Topic s in Thi s Chapter
Minoan Mentors The Mycenaeans , Greece's First Civilizat ion • The Aegean
Dark Ag e The Helleni c Era ' The Rise of the Mainland Pow ers
The Persian W ars: Crucibl e of a Civilizatio n
-, Aegean Civilizations
"} '(,~ !ld :.,fIH" b(! ,1humhle servant plow ing fields for the ow ner of a tiny fa1'111 than th e ." , .:;,' -". ',~;"I ' 11 t!w kingciO Ill 01the dead,
- Achill es, The Odyssey
KEY : Ouestion When does civilization in the West become "Western" civilization ?
On his w ay home from the Trojan War, a Greek king nam ed Odysseus paid a visit to the mouth of the underw orld to con sult the ghost of Achilles, a friend w ho died in that war , Ach illes, w ho had been the greatest of Greece's heroes, used the occasio n to explain the fact s of death to Odysseus. He said that he w ould rather occupy the low est stat ion in the land of the living than the high est post in the w orld of the dead. Achilles ' passion for life and faith m the value of eart hly existence, w hich are imptied by this rema rk, help to explain the achievements of the Gree ks. The civ ilization they foun ded on the shores of the Aegean Sea transform ed the ancien t w orld, and it continues to influence the modern w orld. People still adapt the Greeks' arch itecture, im itate their sculpture, debate the theories of the ir phi loso phers, use the ir scientif ic vocabulary, and even go to the th eater to be entertained by their playwrigh ts The influen ce of the ancient Greek th inkers and artists has been so pervas ive that som e historians claim that the Greeks w ere the fou nders of W estern civ ilization. Ot hers caut ion that the Greeks did not develop in a vacuum - that they had clos e ties w ith Mi ddle-East ern sta tes and borrowed mu ch from the m , A controversial school of contem porary scho lars has gon e so far as to claim that mo st of Gree k civi lizat ion w as der ived from Egypt and Afr ica.
62 Aegean Civilizations 65 64 Chapter 3
•. _ ..:.'t<. . ~ : :· ~>tr.r.1':. : . ".\"Black Advocate s for all these positions make their cases by listing specif ic things that the Sea Gree ks are said either to have borrowed or to have originated . Arguments of this kind are TH RACE: not very pers uasive, for a civi lization is more than its compone nt parts. The debate does, however, ill ustrate how difficult it is to draw hard and fast lines across the continuum of his tory, and it is a healt hy corrective to the belief that Western civili zation deve loped in isola tion and e ntirely from its own intellectual resources. The ancient Greeks' experience with civilization de monstrates how comp lex the inter action between people and environments can be . People inhabit two worlds simultane ously; one constructed by nature and one created in their minds . What they make of the form er depends to a great exten t on how they frame the latter. Different people react dif ferent ly to similar sets of challenges and oppo rtunities, and explanations for their behaviors are rooted in the mysteries of huma n psychology. Greek history illustrates the role that imagination and creativity play in the human strug gle for survival. for nature provided the Greeks with few resources. The Greek mainland was small (about the size of the state of Louisiana) and poor. It had no rivers li ke the Nile or 0 Euphrate s and no fields as productive as those of Egypt or Mesopotamia. Greek farmers ':l- . could wo rk only about 18% of their country's mountainous terrain. Greece's forests were Q) depleted in prehistory, and even the seas off its coasts we re not particularlyrich in fish. The ':l su ccess the Gree ks had in building a civil ization under such circums tances proves that en P vironmental reso urces alone are not enough to explain the rise of a great culture . The Gree ks made extraordinary use of what they wer e given by their homeland, but they also (J) profited from contacts with older civi lizations. The fame of Gree k civilization shou ld also not a> .JE:, """"'t(] obscure the fact that the role the Middle East played in the format ion of "the West" did not Q) ~ ,$1 end with the arrival of the Greeks. \£rCYTHERA """7ffiHHODES '" G7~ . ~ .. ,v ' ~-"" .~; '
, ~ ...... early as the Middle Kingdom (2100-1700 B.C.E.), and Egypt greatly influenced Mi noan culture. Minoan trad e supported the aristocrats who lived in palaces, such as Knossos on Crete's northern coast and Phaistos on its southern rim. It also enabl ed the residents of the towns scatt ered about Crete and on neighboring island s to erect comfortable homes. Little is known about its impact on the Minoan peasantry, for few traces of their villages survive. Like other ancient peoples who se econom ic activities required them to ma in tain inventories of goods, th e Minoan s invented a system of writing. Crete's scribes may have been inspired by Egyptian hieroglyph s, but by 1800 B.C.E., the y had evolved a distinctive scr ipt of their own . Schol ars have named it Linear A to distin guish it fro m a later versio n, Linear B, that the early Greeks adapted for writing their lan guage. Both scripts were dr awn (using traced lines rather th an cuneiform's imprinted wedges) on clay tablets and both were probably used exclusively for the purpose of compiling economic records. Because Linear A cannot yet be read, mo st of wha t we know abo ut Minoa n civilization comes from the study of its rui ned buildings. The frescoes that decorated the walls ofhomes and palaces provide windows into the Minoan world, for Mino an art was realistic. It described plants, animals, land The Mino an Bull-Leapers This much reconstruc ted fresco from the palace at Knossos illustrates scap es, and a vari ety of human activities. The paucity of military scenes in paintings what may have been a sport. a religi ous ritual. or an ill ustration of a myth . The participants leaped at and of weapons in graves has led some scholars to conclude that the Minoans were charging bulls. grabbed their horn s. and somersau lted over their backs. Simila r frescoes have been discovered in a palace in the Egyptia n port of Avaris. New Kingdom Egyp t had close commercial ties not a warlike people. No society that depended on the dangero us profession of long wit h the Minoans. distance trade could, however, have been indifferent to the martial arts, and myth s and archaeological remains suggest that human sacrifices may have featured in Mi noan religious ritual. emerged in the wake of a disaster that caused widespread destruction on the island. Be Minoan frescoes depict a slender, graceful, and athleti c people. The men of Crete, causethere was no change in Minoan culture, the damage was probably the result of a nat like those of Egypt, wore short kilts. Female court costumes featured floor-le ngth skirts ural catastrophe, such as an earthquake, and not a foreign invasion. and tight fitting bodices that left the breasts bare. Women are prominent subject s of a About 1450 B.CE ., the scribes working at Knossos switched from Linear A to Lin few frescoes, and Minoan religion featured a goddes s, a young woman associated with ear B. The significance of this change became clear in 1952, when a young British snakes and bird s. Some people claim that this is evidence that Minoan society was dom scholar proved that Linear B recorded an early form of Greek. The use ofGreek at Knos inated by women , but many com munities have honored a few privileged females and sos suggests that warriors from the mainland conquered and occupied Crete. About 50 venerated goddesses while denigrating ordinary women . Minoan religious symbolism years later the whole island was again devastated by the hand of eithe r man or God, and