INTRODUCTION

DISCOVERY

Sometime in the 8th century BCE, an aristocratic resident of the Greek trading colony of Pithekoussai, located on the tiny island of Ischia just off the coast of Naples in Italy, held a symposium at his home. Most of what happened at the party stayed at the party, but what we do know is that it must have been a good one. One of the guests, presumably operating under the influence of his host’s excellent wine, took the liberty of scratching the following ditty onto one of his host’s fine exported ceramic wine cups: “I am the Cup of Nestor, good to drink from. Whoever drinks from this cup, straightaway the desire of beautifully-crowned Aphrodite will seize him.”

While party pranks do not commonly make history, this one has: this so-called Cup of Nestor is one of the earliest examples of writing in the Greek alphabet, as well as the earliest known written reference to the Homeric epics. Overall, this cup and the inscription on it exemplify the mobility of the Ancient Greeks and their borrowing of skills and culture from others around the Mediterranean while, at the same time, cultivating a set of values specific to themselves. After all, just like the residents of Pithekoussai, the cup had originally made the journey all the way from the island of Euboea, off the coast of Athens, to Pithekoussai, on the island of Ischia.

Furthermore, the new script used by the daring guest who wrote on the cup had just recently been borrowed and adapted by the Greeks from the Phoenicians, a seafaring nation based in modern-day Lebanon. Indeed, our clever poet wrote from right to left, just like the Phoenicians. Finally, the poem mentions Nestor, one of the heroes of Homer’s Iliad, an epic about the Trojan War and a source of common values that all Greeks held dear: military valor, competitive excellence on both the battlefield and in all areas of everyday life, and a sense of brotherhood that manifested itself most obviously in the shared language of all the Greeks.

As the Cup of Nestor reveals, the Greeks were long influenced by those around them. And neighboring cultures also borrowed heavily from the Greeks. Trade, colonization, and warfare in the Mediterranean region ensured that the cultures that arose in this region would be in constant contact with one another. Indeed, by the 5th century BCE, the Mediterranean was home to numerous, diverse urban centers. Nowhere was diversity more apparent than in the Persian Empire, established by the Achaemenids. The Achaemenids built their empire out of modern-day Iran and extended their political and economic dominance east to the Indus River and West into modern-day Turkey and Egypt.

OVERVIEW

This chapter delves into the ancient history of the Mediterranean and surrounding areas. While much of the focus is on the Greeks, the Persians and Macedonians also played key roles in shaping the history of this region. Historians today separate Greek history into particular periods, which shared specific features throughout the Greek world:

• The Bronze Age (c. 3,300–1,150 BCE) – a period characterized by the use of bronze tools and weapons.
• The Dark Ages (c. 1,100– 00 BCE) – a period that is “dark” from the archaeological perspective. The monumental palaces of the Mycenaean period disappeared and the archaeological record reveals a general poverty and loss of culture throughout the Greek world.
• The Archaic Period (c. 700–480 BCE) – the earliest period for which written evidence survives; this is the age of the rise of the Greek city-states, colonization, and the Persian Wars.
• The Classical Period (c. 480–323 BCE) – the period from the end of the Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great.
• The Hellenistic Period (323–146 BCE) – the period from the death of Alexander to the Roman conquest of Greece; this is the age of the Hellenistic monarchies ruling over territories previously conquered by Alexander and his generals.

THE ACHAEMENID PERSIAN EMPIRE

Ancient Persia, located in what is today Iran, made its presence felt in world history as a result of its significant military and political capabilities. The Persian rise to power was initiated by the ambition and policies Cyrus II (ruled 559–530 BCE). Creation of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (also referred to as the Persian Empire) presents a compelling example of the influence an individual can have on historical developments. Credited as an innovative political thinker, Cyrus II first unified two dominant groups in the Iranian region: the Medes and Persians. This integration paved the way for the creation of a massive unified Persian state and far-reaching Persian expansion. Building on military innovations learned from Assyrians, the Persians became a truly dominant expansionary force, filling the vacuum left by Assyrian collapse and expanding even farther.

 

The Persian Empire lasted from 550 to the late 300s BCE. The empire extended far beyond the scope achieved by the Assyrians and short-lived Chaldean empire. The Persians controlled territory east of Persia as far as the Indus River (in what is today the country of Pakistan.) To the west, the Persians conquered Anatolia and moved into the European Balkan peninsula, including parts of ancient Greece. Persia also established rule over the Nile River valley, extending imperial control across the coast of North Africa all the way to Libya. At its height, the Persian Empire integrated an extraordinary diversity of regions and people, facilitating greater trade, travel and cultural interactions. In the course of this expansion and the imperial rule that followed, the Persian Empire created a cosmopolitan empire of myriad diverse peoples.

Methods of Expansion and Rule

The Persian Empire did not treat subjects with contempt and cruelty. Indeed, Cyrus II cannily recognized the benefits of offering tolerance to subject populations to compel cooperation and quell resistance. Persian imperial practices allowed obedient conquered populations to retain much of their native culture and their religious beliefs. Often local leaders remained in place, as long as they were cooperative and compliant. What Persians did demand of conquered subjects were a few non-negotiable – but for most subjects acceptable – obligations: those conquered were to 1) pay taxes, 2) support efforts of the empire through military service if necessary and 3) though they could continue to worship their own deities, subjects could not ridicule the gods of the Persians.

An example of this tolerance is reflected in Cyrus’s approach to conquering Babylon in 539 BCE. At the time the relatively unpopular Nabonidus was in power. He was a controversial figure, in particular due to his religious views. The Mesopotamian god, Marduk, was recognized as the primary god of Babylon and was honored in New Year ceremonies each year. For reasons still under debate by scholars, Nabonidus worked to elevate a different god, Sin. In addition, he left Babylon for 10 years, leaving the city under the regency of his son, and went to northern Arabia. During his 10 year sojourn the New Year ceremonies, which were meant to honor Marduk and to reaffirm the power of the sovereign, were neglected. Cyrus II presented himself as a protector of traditional Babylonian religion and after entering the city, performed the religious rituals that had been neglected by Nabonidus. He was then able to use religion to justify his relatively peaceful conquest of Babylon, claiming legitimacy through Marduk.

While the Persian approach to conquered peoples was generally one of tolerance, the Persians were also known to use violence to expand their empire and treated disobedience with oppressive force. But those who complied with the obligations mentioned above could continue local cultural practices and even benefited from being part of this vibrant empire. Those absorbed into the Persian Empire enjoyed the protection of an impressive Persian army which secured borders and kept the peace. Subjects enjoyed political stability made possible by Persian rule and participated in a vast, profitable trading network extending from Persia to Northern Africa. Those enjoying benefits under Persian rule did not have to practice a foreign religion or relinquish their culture as the price paid for stability. The Persian Empire was an early and rare example of relative cultural tolerance and cosmopolitanism.

Policies were carried out by what was at that time the world’s most sophisticated imperial bureaucracy, one that maintained standardized systems of trade, currency, and laws. A major political change was implemented by the Persian ruler, Darius I, who ruled from 550-486 BCE. Faced with uprisings, Darius I relied on the army and allies within the Persian nobility to retrench his hold over Cyrus’s realm and extend the borders of the empire to the Indus Valley. Darius I then divided the empire into provinces or satrapies, each ruled by an appointed satrap who was in charge of civilian affairs. Each satrapy paid taxes to the Persian state. Darius I also appointed military commanders in the satrapies who reported to him, not the local satrap. Spies were used to ensure the loyalty of the satrapies. Constant communication between the satrapies and the central government was ensured through the extensive network of roads built and maintained by the Persians. Most notable was the extensive Royal Road which extended over 1600 miles and tied together the major cities of Susa and Sardis. The impressive Persian road network was funded by taxes collected from the satrapies. In addition to the roads, the taxes were also used to create a navy and to pay for other forms of infrastructure.

Imperial messengers were organized into an early form of a ‘pony express’ consisting of riders and horses stationed at posts along Imperial roads. Each courier with a fresh house could travel. As the Greek historian Herodotus described, “There is nothing in the world which travels faster than the Persian couriers. The whole idea is a Persian invention, and works like this: riders are stationed along the road, equal in number to the number of days the journey takes – a man and a horse for each day. Nothing stops these couriers from covering their allotted stage in the quickest possible time – neither snow, rain, heat, nor darkness. The first, at the end of his stage, passes the dispatch to the second, the second to the third, and so on along the line, as in the Greek torch-race which is held in honour of Hephaestus” (de Sélincourt 1972, 556).

