attached
Last week, we discussed the
Hebrews and their relationship
with The Club of Great Powers.
This week we’re going to discuss
another civilization that
belonged to The
Club of Great Powers
and developed
around the same time
as the Assyrians,
Chaldeans, and Persians,
but in a different part
of the Mediterranean.
We’re going to
look at the Greeks.
For the Greeks, we’re going
to start way back in 2500 BCE,
and go all the
way up to 338 BCE.
Remember that BCE
years move backwards
and get smaller as we
go forward in time.
And to make this
even more complex,
the Greeks during this
period of over 2,000 years,
actually represent a few
different civilizations
that came and went.
I’ve broken my discussion of
the Greeks into two lectures,
and these lectures contain a
total of 10 quiz questions.
So with that in mind,
let’s get started.
Greece is located in
the Mediterranean.
If you want to look at
my cursor right here,
we’re going to be looking
at this region this week.
And this location
encouraged the Greeks
to interact with
other civilizations
in the Mediterranean
through trade, culture,
and of course war.
As I mentioned a
few minutes ago,
when we talk about
the people of Greece,
we’re actually
talking about a number
of different civilizations that
lived in this area beginning
in 2500 BCE.
The earliest
civilization in Greece
emerged on the large
island of Crete,
which is southeast of
the Greek mainland.
Again, if you want to
look at my cursor here,
we’re looking specifically
at this island right here.
By 2500 BCE, a group of
people were living in Crete
and using bronze
to make weapons.
This group of people,
who we call the Minoans,
reached the height of their
existence between about
1900 and 1500 BCE.
During that time, the
Minoans developed what’s
known as a palace system.
In this system, a
small group of people
held most of the money
and power in society.
They built huge
palaces that stood
at the center of their
cities and towns.
Now, the palace system
wasn’t unique to the Minoans.
It was actually a
pretty common feature
for all members of The
Club of Great Powers.
The Assyrians and
Chaldeans, for example,
also had a palace system.
But in Minoan society,
the wealthy elite
lived in these palaces, while
the rest of the regular Minoans
lived in houses
built around them.
The most famous of
these palaces was
located in the city of Knossos.
Now, on the right
side of the screen
is an image of what historians
believe the Palace of Knossos
looked like.
And the Palace of Knossos
spread out over three acres.
This is a really big complex.
It included hundreds
of rooms situated
around a central
courtyard, and these rooms
included living areas for
political and religious
leaders, government offices, and
shrines for religious rituals.
The palace even included
bathrooms with plumbing.
And the palace’s intricate
web of winding hallways
may have inspired the
story of the labyrinth.
If you’re at all familiar
with Greek mythology,
you may have heard
this story before.
The legend concerns
a monster called
a Minotaur that had
the body of a man
and the head of a
bull, that lived
during the reign of King Minos,
for whom the Minoans were
named.
This monster was
supposedly the offspring
between a snow-white bull
sent by the god Poseidon
to King Minos for sacrifice.
Now, instead of sacrificing
like he was supposed to,
King Minos kept it for himself.
And as punishment, Poseidon made
King Minos’s wife fall in love
with the bull, which led
to a monstrous offspring,
the Minotaur.
The name “Minotaur” actually
translates to “Minos’s Bull.”
When King Minos
saw the Minotaur,
he shut him into
a labyrinth, which
is a sort of maze with lots
of confusing passageways
and blind alleys.
Later, King Minos’s
son was killed
by an early group of Athenians
on the mainland of Greece.
And King Minos sought to
avenge his son’s death
by demanding seven
Athenian youths and seven
Athenian maidens be
sent every year to be
devoured by the Minotaur.
After the third
year of sacrifice,
the Athenian hero Theseus
volunteered to go.
When Theseus arrived, King
Minos’s daughter, Ariadne,
gave him a ball
of string which he
could unravel to
retrace his steps
and make it out of the labyrinth
after killing the Minotaur.
Now, after Theseus succeeded
in killing the Minotaur,
he made it out with the
other Athenian girls
and boys sent to be sacrificed,
and escaped with them
and Ariadne back home.
Although, I will add,
one version of this story
actually ends with Theseus
dropping Ariadne off
on the island of Naxos before he
continued back home to Athens.
What’s really interesting is
that the legend of the Minoan
Minotaur may reflect a
small nugget of truth.
The Minoans worshipped
a god in the form
of a bull and sometimes
even a bull-man.
And even more, the
Minoans were known
to engage in a very dangerous
sport known as bull-leaping,
similar to bullfighting,
but involving
an element of athletic dance.
But getting back to
the palace at Knossos.
Even if the sprawling
Palace of Knossos
inspired this frightening
tale of the Minotaur,
we know that, in reality,
the inside of this palace
was spectacular.
The rooms of this
palace were decorated
with frescoes, which is a type
of painting you put on walls.
And these frescoes were
done in bright colors
that depict sporting events
and scenes of nature.
And storerooms in the
palace held enormous jars
of oil, wine, and grain.
