Download Lecture 3—Greek and Hellenistic Civilization

Lecture 3—Greek and Hellenistic Civilization
Greek Bronze Age (2000-1150 BC)
Minoans: In the third millenium BC, a bronze age civilization flourished on the
Island of Crete and other nearby islands, the Minoan civilization. Protected by
the ocean, Minoan cities needed no walls; they showed cultural influences from
all over the eastern Mediterranean. Greek mythology suggests they held sway
over the Greek mainland for a time. Their civilization was much like that of the
mainland: a hereditary king supported by a literate bureaucracy ruling over
commoners and slaves. Minoan art often depicts bulls and people dancing with /
performing acrobatics around bulls, and they're believed to have had some sort of
bull-cult, from which the legend of the Minotaur derives. It also focuses on
peaceful activities. The Minoans were not themselves Greek.
Mycenae: This same period was the age of Mycenae and other kingdoms in what
is now Greece, a period remembered in Greek history through legends about such
men as Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts, Hercules, etc. The
Myceneans arrived around 2000 BC, destroying a pre-Greek civilization in the
area. Around 1400-1200 BC, they reached the peak of their power, forcing Crete
into submission and eventually attacking the mainland city of Troy, destroying it.
(It has been rebuilt and sacked many times. The Illiad and the Oddessy both deal
with this event and the aftermath) The Myceneans were warlike, building strong
fortresses under warrior kings and depicting war and hunting in their art.
Mycenean government was similar to that of Crete; ie, it was fairly typical Bronze
age kingdoms.
The Fall: Between 1200 and 1100 BC, the Myceneans collapsed and were
conquered by the Dorians, Greek-speakers from the north.
Greek "Middle Ages": 1150 to 750 BC
Civilization in Decline: Little is known of this period, but society became much
more primitive. Some Greeks fled east into the isles of the Aegean sea, or settled
the western cost of Anatolia (Ionia). Trade diminished and each country lived by
its own strength.
Age of Homer: During this dark age, the peoples of Greece rewrote the tales of
the Mycenean era to reflect the culture of their own age. Thus, the Oddessy and
the Iliad reflect 10th-9th century culture but 13th century events. In the 8th century,
these two tales took their final written form (attributed to Homer, who may or
may not have ever existed.)
Government: Homeric Kings are much weaker than Mycenean monarchs,
dependent on a council of nobles. Commoners had no direct role in government,
but were allowed to speak their opinions at council.
Society: Homeric society is aristocratic, with classes of commoners and slaves as
well.
Homeric Values: The values of the Homeric poems influenced future Greek
culture. They are aristocratic: "physical prowness, courage, and fierce protection
of family, friends, and property". Personal honor and reputation must be
defended. The highest virtue is arete, the manly excellence of the hero.
The Polis: The polis was a nation centered around a major stronghold, but also
incorporating smaller villages and settlements, united in theory by a common
ancestry and in practice by a common government. They were subdivided into
oikos (households), genes, fighting brotherhoods (phratries), clans, and tribes.
They shared a common set of gods and religious rituals. Aristotle defined humans
as the animals who lived in a polis.
Development of the Polis: Originally, the 'Polis' was a high ground stronghold.
The Acropolis in Athens is an example. Towns grew up around them,
surrounded by farmland. Over time, each town came to have its own agora—
marketplace and civic center. Some poleis appeared early in the 8th century BC
and by 750 BC, all their colonies took this form. As they rose, monarchy
declined, replaced by an aristocratic republic dominated by office-holding
nobility.
The Hoplite Phalanx: Dark age armies focused on champion vs champion
combat with little discipline or formation. By 700 BC, the Hoplite Phalanx
emerged to dominate Greek warfare. The Hoplite was an aristocrat or citizenfarmer who could afford to equip himself with a helmet and bronze armor (which
rather resembled a metal sundress) and a large shield and long spear. They
formed close formations (the Phalanx) which allowed them to present a dense
mass of spears to the enemy. Battles rather resembled giant shoving matches,
until one side broke. Most wars consisted of a late-summer invasion of the
enemy, followed by a battle and some peace settlement to resolve the dispute in
question. Joint service built aristocrat-commoner unity but would also in time
lead commoners to challenge noble power.