was also not exclusively female. Bulls represe nted the male element in what was doubt Minoan civilization began to fade from memory. The Minoans may have sowed the less a fertility cult. The horns of bulls decora ted the walls of the palace at Knossos, and seeds of their own destruction by introducing the Greeks of the mainland to seafaring, some frescoes depict young men and women engaged in a form of bull fighting that trade, and civilization. may have had religious significance. Recently what is believed to be a Minoan temp le has been discovered, but the pauc ity of such sites suggests that Minoans may more com monly have worshiped at sacred places under the open sky, in caves, and at shrines in The Mycenaeans, Greece's FirstCivilization their homes. The Greeks created two quite different civilizations. The one for which they are famous is the second, their Hellenic or "classical" civilization. Their first, which flourished from Minoan History Minoan civilization belonged to the Bronze Age and evolved in dis about 1600 to 1200 B.C.E., mo deled itself on the Minoan example. Historians have tinct stages. During the Early Minoan Period (2600-2000s.c.z.), Crete developed its trade. named it for Mycenae, a city in the northeastern Peloponnese (the southern portion of The Minoa ns clustered into urban settlements and built their first palacesduring the Mid the Greek peninsula) that Homer's Iliad says was ruled by Agamemnon, the leader of dle Minoan Period (2000-1600 s.c.s.). The Late Minoan Period (1600-1125 a.C E.) the Greeks in the Trojan War. 68 Chapter 3 Aegean Civilizations 69
Origin ofthe Greeks The ancestors of the Greeks were part of the great wave of migration that spread Indo-European languages from the Atlantic Coast to the In dian Ocean . They entered the Greek peninsula from central Europe between 2100 and 1900 B.C E. and displaced its earlier inhabitants, villagers with cultural ties to Asia Minor. They were a warlike people with strongly patriarchal customs, and as nomadic herders from the northern plains, they had no maritime experience. Their language even lacked a word for sea. The Greeks' appearance in the Aegean world roughl y coincided with the rise of Mi noan civilization on Crete. There is no evidence that the Minoans ever ruled the Greek mainland, but mythology suggests that the early Greeks were overawed by Crete's supe rior culture. The myth known as "Theseus and the Minotaur" narrates the adventures of a prince of Athen s who was sent to Crete as human tribute. He negotiates a labyrinth, a maze that King Minos built to hold the Minotaur (Minos-bull),a beast born of a union between a bull and Minos 's wife. Theseu s kills the mon ster and escapes-with the help of Minos's daughter. The story suggests that the primitive Greeks knew that bulls fea tured in Minoan religious sacrifices and that Minoans erected mysterious buildings, such as the maze-like palace at Knossos, a "labyrinth," so-called because it was decorated with a sacred symbol, a double-headed axe called a labys. Another Greek myth claimed that in infancy the god Zeus had been hidden on Crete to prevent his father from killing him . When he grew up, he overthrew the older deities and established the reign of the Greeks. This may preserve a faint memory of the transition from Minoan to Mycenaean dominance in the Aegean. ~-...: . ; )~.. :» :..: ~ ':: """"" ::?~ ' . - ~ The Lion-Gate at Mycenae The gate that provided entrance to the citadel at Mycenae was formed The Mycenaean Kingdoms Mycenaean civilization was the invention of main from huge blocks of stone and decorated with a tympanum depicting two lions guarding a pillar. a land kingdoms that were tiny versions of the great states of Egypt and Mesopotamia. motif found in Middle-Eastern art. Mycenaean kingdoms had centralized governments administered by elaborate bu reaucracies, and they were intensely militaristic. Their palaces were citadels into monarchies sometimes bolster their authority by acts of conspicuous consumption in which besieged populations could retreat. Their art featured battle scenes. Their lead tended to overawe their subjects. Tholoi were probably shrines for the worship of royal ers were buried with weapons, armor, and chariots, and their merchants trafficked in ancestors. Unlike the later Greeks, the Mycenaeans seem not to have built temples. The armaments. The Mycenaeans had inherited a warlike disposition from their nomadic , f ortress-palaces, which began to rise about 1400 B.CE., were constructed of huge, irreg Indo-European ancestors, and Greece's environment did little to moderate it. The ."". ularly shaped stone blocks that were fitted together like pieces of a puzzle. So monu country's mountainous terrain hampered political unification, and competition for .._: mental were their remains that later Greeks concluded that these "cyclopean" structures its scarce resources and commercial opportunities sparked vicious rivalries among its :',: . were the work of the Cyclopes, an extinct race of giants. ~...... inhabitants. ,,,, ~~ r.,,; The reception rooms of the Mycenaean fortresses were decorated with frescoes Mycenaean kings were, like the Minoan rulers, merchant-princes. The professions r::. ~ and tiled floors and had furnishings made from exotic woods and precious metals. of merchant and warrior were closely allied in the ancient world , for traders who ven " . :~. : Like Minoan palaces, the Mycenaean royal residences housed the workshops, ware tured far from home had no protection other than what they provided for themselves. ~. , houses, and scribal offices essential to the livelihood of a merchant-prince. Myce They were heavily armed, and only opportunity distinguished them from pirates.When rt~ean scribes developed Linear B, a writing system based on the Minoans' Linear A. they encountered the strong, they traded. When they met the weak, they looted. Two major collections of their tablets have been found. One, as previously men The earliest evidence for the wealth and power of Mycenaean kings comes from of ,,,.' tioned, is from Knossos. The other is from Pyles, a fortress on the southwestern coast ferings found in shaft-graves dating from about 1600 to 1500 B.CE. Later, the Myce ¥\~ ofthe Peloponnese (the mainland's southern peninsula). The 1,200 Linear B tablets naeans constructed imposing tholoi to house their dead. Tholoi were vaulted masonry ' . !.~ lWmthe archives of Pylos owe their survival to the destruction of the people who chambers (shaped like bee hives) that were mounded over with soil and used for mul P.;t x{rote them. Pylos fell to an attacker about 1200 B.C.E., and the flames that consumed tiple burials. The tholos at Mycenae is 50 feet in diameter and 40 feet high. Young•. !"· t h.~ p a l ace baked the fragile clay tablets in its scribes' offices into durable tiles. Aegean Civilizations 71 70 Chapter 3
