27a Mesopotamia and Merchants of the Mediterranean: 1700s-600 B.C.E.

(and beyond)
06/01-10/2022
Setting the Stage – the Transition
- In early history, exact dates don’t matter, just the context in history – periodization
- Indus almost over, other civilizations surrounding Mediterranean in a cosmopolitan environment
o Cosmopolitan - a lot of people & cultures interacting with each other
o Often called Cosmopolitan Middle East, Near Eastern Civilization or The Cosmopolitan Western Center
- 1250-1000 BCE – many important destabilizing events occurred
- 1750-700 BCE – institutions, techniques, ideas formed in Mesopotamia and Egypt diffuse outward – themes for next 1000
years include cultural diffusion, invasion, expansion

Cultural Diffusion
- Cultural diffusion facilitated by travelers: merchants, soldiers, diplomats, etc. – relocation diffusion
o When people are on the fringe of a successful civilization, they frequently want to emulate that
 Military strategies are often the first things to be adapted
o Invasion & conquest – often a less “civilized” but more warlike people conquer their (more successful) neighbor,
and adopts & spreads pieces of its culture

Overview
Era of Invasions ca. 1750-1600 BCE
- Semites – from S to N migrating
- Indo-Europeans, Aryans, move S& E to India, Central Europe, Italy, Greece, Iran
Establishment of New Kingdoms 1600-1200 BCE
- Kassite, Hittite, Minoan, Mycenean civilizations thrive & become interdependent on trade
Era of Small Nations 1200-800 BCE
- Marked by a fall of large kingdoms (lack of centralization of power) – several smaller nations emerge & play an important
role in the process of cultural diffusion
- Time of the Iron Age – harder to smelt compared to copper, higher melting point but stronger & can break through bronze
easily
- Includes the Phoenicians, Aramaeans, Hebrews
o Phoenician merchants adapt cuneiform and create simple 22 symbol “phonetic” written language (North Semitic
language)
o Phoenician alphabet becomes universal communication between traders speaking different languages ca. 1000
BCE
 Aramaic & Greek alphabets originated from the Phoenician alphabet
 Relatively easy to learn quickly
700s set scene for the rise of empires – which has a very large impact on cultural diffusion. Marks boundary between 1 st/2nd waves
Consider the difference between a civilization and empire – Egypt vs. Assyria
Chronology
- Old Babylon falls to Hittites & Kassites
Phoenicians 1200-ca. 600 BCE
Setting the Stage
- Precursor to Phoenicians migrated from Arabian Peninsula ca. 3000 BCE, settled in N Canaan
- Upheavals in W Asia & E Mediterranean ca. 1200 cause settlements to be destroyed & allow other people to move in
o A group of Canaanites settle on strip on the E Mediterranean – the Phoenicians
o String of cities become city-states
- Mass migrations – destabilizing effects
Trading
- Not much food surplus; became traders of almost everything else and got food from outside
o Trading pioneers – sailed seas & traded with everyone
Exports & Imports
- Harvested cedar – exported, lots of demand
- Known as “purple people” (Phoinikes) because the purple snail dye stained their skin – made in 1st millennium Tyre;
purple dye was very coveted & traded
- Other exports include wood, papyrus, glass; imports include precious metals & food
ca. 1000 BCE
- Shrewd businessmen – took charge of shipping & trade
- Sales & contracts written in the Phoenician alphabet – breaking them had dire consequences
- Concept of piracy existed – with dire consequences if you attacked a Phoenician ship
Phoenician Triangle
- Carthage (Tunisian N Coast), Gibraltar (Spain), islands off SE Italy & Greece
- Founded a lot of trading ports – spaced out at the distance of roughly a normal days’ travel
o Rest places, trade centers – soon became cities – controlled by Phoenicians

Carthage1
- Man-made “controlled” harbor - created a wall, to get into the city you need to get through a heavily guarded canal and
dock your ship – precursor of this was Ur (city walls)
- Ramparts
- Became the political & economic center
o Run by Pira – govt. system of council of wealthy traders – rotated participation

