Mediterranean Society: The Greek Phase

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Chapter 10

• Mediterranean Society The Greek Phase

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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)

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Decline of Minoan Society

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

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Mycenaean Society

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

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Chaos in the Eastern Mediterranean

• Trojan war, c. 1200 BCE
• Homers The Iliad
• Sequel The Odyssey
• Political turmoil, chaos from 1100 to 800 BCE
• Mycenaean civilization disappears

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The Polis

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

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Sparta

• Highly militarized society
• Subjugated peoples helots
• Serfs, tied to land
• Outnumbered Spartans 101 by 6th c. BCE
• Military society developed to control threat of
  rebellion

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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

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Athens

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

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Athenian Society

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

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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

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Pericles

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

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Greek Colonization

• Population expansion drives colonization
• Coastal Mediterranean, Black sea
• Sicily (Naples nea polis, new city)
• Southern France (Massalia Marseilles)
• Anatolia
• Southern Ukraine

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Classical Greece. The hilly terrain and
sea-boundaries of Greece discouraged the growth
of large settlements, and Greek philosophers also
stressed the importance of local community. When
population grew too great the citizens encouraged
their younger cohort to establish new city-states
of their own. The resulting spread of settlements
established Greek influence all the way from
Sicily to Anatolia.
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Classical Greece and the Mediterranean basin,
800-500 B.C.E.
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Effects of Greek Colonization

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The Empire of Alexander. In 338 the Greek
city-states were defeated by Philip of Macedon.
His son, Alexander, extended the imprint of Greek
culture far beyond its Mediterranean homeland. In
a series of whirlwind campaigns between 334 and
323 b.c.e., Alexander gained control of Syria and
Egypt and then destroyed the might of Persia. He
took his armies east to the Indus and north to
central Asia, but died age 33 in Babylon.
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Alexander's empire, ca. 323 B.C.E.
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The Hellenistic Empires

• After Alexanders death, competition for empire
• Divided by generals
• Antigonus Greece and Macedon
• Ptolemy Egypt
• Seleucus Persian Achaemenid Empire
• Economic integration, Intellectual
  cross-fertilization

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The Antigonid Empire

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

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The Ptolemaic Empire

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

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The Seleucid Empire

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

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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

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Panhellenic Festivals

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

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Patriarchal Society

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

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Slavery

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

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The Greek Language

• Borrowed Phoenician alphabet
• Added vowels
• Complex language
• middle voice
• Allowed for communication of abstract ideas
• Philosophy

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Socrates (470-399 BCE)

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

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Plato (430-347 BCE)

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

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Aristotle (389-322 BCE)

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

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Greek Theology

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

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Tragic Drama

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

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Hellenistic Philosophies

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