The only things found on the Linear B tablets are inventories of supplies, but these a joint expedition against a foreign power, it was a threat to their food supply. Troy was reveal a great deal about Mycenaean life. Ration lists suggest that wheat and barley sacked sometime after 1250 B.C.E., not long before the Mycenaean kingdoms themselves bread were the staples of the diet. Workers were also issued wine and figs. Meat is not began to fall. If the destruction of Troy was the last proud achievement of the Myce often mentioned, but some must have been available. Many animals had to be slaugh naean era, stories about it would have come, during the Dark Age, to represent the glo tered to produce the quantities of leather that palace craftsmen used to manufacture ar ries of an increasingly mythic past. mor. Some agricultural products, particularly olive oil and honey, were cultivated for A spate of fortification building on the mainland of Greece suggests that around export. The 400 bronze smiths that Pylos's king employed would have turned out far 1250B.C.E. the Mycenaean governments sensed a need to strengthen their defenses. His more weapons than he needed, so he must have been an arms dealer. About 600 women torians once postulated that the Mycenaeans confronted a second waveof Indo- European were attached to the palace to weave linen and woolen cloth. The Pylos documents migration from the north, an invasion by primitive tribes that spoke the Dorian dialect of mention many specialized professions and list titles for numerous kinds of bureaucrats. Greek. But no archaeological evidence confirms a Dorian presence in Greece until after The peasants who inhabited the kingdom's 200 villages may have been semi-free labor the Mycenaean decline. An attack from without is not the only explanation for a civi ers who were legally dependent on a military aristocracy. Slaves, a byproduct of war, lization's fall. Internal problems can also bring it down . By the thirteenth century the were plentiful. Most were female, for the males of defeated communities were usually Mycenaeans were struggling with overpopulation, declining agricultural production, slaughtered. and costly, unwieldy bureaucratic administrations. Under these circumstances, the fall of one shaky kingdom could have initiated a domino effect that brought them all down. Asrefugees flooded from a collapsing state into the territory of its neighbor, that neigh The Aegean Dark Age bor would be pushed over the edge and its people would join a swelling tide of refugees. Greeksseeking new homes probably triggered the invasions of the Sea Peoples who de Pylos was destroyed and abandoned about 1200 B.C.E., and within a few decadesall the scended on the coasts of Egypt and Palestine in the late thirteenth century. At this time Mycenaean kingdoms had collapsed. Linear B, which was known only to the 'scribes Greeks also occupied the Aegean islands and the coast of Asia Minor. who served the Mycenaean kings, was forgotten, and a Dark Age (an era wnhout liter acy) descended on the Aegean. Not until commerce revived in the eighth century B.C.E. The Homeric Era The Mycenaean collapse cleared the way for the Greeks to rein did the Greeks again sense a need for writing. About 800 B.C.E. they adapted the Phoeni vent themselves, but almost five centuries passed before the outlines of their great Hel cian script for their own use. lenic,or classical, civilization emerged. These transitional centuries were not devoid of Homer and the Fall of Mycenae Although literacy disappeared from the achievement. Iron came into widespread use. Pottery painters began to develop a dis Aegean with the Mycenaeans, an oral tradition preserved some memory of their exis tinctive and historically informative art. Religious traditions changed. New weapons tence and inspired the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the first major pieces and battlefield strategies were introduced. Novel political and social institutions ap of Greek literature. Tradition attributes both these epic poems to a certain Homer, who ~ ,.p eared, and colonization scattered Greek cities throughout the ancient world. supposedly flourished about 700 B.C. E., but stylistic features suggest that they may not " . Mycenaean trade, industry, and agriculture had been centrally managed by royal have been the work of one man . The Iliad is the story of a quarrel between two Greek ~ g en ts. Once these officials passed from the scene, a much simpler economy emerged. leaders, Agamemnon and Achilles, which took place in the tenth year of a Greek siege It centered on the village and the household. This is the world that Homer (or the of Troy, a city in northwestern Asia Minor. The Odyssey catalogues the adventures of school of poets he represents) knew and projected onto the Mycenaean past. It was far Odysseus, one oftheir companions, on his way home from the Trojan War. Both poems less wealthy than its Mycenaean predecessor. Few of its settlements had as many as a purport to narrate events from the Mycenaean era, but they read back into that period thousand residents, and the decline of trade in the Aegean meant that each community the conditions of the later and more primitive Dark Age. had to produce almost everything it needed for itself. It was once assumed that Homer's stories were entirely fictional, but in 1871 Hein Conditions were difficult during the Dark Ages but not unpromising. A reduced rich Schliemann, a brilliant self-taught German archaeologist (who made a fortune in population lessened competition for farmland, and an economy of self-sufficiency the California gold rush as a banker) discovered the site of Troy. His excavations there minimized class differences based on wealth and access to imported luxuries. The col and on the mainland of Greece uncovered evidence for several Trojan wars and for the lapse of centralized political authority allowed local governments to flourish. The great Greek kingdoms that could have fought them . Scholars dispute which of Troy's chieftains who headed these were called kings, but they were far less powerful than battles may have given rise to the tales collected in the Iliad, but Troy's location explains Mycenaean royalty. The simple equipment they took to their graves suggests that the why the Greeks would have fought a Trojan War. Troy commanded the entrance to the economic gap between them and their followers was not great. The Homeric king was Hellespont, the waterway by which Greeks imported grain from the Black Sea. If any .' afirst-among-equals in a band of military companions. He fought at the side of his thing could have persuaded the Mycenaean kings to set aside their differences and wage J" ~" men and shared their way of life. t:.
'-_.•X''''~ · ''!"~~~__ho<,.:o ~-~ .r-T 72 Chapter 3
Homeric society was dominated by warrior bands that were only nominally sub servient to a hierarchy of regional overlords. The leaders of these bands constituted a hereditary aristocracy, but it was a working aristocracy. A king and his nobles defended their people and enriched them by raiding their neighbors' territory. The monarch's of fice passed to his son, but only if his men considered the heir to be competent. A leader E was accountable to a warrior code that demanded demonstrations of strength, courage, £~'" "O~ >.. and honor. He was expected to inspire his men by his superior prowess in battle and in Qj '"~-g '"0 the hunts and athletic competitions that proved his readiness for the rigors of combat. 5;-", '3 ~cn ~t o A Homeric king's income consisted of locally produced consumable items (olive Vl --0. 0 oil, grain , and wine ). It made no sense to hoard such thing s, for they deteriorated in I: VI e storage. However, if they were invested as social capital-that is, distributed among his '"E"O '" ~ Vl > 0. followers-they returned rewards in the form of increased loyalty. Noblemen were sup '"00 '" ";l Eo; ''"u posed to be openhanded and hospitable, and to strive to outdo one another in the giv I: > 0'" ' 'z "C ' ii) ing of gifts. A chief had to be as generous with time and patience as with property. The ..c .'"!::! .0'" .... 1:"0 .... aristocratic warriors he led enjoyed freedom of speech in his councils and expected him 0 nl - :J o 0 .c to be capable of eloquent oratory. Men of less distinguished ancestry and reputation c c .... "' c were, of course , required to show deference to their betters. I:"'~ '" ~ 0>- '5ll The works of Homer occupied a place in Greek society comparable to that of the ~ .0'" 0 C ~-e 0 Bible in the Christian communities of the medieval and early modern West. Most Q) ctl . "'~ .... Greeks, regardless of their social status, identified with Homer's aristoi ("best men ," l5-g ~ aristocrats). Lineage and famous ancestors were important, but good bloodlines were ~ '§: : ~ ~u not enough. Individuals were expected to earn respect through their achievements. The u cJw"0 ....c ideal man had to be both competent and handsome-a harmony of muscle, bone, a) 5 e o ~ '" '" 0 . ..c brain, and spirit that excited the envy of the gods. The greatest of men could, in myths ...... -(1) 0 ~~-g u at least, become deities themselves. .8~~ ro
