate
ii. Citizens without legal franchise
1. People who lived in distant areas
2. Enjoyed Protection of Roman Law
3. Eventually made full citizens
iii. Latins
1. Members of 30 Latin communities or colonies
2. Self governing military settlements
3. Half-citizens, they could go to Rome and resume “full citizenship”
4. Each colony had a separate treaty with Rome
iv. Italian Allies
1. Socii – Italian or Greek Communities
2. Owed military service
3. Retained their own institution
d. Classification of Citizenship
i. Patricians and Plebians
1. Nobiles –
a. Hold high office and priesthood
b. By 264 BCE – A new noble class emerged
i. Most of these nobles were not the original
patrician elite
2. Plebians
a. Not all were poor
b. Between 367-287 plebs gained concessions that opened
offices
i. Ended debt slavery
ii. Distributed lands from defeated foes
iii. Gained assembly (concilium plebis)
D. Roman Government
a. Assemblies
i. Assemblies based on Property, Age, and residence
ii. The Centuriate Assembly was based on units in the Roman army and was
heavily weighted toward age and property. Its members were the
landowners, and it elected high officials of state.
iii. The Tribal Assembly was based on residence; citizens were registered in
one of 35 tribes, or large districts. This assembly voted on legislation.
1. Closest to democracy they ever came
b. The Senate
i. Made up of former Magistrates
ii. Was the advisory board
E.
F.
G.
H.
iii. Assemblies were conservative because later they hoped to make their
way to the Senate
iv. Dominated the State during the expansive period
1. It had the collective experience of all former magistrates
The Bonds of Roman Society
a. Patronus and clientas
i. The bonds of patron and client were inherited and reciprocal.
ii. The ties of patronage had both political and military implications. Clients
were expected to vote in the direction of their patrons and to turn out for
the draft when called.
iii. In return, patrons gave a great deal of protection and advantage to their
clients, including legal protection.
iv. Could also accept guilds and other groups
b. Conservative Characteristics
i. Voters were tied to patrons
ii. Senate tended to be dominated by political elite
c. “Novus Homo” – New Man
i. Rare cases where non-elites were elected to the Senate
ii. From 367 B.C. to 46 B.C., Rome had 640 consulships, but only 21 of these
offices were held by new men, and this number represents only 11
individuals.
Undoing of the Order
a. Client system and Patronage began to dissolve in the end of the 2nd century
i. Social and economic changes
ii. The Republic was breaking down.
Roman Slavery
a. Slaves
i. Most were war captives
ii. Race was not a factor
iii. Many slaves were liberated and became client of former dominus
1. Then given full citizenship and right to vote
b. Slave Stats
i. 200-50 – one million slaves were sold in Italian markets
ii. 225 – ten percent of population was slaves
iii. 50- BCE – 30 percent
c. Distinctions of Slavery
i. State slaves and Individually owned slaves
Changes in the Later Republic
i. As the Republic expanded, slave markets flooded
ii. Equestrian Orders
1. “the gentlemen outside the Senate”
2. Not a middle class
3. Gained wealth when the empire expanded
a. Contracted slave labor
b. Tax farmed
c. Banking
d. Lawyers
THE ROMAN ARMY
A. The Roman Military Machine
a. Citizens and Army were one.
b. Centuries
i. The Army assembled into centuries was the chief law-making body of the
state.
ii. First Class – Heavy Infantry
1. Two spears, dagger, sword
2. Full Armor
iii. Second Class
1. Missing Cuirass
iv. Third and Fourth
1. No armor
v. Fifth Class
1. Slingers
B. The Legion
a. Mixed Brigade
i. 4200 infantry
ii. 300 cavalry
iii. Various auxiliary groups
b. Divided into Centuries
i. First of 100 then later 200
c. Vexillum – Banner
i. Dishonored if this falls into enemy hands
ii. Officers threw it at enemies
d. Tactics
i. First Stage
1. Front Rows –
a. At 10-20 paces, volley of javelins
2. Wings –
a. Arches and slingers
ii. Second Stage
1. Decisive action
2. Hand to hand
iii. Maniples
1. Reorganized in 366 BCE
2. Checkerboard pattern of troops
3. Made possible for rapid reinforcement
4. And for quick flanking
5. Free play for individual combat
C. Discipline
a. Romans were educated for War
b. Studied Military Art before all others
c. Roman Army was vegetarian
d. No Pay until 405 BCE
e. They lost battles not wars
D. The Conquest of Italy
a. War With the Latin League
i. 496 BCE – Tarquins convinced surrounding towns to attack Rome
ii. Called First Dictator Aulus Postumius
iii. In three years Rome emerged victorious
iv. Quote “Between the Romans and the cities of the Latins there shall be
peace as long as heaven and earh shall last…Both shall share equally in all
booty taken in a common war”
v. Rome became a member of the league then its master.
b. War with Veii (405)
i. Battled for control of the Tiber
ii. Erturia joined the war against Rome
iii. Rome besieged Veii, fpr nine years
iv. After several other wars Rome Annexed Veii and Erutria
1. Renamed it Tuscia
c. War with the Gaul
i. Began in 390 and lasted until Caesar
ii. Gauls
1. Not much known of there origins
2. From Spain to Wales and Scotland, Germany
3. Polybius Description
a. Tall and handsome
b. Fought naked except for golden amulets
4. Durant Quote “When the Celts of Southern Gaul tasted the Italian
wine, they were so pleased with it that they decided to visit the
land that produced such transporting fruit; probably they were
moved by the quest for fresh acres and new pasturage. “
iii. Around 400 – They moved into Erutria which put up little defense
iv. 390 – 30000 Gauls defeated Rome in battle and saceked Rome.
1. They destroyed a large part of the city
2. For seven months the remnants of the Roman Army was besieged
3. They finally paid off the Gauls, 1000 pounds of Gold to leave
v. Other Celtic invasions
1. 367, 358, and 350
2. After being repelled they finally settled in Northern Itally
a. Cisalpine Gaul
d. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus
i. Rome was pinched between Gaul in the North and Greeks in the South
1. A few Greek cities, gave themselves over to Rome
2. Tarentum refused and called on Pyrrhus to Aid them
ii. Heraclea (280) – Rome was defeated
1. Hence the name Pyrrhic Victory
2. Greek cities joined Pyrrhus and pressed Rome for peace
3. Appius Claudius
a. Old and blind, he asked to be carried into the Senate
b. Said Rome should never make peace with foreigners on
Italian soil
c. Rome resumed the war they finally drove out Pyrrhus in
275.
iii. After two centuries Rome was the undisputed master of Italy
E. Carthage
a. Carthage
i. Origins
1. Phoenician Colony (First settle in 813 BC)
2. Legend Queen Dido – Fled Tyre when it was sacked by Alexander.
ii. Economy –
1. Carthage was a trade empire
2. They preferred to trade agricultural goods for manufactured
goods
a. Although they were skilled in metal-working
3. Merchants ruled the city not aristocracy
iii. Empire –
1. From North Africa to Spain
2. Islands of the Mediterranean
a. Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and West Sicily
3. They demanded tribute, conscription and control of foreign
relations
4. By 400, Carthage was the richest city.
a. 20 x wealthier than Athens had been at its height.
iv. The City of Carthage
1. 250,000 people
2. Surrounded by water on three sides
3. Forty five foot tall wall on the land side of the city.
4. Had accommodations for 4000 horses, 300 elephants and 20000
men.
v. Morals
1. Mostly what we know is from their enemies
a. Quote “ Greek and Roman writers describe them as heavy
eaters and drinkers, loving to gather in dinner clubs, and
loose in their sex relations as the were corrupt in their
politics.”
b. Polybius – “ Nothing that results in profit is regarded as
disgraceful”
b. Carthaginian motivation was driven by concerns of profit and cost-effectiveness,
which differed greatly from Roman motivation.
i. Carthage was run like a large company, with citizens getting a share in
the profits of trade.
ii. The Carthaginians resorted to war when necessary but preferred
peaceful means of resolving potential conflicts.
iii. In contrast, the Romans were motivated by the sociopolitical
considerations of loyalty to one’s friends and allies and maintaining face.
F. The First Punic War
a. The First Punic War started small and by accident, but developed into a titanic
struggle for control of Sicily.
b. The spark that ignited the First Punic war was small.
i. Italian adventurers, called the Mamertines, seized the eastern Sicilian city
of Messana and, when pressured by Syracuse, appealed first to Carthage
and then to Rome.
ii. The humiliation of the Carthaginian fleet and the movement of the
Romans into Sicily caused the Carthaginians to send troops to Sicily to
crush the Mamertines.
iii. This affair brought Rome and Carthage into open conflict.
c. The Course of the War happened in three phases.
i. The first phase (264–60 BC) saw Roman and Punic armies fighting on land
in Sicily. The Roman feat of arms in storming and capturing Agrigentum in
262 BC cowed the Carthaginians, who avoided engaging the legions in a
set-piece land battle for the rest of the war.
ii. Roman frustration at the Punic ability to resupply Sicily by sea led to the
second phase of the war, fought on the Tyrrhenian Sea and in Africa
(260–55 BC).
1. The Romans built a huge fleet in a few months and put to sea in
260 BC, defeating the Carthaginians at the battle of Mylae.
2. Quote Page 44 – “This Fact…shows us better that anything else
how spirited and daring the Romans are when they are
determined to do a thing…they had never given the thought to a
navy; yet when they had once conceived the project they took it
in hand so boldly that before gaining any experience in such
matters they at once engaged the Carthaginians, who for
generations had held undisputed command of the seas. “
3. A Roman invasion of North Africa in 256 BC ended with the
ambush and defeat of the Roman force in 255 BC, followed
shortly thereafter by the destruction of the Roman fleet in a
storm off Sicily.
iii. The third and final phase of the war was fought on Sicily and the
surrounding seas (255–41 BC).
1. The Carthaginians fought most of this phase of the war as a
guerrilla campaign from their impregnable bases at Mt. Eryx and
Mt. Hercte in western Sicily. Both sides also vied for control of
naval bases in Sicily.
2. Carthaginian cost-effective thinking hampered their war effort
and, in 241 BC, when they faced a new Roman fleet at the
Aegates Islands, they were roundly defeated.
3. In 241 BC the Carthaginians surrendered.
a. The Romans imposed a huge war indemnity and debarred
Carthage from Sicily (which Rome promptly annexed as its
first overseas province).
d. The First Punic War had important ramifications for Rome and for Carthage.
i. Rome enjoyed several benefits as a result of its victory in the First Punic
War.
ii. The Romans had been drawn out of the Italian peninsula and now
possessed their first overseas province, the fertile island of Sicily.
iii. The Romans now possessed the largest fleet in the Mediterranean.
iv. They took advantage of their fleet and Punic weakness to annex Sardinia
and Corsica in 238 BC, further encroaching into the traditional
Carthaginian sphere of activity.
v. Roman tenacity and determination in the face of adversity had been
made clear to all.
vi. Defeat drove Carthage to new pastures.
vii. The closing of the seas around Sicily and Italy drove Carthage westward.
viii. Between 241 and 220 BC the Carthaginians carved out a small empire in
Spain.
ix. In certain Carthaginian circles, the Roman victory was too bitter a pill to
swallow and an even larger conflict was to emerge from this
circumstance.
THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
A. The Agrarian Revolt.
a. Causes –
i. Influx of slave grown grain
1. Ruined Italian farmers who could not compete
ii. Influx of Slaves –
1. Displacing peasants in the countrywide and free people in the
cities
2. Slaves did not have to go into military service and could tend
fields year round.
iii. Growth of the large farms
1. Law in 220 – forbid senators from taking contracts and invest in
commerce, so they turned to land ownership.
iv. Quote – (Durant. Vol. 3 page. 111) “ Finally, the peasant himself, after he
had seen and looted the world as a soldier, had no taste or patience for
the lonely labor and unadventurous chores of the farm; he preferred to
join the turbulent proletariat of the city, with without cost the exciting
games of the amphitheater, receive cheap corn from the government,
sell his vote to the highest bidder or promiser, and lose himself in the
impoverished and indiscriminate mass. “
b. Slaves –
i. Were a product of increasing conquest
ii. 10,000 auctioned per day.
iii. Urban slaves – were often eased by contact with the owner
iv. Rural Slaves - seldom saw their absentee owners
c. Slave Revolts
i. 139- the First Servile War broke out
1. Slaves in Sicily
2. Slaves rallied to Leader, EUNUS
3. Numbered 70,000
4. Held the city of Argentum until 131
ii. Revolts in the following years – 196, 185, 139, 131
d. Urbanization
B. The Brothers Gracchi
a. Tiberius Gracchus
1. 133 – he was elected Tribune
2. Submitted 3 bills to the Tribal Assembly
a. Citizens should be limited in the size of land holdings
b. All other public lands acquired by the state would be paid
for plus cost of improvements
c. Divide 20 acre lots, given to peasants on the conditions
that they never be sold
d. Attempt to enforce land laws of 367
ii. Tiberius Gracchus Quote - “ ‘The Plebs’ have their holes and their hiding
places; but the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy only the light and
the air. Our generals urge this soldiers to fight for the graves and shrines
of their ancestors. The appeal is idle and false. You cannot point to a
paternal altar. You have no ancestral tomb. You fight and die to give
wealth and luxury to others. You are called the masters of the world, but
there is not a foot of ground that you can call your own. “
iii. The Resistance of the Senate
1. Condemn the notion, and get other tribune to veto Gracchus’ bills
2. Gracchus has him forcibly removed for not representing the
interest
3. Sentate tried to impeach him for the action,
b. The Death of Tiberius
i. He sought reelection to avoid prosecution (special feature of the
constitution)
ii. He promised
1. To shorten military service
2. Abolish senatorial jury rights
3. Admit Italian Allies to Roman Citizenship
iii. On election day he wore mourning clothes
1. Stating that if he did not win, he would surely be killed
2. Senators beat him with clubs along with hundreds of followers
3. His body was thrown in the Tiber, no burial
iv. Senate pressured to pass the Gracchan law.
1. The law was difficult to enforce
2. Its apologist supporters were later killed in their sleep
c. Caius Gracchus
i. Elected Tribune in 124
1. Wanted to finish his brothers work, but was more amicable
2. He wanted to please, the urban poor, the army, the farmers.
a. Soldiers – Should be clothed at public expense
b. Urban Poor – lex fumentaria – cheap grain
i. This turned to poor away from the aristocrat clients
to supporters of Gracchus
c. Middle Class - By promoting colonization of some to the
conquered areas, including Carthage.
3. Political Maneuvers
a. Business class can be jurors for themseleves
b. Attempted to dilute the Senate byt adding 300 more men
chosen by the mercantile class
c. Wanted to extend the franchise to all Italian allies
i. Big mistake
4. Marcus Livius Drusus
a. Senatorial Party ran him
b. Purposefully chosen to out “promise” Cauis Gracchus
c. Gracchus voted out and retired to Private life
ii. Death of Caius Gracchus
1. The senate began to undo his legislation
2. Some of his supporters killed a conservative senator who
threatened Caius
3. The Next Day Senate come in full battle gear
4. Caius Fled and was captured
5. 3000 of his followers were killed by Senate decree
d. Undoing of Legislation
i. Some things like businessmen in the courts and free grain for the urban
population could not be undone.
ii. Mainly it was the land reform that was repeals and the land commission
was ended in 118
iii. The growth of large slave operated farms increased.
C. Marius
a. The condition of the military
i. Enlistments could not be reached as many romans lost land and
therefore civil rights
ii. More and more troops were required from the Italian Allies
iii. Desertion was up, discipline was terrible
b. Invasion from the North 113
i. Cambrii and Teutons
1. Germanic Tribes from around Denmark
ii. Wasn’t as much of an invasion rather than a migration
iii. 300,000 from Germany in covered wagons.
iv. They defeat five Roman Armies and poured into Southern Gaul
c. War in Numidia
i. Jugurtha – killed his brother and took kingdom
1. Came to Rome and bribed his way through the city as he tried to
negotiate a peace
d. Gaius Marius –
i. One soldier emerged from these wars
1. He was from the lower classes
ii. In 108 - he ran as consul and asked to replace a failing general in
Numidia
1. He promised to defeat Jurgurtha and bring an end to the war
2. He did this in 106
a. It was really due to the contributions of his Lt. Lucius Sulla
e. Maruis – Perpetual Consul
i. Ignoring the Constitution he was elected Consul from (100-104)
ii. He was to rule through the Popularis
iii. With the support of the Army
f. Invasion from the North 113
i. Cambrii and Teutons
1. Germanic Tribes from around Denmark
ii. Wasn’t as much of an invasion rather than a migration
iii. 300,000 from Germany in covered wagons.
iv. They defeat five Roman Armies and poured into Southern Gaul
v. And had turned toward and ravaged Spain
g. Marius Reforms the Army
i. Remove property ownership for military service
ii. Offered attractive pay
iii. Promised land to soldiers
h. Effect
i. Urban poor filled the army and did not fight for Rome, rather they fought
for their generals who could give them land.
ii. Marius unknowingly paved the way for Cesare’s Revolution
D. Marius Vs Teutons
a. Marius had to train and drill his undisciplined troops on the march
b. He pitted them against easy objectives at first, and avoided battle until his troops
were trained
c. German army – passed for six days and yelled insults at the Roman Troops
d. As they passed, Marius attacked their rear battle of Aix in Provence, 102
e. Plutarch – They say, that the inhabitants of Marseilles made fences round thir
vineyards with the bones, and that the soil, after the bodies had rotted and the
winter rains had fallen, was so fertilized with the putrefied matter wich sank into
it, that in the following season it yielded an unprecedented crop.”
f. Marius rested for five months and then attack the Cambraii at Vercellae
i. They came out naked in the winter snow
ii. Rode their shields like sleds
iii. He was elected consul for a sixth term in 100
E. Marius as Consul in 100
a. The New Tribune, Saturninius
i. Pushed Gracchian Reform
ii. Marius did nothing, as the newly conquered land was to be distributed to
his soldiers
iii. Saturninius used his thugs to suppress senators
iv. The Senate ordered Marius to suppress the revolt led by Saturninus
v. Marius suppressed the revolt, Saturninus was stoneded to death.
vi. Marius hated disorder, but killed his former political allies and protected
the aristocracy
vii. Marius retired from Public life
F. The Social War (Bellum Sociale) 90-88 BCE
a. As stated earlier, the Italian allies lacked full political rights but were increasingly
taxed and conscripted
b. During the Slave Revolts many Allies revolted
i. Remember that Rome was having internal political strife.
c. Marius comes out of retirement and saves Rome
i. 300,000 dead in less than three years.
d. Concessions to the Allies
i. In 90 Roman citizenship was offered to all Italian allies
ii. Senate later nominalized, voting would be based on the addition of ten
more tribes rather than by individuals.
iii. Allies bided their time.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
A. War Against Mithridates of Pontus (northern Anatolia)
a. Mith. Was using the conflicts in Rome to undermine Roman control
i. He claimed descended from Alexander’s Generals (half Persian- Half
Greek)
b. Sulla elected Consul to fight Mithradates
i. Sulpicius Rufus – Tribune – would not allow Sulla (a conservative) to take
command and appointed Marius (69 years old) to command the army,
ii. Sulla fled and raised an army and marched on Rome.
c. Sulla Champions the Aristocracy –
B. Sulla vs Marius
a. Marius who had sided with the tribune and thus the people, quickly raised an
army
b. He easily defeated Marius clumsily trained and improvised urban cohorts.
c. Sulla, in control of Rome, put a bounty on Marius and he fled to Africa
d. Sulpicius was killed betrayed by his slave who was offered citizenship
C. Sulla leaves Rome to fight Mithradates
D. In Sulla’s Absence
a. Class hostilities resumed in Rome
i. 10,000 people died
ii. Popularis sized the opportunity
iii. Marius elected a 7th time (86 BCE), dies within a month
iv. Another Rebel Consul, Cinna also marched on Rome to reverse Sulla’s
decrees
v. Another tribune sends army to take command from Sulla
b. Sulla in the East
i. Meanwhile Sulla besieged and took Athens (which had aligned with
Mithradates.
ii. Sulla was technically fighting for Rome, ruled by his political enemies.
iii. He did not defeat Mithradates, there was an uneasy peace
E. Sulla Returns 83
a. He defeated Roman army sent against him.
i. By mid 82 he was in sole control
b. Returned with 15,000 pounds of gold and 115,000 pounds of Silver
i. And works of art from Greece
c. He returned amongst chaos
i. Renewed political assassinations and purges
ii. Renewed pressure of the Social War
iii. Sulla persuaded the Senate to proclaim him dictator
1. Sometime during this period (in 82 or 81 BC) Sulla was appointed
dictator, an office that was out of favor and had lain dormant
since the Hannibalic War.
Sulla modified the dictatorship in two important respects.
a. He was to hold the post not for the traditional six months, but for as long as he
wanted.
i.
b. He took as his specific dictatorial assignment the exceptionally broad
task of “writing laws and organizing the state.”
F. Proscriptions
a. A list of 40 senators and 2600 businessmen, many who supported Marius over
him
b. Massacres, banishments and confiscations spread through Rome and the
provinces
c. It was an aristocratic terror
G. Cornealian Laws
a. Were very reactionary
b. Suspended free corn
c. Replaced dead citizens with people in Spain and Gaul, made entire areas his
clients
d. Reduced the power of the tribunes
e. Disenfranchised the business class
H. Death of Sulla
a. He was dictator for three years and retired in 79
b. Plutarch – in 58 – he developed an ulcer of the colon , “ the corrupted flesh
broke out into lice. Many men were employed day and night in destroying hem,
but soon they multiplied that not only his clothes, baths and basins, but the very
food was polluted with them. “
c. His epitaph “ No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I
have not repaid in full.”
d. His reforms would be undone in nine years and the revolution would become
more violent.
The Oligarch Reaction 77-67
A. The Empire in Revolt
a. Spain
i. Roman General Didius tricked would be land owners by pretending to
register them for distribution of land and had them massacred
ii. A Roman Officer (from Sabine) Sertorius went over to the Spaniards and
created a rebel kingdom from 80-72
iii. Pompeii eventually defeated the army after Sertorius was assassinated.
b. Spartacus 73i. 70,000 slaves from center of Italy hid on Mt Vesuvius and raided towns
ii. Spartacus tries to march toward the Alps
iii. Harassed Rome for three years
iv. He was pinned by two armies, Pompeii returning from Spain and Crassus
from Rome
v. Seeing the Situation hopeless he plunged into battle and died
vi. Crassus has 6000 crucified from Capua to Rome
B. Pompeii and Crassus
a. Pompey was sent to quell the rebellion in Spain 77-72
i. Favorable settlement earned him clients in Spain.
b. Crassus was fighting the slave revolts
i. Crassus became rich by buying property during the Proscriptions of Sulla
ii. He used his wealth to launch his political career
iii. Fighting Spartacus offered him a chance for glory.
1. Tarnished by Pompeii interference.
c. Pompeii and Crassus became Consul in 70
i. The undid Sulla’s reforms
ii. Renewed war with Mitradates
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Who was supporting pirates
These pirates disrupted grain shipments
Pompeii was chosen to deal with them
He was given increased authority in the provinces, and the sea
He was also to oversee the grain supply for five years.
He defeated the pirates in 3 months and settled them in Siciliy as
farmers, more clients for himself.
d. The Second Mitrhadatic War
i. Pompeii turns sight to the East
ii. He defeated Mith. And reorganized the Roman East
iii. He basically acted as an absolute monarch in the east.
iv. Forging alliances, reorganizing provinces
v. He returned to Rome.
C. Crassus
a. He tried to stifle Pompeii’s popularity
b. He financially backed a young nobleman, Ceasar (born in 100)
i. He became praetor and pontifex maximus, ( head of religion)
D. Catalina Conspiracy 63 bce
a. Lucius Sergius Catalina, had lost consul appointments 3 times
b. He then tried armed insurrection
c. People suspected Crassus was behind it trying to undermine Pompeii
d. Cicero, consul in 63 uncovered the plot.
e. Catalina was killed in battle, it speaks of how unstable politics had become.
E. The First Triumvirate
a. Pompeii Returns
i. Disbanded Army and retired
b. Cato the Younger, Senator
i. Pompeii Tried to get land for his troops and the Senate to ratify his
reorganization of the East.
ii. Led by Cato, the Senate resisted
c. Caesar
i. Had been governor of Spain, returned in 60
ii. Convinced Pompeii and Crassus in an alliance against the Senate
iii. Now the three most ruthless people in Rome were working together.
iv. The arranged for Cesar to be consul in 59.
d. Cesar the Consul
i. His election was marked with violence and intimidation
ii. Caesars legislation was passed by force.
F.
G.
H.
I.