Arameans 1200-700s BCE

- Controlled overland trade
o Gained control of rich overland between Egypt & Mesopotamia, and also towards the East
o “Protected” caravans – a fee was paid for protection
o Acted as middlemen
o Exported copper and copper goods
- Settled in Central Syria – capital was Damascus
- Attacked Assyrians; were threats to Judah & Israel in 8th/9th centuries BCE
- Time of Saul & David (Hebrew) – time when David defeated one king for territory & access to copper
- Diffusion of culture – traders & middlemen had to learn Aramaic (had some roots in the Phoenician alphabet)
o Majority of people in Fertile Crescent spoke it until 700s BCE

Alexander the Great 336-323 BCE

- Alexander the Great conquered the major cities, ending many other civilizations/empires
- Conquered the world in a decade
- Died 323 BCE
- Memorize dates:
o The conquest of Alexander – 336-323 BCE
o Died 323 BCE

Lydia 1200s-685 BCE

Overview of Ionia
- Located in W Turkey – Ionia
- Mostly Greek city-states on W coast – cash crops include olives, grapes
- Started colonizing rest of Mediterranean to find arable land – they could produce grain but not a large surplus, so they
wanted to farm more as the population grew
- Lydians living in rest of Ionia at the time
o Hearth & capital of Lydians was Sardis
o Shared Miletus with the Greeks (substantial Greek population)
- The Greeks never expanded E beyond the coast – some minor battles between Greeks & Lydian kingdoms but established a
treaty and both groups were able to meet their caloric needs
Mermnad Dynasty
- Founded by Gyges
 - Time of transition
- Was a royal bodyguard
- Murdered old king, married king’s wife, usurped the throne
- Powerful, commercial dynasty – theme of commerce
o Merchants & artists
o Gold deposits, great mineral wealth
 Transition from bartering to coinage
 700 BCE gold & silver coinage (seal depicting king pressed) introduced widespread by end of century –
value was definite
 Lydia set the price with coins as the common exchange – developed a system for pricing
 Diffused throughout the Mediterranean within 100 years
o Rich agriculture
 Grains, fruits, herds, flocks
Loss of Power
- Invaded by Cyrus II of Persia (Achaemenid Dynasty) 546 BCE
- “Liberated” from Persia by Alexander 334 BCE
- Rome takes over after a couple 100 years
Assyria 900-612 BCE
Overview
- First empire (arguable)
- Peak power 745-600s
- Assyria got very large very quickly
- Geography played an important role in Assyria’s governance
o Fairly inhospitable, limited natural resources, exposed to foreign attack
o Became more warlike – to conquer more land & resources
 Developed sophisticated weapons – iron swords, battering rams, wheeled fortresses, improved chariots
Achievements
- Mighty military machine
- Ladders to scale city walls
- Iron tipped spears, swords, daggers
- Torture to demoralize enemy
- Tunneled under city walls to attack enemies
- Capital was Nineveh, home to library w/ 22K clay tablets2 – contained all the records/literature of ancient “Near East”
- Defeated by combined army of Medes & Chaldeans
- Brought total destruction in the face of resistance
- Took men away from families
- Held men on sticks (impalement), purposely poisoned whole cities going against them
- Established empire with centralized govt. & law system
o Broke down local traditions & encouraged cosmopolitanism
- Spread Aramaic as lingua franca
- Great cities & architectural monuments
o Ramparts built right up to the water
o Famous library in Nineveh
- Excelled in architecture and defense
- Ruled by terror – legitimacy – when the chance arose, the conquered peoples rose and utterly destroyed the Assyrian
civilization including Nineveh (and its library) – 612 BCE
o Usurped by Medes (small tribes from N), Chaldeans (older Mesopotamians) – shared a common enemy
o Rule by terror requires strong leader
o Usually if you didn’t quickly gain means of legitimacy other than terror, your reign would be short lived
o Memorize the date 612 BCE

