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The American University of Rome
HSM 201 - Survey of Western Civilization
Session 6
The Hellenistic Age: Expansion of
Greek Ideals.
Globalization of the Mediterranean
World? Greek culture pervades Near
East for centuries.
I
Evolution of Greek art…perfecting art as perfecting politics?
Apollo of Tenea
560
Apollo of Piombino
500
Critian Boy
480
Hermes and Dionysius
350, Praxiteles
Athens: Political zenith of the Polis
> Athens heads the Delian League, and controls
the Eastern Mediterranean;
> Reconstruction of the city walls;
> Strategos Cimon leads to further victories against
Persians at sea;
> Athens coerces the subject poleis into the
alliance; by force; exploitation; slave society;
> Social unrest: more power to the thetes (people);
> Pericles, 460, aristocrat & populist,
enfranchisement of the people & its political power
& prerogatives, anti-Spartan politics, construction
of great temples of the Acropolis, Phidias architect.
The decline of Athens and the Poleis: The
Peloponnesian Wars
> Resentment over the power of Athens, after the
victory over Persia…the last battle at Plataea was
fought by Sparta;
> Corinth, close to Athens, fights Athenian control
of the seas, allied with Sparta in a rival league;
> 431…exclusive powers on land and sea;
> Siege to Athens, 429. Epidemics. Demagogues
take power, refuse peace;
> Alcibiades attacks Syracuse;
> Brief oligarchic government; Athens in exile
create government; democracy restored 409;
> Internecine fights in Athens, defeat of fleet in 404.
Athens and the Profusion of Ideas and Philosophies and Arts (amidst the political decline)
Political philosophy (concerned with the state) in the
context of the destruction of Greek poleis;
> failure of the Poleis and its “scale”
> Corinthian War (395-387); front against Sparta;
peace brokered by Persia;
> Epaminondas of Thebes defeats Spartans 371; the
3rd player
Plato (429-347) In The Republic: the ideal society (aiming at
social harmony & order, over liberty or equality) should be
comprised of three classes—philosopher kings, military
men, and merchants. People's membership in a class would
depend on their education: Those who had completed the
highest level of education would make the wisest decisions
and thus should be the rulers of society; its “guardians”
following the Idea of the Good – incorruptible?)
Aristotle (384-322 BC) the founder of the scientific
approach (observing the material world) to political theory.
His Politics, which classified governments as monarchies,
aristocracies, and democracies, according to their control by
one person, a select few, or many persons, successfully
combined an empirical investigation of the facts and a
critical inquiry into their ideal possibilities, thus providing a
challenging model of political studies.
The deteriorated state of the polis was the important subject of
their thinking. The government type: democracy, in crisis. The
scale: not Greece, perhaps not even the current poleis, that
had grown too much (need of a novel system? limit their
size?). Aristotle proposed a combination of Mo+Ar+De
systems to reorganize the polis (nothing new). Opposed in
thinking politics as means to an end, or politics as an end in
itself.
The military expansion of Macedonia, after
securing Greece, its naturally first target
Objectives in this flash conquest? (336-323)
> Expansion of Greek culture? His globalization?
> Control of more resources for Macedonia? (this territory
was not very well developed at the start); Plunder?
> Rejects peace treaty proposal; Continues war;
> Alexander overestimated the strength of Persians?
Underestimated his strategies?
> Do his campaigns seem to stop? Do they show any
planning? Was there an idea for ruling it?
> Was does it mean to found Alexandrias everywhere?
> Apply the ideas of his mentor?
> Special skills to rule? How about adoption traditions?
Marriages and integration, new nobles loyal (destroying
nevertheless the centers of Persian power)
The aftermath of Alex: Division of the empire
and perseverance of Greek culture
> The three successors seem to adopt the local
traditions in support of their political process of
legitimacy;
> Two-faced power: lo locals and to Greeks;
> Ptolemaic power in Alexandria and Egypt for 3 c.
The city evolves and prospers; the countryside is
exploited; any different from the real Pharaohs?
> Revival of the Persian Empire;
> The less fortunate: Macedonia;
> Explosive growth of (free & unregulated) trade;
> Cultural advances, the birth of Hellenism.
The division of the empire and the birth of
the Hellenistic world
Hellenistic Art: syncretism between Greek Classical art
and Oriental traditions
> What were the principal themes of Hellenistic architecture and sculpture?
150 BC
150 BC Rhodes (copy?)
150-100 BC
Q of chapter 4 of the Expansion of Greece
> What conditions led to the growing number of mercenaries in the 4th c.
BC.
> Why did Plato’s ideal polis differ from Aristotle’s?
> What accounts for the remarkable success of the Macedonian
conquests?
> What characteristics defined and distinguished the three major
Hellenistic kingdoms?
> Why as prosperity so unevenly distributed in the Hellenistic economy?
> What was the relationship between Epicureanism and Stoicism?
> What were the principal themes of Hellenistic architecture and
sculpture?
> Why did science and medicine flourish in this period?
> What changes occurred during the Hellenistic period to the polis-based
culture of classical Greece?