1. He assigned himself to a five-year command in Gaul and Illyria
2. He would command five legions at the time of his office ended
3. Pompeii received land for his troops and his settlements ratified
4. Crassus, also got favorable legislation
The Gallic Wars 58-50
Trouble in the Triumvirate
a. The Senate attempted to drive a wedge in the Alliance, which was the most
powerful force in politics
b. Caesar calls a meeting in 56.
i. Caesar got five more years in Gaul
ii. Pompeii became absentee governor of Spain
iii. Crassus got 5 year command in Syria, he wanted military glory that his
allies had.
1. Crassus was killed in 54 BC in battle of Carrhae
c. Pompeii, wife (Caesars daughter) died in childbirth, severing their connections
The Civil Wars 49-45
a. Despite being outnumbered Caesar drove Pompeii out of Italy in 49
b. Fought him Pharsalus in Northern Greece and Caesar won. ‘
c. Pompeii flees to Egypt where he is murdered.
d. Caesar in Egypt (winter 48-47)
i. He was embroiled in dynastic politics
ii. Love Affair with Cleopatra
1. The affair produced a son, Caesarion, born in 47 BC.
e. Caesar Cleans Up
i. Pursued supporters of Pompeii, in Asia, Africa and Spain
ii. By 45 he was master of the Roman World.
The First Caesar
a. Caesar enacted a policy of sparing his captured opponents (clementia), which was
a shrewd political maneuver to place them forever under an obligation to him. He
placed some of his spared opponents in positions of responsibility in his new
regime (e.g., C. Cassius Longinus was praetor in 44 BC).
b. He was essentially a dictator
i.
Ignoring its hateful associations with Sulla, Caesar employed the
dictatorship, in conjunction with frequent consulships, as his office of
choice. In 49 BC Caesar was dictator for only eleven days, long enough to
organize consular elections and see himself installed as consul for 48 BC.
In 47 BC he resumed the dictatorship and held it continuously from then
until his death.
ii.
His consulships also ran annually from 46–44 BC.
iii.
His dictatorship was made increasingly more permanent in his last years.
It was extended to a ten-year duration in 46 BC, and to lifetime tenure in
February 44 BC.
iv.
He declared the Republic a mere word without form or substance.
v.
On one occasion, he greeted the senators while seated like a despot. The
Senate, in response, acted with abject sycophancy in voting him honors,
including even deification.
vi. In 44 BC the infamous “crown-offering” incident occurred, which was
taken by many as a sign that Caesar’s ultimate goal was kingship itself.
c. Legislation
i. Did not try to cure the problems of the state
ii. Rather he was planning invasion of Parthia when he was killed.
d. The Death of Caesar
i. Alarmed by Caesar’s openly autocratic behavior, a group of nobles led by
C. Cassius Longinus conspired to assassinate the tyrant. It carried out the
act on 15 March 44 BC.
ii. Following the “crown-offering” affair in February of 44 BC, some nobles
decided that Caesar had to be eliminated.
iii. Numbering perhaps eighty members, the conspiracy focused only on the
elimination of Caesar. This limited focus of “The Liberators” proved their
greatest mistake.
iv. At a Senate meeting in Pompey’s theater on the Ides of March in 44 BC,
Caesar was surrounded by a group of conspirators and cut down with
twenty-three stab wounds at the foot of Pompey’s statue.
v. Declaring the tyrant justly killed, the conspirators rushed from the scene
believing they had restored the Republic to liberty. Events were to prove
them mistaken.
J. Mark Anthony and Octavian
a. The power struggle for Rome was between Mark Anthony Caesar’s right-hand
man, and Octavian, Caesar’s adopted heir.
b. The Second Triumvirate
i. After a lengthy political and military struggle they formed an alliance
ii. Mark Anthony met his intrigues with Cleopatra
iii. Octavian won
K. Octavian – The Imperator Augustus Caesar 31bc-14ad
a. The Creation of the Principate
i. 31-27 – he is consul
ii. 27 – he made his position permanent
1. First Constitutional settlement 13 January 27BC
a. He announced he was retiring,
b.
c.
d.
e.
Senate asked him to reconsider
This was staged.
They confirmed numerous powers on him.
More over his 31 year rule.
b. The Principate
i. The Roman Republican system and administration remained intact.
1. Consulship, Senate Meetings, etc
2. Augustus was given defacto control over all of it
3. Offices would remain in place, the highest powers were left for
him.
ii. Several characteristics of the new system warrant attention.
1. All of Augustus’ powers and titles were, officially, granted to him
voluntarily by the Senate and people of Rome.
2. The twin powers of imperium maius in the provinces and tribunicia
potestas in Italy gave Augustus an avenue into all regions of the
empire and all wings of administration.
3. The familiar and traditional Republican forms were maintained:
consuls continued to be elected, senatorial meetings held, popular
votes taken. In essence, Augustus was grafted on top of the old
Republican institutions.
L. Problems of Succession
a. Powers were technically personally given to Augustus
b. They would “technically” lapse upon his death.
c. He named 5 successors.
d. Tiberius Emerged as Next Emperor.
M. The Julio-Claudian Dynasty
a. The Julio-Claudian dynasty ruled from AD 14–68 and encompasses four
emperors.
i. Tiberius (14–37), Augustus’ stepson, was a manic-depressive whose reign
was unpopular but generally successful.
ii. The reign of Gaius, a.k.a. Caligula (37–41), who was Tiberius’ greatnephew, was an unmitigated catastrophe. The young man was either
corrupted by absolute power or crazy and was the first emperor to be
assassinated.
iii. Claudius (41–54) was Caligula’s uncle. He ruled well and efficiently, even
if he was unpopular with the ruling classes.
iv. Nero (54–68), Claudius’ stepson and adopted son, was another disaster.
He spent his time in idle pursuits while persecuting his family and
members of the elite. An army revolt ousted him in the summer of AD 68
and brought the dynasty to an end.
b. Consolidation
i. During the Dynasty power was officially consolidated
FROM JESUS TO CONSTANTINE
Rome and Judea 132 bce – 135 AD
A. The Hasmoneans
a. Simon Maccabee
i. Proclaimed independence from the Seleucids
ii. He was elected General and High Priest
b. The Second Jewish Commonwealth
i. Was a theocracy
ii. The Hasmoneans dynasty had hereditary office of high priest
1. They do not have a king, because Yahweh was sovereign
2. They also lacked descent from David, so was not seem as
legitimate by some
c. Expansion under the Hasmoneans
i. BY 78, they took surrounding areas included a lot of Greek cities
ii. They enforced religion and circumcision by the sword
B. Conflicts in Judea
a. Pharisees
i. Is Hebrew for “set apart”, a continuation of Chadism
ii. One of four sects of Judaism in the 1st century
1. Will evolve into modern Judaism
iii. The belief system changes over time.
iv. The appealed to the common folk
v. Belief in the oral Torah
vi. They rejected the expansion of the State and the forced conversion
b. Sadducees
i. Were the wealthy and priestly class of people
ii. Rejected the Oral Torah, for literate sources
C. Pompey and Jerusalem
a. Pompey
i. According to Josephus (Jewish Historian) Pharisees appealed to
Pompey to end the Hasmonean dynasty
ii. In 63 BCE Pompey sacked Jerusalem and exacted tribute for
Rome
1. He even violated the temple.
2. Pharisees regarded it as punishment for Sadducees corrupt
rule.
b. Crassus in Syria
i. Judea was in the Roman province of Syria
ii. In 54 Crassus, (Part of the First Triumvirate) was killed as Consul of
Syria
iii. The Jews revolted
iv. 43 BCE – Romans ended the Revolt and sold 30,000 Jews into
slavery.
D. Herod –
a. Client King of Jerusalem
b. He first military governor of Galilee
c. After Jewish revolt in 43 – Parthians helped install the another
Hasmonean
d. Herod fled to Rome and got support of the senate.
e. Finally drove out the Parthians and Hasmoneans in 37
E. Herod the Great
a. His family were converts to Judaism
b. Herod was a client of Rome and was allowed some freedoms
i. Much like the status of a modern protectorate
c. Sources differ on his rule
i. In Josephus early works he states that his reign had many positive
attributes
ii. Josephus later works state that he was decadent, paranoid and
cruel
d. Death of Herod – 4 BCE
i. Became increasingly paranoid
ii. He killed his wife, who was connected to an assassination plot
iii. Executes many of his children
iv. He left the kingdom to his remaining three sons.
F. Jewish Writing
a. Much of the literature of the period is apocryphal and had revelations
b. Book of Daniel (approx. 165BCE)
i. Written to encourage resistance to the Seleucids
c. Book of Enoch
i. Probably had many authors
1. Written between 160’s and 66BCE
2. Recounts the fall of Satan, the infusion of evil and suffering
in Jewish life
3. Calls for redemption of a Messiah
d. Book of Wisdom
i. Probably directed at the Epicurean lifestyle of Roman rule
e. Book of Isiah
i. For unto us a child is born, a son is given; and the government shall
be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called…the mighty
god, the prince of peace.
Jesus – 4 BCE – 30 AD
A. Historical Evidence
a. First Reference of Non-Christian Text
i. Josephus written around 93 AD, Antiquities of the Jews
ii. Quote – At that time lived Jesus, a holy man, if man he may be called, for
he performed wonderful works, and taught men, and joyfully received
the truth. And he was followed by many Jews and many Greeks. He was
the Messiah.
b. From Roman Sources
i. Pliny the Younger (circa 110) – when he consulted Emperor Trajan on the
treatment of Christians
ii. Tacitus – Circa 115 – describes Nero’s persecution
c. Christian Evidence
i. Begins with Letters of St. Paul
1. Uncertain authorship, substantially genuine
2. Paul knew the men that knew Jesus
3. Last Supper and Crucifixion, confirmed in other sources
d. Gospels
i. Four remain out of several that circulated amongst 1st and 2nd century
Christians
ii. Matthew, Mark, john and Luke – the oldest copies are from the 3rd
century
1. But written between 60-120
iii. There are contradiction
1. Incorrect statement s of history
2. Incidents designed to prove the fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecies
3. Some things may have been added in to establish later doctrines
or rituals.
B. The Growth of Jesus
a. Born – “ in the days when Herod was king of Judea” before 3BCE
i. However other sources differ
1. He was born between 7 BCE and 6 AD
b. December 25th – Winter Solstice, chosen by the Romans to convinced with
festival of Mithraism.
c. Family – He was from a large family with many brothers and sisters.
i. There are conflicting genealogies.
1. Virgin birth is not mentioned in Paul or John
2. Matthew and Luke trace his genealogy to David, through Joseph
d. The Magi – Wise Men
i. Connection to the astrological convictions
e. When all the sources are carefully examined following strict historical criteria, it
appears that Jesus is best understood as a first-century Jewish apocalyptic
prophet
C. How we can understand the historical Jesus.
a. Apocalypticism was a widespread movement in first-century Judaism.
i. We know about it from such sources as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
ii. It was a belief that the present age was ruled by forces of evil, which God
would soon overthrow in a cataclysmic act of judgment to bring in a
utopian kingdom ruled by his own Messiah.
iii. It makes sense that Jesus preached in an idiom familiar to his own day; the
words and deeds that can be established as authentic all appear to be
related to this kind of apocalyptic message.
b. Jesus’s teachings were largely about the coming Kingdom of God and the need to
prepare for it.
i. The summary of his words by the earliest Gospel, Mark, is probably
accurate (Mark 1:15): The Kingdom was soon to come and people needed
to repent in preparation.
ii. This was a real Kingdom to be brought by God’s special messenger,
whom Jesus referred to as the Son of Man (Mark 8:38).
iii. The coming judgment would involve a destruction of the present order of
things and a complete reversal of fortunes for the powerful and the
oppressed (Mark 13:26–27; 10:30).
iv. People needed to prepare for its coming, by repenting of their wrongdoing,
giving up their power and wealth, and living completely for others (Mark
1:15; Mark 10:13–15, 23–30, 42–44; Matt. 13:45–46).
v. What God wanted was for people to follow the very heart of his Law, the
Torah, as summed up in the two commands to love God above all else
(Deut. 6:4–6) and to love one’s neighbor as oneself (Lev. 19:18).
vi. The message was urgent, because the coming destruction and the
appearance of this Kingdom were imminent (Mark 9:1; 13:30; 14:62).
