The Rise of the Greek World
3 February 2010
Lecture Outline
• The Age of Calamities
▫ Decline of Mycenae
• The Greek Dark Ages
▫ Trade and Recovery
▫ Rise of a Social Elite
• The Greek Archaic Age
▫ Rebuilding after the Dark
Ages
▫ The Polis
 Sparta
 Athens
• The Age of Warfare
▫ Persia
▫ Athens versus Sparta
• The Greek Golden Age
▫ Development out of stability
 Citizenship
 Arts
▫ The Transition from polis to
monarchy
▫ The end of the Golden Age
and the rise of Hellenism
The Minoans and the Mycenaeans
(~1650-1100 B.C.E)
• The island of Crete center of Minoan culture
• Mycenae
• 1450 B.C.E. Mycenaeans attacked Crete to secure
trade power
• The end of Mycenaean Greece called the “Dark Age”
of Greece
The Age of Calamities, 1200-1000
B.C.E.
• Decline of Mycenaeans and Minoans
▫ The Sea Peoples
▫ Internal conflicts
▫ Natural disasters
 What progress is lost?
Crisis and the End of the Bronze Age (1200-1000
B.C.E).
•
Imperial regions wiped out in upset of political equilibrium,
•
Egyptian and Hittite inscriptions suggest:
•
▫
Foreign invaders toppled the Hittites
▫
broke trade routes
▫
created wide refugee crises
▫
Philistines from the north attacked Canaanites and Hebrews
▫
Minoan civilization disappeared
▫
Mycenaean centers collapsed
▫
Egyptian imperial expanse collapsed
The Result…
 The Dark Ages– when most traces of important markers of progress disappeared
The Rise of the Greek World
• During this
“Dark Age”
period
▫ The former
Mesopotamian
city-states built
new empires
▫ Archaic Greek
city-states
established
various types of
participatory
governments
Hellas: The Land
• Fragmented series of islands linking the
Greek peninsula with Asia Minor helped
developed the city-state system
The Greek Dark Ages, 1000-750 B.C.E.
Trade and Recovery
Contact with eastern
Mediterranean fosters
Greek recovery
800 B.C.E. Recovery
of written language
Rise of literature and
the arts
Homer
Return of animals and
people to their art
The Archaic Age, 750-500 B.C.E.
• The redevelopment of Greece leads to the
“Archaic Age” defined by
▫
▫
▫
▫
The creation of the polis
Trade and colonization
Rise of religion
Different levels of citizenship
 Wealth
 Slavery
 Gender
The Polis
city-state
By the close of the “Dark Ages” the city-state
was the common social entity
The most important city-states were Sparta
and Athens
main focal points were acropolis and the
agora
The polis could be governed as a monarchy,
an aristocracy, an oligarchy, a democracy or
tyranny
Citizenship in the polis was very exclusive
The Archaic Age (800-500 B.C.E): The
Growth of Sparta
• Sparta, a military society,
conquered much of greater Greece
• Sparta developed into a city-state
▫ All male Spartan citizens were given
equal rights
▫ Family life was sacrificed to the polis
▫ militaristic
▫ dedication to the state
▫ adherence to a strict code of moral
conduct
Hoplite
Phalanx
formation
The Archaic Age (800-500 B.C.E):
Athens
• Athens shifted from an aristocracy into a
democracy
• The deme was the basic unit of Athenian
democracy
• Legislation by two bodies, the boule and the
ecclesia
The Assembly & the Council
▫ Ecclesia:
 made executive pronouncements (decrees, such as
deciding to go to war or granting citizenship to a
foreigner)
 it elected some officials
 it legislated
 it tried political crimes
▫ Boule:
 served as an executive committee for the assembly
 coordinated the activities of the various boards and
magistrates that carried out the administrative functions
of Athens
 was responsible for a great portion of the administration
of the state
An Age of Warfare
499-479 B.C.E 499-490
successful rebellion against the
Persian Empire; 478 B.C.E. saw
the formation of the Delian
League (spearheaded by Athens)
The Delian League makes Athens
the major naval force
Military success
Secures Greece from the Persians
Makes Athens very prosperous
The Greek Golden Age (500-338
B.C.E.)
