exp cultures module II

Persian Empire

at its peak (ca. 550-350) stretched from eastern Europe to Upper Indus Valley and from central Asia to Egypt

Satrapy

territory of the Persian Empire (Satrap, governor of a satrapy)

Cyrus the Great

Founder of Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550), established capital at Pasargadae and formalized local autonomy and religious tolerance in governance

Darius I

(r. 522–486 BCE): rules from Persepolis; formalizes Satrapy system, introduces centralized currency and Royal Road system

Athens

central polity in Attica, first home of democratic governance, head of Delian and then Athenian League

Cleisthenes

(archon 508-7): introduces reforms that lasted approximately 200 years, attributing votes to a larger citizen body, leading to the formation of Democratic governance, or governance by the citizen body, or demos

Battle of Salamis

a naval battle fought in 480 BC, between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Achaemenid Empire under King Xerxes

Delian League

established in the wake of the Persian War as a military alliance against any enemies that might threaten Greeks around the Aegean

Magonids

Royal family of Punic empire form 550-340 BCE that set up occupation of western Mediterranean

• famous leaders include Hamilcar I

Punic

Phoenician peoples of the western Mediterranean ruled out of Carthage, at war with Rome (Punic Wars) between 264 and 146

Sicilian Wars

fought off and on from 580-265 BCE between Greeks (often led by Syracuse) on Sicily and multiple opponents

Battle of Himera

(480) between Carthage and Syracuse, resulted in decisive Syracusan control

Battle of Cumae

(474) between Etruscan fleet and Syracuse, resulted in decisive Syracusan control of Tyrrhenian Sea and collapse of western Etruscan powers

Alexander the Great

ruler of Macedonia and the Macedonian empire from 336-323, consolidated Greek mainland and conquered Persian Empire,

• Conquest includes Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of south-central Asia

Hellenistic

pertaining to Hellenic (Greek) culture, especially, the culture of the Mediterranean in the two centuries after Alexander the Grea

Rome

polity in central Italic Peninsula with remains of habitation dating from 14th c. BCE. Eventually the principal city of the Roman Empire (see Module II)

• Tiber River: primary inland waterway connecting Central Italy

Roman Republic (est 509 BCE)

from Latin res publica, the matter of the people), a government defined by magistracies, popularly elected offices, led by a pair of Consuls: military and political leaders of Rome, always elected as a pair for one year term

Senex

old man, where we get the world senator

Pyrrhic War

(280-275), war with Pyrrhus of Epirus, at first a campaign against Roman expansion, eventually led to Rome’s occupation of a majority of the Italic Peninsula.

• Pyrrhic Victory: a battle won where the loss of support on the winning side is so great as to spell eventual defeat

Punic Wars

264-146, first war for control of the western Mediterranean

Macedonian Wars

214-146, wars with kings of Macedon and in treaty with kings of Pergamon and other Hellenistic kingdoms

• eventually led to Rome’s occupation of the Greek Mainland and, in 133, inheritance of Pergamon and western Asia Minor

Octavian / Augustus

eventual successor to Caesar; his son by adoption. Named Octavian, assumes title of Augustus and princeps (first citizen) in 27 BCE

Lex de Imperio

(adopted December, 69 CE)An ancient Roman law adopted by the Roman senate, partially preserved on a bronze tablet, bestowing imperial authority on the emperor Vespasian

Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I, savior, one of Alexander’s bodyguards and diadochos (successor) to Alexander the Great, ruler and pharaoh of Egypt from Partition of Babylon: convention where the territory occupied by Alexander’s army was divided amongst family and military leader

Alexandria

capital of Egypt under the Ptolemies, at the mouth of the canopic branch of the Nile

Library of Alexandria

first archive established with the intention of holding all of the written wisdom of the known world, included the museion

Posidippus of Pella

Epigrammatic poet living in 3rd c., who wrote on aesthetics, Alexandria and the Ptolemies

Hippodamian Plan

a city plan that looks like a gridiron

• Earliest known example at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt (15th c. BCE). Introduced in the Greek world by Hippodamus of Miletus in the mid-fifth century BCE