Expansion of the Greek World
Greek Colonization: In the 8th to sixth century BC, the Greeks poured out in all
directions to found colonies from the western mediterranean to the Black Sea.
South Italy and Sicily had so many colonies, they were called 'Magna Graecia',
Great Greece. In this period, the Greeks created a set of common religious /
athletic festivals to cultivate Panhellenism (a sense of Greek identity): Olympus,
Delphi, Corinth, and Nemea were most important. (The original olympic games
were held every four years from 776 BC to 393 AD)
Trade: Colonization also fostered trade and industry. Agricultural production
tilted towards trade goods: olives and grapes. The growing economy made some
non-nobles rich, fostering challenges to noble power. This led to the rise of the
Tyrannies (700 to 500 BC).
The Tyrants (700 to 500 BC): The tyrants were men who overthrow the old
nobility and confiscated and redistributed its goods with the aid of non-nobles—
merchants, farmers, the poor, etc—who were disgruntled with noble rule. Tyrants
fostered trade and colonization. In the end, however, many were harsh and their
existence was opposed to the greek sense of citizen responsibility for governing
the polis. By 500 BC, they were largely overthrown.
Life in Archaic Greece
Society:
Farmers: Greek farmers tilled the fertile mountain valleys and coastal
plains or raised herds in the mountains. They produced barley and wheat,
grapes for wine, olives for oil, gree vegetables and fruit, while raising
sheep and goats. Their work was hard, but they owned their own land and
often served as Hoplites.
Aristocrats: Aristocrats used slaves and servants to work their lands and
lived a life of luxury; their social life revolvd around the drinking party or
symposion, an activity reserved for men. Contests and games were an
important aspect for the aristocrats were highly competitive men. This
competitiveness fostered the rise of athletic competitions in the 6th century
BC. Wrestling and horse-racing were the special preserve of the
aristocrat.
Religion: The Greeks were polytheists; the focus of their religion were
the thirteen gods of Olympus, the family of Zeus, King of the Gods: Zeus
and his wife Hera, his brothers Poseidon and Hades, his sisters Hestia and
Demeter, and his children: Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena,
Hephaestus, and Hermes. The gods acted like superpowered humans with
a rather low maturity level; they themselves were subject to the power of
the Fates. They had overthrown the previous generation of Gods—The
Titans, as the Titans had overthrown their own forebearers. Each polis
had its own guardian diety, such as Athena for Athens. Certain shrines
were home to athletic festivals to honor the gods, open to all greeks:
Olympic Games for Zeus, the Delphic games for Apollo, Corinth games
for Poseidon, etc.
Religion as Trade: Greek religion was not about morality; it was about
bribing the gods to help you instead of crushing you in some fit of petty
jealousy. Civic virtue consisted of following the traditional rites,
performing traditional service to the city and fighting to defend it.
The Delphic Oracle: From the sixth century, the Oracle of Delphi and
the priests of Apollo gained a lot of influence due to alleged ability to
predict future events; they taught an ethic of moderation and self-control
and taught that the gods punished hubris—overweening pride.
Poetry: This era saw a new form of poetry, the lyric (Lyric poetry refers
to either poetry that has the form and musical quality of a song, or a
usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not
be set to music. In the greek case, it specifically means poetry to be
accompanied by the lyre.). Poets such as Sappho of Lesbos, Anacreaon of
Teos, and Simonides of Cous explored the triumphs and tragedies of
personal life.
Major Greek City-States
Sparta: Sparta was one of many states founded by the Dorian invaders. Around
725 BC, it conquered and enslaved its neighbor, Messina, turning its population
into Helots (serfs). They ended up outnumbered roughly 10 to 1 by the Helots.
This forced the Spartans to convert their polis into a state of perpetual military
preparedness; the Spartan citizenry was effectively turned into a permanent
military force on constant standby, and Spartan culture beyond athletics, killing,
and pederasty was largely extinguished.
Society: A new system was created by the possibly legendary Spartan Lycurgus.
