AG Culture Lecture 7 (Jan. 2025) PDF

January 28, 2025 (Lecture 7) *RQ 2 average: 7.24/10 I. Ch. 4: “War and Peace”, cont. A. War and the Citizen-Soldier, cont. -the trireme could travel long distances slowly, using sails; in naval warfare however, the masts were removed and rowers would propel the trireme forward at great speed (app...

January 28, 2025 (Lecture 7) *RQ 2 average: 7.24/10 I. Ch. 4: “War and Peace”, cont. A. War and the Citizen-Soldier, cont. -the trireme could travel long distances slowly, using sails; in naval warfare however, the masts were removed and rowers would propel the trireme forward at great speed (apparently more than 9 knots, or 17 kph), with the object of slamming into an enemy ship using the bronze ram at the front of the ship (at the water-line; for reference, modern warships apparently have a maximum speed of around 30 knots, or 56 kph) B. Alliances and Federations -while the defining element of a polis was its political autonomy, practical considerations meant that poleis, and especially smaller poleis, would only survive if they banded together in formal alliances -the purely defensive alliance was called an epimachia, whereas a universal alliance, under which members would also undertake offensive actions together, was called a symmachia -the two most important and well-known symmachiai were Athens’ Delian League and Sparta’s Peloponnesian League—adversaries in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.; see above); when Athens surrendered to Sparta, one of the terms of peace (along with being deprived of its navy and the Long Walls connecting it to the harbour, Piraeus) was that Athens join the Peloponnesian League -a later important Greek alliance (viz. a symmachia) was the anti-Spartan league of Thebes, Corinth, and Athens, which proved ineffective against the rise of Macedon under Philip II: this Greek alliance was defeated at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C. -while an alliance theoretically preserves the independence of its member states, another kind of cooperation, called a koinon (“federation”), entailed a deeper, fundamentally political union; koina became prominent in the Hellenistic Period -members of a koinon would hold key political elements in common: above all, they would jointly support a federal army, but they would also have common magistrates, councils, and assemblies, with common executive, legislative, and judicial functions -two key koina of the Hellenistic Period were the Achaean koinon, which eventually included the entire Peloponnese, and, in opposition to both the Achaean koinon and Macedon, the Aetolian koinon, formed N of the Gulf of Corinth -an even broader range of cooperation was proposed in the “common peace” (koinē eirēnē) treaty, promoted inconsistently among the Greeks during the IV B.C.; such a treaty enshrined the 1 autonomy of every polis, and obliged every polis to go to war against any polis that broke the treaty by threatening another polis’ autonomy C. Diplomacy -the closest that the ancient Greeks came to having a body like the United Nations (but only for Greeks) was their Amphictyonic League (active throughout ancient Greek history), whose member-poleis shared responsibility for protecting and ensuring the freedom of the important Panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi (where the famous Oracle of Apollo was located); in practice the Amphictyonic League did not prove useful for fostering peace among its member-poleis -as noted above, Greek poleis struck alliances of different kinds among themselves -a Greek polis did not have embassies and ambassadors planted in other poleis, as the practice is today -instead, a polis (like Sparta) would designate a friendly citizen of another polis (like Athens) to represent its interests there; the practice is called proxenia, and the designated citizen is called a proxenos II. Ch. 5: “Going to Market: The Economy and Society” A. Household Economies 1. Household Resources -in ancient Greece, most productive labour, managed according to expenses and income, occurred at the level of the individual household: state government was relatively limited as to its economic implications, and businesses were almost entirely run as a part of households -the exploitable resources of the household included people (free and enslaved) and property, with the property focally including the house and farmland -the house generally had a courtyard at the centre, adjacent to a colonnade/portico, offering some protection from the elements; around the courtyard and colonnade would be located rooms, most of which could be adapted to multiple tasks: bedrooms would be re-purposed during the day 2. Women -noble (literary, etc.) Greek culture held that men’s labour normally took place outside the house, whereas women’s labour belonged within the house (and so, e.g., noble women were sometimes depicted as light-skinned in art)—e.g., childcare, food preparation, crafting textiles (cleaning and preparing [cf. “carding”] the wool, spinning thread from wool, weaving cloth from thread, 2 producing clothing; Athena was said to oversee textile production) -but such niceties were impractical for all but the wealthiest Greek families, and most women would labour alongside men in the fields (especially at busy times of the agricultural calendar, like harvest) and elsewhere within the polis as well; laborious tasks, like grinding grain, were deemed fit particularly for women, in misogynistic Greek society 3. Enslaved Persons -a key element of the household economy was the labour of enslaved persons, treated (outrageously) as “chattel” (movable property); at least by the Classical Period, most Greek households would include at least one enslaved person, who would work alongside the other family members; only the very wealthiest households would include so many enslaved persons that the citizen was released from the obligation to labour himself—with the result that he could enjoy leisure (Gr. scholē; cf. Lat., otium [vs. negotium]) 4. Land and Produce -in most Greek poleis (Athens was the notable exception), citizenship required owning land; the household economy was rooted in working that land -just as the Greek polis was, in theory, politically autonomous, so the Greek household was, in theory, materially autonomous: it was supposed to be large enough that it could produce what was needed by the family—above all, adequate food and clothing; as to other required items, a household ought to produce enough surplus food and textiles that it could trade for everything else that it needed (at the agora) -to achieve this kind of self-sufficiency, a farm would have had to have been a minimum of 5 hectares (a hectare is 10,000 square metres) of farmland -farmland would be purposed to produce cereals (wheat and barley), grapes (for wine), and (everywhere except on the coast of the Black Sea) olives; that these were viewed as core products is seen in the fact that each one was sponsored by a major god (Demeter, Dionysus, and Athena) -beans and lentils were other important crops, and diet staples; farmers raised animals (cows, goats, pigs), but only the wealthiest did so in large numbers; for most Greeks, eating meat would have been a rare experience, usually enjoyed only at domestic or public sacrifices (but cheese was a useful and widespread dietary supplement) -wealthy households could run elaborate, specialised (non-agricultural and non-textile) businesses—e.g., producing ceramics and working metals (metallurgy), building ships, crafting musical instruments and sculptures, etc. 5. Urban Business and Trade -during the Archaic and Classical Periods, it is clear that farms were producing a great deal of excess crops, allowing for the flourishing of specialised merchants, restaurateurs, and service- providers within the urban centres; shops were often a part of the urban home, facing the street 3 -more jobs would be provided through the conveying and trading of goods over great distances, along with the infrastructure for such trade (e.g., harbours, inns, banks) 4