Pharos of Alexandria

Early 3rd century, Egyptian-Greek. Designed by Sostratus of Knidos

• Lighthouse on Pharos Island approximately 100 M high

Euergetism

practice of distributing wealth through financial support or public benefaction, often bound with the claim to being beneficent

Temple of Serapis

mid-late 3rd c., Egyptian Greek

Serapis

Osiris-Apis, Osirapus, a god of the underworld and rebirth, associated with Hades and Demeter in the Greek world, promoted intentionally on the orders of Ptolemy I to syncretize Egyptian and Greek religion

Azara Herm

(a herm with the head of Alexander the Great, 356-323). Date: late 4th century BCE. Culture: Greek. Artist: Lysippos. 27” high, marble. Louvre Museum.

• Roman version after an original Greek artwork

Portrait

a sculpture that is endowed with a person’s distinguishing characteristics; it can be idealized, abstracted, etc., but to be a true portrait some part of it should reflect a trait specific to a particular person

Anastole

the arrangement of the hair, particular to Alexander the Great with his hair swept back from the middle of his brow.

Pseudo-athlete

(Statue of an Italian businessman). Date: ca. 100 BCE. Culture: Roman. Life-sized, marble, from Delos. Athens Archaeological Museum

Characteristics of the pseudo-athlete

• Naturalistic, idealized head and body with attributes appropriate for age. Perhaps veristic

• Honorific statue set up in a businessmen’s club

• Example of Roman portraiture combining idealized styles and veristic styles for the sake of commemoration of an individual

Portrait of Pompey the Great

Date: ca. 50 BCE. Culture: Roman. Life-sized, marble. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Excavated from the Tomb of the Licinians near the Porta Pia (Porta Salaria), Rome

Numismatic

relating to coins

Augustus of Primaporta

Date: ca. 20 CE. Culture: Roman. 6’8” high, marble, from Primaporta. Vatican Museums

Polytheism

religious system in which multiple gods are worshipped simultaneously; in the ancient Mediterranean, this system is non-exclusive and additive

Melqart

The chief god of the Phoenician city of Tyre; associated with kingship, colonization, and maritime expansion. His cult spread across the Mediterranean and was often identified with the Greek Herakles.

Diaspora in a religious context

The spread of a population beyond its homeland, carrying its religious practices with it and adapting them to new environments

Tanit

major Phoenician goddess associated with fertility, sexuality, and war; widely worshipped across the Mediterranean and often equated with Greek Aphrodite or Near Eastern Ishtar

Syncretism

the (attempted) amalgamation of different religious traditions, producing new forms of gods, rituals, or beliefs that combine elements from multiple cultures. The blending or fusion of

Interpretatio

The practice of translating foreign gods into the terms of one’s own religious system (e.g., identifying Melqart with Herakles), allowing cross-cultural understanding without fully merging traditions

Pantheon

The collective body of gods worshipped within a particular culture, often organized into a loose hierarchy or family structure

Cult

The system of rituals, practices, and institutions devoted to a particular deity, usually tied to a specific place (temple, sanctuary) and communit

Herakles / Hercules

A Greek hero later worshipped as a god, associated with strength and boundary-crossing; syncretized with other deities (Melqart) across Mediterranean cultures

Capitoline triad

The central group of Roman state gods—Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva— worshipped on the Capitoline Hill; reflects broader Indo-European patterns of divine organization

Tinia / Uni / Menrva

The Etruscan equivalents of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; demonstrate how Greek and Roman deities were adapted and transformed within local religious system

Imperial Cult

The worship of emperors as divine or semi-divine figures within the Roman Empire, typically integrated into existing local religious practices rather than replacing them

Relational Entanglement

describes when an object is appropriated and integrated into local practices - the object itself is unchanged, but the way people relate to it might be altere

Material Entanglement

the creation of something new that is more than just the sum of its parts and combines the familiar with the foreign

Pronaos East Wall, Tomb of Petosiris

Agricultural scene with mix of egyptian and greek styles

• 4th-3rd cent BC, Priest of Thoth, tomb well known for combining Egyptian and Greek

imagery

Embalming and Abduction scene in Catacombs of Kom al Shoqaf

scene of the embalming of Osiris and the abduction of Persephone on the same wall

• 1st-4th cent AD, Alexandria, tombs with imagery that combine Greek, Roman, and Egyptian imagery

Consuls

military and political leaders of Rome, always elected as a pair for one year terms

Herm

rectilinear stone pillar with a head on top; it gets its name from Hermes, who was the most common god represented in them and because he was a god of directions, and they were first used as boundary markers and sign posts.

