The Aegean and Greek World - CLAA04H3, Week 8, Oct. 24, 2024 PDF

The Aegean and Greek World CLAA04H3, Week 8 Oct. 24, 2024  Ancient polychromy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8 6PD8o6xe_4  Outline 1. Environmental context and sources 2. The Aegean in the Bronze Age (~20...

The Aegean and Greek World CLAA04H3, Week 8 Oct. 24, 2024  Ancient polychromy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8 6PD8o6xe_4  Outline 1. Environmental context and sources 2. The Aegean in the Bronze Age (~2000~1200 BC) = done before midterm 3. The « Dark Ages » (~1200~800 BC) = done before midterm 4. The Archaic Period (~800-480 BC) 5. The Classical Period  Outline 1. Environmental context and sources 2. The Aegean in the Bronze Age (~2000~1200 BC) 3. The « Dark Ages » (~1200~800 BC) 4. The Archaic Period (~800-480 BC) 5. The Classical Period Biases of our primary sources?  Biases Few ancient sources survived Classical Athens = overrepresented Socio-economic bias Literary sources = Hellenocentrist  Outline 1. Environmental context and sources 2. The Aegean in the Bronze Age (~2000~1200 BC) 3. The « Dark Ages » (~1200~800 BC) recap 4. The Archaic Period (~800-480 BC) 5. The Classical Period  ~1200 BC Collapse of Bronze Age Civilization Uncertain Invasions? Drought? Less trade? New weapons (iron) causing downfall of previous regimes?  « Dark Ages » as an « Incubation » Period Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (oral culture)  Outline 1. Environmental context and sources 2. The Aegean in the Bronze Age (~2000~1200 BC) 3. The « Dark Ages » (~1200~800 BC) 4. The Archaic Period (~800-480 BC) 5. The Classical Period  ~900 BC: Seeming Revival More sources Population rise Commercial revival Migration (colonization)  Greeks 12th cent. BC ‘Collapse’ of the Mycenaeans 9th cent. BC Revival of contacts 8th cent BC Greek settlements (colonization) Greek alphabet 7th-6th cent. BC City-States (polis) Phoenicians and Greeks 2 Most Well Documented Cities?  Greek Citizenship is NOT like modern citizenship Eligible citizens were: – Free men – Adults – Sons of citizens – Earlier periods: The poor (Thetes) not included in political life  Not citizens Women Children Slaves Metics Poors Government of Greek poleis 3 main elements: – Magistracies – Council – Assembly  From Aristocracy to Democracy The case of Athens 594 BC: Solon is archon – Abolishes enslavement for debt – Popular tribunal (helie) – Reforms 4 property classes Give poorest (thetes) the right to vote in assemblies and law courts Citizenship not a matter of wealth anymore  Athenian Democracy 560-510 BC: Pisistratus and his sons – Measures for poorest citizens (judges, loans, land) – Coinage introduced (origins ~600 BC, Asia Minor) – 1st aqueduct in Athens + public fountains – Public buildings (temples to Athena and Zeus)  Beginnings of Athenian Democracy 508 BC: Cleisthenes’ isonomia = equality before the law – From 4 tribes based on blood ties to 10 tribes based on residence 1 tribe = x demes – Council (boule): From 400 to 500 members (50 X 10 tribes picked by lot) – Magistrates (archont, strategos) – Might have introduced ostracism  Athenian Citizenship Citizens were – Men – Adults – Citizen parent Before 451 BC: Father only From 451 BC: Both parents  Outline 1. Environmental context and sources 2. The Aegean in the Bronze Age (~2000~1200 BC) recap 3. The « Dark Ages » (~1200~800 BC) 4. The Archaic Period (~800-480 BC) 5. The Classical Period  5. Classical Period (480-336 BC) i. Ionian Revolt and Persian Wars 498- 478 BC ii. Athenian Expansion 478- 431 BC iii. Pelopponesian Wars 431-404 BC i. Ionian Revolt and Persian Wars (498- 478 BC) Persian/Aechemenid Empire in the 5th cent. BC i. Ionian Revolt and Persian Wars (498- 478 BC) Main source? i. Ionian Revolt and Persian Wars (498- 478 BC) Main source? HERODOTUS’ Histories of Halicarnassus (Anatolia) might have been written later in his life from Thurii (Athenian colony in Calabria) 499-494 BC: Revolt of the Greek cities of Ionia -498 BCE: Destruction of Sardis (Greeks) -494 BCE: Destruction of Miletus (Persians)  492-490 BCE: First Persian War 490 BC: Athenians defeat Persians at Marathon  490-480 BCE Athenians build a warship fleet (triremes)  480-478: 2 nd Persian War 480: Xerxes invades Greece by land + sea - Coalition of Greek cities (leader = Sparta) - Thermopylae battle - Athens deserted (and Acropolis burnt down) - Battle of Salamis (naval) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvILGIIVsMU Orientalizing the Persians ORIENTALISM (3:26): « the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it : in short, Orientalism [is] a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” Orientalism: https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v= fVC8EYd_Z_g 300: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- h6ZhWlJshE Dehumanizatio n as war propaganda “Again, there is Greekness (to Hellenikon) – the community of blood and language, the shrines of the gods and common sacrifices, and our common habits of life; if Athens were to betray all this, it would not be well done. We would have you know, therefore, if you did not know it already, that so long as a single Athenian remains alive we will make no peace with Xerxes.” Herodotus, Histories 8, 144 “Again, there is Greekness (to Hellenikon) – the community of blood and language, the shrines of the gods and common sacrifices, and our common habits of life; if Athens were to betray all this, it would not be well done. We would have you know, therefore, if you did not know it already, that so long as a single Athenian remains alive we will make no peace with Xerxes.” Herodotus, Histories 8, 144 τὸ ῾Ελληνικόν = to Hellenikon « The fact of being Greek » Hellenes = Greeks Hellas = Greece  5. Classical Period (480-336 BC) i. Ionian Revolt and Persian Wars 498- 478 BC ii. Athenian Expansion 478- 431 BC iii. Pelopponesian Wars 431-404 BC  478-477: « Delian League » Confederation of Greek states under Athens’ leadership $ stored in Delos, then Athens (454 BC) From allies to subjects Athenian Empire and building program  ATHENS’ ACROPOLIS Acropolis through time: https://www.realmofhistory.com/2016 /05/06/animations-historical-timeline- acropolis-parthenon/ Parthenon marbles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ q_anSjKpIM&list=PLZPJ4Jl7viKdrBqOj 0gGU9XlnwqkeEpiC&index=146  5. Classical Period (480-336 BC) i. Ionian Revolt and Persian Wars 498- 478 BC ii. Athenian Expansion 478- 431 BC iii. Pelopponesian Wars 431-404 BC  Pelopponesian Wars (431-404 BC) Main source? Thucydides When? 431-404 BC Who? Athens vs Sparta Why? Hegemony  Pelopponesian Wars (431-404 BC) 2 phases – 431-421 Defection of Corcyra (Corfu) to Athens Siege of Athens (plague, death of Pericles) 421: Peace treaty Melos  416 BCE Siege of Melos « ‘For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretences— either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Medes [Persians], or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us—and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians [Spartans], although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.’» -Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 5.89, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A 1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D5%3Achapter%3D89%3Asection% 3D1  416 BCE Siege of Melos Melian commissioners ‘Well then, if you risk so much to retain your empire, and your subjects to get rid of it, it were surely great baseness and cowardice in us who are still free not to try everything that can be tried, before submitting to your yoke. Athenian envoys ‘Not if you are well advised, the contest not being an equal one, with honor as the prize and shame as the penalty, but a question of self- preservation and of not resisting those who are far stronger than you are.’ Melian commissioners ‘But we know that the fortune of war is sometimes more impartial than the disproportion of numbers might lead one to suppose; to submit is to give ourselves over to despair, while action still preserves for us a hope that we may stand erect.’ -Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 5.100-102  416 BCE Siege of Melos Melian commissioners ‘Our resolution, Athenians, is the same as it was at first. We will not in a moment deprive of freedom a city that has been inhabited these seven hundred years; but we put our trust in the fortune by which the gods have preserved it until now, and in the help of men, that is, of the Lacedaemonians; and so we will try and save ourselves. Meanwhile we invite you to allow us to be friends to you and foes to neither party, and to retire from our country after making such a treaty as shall seem fit to us both. … SIEGE End: « the Athenians, who put to death all the grown men whom they took, and sold the women and children for slaves, and subsequently sent out five hundred colonists and inhabited the place themselves. »  Pelopponesian Wars (431-404 BC) 2 phases – 415-404 Athenians invade Sicily 405: Battle of Aegospotami: Destruction of Athens’ fleet and Spartan victory 404-403: « 30 tyrants » (pro-Spartan oligarchy) Aegospotami