Classical Civilizations in Greece and Persia
Early Mediterranean Civilizations
- Two major cultures
- Crete
* Home to the Minoans, lots of harbors, little good soil
* Relied on trade - Mycenae
* Located on the mainland of Greece
* Art and culture influenced later Greece
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Rise of the Greek City States
- Greek geography
* Islands and rugged coastline made trade important
* Influenced by other cultured
* Greece adopted the phoenician alphabet
* Because of its geography it led to the creation of Poleis (city-states, polis is the singular)
* Poleis’ would be sometimes at war (Peloponnesian) and united (Persian Wars)
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Social and Political Systems
- Patriarchy
- Citizenship of a polis only granted to free males
- Slaves and foreigners could not be citizens
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Different political systems
- Monarchy: a king rules
- Aristocracy: the nobles rule
- Oligarchy: a few wealthy landowners and merchants rule
- Democracy: all citizens have a say
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Sparta’s Military
- Boys were taken away from their mothers at 7 for training
- Grown men served in the active military or reserve till 60
- Spartan women ran the households (had more freedom than other greek women)
* Praised for fitness and education of children - Helots: spartan slaves, grew food
- Oligarchy with two kings
- Social life tightly controlled
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Athenian Democracy
- At first was a monarchy, but powerful merchants wanted a voice
- Supported tyrants, but they abused their power
- Decided on a direct democracy, not a representative democracy
- Archons (nine top officials), council of nobles, citizen assembly
- Pericles, most famous leader of the democracy, rebuilt the Parthenon, transferred power to the assembly
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Women in Athens
- Could not own property or vote
- Did not receive education
- Upper class women had to be accompanied by a man when they left the home
- Believed to be intellectually inferior to men and thus incapable of being satisfying relationship partners
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Philosophy
- Socrates
* Created the Socratic Method of questioning
* By asking a series of questions to get to the heart of the answer
* Typically used to catch someone contradicting themselves
* Was put to death for questioning state religion - Plato
* He wrote all of what we know about socrates because he was his student
* Wrote a work called The Republic where he thought people would be in three classes (workers, warriors, and philosopher kings)
* Came up with the idea of the cave metaphor - Aristotle
* One of plato’s students
* Emphasis on ethical moderation the Golden Mean
* Believed in gaining knowledge through empiricism, trusting what he learned through observation and evidence of the senses
* Focused on logic
* Was also the first to define tragedy and comedy
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Athenian Religion and Culture
- Greek Mythology still remains popular
- Became syncretic (combined with other cultures (Egypt and Persia))
- Attendance at religious functions, which theater was part, was considered a civic duty
- Created the idea of tragedies, dramas, and comedies
- Greek architecture can be distinguished by its columns, topped with slanted roofs
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The Olympics
- Greek sports were all about emphasizing rituals and making offerings to the gods
- All Greek city-states competed every four years at Olympia
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Greek Colonies
- Established colonies in the Mediterranean because of population growth
- The climate and soil of Greece made it difficult to farm and keep up with the population growth
* Outdoor activities
* Theater
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Persian Empire
- Began in 559 BCE under Cyrus the Great
- Became known as the Achaemenid Empire uniting three of the earliest centers of civilization- Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India
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The Reign of Darius
- Divided the lands into provinces so they could be easily administered
- Created a new position as satrap, someone who was responsible to the emperor, not the local leaders
- Also inspectors called: “The Eyes and Ears of the King
- Satrap and inspectors created an efficient administrative bureaucracy
- Taxes
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The Royal Road
- Most famous road for trade at the time
- Over 1700 miles across the empire
- Had a courier service with postal stations along the road
- The army also protected the road from bandits
- Constructed caravanserai, which were combo inns and markets along the road
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Other stuff on Persia
- Religious and ethnically tolerant as long as they paid their taxes and contributed soldiers
- Main belief was that of zoroastrianism-monotheism and concept of heaven and hell
- Similar of that of other emperors, but had a class of educasted government workers
- Many slaves
- Used the qanat, or underground canals to reduce evaporation in irrigation
- Conducted trade with phoenicia for woolen fabrics and cedar
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Women in Persia
- Patriarchal but less restrictive
- Women could own and manage property
- If worked in a shop, could keep their wages
- Typical jobs were weaving textiles and trading them for food for their families
- Divorce was possible
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Persia vs Greece
- Fought a series of wars called the Persian Wars
- Athens and Sparta aligned
- The battles with Greece led to the decline of the empire
- This later led to the Athens vs Sparta Peloponnesian War, and caused Sparta to defeat Athens
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The Rise of Macedonia
- Philip II wanted to conquer all of the Greek city-states and Asia Minor but was assassinated before he could finish
- His son, Alexander, takes over and extends Greek influence to India
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Alexander’s Hellenistic World
- Picked native residents to help him rule
- Founded Alexandria to become the center of culture and founded the library
- An example of the spread of Greek culture can be seen in Greco-Buddhist art in South Asia
- It does fall when he dies at 32
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Other Empires of Persia
- Seleucids: responsible for losing the western half of the once Persian empire to the Romans
- Parthians: prevented the roman army from going further into Syria, 247 BCE-224 CE
- Sassanids: (224-621 CE) promoted Zoroastrianism and persecuted Christians
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