10 bentley3

Chapter 10

Mediterranean Society: The Greek Phase

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.

Early Development of Greek Society

 Minoan Society
 Island of Crete
 Major city: Knossos
 C. 2200 BCE center of maritime trade
 Undeciphered syllabic alphabet (Linear A)


Decline of Minoan Society

 Series of natural disasters after 1700 BCE
 Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves
 Foreign invasions
 Foreign domination by 1100 BCE


Mycenaean Society

 Indo-european invaders descend through
Balkans into Peloponnesus, c. 2200 BCE
 Influenced by Minoan culture
 Major settlement: Mycenae
 Military expansion throughout region


Chaos in the Eastern Mediterranean

 Trojan war, c. 1200 BCE
 Homer’s The Iliad
 Sequel: The Odyssey
 Political turmoil, chaos from 1100 to 800 BCE
 Mycenaean civilization disappears


The Polis

 City-state
 Urban center, dominating surrounding rural
areas
 Highly independent character
 Monarchies
 “Tyrannies”, not necessarily oppressive
 Early Democracies


Sparta

 Highly militarized society
 Subjugated peoples: helots
 Serfs, tied to land
 Outnumbered Spartans 10:1 by 6th c. BCE
 Military society developed to control threat of
rebellion


Spartan Society

 Austerity the norm
 Boys removed from families at age seven
 Received military training in barracks
 Active military service follows
 Marriage, but no home life until age 30
 Some relaxation of discipline by 4th c. CE


Athens

 Development of early democracy
 Free, adult males only
 Women, slaves excluded
 Yet contrast Athenian style of government
with Spartan militarism


Athenian Society

 Maritime trade brings increasing prosperity
beginning 7th c. BCE
 Aristocrats dominate smaller landholders
 Increasing socio-economic tensions
 Class conflict


Solon and Athenian Democracy

 Aristocrat Solon mediates crisis
 Aristocrats to keep large landholdings
 But forgive debts, ban debt slavery
 Removed family restrictions against
participating in public life
 Instituted paid civil service


Pericles

 Ruled 461-429 BCE
 High point of Athenian democracy
 Aristocratic but popular
 Massive public works
 Encouraged cultural development


Greek Colonization

 Population expansion drives colonization
 Coastal Mediterranean, Black sea
 Sicily (Naples: “nea polis,” new city)
 Southern France (Massalia: Marseilles)
 Anatolia
 Southern Ukraine


Classical Greece and the Mediterranean basin,
800-500 B.C.E.


Effects of Greek Colonization

 Trade throughout region
 Communication of ideas
 Language, culture
 Political and social effects


Persian Wars (500-479 BCE)

 Revolt against Persian Empire 500 BCE in
Ionia
 Athens supports with ships
 Yet Greek rebellion crushed by Darius 493
BCE; routed in 490
 Successor Xerxes burns Athens, but driven
out as well


The Delian League

 Poleis create Delian League to forestall more
Persian attacks
 Led by Athens
 Massive payments to Athens fuels Periclean
expansion
 Resented by other poleis


The Peloponnesian War

 Civil war in Greece, 431-404 BCE
 Poleis allied with either Athens or Sparta
 Athens forced to surrender
 But conflict continued between Sparta and
other poleis


Kingdom of Macedon

 Frontier region to north of Peloponnesus
 King Philip II (r. 359-336 BCE) builds massive
military
 350 BCE encroaches on Greek poleis to the
south, controls region by 338 BCE


Alexander of Macedon

 “the Great,” son of Philip II
 Rapid expansion throughout Mediterranean
basin
 Invasion of Persia successful
 Turned back in India when exhausted troops
mutinied


Alexander's empire, ca. 323 B.C.E.


The Hellenistic Empires
 After Alexander’s death,
competition for empire
 Divided by generals
 Antigonus: Greece and
Macedon
 Ptolemy: Egypt
 Seleucus: Persian
Achaemenid Empire
 Economic integration,
Intellectual cross-fertilization


The Antigonid Empire

 Smallest of Hellenistic Empires
 Local dissent
 Issue of land distribution
 Heavy colonizing activity


The Ptolemaic Empire

 Wealthiest of the Hellenistic empires
 Established state monopolies
 Textiles
 Salt
 Beer
 Capital: Alexandria
 Important port city
 Major museum, library


The Seleucid Empire

 Massive colonization of Greeks
 Export of Greek culture, values as far east as
India
 Bactria
 Ashoka legislates in Greek and Aramaic


Trade and Integration of the
Mediterranean Basin
 Greece: little grain, but rich in olives and
grapes
 Colonies further trade
 Commerce rather than agriculture as basis of
much of economy


Panhellenic Festivals

 Useful for integrating far-flung colonies
 Olympic Games begin 776 BCE
 Sense of collective identity


Patriarchal Society

 Women as goddesses, wives, prostitutes
 Limited exposure in public sphere
 Sparta partial exception
 Sappho
 Role of infanticide in Greek society and
culture


Slavery

 Scythians (Ukraine)
 Nubians (Africa)
 Chattel
 Sometimes used in business
 Opportunity to buy freedom


The Greek Language

 Borrowed Phoenician alphabet
 Added vowels
 Complex language
 “middle” voice
 Allowed for communication of abstract ideas
 Philosophy


Socrates (470-399 BCE)

 The Socratic Method
 Student: Plato
 Public gadfly, condemned on charges of
immorality
 Forced to drink hemlock


Plato (430-347 BCE)

 Systematized Socratic thought
 The Republic
 Parable of the Cave
 Theory of Forms/Ideas


Aristotle (389-322 BCE)

 Student of Plato
 Broke with Theory of Forms/Ideas
 Emphasis on empirical findings, reason
 Massive impact on western thought


Greek Theology

 Polytheism
 Zeus principal god
 Religious cults
 Eleusinian mysteries
 The Bacchae
 Rituals eventually domesticated


Tragic Drama

 Evolution from public presentations of cultic
rituals
 Major playwrights (5th c. BCE)
 Aeschylus
 Sophocles
 Euripides
 Comedy: Aristophanes


Hellenistic Philosophies

 Epicureans
 Pleasure, distinct from Hedonists
 Skeptics
 Doubted possibility of certainty in anything
 Stoics
 Duty, virtue
 Emphasis on inner peace


10 bentley3

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to 10 bentley3

More from Hugh_07

10 bentley3