Classical Mediterranean
Chapter 4
Mediterranean “Civilization?”
ProtoGreeks
Crete: Minoan Civilization
(Palace at Knossos)
Knossos: Minoan Civilization
Minoan Civilization
The Mycenaean Civilization
The Geography of Greece
Root of
“Greek” Culture
Homer
Greek Unity
• Language
– barbarian
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Iliad & Odyssey by Homer
Olympics
Humanism & Rationalism
Trade
The Ancient Olympics:
Athletes & Trainers
The Classical Greek “Ideal”
The Economy of the Hellenistic World
ATHENS: Yesterday & Today
Great Athenian Philosophers
$ Socrates:
 Know thyself! ; question
everything ; only the pursuit of
goodness brings happiness.
$ Plato:
 world of the forms ; The
Republic  philosopher-king
$ Aristotle:
 “Golden Mean” ; Logic.
Athens: The Arts & Sciences
$ DRAMA (tragedians):
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Aeschylus
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Sophocles
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Euripides
$ THE SCIENCES:
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Pythagoras

Democritus  all matter made up of
small atoms.
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Hippocrates  “Father of Medicine”
Phidias’ Acropolis
The Acropolis Today
The Parthenon
The Agora
The Classical Greek “Ideal”
Olympia
The Ancient Olympics:
Athletes & Trainers
Olympia: Temple to Hera
SPARTA
SPARTA
Helots  Messenians enslaved by the
Spartans.
Peloponnesian Wars
Macedonia Under Philip II
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great’s Empire
Alexander the Great in Persia
The Hellenization of Asia
Pergamum: A Hellenistic City
The Economy of the Hellenistic World
The Breakup of Alexander’s Empire
Legacy of Greece
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Democracy
Art & Literature
Commercial trade
Rational thought & humanism
Rome
As Hellenistic Empires dominated
the Eastern Mediterranean, Rome
was rising in the West
The Geography of Rome
Etruscans (750 BCE)
The Mythical Founding of
Rome:
Romulus & Remus
Republican Government
2 Consuls
(Rulers of Rome)
Senate
(Representative body for patricians)
Tribal Assembly
(Representative body for plebeians)
The Twelve Tables, 450 BCE
 Providing political and social
rights for the plebeians.
The Roman Forum
Rome’s Early Road System
Roman Roads:
The Appian Way
Roman Aqueducts
The Roman Colosseum
The Colosseum Interior
Circus Maximus
Carthaginian Empire
Reform Leaders
 Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
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the poor should be given grain
and small plots of free land.
Military Reformer
 Gaius Marius
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recruited an army from the poor
and homeless.
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professional standing army.
Civil War & Dictators
Julius Caesar
Pompey
Crossing the Rubicon, 49 BC
The Die is Cast!
The First Triumvirate
 Julius Caesar
 Marcus Licinius Crassus
 Gaius Magnus Pompey
Beware the Ides of March!
44 BCE
The Second Triumvirate
 Octavian Augustus
 Marc Antony
 Marcus Lepidus
Octavian Augustus:
Rome’s First Emperor
Pax Romana: 27 BCE – 180 CE
The Greatest Extent of the
Roman Empire – 14 CE
Imperial Roman Road System
The Empire in Crisis: 3c
Diocletian Splits the
Empire in Two: 294 CE
Constantine: 312 - 337
Constantinople: “The 2nd
Rome” (Founded in 330)
Barbarian Invasions: 4c-5c
The Legacy of Rome
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Republic Government
Roman Law
Latin Language
Roman Catholic Church
City Planning
Roman Engineering
• Aqueducts
• Sewage systems
• Dams
• Cement
• Arch
The Rise of Christianity
St. Paul:
Apostle to the Gentiles
The Spread of Christianity
Attila the Hun:
“The Scourge of God”
Byzantium:
The Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire
During the Reign of Justinian
The Byzantine Emperor
Justinian