In addition to roads, the Persians carried out impressive construction projects. One of the significant building projects undertaken by Darius I and his successors (son and grandson) was Persepolis, the new capital of the Persian Empire. Persepolis was located in a remote mountainous region of modern-day Iran.

Persian Religion

While Persian rulers adopted a policy of relative religious tolerance, the dominant religion of the Persians themselves was Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism was founded by a priest, Zarathustra and shares roots with India’s Vedic religion. Sacred texts were composed in an ancient Iranian language and were initially transmitted orally before being compiled and recorded in a text called the Avesta. Even after the texts were compiled in written form, recitation remained a significant aspect of Zoroastrian religious rituals.

Zoroastrians believed in a supreme God, Ahura Mazda who gave birth to twins. One twin was good and one was evil. This set the foundation for dualism in Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism taught that the world was inhabited by good and evil forces that were in continual conflict. Humans, too, could choose to be good or to be bad and their choices would shape their experience of the afterlife.

In addition to the Persians, Zoroastrianism was practiced by the Parthians and the Sasanians. Today, Zoroastrianism continues to be practiced and is a significant minority religion in Iran. In addition, following the fall of the Sasanian empire to the Arab Muslims, a large number of Zoroastrians fled to India. There they established settlements, continued to practice their faith, and became known as the Parsis.

ANCIENT GREECE

Geography and Natural Resources

While Greece is a unified country today, the territory of the present-day country was not unified under one rule until the rise of the Macedonians in the 4th century BCE. Instead, the basic unit of organization in the ancient period covered in this chapter was the polis, an independent city-state which consisted of a walled city that controlled and protected the farmland around it. Historians estimate that close to 1,500 of these city-states dotted the ancient Greek landscape.

Each of these poleis (plural form of polis) possessed their own form of government, law code, army, cults of patron gods, and civic culture that set them apart from the other city-states. While the two most famous poleis, Athens and Sparta, controlled vast territories of farmland, most city-states were quite small with a population of just a few thousand citizens. Furthermore, the Greek world in antiquity encompassed much more than present-day Greece, extending as far as Italy in the West and the territories of modern-day Turkey and Ukraine in the East.

The geography and topography of the Greek mainland (known as Hellas) and the Mediterranean region surrounding it influenced the history of the Greek people in a number of crucial ways. First, the mountainous nature of mainland Greece, especially in the north, allowed different regions to remain somewhat isolated. The most isolated of all, Thessaly and Macedon, were viewed as uncivilized barbarians by the rest of the Greeks in the Archaic and Classical periods; one oft-mentioned example of their “barbarism” in Greek literature is that they drank their wine undiluted! These societies largely kept to themselves until their rise to military prominence in the mid-4th century BCE. The mountains throughout the northern portion of mainland Greece, in addition to isolating regions from each other and promoting regional culture, also provided tactical defenses in the face of external attacks. Most famously, the Persians learned the hard way about the challenges of navigating the Greek landscape during the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. Indeed, the story of the 300 Spartans who fought to the death at the Battle of Thermopylae highlights the challenges faced by the Persian army trying to cross the mountains to the north of Attica in order to invade Athens by land.

The Isthmus, a narrow strip of land controlled by Corinth, played a similar role in separating mainland Greece from the large peninsula of the Peloponnese. Sparta, an inland city in southern Peloponnese, conquered Messenia, its surrounding region, early in its history and extended political control over much of the peninsula by early 5th century BCE. Unless the interests of Sparta herself were directly involved, Sparta practiced a policy of isolation and limited military intervention in other city-states’ affairs and wars, a practice made possible by to Sparta’s far southern location in Peloponnese.

In large part because of this geography, the Greeks were not united, but instead lived in politically distinct city-states, often fighting amongst themselves. City-states were home to small populations, usually no more than 10,000 residents. The Greeks fiercely defended their independence (even from one another) and never organized themselves into one united empire.

No less influential for the history of the Greek city-states than the topographical features were the resources that the land in different regions provided for agriculture and manufacturing. Mainland Greece was notoriously unsuitable for agriculture. Growing the grain staples wheat and barley in the rocky and clay-filled soil of Athens was especially difficult, while the mountainous regions across the entire mainland were optimal for herding, rather than agriculture. One notable exception were olive trees, which grew abundantly. Olive oil, as a result, was ubiquitously used for eating, bathing, and lamps, and even as currency or a prize for victors in athletic games. In addition, early on in their history, the inhabitants of Attica and Corinth found a way to profit from the clay in their soil by developing advanced ceramic pot-making and decorating techniques. Remains of Athenian and Corinthian wares have been found at archaeological sites all over the Mediterranean, attesting to their popularity abroad. Precious metals were in short supply in the mainland, but the few that were available had an impact on the history of their regions. Most famously, the discovery of the silver mines at Laurion in Attica contributed to the increased prosperity of Athens in the mid-5th century BCE.

But the topography and geography of mainland Greece and the Peloponnese only tell us a part of the story. The Aegean is filled with islands, a number of which came under the control of Athens in the 5th century BCE. In addition, the Greek colonization movement of the 7th and 6th centuries BCE resulted in the foundation of numerous Greek city-states in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), Magna Graecia (southern Italy), Sicily, and the Black Sea littoral.

The history of the Greek world from its earliest settlements to the Roman conquest, therefore, is inextricably tied together with the history of the Mediterranean as a whole. And since the Greek areas of influence overlapped with those controlled by the Phoenicians, Persians, and eventually the Romans, interactions, often warlike, were unavoidable as well. As the modern historians Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell noted, the Mediterranean was “the Corrupting Sea” whose inhabitants were like frogs around the pond, watching each other, and borrowing each other’s cultural and technological achievements (Hordon and Purcell 2000, NP).

The Minoan and Mycenaean Societies of the Bronze Age (3300-1150 BCE)

The Minoans

While there were people living in mainland Greece by the Neolithic Period, historians typically begin the study of the Greeks as a unique civilization in the Bronze Age, with the Minoans. The first literate civilization in Europe, the Minoans were a palace civilization that flourished on the island of Crete from around 2,000 to 1,450 BCE.

The Minoan society of Crete was named by archaeologists for the mythical King Minos. This agriculturally prosperous society participated heavily in overseas trade, which makes sense as Crete is an island. Scholars believe agricultural techniques were adopted by Minoans by approximately 6,500 BCE, with surplus food products and crafts traded abroad by 2,000 BCE. Archaeological evidence reveals the Minoans built multiple cities with roads and lavish palaces; each city likely had its own ruler. By around 1,900 BCE the Minoans had developed a form of writing, Linear A. Scholars and linguists have not yet been able to decipher Linear A so our knowledge of the intricacies of Minoan politics and lifestyles is limited. By around 1,700 BCE the Minoans suffered a series of natural disasters including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tidal waves. The aftermath of these natural disasters left them vulnerable to invasions and around the year 1,450 BCE, the Minoans fell under the control of their trading partner, the Mycenaeans.

Environment in History – The Santorini/Thera Volcano

Questions to answer:

• What are some ways volcanic eruptions impact nearby populations? How can volcanoes have a global impact?

An important and often debated question in ancient Greek history is what caused the downfall of the sophisticated Minoan civilization. Historians believe a major, if not the primary, contributing factor was the eruption of the volcano on the island of Santorini (also known as Thera), and the immediate and long term effects of this cataclysmic event.

Erupting volcanoes have dealt destruction to human societies throughout history. Volcanoes generate significant emissions of gasses such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, fluorine gas, and hydrogen fluoride. These gasses cause immediate as well as long term deaths and illness; fluorine, for example, is absorbed into plants and waterways and can poison animals and humans for months, even years, after an eruption. Additionally, when lava flows, nothing can stop these deadly magma rivers from destroying all life in their path. And when volcanoes erupt, cataclysmic explosions create force winds and spew deadly gasses, ash plumes, and debris. Terrifying pyroclastic floods also occur as magma interacts with water, exploding outward and producing destructive flows of ash, rock debris and toxic gasses that can reach speeds of up to 50 mph, and deadly temperatures of between 390-1300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Earthquakes and tsunamis are often generated by volcanic eruptions, broadening the impact and damage inflicted. And an erupting volcano’s effects are not just localized; gasses, smoke and ash from massive eruptions can create an atmospheric haze that deflects sunlight, leading to changes in weather patterns. In past centuries, abrupt climatic cooling caused by volcanic eruptions resulted in failed crops, famines from killer frosts, and disrupted rainfall patterns which caused economic decline, and social and political instability.