D. The Life and Death of Jesus
a. Early Life
i. From a large family, probably a laborer
b. Follower of John the Baptist
i. John was a relative hermit, who preached of repentance and the coming
of the kingdom of god
ii. Jesus adopted many of the teachings around the age of 30
iii. When john was imprisoned Jesus took up his teaching
c. Quote Durant “He taught with the simplicity required by his audiences,
with interesting stories that insinuated his lessons into the understanding,
with pungent aphorisms rather than with reasoned argument, and with
similes and metaphors as brilliant as any in literature. The parable form
that he used was customary in the East…
d. His Death
i. During the feast of Passover, shocked by the clamor in the Temple he and
his followers turned over the money tables.
ii. After that he taught in the Temple unhindered but stayed out of the city
at night.
iii. Jewish authorities thought he may begin a futile revolt against Rome and
that may lead to the end of relatively local autonomy
iv. The Last Supper and Trial
1. Identifies the Betrayal of Judas
2. That night he was arrested
3. There was a Jewish court already set up, Witnesses recalled his
threats to destroy the Temple
4. When asked if he was “the messiah, the son of god” Jesus
reportedly said “I am he”
5. They found him guilty of blasphemy and brought him to the
procurator, Pontius Pilate
v. Pontius Pilate
1. Later to be brought to Rome on corruption charges and cruelty,
he was removed from office.
2. Rome condemned Jesus as a revolutionary
3. Iesus Nazararthaeus Rex Ioudaeorum (INRI)
4. A large crowd gathered at his crucifixion
5. Mark and Matthew state that his last words were “My God, my
god why hast thou forsaken me?”
6. Luke changed it to “Father into they hands I commend my spirit”
a. Which mirrors Psalms 31:5
vi. Was he dead?
1. Pilate questions Jesus death after only six hours.
2. The two thieves next to him were still alive.
E. The Resurrection
a. "the resurrection is not a historical event ... the event itself falls outside the
scope of history and into the realm of faith” Reza Islan
b. Part of tradition in certain Jewish sects
i. Pharisees believed in it, Sadducees did not.
c. What is important is that Christians believed it.
F. The Gospels
a. Quote Durant “He taught with the simplicity required by his audiences,
with interesting stories that insinuated his lessons into the understanding,
with pungent aphorisms rather than with reasoned argument, and with
similes and metaphors as brilliant as any in literature. The parable form
that he used was customary in the East…
G. The Apostle Paul
a. Paul created the doctrinal theology
i. It grew through the absorption of pagan faith and ritual
ii. It eventually became a triumphant Church through Roman
organization
b. Paul still practiced Judiasm and mixed in the teachings of Jesus
i. He did alarm the Jews who had him arrested and flogged.
ii. As numbers increased he made seven deacons by the laying of
hands
iii. Steven – one of the deacons, was stoned to death,
1. His followers fled to Samaria and Antioch and established
communities there.
c. Paul
i. Was a Jew, but Roman Citizen
ii. He was not formally educated
iii. Paul originally persecuted Christians, but had dramatic conversion
d. Paul’s Ministry
i. Paul spread the story of the death and resurrection in his travels
ii. He converted Jews and Gentiles
iii. He helped independent Churches with belief and practice, he was
the link to the individual communities.
e. The Epistles
i. Letters generally written by Paul to the churches
ii. Theological questions, morality, ethics and church organization.
H. The Growth of the Early Church
a. Organization
i. Christian communities were well organized
ii. Under the guidance of a bishop
1. Bishops were elected
b. Apostolic succession
i. Belief that the authority of the bishop was based on the powers
given by Jesus to his disciples
ii. Accepted as doctrine by the end of the 2nd century
c. Persecution
i. The organization of the church help it survive the persecution
ii. They were unpopular in Roman communities
iii. They were usually the lowest classes and did not have legal
protection
iv. They were very secretive
v. They were made easy scapegoats
A. Christianizing the Roman Empire
a. It spread by word of mouth
b. Message was believed to be validated by miracles performed by the apostles.
c. It spread slow at first, but steadily
i. Accurate numbers are hard to come by.
ii. Began with 20-100 followers of Jesus
iii. Small communities were spread throughout the Mediterranean
iv. Over three centuries they were 5% of the empire about 3 million people
d. Constantine
i. Major impact to the religion
ii. In early 4th century, by the end of the century half the empire was
Christian
iii. Details are a bit sketchy, and mostly legend
1. The most well-known account—allegedly described by
Constantine himself—involves his dream the night before his
significant battle with his rival for power, Maxentius, in 312 C.E.,
in which he saw the sign of the cross and was told, “by this,
conquer.”
e. Theodosius I (376-395)
i. Made Christianity the official state religion
ii. He outlawed pagan practices.
f. Why was it so successful?
i. It certainly had to be the message
ii. There was a general resurgence of cults and practices
iii. Proclaimed attachment to one god, following him meant abandoning
others.
iv. So they destroyed other religions while promoting their own.
v. Fierce devotion of its adherents, they stayed true in the face of danger.
Christian success was due to many concurrent factors.
A. The rise in religiosity in the Roman empire in the second and third century aided the spread of
Christianity.
1. The second and third centuries AD have been termed by one scholar “The Age of
Anxiety.”
2. People were looking to new religious forms for comfort in an uncertain world. Magic,
superstition, and oracles all boomed in popularity.
3. A clear manifestation of this anxiety is the great popularity of eastern mystery religions
that brought the initiated into a close contract with the deity (e.g., Isis, Mithras, etc.).
These religions were exclusive and promised great rewards, and they also charged for
initiation.
B. Christianity offered more than philosophy or the mystery religions, and the Church was well
organized.
1. In contrast to these competing systems, Christianity offered more.
a. Philosophical humanism needed education to understand, while Christianity did
not.
b. Mystery religions were expensive, while Christianity was free.
c. Christianity accepted all comers.
d. Its doctrines promised eternal future succor in return for temporary present
suffering.
2. The Church was well organized into cells (churches) under local bishops and deacons.
3. By AD 300, nevertheless, Christians comprised only a handful of the population but
they were well established, well organized, and dedicated.
4. The fourth century was to bring them triumph.
5. To observe this process, we must return to our narrative.
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE
A. Crisis of the 1st and 2nd Century
a. More threats beginning on the borders
b. Germanic Tribes, Ostrogoth and Visigoths from West, Kingdom of Parthia in the
East.
i. By 180 – Rome had 500,000 troops patrolling the borders
B. The Romanization of the Barbarians
a. The Roman Army played a huge role in Romanization of the Provinces
i. The garrisons were more than just military outpost, they were centers of
trade and became cities in their own right.
ii. During the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, there were perhaps 100,000 troops on
the frontier
iii. Rome had a long tradition of using Auxiliary troops from “Barbarian
Tribes”
1. This allowed the exchange of tactics, weapons and ideas to
influence both Rome and the Barbarians.
b. Assimilation through Trade
i. Rome took in raw materials and exported finished products, glass,
pottery, jewelry, textiles, wine and olive oil.
ii. Let’s not forget weapons.
iii. Roman coins found throughout the Northern Barbarians
c. Exchange of people
i. Through slavery and immigration
C. The Frontier by 200 AD
a. There were clear lines, but much of it unguarded so there was free movement of
peoples
b. Romans sought to control immigration, rather than stop it.
i. Many peoples showed up on the frontier seeking refuge
ii. Each done by individual arrangements
1. In 262, defeated Goths were settled in the Balkans by Claudius II
2. Often they were separated into smaller communities.
3. Roman coins, minted in 348–352, celebrated the long tradition of
immigration by depicting a Roman emperor leading two
barbarians out of their hut for resettlement in the empire.
D. Parthia and the East
a. Perhaps the largest threat in the East was Parthia
b. It was an organized state not
E. Economic Decline
a. Political anarchy
i. This accelerated economic decline
b. Decline of Agriculture in Italy
i. Farmland turned into residential estates
1. Because of political unrest in the cities caused the rich to move to
fortified estates
ii. Farmers were overly taxed, could not keep maintenance of land
iii. Cheap competition of imported grain
c. Depletion of Precious Metals
i. Many emperors diluted the content of silver and gold in coins
ii. Led to often disastrous effects.
d. Interruption of Trade by Pirates and highwaymen.
e. The End of Roman Expansion
i. Expansion had fueled economic growth
F. Imperial attempts at Reforms
a. Septimus Severus (193-211)
i. Came to power as the Praetorian Guard killed Emperor Commodus
1. The Guard then auctioned the Imperial Position
2. A Rich Roman named Julianus bought throne
3. People clamored for the legions to return and overthrow him.
4. Severus marched on Rome and promised each soldier more
money.
5. Severus was the first to march the army in Rome (193)
ii. Severus Rule
1. He made the Principate a hereditary military monarchy.
2. He showered the Army by increasing their pay.
3. Recruitment was difficult still
4. He opened even the highest ranks in the military to men in the
provinces
5. Results –
a. It widened the relationship between citizens and the army
as Germans and other barbarians joined the army.
b. Warlord Period
i. 235-283
ii. 26 emperors, only one died naturally
iii. All of them bribed the army to attain power.
c. Diocletian – 284
i. Reorganization of the Empire
1. Divides the Empire in two.
a. With two rulers
b. Also to divide the armies, for quicker response while
limiting the potential of anarchy.
c. Geographically, it was into four prefectures
ii. Last Persecution of the Christians
1. Christians by Diocletian had survived numerous persecutions.
a. From Nero (54-68), Marcus Aurelius (161-180) Valerian
(253-260)
b. This usually coincided with threat of barbarian invasion
2. 303 – Diocletian ordered all out persecution and confiscation of
Christian property.
a. Christian rose in revolt
3. In 305 – Diocletian abdicated, leaving his successors to finish his
work
4. Persecutions lasted for 8 more years
5. Quote – Durant p. 652 “ There is no greater drama in human
record than the sigh of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by
a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity,
multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated
chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and
at last defeating the strongest state that history has known.
Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won. “
iii.
G. Constantine (312-337)
a. The Rise of Constantine
i. His father was in charge of the Western Prefect, but he was a hostage of
the Emperor
ii. He escaped and joined his father in the West.
iii. In 306 – after his father died, his army proclaimed Augustus by them.
1. In Rome, the Praetorian Guard, proclaimed another Emperor
2. Others took the title for themselves as well
3. Constantine emerged victorious Battle of Mulvian Bridge
b. Constantinople and the Eastern Empire
i. Economic activity and wealth had long shifted to the East
THE DECLINE OF THE R OMAN EMPIRE
A. Historians Differ in their opinions
a. Older historians ( Principally Edward Gibbon)blame Christians as chief cause
i. Destroyed old faith and character of the romans
ii. Destroyed science, philosophy, literature and art
iii. Turned men away from the present world to prepare for cosmic
catastrophe
iv. Salvation if the individual replaced a collective salvation of devotion to
the state
b. Problems
i. It was more of an effect of Rome’s decay
ii. Moral decline began before when Romans conquered Greece
iii. If anything Christianity uplifted the morals
c. Henri Pieriene
i. He puts the fall of the Empire in the 700’s
ii. He disagreed with Gibbons, he opposed ending the empire at the death
of the last Emperor (476)
iii. Continuity of the Economy
iv. Barbarians were not trying to destroy Rome but take part in its benefits
v. He blames Arab Expansion
1. They disrupted the economic ties of the Mediterranean
2. This turned Europe into a virtual backwater
3. By Charlemagne Western Europe was a substinence economy
4. Minting of coins above the Alps ended in the 7th century.
5. No more paper, cut off from Egypt
a. Decline in record keeping.
d. Not one cause, but many
e. Was not an event, it was a 300 year process
i. “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed
from within”-Durant
B. Economic causes
a. Dependence of foreign grain
b. Collapse of slave supply
c. Deterioration of transport and trade
d. Loss of markets to provincial competition
e. Drain in previous metal
C. Political causes
a. Increased despotism, destroyed civic sense and statesmanship
b. When you could only get power through violence, romans turned to business ‘n
pleasure
c. Local government interfered w/by corrupt imperial thugs
d. Rising cost of government, bribes, payoffs, games etc.
D. Depopulation
a. Family limitation (1st educated classes then to lower)
b. The ablest men bred late, little, and died soon
c. Pestilence, revelation and war
d. Q-666
E. Moral Decay
a. From struggle and ardor to vices and pleasure
b. Urban congestion
c. Immigration brought hundreds of different cultures with turned to cultural
indifference.
F. External Causes
a. Hastened by Hsuing-nu = the Huns from northwest Asia
i. Defeated by Chinese armies in the east, they turned west
ii. 355 they reached Volga
iii. They created domino effect Sarmatians displaced Goths, Goths moved
closer toward Roman borders
b. Goth
i. Allowed to settle in 376
ii. Mistreated, they revolted
iii. 378 – defeated Roman army, threatened Constantinople
c. Visigoths
i. 400- Alaric led them over the alps
ii. 410- they sacked Rome
d. Vandals
i. 429- conquered Spain and Africa
ii. 455- they sacked Rome
e. Odoacer – King of Italy
i. 472- barbarian mercenaries deposed the last emperor proclaimed their
leader king
ii. He was accepted as Vassal by Eastern Emperor
THE DARK AGES (300-1000)
A. Introduction
a. If we still regard this period as the Dark ages
B.
