Classics Midterm

environment

environment

• Arid & dry

• Hilly, rocky (not many open, large tracts of arable land)

• Very little surface water

  • Aquifers & wells

• Very limited resources

mortality/morbidity

• Life expectancy = 40 is old

• Have a bunch of kids because they’re probably going to die

  • 50% infant mortality rate

    • No vaccinations, lots of diseases

    • Malnourished mothers

• Lack of basic nutrition

• Making it to 5 means you’ll probably make it until 15

  • Girls marry at 15

  • Lots of death in childbirth

carrying capacity

the amount of people a given region & resources can support

mediterranean triad

Grapes, grains, and olives (dry crops)

dry farming

Agricultural regime → barley etc. plants that don’t need much water

micro-climatic variation

Lots of localized weather/climate patterns due to geographic situation (islands, mountains, hills, proximity to water)

pastoralism

• Nomadic

• Animal herding

• No settled agriculture

knossos

BRONZE AGE

• No walls → inland position creates security

  • Not concerned about internal conflict

• Agricultural surplus

  • Storage pots

  • Social & political organization

  • Standard of living beyond subsistence level

• Specialized land use

  • Removal of waste

  • Public claims to land

    • Cemetery

Arthur Evans

BRONZE AGE

• 19th century British archaeologist who excavated a lot of Minoan remains

  • Spent adult life digging up Crete

palace civilizations

BRONZE AGE

• Stratified (hierarchical) society

• Control allocation of resources (eg. palace construction)

• Specialized work within palace complex

specialization

BRONZE AGE

• Pastoralism as a defense mechanism → ability to specialize is highly constrained

centralized collection/redistribution

BRONZE AGE

• top of hierarchy collects and redistributes money

overseas trade

BRONZE AGE

• with Near East; trade of goods and ideas

unfortified

BRONZE AGE

• Island, inland → protection

• Not worried about external or other Minoan enemies

linear A

BRONZE AGE

• Decipherable script

• Minoans used hieroglyphs (pictures) then changed to syllabary Liminal A (letters no vowels)

minoan art

BRONZE AGE

• Open air architecture: peaceful disposition, celebrate life & natural world

• Egyptian & Phoenician influence: open to ideas of other cultures

minoan religion

BRONZE AGE

• Very nature-based

• Worshipped earth mother

Mycenae/palace

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Like Minoan civilization, centralized economy directed by king, collection & redistribution system funds building palaces

• Mycenae had a big citadel

Heinreich Schliemann

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Amateur archaeologist

• Believed that the Trojan War was a real historical event & found evidence that could maybe support that

• Discovered grave circles A & B in Mycenae

grave circles

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• B is first burial site, A is second

  • B outside of walls, A inside

  • B older than A

cyclopean walls

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Mortarless walls built with large boulders

raiders and traders

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Distrust of neighbors

• Acquisition of otherwise inaccessible resources via trade + raids

linear B

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Similar to Linear A script but indecipherable

Michael Ventris

MYCENAEAN/MINOAN CIVILIZATION

• Deciphered some of Linear B alphabet

mycenaean art

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Violent imagery in art represents cultural state (raiders & traders)

• Often featured warfare, nature, & mythical stories/religious symbolism

burial

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Social stratification

  • Not everyone who died got to be buried

  • Pots and other valuables buried with them suggests religious practice

  • Time and resources neccesary for building stone walls, excavating, arranging bodies, etc.

  • More sophistication & concentration of wealth after 1500 BCE → rich get richer

slavery

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Heavy manual neighbor necessary for agricultural production

• Chattel slavery (slaves treated as property not humans)

• Human trafficking

• Don’t give slaves swords

overseas trade/contact

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Depended on trade networks

  • Not self-sufficient in bronze, wealth/prestige goods

  • Bronze for weaponry, art, tools

collapse

MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION

• Theories of downfall

  1. Outsiders

     1. Sea people from the East?

  2. Thucydides: Dorian invasion

  3. Internal civil war, systemic failure from within

     1. Dry farming machine with high variation

     2. Family groups with change in dynamics over time

depopulation

IRON AGE

• Age & consequences of __ lasted longer in Greece than in the Near East

• Drained human capital

technology

IRON AGE

• Lost post-Mycenae

• Linear B & other writing technology lost → only oral record keeping

reversion

IRON AGE

• __ to pastoralism

• Abandonment of Mycenae

• Mainland Greece experiences an unprecedented decline

• Systematic depopulation of civilization centers

  • Only repopulated areas include Thebes (shores of Lake Copius), Athens

lefkandi

IRON AGE

• Small community on Euboea

• Became an important city in antiquity

• Mycenaean settlement

iliad/odyssey

HOMER

• Composition:

  • Poems

  • Dactylic hexameter

  • Began as an oral tradition of chanting (Bardes) before being transcribed (attributed to Homer, probably lots of people)

history

HOMER as __

• Indicates cultural norms

  • Reciprication is important

    • You want something (eg. safety) you need to give something

    • Building networks and relationships requires resources

• Compiler of stories from long oral tradition

8th century

HOMER

• Evidence of __ Greek society

• Burial sites → democratized burial?