;...;~~ 74 Chapter 3 AegeanCivilizations 75
ment, for there is a moral order in the universe that holds rulers accountable-a natural • •• ••• •••• •••••••• ••• •••• • standard ofjustice to which human laws must conform. Th is was a conviction he un P E 0 P LEI NCO NT EXT Hesiod, The Uncommon knowingly shared with his contemporaries, the Hebrew prophets. Common Man Hesiod believed that justice was simply common sense . People should pay their debts, honor their obligations, and deal fairly and generously with one another. He also '.omer may not have been a real person, but the poet Hesiod, whose work dates from insisted that there was no substitute for hard work, that idleness was a personal disgrace H~ . the same period as the Iliad and Odyssey, probably was . He is especially intr iguing, and an offense to the gods. The small-property-holders whom he addresses are assumed for while Homer, like most anc ient authors, concentrated on the aristocratic warrior to have a few slaves or hired hands, but they sweat in the ir fields alongside their servants. class, Hesiod was a common man who used his uncommon gifts to describe the lives of Hesiod saw in the work ofthese ordinary men the kind of nobility that Homer praised in people like himself. the feats ofaristocratic warriors. His defin ition ofthe good man is the self-sufficient in Hesiod is credited with two major poems: Theogony, a history ofthe Greek gods, and dividual whose unrelenting labor keeps his barns filled. Such a man, the poet warned, Worksand Days, a description ofthe annual round oflabor on a Greek farm . In the latter, chooses a wife with care . Hesiod valued women as resources, not companions. He Hesiod speaks in the first person about what he alleges to be personal experiences. Some claimed that females were by nature deceitful, lazy, wasteful, and the source of most of scholars think that this may have been a literary device, but , if so, that does not detract mankind's problems. A man had to take a wife, for he needed children to care for him in from the accuracy ofthe picture ofrural life that Hesiod pa ints. his old age. But Hesiod advised the potential bridegroom to choose his fiancee not for Worksand Days takes the form ofan open letter to Hesiod 's brother Perses. The two her sex appeal but for her ability to pull a plow. men had fought overthe division oftheir father's estate, and Hesiod claimed that Perses Hesiod was , in short, the champion of the frugal householder who kept a constant bribed the judges to obtain the larger share (which he then squandered by mismanage eyeon the bottom line. The poet accused the upper classes ofliving offthe backs ofmen ment). Hesiod 's letter is a spec ies of "wisdom literature," a version ofthe collections of likehimself, but he was blind to his own exploitation ofslaves and hired men. He advised pro verbs and secular sermons that were popular throughout the ancient Middle East and that they be fed only enough to enable them to do a day's work. Hesiod was the that made their way into the Bible as the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes . Works and spokesman for an emerging yeoman class that was destined to playa major role in shap Days lectures farmers and the agents ofgovernment on the ir duties and singles judges out ing Hellenic civilization . for special attention. Hesiod warns that authorities who take bribes risk divine punish - Question: Why might Greece, at the start ofthe Classical era , have produced a poet with interests like Hesiod 's when Egypt and the Middle East did not? ------11 • • • • I
Between 750 and 500 B.C.E., Greeks scattered colonies around the Black Sea, across Sicily and southern Italy, and along the coasts of Asia Minor, France, Spain, and parts of North Africa. They preferred sites where the y could maintain contact with the sea. ,_ Although they generally avoided places occupied by other maritime peoples, some .':X' long-established nations, such as Egypt, welcomed Greek merchants and gave them \'- land on which to build. ~~:,;; Greek colonists were exposed to alien cultural influences, but they resisted as ~~ -,similation. The Greeks divided humanity into two cat egories: those who spoke ~~ ,.. Greek, and "barbarians" whose unintelligible babble sounded like "bar-bar-bar." :~: Th ~y saw th~mse~ves as s c a tt e r e ~ m:mbers of,~ s i n ~ l ~ cultur~ and jealously g~arded ..~_ .}h ~ l r Greek Identity. Pan-Hellenic ( all-Greek) religious shnnes (e.g ., Apollo s ora ,'-. cle at Delphi) and festivals (e.g., the Olympic Games) helped maintain ties among ' '' ~'~them and spread Hellenism (Greek culture) far beyond the Aegean. Many of classi :':'_'cal civilization's major artists and intellectuals were citizens of the colonies, not the ~\Greek mainland. ~~' L The Greeks who spread throughout the world during the Archaic era took with Hesiod 's Theogony This painting from an ancient Greek vase depicts Hesiod's story of the birth of the goddess Athena. She emerges fully grown and armored from Zeus's head, wh ich the god ~h~m a unique institution called the polis (plural: poleis) . Polis is often translated as Hephaestus is shown splitting open with an axe. ~ ity- s t a t e , but that captures only part of the word's me aning. The polis created the Aegean Civilizations 77 76 Ch apter 3 environment th at nurtured Hellen ic civilization . Polisis th e roo t of th e word politics, but a polis was much more th an a political entity. It was an experiment in social en gineering that used art, religion , education, spo rt, and enter tai nme nt-as well as governmental au thority-to create mod el citi zens. Classical civilization embraced a philosophical poi nt of view centered on th e human being. It saw th e worl d as a rati on al, humane place amenable to understa nd ing and control. It taught th at hu man beings were open- ended creatures who had ..-- . 1', the power and duty to invent th emselves. The polis pro vided a means to thi s end. Most poleis were sma ll states situ ated in sparse, comp etitive enviro nmen ts. Unlike the wealthy, populous kingdo ms of the Middle East th at could afford to squander man power, poleis needed all th eir residents to contribute their best. Their sma ll size also encouraged activism, for individuals were not lost in a mass of humanity. The imp act they had on their communities was visible. This crea ted a curious linkage in the Greek min d between what are often con trary drives: individua lism and commu nity spirit.
The Hoplite Infantry Military technology powerfully influenced the development of the polis. The Dark -Age battles that Homer describes were free-for-alls, simul tane ous single combats foug ht by heavily armo red champions who were carried about a battlefield in chario ts. A ho rde of men from a chief's household accompanied him to war, but they did not fight in organi zed units. True infant ry was an Assyrian invention of the eighth century. When it spread to Greece at the end of the Dark Age, it became un iquely lethal.
