Antiquity: Greece PDF

Antiquity: Greece The features of Greece’s Golden Age THE AGE OF HISTORICAL TRACES Before the ‘Golden Age’ of ancient Greece: The cultures of the Aegean  Region of isolated valleys, hills, small plains, peninsulas,...

Antiquity: Greece The features of Greece’s Golden Age THE AGE OF HISTORICAL TRACES Before the ‘Golden Age’ of ancient Greece: The cultures of the Aegean  Region of isolated valleys, hills, small plains, peninsulas, and islands  Sea formed its focal point  Nothing more than ‘barbarous’ fringe area to older civilizations of the Middle East  Tiny, unimportant, and poor in natural resources The Aegean sea : in the Mediterranean  Greece also benefited from its position on the edge of the civilized world  FIRST GREEKS  Either were Neolithic farmers who migrated from Asia Minor around 3000 BCE  Or were an Indo-European tribe from southern Russia who migrated into the region around 2300 BCE  In either case, when people did arrive in the peninsula, they soon came into contact with an already civilized people who lived on the nearby island of Crete  The Minoans  Minoans of Crete  The myth has it that Zues, the chief diety, fell in love with Europa – a Phoenician princess so he transformed himself to a white bull to attract her attention. The offspring of this love was King Minos.  Hence the name Minoans.  MYCENAEAN AGE  1600-1150 BCE  Had some contact with Minoan civilization by at least 1600 BCE  Typical of the very warlike, semi-barbarian cultures that extended over most of Europe  Only difference was that contact with Minoans gradually ameliorated some of their barbarism and allowed them to develop a more sophisticated culture  THE “DARK AGE”  Mycenaean civilization collapsed  It is uncertain why between 1200 and 1100 BC. From Mycenaean civilization this time until the beginning of collapsed around 1100 BC. classical Greek civilization around 800 BC (started at 480Cb) Greece is considered to have entered a dark age. Writing and other evidence becomes very scarce. The period has come to be called the “Greek Dark Ages” because this lack of evidence has meant that scholars can know little for sure about what went on in Greece during the period. ORAL LITERARY TRADITION  Dark Age was the firm establishment of an oral tradition that recounted a glorious and heroic past  Thanks to wandering minstrels (poets/storytellers)  Tradition would culminate with the magnificent epic poems of Homer  Iliad and Odyssey  Composed at the end of the Dark Age  Greece: Golden age (612-404BC) and Hellenistic Greece?(404-278BC) Democratic principles and classical culture flourished during Greece’s golden age. Athens was the cultural center of world. This should be owed to a series of benevolent leaders:  DRACO : 612 BC – he put the first law code in Athens. (single standard of justice)  SOLON : he divided the citizens into four groups each of which could participate in political assemblies.  PISISTRATOS: commissioned land to less privileged people. (first edition of Homer’s Epics)  CLIESTHENES : divided Athens into demes, each representing a tribe and each tribe would be allotted 50 seats on a Council of Five Hundred seats.  The Athenian Democracy  Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city- state (known as a polis) of Athens, around the fifth century BC. Athens is one of the first known democracies. Other Greek cities set up democracies, and even though most followed an Athenian model, but none were as well-documented as that of Athens apart from Sparta, which is known for having the strongest military of all the Ancient Greek cities.  It remains a unique and intriguing experiment in direct democracy, a political system in which the people do not elect representatives to vote on their behalf but vote on legislation and executive bills in their own right. Participation was by no means open; to vote one had to be an adult citizen.  Question Why is it that with good government comes developed and civilized societies ?  Setting the Stage… For approximately 50 years (477-431 BCE) Athens grew intellectually and artistically – we call this the ‘Golden Age of Athens’ and it is synonymous with Greece’s Golden Age Achievements in:  Drama  Poetry  Philosophy  Architecture  Sculpture  Science  The Persian threat TWO MAJOR WARS AGAINST THE PERSIANS: ON THE PLAIN OF MARATHON 490 BC (MOST FAMOUS): THIS WAS FOUGHT BY GENERAL MILTIADES AGAINST DARIUS, WHO HAD A RELATIVELY SMALL ARMY THAT WAS LARGELY OUTNUMBERED BY THE PERSIANS. YET THEY KILLED 6000 OF THEM WITH MINIMAL GREEK LOSS. (MARATHON)   It is the war that occurred between Xerxes, Three son of Darius, and the Greeks. Although a hundred (480 Greek allied army fought most of the battle, BC) a small troop of three hundred Spartans has gone down in history (led by general Another famous was Leonides) for they held off the Persian s as recounted by the first historian in the advance for days, buying time for the Greek world Herodotus army. Betrayed by a local guide, they were (father of history ). surrounded and known to have fought till they all died on battle field!!  Persians went to Athens for one year then they left. They destroyed lots of the art they found there.  