Lecture 4-Chapter 4: Classical Civilization in the Mediterranean: Greece and Rome

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Lecture 4-Chapter 4 Classical Civilization in
the Mediterranean Greece and Rome

• AP World History I
• 9-26-11

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Agenda 9/29/11

• 1. Lecture 4-Classical Greek and Rome
• 2. Vocabulary 4- Ch.4 Vocabulary
• 3. Video Clip

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Greece

• Greeks were an indo-European people who took over
  the Balkan Peninsula by 1700 BCE
• Early kingdom of Mycenaeans around 1400s
• Kingdom in Homers epics about the Trojan War
• Rapid rise in Greek Civilization from 800 BCE to
  600 BCE

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Indo/European Migrations
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Greek Development

• City-state concept, rather than a single
  political unit.
• Trade and economy flourished
• Alphabet based off of Phoenician alphabet

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Greek Development

• Olympic games
• Athens and Sparta become the two most powerful
  city-states
• Sparta
• Strong military aristocracy dominating a slave
  population
• Athens
• Strong commercial, intellectual, and artistic
  state (also with slaves)

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Athens and Sparta

• Both city-states cooperated between 500 and 449
  to defeat a huge Persian invasion
• After this, Athenian and Greek civilization in
  general reached its zenith
• In Athens, Pericles sets the model for democratic
  negotiation

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Peloponnesian War

• 431-404 BCE
• Athens v. Sparta
• Sparta technically wins, but both city-states are
  so weak that ambitious kings from Macedonia soon
  conquer the cities.
• Philip II of Macedon
• Alexander

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Greece at Peloponnesian War (Athens and Sparta
colors are backwards!)
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Hellenistic Empire

• Alexander expands Greek influence beyond the
  peninsula, to
• Asia
• Egypt
• Middle East
• India
• Short-livedAlexander dies at 33 after 13 years
  of conquest.

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Hellenistic Period

• Greek Art and Culture merge with other Middle
  Eastern forms during this time period.
• Trade flourished
• Important scientific centers were established
  like Alexandria, in Egypt

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Hellenistic Empire
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Greek Politics

• Politics comes from polis, Greek for
  city-state.
• Citizens felt that the state was theirsrights
  and responsibilities
• Participation in the military too
• Diversity in political forms
• Unlike Chinas elaborate bureaucracy

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Greek Politics

• demos the people
• Democracy
• General assemblies in which all citizens could
  participate
• Direct democracynot elected representatives.
• Met every 10 days
• Only a minority were active participants

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Greek Politics

• The most widely preferred political framework
  centered on aristocratic assemblies
• Sparta Singularly militaristic aristocracy
• Other city states were aristocratic, but not
  necessarily bent on the impact of the military
• Aristocracy comes from Greek terms, meaning rule
  of the best

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Rise of Rome

• The Roman state begins around 800 BCE as a local
  monarchy in central Italy.
• The monarchy is driven from power in 509 BCE and
  the Roman Republic was born
• Extends influence over the Italian peninsula

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Rise of Rome

• Roman conquest spread quickly during the Punic
  Wars from 264 to 146 BCE.
• Fought armies of the Phoenician city of Carthage
  under leadership of Hannibal
• Romans seize the entire western Mediterranean
  along with Greece and Egypt

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Punic Wars
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Rise of the Roman Empire

• Politics in Rome grew unstable
• Julius Caesar takes power in 45 BCE
• Following his assassination, Augustus Caesar
  takes power in 27 BCE
• 200 years of peace, known as Pax Romana through
  the reign of Marcus Aurelius in 180 CE.

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Pax Romana

• Empire maintains great vigor
• Spreads peace throughout the Mediterranean world
• Expansion of trade, culture, arts, architecture,
  etc.

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Roman Empire
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Provinces of the Roman Empire
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Roman Empire

• Slow, decisive fall, lasting over 250 years,
  finally falling in 476 CE
• Emperor Constantine adopts Christianity as
  official religion in 313 CE to attempt to unite
  empire
• Specifically in the western half of the Roman
  Empire, effective government became local.
• Invasions from nomadic peoples from the north
• Loyalty of non-Roman army recruits were suspect

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Roman Politics

• In the Roman Republic, the constitution
  guaranteed that citizens would gather in periodic
  assemblies
• To elect magistrates entrusted with the will of
  the common people
• Legislative body was the SENATE

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Roman Politics

• Senate was comprised of mostly aristocrats
• Two consuls shared primary EXECUTIVE power
• In times of crisis, the senate could choose a
  dictator to hold emergency powers
• Cicero, a Roman Senator, engaged in political
  theory by writing on the issues of political
  ethics, duties of citizens, and importance of
  incorruptibility.
• Represents Confucianism, but with less hierarchy
  and obedience, or bureaucratic virtues.
• During the Empire, the Roman senate became rather
  meaningless.