wrath of achilles

HOMER

• Themes: Achilles is mad at Agamemnon

• Central focus of Iliad

society

HOMER

• Guest-host relationship important

  • Reciprocity, status, great respect

• Network strength comes from going along with community

• Family history/lineage very important to culture, especially high society → maintain status

polis oikos

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Develop:

  • Private property

  • Familial control over resources

  • Marriage alliances

  • Birth outcomes → community growth & personal influence

  • Development of basic inequalities

    • Some people have more, some have less

  • Polis (distinct urban centers)

    • Monument building

    • Walls

hoplite revolution

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Hoplites live on the outskirts of poleis, use surpluses to acquire weapons & train with neighbors

• Bronze armor

• Helps synthesize taxation

monetization

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Early 500’s

• Difficult to exactly match wants/needs through trade alone

alphabet

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Innovation in Ancient Greek adaptation of alphabet: vowels

  • Split representation of vowel from consonant (more flexible system)

  • Expression of complicated ideas in visual written form

monument building

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Monuments & walls built in poleis → indicates permanence, collective action & consolidation of resources

land use/resource allocation

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Again, communal goods (cemeteries, city walls) → “”

• Agricultural production

Hesiod

ARCHAIC PERIOD

• Wrote a Theogony and Works & days

• Didactic poems, intend to teach something. Elements:

  • Take received knowledge and commit it to written form so it can be easily transmitted

  • Indicates different technological environment (alphabet, writing)

norms/shared beliefs

PAN-HELLENIC INSTITUTIONS

• Xenia

  • Hospitality, respect of guests/hosts

  • Not hostages though

• Murder/adultery

  • Religious & political implications

• Oaths

religion

PAN-HELLENIC INSTITUTIONS

• Gods, temples, sanctuaries, cult temples

• Major divinities eg. Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis

• Olympia religious center

  • Competitions (Olympic games)

oracle at Delphi

PAN-HELLENIC INSTITUTIONS

• Oracle of Apollo

• Unparalleled sacred center that people come to for information

  • Becomes repository for information for the world

• Could guide colonial journeys

  • One of two sources of information (the other being informants)

olympics

PAN-HELLENIC INSTITUTIONS

• Religious event honoring gods

• Pan-Hellenic (drew from across Greek settlements)

Peisistratos

TYRANNY

• Athenian elite, war hero

• Got rich as fuck by living abroad

• Wants to “fix” Athens through his own tyranny; 3 attempts

  • Fakes assassination attempt & asks for a bodyguard, takes him into some place trying to seize control, fails, exiled

  • Gets a bunch of gold in exile, turns it into money, goes back to tyrant’s playbook: split privileged class

  • Gets help of other tyrants to hire a mercenary army and invade his own homeland and seize control of Athens

    • Starts construction of two major temples (Parthenon, temple of Zeus)

    • Taxation, exile, alliance with other tyrants, public works, peace at home and abroad, justice administered in Athens (Solon) → appoints arbiters for dispute resolution in other places

      • Elders’ knowledge important

Bacchiads/Bacchiadai

TYRANNY

• Oligarchy of Corinth, aristocratic family

• Cypselus’ mother was a Bacchiad

• Oversee economic advancements by the 600s BCE

Cypselus/Periander

TYRANNY

• Cypselus becomes polymark of Corinth (war hero but unlucky with offspring)

  • Passes control to son Periander

  • Hires mercenaries, appeal to Corinthians who are dispossessed/out of power to join his fun little coup

  • Tyrant playbook: kill or exile opponents (eg. selective killing to terrorize, exile is to Corcyra)

    • Redistribute exiled opponents’ land to others as patronage to win people over & make dependents

    • Restrict number of agricultural slaves people can own (limit free time and accumulation of resources)

      • Limit economic activity

    • Promote trade

    • Peace abroad

    • Public works: infrastructure improvements, canals, temples, roads, wells

      • Gives people jobs

      • Improves quality of life

    • Don’t kill more people than necessary, just fragment the elite class

      • Capitalize on factionalism in ruling class

  • No “rights,” but changing community-based privileges of citizens

    • Intrinsic conservatism (don’t change laws/practices unless necessary, as long as it’s working for enough people, honor tradition)

  • Notion of superiority based off of family history

  • Periander goes cuckoo bananas (necrophilia)

foundation of Cyrene

COLONIZATION

• 4.150-59

• Grinnos and Battos go to Delphi to sacrifice a hecatomb (100 oxen)

• The Pythia spontaneously tells Grinnos that he must found a colony in Libya, Grinnos replies that he’s too old, and to let Battos go; everyone “forgets” the oracles and returns to Thera

• Back on Thera, they remember they’re supposed to found a colony, so they go to Crete but then they go to Plateia (island off the coast of Libya)

battos/oikistes

COLONIZATION

• Oikistes: leader of moving away

• Apoikia: moving away

• Not a form of exile, but exporting people who were “surplus” (couldn’t feed)

• More about escaping negatives than pursuing positives

• Intrinsic conservatism — leave because you feel you have to

• Formal empowerment of people to use community resources to establish a settlement elsewhere

  • Big different between the Ancient Greek & modern context: when you leave Greece, it’s a clear break (you leave behind your identity and become one of your new area)

settler/native relations

COLONIZATION

• Don’t stray too far inland mainly to avoid native peoples?