The Greek infantry soldier was called a hoplite-from his hoplos, a shield shaped Warriors in Hoplite Armor This carving illustrates opposing soldiers in battl e. each with hopl ite like a round, shallow bowl that was his most distinctive piece of equipment. A hoplite equipment. was a foot soldier who was laden with about 70 pounds of equipme nt (about half the body weight of an average male in the ancient world). He had a helm et and breast plate, was armed with a thrusting spear and a short sword, and carried his hoplos on his left were liable for military service from their teenage years until the age of 60, and th ey arm. The hoplos was made of wood and leather and was about three feet in diam eter. It could expect to be called into the field at freque nt intervals. Because the strength of was carried on the left arm to protect its bearer's left side and shelter his neighbor's a literally depended on the ph ysical condition of its men, the provided right. Hopl ites fought shou lder to shoulder in a tightly packed company called a pha polis polis public facilities for tr aining, made phys ical education part of their upbringing, and lanx. A phalanx was eight ranks deep, and only the men in the front lines could wield inspired them with art th at celebrated the perfectly developed male body. The their weapo ns. Men in the rear ranks used their shields to pu sh into the backs of the uniquely Greek custom of exercising in the nude spre ad after Homer's day and ac men in front of them. Th eir strategy was to poo l the ir strength, their weight, and the companied the rise of th e polis. Th e Greeks themselves were not certain why this mom entum oftheir charge so as to deal a crushing blow to their oppo nent's formation . .practice began, but it was consistent with the pressure the put on its men to Tactics were simple. Armies charged each other, smashed together, and the phal anx that polis demonstrate th at they were keeping themselves in physical condition for comba t. first broke exposed its scattered men to slaughter. The gymnasiums in which people train today take their name from a Gree k Hoplite battles were intend ed to be brief and murderous. Th ey relied more on gymnos, strength, endurance, and courage than on skill wit h weapo ns. There was no ro om for .word meaning "naked." fan cy sword play, but any man who hoped to surv ive had to stay in peak physi cal condition and learn to control him self. Sports and athletic activit ies were not mere Hoplite Culture As the Greeks came to rely on their new infantries, the balance of ente rt ainments for the Greeks. They pr ovid ed th e physical tr ain ing th at prepared a power shifted in the ir communities. Infantry armies depend on numbers for their ma n for th e military duties of citizenship and pre served his life. The males of a polis strength, and the small circle ofaristocratic families that had traditionally monopolized
/!.-.::r-v ,,~ Aegean Civilizations 79 78 Chapter 3 usually slaves or foreigners. They entertained at symposia (drinking parties), feasts for military power and political leadership could not provide all the manpower that they male guests only that offered a citizen his primary opportunity for relaxed social inter required. A polisneeded every man who was competent to serve. Competence was de termined by health, strength, and money. Simple governments were not equipped to action with his peers. collect taxes with which to finance armies. They expected their subjects to pay for their own arms and training. Only the rich could afford horses and chariots , but these were The Rise of the Mainland Powers no longer all that important. Hoplite equipment was within the reach of men of mod erate means, and they had good reason to invest in it. If their polis relied on them for its There were hundreds of poleis scattered throughout the Mediterranean and along the defense, it could not deny them some political recognition. shores of the Black Sea. It is difficult to generalize about them, but we can gain insight Service in the hoplite infantry enfranchised the male residents of a polis. Further into how poleis operated by examining the two quite different city-states that domi more, because hoplite warfare put all soldiers on roughly the same footing, it promoted nated political life on the Greek mainland. social egalitarianism. It turned the polis into a kind of militar y fraternity, a brotherhood Sparta The Spartans possessed the most intimidating army in Greece. They created of men who shared the bond of a common battlefield experience. The link the polises it by doing what the citizens of a polis were supposed to do. They decided what they tablished between citizenship and soldiering also fueled intense patriotism and , like wanted to be and then ruthlessly implemented a program of social engineering to modern sports competitions, heightened rivalry among city-states. Greek poleis found it hard to coexist peacefully, and they often had more to fear from one another than achieve their goal. The Spartans' ancestors were Dorian-speaking tribes that wandered into the Pelo- from foreign invaders. ponnese during the Dark Age and settled along the Eurotas River.They expanded their The militarized environment of the polis put women at a major disadvantage . The territory by making war on their neighbors, and late in the eighth century they overran aristocratic women in Homer's epics are respected, influential people. There were some the plain of Messenia (the old Mycenaean kingdom of Pylos). This drastically changed constraints on their activities, but they enjoyed freedoms that most poleis denied to the context for Spartan life.The war made Sparta the largest state on the mainland, but women from their citizen families. Because women lacked the upper-body strength that it left the Spartans outnumbered perhaps seven to one by people whom they had en would have enabled them to serve as hoplites (and earn citizenship), men regarded slaved. The Spartans concluded that they would not survive unless they created a stand them as inferior creatures. They were declared unfit for public life and confined to their ing army that was so powerful it could frighten the polis's resentful helot (slave) home s. A citizen woman had the same legal statu s as her children, but unlike her sons, population into submission. That meant that every male Spartan had to commit to be she was a life-long dependent. The legitimacy of children was extremely important, for citizenship in a polis was coming a superb, full-time soldier. Legends claim that a sage named Lycurgos devised the system that kept Sparta in a hereditary. The only way fathers could be sure that their offspring were their own was ,state of permanent, total military mobilization. Sparta had to ensure that each of its cit to limit the contact their wives had with other men . A woman's primary duty was to izens automatically accepted the lifetime of harsh discipline and regimentation that marry and produce the heirs that would perpetuate her husband's oikos (household). turned him into a professional soldier. It did so by making sure that it never entered his This was crucial , for a polis's strength depended on preserving the oikoithat provided mind to be anything else. His training began at birth. State officials examined each new- its fighting men . Poor women had no choice but to go out in public and work to earn ':.. ' .born, and only those infants that were strong were allowed to live. Because all males money to support their families, but their better-off sisters were confined to special : !~: . ,: .were destined to serve the state as full-time soldiers, the state had to support them. Each quarters in their homes and expected to be as invisible as possible. A woman could visit .~ , . : boy was assigned a kleros, a farm worked by slaves, to maintain him, and the state did family members, go to the neighborhood well to draw water, and attend some religious festivals,but she did not take part in social gatherings with her husband and his friends. " not invest in raising boys who could not fight. At the age of 6 or 7, a boy left home and reported to a military camp. The army Indeed , her husband may not have thought of her as a companion. Men often delayed playeda larger part in rearing him than did his family. He was taught basic literacy and marriage until they were about 30 years old and financially established. Their brides .subjected to trials that made him strong, courageous, and indifferent to hardship. At the were usually girls just past puberty who were half their ages. i ;~ age of 20 he saw front -line service. Ifhe acquitted himself well in battle until the age of Men were seldom at home and invested little in making their homes impressive or '-'i:.,) O, he was granted full citizenship. Those who failed to measure up were publicly hu- comfortable. They spent their time out of doors or in the public facilities that were a polis's chief source of civic pride-its temple precincts or its agora, a place to conduct '~J~ 'miliated and shunned. ~ ' For most of his life, a Spartan lived in barracks as a member of a is-man mess unit commercial and political business. A man had no opportunity to make female friends ":!,:"'called a sussition. A man's mess mates were closer to him than were his family members. outside his family circle. When he desired female company, he turned to hetairae; pro t :Hewas expected to marry and sire children, but he could not set up a household and fessional entertainers who ranged from simple prostitutes to highly educated women :#~e op e n l y with his wife until he received his full citizen privileges. This created unique who could engage a man in witty repartee and serious discussion. These women were
