1. Chapter 10
Mediterranean Society: The Greek Phase
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2. Chapter 10
Mediterranean Society: The Greek Phase
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3. Classical Greece, 800-350 BCE
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4. Early Development of Greek Society
 3,000 - 2,000 BCE - Indo-Europeans migrate to
Anatolia and peninsular Greece and settle...
 Minoan Society (2,000-1,100 BCE)
 Island of Crete
 Vibrant culture, traded extensively in Med., writing
 Series of natural disasters after 1700 BCE
 Foreign invasions sealed their fate
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5. Mycenaean Society
 Indo-European invaders descend through Balkans
into mainland Greece, c. 2200 BCE (see map)
 Influenced by Minoan culture
 Military expansion throughout region (1500-1100
BCE)
 Trojan war, c. 1200 BCE (with Troy in Anatolia)
 Homer’s The Iliad, The Odyssey
 Political turmoil, chaos from 1100 to 800 BCE
 Mycenaean civilization disappears
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6. The Polis
 City-states restore political order in Greece
 Urban center, dominating surrounding rural areas
 offered protection to surrounding areas in time of war
 Highly independent character
 Monarchies
 “Tyrannies” (generals or ambitious politicians) not
necessarily oppressive
 Early Democracies take root
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7. 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
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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. Pericles
 Ruled 461-429 BCE
 High point of Athenian democracy
 Aristocratic but popular
 Massive public works
 Encouraged cultural development
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13. 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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14. Panhellenic Festivals
 Useful for integrating far-flung colonies
 Olympic Games begin 776 BCE
 Sense of collective identity
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15. 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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16. Slavery
 Scythians (Ukraine)
 Nubians (Africa)
 Chattel
 Sometimes used in business
 Opportunity to buy freedom
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17. The Greek Language
 Borrowed Phoenician alphabet
 Added vowels
 Complex language
 Allowed for communication of abstract ideas
 Philosophy
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18. Greek Theology
 Polytheism
 Zeus principal god
 Religious cults
 Eleusinian mysteries
 The Bacchae
 Rituals eventually domesticated
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19. Tragic Drama
 Evolution from public presentations of cultic
rituals
 Major playwrights (5th c. BCE)
 Aeschylus
 Sophocles
 Euripides
 Comedy: Aristophanes
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20. 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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21. Classical Greece and the Mediterranean basin
800-500 BCE
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22. Persian Wars (500-479 BCE)
 Revolt against Persian Empire 500 BCE in Ionia
 Athens supports with ships
 Greek rebellion crushed by Darius 493 BCE;
however, Persia routed in 490 at Marathon
 Successor Xerxes burns Athens, but driven out as
well
 150 years of intermittent fighting
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23. The Delian League
 Poleis create Delian League (mutual defense
pact)Led by Athens to protect from Persia and
other threats
 Massive payments to Athens fuels Periclean expansion
 Resented by other poleis (especially Sparta)
 Civil war in Greece, 431-404 BCE
(Peloponnesian War)
 Poleis allied with either Athens or Sparta
 Athens forced to surrender
 But conflict continued between Sparta and other
poleis
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24. Kingdom of Macedon
 Frontier region to north of Peloponnesus (Greece)
 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 “the Great,” son of Philip II rapidly
expands throughout Mediterranean basin
 Invasion of Persia successful
 Turned back in India when exhausted troops
mutinied
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25. Alexander's Empire, ca. 323 B.C.E.
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26. The Hellenistic Empires
 Period after Alex’s death to the rise of the
Roman empire - Greek culture spreads way
beyond Greece.
 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 from Med to India!
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27. The Antigonid Empire
 Smallest of Hellenistic Empires
 Resisted Antigonid rule
 Athens and Corinth prospered
 Heavy colonizing activity - especially to Seleucid
empire (former Persian empire)
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28. The Ptolemaic Empire
 Wealthiest of the Hellenistic empires
 Established state monopolies
 Textiles
 Salt
 Beer
 Capital: Alexandria
 Important port city (could handle 1200 ships at once)
 Major museum, library
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29. 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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30. Socrates (470-399 BCE)
 The Socratic Method
 Student: Plato
 Spoke in public - attempted to get people to think
and question... condemned on charges of
immorality
 Forced to drink hemlock
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31. Plato (430-347 BCE)
 Systematized Socratic thought
 The Republic
 Parable of the Cave
 Theory of Forms/Ideas
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32. 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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33. Hellenistic Philosophies
 Epicureans
 Pleasure, distinct from Hedonists
 Skeptics
 Doubted possibility of certainty in anything
 Stoics
 Duty, virtue
 Emphasis on inner peace
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