Just such a massive and impactful eruption occurred during early Greek history. The eruption of the volcano on the island of Santorini occurred sometime in the 17th – 16th century BCE; most estimates place the event between 1620-1600 BCE. The eruption took place in stages, blasting ash, pumice (volcanic glass), rock fragments, and hot steam in the air, and producing rivers of mud and magma that wiped out the island’s settlements. It was the one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last 5000 years, with an estimated explosive power of 2 million Hiroshima bombs!

While scientists and historians still debate specific outcomes, it is clear settlements on Santorini were completely wiped out, with no recovery an rebuilding taking place for 20 years. Earthquakes, ash clouds and substantive tsunami waves hit populations throughout the region, in particular the Minoan home island of Crete, located less than 100 miles away. There is strong geological evidence of destructive natural forces on Crete, as well as along Mediterranean and even Black Sea coasts.

While not leading to outright collapse of Minoan civilization, this volcanic eruption played a significant role in the precipitous decline of Minoan society over the next 50 years. The eruption “…destroyed an entire island that had been crucial to their trade. Then, giant waves battered the Minoan coasts, destroying coastal villages and boats at harbour. Next, the Minoans faced summers of ruined harvests” (Cecil 2011). Some scientists and historians propose the vast amount of sulfuric gasses generated led to global climate changes, and “…could have lowered annual average temperatures by one to two degrees across Europe, Asia and North America…(thus) the summer temperatures would have dropped even more, suggesting years of cold, wet summers and ruined harvests” (Cecil 2011).

The recent volcanic eruptions of Mount Tambora (1815) and Krakatoa (1883) are more well known and far better documented, and our conclusions about what hit ancient Greek communities are in part based on these later experiences. Krakatoa’s ash hit the stratosphere and enveloped the entire globe, and the sound of its eruption resonated across 10-12% of the Earth’s surface. The Krakatoa eruption also generated tsunami waves as high as 140 feet. It is chilling to realize the archeological evidence indicates the Santorini/Thera eruption was even more massive, perhaps 4 to 5 times larger than Krakatoa’s explosive force. The impact on Minoan culture, and the rest of the Mediterranean world, would have been devastating and terrifying.

Mycenaean Society

The Mycenaean society was established in the Mediterranean by approximately 1,650 BCE. Like their trading partners the Minoans, the Mycenaeans occupied a number of well-built and fortified cities, and participated heavily in overseas trade. The Mycenaeans organized themselves politically into city-states, each with its own distinct ruler. Archaeological finds reveal the centrality of war and conflict in Mycenaean life; not only were cities typically built with extensive defense works but also large caches of weapons and armor have been discovered. Adding to our knowledge of the Mycenaean society are the written works left behind. The Mycenaeans adopted and adapted Linear A to fit their Greek dialect. Scholars refer to the Mycenaean’s script as Linear B, which was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, an amateur cryptographer. The limited number of clay tablets engraved with Linear B that have survived are administrative and financial records from a few Mycenaean palaces. One of the largest caches of Linear B tablets was found at the Palace of Nestor in Pylos. This discovery confirmed that Pylos was a significant Mycenaean administrative center in the Mediterranean.

Beginning around 1,150 BCE, the Mycenaean civilization fragmented and dissipated. The governments collapsed, the palaces fell into ruins, the majority of the city inhabitants abandoned their settlements, and the use of Linear B to keep written records ended. The reasons for these massive changes are still unclear. They may have to do with the geological upheavals and resultant natural disasters that impacted regions in the Mediterranean and Middle East, as well as cultures as far away as the Indian Ocean. Changes may also have been caused by the arrival of new groups of Indo-European-speaking people from the trans-Caucasus region and subsequent political and social upheaval. Large-scale and long-lasting migration into the region would have caused tremendous social and political change. There may also have been an outbreak of a deadly disease. Needless to say, there is no one answer to the question: “what happened to the Mycenaeans?” Probably a combination of the aforementioned factors led to the fragmentation of the Mycenaeans city-states.

Whatever the cause, the archaeological record for the period between 1,150 and 750 BCE is very sparse. It appears most Mycenaean cities were abandoned wholly or in part and Greeks were reduced to living in small farming valleys, each belonging to a king who controlled a localized army. The food and wealth produced in each of these valleys was partly claimed by the king, and used to outfit his soldiers and sometimes sailors. This age is known to historians as the Greek Dark Ages. We also know it as the “Homeric Age.”

Greek Religion

The ancient Greeks were polytheistic and their beliefs were grounded in nature. Thus, the Greek gods and goddesses were often associated not only with specific aspects of human life (love, war, procreation), but also with aspects of nature (lightning, the ocean). The Greeks believed their gods and goddesses could intervene in human life, however, they were not concerned with human morality. In fact, the Greeks believed their gods and goddesses experienced emotions, made mistakes, and were just as likely to harm humans as they were to help them. Priests associated with these deities did not promulgate moral rules, nor did they act as moral arbiters. Their primary function was to maintain the temples and perform the rituals required to appease the gods and goddesses. After the development of the polis during the Greek Dark Ages, worship of the patron god or goddess of the polis was considered to be a form of civic duty, carried out by citizens. Greek mythology remains popular today, and many of the names of the Greeks gods and goddesses, for example, Zeus, Hera, and Apollo may be familiar to you.

Also important in Greek religious life were mystery cults. Scholars continue to debate the nuances of the mystery cults, in part due to a lack of written primary source documentation. The cults were diverse and varied. In general, the mystery cults seemed to be focused on different gods and goddesses and offered participants, who often had to go through some form of initiation, a sense of community. The mystery cults also reflected the prevalence of cultural interchange throughout the Mediterranean and the longevity of Greek traditions. In the 4th century BCE a mystery cult dedicated to the Egyptian goddess, Isis, was established in Athens. The cult of Isis later established a foothold in Rome in the 2nd century BCE.

The Greek Dark Ages (1150-750 BCE)

The Greek Dark Ages was a period in Greek history characterized by frequent violence as Greeks fought outside threats as well as neighbors in the fierce competition for material resources. It was a period of harsh conditions and threats. This age also was marked by a lack of a written language as both the written systems of the Minoans and Mycaneans were lost. During this period, most Greeks received news of the outside world by listening to the stories of bards who traveled throughout the peninsula and traded stories and songs for shelter and a small amount of food or money. The creation of The Iliad and The Odyssey, two epic poems that initially were passed on entirely in oral form, is attributed to one or several of these composers. The author of these poems is traditionally referred to as someone named Homer. However, historians are no longer in agreement as to whether or not they were composed by one person or were part of a larger oral tradition. Regardless of authorship, the poems are important parts of Greek mythology today and provide valuable insight into Mycenaean Greek culture and society.

While these epic poems were composed during the Dark Ages, they recount events that occurred prior to the fragmentation of Mycenaean society. The Iliad details the final 10 years of a 20-year conflict between the Anatolian city of Troy and a coalition of Mycenaean city-states. According to The Iliad and other works of Greek mythology, the conflict began over a woman, Helen, who was initially married to Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon. During a visit, a debonair prince of Troy named Paris expressed his gratitude to his Mycenaean host, Menelaus, by seducing his wife and returning home with her. Menelaus, his pride wounded, went to Agamemnon and other Greek kings for aid. These Mycenaean kings were bound by a previous oath to help Menelaus and were further motivated by hopes of gaining resources, wealth, and fame. One of the notable participants was Achilles, a fearsome soldier king and son of a minor goddess, who fought alongside his elite fighting men. According to the Iliad, the conflict ended with a victory for the Mycenaean Greeks who ultimately outsmarted the Trojans through use of a large wooden “Trojan horse.”

This story is enlightening in a number of ways.  Although there is very little we can confirm (it was, after all, a work of fiction), archaeologists believe they have found the city of Troy, located in modern-day Turkey. It does appear to have been destroyed in battle within the right period of time so the fight itself was real. How long it lasted, who was there, and other details, we don’t know. We do know the stories of this conflict were very important to later generations of Greeks who wrote about it as fact. Additionally, the values The Iliad promotes the importance of the hero in Greek culture, reflects the belief the Greek gods and goddesses intervened in the lives of mortals, Greek values such as the importance of winning valor, fame, and fortune in battle, and conveys the rules of war. These were all legacies of the Mycenaean Greeks that influenced a shared Greek culture and society for centuries to come.

