Chapter 4 The Civilization of the Greeks

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Chapter 4The Civilization of the Greeks
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Classical Greece 1. The Greek peninsula is
predominantly a land of mountains ranging from
8000 to 10,000 feet that cover two-thirds of the
region. Though there are no lofty peaks, the
rugged ridges, cliffs, and gorges form natural
barriers to intercourse. On the Peloponnesus,
which would ultimately be dominated by Sparta,
the mountain ranges shut off the east from the
west and the northern coast from the southern.
The rugged landscape means that plains are few,
amounting to less than twenty percent of the
land. Most of the plains are found in the river
valleys where streams in the winter are usually
raging, unnavigable torrents which remove
valuable arable land that silts up the mouth
making river harbors impossible. In the summer,
the rivers usually dry up, transforming the beds
into highways for travelers and commerce. The
consequence of these geographic factors for the
Greeks was a feeling of isolation. This, in
turn, contributed to a sense of liberty and
independence in the Greek communities.
Rivalries, however, led to wars. 2. The
compensation for the lack of navigable rivers is
a coastline of deep gulfs and natural harbors.
Maritime activity was natural since every point
in the country has proximity to the sea (in most
instances less than fifty miles). The numerous
islands of the Aegean Sea permitted sailing to
Asia Minor while always staying within sight of
land. This enhanced the attraction of the Greeks
to the sea. Thus, the Minoans of Crete and the
mainland Mycenaeans could navigate the Aegean
carrying with them both trade and culture. 3.
The bare, rocky land of Greece lent itself to
scrub trees and scant vegetation. Mostly stony
and arid, the soil required intense labor and was
better suited for crops of barley and millet than
wheat. Imported grain, therefore, was a
necessity. This condition did much to shape
politics, particularly in Athens. The lack of
sufficient food resources also contributed to the
establishment of colonies. 4. In contrast to the
Spartan territories of Messenia and Laconia that
contained some of the best lands in Greece, the
lands of Attica were poor and thin.
Nevertheless, Athens was protected from invaders
by a semicircle of mountains around Attica
through which there were only three passes. The
city, with its 300,000 people, sat on a broad,
flat plain measuring nine by thirteen miles and
was peppered with small farms. The high-quality
clay found here served to create a pottery
industry, providing Athens with one of its
primary exports. In southern Attica were found
deposits of lead, copper, and silver. 5. The
zenith of the Minoan civilization on Crete was
between 2000 and 1450 B.C.E. and featured an
elaborate palace complex at Knossus that centered
on a courtyard surrounded by private living
rooms for the royal family as well as workshops
and storerooms. About 1450 B.C.E. the Minoan
civilization collapsed, perhaps due to a volcanic
eruption on the island of Thera or an invasion of
the Mycenaeans. The war-like Mycenaean society
consisted of complexes at Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes,
and Orchomenos. It was the Mycenaean king
Agamemnon who attacked Troy about 1250 B.C.E.
Questions 1. What impact did geography have on
developing Greek values? 2. What effect did
geography have upon the development of Athens? 3.
How does geography contribute to the structure of
Sparta?
Classical Greece
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• Early Greece
• Minoan Crete, 2000-1450 B.C.E.
• Knossus
• Mycenaean Greeks, 1600-1200 B.C.E.
• Agememnon
• Dorians
• The Greek Dark Age (c. 1100-c. 750 B.C.E.)
• Collapse of agricultural production
• Migration east across the Aegean Sea
• Ionian Greeks
• Aeolian Greeks
• Homer
• Iliad
• Odyssey

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• The Greek City-States (c. 750-c. 500 B.C.E.)
• The Polis
• Acropolis and Agora
• Citizenship
• Colonization
• Rise of typrants
• Sparta
• helots
• Lycurgus
• Athens
• Solon (c. 640-c. 560 B.C.E.)
• Pisistratus
• Cleisthenes