From birth, the state controlled your entire life, killing those infants seen as unfit
to live. At age 7, you were taken from your mother and sent to train in athletics
(and military arts for the boys). "Between leaving [your education] and joining a
[military unit] a select few young men were arranged into groups, and were sent
off into the countryside with nothing, and were expected to survive on wits and
cunning. It was assumed that they would steal their food, yet anyone caught
stealing was severely punished. Many speculate that this was to teach the young
Spartans stealth and quickness. If you were caught it was concluded that you were
not quick enough or silent enough. This was called the Crypteia, secret (ritual).
This was very probably, in origin, an old initiation rite, a preparation for their
later career as elite soldiers. Other sources claim that the Crypteia (or Krypteia)
was an "adolescent death squad" made up of the most promising young Spartans.
Their job was to roam the countryside killing Helots at night in order to instill fear
in the slave population and prevent rebellion." At age 20, you became a soldier
and lived in barracks until age 30. You could marry, but only visit your wife by
stealth. At age 30, you could move into your own household with your wife; you
were now a full citizen and ran your own estate through your helots, though you
still ate in a common mess with 15 other citizens. At age 60, you could retire
from military service. Spartan women had more freedom than other Greek
women, relieved of most of the duties of child-raising and housekeeping and
expected to compete athletically. (The Herean games were for women only)
Mentorship: Doric societies were marked by mentor relationships between older
men and adolescents. (Indeed you could be fined for not mentoring youths in
Sparta.) There is a fair amount of evidence this was typically coupled with
homosexual practices in Sparta (and many other Greek city states).
Property Stasis: Spartan law sought to maintain a fixed number of Spartans by
controlling the birth rate and by ensuring every citizen had an estate to support
him. Wealth was not perfectly even between Spartans, even before the Spartan
Hegemony, but the ideal was equality of wealth.
Government: Sparta had an unusual dual kingship. They also had a council of
elders—28 men over age 60, elected for life, and an assembly of men 30 and
older who approved or rejected the council's decisions. The assembly also elected
five ephors who oversaw the functioning of the state.
Peloponesian League: While Sparta couldn't risk trying to grow larger, it did
basically beat its neighbors into submission, forcing them into a military alliance
to aid it in war.
Athens: In the 7th century BC, Athens was ruled by the Aeropagus—an assembly
of aristocrats. The council elected nine Archons to serve as executive officers for
a year, after which they joined the council. The council represented the four
tribes of Athens.
Pressure for Change: In the 7th century BC, the populace pressed for change. A
shift to more intensive agriculture wiped out many farmers who became debt
slaves. The poor demanded abolition of debts and redistribution of land.
Reforms of Solon: In 594 BC, the Athenians elected Solon (639-559 BC) to
revise the government. He cancelled debts, forbade debt slavery, and brought
back Athenians sold into foreign lands. He forbade wheat export but encouraged
olive and grape production for export. This pushed Athens to a commercial
economy.
Solonic Government: Solon exapnded citizenship to include immigrant artisans
and merchants. He divided citizens into four wealth classes: the two richest
could be Archons and sit on the Aeropagus. Men of the third class could be
hoplites and serve in a council of 400 chosen by all citizens.
Psistratus the Tyrant: A successful military leader, he seized power in 546 BC,
packing the offices with his supporters, but otherwise let government run; this
gave Athenians practice in self-government. In 510, his son Hippias was
overthrown.
Clisthenes, Founder of Democracy: An aristocrat who expanded democracy by
rebuilding society on the basis of ten tribes based on units from all over Athenian
lands; this broke up old loyalties and focused it on the state. He vested final
authority in the assembly of all free citizens.
The Persian Wars: This conflict with the Persian empire ended the age of relative
Greek isolation; from this point on, the Greek polis-system was increasingly challenged
by inner conflicts and by outside powers. Much of what we know of it comes from the
Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote a history of it.
The Ionian Revolt: The Persians conquered Ionia in the late 6th century BC. In
499 BC, Ionia revolted against the Persians and was aided by Athens. In 498,
joint forces burned Sardis, the provincial capital. By 494, however, the Persians
put down the revolt, turning their gaze to Greece and specifically Athens.