Neo-Babylonia 626/612-539 BCE

- Established at fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 612 BCE
 - Gained power by helping conquer Assyrians
- Negotiated to take back much of S Mesopotamia & W
o Wanted to expand W
- Maintained power by grandeur, education, services to people
o “Safe” travel zones protected by armed people – free protection
o Nice things in cities
 Gates of Babylon
 Germans found little pieces and put it back together – now Iraq wants it back
 Very huge door
 Animals built into the bricks and not painted – each stone was made individually
- Short-lived power
o One of their greatest leaders was Nebuchadnezzar II (an Assyrian leader was Sargon II)
 Last of the great flourishing Near Eastern cultural traditions that had begun with 1 st river valley civs. in
Sumer
 Captured and destroyed Jerusalem and sent many to Babylon (Babylonian captivity)
 Connections to the larger Jewish diaspora (context), which facilitated trade & diffusion
 People weren’t imprisoned but segregated and not granted full citizenship
 Could live normally
 Meetings of these people had a synagogue-like concept
 Allowed a representative to go to the hearings with the king
o Couldn’t vote but could give opinion
o Chaldeans defeated by Persians – Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II)

Consider continuities & changes that occurred from the First Wave civilizations through the 2 nd wave civilizations
Persian Empire 550-330 BCE
- Definitely an empire
Beginnings
- W & N of Assyria
- Originally paid tribute to Assyria – didn’t become a part of it
- Assyria took many military expeditions against the Medes
- 700s Sargon II forced them N – Medes weren’t happy but didn’t want to get destroyed to Assyria
- Eventually the Medes formed an alliance with Assyria and helped conquer other tribes & prime opponents – 610s-630s
BCE – including Persia
- Big change in 612 BCE
o Allied with Chaldeans and destroyed Assyrian capital – Nineveh
o Conquest happened in a matter of months
- Aftermath
o Median King ruled over much of Iran & N Mesopotamia
o Attacked Lydia & established new boundaries
o Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon married Amytis of Media, and a balance of power was struck between Chaldeans &
Medes – cemented the relationship
o In the meantime
 King Achaemenes3 of Persia is growing in the vacuum left by the destruction of the Assyrians and begins
the great dynasty of the Achaemenids – Achaemenid Dynasty is very important dynasty
 Origins: Indo-European – settled in present-day Iran ca. 1100 BCE
 Adopted Mesopotamian culture and became peaceful farmers until overrun by the Medes in the 7 th century
BCE
 King Achaemenes started as king of a small Persian tribe… slowly gained strength & territory
 Son Cyrus I married a Median princess
 Son is Cyrus II “the Great”
 Wants to unite Persia – so he overthrows his Median grandfather (Astyages) in 555 BCE
 Gives Medes and Persians fairly equal power
 Empire gets really big by the time of Greco-Persian wars
Cyrus the Great: The Expansion of Persia
Lydia
- Lydia – and the Greek Ionian colonies wanted
- Tries to conquer the SW corner of Lydia – battle ends without victor – other parts of Lydia are conquered
- Lydians led by Croesus retreat to Sardis
- Cyrus waits for them to demobilize and prepare for winter
- Rush in and catches them, sieging Sardis – ends up winning (in an odd way)
o Lydian horses panicked with strange smell of the camels
o Lydians had to dismount and fight on foot
o 13-day siege – Cyrus victorious
o Ended up in access to the Aegean Sea and the Ionian cities & Greek colonies on the coast