And we know that the Minoans
traded their stockpile of goods
with other civilizations.
In particular, the Minoans
were known for their textiles,
pottery, and metalwork.
Archaeologists have
found Minoan pottery
in Canaan and Egypt
and Western Turkey.
And in exchange, they have
found foreign luxuries in Crete,
like Egyptian amulets.
Artistic influences also
traveled along trade routes.
For example,
Minoan-style frescoes
appear regularly in
Egyptian architecture
from this time period.
Now, Minoan
civilization on Crete
collapsed around 1400 BCE.
And some historians believe
that a tsunami triggered
by a powerful volcanic eruption
was responsible for destroying
society in Crete.
It’s also possible that
some early communities
from the Greek mainland invaded
and destroyed the cities
and towns, including Knossos.
And perhaps it was both.
But following the Minoans,
Mycenaean civilization
was located on the
mainland of Greece.
This is going to be our
second civilization in Greece,
so we’re switching from
the Minoans in Crete
to the Mycenaeans on the
mainland of Greece now.
The Mycenaeans entered
this area around 1900 BCE
and remained until
about 1100 BCE.
Like the other empires
we’ve discussed,
Mycenaean civilization
was hierarchical,
in that it had a king at the
top who used the title of wanax.
And below the king, or
wanax, was the commanders
of the army, the priests,
and the government officials.
Below them were the
merchants, peasants, soldiers,
and artisans.
And finally, at the
bottom, were the slaves.
The Mycenaeans were
a warrior people
who prided themselves on
their heroic deeds in battle.
In fact, the Mycenaeans
may have contributed
to the downfall of the
Minoans and Crete before them.
We know that the Mycenaeans
were military-minded
because an ancient
Greek author named
Homer wrote about them in
his famous books, the Iliad
and the Odyssey.
In the Iliad, Homer
describes the Trojan War.
He claimed that
the war was started
by a prince of the city
of Troy named Paris.
Prince Paris had
kidnapped a woman
named Helen who was the
wife of the king of Sparta.
Now, the brother of
the king of Sparta
was a man named Agamemnon.
And he was the king of
the Mycenaeans, the wanax.
In Homer’s story, Agamemnon,
king of the Mycenaeans,
helped his brother,
the king of Sparta,
by leading his Mycenaean army
to attack Paris and Troy.
According to Homer,
the Mycenaean armies
were a primary reason
that the king of Sparta
won the Trojan War
and got his wife back.
But by 1200 BCE,
Mycenaean civilization
began to fall apart too.
And there were two
reasons for this.
First, earthquakes
caused widespread damage
to their buildings
and institutions.
And second, there’s
evidence that,
like the Minoan
civilization before them,
the Mycenaeans were attacked
by another group of people,
mysteriously called
the Sea Peoples.
Some historians believe that
the Sea Peoples were actually
the Philistines,
who finally withdrew
to Palestine after being
defeated by the Egyptians.
But regardless, by 1100 BCE,
the Mycenaean civilization
came to an end.
Between 1100 and 800 BCE,
the people living in Greece
endured a dark age.
During this time, the
population declined
and food production dropped.
Archaeology shows us that former
vibrant Mycenaean cities were
depopulated by as much as 90%.
In the absence of leadership,
the people of Greece who
had survived the
invasions that destroyed
Mycenaean civilization,
they began
to fight with each other
for land and power.
This created hardship
for the people of Greece,
but it did actually
produce some good.
As people fought
with each other,
they started using iron
weapons instead of bronze ones.
The minerals used
to produce iron
were more plentiful, making
weapons cheaper to make,
and iron is stronger
than bronze.
The result was that
the people of Greece
had more numerous
and more effective
weapons than ever before.
Using these weapons,
different groups of people
began to conquer the
lands around them
to form independent regions
that would eventually
become the Greek city-states.
A city-state is
exactly as it sounds.
It’s a region with
a central city that
serves as the political,
religious, and social center
of that region.
Now, you can see the
different Greek city-states
on the map on your screen here.
The city-states that
developed in ancient Greece
are very similar to what we
have today in the United States.
We have states with
capital cities.
And these capital cities are
where the major government
buildings are located and
where officials meet and make
decisions about the state.
But unlike our
states today, which
are part of a larger
unit, the United States,
the ancient Greek
city-states were
independent with their own
laws and leaders and forms
of government.
It was also during
the Greek Dark Age
that they adopted an alphabet
from a different group
of people, the Phoenicians,
and added vowels to it.
After the fall of
the Mycenaeans,
the Greeks essentially
lost their written language
and had to
reestablish a new one.
Having an alphabet
enabled the Greeks
to communicate with each
other, create law codes,
and write down their history,
their legends, and songs.
By 800 BCE, the Greeks
began to settle down,
and the Dark Age came to an end.
This initiated two new
eras, the archaic period,
which lasted from
800 BCE to 500 BCE,
and the classical period, which
lasted from 500 BCE to 338 BCE.