THE ARCHAIC PERIOD AND THE POLIS (750-480 BCE)

The Archaic Period was marked by a gradual transition from violence and chaos to political stability and subsequent economic and political growth. Population growth eventually taxed the limited resources available in some areas of Greece, leading to the outward colonization of regions around the Mediterranean. As the Greeks moved outward, new settlements maintained contact and trade connections with the larger Greek world. Greek culture, religion, and language spread widely, ushering in the beginnings of Pan-Hellenic identity. Greeks, regardless of where they were, held to a basic understanding they belonged to a broader community of individuals who shared values, language, religion, and culture. This shared Greek culture was not static. The Greeks adopted and assimilated various aspects of other cultures into their daily practices. During this period the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet to their spoken language and initiated, again, the practice of keeping written records. One critical development that promoted political stability and economic growth during the period was the creation of the polis, a new type of city-state unique to Greek communities. The polis system regulated Greek life until Alexander’s conquests in the 4th century BCE.

Each polis was a fully self-sufficient unit of organization, with its own laws, definition of citizenship, government, army, economy, and local cults. Greeks gave their allegiance to and invested their social identity in the polis, which was ruled and defended as an autonomous organization. There was no specific loyalty to any geographically broader power or identity. Those living in these poleis fiercely guarded their independence and competition between them was intense. Each polis was unique in its specific customs, legal codes, style of government, and granting of citizenship. Regardless of the differences between the many poleis in matters of citizenship, government, and law, one key similarity is clear: the survival of the polis depended on the dedication of all its citizens to the collective well-being of the city-state. This dedication included service in the hoplite phalanx. As a result, citizenship in most Greek city-states was closely connected to military service, and women were excluded from citizenship.

The hoplite phalanx was a new mode of fighting that did not rely on the skill of individuals. Rather, it required all soldiers in the line to work together as a whole. Armed in the same way with a helmet, spear, and the round shield, the hoplon, which gave the hoplites their name – the soldiers were arranged in rows, possibly as many as seven deep. Each soldier carried his shield on his left arm, protecting the left side of his own body and the right side of his comrade to the left. Working together as one, then, the phalanx would execute the othismos (a mass shove) during battle, with the goal of shoving the enemy phalanx off the battlefield.

Since hoplites had to provide their own armor, these citizen-militias effectively consisted of landowners. This is not to say, though, that the poorer citizens were entirely excluded from serving their city. One example of a way in which they may have participated even in the phalanx appears on the Chigi Vase. Marching between two lines of warriors is an unarmed man, playing a double-reed flute. Since the success of the phalanx depended on marching together in step, the flute player’s music would have been essential to ensure that everyone kept the same tempo during the march.

Each polis was centered around two central points. One was the acropolis, a large fort built near the top of the hill or cliff on which the city-state was located for defensive purposes. The acropolis functioned as a refuge in battle, and as a center for the worship of gods, whose assistance in battle was considered vital. The acropolis was home to the religious complex of temples and sanctuaries where Greeks worshiped their deities. And at the center of every polis was the agora, the place for all those who lived in the polis to gather for trade, festivals, competitions, political assemblies and most importantly, to socialize and build community bonds.

Of critical interest and concern to the ancient Greeks was how their polis should be governed. There was not one model for rule adopted by all Greeks, there were four forms of government adopted by different poleis: oligarchy, monarchy, democracy, and tyranny. Most poleis were ruled by an oligarchy composed of representative members of the aristocracy. The aristocracy was a group of elites granted status primarily through birth and economic dominance. In some cases, aristocrats owned much of the land around a city-state and employed or even enslaved up to 80% of the people. Some poleis were monarchies and were ruled by a single individual, a king. In cases where one ruler seized power and ruled outside of polis laws, tyrants were the governing power. To Greeks, a tyrant (someone who ruled through tyranny) was an individual who rose up and seized power through force, subterfuge, or other unconstitutional means. Tyrants typically ruled without popular support and thus resorted to oppressive measures. Examples of two individuals who ruled as tyrants can be seen in the Athenian cases of Peisistratos and Hippias. Peisistratos ruled Athens sporadically from 561-582 BCE. His son Hippias ruled from 527-508 BCE.

Most city-states started out with a monarchical or quasi-monarchical government. Over time, in some poleis, the people gained greater representation, and an assembly of all citizens had at least some degree of political power, although some degree of strife typically materialized between the aristocrats and the poorer elements. The final governmental form ancient Greeks developed was a democratic form of government in which all citizens (though not all residents) were granted the ability to participate in government through voting and through direct service in various governmental bodies. The Greek polis of Athens was the most famous democracy to emerge.

Central to the democracy was the participation of all citizens in two types of institutions: the ekklesia (ecclesia), an assembly of all citizens, which functioned as the chief deliberative body of the city; and the law courts, to which citizens were assigned as jurors by lot. Two chief offices, the generals and the archos, ruled over the city and were appointed for one-year terms. Ten generals were elected annually by the ekklesia for the purpose of leading the Athenian military forces. Finally, the leading political office each year, the nine archons, were appointed by lot from all eligible citizens. While this notion of appointing the top political leaders by lot may seem surprising, it exemplifies the Athenians’ pride in their democracy and their desire to believe that, in theory at least, all Athenian citizens were equally valuable and capable of leading their city-state.

By many accounts, the two most successful Greek city-states in the period between 600 and 300 BCE were Sparta and Athens. Sparta was known as a polis whose citizens were raised to serve full-time as warriors, which meant reliance on a massive number of slaves (helots) to perform necessary daily labor. Spartan citizens (free, native males) were usually consigned to the barracks after the age of 8, and men were not released from military service until they were in their sixties. Those who lived in the barracks were expected to train for military activity almost full time in order to protect Sparta from the internal threat of slave rebellion as well as possible external threats. The discipline and success of the Spartan system made them known and feared throughout Hellas.

Athens, on the other hand, had for most of its history been a marginal power until a series of democratic reforms adopted in the 6th century BCE. As a result of these reforms, Athens reduced debt slavery, a condition caused by individuals selling themselves or other family members into servitude to pay off debt. There were also reforms in government finance and credit laws. These changes fostered increased economic growth including agricultural production and export of products such as olive oil, a product highly desired throughout the Mediterranean. Economic expansion resulted in population growth, and the Athenians built a port, then a vast merchant fleet, and eventually a navy to protect their commercial interests.  Their growing population was sent to colonize parts of the Mediterranean world. Athen’s growing wealth and confidence fostered cultural achievements that established this culture’s important place in history.

Modern Issues – Democracy Then and Now

Question to answer:

• What similarities and differences exist between the democratic political systems of ancient Greece and the 21st century United States?

Ancient Greeks laid the foundation for many elements of Western culture: poetry, literature, theater, philosophy, mathematics, science, art, architecture – and politics. One of the most influential ideas emanating from ancient Greece was the political system of citizen rule – democracy (demos = people; kratos = power). In the polis of Athens during the Classical Age of Greece (c. 480 – 323 BCE) , for the first time in history, political power extended beyond the elite few, the monarchs, aristocrats and oligarchs. Citizens had direct and indirect input into governance and legal decisions, including selecting their chief magistrates (archons). Members of the governing boule, or Council of Five Hundred, were chosen by lottery from the citizenry. In the public courts (dikasteria), cases were tried before juries of citizens chosen at random. Citizens had their most direct power in the citizen’s assembly – the ekklesia (ecclesia). Every citizen had the right to sit in this assembly which wrote, revised and approved laws, made decisions about war and peace, and reviewed the conduct of public officials, establishing ancient Athens as a direct, participatory democracy. Athenian democracy inspired later democratic models including 21st century representative democratic systems. When comparing this first democracy, in particular the ecclesia, with modern representative democratic systems, it is clear we still wrestle with challenges the ancient Greeks confronted over 2500 years ago in implementing democratic rule.

Citizenship and Voting

Ancient Athens was the first, innovative attempt to extend direct rule to all citizens, yet it was not an inclusive system as only a minority of those living in the polis were deemed citizens. Citizenship was restricted to free males. Women had no political power. Slaves had no rights or privileges. A citizen also had to be a native of the polis, born there and with deep family roots. Those not native to the polis were deemed a metic – a registered, resident foreigner, even if they spoke the same language, worshipped the same deities and came from 10 miles down the road. These ‘foreigners’ were contributing members of the community but were not citizens. Consensus estimates put the Athenian population in the early 5th century BCE at around 140,000 – 150,000, with only about 40,000 to 30,000 of these deemed adult citizens. Some historians estimate slaves represented perhaps 15 – 35% of the population, others believe that percentage was closer to 60%. The remainder were women and metic. This exclusivity and the small number of citizens enabled a functional system of direct citizen rule, but citizens with voting rights remained a minority of the population.