C.
D.
E.
b. It is the least studied period of European history
c. Most important figures, Augustus of Hippo, Arthur, Charlemagne
The Church Evolved
a. The end of Christian martyrdom
i. Once the Empire converted there was no need to martyr
ii.
The Church Fathers
a. In 4th century Christianity there were no Popes
b. The church was ruled by a collective of Bishops.
c. Early Christian Heroes were Martyrs
i. People who tried to mimic Christ sacrifice.
ii. After Christianity became legal, people could not show faith in this way
1. People sought to show faith in other ways
a. Hermits, “Athletes of God” and holy fools
b. These were people who demonstrated their Christian
beliefs respectively, through isolation and vows of silence,
through tests of endurance and acrobatics.
Divergent Beliefs
a. Arianism
i. From teachings of Arius 250-336
ii. Said Son of God was subordinate to God the Father
b. Manichaeism
i. Christianity main rival
ii. Founded by the Persian Prophet Mani or Manicheaeus
iii. Had spread from China to Western Roman Empire between
iv. Dualistic cosmology –
1. The spiritual world of light
2. The material world of darkness
Monasticism
a. Began in the Eastern Empire moved West in the 4th -6th Century
b. Around 335, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria wrote an account of a 100 year old
monk/hermit, Antony.
i. This work became the ascetic ideal
c. Other Orders
i. Saint Benedict, which dominated Western Monasticism
d. Pope Gregory I – 590 first monk to become pope.
e. Functions
i. They became retirement homes for the wealthy
ii. Also acted as orphanages
iii. Supported by donations
f. Ascetic Ideal
i. Make humans more like angels by refusing the body of sleep, food and
sex.
ii. Supposed link closer to the original state of perfection enjoyed in the
garden of Eden
iii. Promoted celibacy
F. Augustus of Hippo (b. 354 - )
a. Born in N. Africa, Roman Citizen
b. Early life he favored Manacheaism
i. Yin and yang of good and evil
c. He was converted and became a bishop of the Church
d. His beliefs
i. Sin was going to happen, they required saving.
ii. When inheirited sin,
e. Peligian Controversy
i. It was an intellectual war of faith.
ii. Pelagianism
1. Quote Harnack
iii. Pelagius was a British monk
1. Says people could achieve salvation through good works
2. A heaven like state could be achieved on Earth
3. Rejected the notion of Original Sin and infant baptism
4. Every human chooses to be good or evil. Like ADAM, so do good
things. He was criticizing the Empires lax moral climate.
5. Later Calvinist refer to this argument.
iv. Augustus
1. Had presided over the courts as bishop.
a. This gave him a low opinion of humanity
b. He was witnessing so many crimes.
2. Disagrees with Pelagius who was then accused of heresy
a. He is expelled from Jerusalem
G. The Sack of Rome (410, August 24)
a. Rome had been using Barbarians to fight other barbarians for centuries.
b. Alaric I, King of the Visagoths, had fought the Franks for the Eastern Empire
i. He felt like he received little recognition and marched toward
Constantinople, but could not lay siege to the city.
ii. He ended up sacking cities throughout Greece and Emperor Flavius
appointed him a Roman title
c. In 408, Emperor Honorius was just a boy. moved the capital to Ravenna when
the Goths entered Italy.
d. Visagothic King, Alaric sat outside Rome with 40,000 men.
e. After a two year siege, he sacked the city.
H. City of God (426)
a. Was a defense of Christianity
b. A response to the sack of Rome, pagans blamed Christians
i. Rome was no longer able to defend itself.
ii. Rome was being punished
c. It is a critique of classical civilization
i. Empires of men were just thieves
ii. But those thieves did bring justice
d. Disagrees with Plato and other classic philosophers that happiness could be
achieved
e. Says pagans have foolish beliefs and no moral guidelines
BARBARIANS AT THE GATE
A. Rome and the Barbarians
a. Rome usually played them off each other
b. In the 400’s there was a contraction of the Empire
i. Withdrew from Britain (409)
ii. Spain (411)
iii. N. Africa (432)
B. Goths (376)
a. Fleeing the Huns
i. They crossed the Danube, Emperor Valens requested that they convert
and give military service to Rome
b. Troubled Settlement
i. Corrupt roman officials mistreated them and they revolted
ii. The Battle of Adrianople
1. Took place in border of Greece and Bulgaria
2. Goths were led by Fritigern, defeated the Army of Emperor Valens
and Valens was killed
C. Odacer – 476
a. Had overthrown the last Emperor and became the first king of Italy
b. Western Europe had fragmented into independent kingdoms.
D. Visigoths
a. Goths that crossed the Danube in 376
b. They would form an independent Kingdom in Spain and Southern Gaul
i. By 475 they controlled the entire peninsula
c. Battle of Vouille *(507)
i. Visigoths were defeated by the Franks
ii. Lost Southern Gaul
d. Visigothic Spain
i.
THE WORLD OF LATE ANTIQUITY
A. Intro to Islam
a. The world of Late Antiquity produces three heirs: the Islamic World, the
Byzantine Empire and the Germanic West.
b. The Islamic world was the least predictable, for those who would replace the late
Roman empire.
B. Arabia –
a. Was large and surrounded by powerful empires, the Byzantine and the Persian
Empires, who often fought over control of the area.
b. The area was subject to numerous influences of both Judaism and Christianity.
c. The Important thing was that area had never been fully conquered by anyone,
therefore there was some level of autonomous development.
C. Muhammed 570-632
a. Muhammed came from an old and wealthy family from Mecca
b. He entered the caravan trade and developed an honest reputation and then
married a widowed older woman.
c. As a young man he often retreated to the hills and caves where he received
revelations from Allah.
D. Muhammed’s Teachings
a. Monotheistic, ethical and exclusive faith
i. His teachings were contrary to traditional arab religion.
ii. His teachings also threatened the ka’aba, a shrine in Mecca visited by
pilgrims.
iii. Faced by numerous problems, Muhammed and some followers fled
Mecca for Medina in 622, this was known as the hijra.
b. Basic teachings come from the Quran, hadith and sunna
i. The Quran constitutes the scriptures of Islam, which are recitations, not
interpretations, Muhammed is not the Author.
ii. The hadith is a collection of Muhammeds sayings
iii. The Sunna is, in effect the “good practice”, the customs of Muhammed
himself
iv. All together, these teachings add up to a faith with a few basic
requirements
1. First people had to submit to Allah.
2. Five Pillars
a. Professions of faith “there is no god but allah and
muhammed is his prophet.”
b. Fasting – especially during Ramadan
c. Prayer – five times daily toward Mecca, Mosque on Friday
d. Generous charity
e. Pilgrimage to mecca.
E. On his Death
a. Abu Bakr – became caliph “successor to the prophet”
b. From 632-634 – he fought wars against people in Arabia who thought their
loyalty died with Muhammed.
c. His successors over the next century brought Islam to the borders of China in the
East and to the borders of Gaul in the West.
F. Islamic Expansion
a. The first attack against Byzantines was in 629 –
b. They seized Damascus in 635, Mesopotamia in 638 and Egypt fell in 640.
c. Not all of the conquerors were Muslim, some believed that “holy war” was the
only way to achieve entry to the paradise of the afterlife.
d. Since war between Muslims was forbidden most of this conquest was directed
outwardly.
G. Why was it so successful?
a. Constantinople and Persia had worn themselves out in numerous wars
b. There were deep religious divisions in the Mediterranean
c. Raiding and plundering had been a way of life in Arabia
d. The Prophet taught of the need to expand the faith: Jihad
H. The Umayyad 661
a. A new family of caliphs
i. They were soldiers from Syria who settled the basic institutions of the
caliphate
ii. They moved the capital to Damascus.
I. The Abbasids – Came to power in 750
i. They were ordinary soldiers and peoples from the frontiers
ii. They moved the capital to the newly founded city of Baghdad
iii. The Abbassian period was home to brilliant cultural achievements, they
were patrons to scholars and began to tackle the massive Greek body of
knowledge, especially in the realms of science and philosophy.
J. These caliphates and their conquest would quickly breaking up.
a. Spain broke away in 750, much of Egypt and N. Africa in the 800’s
b. What was achieved in a very short time was the arrival of a new dominant force
in Western Civilization. A new faith, a new chosen people and a culture deeply
rooted in late antiquity.
THE BYZANTINES
A. The Byzantine Empire was another successor state of Rome.
a. The city of Constantinople was created out of an old Greek town around 330. It
gave another thousand years extension of Roman history, well sort of.
b. No person living in the Byzantine Empire doubted that they were Roman. But by
the 5th century they were culturally drifting apart.
c. As the Western Roman Empire evolved into a series of kingdoms in the 5th
century, the eastern Roman Empire continued. Why?
i. They had fewer problems on the frontiers
ii. Eastern rulers were more skillful and competent
iii. The east was economically more prosperous and intellectual.
iv. But there were deep religious divisions.
B. The Emperor Justinian (527-565) and Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law)
a. B. approx. 482 - Probably of Thracian or Illyrian mix. He was adopted by his
uncle and was given a formal education, he was known as “the emperor who
never sleeps” a testament to his work ethic.
b. He married Theodore, a young courtesan. Intermarriage between social classes
was recently made legal. Justinian created a tradition, now Emperors would
marry outside of the aristocratic class.
c. He waged wars against the Vandals, Ostrogoths and Visagoths to regain the
western roman provinces.
d. Administrative and finances were reformed, the last time there was any
significant reforms were under Diocletian.
e. The new bureaucracy was less civilian and it fit more in with the newly
developing feudal system.
f. Justinian was very active in matters of theology and church debates.
C. The Wars of Justinian
a. 527-532 – War with the Sassanid Empire (Persia)
i. His general Belisarius secured the Eastern frontier and Justinian could
focus on the West.
b. 533-534 – Vandalic War
i. King Hilderic of the Vandals was deposed by his cousin Gelimer
ii. Belisarius, landed a fleet of dromons and defeated the Vandals
c. 535-554 Gothic War
i. Dynastic struggles allowed for the Byzantine’s to intervene
ii. King Athalaric died and Theodahad, assassinated his way to power.
iii. Justinian sent the army to retake Italian cities and was proclaimed
Emperor of the West. But he left the Goths in power.
iv. They would revolt in the 540’s Rome had changed hands and was sacked
5 times and was severely depopulated.
d. Justinian effectively established byzantine control of the Mediterranean.
D. Results
a. Restoring the empire was only partially realized, military successes were
squandered by years of economic stagnation.
b. The prolonged war with the Goths caused years of heavy taxation.
c. Italy would be lost to the Lombards, three years after Justinian’s death, the
Visigoths reestablished control in 624, only to be conquered by Muslims.
E. The Age of Heraclius (610-641)
a. We can see the changes from the age of Justinian fully developed
b. The military policies had been completely reversed
i. War against the Persians and Muslims consumed the focus of the Empire.
ii. War in the North against the Slavs and Bulgars threatened the Northern
Border
iii. Little attention was paid to the West.
c. Heraclius began the theme system
i. Soldiers were settled on land and led local troops by through a military
hierarchy to strategoi. These were no longer citizen soldiers recruited and
trained by the state and paid by taxes.
ii. The system evolved over the next few centuries and increased local civil
and military authority.
F. Byzantium in the Age of Leo III and Constantine V (717-775)
a. The changes from Justinian became permanent
b. War were only fought in Anatolia and the Balkans
c. Western Europe was just a conflict with the papacy
d. The theme system continued.
e. Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic could be labeled in practice but no side was
willing to admit to a division in the church
i. Eastern priest could marry
ii. They used leavened bread at Eucharist
iii. Icons became a critical role in worship
G. Basil I, 867
a. A new dynasty emerged, the Macedonians
i. They secured the northern borders and even temporarily pushed back
the Muslims in Anatolia
ii. The began Christianizing the Russians
THE GERMANIC WEST
A. The Rise of The Carolingians
a. Merovingian Decline
i. Divided land amongst sons
1. This created a number of Frankish Kingdoms
a. Neustria, Austrasia and Burgundy
2. They fought each other, which weakened the dynasty
3. They also had to compete for the loyalties of the aristocracy
ii. Mayor of the Palace
1. By the mid 7th century, power was in the hands of ‘mayors of
the palace”
2. They ran the government and controlled ‘appointments’
3. The Carolingians were mayors of the palace in Austrasia
b. Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer)
i. He was the illegitimate son of the Carolingian Mayor of the Palace
ii. Frankish Civil War 714-719, brought the Carolingians control of
Austrasia and Neustria
iii. Against the Arabs
1. Battle of Tours 732
2. By 739, the south and west of modern France was under
Carolingian control.