• Could be militant or amicable and trading

eupatrids

ARCHAIC ATHENS

• Archons, thesmothetes

• Developed offices to divide responsibilities & restrict power

  • Authority resides in office, not the individual holding it

areopagus

ARCHAIC ATHENS

• Hill of Ares institution

• Council of Elders established

• Oversight of archons

archons

ARCHAIC ATHENS

• Basileus (king)

• Eponymous

  • Take care of streets, waterways, public infrastructure

  • Monitor & detect, issue extreme punishments

• Polemarch

  • Pole = war

  • March = general

  • Controls army

• Selected among narrow group of eligible elites (citizens)

thesmothetai

ARCHAIC ATHENS

• 6/9 archons

  • Eponymous, polemarch, basileus, 6 __

  • Legal responsibility

Cylon

ARCHAIC ATHENS

• Tyrant (came to power by extraconstitutional means)

  • Generally agents of change

Draco

ARCHAIC ATHENS

• Develops law code prescribing the death penalty for basically everything

• Wrote laws in blood which is pretty baller ngl

• Written laws → applied more equally

  • Status impacts access to law and how it is interpreted less than before

seisachtheia

Solon’s social, political, and economic reforms

• Social: all citizens regardless of class can participate in politics

• Political: 4 tribes assembly of 400 created

  • Gathering of all citizens

  • Can vote but not propose/refine policy

  • No civil rights (ie. right to privacy → more socially established than legally)

• Economic: cancels debt but does not address underlying issue of land distribution; makes it illegal for individuals to secure debt with person (no more debt slavery)

  • Regulates Athenian economy by banning export of grain, encourages cultivation of olives

  • Creates classification system of residents (wealth classes)

    • 500, 300, 200, <200 bushels

    • Gradations of money and political activity that one can participate in within society

    • Allows people with money but not land to gain political power

5% tax

PEISISTRATOS

• Issued on all produce in Athens

• Used to improve infrastructure to benefit his supporters

• Made Peisistratos kind of a collection/redistribution leader

greater Dionysia

PEISISTRATOS

• Festival

• Dionysus: culture (wine), inspiration/creativity (enthusiasm, ecstasy)

• Agricultural down period in March so that’s when this is held

• Greek tragedies & comedies first performed at this festival

• Open to everybody, free wine

panathenaic festival

PEISISTRATOS

• Acropolis is center of it

  • Erectheion

  • Games

  • Musical competitions

  • Celebration of goddess Athena

• Every four years (meant to rival Olympics)

• Competitive recitations of Homeric poems

public works

PEISISTRATOS

• Infrastructure improvements, canals, temples, roads, wells

  • Gives people jobs

  • Improves quality of life

Lycurgus

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Mythical founder of Sparta

• Created Spartan law from the Great Rhetra

  • Delphi told him to make Sparta militaristic so he did

great Rhetra

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Foundational document

• Lycurgus received it from the Oracle at Delphi

kings

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Sparta had two

• Didn’t have to undergo agoge but often chose to

• Generals in wartime

ephors

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• 5

• Helped rule Sparta with kings (equals)

gerousia

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Council of Elders

• 2 Spartan Kings + 28 men aged 60+

equals

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Make it through agoge, pay dues each month

• Spartiates/homoioi

• Along with kings, composed ruling council (Ephors)

perioeci

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Middle class citizens of Sparta

• Paid taxes & could serve in army but didn’t have political rights

helots

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Original occupiers of the land relegated to subservience, tenant farmers who pay 1/2 of their produce in the form of rent

  • Othered, can be executed if they don’t act “appropriately”

  • Laconians

  • Messenians

messenian wars

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Arable land of Laconia not enough to support all Spartan citizens → Spartans attack Messenians

• Capture territory from Messenians, reduced them to helot status (they wanted to revolt against their Spartan overlords)

agoge

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Sex-segregated age group system (agoge) emerge as a mode of societal organization

  • Schools of thought: this was the basic organizing principle of the society and other things emerged from it; this emerged from an existing structure

• Men make it through the agoge to have a chance at being real part of Spartan society

syssitia

ARCHAIC SPARTA

• Sign of adulthood

• 20 years old, get married → live in barracks (public-private partnership)

• Arranged marriage

  • Ceremonial rape establishes relationship

  • Do not live together, husbands only return home to procreate