All modern democracies including the United States, still explicitly distinguish between citizens and residents without voting powers. In the United States, millions live in the country with no vote or representation. In 2020, about 13.5% of the more than 331 million people living in the U.S. were foreign born. An estimated 13 million of these were lawful permanent residents but not citizens, and perhaps as many as 10 to 11 million were undocumented non-citizens. Even conservative estimates indicated almost 7% of those living in the country did not have the right to vote.

In addition, not all citizens can vote. In most states, citizens convicted of a felony cannot vote for a period of time, or even indefinitely, unless pardoned. In 2016 almost 6 million American citizens convicted of felonies did not have the right to vote. This disenfranchisement remains a source of ongoing debate. Although our modern representative system extends political power to the majority of those living in the country, citizenship and the power to vote remains a distinctive status not available to all residents.

Voting Processes

Ancient Greeks struggled with the daunting logistical challenges of how to measure citizen input during ekklesia meetings. The Athenian ekklesia met approximately 40 times a year. While historians believe only about 16% of eligible citizens participated, this still meant an average of five to six thousand citizens showing up for an assembly. Such gatherings were too large for the traditional gathering place of the agora thus ekklesia assemblies occurred in a theater at the foot of the Acropolis known as the Pynx.

At ekklesia sessions, decisions were made by majority vote, with citizens raising their hands. Classical scholars still debate how precisely these hand vote counts were carried out; imagine counting thousands of hands for numerous votes taking place during a session. Likely rough estimates were made to determine decisions. A more precise count of each citizen’s vote occurred only when there were controversial outcomes, perhaps using pebbles or tokens to register each vote. Such accurate counts were needed on critical issues such as citizenship decrees or sending someone into exile.

The issue of how to accurately and effectively count votes remains an issue in modern representative democracies. In the U.S., each state has different processes regarding how votes are cast, verified and counted. While a few states still have partial hand counting of paper ballots, most election results are tabulated electronically. Some votes are entered electronically by the voter; in other regions voters submit a paper ballot that is scanned and tabulated. In some districts, ballots can be dropped off early or mailed in. Utilizing modern technology enables more citizens to vote and produces electoral results reliably and quickly. Growing populations, expanding voting accessibility and use of new technologies have increased the ability of citizens to participate and have sped up the tallying of results. Numerous safeguards put in place to verify voter signatures and eligibility have proven very effective, and numerous studies show voting irregularities or mistaken results are rare or simply do not occur. Nevertheless, though “(f)raud committed by voters is exceedingly rare…allegations of voter fraud are ubiquitous. They are almost always leveled by opponents when reformers seek to make it easier to vote, not just at election time” (McLaughlin 2020). The greater reliance on technologies and expansion of voting access continues to fuel heated debates and concerns. Democracies are based on accurate counting of votes and ensuring the integrity of such counts remains a high priority, and a volatile political issue.

Dominance of Elite Interests

Ancient Greeks expressed concerns about undue political power and input by rich citizens. In ancient Athens, every free, native male citizen was eligible to show up in the ecclesia, however, the reality was far different. The hours or days required to conduct debates and multiple votes during an ecclesia session precluded active, meaningful involvement of those who had to work for a living. A farmer, shopkeeper, artisan, soldier or sailor could not sit in the assembly for hours or days, could not commit the time needed to learn about issues, build alliances and push for their agendas. While those with wealth and leisure time could stay, network, and master political maneuvering, wielding greater influence. By the early 5th century BCE, inequity was so apparent Athenian leaders instituted a stipend to encourage those from the poorer classes to attend the ecclesia. Those attending were issued tokens (bronze or lead) for that session attended, later redeemed for pay. But an imbalance continued. Even in the representative boule council, there was the lopsided presence of wealthier citizens. Members of the boule were chosen by lottery rather than election to prevent wealthy and powerful citizens from dominating, a laudable goal. Yet evidence suggests “…wealthy and powerful people served on the council much more frequently than would be likely in a truly random lottery” (History.com 2017). Clearly ensuring equity was a long standing problem.

In today’s representative democracies, concerns remain that the economic elite have greater influence on political decisions than less wealthy citizens. A detailed 2014 study of United States policy debates and outcomes came to the troubling conclusion “…the preferences of economic elites … have far more independent impact upon policy change than the preferences of average citizens do” (Gilens 2014). The study also found “When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it” (Gilens 2014). How to reduce the overbearing influence of wealth and elite voices in politics remains an important yet elusive goal, millennia after ancient Athenians first grappled with this problem. Maintaining a system where every citizen’s vote or voice has equal weight has proven challenging for both ancient participatory and modern representative democracies.

Ignorance and Malleability

Ancient critics in Athens raised concerns about their political system that might sound familiar to our modern ears including the danger of ill-informed citizens voting based on emotion rather than informed understanding of issues, leaving them more easily swayed by demagogues and manipulated by more educated elites to secure their agendas. In a large polis such as Athens, however, citizens lived in close proximity to each other and were directly familiar with governing practices and issues. Thus some argue problems of voter ignorance and manipulation are more acute in modern representative democracies where citizens are not directly exposed to governing bodies and leaders, and generally are not well informed about legislative actions. One scholar states “Though they made their share of ignorant and foolish mistakes, ancient Athenian voters probably knew a lot more about the Sicily and the Peloponnesian War than our voters today know about Iraq, Afghanistan and the War on Terror; or for that matter Obamacare, federal spending, and who controls which house of Congress” (Somin 2015). It is unclear whether the explosion of information technologies, social media, and internet reliance will in the long run help to solve or exacerbate these perceived problems. What is clear is that for democracy to work most effectively, voters must be informed and engaged.

The More Things Change…

Though over 2,500 years separate Athens’s direct democratic ekklesia from the U.S.’s representative democracy in the 21st century, a critical analysis of ancient Athens sounds surprisingly familiar: “… it was not perfect. The majority of the population of Athens was excluded. Sometimes the people voted based on the popularity of a speaker rather than the rationality of his policies. Sometimes the citizens were incredibly volatile and acted impulsively, disregarding wise advice and bringing disaster upon the city” (Academy 4SC 2021). Perhaps Winston Churchill, famed 20th century Prime Minister of Great Britain was correct when he said “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried.…” (Langworth 2022). Democracy was a revolutionary political system, inspiring in its empowerment of citizens. It is a system we are still working to perfect.

The Greco-Persian Wars 492-479 BCE

Despite casting their net far and wide in founding colonies, the Greeks seem to have remained in a state of relatively peaceful coexistence with the rest of their Mediterranean neighbors until the 6th century BCE. In the mid-6th century BCE, Cyrus II embarked on a swift program of expansion that had long-term implications for the Greeks. Cyrus’s Achaemenid Empire bordered the area of Asia Minor previously colonized by the Greeks. This expansion of the Persian Empire brought the Persians into direct conflict with the Greeks, initiating the Greco-Persian Wars.

By the second half of the 6th century, the Persians had taken over the region of Asia Minor, also known as Ionia, installing as rulers of these Greek city-states tyrants loyal to Persia. In 499 BC, the Ionian Greeks, led by their own tyrant, Aristagoras, rebelled against Persian rule of Greek cities in the Anatolian Peninsula. As a part of this rebellion, and to secure themselves against an expected Persian attack, Aristagoras and his Ionians determined to attack the Persian Satrap in his local capital Sardis. To do this successfully, they attempted to enlist the help of other Greek poleis. Sparta refused, but Athens agreed and sent a navy to assist, as did Eretria. The success of the raid on Sardis angered the Persian Emperor, Darius I, who was determined to attack Athens in punishment for their role in the Ionian Revolt. The attempts to punish Athens began around 500 BC, and consisted of two significant campaigns by the Perisians in the Hellas region, one under Darius I, and the other under his successor, Xerxes.

The first attack by the Persians on the Greeks was directed specifically at Athens and Eretria. In 492 BC, under Persian generals Datis and Artaphernes, the Persian army destroyed Eretria but was stopped by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. A decade later, Darius’ successor, Xerxes, sent another expeditionary force against the Athenians. This time, Spartans under King Leonidas, met the Persians in 480 BCE at the Battle of Thermopylae. In the end, only 300 Spartans and a group of 700 Thespians defended a narrow pass that blocked the Persian advance into Hellas for three days, eventually being killed to the last man, but inflicting heavy casualties on the Persians and giving the Athenians the opportunity to prepare their city and their navy for a naval battle. The resulting Battle of Salamis occurred in the straits between Plataea and Thespiae, after the Athenians had evacuated their city, and the Persians had burned it to the ground. The Persians took to their own ships in pursuit of the fleeing Athenians, but were met in the strait of Salamis by the Athenian navy, whose fast ships rammed, then backed off of the Persian vessels causing many of them to sink with their fully armored crews and contingents of soldiers aboard. Having lost most of his navy, and a large contingent of soldiers, the Persian Emperor Xerxes retreated to Persia and left his army in Hellas to fight the Greeks without him.  At the Battle of Plataea, the Persians were finally defeated, and the Persian Wars ended.