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The World According to Erathosthenes 1.
Eratosthenes (c. 276-c. 194 B.C.E.), born in
Cyrene, a Greek town in northern Africa, was a
Greek mathematician and geographer who drew a map
of the then known world, relying on accounts by
mariners, travelers, and his own observations.
As the head librarian of the great library at
Alexandria established by the Ptolemies,
Eratosthenes had access to a wide range of
sources. 2. In Geographica, Eratosthenes
brought together reports of travelers including
voyagers around Britain and to Norway and perhaps
the Arctic Circle. He also sought to depict
physical features of the lands and the character
of the people. Eratosthenes thought many Greeks
were scoundrels, Persians and Hindus as refined,
and Romans as proficient at social order and
competent government. Nevertheless, he knew
little of northern Europe, India south of the
Ganges River, and nothing of south Africa. He is
the first geographer, however, to mention China.
Significantly, Eratosthenes declared that only
the Atlantic Ocean separated Iberia (Spain) and
India. 3. Assuming that the Earth is round and
that the suns rays are parallel, Eratosthenes
calculated that the circumference was about
24,662 miles (the correct figure is 24,847
miles). Question 1. What does the map of
Eratosthenes tell about the knowledge of the
world in the third century B.C.E.
The World According to Erathosthenes
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• Classical Greece
• Persian War
• Darius (522-486 B.C.E.)
• Battle of Marathon, 490 B.C.E.
• Xerxes (486-465 B.C.E.)
• Invasion of Greece, 480-479 B.C.E.
• Battle of Thermopylae, 480 B.C.E.
• Battle of Salamis, 480 B.C.E.
• Battle of Plataea, 479 B.C.E.
• Delian League
• Pericles
• Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.E.
• Battle of Aegospotami, 405 B.C.E.

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• Culture of Classical Greece
• History
• Herodotus (c. 484-c. 425 B.C.E.)
• Thucydides (c. 460-c. 400 B.C.E)
• Drama
• Tragedy
• Nature of good and evil
• Conflict between values and state and family
• Rights of the individual
• Nature of divine forces
• Nature of human beings
• Comedy
• Aristophanes (c. 450-c. 385 B.C.E.)

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• The Arts
• Architecture
• Sculpture
• Philosophy
• Sophists
• Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.)
• Plato (c. 429-347 B.C.E.)
• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.)
• Religion
• Daily life
• slavery
• women
• homosexuality

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Alexanders Empire and the Successor Kingdoms 1.
Alexander's army of 37,000 and cavalry of 5,000
had little trouble with the Persians at the
battles of Granicus River in 334 B.C.E. and Issus
in 333 B.C.E. Before pursuing Darius III
(336-330 B.C.), Alexander had to gain the Syrian
coast and Egypt in order to cut off the Persian
navy from its ports and secure his rear from
disloyal elements in Greece. The most strategic
point was the port of Tyre. Although it was well
fortified, the city fell after a siege of seven
months. Tyre was then re-colonized and became
the center of Alexander's control of the Syrian
coast. 2. Alexander's dream of Hellenization
found realization in the creation of Alexandria
in Egypt as the center of Greek commerce and
culture. The city was built on a narrow spit of
land between a lake and the sea. The lake harbor
connected with the Nile while the Mediterranean
port was protected from the sea by an island.
The city was thus a link between the valley of
the Nile and the Mediterranean. Moreover, a
canal previously built by the Egyptians
connecting the Nile and the Red Sea provided
access to the trade of Arabia and the Far East.
As a crossroad, the population of Alexandria
blossomed and by the first century B.C.E. the
city had half a million inhabitants. 4.
According to legend, at Siwah the oracle of
Zeus-Amon addressed Alexander as "son of Amon",
thereby suggesting his divine status. 5. Darius
chose to meet Alexander at a wide plain on the
left bank of the Tigris River. Coming from Tyre,
Alexanders army met that of Darius at Gaugamela
in 331 B.C.E. The army of Darius was defeated
and the Persian king fled the field. Alexander
proclaimed himself the king of Asia. At
Persepolis, the third great capital of the
Persian Empire (Babylon and Susa the other two),
Alexander passed the winter of 331-330 B.C.E.
According to Plutarch, the booty taken here
loaded 10,000 mules and 5,000 camels. The city
was burned in revenge for the aggression of
Xerxes against Greece in the sixth century
B.C.E. 6. Entering India in 326 B.C.E.,
Alexander met a formidable army at the Hydaspes
River. Emerging victorious, he founded the new
city of Bucephala named in honor of his beloved
horse that had died. The circuit of the Persian
Empire, however, was now completed as Alexander's
troops rebelled at going on any further. They
had been away eight and a half long years and had
traveled 11,000 miles. Reluctantly, Alexander
acceded and the force struck out from the Indus
to the mouth of the Persian Gulf across the bleak
coast of the Gedrosian Desert. The journey cost
nearly half his force of 30,000 men. Alexander
then proceeded to Persepolis and then to Babylon
where he died of a fever in 323 B.C.E. at the age
of thirty-two. The following decades,
Alexanders generals divided his lands among
themselves. Three Hellenistic kingdoms emerged
Egypt, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, ruled by Ptolemy
and his successors Asia, comprising most of the
remaining provinces of the Persian Empire, became
the Seleucid Kingdom founded by Seleucus and
Macedonia and Greece, the Antigonid Kingdom,
ruled by the descendants of Antigonus. 9.
Estimates are that Alexander summoned 60,000 to
65,000 additional mercenaries from Greece during
his conquests. At least 36,000 became residents
of the garrisons and new cities, thereby serving
as agents for the diffusion of Greek
culture. 10. Unlike the other Hellenistic kings,
the Ptolemies in Egypt were not city builders and
made little effort to spread Greek culture. In
the second century B.C.E. the Greeks and
Egyptians began to intermarry with each adopting
the language and customs of the other thereby
creating a Greco-Egyptian culture. The far
ranging Seleucid Kingdom, on the other hand,
established many cities and military colonies.
Although the Seleucids had no apparent plan for
Hellenizing the population, the arrival of so
many Greeks must have had an impact. Especially
important in the Hellenizing process were the
military colonies located near native
villages. Questions 1. How did Greek ideas
penetrate the East? 2. How did cities act as a
catalyst for the Hellenistic Age?
Alexanders Empire and the Successor Kingdoms
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• Rise of Macedonia
• Philip II (359-336 B.C.E.)
• Demosthenes
• Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.E.)
• Attacks the Persian Empire
• Battle of Granicus River, 334 B.C.E.
• Battle of Issus, 333 B.C.E.
• Battle of Gaugamela, 331 B.C.E.
• Persepolis, 330 B.C.E.
• Alexander in India, 327 B.C.E.
• Death of Alexander, 323 B.C.E.