Relative peace between the
Greeks in the archaic era
allowed them to focus on
developing their city-states,
and as a result, the concept
of the polis emerged.
The term “polis” comes
from the words “politics”
and “political.”
And it had two meanings.
The polis referred to the
identity of the people living
in a particular city-state, like
the Athenians or the Spartans.
As we’ll talk more
about in a few minutes,
this group identity came
with political and social
responsibilities to the state.
In addition to an
identity, the term “polis”
also referred to a city center.
In the archaic age,
the Greek cities
evolved similarly, regardless
of which city-state
they were located in.
When a person
visited a city-state,
they would expect that these
cities would be organized
around the center, where
political, religious,
and social activities
took place.
In this center or polis,
you would normally
find the agora, which is where
markets and important meetings
were held.
It was also where most of the
city’s temples were located
and where government
buildings were established.
In the picture on
your screen here, you
can see what remains of the
polis of the city of Athens,
which was located on
a raised piece of land
called an acropolis.
If you can see my
cursor here, this
is the raised piece of
land called the acropolis,
with the rest of the
city sitting below it.
The residents of the city
of Athens, as I mentioned,
they’re going to live in that
area around the acropolis.
Again, in the United
States today, we
tend to have a very similar
layout for our own cities.
In the city of
Shreveport, for example,
if you want to go
to the courthouse,
you’re likely going
to go downtown, right?
This is where many of the
theaters and conference centers
are located.
And we can expect a
similar urban organization
if we travel to other
cities in the nation.
So a similar setup is being
used in these Greek cities
that we’re talking about.
So the Greek city-states
were focusing on themselves.
They had their own independent
identities, their own polis,
and as we’ll see, they often
fought with each other.
But they still shared a
common, general Greek identity.
And this is most clearly
shown in the Panhellenic
Games, also known
as the Olympics,
which began in 776 BCE.
The Panhellenic Games took
place every four years
to honor the king of the gods,
Zeus, near his giant temple
at Olympia.
Athletes who participated
in these games
were from all over
Greek civilization,
not just from one city-state.
In addition, all
wars between Greeks
ceased when the
games took place.
So sports represented one way
that people could come together
to express their
shared Greek identity.
In addition to the
development of the polis
and a common Greek identity,
the city-states of Greece
also enjoyed a couple
other common elements.
The ancient Greeks,
regardless of which
city-state they
belonged to, generally
divided their population
into two categories, citizens
and noncitizens.
Citizens were
considered superior,
and both men and women
could be citizens.
But only adult male citizens had
political rights, which often
included the right to vote.
But these political rights were
coupled with responsibilities.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle
argued that citizens did not
just belong to themselves.
He said we must
regard every citizen
as belonging to the state.
The idea of citizenship
created a Greek society
that was quite different from
the other empire societies
we’ve already examined.
Beginning in the
Greek Archaic Age,
political leaders were
often elected by citizens
to run the community rather
than simply inheriting power.
And male citizens were expected
to perform their civic duty
by serving and protecting
the city-state.
Ranked below citizens
were the noncitizens.
Noncitizens could
be resident aliens.
These were foreigners
who paid taxes and could
serve in the army but didn’t
have political rights.
Slaves represented another
category of noncitizens.
A good example of this
took place in Sparta.
When the Spartans
established their city-state,
they enslaved another
group of native people
called the helots, who
were forced to farm
the land for Spartan citizens.
The Greek city-states
also developed
similar military
organizations and techniques.
By 800 BCE, a new
military order came
into being that was
based on hoplites.
Hoplites were heavily
armed foot soldiers
who wore bronze or leather
helmets, breast plates,
and greaves, which were
essentially shin guards.
Each hoplite carried a round
shield, known as a hoplon,
which is why these soldiers
were called hoplites.
They also carried a short
sword and a spear that
measured about nine feet long.
Hoplites advanced into battle
as a unit, shoulder-to-shoulder,
forming what they
called a phalanx.
A phalanx was a
rectangular formation
in which the men
stood in tight order,
usually about eight ranks deep.
In this formation, each
hoplite carried his shield
on his left arm, usually to
protect the unshielded right
side of the man next to him.
In his right, hand
he carried his spear.
And the result was
that the phalanx
represented a nearly
impenetrable wall
of armor and weaponry.
If a man in the front row
fell, the one behind him
stepped up to take his place.
And each soldier
aided in the assault
by leaning with his shield
into the man in front of him.
As long as the hoplites
kept this order,
they suffered few
injuries and deaths
and were often successful
against their enemies.
Unlike the soldiers
of the empires
we’ve already discussed,
the Greek hoplites
were not professional soldiers.
Most did not make a career
out of being a soldier.
Instead, the Greek hoplites
were generally citizen-soldiers.
They were regular
citizens who came together
when necessary to
protect their city-state.
These citizens were expected
to purchase and maintain
their own weapons
and armor, and they
were expected to be trained
and organized enough
to come together to defend their
city-states when necessary.
As we’ll see, some city-states
place more emphasis
on this training and
organization than others.