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Roman Law

• By 450 BCE the Roman Republic introduced its form
  of codified law, the Twelve Tables of Roman Law.
• Restrain the upper classes from arbitrary action
  against the lower
• Subject all citizens to common legal principles.
• LAW takes over characteristics of families,
  fathers, or landlords
• Common sense doctrine

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Roman Law

• With citizenship in the Roman empire came full
  access to Rome-appointed judges and uniform laws.
• Property rights
• commerce

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The Roman State

• Placed great premium on military service/conquest
• VAST PUBLIC WORKS
• Roads/harbors (military/commerce)
• Stadiums
• Public Baths
• Gladiator contests
• Theaters
• Aqueducts

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Roman Coliseum
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Roman Aqueducts
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Roman Theaters
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Roman Religion

• Government sponsored official religious
  ceremonies etc, but were tolerant of different
  strains
• Attacked Christianity, but only because they
  didnt put their allegiance to the state first
• In difference to China and India, the Romans did
  not create a great world religion

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Greco/Roman Religion

• Christianity was aided by the Romans, but was not
  a product of Rome.
• In Greco/Roman Religion, there was a complex
  system of gods and goddesses
• Names different, but organization the same

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Greco/Roman Religion

• Zeus or Jupiter preside over the gods
• Apollo Sun
• Neptune Oceans
• Mars War
• Venus Love/Beauty
• Other gods were patrons of other human
  activities.
• Gods were depicted as human

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Greco/Roman Religion

• Gods did not necessarily elevate people to higher
  planes of spirituality, they merely regulated
  life
• Lack of spiritual passion
• Leaves a sense of dissatisfaction
• Leads to the development of philosophy as a
  separate form of thinking and behavior regulation

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Greco/Roman Philosophy

• Philosophers like Aristotle and Cicero urge
  moderation an balance in human behavior.
• Stoics emphasize inner moral independence, strict
  discipline of the body, and personal bravery
• Will mix with Christianity later

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Greco/Roman Philosophy

• Philosophy emphasized the power of individual
  rational thought
• Socrates (b. 469 BCE) encouraged pupils to
  question conventional wisdom
• Rational inquiry
• Plato (student of Socrates) suggests that human
  reason could understand the absolutely true,
  good, and beautiful.

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Greco/Roman Intellectualism

• Not necessarily scientistsbut emphasis on
  rational thought
• Try to find balance in the universetry to
  explain everything
• Theoriessome wrongabout the motions of the
  planets, elemental principles of earth, fire,
  air, and water.
• Impressive work in Geometry (Pythagoras theorem)

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Greco/Roman Intellectualism

• Ptolemy produced an elaborate theory of how the
  sun revolves around the earth
• Geocentric theory (Hellenistic)
• Contradicts middle east thought of the time

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Roman Intellectualism

• More practical than the Greek
• Engineering achievements
• Roads, aqueducts
• Arches

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Greco/Roman Literature

• Music/Dance festivals
• Greek Drama
• Comedy and tragedy
• Sophocles Oedipus Rex
• Homer Iliad and Odyssey
• Virgil Roman Poet

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Greco/Roman Aesthetics

• Greek artists excel in ceramic work
• Roman painters decorate the homes of the wealthy
• Greek columns develop three different
  ornamentations
• Doric
• Ionic
• Corinthian

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Greco/Roman Aesthetics

• Roman architects adopt the Greek themes and use
  engineering skill to build upon them.
• Romans learn how to add domes to rectangular
  buildings
• Empire adopts a taste for massive monuments and
  public buildings
• Demonstration of the empires size and strength

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The Greco/Roman Economy

• Substantial portion of the population were
  farmers (not in the cities!)
• Poor soil conditions
• Conversion of economy to market economy because
  of the wholesale production of olives and grapes.
• Required substantial capital
• Conquered territory to get access to grain
  producing fields
• Sicily and Northern Africa

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The Greco/Roman Economy

• Trade with civilizations outside of the
  Mediterranean was less profitable
• Goods were inferior to Asian (China/Indian) goods
• Most traders were foreigners from the middle
  east, or descendants of Phoenicians and Lydians.
• Merchants had higher status in Rome (forming
  class underneath landed Patricians)
• Merchants fare better in the Mediterranean than
  they did in China

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Greco/Roman Slavery

• Aristotle produced elaborate justifications for
  the use of slavery
• Athens used slaves for housekeeping and in silver
  mines
• Sparta uses slaves in agriculture
• Rome expands use of slavery, also as tutors for
  children
• Neither Greece or Rome were particularly
  interested in technological innovations.
• Slave reliance impacts this
• The Mediterranean world lags behind India and
  China in technological innovation, which accounts
  for its trade imbalance with Asia