Fredricksmeyer Herbst

The Origins and Transmission of Classical Greek Culture into the Modern Era: A Select Outline

See table on last page

Dark Ages (1100-750) - Archaic Period (750-480) Orientalizing Period (esp. 8th century): Afroasiatic influences in literature (Epic of Gilgamesh), architecture (stone quarrying, measurement), sculpture (Egyptian Grid System), etc., see especially Walter Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution (1995)

Archaic Period - Classical Period (479-323) Greeks: ARTS and HUMANITIES, and the SOCIAL, NATURAL and APPLIED SCIENCES (i.e., the disciplines of the modern academy), including: literature, architecture, sculpture, mathematics, medicine, historiography, philosophy, etc. throughout the Mediterranean world and up into the Black Sea especially under Pericles (the Greek “Golden Age” ca. 450-431) why the Greeks: democracy, Olympianism, etc.

Alexander (356-323) tutored by Aristotle helps spread Greek culture and language all the way to the Hindu Kush

Hellenistic Period (323-31) four (Greek) kingdoms― Antigonids in Greece and Macedonia, Seleucids in Asia Minor, Middle East and beyond Ptolemies in Egypt, esp. Alexandria Koine Greek (cf. the New Testament) Battle of Actium: Octavian (subsequently known as Augustus Caesar) vs. Antony and Cleopatra-31 BCE Library of Alexandria burned

Rome conquers the four (Greek) kingdoms by 31 BCE, but Gracia capta ferum victorem cepit. (Horace, Epistle 2.1, 156-157)

Division of the Roman Empire (324) under Emperor Constantine Rome Constantinople Christianity official religion of Roman Empire

Rome “falls” 476 Romulus Augustus deposed by German general Odoacer Implosion of western Roman empire, eastern Roman Empire continues until 1453 CE (see below) Muslim scholars esp. 12th century: transmission of Aristotle Aristotelian philosophy largely lost to the west during the Early Middle Ages (ca. 500-1000) aka Averroes (98-1126) (ابن رشد :Ibn Rushd (Arabic Andalusian Arab-Muslim in Moorish Spain and Alhambra polymath: 67 scholarly books on mathematics, astronomy, Islamic theology and law, music, geography, philosophy reintroduced Aristotle to the High Middle Ages of Europe (ca. 1000-1500), when Christian and Sephardic Jewish scholars translate his other Arabic commentaries on Aristotle from Arabic into Latin, and his teaching becomes esp. influential at the University of Paris, and other medieval universities for five centuries― "Averroes was great because of the tremendous stir he made in the minds of men for centuries. A history of Averroism would include up to the end of the sixteenth-century, a period of four centuries which would perhaps deserve as much as any other to be called the [High] Middle Ages, for it was the real transition between ancient and modern methods." (George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science) Averroism: the “Double Truth” (vs. Thomas Aquinas) “founding father of Western secularism”-the emancipation of philosophy and science from religion, as coupled in medieval scholasticism

Aristotelianism an ambiguous legacy Will Durant (intellectual historian): “No other philosopher has contributed more to the enlightenment of the world than did Aristotle.” see the “ethical mean” Francis Bacon (1561-1626, early proponent of the inductive method of modern science): “Aristotle the tyrant” the oppressive orthodoxy of some scholasticism (Christian theology + Aristotle): insistence on Aristotle and his followers’ incorrect understanding of human anatomy, geocentric galaxy, perfection of the heavenly bodies (cf. Galileo condemned for heresy in 1633, etc.) vs. Aristotle the empiricist

Constantinople falls (1453) Byzantine scholars who had already been in contact with Italy now flee in greater numbers, see especially Chrysoloras Plato had been largely lost to west during the Early and High Middle Ages, reintroduced especially by Byzantine scholars after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, under their influence a Neoplatonic school opened in Florence

Rediscovery of classical antiquity, e.g., the statue of Laocoön

Renaissance (Rebirth [of Classical Culture]), Scientific Revolution (95% of all medical-scientific vocabulary based on Latin and Greek), and the Modern Era Table: Transmission of Greek Culture Dark Ages (11000750) - Archaic Period (750-480 BCE) Orientalizing Period (esp. 8th century BCE)

Archaic Period - Classical Period (479-323 BCE) the ARTS and HUMANITIES, and SOCIAL, NATURAL and APPLIED SCIENCES throughout much of the Mediterranean world and Black Sea

Alexander (356-323 BCE) Hellenic culture all the way to the Hindu Kush

Hellenistic Age (323-32 BCE)

Antigonids Seleucids (and Attalids) Ptolemies (Macedonia and Greece) (Asia Minor and Syria) (Egypt, esp. Alexandria)

Rome (conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms by 31 BCE)

324 CE

Constantinople Rome (falls 476 CE)

Muslim scholars. e.g., Averroes (Aristotle and Greek science)

Christian and Sephardic Jewish scholars

Byzantine Scholars Rediscovery of Classical Antiquities, e.g., Laocoön (late 15th (up to fall of Constantinople. 1453 CE) century CE)

European Renaissance (Rebirth [of classical culture]), the Scientific Revolution, and the beginning of the Modern Era