. ~~.~~ _..- ~~- ~?,( Aegean Civilizations 81 80 Chapter3 opportunities for Spartan women. Because their husbands were rarely at home and a their decision to halt development, ignore change, and pin their survival on a single man's time was taken up with military duties, women had both freedom and responsi strength ultimately proved fatal. bility. Sparta could not afford, like other poleis, to confine women to their homes, and the interests of the state dictated that they be given much better treatment than most Athens The polis that is most associated with the achievements of Hellenic civiliza Greek women received. To ensure that they grew up to give birth to healthy children, tion is Athens, an Ionian-speaking community on the plain of Attica in the upper por Spartan girls were fed well,given physical training, and not married until they were fully tion of the Greek peninsula. By the end of the Dark Age, its Mycenaean monarchy mature at age 18. ("one-man rule") had been replaced by an aristocracy ("rule by the best," by those of The Spartan system produced the best army in Greece for the simple reason that elite lineage). Its chief organ of government was the Council of the Areopagus, a com the Spartans were the only Greeks who could devote all their time to training and phys mittee of leaders from aristocratic families. The council's mandates were enforced by ical conditioning. Most poleiswere defended by part-time citizen militias, but the Spar three officials called archons, and it occasionally convened a popular assembly to pub tans had a professional army. Sparta's primary weakness was the difficulty it had in licize its edicts. At this stage in its development Athens resembled Sparta, but the two maintaining its population. Birthrates were low, and the harsh conditions of Spartan poleis steadily diverged. Sparta halted its economic and social evolution at this point by life increased mortality. absorbing all its men into a single class and training them for the same profession. The Spartans paid a high price for their system, but it gave them a tremendous Athens allowed an unregulated economy to create divisions and tensions within its so sense of pride. They did not marry foreigners and kept a careful eye on visitors to make ciety,and these propelled further political development. sure that outsiders did not spread alien ideas that caused citizens to question the Spar The citizens of Athens were not supported by the state. They had to earn their tan way of life. The polis's economy ensured social stability by preventing the develop own livings. As trade began to revive in the eighth century B.C.E., new sources of ment of a gap between rich and poor. Some trade was necessary, but a primitive wealth enabled some commoners to prosper, and they acquired the means to force medium of exchange using iron bars kept it to a minimum. Each Spartan had his kleros the landed aristocracy to share its power with them. This delivered Athens into the to guarantee him a living wage. Private property existed, but the flaunting of wealth was hands of an oligarchy ("rule by the few"), a government dominated by the rich as discouraged. The Spartans boasted of their coarse food, rough attire, and indifference well as the well born. Athenians who did not have large estates or commercial inter ests were at a serious disadvantage economically and politically. Each year, they had~ to comfort and luxury. Their educations taught them obedience to authority and tra a dition, and discouraged inquiry and speculation. to raise enough grain on their small farms to feed their families and, if they hOPr The Spartan polis had what the Greeks called a mixed constitution: that is, a gov to accumulate any savings to fall back on, some surplus for sale. In years when ha ernment that combined aspects of different political systems. The monarchical element vests were poor, they could not make ends meet. They had to borrow from th rich was represented by two royal families from whose princes the Spartans chose their and pledge to pay back their loans out of next year's crop. In effect, they mort a ed\ kings. Spartan kings had little civil authority. Their chief function was to serve as com a portion of their labor for the following year and bound themselves to work heir, ____ manders in the field. Sparta was a kind of all-inclusive aristocracy. Its chief organ of land for someone else's benefit. Over the long haul, the poor tended to dig the government was a council called the Gerousia. It was composed of 28 men over the age ' selves so deeply into debt that they were enslaved. Societies that allow wide gaps to of 60 who held office for life. The Gerousia set policies that were implemented by five develop between the few rich and the many poor flirt with disaster. The poor resent executives called ephors. The democratic element in the system was represented by a , their condition, and when a leader appears to mobilize them, they have the strength popular assembly to which all full citizens belonged . It elected the members of the Ger of numbers to foment revolution. Revolutions are often begun by a member of the ousia and the ephors, but had very limited powers. It met primarily to be advised of gov _privileged class who rallies the people and uses them to drive his competitors from ernment decisions. It could ratify or reject proposals put to it, but it could not debate the city. This leads to a form of government the Greeks called tyranny ("rule by an or suggest alternatives. Sparta also had a krypteia, a secret police corps that terrorized individual who seizes power"). the helots and eliminated potential troublemakers. , During the seventh century, many poleis passed into the hands of tyrants. The lead Sparta had reason to be proud of its achievements. It was more stable than most .- ing families in a polis were highly competitive and inclined to feud. When their fights poleis, and the other Greeks were in awe of its military might. But Spartan success threatened to destabilize a community, the lower classesoften rallied behind a tyrannos came at a cost. By refusing to evolve and by turning their backs on the outside world, ("a ruler who takes control by force") in an effort to restore order. Some tyrants abused the Spartans lived through one of the most creative periods in Western history with their authority and oppressed their subjects. But if a tyrant was wise, he remembered out being touched by it. In an era of unprecedented artistic and intellectual activity, the source of his power and courted the people by doing things that improved their the Spartans, with the exception of a few early poets, produced no great thinkers, au ' lives. He funded buildings, festivals, and programs that provided jobs, promoted civic thors, or artists. They focused exclusively on military matters and prided themselves _ pride, and enhanced the reputation of his polis. In the process, he might encourage the on ignoring most of the things for which Greek civilization became famous. Worse, 1~/: growth of popular government. That, at least, was the Athenian experience. :~ : " . B2 Chapter 3 Aegean Civilizations B3
In 632 B.C.E. the aristocrats of Athens thwarted an attempted coup by a popular power by providing loans for the poor, promoting trade, financing public works proj Olympic victor named Cylon. He raised a private army and seized the Acropolis, the ects to provide employment, and spon soring festivals. He commissioned a definitive citadel at the heart of Athens. He hoped that the Athenian masses would join him, but edition of Homer's works for the city's archives, and his support for rites honoring the they were not ready. The aristocrats put Cylon down, but the crisis alerted them to the popular rural god Dionysus marked the dawn of one of the glories of Athenian civiliza danger they faced. tion: the theater (see Chapter 5). In 620 B.C.E. the Council of the Areopagus asked an elderly aristocrat named Draco . When Peisistratus died in 527 B.C.E., his sons Hippias and Hipparchus succeeded to improve the enforcement of justice in Athens.Athens was governed by vague oral tra him. In 514 B.C.E. two men who had a personal grudge against Hipparchus tried to as ditions that were subject to manipulation by powerful individuals, and rather than sassinate him and his brother. Hippias escaped, but fear turned him into a ruthless, sus looking to the state for help, men often waged vendettas to punish those who wronged picious dictator. In 510 B.C.E. the Alcmaeonids, an aristocratic family that Peisistratus them. These private wars could easily get out of hand, and Draco sought to create a had