B. The Iconoclasm Controversy
a. In the 7th century Byzantine Emperors had often chose the pope.
i. From 678-752, 11 of the popes were either Greek or Syrian
b. Early 8th Century
i. Papacy refused to pay taxes to the Byzantine Emperor
ii. The papacy then defied the Byzantine policy of Iconoclasm
iii. The Result was the freeing of the Papacy from Byzantine control
iv. The papacy became vulnerable to local kingdoms like the Lombards
C. Pepin the Short
a. Son of Charles Martel
b. Pepin was the first Carolingian to take the royal title
i. This was supported by the papacy
ii. The papacy would use the Carolingians to check Lombard threats
c. In 755-756 Pepin the Short would attack the Lombard
D. Charlemagne
a. He ruled from 768-814
i. No other Carolingian ruler expanded the Frankish Empire more
ii. He was crowned Emperor Christmas Day – 800
b. Succession
i. Upon the Death of Pepin the Short, the empire was divided between
Charlemagne and his brother Carlo man
ii. The latter died in 771, leaving Charlemagne sole ruler.
c. Wars
i. The Saxons –
1. Charlemagne’s longest war, against the Saxons on the other
side of the Rhine
2. It took decades but he eventually expanded Kingdom to the
Elbe.
ii. War against the Lombard
1. Swift Campaign – 773-774
2. Took the Kingdom of Lombardy,
3. Charlemagne took the Royal Title for himself
4. Byzantines claimed Lombardy, Charlemagne refused to hand it
over.
E. Emperor Charlemagne
a. Pope Leo III –
i. Previous popes relatives, accused him of fornication and perjury,
tried to attack him, blind him and cut out his tongue
ii. Leo III – ran to Charlemagne
iii. Charlemagne traveled to Rome to clear popes name.
b. The Church provides Legitimacy
i. The only claim to the throne was from the pope.
ii. A discredited pope could discredit Carolingians
iii. This need for papal legitimacy caused problems of succession.
F. The Carolingian Church
a. Government and The Church
i. Secular authority dominates religious
ii. Church was important to Carolingians
1. Spiritual power would ensure loyalty
2. Clerics could staff the government bureaucracy
3. They could appoint bishops which created loyalty
iii. Carolingians supported missionaries
1. Mostly to the pagan Germans and Anglo-Saxons
2. The Carolingians preferred to convert Saxons first and to
instruct them in the tenets of Christianity later. The Heliand, a
remarkable Saxon version of the gospel written in the first half
th
of the 9 century, suggests that Christian missionaries
presented Christianity to Saxons in a somewhat altered form
that was more in keeping with the Saxons’ own cultural
expectations.
3. Ecclesiastical Reform by the Carolingians
a. Organized and extend the parish system to more of
Europe
b. Mandatory tithing
G. Carolingian Renaissance
a. Charlemagne had an interest in education
i. Largely to aid ecclesiastical reform
1. Many priest spoke bad Latin which confused the message
2. Copies of the bible began to have considerable errors
ii. Charlemagne recruited scholars from throughout Europe to come to
his court
1. They were all clerics
2. They looked into errors and produced numerous copies of
religious texts
iii. Results
1. Handwriting styles had varied from one region to the other
2. Carolingian miniscule
a. Rudimentary punctuation
b. Upper and lower case letters
c. Spaces between words
3. Vernacular languages
a. By this time, recognizable Romance languages were
recognizable different than Latin.
FURY OF THE NORTHMEN
A. Viking attacks and Settlement
a. The reason for the Viking attacks and settlement between the 8 th and 10th
Centuries is a mystery.
i. There is very little written about them before they were Christianized in
the 11th Century
ii. Viking Sagas date only to the 12th and 13th Centuries
1. Although many of these sagas contain some accurate information
of events from previous centuries, it is often difficult to
distinguish fact from legend and anachronism.
b. The term Viking was used in the contemporary periods, but its etymology is
disputed. More often they were called Northman
c. They raided and settled over a wide area.
i. From Newfoundland and Greenland to Russia
ii. They raided even farther
1. Islamic Spain (840s)
2. Mediterranean (850’s)
3. Constantinople (860’s)
B. The Beginning of Viking Raids
a. The raids were began in 789 when they began attacking Anglo-Saxon
Monasteries, then shortly after Carolingian Monasteries.
b. The raids intensified, England was geographically vulnerable and the raid quickly
intensified.
i. Began with an attack on monasteries in 789
ii. By the 840s the raids were so far away that Vikings wintered in the areas
iii. The Vikings firmly establishing a foothold in Anglo Saxon England.
iv. In many areas, Danelaw was established.
c. In France, by the 830’s raids grew more frequent, by the 840’s the Vikings
penetrated deeper into France and began spending winters in the areas they
intended to pillage in the following Spring.
i. Carolingian rulers were unable to stop the Vikings
ii. Many paid them off – danegeld
d. The success of the Vikings was due to their nautical skills and the use of the
longboat
i. Longboats could easily travel oceans and rivers
ii. They could even be carried over land to avoid river fortifications.
iii. Other reasons for their successes were due to other people’s attacking
the weakened Carolingian kingdoms
1. The Arabs from the South, in Italy and Southern France
2. And the Magyars from the East around 900, by the 930’s they
were raiding into the Western part of the Carolingian Empire.
C. The End of the Raiding
a. In the first half of the 10th Century the raids slowed and the stopped. Why?
i. No one knows, but it is often debated.
ii. Evidence from suggested that trading became more profitable than
raiding.
iii. The pillaging from the previous century had severely so raiding in the
same areas did not have the same profitability
iv. Carolingians also began using Vikings to protect themselves from other
Vikings.
1. In 911 – the Viking Rollo had settled in Normandy.
b. Many historians argue that the Vikings had been beneficial to the European
economy, people who lived through the attacks thought differently.
D. Viking Culture and Religion
a. Norse/Germanic Religion was very different from most religions, its was
animistic, polytheistic, pantheistic and held a cyclical view of time.
b. Most of what we know comes from poems, treatises and sagas
c. Ragnarok – “The Doom of the Gods”
i. The beloved god, Baldur was killed by the trickster god, Loki and sent to
the underworld.
ii. Odin – was selecting the best humans to join him in the final battle
against the giants. But the gods knew that their efforts were futile.
iii. In Midgard, the realm of human civilization, people abandoned their
traditional ways, disregarded the bonds of kinship and were becoming
corrupt.
iv. They gods were in the same situation, they also broke oaths.
v. Three winters in a row, Fimulwinter.
vi. Loki and his son, the wolf Fenrir, were both chained up to prevent them
from creating trouble in the Nine Worlds. They broke out.
vii. Yggfrasil – the Great Tree that holds the Nine Worlds, began trembling.
viii. Loki, at the head of the “Ship of the Dead” (Naglfar) was leading an army
of giants to destroy Asgard, the fortress stronghold of the gods.
ix. The Giants began destroying, Fenrir the great wolf consumed the earth
and sky.
x. Much like Greek gods, a great battle was fought, and the gods bitterly
fought till the end.
1. Thor and Jormungand, (a great sea serpent) killed each other.
2. The Giant Surt, whose flaming sword destroyed turned earth into
a blazing inferno, fought and killed the god Freyr
3. Heimdall and Loki killed each other.
4. Odin and Tyr were killed by Fenrir, who fell to Vidar, Odin’s son.
xi. The Earth sank into the sea, the darkness of Ginnungagp reigned once
more.
xii. This did not last forever, Baldur returned from the underworld and
recreated everything.
E.
F.
THE MIDDLE AGES
A. The Carolingian Collapse
a. Their success was rooted in military conquest
i. Setting up a system of aristocratic vassals
ii. Knights
1. Stirrup and high-backed saddle
b. Kingdom divided between sons
i. They were lucky early on, as only having to divide between two sons
usually
ii. They avoided costly Civil Wars until the 9th century.
iii. After the Treaty of Verdun, the boundaries of these three kingdoms shifted often.
Lotharingia disappeared in the 850s, and the Carolingian rulers of West Francia and East
Francia went to war with each other in 858.
B. Missing Section
C. The Castellans and the Castle
a. Castellans
i. After the death of Louis the Pious 840, however, counts broke free of Carolingian control
and made themselves autonomous within their counties.
ii. Carolingian rulers began to give multiple counties to individual counts.
iii. The office of count became hereditary as Carolingian rulers lost the ability to replace
disloyal counts.
iv. Counts took for themselves powers that had previously been reserved for Carolingian
kings.
v. They made lands in their counties their own personal property.
vi. They stopped passing along to the Carolingian kings the fines they collected in public law
courts.
vii. They took over the right to make important ecclesiastical appointments.
viii. Kings stopped visiting large parts of territories that theoretically still belonged to them.
b. Castles
i. Originally they were public property, held by appointed officials who could be removed.
ii. By the year 1000, many had been turned into private property
iii. This was more frequent in West Francia
1. They were subject to more Viking Raids
iv. The growth in the number of castles also resulted in a growing number of knights, whom
castellans used as muscle to impose and enforce their rights of lordship over the
peasantry.
D. Eastern Francia and the Creation of the Holy Roman Empire
a. Carolingian rule ended in 911
i. First Ottonian King Henry I
1. Came to the throne in 919 – 936
2. They maintained royal authority
3. Defeated the Magyars at the Battle of Lech in 955
a. Gave them lots of prestige
b. Otto I – had himself crowned Emperor in 962
i. Marks the Birth of the HRE
ii. Also included northern Italy and from 1032 the Kingdom of Burgundy
c. Holy Roman Empire
i. Exercised control over the church and papal elections
ii. Severed themselves from West Francia
1. Developed distinct identity
2. Around 1000 the name changed to Regnum Teutonicum “German Kingdom”
Feudal England
A. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms before Vikings
a. North Umbria – was the cultural center
b. Mercia
c. East Anglia
d. Wessex
B. Danes Invade 865
a. Only Wessex remained independent
b. Danes settled in what was called Danelaw
C. Wessex and Alfred the Great (ruled 871-899)
a. Alfred the Great
i. Like Charlemagne he promoted eduction
ii. He was unlike others of his time, educate
iii. Started to regain some of the land lost to the Danes
b. By 959, Wessex kings reconqured the Danelaw
i. Viking Raids had united the Anglo-saxon population behing Wessex
D. Viking Conquest
a. Viking raids had a greater impact on England than France
b. Since the Viking came by sea no area of England was safe
c. After the 9th century, there was a raid every year
d. Slowed down in the Mid-10th century, but renewed
E. Harald Bluetooth
a. United Denmark and Norway
b. Brought Christianty
c. Renewed Raids on England
F. King Aethelred of England (died 1016)
a. He resumed payment of danegeld
b. Sought assistance with the Normans by marriage
c. In 1002, he ordered the massacre of all danes settled in England
i. Enraged the Scandinavians
d. In 1013, King Swein FOrkbeard
i. Captured London
ii. Forced Anglo-Saxon kings into exile in Normandy
1. They remained there until 1042
G. Norman Conquest of England
a. Viking raids had weakened Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
b. In 1066, last king died without a male heir
i. King of Norway Harald Hardrada and William the Bastard the duke of
Normandy claimed the throne
ii. Anglo-Saxons proclaimed Harold, king.
iii. Harold defeated Harald at the Battle of Stammford Bridge
1. Costly battle
iv. Battle of Hastings
1. Weakened by fighting Norway
2. Harold was defeated by William the Bastard (the Conqueror)
H. Consequences of Norman Conquest
a. Normans were descendants of the Scandinavian Vikings but they spoke
French
b. Up to this time English culture was more in line with the Scandinavian World
c. Norman conquest put England into the continental world.
FEUDAL SOCIETY
A. From Large scale Agriculture to Serfdom
a. The Roman Estates or Latifundia were declining
i. Had two parts, tenancies and demense
ii. On Roman estates demense was larger and farmed by gangs of slaves
b. Medieval Manor
i. Had same two parts
ii. The tenancies were larger
iii. Demense were farmed by serfs.
c. Serfdom
i. Transistion from Slavery to Serfdom
1. Poorly documented
2. Began in Merovingian France and spread with Frankish Empire
ii. Shared characteristics of slavery
1. They were legally unfree
2. Was hereditary
iii. Differences from Slavery
1. Slaves lived in barracks, serfs lived in individual dwellings
2. Slaves owed unlimited unpaid labor on the demense
a. Serfs usually worked three days on the demense, other
time was spent working on their tenancies
3. Serfs had right to a family
a. They could be sold but only as family unit with the land
that they were on.