What is notable about the pseudo-athlete?

• Diadoumenos (youth binding head with ribbon): Date: ca. 430 BCE. Polykleitos

• Naturalistic, idealized head and body with attributes appropriate for age. Perhaps veristic

• Honorific statue set up in a businessmen’s club

• Example of Roman portraiture combining idealized styles and veristic styles for the sake of commemoration of an individua

Eastern Harbor of Alexandria, Egypt

• founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, it was the capital of Egypt for nearly a thousand years.

• distinctive peninsula leading to the site of the ancient Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Serapeum of Alexandria

• a major temple complex dedicated to the god Serapis (a syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity) in Alexandria, Egypt

• Serapis was a combination of the Egyptian gods Osiris and Apis

• bridges cultures under the Ptolemaic and Roman empires

Pronaos East Wall, Tomb of Petosiris: 4th-3rd cent BC Agricultural scene with mix of egyptian and greek styles

Embalming and Abduction scene in Catacombs of Kom al Shoqafa: scene of the embalming of Osiris and the abduction of Persephone on the same wall

Peloponnesian Wars

(431-404): war between Greeks over hegemony of Greek alliance; collapse of Delian league and fracture of panhellenism leads to it
Consequences: fractured/antagonistic Greek world, Athens democracy rises while Greeks tend away from it, power vacuum

Senate vs Magistracy

• Senate: the body of elected members, representing Rome’s citizens

• Magistracy: the positions held by members of the roman citizenry, voted into various posts that oversaw aspects of Roman governance

Imperial strategy of Greeks vs Persians

Persians: treaty-based/alliance-based leadership (not nonviolent) that forces people to never fight against Persia or to fight with Persia; had many innovative structures like preservation of postal system + royal roadways

Greek: very coordinated military strategy; tyrant-like leaders w broad rule (before 509 BCE), each Greek polity might have different governments but all are allied;

Xerxes (Persian ruler 486-465 BCE) tries and fails to bring Persians back, forcing Greeks to militarize and increasing Athenian power ~490-440 BCE

Cleisthenes

in 509 BCE, he proposed government reforms in Athens; his goal was to expand citizenship to rural populations and establishing councils, ballots, courts, magestracies, etc. ; his reforms remain in place ~200 yrs → aimed to maintain and BALANCE power

Consequences of Sicilian Wars

• strengthening of Greek alliances and military prowess

• Etrustcans lose power and are weakened

Relationship between Macedonian and Persian empires

Macedonians adopt Persian methods (local rulers, postal services, road systems, etc.); however, Macedonia decimates Persia under Alexander the Great

Characteristics of Macedonian Empire

home base: Babylon

not formalized, no written line of succesion or hard infrastructure; death of Alexander results in ~50 years of conflict

Syncretism as an imperial tool after Alexander

• allowed Hellenistic rulers to stabilize, unite, and govern vastly diverse populations without relying solely on military repression

• by merging Greek religious traditions with indigenous belief systems, leaders created hybrid deities and cults that legitimized their rule to both Hellenized elites and native population

Why can the term hellenistic be considered problematic?

"Hellenistic" is the term used to describe the spread of Greek culture in the period following Alexander the Great's expansion. It also refers to that historical period. It can be problematic because of questions of what we mean by "Greek" culture and what geographical regions it includes (doesn't usually include the west Mediterannean. Italy or the Punic world, example).

First trumvirate, second triumvirate

#1 Pompey, Caesar, Crassus

#2 Octavian (Augustus), Mark Antony, Lepidus