Marathon: King Darius of Persia (521-486 BC) sent an expedition to crush
Athens in 490 BC, which landed near the Athenian village of Marathon. Under
the leadership of Militades, a former servant of Persia, the Greeks caught the
Persians on the beach and forced them back into the water, crushing them and
preventing the use of Persian cavalry to full effect. The name, "marathon", for the
modern races, comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, who was
sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been
defeated in the Battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran the entire distance
without stopping, but moments after proclaiming his message to the city he
collapsed dead from exhaustion.
The Great War of Xerxes: King Xerxes, son of Darius (486-465 BC) sought
revenge. He raised a force of around 150,000 men (or more, the Greeks claimed
it was 1 million men, but this is very unlikely) and 600 ships. Themistocles,
leader of Athens, had pursued a naval buildup and so the Athenians had 200 ships.
He built a bridge across the Dardanelles, then marched his army down the coast of
the Aegean through Macedonia into Greece.
Thermopylae (480 BC): Having killed the envoy the Persians sent to
demand his surrender, King Leonidas led a force of 7000 Greeks to hold
the pass of Thermopylae to block Xerxes advance. After a traitor betrayed
a route around the army to the Persians, Leonidas sent back most of the
army and held the pass with 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians, who fought
to the death.
Salamis(480 BC: The Persians over-ran Athens; the Athenians and other
forces retreated into the fortifications around Athens, and the Greek Fleet
of 366 ships moved to cover the ocean route past the city. Themistocles
tricked the Persians into launching an attack at an unfavorable position in
a strait by the isle of Salamis. The Persians were caught in the strait,
unable to manuever, and their fleet was devastated, forcing them to retreat
with many of their men as they could no longer supply their army.
Plataea(479 BC: Xerxes left forces under General Mardonius to hold his
gains so far. The Greeks assembled the largest army they had ever fielded
and crushed him at Plataea, while the Persian fleet was crushed again at
Mycale, ending the war.
Results: Persia now began to decline as a power, while the Greeks would
turn to squabbling over leadership of Greece.
Classical Greece: This is the height of Greek culture, but it is also a time of growing
conflict as various city states try and fail to unite Greece.
The Delian League: An alliance of Greek city-states and island-states created to
protect Ionia from the Persian empire, created in 478 BC. Some states are forced
to join and gradually it evolves into an Athenian empire. Cimon, leader of Athens
and the League, tried to stay friendly with Sparta while agressively attacking the
Persians. In 465, however, he was forced to suppress the revolting island of
Thasos, and after this, the league was basically increasingly run for Athens'
benefit. Meanwhile, Pericles (495 BC-429 BC) now overthrows Cimon's power
at home in 461 BC; he is hostile to Sparta due to its friendliness with the old
aristocratic class.
The First Peloponesian War (460-445): We know the Peloponesian Wars from
a history by Thucydides, who writes one of the first secularized histories. At
first, naval power enabled Athens to dominate the ocean and the war. But 454, an
Athenian fleet sent to aid a revolt in Egypt was destroyed and the Delian league
began revolting against Athens, who signs the 30 years peace in 445 BC. Greece
is now divided into rival Athenian and Spartan blocs.
The Athenian Empire: Athens now moves the Delian League treasury to Athens
and henceforce treats the other league members as subjects.
Athenian Democracy: Ironically, they now expand democracy at home.
Pericles removed all property requirements for office holding. Every male citizen
had a vote in the national assembly. Juries were now paid so the poor could
afford to sit on them. However, you had to have two citizen parents to inherit
citizenship. Many officials were now chosen by lot. All public officials could be
removed from office and could be held to account for their actions. There was no
standing army, just the citizen-soldiers (Hoplites), no police, and no way to coerce
the populace. Pericles was elected general for 30 terms, including 15 in a row.