• Prosperity and stability in Athens fosters the
development of Classical Greece
▫ Radical Democracy
▫ Focus on architecture and arts
▫ Intellectual development, Socratic Method
The Greek World
• Classical Age, 500-338
B.C.E.
▫ 499-497: Rebellion
against Persian Empire
▫ 478: Formation of
Delian League
▫ 431-404:
Peloponnesian War
• Hellenistic Age, 338146 B.C.E.
From Polis to Monarchy (404-323
B.C.E.)
• The Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.E. weakens
the region
▫
▫
▫
▫
Sparta fails to create a Greek empire
Philip II, king of Macedonia, conquers Greece
Philip’s son, Alexander the Great, carried out this plan
His early death in 323 B.C.E. led to more political chaos
The Spread of Hellenism (323 B.C.E.
- 30 B.C.E)
The Hellenistic period is marked by the
deaths of Alexander and Cleopatra VII,
period politically defined by the emergence of
Greek successor kings to Alexander’s empire
Economic expansion and success fueled a
“uniform” Greek culture, drawing the
Mediterranean world much closer together
Philosophy and scientific advances also mark
this period.
Alexander’s Legacy
• As a Macedonian, he
considered himself ethnically
Greek
• Secures the alliances formed by
Philip II
• Conquers Persia
▫ Spreads Greek culture through
his method of control
• Travels farther east than Greeks
• Aids development of science
and knowledge
Bust of Alexander
Alexander’s Campaigns
Hellenistic Kingdoms, 240 B.C.E.
The Parthenon
• Symbol for Athens
▫ Divine blessing
▫ Wealth
▫ Power
What the statue
of Athena may
have looked like.
Floor plan
Hellenistic Religion
• Greek Polytheism
▫ Civic Cults
 “Our Ancestors handed down to
us the most powerful and
prosperous community in
Greece by performing the
prescribed sacrifices. It is
therefore proper for us to offer
the same sacrifices as they, if
only for the sake of the success
which has resulted from those
rites.”—Lysias
▫ Hero Cults
▫ Mystery Cults
Statue of Demeter, ca. 350
B.C.E.
Goddess of grain and fertility
Education & Philosophy
• Education determined by social standing
• Philosophers Archaic idea of “rationalism”
▫ Reason and logic over myth
• Sophists encourage intellectual development
• Protagoras: “The human being is the measure of
all things, of the things that are that they are,
and of things that are not that they are not.”
Socrates
• 469-399 B.C.E.
• Constant
questioning
• Influence on the
young people of
Athens
• Just behavior/good
over evil
• Threat to Athenian
tradition
• Scapegoat
Plato
•
•
•
•
427-347 B.C.E.
Socrates student
Academy, 386 B.C.E.
Metaphysics and
Forms
• The Cave
• Republic
• dualism
Aristotle
•
•
•
•
384-322 B.C.E.
Tutor to Alexander the Great
Lyceum, 355 B.C.E.
Observation and experience
over Forms
• Scientific investigation
• Self-control/”Golden Mean”
• Relevant ethical systems
Later Philosophies
• Skepticism
• Epicureanism
▫ Impossibility of
secure knowledge
▫ Appearances
versus judgment
▫ Isolation
▫ Pursuit of pleasure
• Stoicism
▫ Fate
▫ Purposeful action
• Cynicism
▫ Cynic “like a dog”
▫ Natural = good
Epicurus
Arts
• Theatre
▫ Greek Tragedies
▫ Greek Comedies
• Innovations in sculpture
Praxiteles’
Statue of
Aphrodite,
4th C.
B.C.E.
Archaic
Kouros, ca. 530
B.C.E.
Classical
Victorious
Athlete
Hellenistic
Celtic Warrior, 3rd C.
B.C.E.
History
Herodotus of
Halicarnassus
• Herodotus of
Halicarnassus (c.
485-425 B.C.E.)
• Thucydides of
Athens (c. 455-399
B.C.E.)
Thucydides
of Athens