Western Civ- Exam 1 Greece and Early Rome

Who are the Helens? Where did they live? What was the geography like?

• the helenic people live on an outcropping of modern day Europe (Balkan Peninsula)

• mountainous, bushes, cider trees, not very fertile. Must rely on the sea. 

What was the structure of greek society in 600 BC, was it imperial?

• it was a collection of city states and colonies but it was not imperial

city state

• each had a distinct identity based on polis/poles

Hoplites 

• a greek foot soldier armed w/ a spear or short sword + protected by a large round shield (Hoplon). 

• IN battle they stood in a tight formation called a phalanx, which allowed them to provide mutual support and defense.

Aristocracy

• a form of government in which power is held by the nobility or elite class, often based on wealth, land ownership.

• only men who could afford UNPAID offices

• became more elitist w/less aristocrats being in the inner circle

• hoplites resented exclusion from power and began to challenge the aristocratic rule, leading to societal tensions and the eventual rise of democracy.

• aristocrats ally w/Hoplites and extend rights to hoplites BUT keep power in their own hands 

• hoplites became more frustrated and wanted more power so they overthrow the aristocracy and democracy is born 

were there kings in the city states?

• NO

• except for sparta, but the kings didnt have much authority

did sparta seek change?

• NO they wanted a society that doesn’t change UNLIKE Athens which was constantly seeking change

Archons 

• tribes w/ same interests (voting block) pick archons 

• responsible for day to day running in Athens 

• rotational 

what did you have to be to vote in Athens?

• your mother and father had to have been born in athens

• male

• landowner

• non slave

who initially held the most power in Athens?

• the elite/ those who owned the most land

Drakon 

• severe punishment for crimes 

Solon 

• forbids debt slavery 

• encouraged cash crop farming 

• increased poli participation for non aristocrats 

what form of govt was used in athens? 

• democracy 

• demos=people kratos=power 

• stonecutters, sailors, winemakers, merchants participated in gov’t 

what system was developed to protect territory and wealth?

• system of warfare

• footsoldiers (due to geo of mountain passes and hard terrain)/infantry need many soldier

• appeased soldiers:

large group w/out King have right to come to assembly + vote on major decisions

hellenic people in the 500’s

• develop culture and law in a challenging environment

Pythagoreas 

• thinks one should purify themselves of fleshly desires to achieve the highest good 

Sophists

• sold their knowledge

• “wise men”

• “man is the measure of all things” → goodness, truth, justice are all relative concepts → adapt to the needs of humans

• no absolute standards of right and wrong

• considered dangerous → is justice relative?

• …socrates will come along to say that absolute standards do exist! 

socrates

• born in the 400s under democracy 

• helot, soldier, sargent major/veteran 

• father was a stonecutter 

• made to commit suicide by drinking from the hemlot because he was poisoning the youth, defaming the gods

• students ask him to flee, but he stays b/c he respects Athenian law

• dies after fighting Peloponnesian war

• he was ASKING QUESTIONS 

• he had many followers 

• he didn’t trust the written word 

• what we know of him is from his students 

• dialectic method: 

ask a question, answer, ask a question based on the answer 

• ethics → consider consequence of all actions on others 

Aristotle 

• focuses on studying the natural world 

• believed some people were not human, like women 

• believed in polity: elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and rep gov’t combined 

what does socrates’ death resemble of athenian tradition?

• great men flee

• afraid that if they attract too much public respect you could eventually be exiled

who do we receive socratic wisdom from? what did he write?

• plato

• wrote “The Republic

what could be the best form of gov’t written in dialectic fashion

what did zenethon say about the jurors of socrates’ case? 

• said the jurors were predisposed to condemn him

what was the most important place in the city states?

marketplace/agora

what was valued in a person in athens?

• not wealth or ancestors but b/c of your REPUTATION

• how much did you contribute to Athenian society

Sparta…location? gender roles? 

• military state in Laconia 

• allowed women to train to raise strong spartans 

• infanticide 

• men weren’t home w/their wives → low birth rate, replacement level declines 

• fades out after winning the Peloponnesian war by the end of 400s into 300s 

protagoras

• man is the measure of all things

• sophist

what does the persian war do to greece?

• stirs conflict between athens and sparta

The Peloponnesian War

• a series of wars fought between Sparta + Athens, ending in the defeat of Athens + the loss of its imperial power. ends w/great destruction. 

• Spartans plunder Athens, Athenians destroy Spartan territory and encourage rebellion of Helots 

• Typhus kills 1/3 of pop in Athens + Pericles 

• eventual truce 

• Melos- Athens slaughters m, enslaves women and children 

• athens attacks syracuse, sicily and fails 

• democracy is voted out of existence → oligarchy

• atheniens turn against one another, loses food source, sparta rules 

• socrates will try to reform athens 

pericles 

• tyrant appt. in times of crisis 

• put pop of athen + allies in Attica w/in walls of Athens + doesn’t attempt to defend countryside 

• relied on sustenance from fleets 

the Hellenic World

golden age 6th, 5th, 4th C.