Babylonia
- Into Babylonia – 539 BCE
- Conquers the Chaldeans
- Promises not to interfere with religious and commercial life – very charismatic, strong; great warrior & negotiator –
maintaining legitimacy
o Treated locals honorably – no massacres
o Set free Jewish captives & gave back the stolen ornaments of the Temple of Jerusalem and money to rebuild that
Temple
o Cyrus issued a decree (decree of Cyrus) that guaranteed social and religious freedoms of the Babylonians – first
ever declaration of human rights
o A copy of this decree is known as the Cyrus Cylinder (6th century BCE)
- Releases Jews who had been sent to Babylon and captive after conquering Babylonia, 539/8 BCE
- Earns him immortality in the Old Testament – “God’s shepherd”
- Also conquers Phoenicia and gains power with the fleet and trade
- Dies 530 BCE
- Tomb of Cyrus II at Pasargadae
o Is the monument of Cyrus 1km SW of palaces at Pasargadae, dating from 559-529 BCE (Greek
sources)
Achievements of Cyrus
- Promotion of trade
- Economic integration (roads and currencies)
- Cyrus II expanded the empire
- Persia:
o Standardized currency/coinage
o Predicable taxes
o Newly dug canal (linking Nile & Red Sea)
 Earlier, caravan travel was fraught with danger & time-consuming
 Was a military & trade advantage – you could stay in your ship the whole time
 Precursor to Suez Canal
o Royal Road (1700 miles – 1 week message from end to end through official courier service) used also by merchant
caravans
o Herodotus – “Neither snow, nor
rain, nor heat, nor darkness of night,
prevents them from accomplishing
the task proposed to them with
utmost speed” –became the motto
for USPS
- Increased size of empire by a lot (although
successors would do more)
o Established successful de-
centralized government in a system
of satraps & provinces (23 each)
 o Combined absolutism with toleration – allowing conquered peoples to retain their customs & culture so long as
they paid allegiance and takes to the central govt.
o Persia helped bring a synthesis of ancients with Near Eastern culture by uniting various peoples into an empire that
endured almost 200 years
Successors to Cyrus
- Cambyses II – eldest son – became King of Babylonia – failure
- When father died, inherited all of Persia
- Had his father’s military skill, but not personality: was somewhat cruel & impious
- Sends 50K men into desert to attack Carthage – all die in sandstorm, unprepared w/o right equipment
- Phoenicians (conquered by Persia) refuse to attack Carthage
- Cambyses turns back & dies (most likely suicide, ca. 520 BCE)
- After a temporary successor, one of his great military leaders takes control & marries daughter of Cyrus II – Darius I
Darius the Great
- Crushed all who opposed his authority – no negotiation
- Medes are relegated to a lesser role – important positions went to the Persians (unlike Cyrus II)
- Extended control to Indus Valley and westward into Europe
- Built forts in Thrace – just north of Greece
- Completed the Red Sea/Nile canal, creating extended sea-going routes
- Gifted administrator, just like Cyrus
Satrapy
- Cemented the role and legitimacy of the satrapy
- Empire divided into 20 provinces, with each supervised by a satrap
o Originally a trusted relative of the royal family
o Over time, this position became hereditary. Those further away from the capital had more autonomy and became
less “loyal” to the emperor – emperor dealt with this with imperial spies; royal road for “quick” (1 week)
communication
o Geography - Areas near royal family were more heavily influenced by central govt.
o Main duty of satrap was to collect taxes and send tribute to the king – in form of precious metal. (Some was spent,
but MOST as hoarded – eventually creating a scarcity of metal. Prices rose, communities could not meet the
assigned quotas and the rulers wouldn’t accept taxes other than precious metals – led to economic decline by 4 th
century)
Luxury
- Elites lived in great luxury created gardens and hunting preserves for himself & guests, traveled in great entourages
- Showed off power
Persepolis
- Started Persepolis as ceremonial capital (finished by Xerxes, successor to Darius)
o Persepolis was an elaborate imperial center – meant to impress
o Symbol of imperial authority & legitimacy
o Materials were from all parts of the empire
o Rediscovered – being rebuilt
o “Gate of the Nations” – ceremonial entrance – has symbols of all the nations that are under their control
o Huge staircase, carving artworks
o Consider: how would this city and structures and art help maintain legitimacy?