Shortly after the close of the Persian War, a group of Greek city-states, mainly those located in Ionia and on the island between mainland Greece and Ionia, founded the Delian League, with the aim of continuing to protect the Greeks in Ionia from Persian attacks. Led by Athens, the league first met on the tiny island of Delos. According to Greek mythology, the twin gods Apollo and Artemis were born on Delos. As a result, the island was considered sacred ground and, as such, was a fitting neutral headquarters for the new alliance. The league allowed member states the option of either contributing a tax (an option that most members selected) or contributing ships for the league’s navy. Over the next twenty years, the Delian League gradually transformed from a loose alliance of states led by Athens to a more formal entity. Athenian’s control of the League’s, in the meanwhile, grew to become that of an imperial leader.

THE GREEK CLASSICAL PERIOD (480-323 BCE)

The story of the Greeks in the Classical Period is best described as violent competition for leadership of the Greek world. First, Athens and Sparta spent much of the 5th century BCE battling each other for control of the Greek world. Then, once both were weakened, other states began attempting to fill the power vacuum. Ultimately, the Classical Period ended with the Greek world under the control of a power that was virtually unknown to the Greeks at the beginning of the 5th century BCE: Macedon. Yet despite the lengthy and intense warfare that characterized the Classical Age, this time period is also renowned for Greek achievements in philosophy, scholarship, and art.

By 460 BCE, members of the Delian League, angered by Athen’s increasingly imperialistic practices, attempted to leave the alliance. Athens responded that exit was not an option, turning a defensive alliance into a fledgling empire. Athenians famously warned the island city-state of Delos that attempting to leave the empire would guarantee an attack by Athens. When the Delians called Athens’ bluff, they were attacked and destroyed; the city was razed to the ground, all men of military age were executed, and all other citizens of Delos enslaved. Other members of the league were aghast, and Sparta offered to support them against Athens, creating the Peloponnesian League.

In the first Peloponnesian War (460-451 BCE) between these two alliances, the Spartans were on the offensive, surrounding Athens, destroying its fields and attempting to block commerce at its port. Athens spent most of its energy using its navy to raid the coasts of the Peloponnese (the homeland of Sparta) Eventually, by 421 BCE, the peace of Nicias was signed, and a truce established.

In 415 BCE, attacks by Athens on Syracuse on the island of Sicily signaled the start of renewed warfare amongst the poleis. The Athenian force in Syracuse was utterly defeated in 413 BCE and the fight on Sicily sparked renewed violence in Hellas between Athens and Sparta. Sparta this time had help from Persia, and followed a strategy that included encouraging rebellion within Athens’ empire, and undermining Athens’ naval superiority by financial and military means. By 404 BC, Athens was defeated and occupied by Sparta.

The Peloponnesian wars wreaked havoc on the Greek economy, leaving the dominant trading state of Athens subject to Sparta, unable to recover economically.  Sparta dominated the Greek peninsula but the devastating effects of years of civil wars in Greece meant the fortunes and political stability of all Greek poleis declined drastically, marking the end of the golden age of classical Greece.

Remarkably, in the midst of these ongoing wars, Greek culture continued to flourish, with many influential thinkers and innovators. The center of Greek cultural achievements during the Classical Age was Athens. A key politician during the Classical Period and the first Peloponnesian War was Pericles, an Athenian statesman in the 5th century BCE under whom a number of influential changes took place. Pericles sponsored a Citizenship Decree in 451 BCE that restricted Athenian citizenship only to individuals who had two free­ born and legitimately-wed Athenian parents, both of whom were also born of Athenian parents.

He also issued a series of decrees to benefit Athenians and assert their dominance over the Delian League. Pericles directed the relocation of the Delian League’s treasury from Delos to Athens, further solidifying its control over other member poleis. Then circa 449 BCE, Pericles successfully proposed a decree allowing the Athenians to use Delian League funds for Athenian building projects. In c. 447 BCE, he sponsored the Athenian Coinage Decree that imposed Athenian standards of weights and measures on all states that were members of the Delian League. Later in his life, Pericles famously described Athens as “the school of Hellas”. This description would certainly have fit Athens in the mid-5th century BCE as, in addition to the flourishing of art and architecture, the city was a center of philosophy and drama. Due to the central regional role played by a more aggressive Athens, cultural developments in this polis had widespread influences throughout the region.

PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEATRICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Philosophy and History

One area of intellectual pursuit was philosophical questioning. An early philosopher was Thales of Miletus, who lived about 600 BCE. Thales emphasized that human reason, not myth, should be used to explain nature. Thales proposed water as the basic element from which all else must be formed. His successors, including Anaximander, argued alternatively that the basic element must be air, fire, “the boundless” or ether. Democritus (460-370 BCE), another Ionian Greek, decided the basic element was something he called an ‘atom.’ All atoms, according to Democritus, were basically the same and he proposed atoms were constantly in motion, with combinations of atoms making up material things. Another philosopher, Pythagoras of Samos (582-500 BCE)  believed material nature was composed of immaterial patterns of numbers. He came to this conclusion through observation of patterns in music and geometry. Pythagorus also theorized that the human body was distinct from its soul.

It is clear that a major concern of these early Greek philosophers was “Phisikoi” or understanding the physical world. In the 5th century BCE, another group of philosophers decided the proper subject of human study was humans themselves. These philosophers were called ‘sophists’ (meaning intellectual in Greek). The Sophists took it upon themselves to question everything and eventually came to the conclusion that all truth is relative. Emerging from this Sophist movement was the most influential thinker of the ancient Greek world – Socrates.

One of the most prominent philosophers of the ancient world, Socrates did not leave any writings of his own, but teachings attributed to him survive in dialogues penned by his student, the 4th century philosopher Plato. In Plato’s writings, Socrates comes across as someone who loved difficult questions and who was not above confronting any passers-by with such questions as “What is courage?”; “What is moral?”; “What would the ideal city look like?” Using what became known as the “Socratic method,” Socrates continued to probe further every definition and answer that his conversation partners provided, guiding them to delve deeper in their reflections on the topics at hand than they had before. As a result of his love of such debates, Socrates was seen as connected to the Sophists, philosophical debate teachers, who (as Aristophanes joked) could teach anyone to convince others of anything at all, regardless of reality or truth. But Socrates radically differed from the Sophists by not charging fees for his teaching. Instead, as he himself is purported to have said, he was a pest-like gadfly who kept disturbing Athenians from growing too content, and encouraged all with whom he spoke to keep thinking and questioning. Eventually, Socrates’s public and fearless critiques of city leaders led to trouble and in 399 BCE he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. Given the choice between trial and exile, Socrates chose the former and delivered a fervent speech in his defense. Nevertheless, he was summarily found guilty and sentenced to death by poisoning.

Socrates’ most prominent student, Plato (427-347 BCE) delved into different philosophical investigations, for example he divided the world into realms.  Truth, he said, exists only in the realm of thought. Physical objects are only a pale and partial reflection of these theoretical truths. Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ suggested that we are unable to know truths easily; we have to go against our nature and struggle to identify truths fearlessly. It requires a supreme act of courage and reason to realize we do not yet comprehend the truth and to search for it. In his work ‘The Republic,’ Plato suggested philosophers ought to lead society in a kind of benevolent dictatorship to drag humanity, literally, into the light.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE), one of Plato’s students, thought ideas have no existence separate from the physical world. One of his works was The Ethics, in which he identified two virtues: Intellectual Virtue, attained through human reason, and usually only achieved by philosophers, and Moral Virtue, attainable by anyone based on elements like character, justice, and courage. A second work was “The Politics,” Aristotle’s answer to Plato’s utopian “The Republic.” Aristotle is more realistic. According to “The Politics,” the state is necessary for ‘the good life’ because its laws and education provide an understanding of moral virtue for all citizens, allowing them to live their lives in peace and prosperity. In Aristotle’s view, the state and the individual do not oppose but rather complement each other.