Women of Athens: Athenian law and custom heavily restricted the lives of
women, excluding them from political life and power. Athenian women spent
their whole lives under control of a father, brother, or husband, marrying early (12
to 18). Their main purpose was to produce heirs for their husband; women were
kept away from men outside the family, confined to women's quarters in the
home. Men patronized prostitutes or fairly commonly, had sex with each other,
while women were, at least in theory, forced to stay home and only have sex with
their husbands. Athenian literature shows women having a lot more power and
influence than this would seem to permit; it's not clear if our picture of their lives
is flawed, the playwrights are showing women who are the exception instead of
the rule, or some combination of the above.
The Great Peloponesian War (432-421, 415-404 BC): War reopened in 432
BC; the Spartans launched land attacks but could not breach the walls of Athens.
The Athenians launched naval attacks, but Sparta was inland, invulnerable to sea
attack. After years of futility, the Peace of Niceas was signed in 421 BC.
However, in 415 BC, under the leadership of Alcibades, the Athenians tried and
failed to conquer Syracuse. In 411 BC, the Persians allied with Sparta, who
attacked Athens. The loss of their fleet in 405 BC finished them as now the
Spartans cut off their food imports and occupied Attica (the land territories of
Athens).
The Struggle for Power
Spartan Hegemony: The Spartans installed ruling oligarchies in Athens (The
Thirty Tyrants) and in its allies. Many Spartan leaders became increasingly
wealthy and corrupt. In Athens, the Thirty Tyrants were soon overthrown with
the help of Thebes and Corinth.
Theban Hegemony: In 382 BC, the Spartans seized Thebes by force and tried
and failed to do so in Athens in 379 BC, leading to an Athenian-Theban alliance.
In 371, improved phalanx tactics allowed the Thebans to defeat Sparta at Leuctra,
which destroyed the image of Spartans as invincible. The Thebans freed the
Helots and encouraged the other cities of southwestern Greece to form a league of
defense against Sparta. However, the Theban leader Epaminondas was slain in
361 at the Battle of Manitea, though he won that as well, and Thebes declined.
Second Athenian Empire: 378 BC, the Athenians and various other islands and
states founded a second confederation to resist Sparta. The Athenians again tried
to reduce it to subjection, but it revolted and broke up.
Anarchy: The Greeks would continue to squabble until the Macedonians
conquered them all.
Culture of Classical Greece:
Tensions: Fifth century Greek art was torn between the ambitions of citizens and
nations and the limitations put on them by fellow citizens and the atomization of
greek politics into city states too weak for any to dominate or lead the others,
combined with a fear of the punishment the Gods inflict on hubris.
Athenian Tragedy: The modern play finds one of its roots in the plays created
for the feast of Dionysius in Athens. A yearly contest brought forth a great
bounty of serious plays dealing with politics, the state, religion, mythology, and
ethics. (They often featured the theme of how those who overreach their position
or break the laws of gods and men destroy themselves.) The state paid for the
staging of the plays of the three winners each year. Most noteworthy are
Aeschylus (525-456 BC), Sophocles (496-406 BC), and Euripedes (480-385 BC).
Aeschylus wrote about the Persian wars (he fought at Marathon). The Persians
focuses on the popular Greek theme of hubris by blaming Persia's loss on the
overwhelming pride of its king. Sophocles added an additional actor to his plays
(from two to three) and reduced the emphasis on the chorus. He is most noted for
his tragic trilogy about Oedipus, who slew his father and married his mother,
ruling Thebes for a time, only to have it all come crashing down. Euripides is
known primarily for having reshaped the formal structure of traditional Attic
tragedy by showing strong women characters and intelligent slaves, and by
satirizing many heroes of Greek mythology. His plays seem modern by
comparison with those of his contemporaries, focusing on the inner lives and
motives of his characters in a way previously unknown to Greek audiences. His
Medea, for example, is sympathetic to both Jason and Medea, who are both
essentially tragic hero(ine)s. He was noted, however, for writing himself into a
corner frequently and tending to use deus ex machinas (a god who descended
from heaven on a platform) to end a lot of his plays.
Comedy: In the early 5th century BC, comedy plays were added as well. The
greatest master of Old Comedy was Aristophanes, who wrote political comedies,
satirizing current events, figures, and culture, such as his work The Birds. His
Lysistrata basically proposed the women of Athens end the Peloponesian war by
teaming with the Spartan women to refuse sex to their husbands until the men
surrendered to them.