Hellenistic world

• cosmopolitan world → universal city, globalization 

• mediterranean links everything

• commercial world

• even when Alexander’s empire splits, the aura of greek culture is maintained

The hellenistic kingdoms

• common hellenistic culture unites fragmented kingdoms after alexander’s death 

• hellenistic kingdoms are the successor states of alexander’s empire

• independent, but shared Greco Macedonian traits, bound by greek culture and heritage in a cosmopolitan world

• Ptolemaic egypt, seleucid asia, antigonid macedonia, and greece

Hellenistic world views 

• stoicism: everything happens for the best, humans can only control their response to a situation

• → zeno: rule of cosmos, reason and personal restraint, condemned evil but took no action against it

• Epicureanism: highest good is pursuit of pleasure, everything is random

Antiquity 

• advancements in human physiology, physics, scientific inquiry 

• measurements and mapmaking

• physics, medicine

• arts: realism, crafted for purchasing

• causes: fusion of mesopotamian and egyptian science w/philosophical methods of greeks, common language + quick travel, competition between patrons of science

galen 

• functions of the body 

Alexander’s reach

Persian empire into Indus River 

conquers persia, egypt, everything in between 

when does alexander die?

on his way to india while crossing the indus, he mysteriously dies

who are the heirs to Alexander’s empire?

• 4 generals split empire into 4 monarchic entities

Romans and the Levant

• romans take over levant

• jews have built 2 temples

• jews who have left levant speak greek

• texts are translated from hebrew to greek in the hellenistic world

Stoicism 

• rational 

• product of people exchanging so many ideas in comerical world 

• accept good and bad 

Epicurean

• what they know is this life → seek out the best in this life

• life should be pleasurable

who does Ceasar believe to be descended from?

• god

who founded rome?

• Aneaus, a Trojan soldier

• when troy falls, he takes his father on a long journey to find a better life

virgil 

• writes the story of Aneaus, emphasizing the courage of Aneaus 

how does rome start off?

• a hilly village of Latins by a river, influenced by the Etruscans

• dual kingship w/atruscans

Etruscans…location? what do romans learn from them?

• north of rome

• how to build stone bridges

gov’t in Rome 

• monarchy, king checked by the senate/council of elders 

• brutus takes down monarchy: he was a kinsman of Lucretia, who was raped by tarquin the king’s son

in 500 bce what develops in Rome?

Republic

thing + people

the people’s thing

Latin Right 

• rights given by rome to those under their power even if one wasn’t born latin 

• this encouraged those they conquered to have stakes in the army 

Roman army 

• legion 5,000 men 

• maniple 120 infantry men 

• adaptable to weather and tech 

• each of allies had to cont to army 

roman republic progress

• senate headed by 2 consuls

• chosen by citizens but all patricians 

• one could veto the other leading to stalemate 

• struggle of the orders : 

plebs question power

debt slavery, dont know their rights, 

go on strike 

allowed to have their own elected officials → tribunes 

codify the Law of the Twelve Tables

could hold office

Senatus Populusque Romanum SPQR Senate and people of Rome

what was valued in rome

• patriarchy, patriotism, ancestors

Carthage…founders? rivals? what did they control? how did they differ from romans? 

• prosperous city state founded by phonecians 

• great rivals of rome 

• commercial controllers of mediterranean 

• romans are citizen soldiers not commercial traders 

punic wars

• rome wins sicily in the first 

• carthage trying to expand into spain leads to the 2nd punic war 

hannibal defeats rome until scopio defeats him in africa

- carthage pays large reparations 

• Cato + other warmongering senators want to destroy carthage out of fear 

• third begins when carthage refuses to abandon their city and move far from the coast 

• rome massacres carthage

• leads to westward expansion of rome

result of punic wars

• rome wins all…acess to n africa, spain…commerical empire of phonecians

• soldiers who return are now landless

• a whole class has benefited from the wars

• large plantations owned by aristocrats and worked by slaves 

• slaves did specialized jobs so romans didnt engage with the arts 

• freed men had no job 

• slaves took childkeeping giving women more rights 

• greek lang upheld as sophisticated 

Hippocrates 

• physician 

• body has 4 humors that need to be kept in balance through bloodletting and invasive practices 

Ptolemy

• writes Almagest

• says that the earth is the center of the universe

• mathematician and sicentist

Ceasar

• Him and pompey plot to restore republic by allying w/ marcus crassus → triumvirate

• marius → best general should rule, sulla→dictator for life

• pompey calls caesar enemy of republic → CIVIL WAR

• When ceasar crosses Rubicon → shows he wants to take rome by force

• pompey flees and is killed by ptolemy (civil war against sis cleopatra)

• ceasar and cleo have a kid, cleo wins and ptolemy is defeated

• ceasar returns in TRUMPH: honor for roman general by senate, only occasion where soldiers could parade streets of rome

• eventually given lifetime appt

• IDES of March he is assasinated

Post death of ceasar 

• octavius, son will want to avenge death, enemy w/ mark antony 

• they ally w/ marcus lepidus, making the second triumverate 

• brutus and cassius raise army → suicide 

lepidus exiled 

antony allies w cleo 

senate dec war on cleo 

octavian defeats antony + cleo in the naval battle of Actium

antony and cleo commit suicide 

cleo last pharoah, colony of rome