driven into exile, enlisted Spartan aid and forced Hippias to flee Athens. The Ale credible alternative to them . His plan was to publish a code of law and make neutral maeonids' leader, Cleisthenes, became the city's next tyrant. state officials responsible for enforcing a standard of justice that applied equally to Cleisthenes set out to destroy the political machines on which the power of his aris everyone. Our word draconian ("extremely severe") derives from the harsh punish tocratic opponents was based by reforming Athens' electoral system. Each Athenian cit ments that Draco decreed for even minor offenses. He may have hoped that fear would izen inherited membership in a tribe through which he exercised his rights. These tribes inspire respect for the novel idea of rule by law. were under the thumbs of the great families that had long dominated Athenian politics. Legal reforms were a good thing, but they did not address the economic problems Cleisthenes minimized their influence by limiting the four original tribes to religious that were the chief source of discontent in Athens . In 594 B.C.E. the politicians in functions and transferring their political duties to ten new and differently constituted Athen s took the remarkable step of granting a man named Solon absolute authority tribes. Attica was divided into demes (counties or townships), and each of the new tribes to reorganize the polis. Solon began by abolishing the debts of the farm ers who had was made up of demes from every region of the country. This meant that great land become enslaved agricultural laborers. This got both the rich and the poor out of lords, who had always voted in tribes filled with their local dependents and retainers, what had become a mutually unprofitable situation. By cancelling their debts, Solon now had to vote with strangers over whom they had no power. Cleisthenes may have freed poor peasants to sell the small farm s that could not sustain them, and he pro gerrymandered the system for the benefit of his family, but it had the long-term effect vided them with alternative forms of employment. He promoted trade, made loans of freeing up individuals to vote as they pleased. Aristocratic advantage was further di to small bu sinesses, and invited foreign craftsmen with valuable skills to settle in minished by the practice of filling many offices by casting lots. Each tribe chose 50 of Athens. The rich were compensated by the opportunity this gave them to increase its members by lot to serve on a new 500-member boule that led the assembly and over their estate s and turn the land to more profitable uses. Poor farmers grew grain. They sawstate finances. . needed it to feed themselves, and it was the only crop that brought them a rapid re The assembly governed Athens, but it met only occasionally. When it or the boule turn on the little capital they had to invest. Grain did not grow all that well in Attica, wasnot in session, the aristocratic Council of the Areopagus was likelyto assume power but olives and grapes did . It made more sense to import grain and devote Athenian by default. Cleisthenes forestalled this by creating the prytaneis ("presider"). He divided land to the production of olive oil and wine for export. These were, however, capital the year into ten equal segments, each of which was assigned to one of the tribal com intensive crop s. Only the rich could afford the decades that it took to bring an olive mittees that composed the boule. For the tenth of the year entrusted to it, each 50-man grove or a vineyard into production. Solon's reforms cleared the way for wealthy in committee met daily as the prytaneis, the body that "presided" over Athens. Each day vestors to convert Attica from minimally profitable grain production to valuable ex during their term, the members of the prytaneis cast lots to determine which of them port crop s and for Athens to become a thriving manufacturing center. would serve as Athens' chief executive that day. Solon also implemented political reform . He reserved archonships, the polis'smost The army was also reorganized to reflect the principles by which the state was to be prestigious offices, to candidates from the wealthiest strata of society. Men who could governed. Each tribe provided a company for the army, and the soldiers elected their afford hoplite armor qualified for lesser offices, and the poor (who had no equipment own leader, their strategos ("general") . Because soldiers much prefer to follow officers but who rowed the city's warship s) were allowed to vote in the popular assembly and who have earned their trust, generals, unlike civilian leaders, could serve consecutive serve on juries. To help the assembly assert its authority, Solon created the boule, a terms. The board of ten strategoi was able, therefore, to provide some continuity for council of 400 representatives chosen from the four tribes into which the Athenian elec Athens' government. torate was divided. It prepared the agenda for meetings of the assembly. Finally, according to tradition, Cleisthenes instituted a special vote called an Solon's reforms were well conceived, but they did not improve people's livesquickly . ostracism to prevent anyone from overthrowing the system he had established. From enough to head off support for tyranny. In 560 B.C.E. a well-known military hero named ': time to time the Athenian electorate was asked to take ostraca (fragments of pottery used Peisistratus won control of Athens. He cultivated the masses who had lofted him to '" . as ballots) and scratch on them the name of any man suspected of posing a danger to Aegean Civilizations 85 84 Chapter 3
the city. No trial was held, but if an individual garnered 6,000 votes, he was immediately exiled for ten years. Cleisthenes's reforms launched Athens on an experiment with a radical version of an untested form of government that the Greeks called democracy ("rule by the demos:' the people). All laws and major policy decisions were made by the people themselves, not by a small group of their representatives. The use of lots to select men for office o meant that any individual, regardless of his talents and experience, had a chance offind ing himself charged, if only briefly, with major responsibilities. Small villages could op erate informally on similar principles, but Athens was no village. History was to prove if the unprecedented trust the Athenians placed in the masses was justified. SR? Aegean D The Persian Wars: Crucible of a Civilization
The larger world did not stand still while Greek civilization reorganized itself in the Aegean. In the wake of Mycenae's collapse and the invasions of the Sea Peoples, succes 4~ sive empires rose and fell in the Middle East. The Assyrians built on the ruins of the Hit tite and Egyptian empires. In 614 B.C.E. the Assyrians fell to the Chaldaeans, and in ..0 539 B.C.E. Chaldaean Babylon surrendered to Cyrus the Great (r, 559-530 B.C.E.), founder of a gigantic Persian Empire that ultimately stretched from Egypt to the bor ders of India and the Himalayan Mountains. ciI!wV/~...... ~ Ionia and Marathon In 547 B.C.E. Cyrus conquered the wealthy kingdom of Lydia -- .... ~ in central Asia Minor and pushed on to the Aegean to subdue Ionia, a coastal district oc P , ~'-J ,., 'LrJ.... __r---/? __4~ '__. -0'.,'1" Mlletus cupied by Greek cities. More important campaigns elsewhere and palace coups subse (/ a l1 ~V " If quently distracted him and his immediate successors from further adventures in the ' · ~ /)0 Aegean. In 499 B.C.E. the Ionian city of Miletus organized a rebellion that prompted the e, Persian emperor, Darius I (r. 522-486 B.C.E.), to return to the Greek world. Miletus asked lj Q '\) .•~O \j<,..~ the poleis of the mainland for assistance. Sparta refused, but Athens sent help. Athens was · Cb o"'t:-1 O~ • dependent on imported grain , and it feared that Persian control of the Hellespont might L:;;:-J "b • -- • Invasion by Darius ItA. endanger its access to supplies from the Black Sea. The Athenians also worried that Dar --Invasion by Xerxes ,-""" ~ :1:5:M:IL:E~S~~~~;===- _ ius might restore their exiled tyrant Hippias, who had fled to his court. The Greek rebels • Battles CYTHERA l) ~ 15 KILOMETERS had some initial successes, but after they drove the Persians from the former Lydian cap ital at Sardis, their alliance fell apart. Darius then counterattacked, recovered Ionia, and Map3-3 The Persian Wars The first of the Persian Wars was an attack from the sea on the plain of inflicted a horrible punishment on Miletus as a warning to the Greeks. . Marathon. The second involved a Persian army that was too large to be ferried across the Aegean . This map shows the routes taken by Xerxes' soldiers and the navy that accompanied them. (Stars In 492 B.C.E. Darius decided to make sure that a hope of support from the main .~:. mark the sites of major battles .) land never again tempted the Ionian cities to rebel. He demanded that the Aegean sub- . mit to Persia. Many of the Greek poleis, mindful of Miletus's fate, yielded, but Athens . "Question: What advantages and disadvantages did each ofthese strategies offer for and Sparta refused. In 490 B.C.E. Darius's fleet landed an army of 20,000 men on the .,. invaders ofthe Greek mainland? plain of Marathon about 20 miles north of Athens. Some Athenians wanted to surren~ j der, but the strategos Miitiades persuaded the assembly to fight. A champion runner was__~I! dispatched to Sparta to ask for help, but the Spartans claimed that a religious festival,,; prevented them from offering immediate assistance . The tiny polis of Athens (led by its : ~ new, untested democratic government) was left almost entirely alone to confront the 1 ,'''' superpower of its day (see Map 3-3). AegeanCivilizations 87 86 Chapter 3