Architecture: The Greeks were masters of architecture; Pericles conducted a
massive building program which made Athens the envy of all Greece.
History: As mentioned before, Herodotus and Thucydides wrote two of the first
modern style histories, and other authors followed suit. (Though Herodotus could
be gullible at times and sometimes cited the gods.)
Emergence of the Hellenistic World
Conquest: Internal Greek Squabbling left them vulnerable to conquest by the
Macedonians to their north. Macedon was a typical iron age state, not a polisstyle state. Unified under strong kings with a centralized army, it was well suited
to take over Greece under Philip of Macedon (359-336 BC). In 340-338 BC, he
defeated the City States and forced them into a league under his control.
Alexander the Great (336-323 BC): In 334, Alexander invades the Persian
Empire, crossing into Anatolia. Between 334 and 331 BC, he defeated the
Persians in a series of battles, climaxing with the Battle of Gaugamela, in which
he destroyed the Persian army thoroughly, leading to the murder of King Darius II
of Persia and its collapse. He began a policy of amalgamating his Macedonians
and Greeks with native peoples; he himself married a Bactrian princess, Roxane.
By 327, he conquered the Indus River Valley. His men now forced him to go
home. By 324 BC he got home and began trying to figure out what to do with
himself. In 323 BC, he got sick and died, leaving only an infant heir. When
asked who his heir should be, he allegedly said "the strongest."
Collapse of the Empire: Prolonged warfare now tore his empire into pieces.
Ptolemy I took control of Egypt. Seleucus I took control of Syria and
Mesopotamia and disputed Palestine with Egypt. Antigonus I took control of
Macedon and Asia Minor. The Selucid and Antigonid dynasties began gradually
losing control of their lands as time passed.
Prosperity and Decline: From 323 BC to about 250 BC, the empires flourished,
but then their economies and continual war sapped their strength. By 150 BC or
so, Rome controlled most of their old territories, except for Egypt. Hellenistic
rule, however, spread Hellenistic culture all over the Middle East.
Hellenistic Culture
A Shift: Greek Culture lost a lot of its optimism in the face of conquest and
turned to the theme of adjusting yourself to fate and to personal themes.
Philosophy: The Academy and the Lyceum shifted focus—the Academy turned
to skepticism and the Lyceum towards historical and literary studies.
Epicureans: The Epicureans advocated that the highest good was
happiness, to be achieved through the moderate pursuit of pleasure.
Reality is simply the combination of atoms in motion; there is no
punishment or reward after death and the Gods take no interest in man.
Do not fear death; live life in the moment. Happiness was defined as the
absence of pain; the ideal state was ataraxia, the state of being undisturbed
by the world's problems. They advocated withdrawal from worldly
affairs. It appealed mainly to intellectuals or to those who re-interpreted it
to mean 'PARTY HARD'.
Stoics: Founded by Zeno of Citium (335-263 BC), the Stoics sought
happiness by living in harmony with nature. Happiness consists of living
virtuously in accordance with natural law; wisdom distinguishes good
from evil and both from things indifferent. Prudence, justice, courage, and
temperance are good; folly, injustice, and cowardice are evil. Life, health,
pleasure, etc, are things indifferent. The wise seek apatheia, freedom
from passion. Stoics viewed the whole world as a single large polis; they
made good citizens for a world in which most people no longer governed
themselves, as they tended to keep quiet and obey the authorities.
Literature: In Egypt, the Library of Alexandria (3rd century BC to either
the 3rd century AD or perhaps the 7th century AD) preserved the writings
of the past for future generations. We owe much of our knowledge of
Greece to this library.
Math and Science: The modern science of Geometry traces back to the
work of Euclid in the early 3rd century BC. Archimedes of Syracruse
(287-212 BC) invented the lever principle and hydrostatics. Heraclides of
Pontus (4th century BC) began the development of heliocentric theory
(that the Earth goes around the Sun as do all the other planets).
Hipparchus of Nicea's geocentric theory (Sun goes around the Earth) was
more popular. Ptolemy of Alexandria (second century BC) perfected it to
the model commonly used until the Renaissance.