Social Structure
- Royal family (live in palaces with extensive gardens)
- Priests – practice Zoroastrianism (monotheism/polytheism debated)
- Military officers
- Soldiers
- Scribes (slipped down in the hierarchy since 1st civs.)
- Peasants (live in mud huts)
Maintaining the Empire
Food Production
- Persian farmers grew wheat (difficult in Mesopotamia but not so much in E Persia), barley, olives and wine
- Raised cattle, goats, and sheep
- Hunting and fishing were also an important source of food
- Rich Persians also enjoyed hunting wild animals
Crop Diffusion
- Crops from one region were introduced to another
- Rice and flax were introduced into Mesopotamia
- Sesame introduced to Egypt
Rewards for Elite Loyalty
Gender Structure
- Patriarchal
- Men held the dominant positions in government, commerce, military and family
- However, the position of Persian women in this society was rich, varied, important
- Owned property, often managed their own assets, could work and earn wages for themselves, and were capable of
becoming economically independent
- Much of this was swept away by Alexander’s conquest in the guise of “Greek” civilization , and the remainder with the rise
of Islam
Environmental impacts
- Digging of qanats
- Building roads
- Use of windmills by 7th century BCE for water & corn grinding
Qanat
- ca. 1000 BCE Persians started constructing
elaborate tunnel systems for extracting groundwater
in the dry mountain basins of present-day Iran
- Qanat tunnels were hand-dug, just large enough to
fit the person doing the digging
o Almost like pipes but note quite: made
from a combination of some kind of
hardened earth & water
- Along the length of a qanat, vertical shafts were
sunk at intervals of 20-30m to remove excavated
material and to provide ventilation & access for
repairs
- The main qanat tunnel sloped gently down to an
outlet at a village
- From there, canals would distribute water to fields for irrigation
- These amazing structures allowed Persian farmers to succeed despite long dry periods when there was no surface water
- No problems of evaporation, salinization
- Many still in use stretching from China in E to Morocco in W, and even the Americas
Trade Networks – Eurasian Silk Roads
- Persians were intermediaries on the Silk roads (silk & textiles)
Cities
Persepolis
- See heading “Persepolis” under Darius the Great > Luxury
Susa
- Political capital for Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes
- Tombs of Persian Kings at Nagesh-I Rustam – including Darius I, Artaxerxes I, Darius II
- Behistun (Bisutun) life-size or larger inscription of Darius
Art
- Lions, griffins, bulls, horses
- Many sculptures part beast part man, meant to be imposing
Ahura Mazda
- Column with the insignia of Ahura Mazda at the top
- Represents universal intelligence
- The creator and sole God of Zoroastrianism, highest spirit of worship, along with being the first and most frequently
invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meaning of the word Ahura is "lord", and that of Mazda is "wisdom".
Persian Cuneiform
- Still using with reed stylus, but different language
Legacy
- For 100 years, Persian imperial bureaucracy and court life, including administrators, tax collectors, record keepers, and
translators, provided a role model for the entire region
- Will Durant (American) in 1948 calls Persian Empire a “watershed of civilization, [. . .] equaled before our time only by the
zenith of Imperial Rome”
Greece 750-336 BCE
Dark Ages
- Collapse of Mycenaean (which was after Minoan) civilization – leads to “Dark Ages”
- Richness of the civilization disappears and culture reverts to simpler times
o Written records disappear
o Pottery is basic – little design – few finds of jewelry or fine weapons
o Much info from inferences from The Iliad and The Odyssey
- Political patterns are simple
o Independent villages – tribal leaders called “basileus”
o Assemblies – informal – usually just to determine where to fight next battle
o Formal legal institutions non-existent – justice was family revenge
- Religion – polytheistic – anthropomorphic – explaining physical world – mysteries, how to get benefits such as plentiful
harvests, good health
- No expectation of everlasting life – indifferent to afterlife – no punishment/heaven/hell
- Life worth living well for its own sake and glory that comes from practicing human virtues such as bravery, wisdom,
cunning, and service to one’s family & community
- Confidence in human greatness
- City-states – about 8000 villages grew into larger towns – usually built on a hill – a fortified market place. As time went on,
they began to attract permanent residents; cities begin to form
The Polis
- Varied in size & population
- Main were
o Sparta, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Miletus (Ionia)
o Sparta 3K sq. mi., 300-350K at height
o Athens 1060 sq. mi., 300-350K at height – much higher pop. density
o Protection of goods
o Other polis – much smaller

