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Chapter 3
Commerce Culture and Trade in the Ancient
Mediterranean (100 BCE to 400 CE)
The Minoans
2100 BCE – 100 BCE
• The Minoans were a small,
vibrant civilization on the island
of Crete that existed at around
the same time as the
Phoenicians.
• The palace complex in the city of
Knossos was the center of
political and religious authority.
© Third Eye Images/CORBIS
• The Minoans suffered massive
fallout from a nearby volcanic
eruption in 1470 BCE, and were
conquered by the Mycenaeans
from mainland Greece around
1420 BCE.
The Phoenicians
3000 BCE – 539 BCE
• The Phoenicians were a strong sea faring people who settled along the
eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea basin, north of Palestine
• They were active merchants and traders in the Mediterranean region.
• They had a strong navy but a relatively weak army.
• Persian and Greek forces ultimately overran the weak ground defenses of
their city-states.
Phoenician Industry and Commerce
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Everett Collection
The Phoenician economy produced
grains, olives, figs, date palms,
timber, glassware, and purple
textiles made with dye extracted
from murex.
They traded these products
extensively and built shops in
foreign cities.
By the early first millennium BCE,
the Phoenicians had established
commercial colonies throughout the
rim of the Mediterranean.
After around 1000 BCE, the
Phoenicians switched their trading
methods from a barter system to
the use of precious metals, which
they eventually minted into coins.
Minoan Culture
Patrick Frilet / Rex USA, Courtesy Everett Collection
• Minoan fresco paintings (see
image) of nature and human
activities featured rich colors,
curvilinear lines, and a level of
detail the Western world had
never seen.
• Scribes gradually developed a
writing system, called Linear A,
that consisted of 60 phonetic
signs; this became the basis for
the ancient Greek language.
• Minoan religion was polytheistic
and featured the goddess
Ariadne, which may be
indicative of a high status of
women in elite society.
The Mycenaeans
2200 BCE – 800 BCE
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Scholars believe that between 2200 BCE and 1200 BCE, waves of Indo-European nomads
settled in an area known as Mycenae on the Greek peninsula of Peloponnesus. These
were the immediate forerunners of Classical Greek culture.
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Mycenaeans engaged in widespread trade, as well as expansionist military campaigns that
conquered neighbors like Crete, Athens, various Aegean islands, Cyprus, and parts of Italy
and Anatolia.
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Around 1200 BCE, the political structure collapsed and city-states began to gradually die
out, possibly due to a combination of invasions and natural disasters.
The Dark Age of Greece
Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican Museums, Vatican State
•
The “Dark Age” of Greek history occurred
during the 200 years after the collapse of
Mycenaean civilization, when production
of luxury goods, painting, and writing
ceased, and constant warfare and chaos
reigned.
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During this period, most Greek
governments were composed of councils
of local chiefs, and often a single ruler, or
tyrant, rose to the top.
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Greek culture made a strong recovery with
the introduction of iron, which was forged
into durable tools, weapons, and hardware
used to build ships for cargo and war.
Classical Greece: Athenian Politics
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Alinari / Art Resource, NY
The polis of Athens developed the
standard for democracy, which was
centered on a citizens’ assembly drawn
by lot from all free adult men.
In 594 BCE, Athenians authorized an
aristocrat named Solon (see image) to
craft laws that encouraged greater
equality among the classes.
Athenian democracy reached its
pinnacle under the guidance of Pericles
(461 BCE – 429 BCE), who fostered
commerce and prosperity and furthered
the cause of increased political
participation, though women, children,
slaves, and immigrants remained outside
the system.
Greek Economy and Architecture
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The Greeks became a maritime power, trading wine, olive oil, metal goods, and textiles,
and establishing informal colonies throughout the Mediterranean basin.
Greek cities shared a common architectural style, exemplified by the Parthenon in
Athens, a rectangular limestone structure built to honor Greek gods and characterized
by its tapered Doric columns and size.
Athenian activity centered on the Agora, a structure replicated throughout the Greek
colonies that served as a public meeting place and a marketplace.
Greek Philosophy
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
• The democratic environment
of Athens encouraged
innovative thinking, including
the study of philosophy.
• The great Classical Greek
philosophers – Socrates (see
image), Plato, and Aristotle –
called on people to question
the nature of reality and the
status quo.
• As a group, the three of them
shifted the search for an
understanding of humanity,
the world, and the universe
from the pantheon to the
human intellect.
Socrates
469 BCE – 399 BCE
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
• Socrates posed a complex series
of questions and focused on
human problems
• He sought to cultivate human
excellence and promote the art
of living.
• Many Athenians celebrated
Socrates as the founder of
empirical scientific knowledge.
• Others regarded him as a
corrupter of youth and a
menace to society because of
his rejection of the gods; his
enemies succeeded in having
him condemned to death.
Plato
430 BCE – 347 BCE
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
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Plato was a student of Socrates and
the transcriber of most of his works.
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He founded a school in Athens, and
wrote on topics like immortality,
love, true rhetoric, and justice.
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Plato believed that the Form and
the Idea of a thing give it meaning
and substance.
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He believed that democracy was
flawed, and advocated an ideal
political society that prized
education and was ruled bya
philosopher-king and the educated
class.
Aristotle
384 BCE – 322 BCE
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
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Aristotle was a student of Plato.
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He studied a wide range of subjects,
including physics and astronomy,
political theory, human happiness,
human good, virtue, and reason.
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He wrote many books on the
subject of ethics, and highlighted
the science of moral living.
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Aristotle’s model of a geocentric
universe, where the planets
revolved around a motionless earth,
became the standard interpretation
of the cosmos for nearly a
millennium.
The Persian (500-479 BCE)
and
Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BCE)
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Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Persia attempted to conquer Greece beginning
in 500 BCE.
The Athenians defeated the Persian army of
King Darius in 490 BCE at the plain of
Marathon.
After Darius’s death, his son Xerxes attacked
again in 480 BCE.
Skirmishes between Greece and Persia
continued for decades, until a peace treaty
was signed in 448 BCE.
The Peloponnesian War pitted Athens and
Sparta against one another and shifted the
balance of regional power from the former to
the latter.
The Peloponnesian War decimated Athens and
caused the region to descend into chaos, as
city-states chose sides and combatants fought
a “total war” to decimate entire cities and
cultures.