Another area of intellectual pursuit was in the field of history, starting with Herodotus, considered the founder of historical thinking in the Greek world. His goal was to explain his own society by understanding the past, and looking at ways the past provided the foundations for the present. Herodotus refused to accept a story until he could verify it through other sources, or see the truth of it for himself. Thus he tried to base his work on evidence and inquiry, much as modern-day historians do. Scholars today recognize the significance of his writings and have learned much from it, for example, his written accounts of mummification methods utilized in Ancient Egypt. However, modern historians also acknowledge that Herodotus’s methods were limited by an inability to separate truth from legend and much of what he wrote was not accurate. Today, historians analyze his work in conjunction with other primary sources, using a variety of methods to validate his records. For example, although Herodotus provided our only written primary source about methods used by Ancient Egyptians to mummify their dead, scholars from the early 20th century onward have validated his writings through other disciplines such as textile analysis and paleopathology.

Tragedy and Comedy

Because it drained Athens of manpower and financial resources, the Peloponnesian War proved to be an utter disaster for Athens. Nevertheless, the war period was also the pinnacle of Athenian culture, most notably its achievements in tragedy, comedy, as well as philosophy. Tragedy and comedy in Athens were popular entertainment, intended to appeal to all citizens. Thus issues considered in these plays were often ones of paramount concern for the city at the time when the plays were written. As one character in a comedy bitterly joked in an address to the audience, more Athenians attended tragic and comic performances than came to vote at assembly meetings. Not surprisingly, war was a common topic of discussion in the plays. Furthermore, war was not portrayed positively, as the playwrights repeatedly emphasized the costs of war for both winners and losers.

Sophocles, one of the two most prominent Athenian tragedians during the Peloponnesian War era, had served his city as a general, albeit at an earlier period; thus, he had direct experience with war. Many of his tragedies dealt with the darker side of fighting, for soldiers and generals, and the cities that were affected. Sophocles’ plays repeatedly showed the emotional and psychological challenges of war for soldiers and civilians alike; they also emphasized the futility of war, as the heroes of his plays, just as in the original myths on which they were based, died tragic, untimely deaths. Sophocles’ younger contemporary, Euripides, had a similar interest in depicting the horrors of war and wrote a number of tragedies on the impact of war on the defeated, such as in The Trojan Women and Hecuba; both of these plays explored the aftermath of the Trojan War from the perspective of the defeated Trojans.

While the tragic playwrights explored the impact of the war on both the fighters and the civilians by narrating mythical events, the comic playwright Aristophanes was far less subtle. The anti-war civilian who saves the day and ends the war was a common hero in the Aristophanic comedies. For instance, in The Acharnians (425 BCE), the main character is a war-weary farmer who, frustrated with the inefficiency of the Athenian leadership in ending the war, brokers his own personal peace with Sparta. Similarly, in Peace (421 BCE), another anti-war farmer fattens up a dung beetle in order to fly to Olympus and beg Zeus to free Peace. Finally, in Lysistrata (411 BCE), the wives of all Greek city-states, missing their husbands who are at war, band together in a plot to end the war by going on a sex strike until their husbands make peace. By the end of the play, their wish comes true. Undeniably funny, the jokes in these comedies, nevertheless, have a bitter edge, akin to the portrayal of war in the tragedies. The overall impression from the war-era drama is that the playwrights, as well as perhaps the Athenians themselves, spent much of the Peloponnesian War dreaming of peace.

THE EXPANSION OF THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE (323-146 BCE)

Macedonia & the Conquest of Greece

During the years following the Peloponnesian War, the Greek poleis were vulnerable. Decades of conflict weakened the economies and political vitality of the poleis and also resulted in population decline. During this time, under the leadership of Philip II, Macedonia, the neighboring kingdom to the North, underwent significant changes that enabled it to aggressively challenge these poleis. Up until that point in Greek history, the Macedonians had largely been known for two things: drinking their wine undiluted, which had marked them as complete and utter barbarians in the eyes of the rest of the Greeks, and being excellent horsemen. With Philip at the helm, this estimation was about to change. After taking the throne in 359 BCE, Philip II adopted and transformed Greek (specifically Theban) military methods and used them to decisively conquer the poleis. As soon as he came to the throne, Philip began transforming the Macedonian military into a more successful image of what he had seen at Thebes. Philip further lengthened the already longer spears used by the Thebans, creating the Macedonian sarissa, a spear of about eighteen feet in length, double that of the traditional Greek hoplite spear.

The Macedonians and Greeks were well-known to one another and cultural interchanges had resulted in a blending of language, religion, and culture in Macedonia. There is evidence that Macedonians participated in Olympic games and Alexander (Philip II’s son) was tutored by Aristotle. Philip retained the Theban wedge formation but also added heavy cavalry to the line, thus incorporating the Macedonians’ strongest element into the phalanx. The results spoke for themselves, as over the next twenty years, Philip systematically conquered all of mainland Greece, with the exception of Sparta, which he chose to leave alone. Philip’s final great victory, which he shared with his teenage son Alexander, was at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE), in which the Macedonian armies defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes. For the first time the entire territory came under the rule of one individual, Philip, who achieved this through conquest and, in the case of Sparta, compliance. By all accounts, it appears that Philip was not going to stop at just conquering the Greek world. However, in 336 BCE while on his way to a theatrical performance, Philip was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. His son Alexander, then twenty years old, succeeded and continued his father’s ambitious program of conquests. Alexander’s first target was the Persian Empire, motivated in part by his love of Homer’s Iliad, and the perception among the Greeks that this new campaign was the continuation of the war against Asia. Moving farther and farther East in his campaigns, Alexander conquered the Balkans, Egypt, and the territories of modern-day Lebanon, Syria, and Israel before he achieved a decisive victory over Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE.

Continuing to move eastwards, Alexander invaded India in 327 BCE, planning to conquer the known world and assuming that he was close to this achievement, since the Greeks of his day were not aware of China’s existence. His war-weary troops, however, rebelled in 326 BCE and demanded to return home. It appears that this mutiny was not the first that occurred in Alexander’s army; indeed, over the course of his rule, Alexander had also been the target of a number of failed assassinations. However, this mutiny forced Alexander to give in. Leaving several of his officers behind as satraps, Alexander turned back. In 323 BCE, he and his army reached Babylon, the city that he had hoped to make the new capital of his world empire. There, Alexander fell ill and died at the ripe old age of thirty-three.

While Alexander’s rule only lasted thirteen years, his legacy reshaped Greece and the rest of ancient Eurasia for the next several centuries. A charismatic leader, albeit one prone to emotional outbursts, Alexander redefined what it meant to be king and general. His coinage reflects this reinvention. On one coin minted during his lifetime, for instance, appears Alexander dressed as the hero Heracles, while Zeus, whom Alexander alleged to be his real father, appears on the other side.

Alexander used a number of methods, many adopted from the Persians, to rule his empire. He sponsored the building of vast road networks as well as ports to link territories together and to ease communication and trade. Alexander founded dozens of cities in conquered territories and encouraged Greek and Macedonian soldiers to settle there permanently. A number of these cities he named Alexandria after himself.  Alexander used marriage for political purposes, as a means of integrating conquered populations, marrying several non-Greek princesses and encouraging such marriages by his troops.

In addition, by conquering territories that were previously not part of the Greek world, Alexander spread Greek culture farther than had anyone else before him, ushering in what historians refer to as a Hellenistic Period. In conquered areas, Greek language and culture often coexisted with local languages and practices long after Alexander’s death. Thus, it is important to note that although Hellenism refers specifically to Greek culture and identity, the Hellenistic Period was marked by two-way cultural exchanges. These exchanges were further facilitated by the creation of lasting trade routes that linked the Mediterranean with Asia and Africa. For example, Ptolemaic Egypt was a Hellenistic empire ruled by Ptolemy 1 and his descendants. Under their rule both the Greek and Egyptian languages were used. Egyptian religious practices continued to flourish, with cults dedicated to the Egyptian gods Isis, Horus, and Osiris enjoying increasing popularity. Artwork reflected the blending of Egyptian and Greek culture and practices. Scholars note that depictions of the royalty and elite from the 2nd century BCE onward included both Greek and Egyptian attributes.

The Dissolution of Alexander’s Empire

Although Alexander had several children from his different wives, he did not leave an heir old enough to take power upon his death. Indeed, his only son, Alexander IV, was only born several months after his father’s death. Instead, Alexander’s most talented generals turned against each other in a contest for the control of the empire that they had helped create.