Rise of Polis – 2 interrelated developments

1
- Revival of trades with W Asia
- Leading of new skills
o Metal craft – esp. iron (caused deforestation)
o Writing used Phoenician system & added vowels
- Literacy became widespread
- Spurred economy – trade – estate management
- Population grew
2
- Migration and colonization
- 1st commercial warehouses and marketplaces in overseas colonies for benefit of homeland
- Colonization peaks 735-600 BCE – primarily Ionia & S Italy – to grow food, and support & supply homeland
- Change in govt. – more centralized (kings and palaces)
- Change in military tactics & techniques
o Off horse and chariot to infantry marching en masse in tight formations known as phalanxes

Sparta
- Peloponnese peninsula
- Inland – not seafaring
- Surrounded by mountains
- Were descendants of Dorians
- Weak do not survive – throw babies off cliffs
Helots
- State-owned slaves
o Originally farmers, Dorians conquered & turned them into slaves
- Treated very harshly
- Outnumbered Spartan citizens 20:1 – consider how Spartans would control the Helots
- Spartans worried Helots would revolt
- Basis of Spartan economy & food supply
Spartan Boys
- Basically warriors
- Age 0-7 – live with mothers, aunts, grandmothers
- Age 7 – sent to go live in barracks with just boys – schooling
- Age 12 – Spartan training truly begins
- Age 18 – went into secret police
- Age 20 – went into army & could become citizen
- Age 30 – full citizen
Spartan Girls
- Also educated: went to school at age 6 – was not always boarding – could go home as well
- Taught wrestling, gymnastics, combat
- Lived, slept, and trained in their sisterhood’s records
- No one knew what their school was like – not many records
- “Small young women would make strong babies”
Government
- 2 kings with equal power – limited
o 1 leads and maintains army
o One does local & religious services – day-to-day life
- Assembly – all males over 20
o Passed laws & made decisions regarding war & peace
o Elected overseers – ephors
 Had veto power
 Elected yearly to oversee public affairs
o Council of Elders
 28 men over 60 years old – proposed laws
 Acted as the Supreme Court – assisted ephors
Consequences of Social Order
- Military vigilance – able to maintain control of helots for 250 years
- Suspicious of new ideas/changes
o Lagged behind other city-states (e.g., Athens) in developing trade and manufacturing
 o Less intellectual overall – fewer intellectual achievements – fewer men known as great teachers; little progress in
philosophy, science, math
- Little emphasis on arts/architecture: no great palaces
- Little financial growth
- Quite egalitarian – power shared and temporary
- Won Olympics most years
- Built a formidable army
Athens
- Descendants of Mycenaeans (people in The Odyssey)
- Attica peninsula
- 600s – population developed to create need for political/economic reforms. Coming out of Dark Ages and into “Archaic
Greece”
- Time of agricultural development – olives, grapes & wines, livestock
- Spread of small independent farmers who were willing to take up arms to protect their lands and private property
o Drilled as hoplites – small temporary armies
o Used formation called phalanx
- Small farmers, merchants, artisans were backbone of society but landowners had power
Government Reforms
Govt of Athens & Sparta split at this time
- Athens gradually expanded its definition of citizenship
- Originally only a man whose Father AND maternal grandfather had been citizens could be citizens & participate in
Assembly
- Non-landowning citizens count not participate
- Free something
- Ask for photo
Next 100 years (by 507 BCE) all free men were citizens regardless of class or land ownership
- Result was a reduction of friction between peoples, unification, something (need slide)
Tyrants – the road to democracy
Draco I – 621 BCE
- Improved law cores
o Laws written – everybody knew consequences – were harsh (even minor offences such as stealing vegetables could
be punished by death)
o Draconian means anything very cruel, harsh, severe – etymology from Draco I
- Advantages to populace
o Aristocrats could no longer determine and dictate what was/wasn’t legal
 Not variable; legality didn’t change
Solon 594 BCE
- Goal: to ease political conflict between aristocrats and commoners
- Economic troubles – farmers & merchants
o Canceled all land debt
o Freed debtors from prison
- Placed limits on the amount of land any one person could own
- Urged farmers to grow “cash” crops instead of grain (grew olives, nuts, etc.)
- Promoted industry – urged fathers to teach their sons their trade – apprenticeship
- Extended citizenship to some artisans & merchants
- Set up 2 house legislature
o Aristocrats – council of 400, drafted measures
o Landowning commoners – assembly – all could vote on measures
Peisistratus – 546 BCE
- Even more radical reformer that gave people power
- Divided large estates among non-landowning farmers
- Extended citizenship to non-landowning men
- Gave loans to poor and put them to work by creating communal projects
Cleisthenes 508 BCE
- Last tyrant with total control
- In 507 – introduced series of laws that established true democracy
- 3 goals:
1. Break up power of aristocracy
2. Extend citizenship guarantees to more people
3. Restructure govt.
- Reforms
o All men belonged to the Assembly
 All considered equal under law – guaranteed free speech
o Assembly passed laws, was “Supreme Court” – chose 10 generals per year
o Council of 500 chosen by lottery
 Ran everyday government business – taxes, public works, treaties, etc.
o Jury system – 201-1001 people – majority rules
o Ostracism established – if an undesirable politician’s name was written 6000 or more times on the “ostra,”
(complaints against them) he was exiled for 10 years – but family could stay
o His reforms lasted almost 200 years