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The World of the Hellenistic Monarchs 1. Unlike
the other Hellenistic kings, the Ptolemies in
Egypt were not city builders and made little
effort to spread Greek culture. In the second
century B.C. the Greeks and Egyptians began to
intermarry with each adopting the language and
customs of the other thereby creating a
Greco-Egyptian culture. 2. In order to attract
Greeks, the far ranging Selucid Empire
established many cities and military colonies in
Mesopotamia. Although the Selucids had no
apparent plan for Hellenizing the population, the
arrival of so many Greeks must have had an
impact. Especially important in the Hellenizing
process had to be the military colonies located
near native villages. 3. The great wealth
Alexander found in the Persian capitals was used
to finance the creation of new cities, building
roads, and modernizing harbors. 4. Contact with
India by sea was established by the Ptolemies who
learned to utilize the monsoon winds. This route
further stimulated the exchange of ideas and
goods. The commerce came by sea into the Persian
Gulf, up the Tigris to Seleucia. From Seleucia,
the trade would move by caravan to Antioch and
Ephesus on the west coast of Asia Minor. By
land, the trip from the Indus to Seleucia took
forty days and from Seleucia to the Mediterranean
another fifteen. The longer alternate southern
route wound its way by sea along the coast from
India, around Arabia, and up the Red Sea. Goods
would be transferred by caravan to the Nile and
floated down to Alexandria and the
Mediterranean. 5. The Hellenistic Age marked a
shift in the center of eastern Mediterranean
trade from Athens to Corinth and the new cities
of Egypt and Asia. The Black Sea's commercial
importance was reduced due to the Gallic and
Scythian invasions. 6. The despotism of
Hellenistic kingdoms was countered by a
city-state federalism established by the Aetolian
League (stretching across central Greece and
parts of the Peloponnesus) and the Aechean League
(including much of the Peloponnesus). These
confederations were national unions in the modern
sense. Questions 1. After the breakup of
Alexander's empire, how did the new kingdoms
approach their political organization? How was
it different from the polis? 2. How did trade
contribute to the development of the Hellenistic
Age?
The World of the Hellenistic Monarchs
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• The Hellenistic Kingdoms
• New dynasties created
• Hellenizing an urban phenomenon
• Economic and social trends
• Literature and Art
• Library of Alexandria
• Menander (c. 342-291 B.C.E.)
• Polybius (c. 203-c 120 B.C.E.)
• Science
• Archimedes (287-212 B.C.E.)
• Philosophy
• Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E.)
• Zeno (335-263 B.C.E.)
• Religion