Perciles (495- 429BC) PROBABLY THE BEST KNOWN STATESMAN GREECE EVER HAD. PERICLES WAS ALSO CONSIDERED AS AN Did you know that ELOQUENT SPEAKER WHO "CARRIED THE THUNDER he was friends with: AND LIGHTNING ON HIS TONGUE". ALTHOUGH HE WAS FROM AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY, HE WAS THE LEADER Socrates OF THE PEOPLES' PARTY. PERICLES' RULE AS A Sophocles STATESMAN IN ATHENS AND HE WAS AN EAGER Herodotus SUPPORTER OF DEMOCRACY. HE WANTED ALL CITIZENS Phidias OF ATHENS TO TAKE AN ACTIVE PART IN POLITICS, AND HE WAS THE FIRST TO PAY SERVANTS TO THE STATE. PERICLES SPENT HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ATHENS. HE COMMISSIONED THE ARTIST PHIDIAS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF MANY BRILLIANT ARTWORKS. PARTHENON While there are other acropoleis (plural of acropolis) in Greece, the Acropolis of Athens is so well-known that people usually just call it "The Acropolis.“ Acropolis of Athens  The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and containing the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον (akron, "edge, extremity") and πόλις (polis, "city"). Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as "The Acropolis" without qualification.  The most significant building of the Acropolis The Parthenon (top right) The Propylaia (down right) Erichtheion The temple of Athena Nike (Nike is the goddess of victory) Porch of the maidens Temple of Athena Nike Erechtheion  Inside the Parthenon Parthenon (temple)  23,000 sq foot building  Built in honor of Athena, goddess of wisdom and protector of Athens The end of the Golden age and the dawn of Hellenistic Greece Two major disasters hit Greece: The Plague The Peloponnesian war  The Peloponnesian War The details to this war were recounted to us by the great Greek historian Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. So Sparta took over marking the end of the Greek Golden Age in 404BC.  Greece’s marks on the world: ON HISTORY: Herodotus (484–425 BC): 1 st Historian, or father of history. He was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation—specifically, by collecting his materials systematically and critically, and then arranging them into a historiographic narrative. (Thucydides is another prominent historian at that time who had his theory: History repeats itself. The first playwrights: most prominent of them Sophocles(497-405BC). ON PHILOSOPHY: Philosophers: “lovers of wisdom” (philo+sophia)Based philosophy on 2 assumptions: (1) The universe is put together in an orderly way (how classically Greek!) subject to absolute and unchanging laws(2) Understand laws through logic and search for wisdom (the truth). Of the main philosophers: Socrates(470-399BC): the father of Philosophy: “I know that I know nothing” (check your handout “the Apology”) credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. Plato (428-347BC) : Socrates’ pupil, the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Aristotle(384–322 BC): the pupil of Plato, and the tutor of Alexander the Great. He shifted from the idealist teachings of Plato into a more empiricist philosophy. Plato was a student of Socrates. Started Academy in Athens (first school for higher learning in western world) ALEXANDER THE Great (356-323 BC) WARS  Life was a king of the Greek kingdom of Macedon. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II, to the throne at the age of twenty. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, until by the age of thirty he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Egypt and into present-day Pakistan. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders. During his youth, Alexander was tutored by the philosopher Aristotle until the age of 16. When he succeeded his father to the throne in 336 BC, after Philip was assassinated, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He had been awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid empire, ruled Asia Minor, and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He Did you know that the subsequently overthrew the Persian King Persian empire of that Darius III and conquered the entirety of the time went down in Persian Empire. At that point, his empire Genus for the kingdom stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the that had 44%of the Indus River world s population !!!!!  In India, Alexander lost 15000 of his men (starvation and heat) more than he lost during all his campaigns !!!!  What makes him the GREAT ? Crossed the Extended Empire Hellespont Into India Perfected Defeated the Macedonian Persians Military Style, the Founded about 20 Phalanx new cities Declared Son of a God (son of Zeus) Untied Gordian Knot Thus, with the exception of the small Macedonian kingdom, the entire empire was now controlled by the Seleucids in the North and the Ptolemies in the South. Caught right in the middle of these two struggling factions was Palestine, and it became the source and site of constant conflict between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. For the first 100 years or so the Ptolemies held the upper hand in the struggle over Palestine. In the Ptolemic Kingdom Hellenistic Kings called themselves Pharaohs and legalized sibling marriage!!!!!