TRACE ROLE OF POWER: WHO GAINED AND LOST?

- Govt, types - Oligarchy, monarchy, tyranny, democracy – look up
Education depends on gender & socioeconomics
Boys
- 1 week after birth – males names & enrolled as citizen if qualified
- Because men were expected to participate in govt., all boys 7-18 years old received a formal education
- Wealthy could have private tutors and philosophers
- Others paid small fee for public classes
- Main texts – The Iliad and The Odyssey – by heart – discuss social messages etc.
- Math & rhetoric
- Public speaking
- 18 – military service
Girls
- No formal education
- Wealthy learn how to run household, weaving, music, banking, organize servants
- Many learned to read & write
- Lower classes – leaned household duties
- Women in metic class had most freedom, interestingly
Greco-Persian Wars 499-449 BCE
- Series of conflicts between Achaemenid Empire & city-states of Hellenic world
- Cyrus, then Darius, then Xerxes come in (and lose in the end)
- Athens sent ships to help Ionians; Darius got furious at Athens
Leading to the Battle of Marathon 492 BCE
- Demanding symbols of obedience – Darius sent messengers to Athens to collect tokens of earth and to Sparta to collect
tokens of water
- Vowed to avenge Greece & Eritrea’s support of the Ionian revolt
 - Add more stuff
- Athenians & Spartans defiant – funny story
- Etymology of “marathon” – messenger ran from Marathon to Athens to warn about Persian invasion
- Darius furious – becomes stupid – wants them to know that he will be their overlord
o Sends 600 ships outside Marathon
o Athenians march to Marathon
 Get there before Persians can unload & prepare
 Rushed in a dawn, surrounding the Persians from the flanks, thinning his troops in the middle, surprising
the Persian cavalry, and threw the Persians into mass confusion as they were trying to finish disembarking
from their ships
 Athenians lost 192, Persians lost 6400 men – Persian defeat
- Darius builds a bridge at Hellespont – road on top of floating ships – to reach Greece from Ionia
Battle of Thermopylae
- Greeks get betrayed and Darius kills everyone – Athenians get time to get their forces together and keep the larger Persian
forces away for long enough
Battle of Salamis
- Persians had larger, heavier warships with more people
- Greeks had lighter, flatter ships trying to drive Persians into waters that are harder to maneuver in – storm comes too and so
the Greeks win
Implications
- Greeks rid themselves of Persian threat & unite together – Golden Age of Greece – one of the greatest flowerings of
philosophy, culture, and the arts, Athens persuades 350 city-states to come together
- Only 50-60 years
- Add from photo (Ariel)
Golden Age of Greece
- 20 years after wars
- For the first time Greek city-states unite
- Ionia freed from Persian rule
- Aegean Sea rid of pirates (Athenian naval power)
- Overseas trade expanded (trading cash crops and iron – exported from Greece)
- Greece grows richer
- Greece gains power and international status – now known as an important and formidable civilization

