questions to consider

• how was the ancient Mediterranean a shared space?

• how did Greek and Latin become the dominant languages across the ancient Mediterranean?

• where did non-romans and non-greek fit into this world?

• what are the long-term implications of a unified Mediterranean?

the greek Mediterranean

• greek colonization

  • 800BC-500BC

    • two phases

      • c. 750-600 BC - Italy and western Mediterranean

      • c. 650-500 BC - north Aegean and black sea

  • what drove it?

    • driven by Greek demand for new goods

    • driven by Greek need for new lands for the growing population

  • manga graecia - a few examples in Italy

    • 800BC - ischia, golf of Naples (Euboea)

    • 757 - Cumae (Euboea)

    • 734-712 - Catania, messina, naxos, and taormona, sicily (Euboea)

    • 733 - Syracuse (Corinth)

    • 700 - Tarentum (sparta)

    • 470 - Naples (Kyme)

• the collapse of the Greek world after the Peloponnesian war (431-404BC)

  • destruction of Greek economy

  • weak, tyrannical oligarchies throughout Greece set up by Sparta

  • continued warfare in the fourth century

  • political vacuum paves the way for the rise of Macedon

• the rise of the Kingdom of Macedon

  • were the Macedonians greek?

    • Hellenization

  • King Philip II (382-336)

    • rise to power

    • assassinated in 336

• alexander the great (356-323BC)

  • consolidated of power 3366BC

  • takes Egypt

    • founds Alexandria in 332BC

  • invades Asia and defeats Persia

  • dies in Babylon 323

  • division of kingdom

• the Hellenistic world (323-30BC)

  • greek cultural dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean

  • Ptolemaic Egypt

    • Alexandria and Hellenistic culture

      • library of Alexandria - 700k volumes

  • cultural hybridity

    • Hellenization of Isis

    • Serapis

  • the limits of Hellenization

    • ‘Alien Wisdom’

the roman Mediterranean

• The Rise of Rome

  • small city-state in central Italy

  • conquers much of Italy by 300BC

  • interactions with Italian greeks

    • cross-cultural interaction

    • greek influences on Roman religion and culture

      • rome’s mythical trojan origins

• Rome and Carthage

  • expansion of Phoenicians

  • Carthage, from colony to colonizer

  • builds an empire and pushes into Spain and Sicily, which Rome also wanted

  • punic war (264-146 BC)

    • Rome defeats and conquers Carthage in 146BC

    • beginning of Roman political, military, and economic hegemony in the Western Mediterranean

• a roman lake

  • Macedonian Wars (214-148 BC)

    • battle of Corinth (146BC)

  • spread of Roman traditions throughout the Hellenistic east

    • but what about Rome and the west?

• the end of the hellenistic Mediterranean

  • roman conquest of egypt

    • battle of actium 31BC

    • death of celopatra 30BC

  • reign of emperor Augustus

    • Res Gestae

  • pax romana (30BC-180AD)

    • what does it mean to belong to rome?

    • hellenization of rome? romanization of hallas?

    • integration of other religious traditions

  • foreign religion in imperial Rome

    • Mithraism

    • judaism