B. Feudal Bonds
a. Feudalism – a hierarchical relationship of honorable dependence between two
people, usually aristocrats, Lord and Vassal
i. Lords provide vassals source of revenue
1. Feudum – land to be managed
ii. Lord owed the vassal maintenance and protection
iii. Vassals owed lords military service and protection
iv. Relationship was cemented by honor and ceremony
b. The Family –
i. During the early middle ages Roman and Germanic culture fused and
family practices changed
ii. Similarities to the Roman Family
1. Families were households not nuclear families
2. Head of household had extensive rights over others
3. Extra marital affairs were tolerated
4. Parents would arrange marriages.
iii. Differences
1. Different naming patterns for biological relationships
2. Dowries in Rome were paid by the bride’s family, it was the
opposite in German families
3. Roman marriages required consent, German did not
4. Germans practiced polygamy
iv. By 1000 – Germanic Marriage and family structure was more dominant
but Christianity was changing it.
c. The Christian Influence on Marriage
i. Christianity influence European Family as it destroyed pagan practice
ii. Christian practices were hostile to Roman and pagan practices
1. Christianity accepted Roman marital practice
a. Required free consent
b. Polygamy would disappear
2. Christianity used spiritual and civil sanctions to change Roman and
Germanic practices
a. Romans and Germans allowed marriages within a kinship
group, Christianity condemned it
i. By 1000, Church created incest taboo
ii. Prohibited marriage up to six degrees of kinship
b. Christianity condemned infanticide and adoption,
preferring godparents
c. Christianity opposed divorce, as well as remarriage of
widows
d. Christianity condemned concubines, but it remained
THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES
A. Demographic and Commercial Revolution
a. Population Growth
i. 1000-1300, the population doubled
ii. By 1300, population was between 50-100 mil.
iii. Life expectancy in 1000 was 25
iv. Life expectancy in 1300 was 35
b. What caused it?
i. Removal of factors that prohibited population in the Early Feudal Age
1. No more Bubonic plagues from 9th – 14th centuries.
2. Less Viking, Arab and Hungarian Raids
3. Serf families were more fertile than slave families.
ii. New Technologies
1. Heavy plow and horse collar
2. Water Mill – large scale use around 1100
iii. Climate
1. “little optimum” from 900-1200, relatively warm dry weather.
c. Effects of Population Growth
i. Renewed Urban life
ii. Generated a commercial revolution
B. The Renewal of Urban Life
a. The Cities of Feudal Europe
i. Around 1000 urban life was at its lowest point
1. Largest cities were in N. Italy
2. Perhaps 10-20,000 inhabitants
3. North of the Alps 4-5,000
ii. Around 1300
1. 100-200,000 pop in N. Italy
2. 40-50,000 pop. North of the Alps
b. Commercial Revolution
i. Commercial Contacts expand
1. Italian Merchants brought in Eastern Goods
2. Marco Polo –
ii. Fairs
1. Important to long distance trade
2. Served as temporary markets, usually during holidays
3. Had to be regulated and policed
a. Piepowders in England.
iii. Revival of Coinage
1. The Florin
C. The Noble and Military Castes
a. Social Division
i. Knights and Castellans
ii. Upper Level – Counts, Dukes and Barons
iii. These classes owed their rule to its military domination and monopoly
b. Evolution of the Nobility 1000-1300
i. The term "noble" had a different meaning from one time to the other
1. In 1000, there were no distinct rules for membership, all you
needed was the equipment
2. By 1300, it was a distinct social class with limited membership and
legal privileges
a. Coat of arms did not exist before 1000
b. "dubbing" - the process and ceremony of becoming a
Knight
3. What caused the Change? The rising bourgeois class had begun to
challenge them economically. Accordingly they became more
aware of their class and made it more difficult to get in.
c. Fighting and Warfare
i. Was a major social problem.
1. Brutal treatment of non-nobles
a. Rents and Taxes
b. They could demand unpaid labor
c. They often took the right to met out punishment
i. There was no precedent in some areas and cases. It
was more that might makes right.
ii. Constant Warfare
1. Lordships and the money they provided war was common
2. War often included raiding and attacking another lords peasants.
d. Central or Decentralized Authority
i. Private Castles and Lordships sprung up where it could not be prevented
by central authority.
1. In Western France 1000, the Carolingian collapse, caused a
vacuum of centralized authority
2. This did not happen in Germany and England
e. "The Peace and Truce of God" i. 989 - local clergy proclaimed certain defenseless people immune from
violence
1. Violence was forbidden in areas around churches, so little villages
began to surround them.
ii. it forbid fighting during certain days and times of the year.
iii. IT was enforced by condemnation from the church, which was not as
effective
D. Chivalry
a. Chivalry provided a better reason for civil behavior
b. Courtly Love
c. Literature
i. the genre of chivalric romance imparted the ideals of chivalry.
ii. chivalric romance began in 1150
d. Chivalry was firmly in place by High Middle Ages 1300
E. The Tournament
a. First appeared in 1100
b. At first they were more violent, either knocking out or killing opponent
c. They were mostly melees
d. no physical boundaries, they even fought into the crowds of people
e. by 1300 melee had given away to Joust, which was less brutal
f. knights who violated chivalry code were banned from tournament.
F. The Peasants
a. Labor and Toil
i. Manorial Peasants 1. worked on tenancies, for wages or as payment for services
ii. Yeoman Peasants
iii. Agricultural Slavery was dying out by 1000
iv. Lordship - was when peasant agreed to farm the land
v. Domestic Lordship - When you dedicated to a lord's household as a
servant
vi. Banal Lordship - Was territorial lordship.
b. Seigniorial Dues and fines
i. Lords could exact taxes from peasants
ii. could be collected at any time, any amount and as frequently as a lord
wished.
iii. Fines 1. Lords took the right to serve justice
2. in many cases fined peasants for crimes
iv. banalités,
1. agreements to purchase certain products from lords only
2. they could only use the lords mills, ovens and other service
equipment, at a fee.
c. Improvements for peasants
i. Reurbanization helped peasants
1. peasant who moved into towns in time became free
2. lords fearing the emigration would treat peasants better
ii. Expansion of Christian Europe
1. as it expanded to Muslim Spain, Celtic Ireland and Syria
iii. Technological Changes reduced burdens
1. heavy plow and horse collar
iv. Monetary system - allowed people to buy freedom or pay in cash instead
of labor.
G. Townspeople
a. The Transformation of Urban life was the most important feature of the High
Middle Ages
THE CRUSADES
A. The Byzantine State
a. The Emperor and the Patriarch
i. In the Orthodox Byzantine Empire, power was often shared between
civil and religious authorities.
ii. Conflict between the two was not seen as a struggle with church and
state
iii. Schisms – within the single community
b. The Government
i. Impressive bureaucracy and army
ii. There were provinces, but feudalism did not exist
iii. The institutions of Rome continued to exist
iv. Emperors still had control over taxation, law and the government
apparatus.
c. The Army
i. Two parts - the Scholae and themes
1. Scholae was the field army, it was more professional and
constantly drilled
2. Themes – were given land for service like a feudal state, but
central authority was maintained.
ii. Many western Europeans served as mercenaries during the Crusades
d. Constantinople
i. Was not only the capital, but was the center of the Christian world.
1. It had relics and great expense was made to beautify the city.
e. The Orthodox church
i. The patriarch exerted more centralized control over his church than
the pope
1. He presided over the church, he made appointments to
monasteries and bishoprics.
2. Could call for monks to riot in the streets if there were
disagreements with the Emperor
B. The Great Schism 1054
a. The Catholic and Orthodox churches had been separate from the 5 th
century.
i. Popes believed that they could decide on doctrines
ii. Patriarchs felt those matters should be decided by councils
b. There had long been many differences in doctrine and practice
c. 1054 – Patriarch ordered all Catholic churches closed in Constantinople
d.
By 1096, the Eastern and Western Christian worlds had moved in different directions,
and the arrival of the Crusaders highlighted these differences.
C. Byzantine Diplomacy
a. Byzantium dealt with Western Europeans and Muslims and in many cases
saw them both as threats
i. Western Europeans could be potential allies, through alliances and
trade
1. Some, like the Lombards were threats as they attacked
imperial holdings in Italy
2. The Lombards were supported by the Holy Roman Emperor
(German King)
ii. Muslim Diplomacy was less cordial
1. Therefore Byzantine policy was defensive
2. In 1001 – a treaty the Fatimid Caliphate protected Christian
pilgrims to Jerusalem
a. Since Byzantine control of the Balkans was establish,
this allowed a peaceful land route to the holy land.
3. When the Seljuk Turks threatened this arrangement, the
response was the First Crusade
D. The Collapse of Byzantine Power
a. Under Basil the Bulgar-Slayer (Basil II)
i. The empire was firmly ruled and the Balkans were brought under the
authority of the Empire
b. His Incompetent Heirs
c. Institutional Weaknesses
i. Basil never married, and left a succession crises
ii. Heavy taxation and corruption in the provinces
d. New Foes
i. The Normans and Seljuk Turks
1. The Normans created a state in S. Italy, under William the
Strong and his brother Robert Guiscard
2. There was an attempt to have them excommunicated but by
1071 the Normans took S. Italy
3. The Seljuks appeared in the East as a threat in the 1050’s
a. Nomadic warriors converted to Islam
b. In 1055, Sultan Tuhgril Bey united the Turkomen
Tribes and took Baghdad and began to threaten the
Byzantines
4. 1060’s
a. The Seljuks took large parts of Byzantine territory in
Anatolia and the Normans invaded Greece
E. Emperor Alexis I Comenus
a. Seized power in 1060’s
b. After severe losses of territory, Alexis I called for Western European
mercenaries.
F. Pilgrimage
a. A yearning to see holy places, they began in the 300’s
b. Travelling to the shrines was seen as a spiritual offering
c. Pilgrimages were not only Christian
d. Early Pilgrimage
i. Constantine –
1. Founded the Christian capital at Constantinople and
excavated the Christian sites of the Crucifixion and holy
sepulcher.
2. He also ordered that Jerusalem be a Christian city.
3. He constructed monasteries, hospitals and accommodations
for travelers
ii. The Pilgrimage Trade
1. Was very lucrative
2. Itineraries were created to see the major sites along the way.
3. Relics were brought back to Western Europe.
4. The importance of the pilgrimage was more important to
western Europeans than Byzantines.
iii. Western Europeans who went on pilgrimage included prominent
figures, such as Thorvald Kódransson Vidtförli, who brought
Christianity to Iceland, and Harold Haradara, later king of Norway.
The retinues of these travelers could be enormous, numbering as
many as 10,000.
G. From Pilgrimage to Holy War
a. Christians did not have a coherent theology about holy war. The Crusades
are often compared to jihad, but biblical texts do not support this
opinion.
i. St. Augustine married the Roman and Old Testament
traditions to justify the idea that in certain situations, such as
to defend or extend the faith, a just war was legitimate.
b. By the 10th and 11th centuries, the notion of just war was also fused
with the martial ethos of the Germanic and Celtic peoples.
c. Western Europeans accepted the idea that Christianity could be defended
and pagans could be converted by the sword. By 800, when Christendom
was assaulted on all sides by Vikings, Hungarians, and Muslims, this vision
intensified.
d. The righteousness of this vision was intensified because Western
Europeans did not have many people of other religions in their midst.
H. The Call
a. Emperor Alexius I called for assistance against the Seljuk Turks and Pope
Urban II responded
i. Pope Urban wanted to unite Europe and end all of the warfare
between the Kingdoms, give them a common enemy.
b. Council of Clermont (Nov. 1095)
i. Urban promised remission of sin for those who undertook the
Crusade and an assured place in heaven.
ii. Urban’s appeals were repeated in sermons that fired crowds across
Europe.
iii. Urban fixed the departure date for the Crusade on the Feast of the
Assumption, August 15, 1096.
c. The People’s Crusade and Peter the Hermit
i. The First Crusade 1096-1099
1. Recruited thousand’s of peasants
2. They were robbing people on the way there, there was no
organization or real leadership
a. Godfrey of Bouillon
3. When they arrived in Levant, they fought Fatimad Egyptians
who had recently captured the holy land from the Seljuks.
ii. The Sack of Jerusalem
1. The crusaders went through the city and massacred Muslims
and Jews.
I. Military Action
a. Nicaea Surrenders to Alexius
b. Bohemend captures Antioch by bribing guards
c. Crossed Anatolia under horrible conditions
d. The Siege of Jerusalem
e. Why the success?
i. Turks underestimated the “infidels”
ii. Not prepared for heavy cavalry of Western Europe
iii. There were internal divisions among the Fatimid and Abbasid
Kingdoms.