- Lasts about 50 years

- Height of Greek culture & development
- Pericles and the Delian league – was a wonderful speaker – see Pericles funeral speech
o Keen patron of citizenship, Assembly participation, education, arts, etc.
o Time of philosophy & teaching flourishing (Socrates in war, then Plato & Aristotle)
 Socrates dies because he is a pest (pointed out fallacies in thinking) – elites & other religious philosophers
raged, accused of heresy and Socrates went bye-bye (died by poison – hemlock)
o Construction of Parthenon
o Was known to be very honest – maintained legitimacy by charisma
o Took money to rebuild Athens in grandeur (fire-resistant & progressive; thriving)
 Delos – great outdoor theaters with perfect acoustics
 Thriving of art, architecture, sculptures
o Set stage for conflict with Sparta & other polis – Peloponnesian War
 Sparta wants power
Pericles – power
 - Treasury of Delos under control – uses money for building glory of Athens instead of defense – disregarded other city
objections
- Criminal cases had to be tried by Athens
- Sent Athenian troops to support commoners’ revolts against the aristocracies of other city-states
- Insisted other city-states adopt Athenian coinage system

Result: Delian League – originally was to be an anti-Persian defense alliance now turned into an Athenian “empire”

Peloponnesian War 431-404 BCE

- Sparta gets fed up and starts the war
- Black plague also going through Europe & parts of Europe
o Hits Athens several times; decimates population
- Sparta teams up with Persia so that they get supplied navy ships, with a great army
- Athens has a great navy too but the plague its them
o Plague kills Pericles, weakening Athenian forces
o Sparta puts Athens under siege
o Sparta and its allies win

Aftermath
- Sparta takes control for a while
- Ineffective – education, innovation declines
- Greece falls into decline – breaks into independent and battling city-states again w/o central leadership
- Opens door to outside invasion
- Phillip II of Macedonia invades Greece 338 BCE – Alexander takes over after his father dies
- Gets Greek support
Alexander’s Conquests 336/334-323 BCE
- Spreading Greek culture
- Lots of libraries
- Founding of a lot of Alexandrias
- Dies from wounds suffered in battle near modern-day India
- Before dying, divides into Egypt (Ptolemy takes over), other 2 (Byzantine and something else?)
Greece lose, Rome gains power and influence
- Roman republic (509-27 BCE) & empire (27 BCE – 476 CE)
Han China, Mauryan empire, etc.
See the textbook for following information

Legacy of Greece
Culture
- Greek language
- Mythology of gods & goddesses
- Olympic games
- Philosophers search for truth
Science & tech
- Heliocentricity?
- Euclidean geometry
- Accurate estimate of Earth’s circumference – Eratosthenes
- Development of lever, pulley, pump
Arts
- Drama & poetry – literature
- Sculpture portraying ideals of beauty
- Painted pottery showing scenes of Greek life
- Classical architecture
Government
- Direct democracy – citizens rule by majority vote
- Citizens bring charges of wrongdoing
- Code of laws
- Expansion of citizenship to all free adult males, except foreigners

Endnotes
1 Video showing what Ancient Carthage was like:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/21/Carthago.webm/Carthago.webm.720p.webm
2
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Ashurbanipal_The_First_Egyptian_War.jpg - account of
Ashurbanipal's campaign in Egypt against Taharqua (translation of the cuneiform, from the Rassam cylinder of
Ashurbanipal) – recovered from the library in Nineveh, known as The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal
3
Some think Achaemenes was not a real person and was just attributed as the founder of the Achaemenid Dynasty. He would
have existed ca. 700 BCE.