Miltiades's army may have been half the size of the Persian force, but the battle on sage. This had failed at Therrnopylae, but the Spartan generals who commanded the the plain of Marathon gave his hop lites a chance to prove that Greek training and dis army saw no alternative. Athens, which lay north of the Isthmus, was abandoned to the cipline could compensate for inferio r numbers. Greek sources claim that 6,400 Persians, enemy. Its women and children were ferried to various islands, and its men took to their but only 192 Greeks, died at Marathon. Whatever the statistics, the losses persuaded the ships and watched as the Persians burned their city. Persians to withdraw. The delighted , but stunned, Athenians credited their victor y to In 482 B.C.E. the Athenian voters had made a remarkably intelligent decision that the patri ot ic morale generated by democracy,and like the Spartans, their confidence in now saved their homeland . A rich vein of silver was discovered in the state mines, and the program of their polissoared. the assembly had to decide what to do with the profits. Some politicians courted pop ularity by proposing that the money be shared among the citizens, but Themistocles, Thermopylae and Salamis The loss at Marathon angered the Persians far more the first non-aristocrat to rise to prominence in the young democracy, persuaded the than it hurt them, but a rebellion in Egypt and other problems prevented Darius from continuing the war. It fell to his son and heir, Xerxes (r. 486-465 B.C.E.) , to determine the Persian respon se. In 484 B.C.E. Xerxes began to make highly visible plans for a mas sive assault on the Aegean. This had the intended effect of persuading a number of poleis The Riseof Hellenic Civilization to submit voluntarily, but 31 states pledged to cooperate in defending the mainland. Prospects for their success were not good. The Persian army was huge-perhaps a quar THIRTEENTH CENTURY ter of a million men . Even the sacred oracles to whom the Greeks turned for advice were 1250 B.C. E., sack of Troy intimidated and did not offer much encouragement. 1200 B.C.E., fall of Mycenaean The Greeks wisely chose to take their stand at Therrnopylae, a narrow strip of Civilization beach in northern Greece that had mountains on one side and the sea on the other. Dark Age The Persians had to pass through Thermopylae to reach their targets in Greece, but -" EIGHTH CE NTURY its confines prevented their great army from spreading out and using the advantage 776 B.C.E., first Olympic victor of its numbers. If the Greeks' navy prevented Persia's ships from landing soldiers be 750-700 B.C.E., Homer hind the Greek lines , the allies could halt Persia's advance, and this alon e might have • 750 B.C.E., Greek colonization begins forced Xerxes to retre at. Sanitation problems spread disease in large armies unless 700 B.C.E., Hesiod Hoplite warfare develops they stayed on the move. Poleis appear The Greek allies mustered a mere 7,000 men to facethe Persians at Thermopylae, but . t with the help of their comm ander, the Spartan king Leonidas, they SEVENTH CENTURY repelled the Persians' assaults for three days. The battle was lost Spartan system established when a Greek traitor guided a troop of Persians through the' Atheni an system evolves: 632 B.C.E., Cylon's coup mountains to a position behind Leonidas's lines. Realizing that 620 B.C. E., Draco's law his position was untenable, Leonidas dismissed most of his men; 614 B.C.E., Assyrian Empire falls He, his 300 Spartans,and a handful of allies chose, however,to stay SIXTH CENTURY and fight to the death. Their willing self-sacrifice turned Ther mopylae into a moral victory and made them the most celebrated 594 B.C.E., Solon's constitution 560-527 B.C.E., Peisistratus tyranny heroes in Greek history. " 539 B.C.E., Chaldaean Empire falls The Greek army fell back to the Isthmus of Corinth; the 510 B.C.E., Cleisthenes exiles Hippias land -bridge between northern and southern Greece. The plan \ Cyru s founds the Persian Empi re was again to halt the Persian advance by blocking a narrow pas- ' , ~~ Democracy established FIFTH CENTURY
499 B.C.E., Miletus rebels Spartan Warrior Art objects from Sparta are rare finds , and this is one of 492 B.C.E., Persian Wars: Darius the most famous. It dates to the early fifth century B.C.E. It has been called 484-479 B.C.E., Persian Wars: Xerxes "Leon idas," after the famous Spartan commander at the battle of Thermo pyla e, but there is no proof that he was the intend ed subject. '.;. Aegean Civilizations 89 88 Ch apter 3
voters to prefer their publ ic to their private interest. He convinced them to use the Review Ouestions money to expand the ir navy and make Athens a major sea power. The Spartans wanted 1. What were the similarities and differences between the Minoan and Mycenaean the Athenians to use their navy to prevent the Persians from outflanking the Greek de kingdoms and those of Egypt and the Middle East? Do environments help to fenses on the Isthmus of Corinth, but Themistocles saw no advantage to Athens in explain these? sending its ships to protect the Peloponnese, which was Spartan territory. Because 2. Might people who live in a Dark Age be more open to cultural innovation than prospects for success on land were dismal, as Thermopylae had proved, he decided to those who inhabit a fully civilized period? Why? risk everything on a battle at sea. Themistocles lured the Persian navy into the str aits , 3. How did the Hellenic poleis differ from the Mycenaean kingdoms? between Attica and the island of Salamis, and his smaller, faster ships, which were op . ~ 4 . What explains the differences between the polis systems of Athens and Sparta? erating in familiar waters, outmaneuvered and sank many of the Persian transports. 5. What impact did the milit ary have on the development of Hellenic civilization? Xerxes could not afford to lose the navy that was his communications link with his em 6. How did the Persian Wars affect the way the Greeks viewed themselves and their pire. He chose to go home but to leave behind an army, under a general named Mar relationships with other peoples? donius, to continue the fight. Mardonius went into winter camp at Plataea , west of Attica , and prepared to re sume th e campaign the following spring. The Greeks used the time to amass the Pleaseconsult the Suggested Readings at the backofthe book to continue your study of largest army they had ever assembled, and in the spring of479 B.C.E. they took the of the material covered inthis chapter. For a list ofdocuments onthe Primary Source DVD fensive. Pausanias, th e Spartan regent for the heroic Leonidas's infant heir, com ROM that relate to topicsinthis chapter, please referto the backofthe book. manded the allied army. When he drove through the Persian line and killed Mardonius, the leaderless Persians scattered. The Greeks were again .amazed to dis cover th at th ey had succeeded against all odds. The conclusion seemed obvious: Their institutions were superior to all others, and there was no limit to what they might do.
KEY QUESTION I Revisited The Greeks' victories over the Persians persuaded them that there was a wide gap be tween their civilization and that of their opponents. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-425 B.C.E.), who wrote the first history of the Persian Wars, claimed that the Greeks won because they were free men fighting for their homeland, while the Persians were the dispirited subje cts of an autocrat. The war had been a contest between free dom and slavery, and Greek liberty had proved its superiority. Th ere were obvious contrasts betwe en Persia's empire and Greece's city-states, but th ere were also ties between the Greek and Persian worlds. The Mycenaean king doms had closely resembled and borrowed much from their Middle-Eastern neigh bors. Many of the Greeks who fled their collapse settled in the Middle East, strengthened tr ade ties between the Aegean and the Middle East, and adapted Middle-Eastern technologies (such as writing and infantry warfare) as they emerged from the ir Dark Age. Trade with Egypt and the Middle East was extremely impor tant to both th e Mycenaean and the Hellenic civilizations, and Greek artists and in tellectuals drew inspiration from, and had great respect for, the Middle East's older civilizations. There is no doubt that the Greeks were original and that they ulti mately changed the course of civilization throughout the ancient world, but the long-popular assumption that the y created a "West" that was independent of-and opposed to-an "East" can certainly be challenged.