J. Crusader States
a. There were four states inadvertently created
i. Kingdom of Jerusalem – Baldwin I (The First King)
ii. County of Edessa
iii. Principality of Antioch
iv. County of Tripoli
b. They were hard to defend and expanded throughout the 12 th century
i. This was due to the adaptability of the Crusaders and the backing of
Italian merchant cities to supply the naval and trade support.
c. The difficulty in ruling a non-French population
K. The Establishment of the Orders
a. The Knights Templar
i. For the Temple of Solomon
ii. Poverty chastity and obedience
iii. To protect pilgrims from Jaffa to Jerusalem
iv. Received papal acceptance in 1128
v. Other functions
1. Deposit money in Europe and withdraw it in the holy land.
a. This banking is what led to their later demise.
b. Knights of the Hospital of St. John or Hospitallers
i. Did not start as a military order
ii. They provided care for sick pilgrims
c. These orders provided the Crusader states with new soldiers and
administrators.
L. The Fall of Edessa and the Second Crusade.
a. Zengi – Muslim leader called for a Jihad against Christians
b. King Baldwin II called for a Second Crusade
c. The Second Crusade was a failure.
i. This had particular consequences
1. Disillusionment and loss of faith
2. But there were numerous, “mini-Crusades” in the next
generation
M. Saladin and the Third Crusade 1189-1192
a. Saladin (1137-1193) – First Sultan of Egypt and Syria
i. United the Muslims creating a single powerful state.
ii. Retook Jerusalem in October 2 1187
1. Upon hearing the news Urban III died.
2. Pope Gregory VIII proposed the 3rd Crusade
b. Western Monarchs respond.
i. Frederick I (HRE), Richard I (the Lionheart) and Phillip II of France
1. Frederick died en route
2. Richard captured Cyprus from Byzantines
3. Phillip returned to France
c. The Conclusion
i. Richard captured the port city of Acre and Jaffa
ii. He was unable to capture Jerusalem
iii. He negotiated Treaty and returned home, as Phillip of France took
advantage of his absence to seize English holdings in France.
N. The Fourth Crusade 1202-1204
a. Never made it to the Holy Land
b. They looted Constantinople by breaching the sea walls with the help of
Venetians
c. Constantinople would never recover from this and would be take by the
Turks in 1453.
THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (1300-1500)
A. The Avignon Papacy
a. Philip IV (the Fair) of France
i. By 1300 he challenged papal authority by proclaiming that he could
tax the clergy without permission from pope
ii. Pope Boniface VIII issued a papal bull against Philip
iii. Philip imposed an economic blockade on the papacy and Boniface
finally relented and allowed the tax
iv. Philip continued to challenge the Pope
1. 1301 – he arrested a bishop, Boniface brought him up on
charges
2. 1302 – Philip called his own council of the nobles, clergy and
commoners, this was the first meeting of the estates general.
He called his subjects to stand with him against the pope.
3. Nov. 1302 – Boniface issued a papal bull, stating that popes
should judge the suitability of kings not the other way
around.
4. 1303 – Philip claimed that Boniface was not a legitimate
pope, calling him a sodomite, heretic and devil worshippers
v. September 1303 – the Pope was captured and then freed by the
townspeople, Boniface died a month later
b. Archbishop of Bordeaux was elected Pope Clement V in 1305
i. There were a few problems in the succession
ii. He never went to Rome, not because of French pressure
iii. He was trying to settle a dispute between England and France over
control of Aquitaine, dispute prevented kings from crusading
iv. Lots of disorder in Rome
v. The Avignon Papacy would continue to 1337
c. The Fall of the Templar
i. Philip IV of France put the Templars on Trial and seized property
between 1307 and 1311
1. Legally, they answered to the Pope
2. French began to condemn them for failing to recapture
Jerusalem
B. The Hundreds Years War
a. From the Norman Conquest
i. The English were kings equal to French kings, however English
holdings in France made them vassals of the French.
ii. By 1154, the English controlled the Western half of France
iii. In the 1200’s the French had made some gains
b. The Conflict
i. In 1328, the Capetian Dynasty of France ended
1. Numerous claims came forward
a. Philip of Valois eventually became King Philip IV
b. Edward III of England also had a claim to the throne
i. He even took the title “King of France” in 1340
and proclaimed Philip an usurper
ii. In 1337 – Philip attacked the English owned province of Gascony.
C. The First Phase - 1337 to the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360
a. Edward invaded France with the help of Flanders and established raiding
bases
b. He did not try to capture territory, he avoided pitched battles and wanted to
break the French will to resist
c. The Battle of Crecy in 1346
d. The Battle of Poitiers in 1356
i. King of France captured, revolts broke out in Paris (the Jacquerie)
e. The Treaty
i. England was allowed to keep much of the territory it captured,
including the port of Calais
ii. King of England no longer considered vassal of French
iii. France would pay enormous ransom
iv. English King would renounce his claim to the French Throne
v. The Treaty left the French bitter.
D. The Second Phase 1369
a. Violations of the Treaty on both sides
b. 1415-1429 the King of England nearly took the French crown
i. This English invasion was permanent, not hit and run tactics
ii. 1415- Battle of Agincourt
1. French Knights suffered a defeat
c. Both Charles VI and Henry V of England died in 1422
i. The fighting broke out again
ii. Henry VI was only 9 months old but the English pressed their claim
to the French throne.
iii. After a series of English victories, Henry VI was crowned King of
France 1431
d. Joan of Arc
i. Born around 1412
ii. 1429 – she met with the son of Charles VI and he permitted her to
lead French troops to retake Orleans and Rheims
iii. After these victories Charles had himself crowned in 1429
iv. Joan was captured by the Burundians and Charles did not ransom
her. The Burundians had her ransomed to the English who burned
her at the stake in 1431
E. The Effects of the Hundred’s Years War
a. The War enhanced the monarchies of England and France
i. Direct national taxation
1. Earlier kings could only tax in states of emergencies
2. The war had been nearly a permanent state of emergency.
ii. The Taxation was used to pay for military
1. Increased reliance on foot soldiers for pay made the war
more devastating
2. During the truces these mercenaries pillaged civilians
3. 1450- to address this problem France established its first
permanent standing army. The first since Rome.
iii. Tactical changes
1. The use of foot soldiers
2. The development of the longbow
F. The Black Death
a. Population 1300
i. By 1300 – Europe was showing signs of overpopulation
1. The Great Famine (1315) in Northern Europe
2. 1330’s and 1340’s in Southern Europe
b. The Great Morality
i. Was the name of the Black Death by contemporaries
1. Plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which is
native to central Asia and East Africa and ordinarily resides
innocuously in the digestive tracts of fleas, especially rat
fleas.
ii. Was not just a European phenomenon, it originated elsewhere
1. It reflected the commercial patterns of Europe
2. Before 1347 people began hearing of it from the East
c. Contemporary Explanation
i. Theological and astrological terms
1. A punishment of human sin
a. Flagellant movement
i. Whipped themselves in public processions
ii. Authorities were concerned with these people
who may label leadership of the church
corrupt.
2. Astrological
a. An alignment of the planets had polluted the world’s
atmosphere.
3. Blame the Jews
a. Some believed the Jews were supposedly trying to
wipe Christians out .
b. Pogroms broke out in Spain, France, Switzerland and
Germany
d. The Effect of Depopulation
i. Subsequent outbreaks drove populations lower
1. Florence dropped from 120’000 in 1338 to 38’000 in 1427
2. Thousands of villages disappeared
3. Population of 1450 was 60% what it was in 1300
ii. Economic Consequences
1. Land was available labor was scarce
a. Wages increased
b. Rent and food prices decreased
2. These trends favored the poor
3. Effects were complicated
a. Clothe makers saw a decline in the market
b. Goldsmiths saw an increase in their wealth.
G. Revolt
a. English Peasants Revolt (1381)
i. Statute of Labourers 1351
1. A way to counter the economic effect of the plague
2. Fixed wages to pre-plague levels
ii. Taxation
1. Peasants resented the taxes for a war
2. Taxes were collected in 1377, 1379 and 1380
3. Was the main cause for the revolt
4. Peasants attacked tax collectors
iii. The Revolt
1. Lasted during the summer
2. They attacked royal officials, but not the king
3. They invaded London and destroyed the records.
b. Ciompi Revolt 1378
i. Florence Italy
ii. Artisans vs Merchants
1. The decline in population affected artisans forcing them into
the employment by merchants
2. The putting out system
a. Merchant obtained their products from rural
manufacturers rather than urban artisans subject to
guild regulations.
3. It became harder to become a master craftsman
iii. Revolt
1. Clotheworkers seized control of the city
a. Granted full citizens to clothe workers, forbid debt
imprisonment.
2. Internal divisions caused the collapse of the rebellion.
H. Witchcraft
a. Belief in Magic
i. It existed before Christianity
ii. Between 1300 and 1500, there was a belief of a sub-society of
heretics who practiced harmful magic.
iii. There was a difference in beneficial magic and harmful magic
1. In harmful magic there was a pact with Satan
b. Secular and Religious Responses
i. Were willing to punish people who practiced harmful magic but
generally left others alone
ii. Religious authorities defined both as heretics.
iii. The difficulty of prosecuting people, because of the talion
1. This required accusers to undergo punishments that would
be suffered by the convicted
c. Late Middle Ages
i. Accusations increased
ii. Witches given certain characteristics
1. The killing and eating of children
2. The use of animal familiars
3. The presence of a special mark on a witches body
4. Member of a group that engaged in night flying and orgies
a. Night flying and orgies worship ceremonies predated
Christianity
d. Inquisitors
i. Inquisitorial courts emerged
1. They did not separate heretics and witches
2. They collected evidence and testimonies
3. They did not wait for accusations
4. They were punished if they failed to prove the charges which
was rare because they were judges.
ii. These procedures made it easier to accuse and prosecute witches
iii. Between 1300 and 1375, witch trials were very few in Europe
(perhaps one a year), and the accused tended to be powerful
and prominent individuals, which suggests that the concept of
witchcraft was then circulating only among a small elite.
iv. From 1375 to 1435, the number of witch trials increased, and for
the first time, one finds theological works devoted exclusively to
witches.
v. From 1435 to 1500, the number of trials continued to increase,
and witches were now sometimes accused and executed in
batches rather than singly. In 1487, two inquisitors published the
most famous and comprehensive late-medieval witch-hunting
treatise, the Malleus maleficarum (Hammer of the Witches).
I. Gunpowder
a. The Pre-Gunpowder Military
i. Footsoldiers were consistently defeating heavy knights
1. Pikes, Longbows, halberds
2. Swiss developed tactics using mass pikes.
b. The Introduction of Gunpowder
i. Came in the early 1300’s
ii. It had been used in China for centuries
1. China used it as an explosive
2. Europeans used it as a propellant.
c. Revolution in siege warfare
i. Before cannon sieges lasted for months and years
1. You had to starve enemies out
2. Battering or tunneling walls was dangerous.
ii. Improvements
1. From stone to iron balls. They became indispensable to any
siege
d. Arquebus
i. A primitive musket appeared by 1500
ii. Very effective against knights
e. Reaction to Gunpowder
i. Changes in Armor
1. Sloping plate to deflect projectiles, replaced chainmail
ii. Castle walls
1. Became shorter and thicker with sloping sides
2. These changes did little offset the advantage of gunpowder
J. The Printing Press
a. Book production before the printing press
i. Paper was in use again, but expensive
ii. New handwriting emerged - Gothic Cursive Script
1. Script was compact allowing more words per page
iii. Books became more user-friendly
1. Cheaper
2. Table of contents and indexes
iv. Book production remained slow
v. There were experiments in block type, but there were problems.
b. Johannes Gutenberg
i. 1454
ii. A goldsmith from Strasbourg
iii. Moveable Metal type with pressing mechanism
iv. Its use spread from Germany outward
c. Early Inventions
i. Chinese were using moveable ceramic type by 11th century
ii. Muslims were using moveable metal type.
K. The Impact of the Printing Press
a. It made the dissemination of knowledge more rapid.
b. It made knowledge more secure, as books produced in insufficient
numbers could disappear
c. Spelling
i. Before the printing press spelling was highly varied
ii. Printing press led to standardization of spelling
1. On the other hand, even as spelling was frozen,
pronunciation continued to change, which explains why
today there is a weak relationship between the way
English words are spelled and the way they are
pronounced (knight, gnat, and ghoti are good examples
of this trend).
Greek Agora