These Wars of the Diadochi, as they are known in modern scholarship, ended with a partition of Alexander’s empire into a number of Hellenistic kingdoms, each ruled by different dynasties. Of these, the four most influential dynasties which retained power for the remainder of the Hellenistic Age, were the following: Seleucus, who took control of Syria and the surrounding areas, created the Seleucid Empire; Antigonus Monophthalmos, the One-Eyed, who took over the territory of Asia Minor and northern Syria, established the Antigonid Dynasty; the Attalid Dynasty took power over the Kingdom of Pergamon, after the death of its initial ruler, Lysimachus, a general of Alexander; and Ptolemy, Alexander’s most influential general, took control over Egypt, establishing the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Hellenistic Legacies of Alexander’s Empire

Lasting from the death of Alexander in 323 BCE to the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE, the Ptolemaic kingdom proved to be the longest lasting and most successful of the kingdoms carved from Alexander’s initial empire. Its founder, Ptolemy I Soter, was a talented general, as well as an astronomer, philosopher, and historian, who wrote his own histories of Alexander’s campaigns. Aiming to make Alexandria the new Athens of the Mediterranean, Ptolemy spared no expense in building the Mouseion, also known as the Museum of Alexandria. This was an institution of learning and research that included, most famously, the Great Library. He worked tirelessly to attract scholars and cultured elite to his city. Subsequent Ptolemies continued these works so that Alexandria held its reputation as a cultural capital into Late Antiquity. One example of a particularly impressive scientific discovery is the work of Eratosthenes, the head librarian at the Great Library in the second half of the 3rd century BCE. Eratosthenes accurately calculated the earth’s circumference.

But while the Ptolemies brought with them Greek language and culture to Egypt, they were also profoundly influenced by Egyptian customs. Portraying themselves as the new Pharaohs, the Ptolemies even adopted the Egyptian royal custom of brother-sister marriages, a practice that eventually percolated down to the general populace as well. Unfortunately, brother-sister marriages did not prevent strife for power within the royal family. The last of the Ptolemaic rulers, Cleopatra VII, first married and ruled jointly with her brother Ptolemy XIII. After defeating him in a civil war, she then married another brother, Ptolemy XIV, remaining his wife until his death, possibly from sisterly poisoning. Best known for her affairs with Julius Caesar and, after Caesar’s death, with Marcus Antonius, Cleopatra teamed with Marcus Antonius in a bid for the Roman Empire. The last surviving ruler who was descended from one of Alexander’s generals, she was finally defeated by Octavian, the future Roman emperor Augustus, in 30 BCE.

Hellenistic Culture

The Hellenistic kingdoms spread Greek language, culture, and art all over the areas of Alexander’s former conquests. Furthermore, many Hellenistic kings, especially the Ptolemies, were patrons of art and ideas. Thus the Hellenistic era saw the flourishing of art and architecture, philosophy, medical and scientific writing, and even translations of texts of other civilizations into Greek. The undisputed center for these advances was Alexandria.

Combining the practical with the ambitious, the Pharos, or Lighthouse, of Alexandria was one of the most famous examples of Hellenistic architecture and has remained a symbol of the city to the present day. Constructed in 280 BCE, it was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and was one of the tallest buildings in the world at the time. While its practical purpose was to guide ships into the harbor at night, it also exemplified the bold advances and experimental spirit of Hellenistic architecture. Indeed, it was located on a man-made mole off the coast of the city. The building comprised three layers, the top one housed the furnace that produced the light. The structure of the Pharos shows an interest in straight lines and orderly shapes, while its function symbolized the ability of man to subdue the sea, even by night.

Similarly, both the scientific and medical texts from the Hellenistic Period reveal a fascination with an ordered universe and an interest in discovering how it worked. Herophilus of Chalcedon, for instance, pioneered dissection in the early 3rd century BCE and was especially interested in the human brain and the nervous system. The mathematician Euclid, who lived and worked in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323 – 283 BCE), wrote The Elements, an encyclopedic work of mathematics that effectively created the discipline of geometry. Going a step further than Euclid in his research, the 3rd century BCE scientist and inventor Archimedes of Syracuse specialized in applying mathematical concepts to create such devices as a screw pump and a variety of war machines, including the heat ray.

The same fascination with studying the order of the universe appears in Hellenistic philosophy and stems ultimately from the philosophy of Aristotle (384–322 BCE), considered to be the last Classical Greek philosopher. Aristotle was a prolific polymath, who wrote on political theory, poetry, music, and a variety of sciences, to list just some of his interests. Engrossed in seeing all disciplines as part of a larger world order, Aristotle specifically argued for empiricism, that is, the belief that knowledge is acquired from sensory experiences rather than from intuition. In the sciences, for instance, this approach required experiments and the careful gathering of data.

While Aristotle’s influence on the Hellenistic philosophers is undeniable, the alternate theories that some of the philosophers developed regarding the structure of the universe and the place of humanity in it differed drastically from Aristotle’s view. For instance, Skepticism, especially as formulated by Pyrrho in the 3rd century BCE, argued that it was impossible to reach any accurate conclusions about the world and the key to happiness was to stop trying. Cynic philosophers, starting in the 4th century BCE, advocated the ascetic life of simplicity and freedom from possessions. A related philosophy, Stoicism, argued for letting go of all emotions and developing a self-control that would allow one to live in accordance with nature. On the other hand, the 3rd century philosophy of Epicureanism argued for the absence of pain as the ultimate goal in life and saw the universe as ruled by random chance, separate from the intervention of the gods. All of these philosophies, and many others that coexisted with them, aimed to provide a coherent system that made sense of the world and provided a purpose for human life.

Finally, in a testament to the deep influence of the Hellenistic language culture on the conquered regions, the Hellenistic Period saw the translation of texts of other civilizations into Greek. One particularly influential example was the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. Jews formed a significant minority of the population of Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt as well as other major cities around the Mediterranean, such as Antioch. By the 3rd century BCE, these Jews appear to have largely lost the knowledge of Hebrew; thus, a translation of the sacred texts into Greek was necessary. In addition, as later legend has it, Ptolemy II Philadelphus allegedly commissioned seventy-two scholars to translate the Old Testament into Greek for his Royal Library. Whether indeed solicited by Ptolemy II or not, the translation was likely completed over the course of the 3rd through 1st centuries BCE. Named after the legendary seventy-two (or, in some versions, seventy) translators, the text was titled the Septuagint. The completion of this translation showed the thorough Hellenization of the Jews, who had largely kept themselves apart from mainstream culture of the cities in which they lived.

CONCLUSION

“Captive Greece has conquered her rude conqueror,” the Roman poet Horace famously wrote in the late 1st century BCE. This comment about the deep influence of Greek culture on the Roman world, even after the Roman conquest of Greece was complete, continued to be the case well after the days of Horace. Ultimately, the impact of the Hellenization of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, which started with Alexander’s conquests, lasted far beyond the Hellenistic kingdoms, as the Greek language continued to be the language of the Eastern Roman Empire and, subsequently, the Byzantine Empire up until the conquest of that territory by the Ottomans in 1453 CE. In some respects, this spread of the Greeks and their civilization ultimately changed what it meant to be Greek – or, rather, it created a more universal Greek identity, which largely replaced the polis-specific view of citizenship and identity that existed before Philip’s conquest of Greece. And yet, certain cultural constants persisted.

The first of these was Homer, whose epics continued to be as great an inspiration to the Greeks of the Roman world as they were to their Archaic Age counterparts. For instance, the Homeric values were likely the reason for the minimal advances in military technology in the Greek world, as honor was more important than military success at all cost. The second cultural constant was the work of the philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, in whose shadows all subsequent philosophers of the Greco-Roman world labored. Even as the Greek-speaking portions of the Roman Empire turned to Christianity, they could not abandon their philosophical roots, resulting, for instance, in the Gnostic heresies. Horace’s cheeky comment thus proved to be true far longer than he could have expected.

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LINKS TO PRIMARY SOURCES

Ancient History Sourcebook at Fordham University (collection of materials from all periods of Greek history)
http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/asbook07.asp
Archimedes’ Inventions
http://archimedesjack.weebly.com/discoveries-and inventions.html
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http://www.thenagain.info/Classes/Sources/Aristophanes-Clouds.htm
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http://drama.eserver.org/plays/classical/aristophanes/lysistrata.txt
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http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/aristotle-spartanwomen.asp
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http://web.archive.org/web/20040607030018/www.stoa.org/athens/
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http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/630cyrene.asp
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http://www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/courses/riceanc.html
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