Critical-Thinking Question

Home , Iberian Peninsula, Minoan civilization

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During the first millennium BCE, the Phoenician culture, centered on the eastern Bronze Age civilizations flourished in the coast of the Mediterranean in what today is Aegean region from about 3000 BCE until mostly Syria, sailed west and established about 1100 BCE, most notably the Minoan outposts on the North African coast, the and the Mycenaean cultures. Iberian Peninsula, and such islands as Sardinia, Sicily, and the Balearics. The pur- The center of the Minoan culture was the pose of these outposts was not settlement island of Crete. The early Minoan period last- or conquest, but trade: they were designed ed from 3000 to 2100; the Middle period to provide security and staging points for from 2100 to 1550; and the Late period from trade routes to Spain. One of these routes 1550 to 1100 BCE. The Minoan culture was at followed the African coast; the other was a its height from about 1700 BCE to 1100 BCE. more northerly course through the islands. Its economy was based on trade and mastery Permanent posts were set up at such key of the Aegean Sea, and its riches are reflect- points as Carthage and Utica (in North ed in its art and architecture, including Africa), Gades (in Spain), Genoa (in Italy), palaces that archaeologists have unearthed and Cyprus, by 750 BCE. at several sites. The Minoans left behind the earliest writing in the Greek language. Phoenician traders were based in Tyre or Byblos, but had influence throughout the Mycenaea, on the Greek mainland, gave its Mediterranean region. They traded in pot- name to a civilization that flourished from tery and jewelry, and from the western out- about 1600 to 1120 BCE. Coming into the posts, fish, dyes, and textiles. They were region from the north, the Mycenaeans were involved in silver, tin, and gold mining in builders, metalworkers, and conquerors. Spain. Phoenician prosperity ended with the They invaded Crete in 1400 BCE and Babylonian conquest of Tyre in 573 BCE. absorbed a substantial part of the Minoan civilization, and they dominated the Aegean During the same period that the for more than 200 years after that. Their Phoenicians expanded trade throughout the trading partners included peoples are far Mediterranean, what would be the great away as Syria and Egypt, and they built lux- city-states of Greece, including Athens and urious citadels. Sparta, were emerging on the Greek mainland (see inset map). Greek colonies, includ- The circumstances of the rather sudden ing Cumae in Italy in 760 BCE, were also Myceanaean decline are not well known, but founded. In the sixth century BCE, Greek it was probably due to invasion. The Dorian and Phoenician forces battled for control of people, who came from the northwest, sub- Sicily, Sardinia, and other strategic points. dued Corinth and Crete in 1100 BCE.

Critical-Thinking Question: Critical-Thinking Question: What purpose is served by the inset From the point of view of geography, why do you think the Minoans were able to map of the Greek homeland? develop a great civilization on Crete?

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Perhaps as early as 1550 BCE, Athens devel- oped around its Acropolis, the steep, craggy hill fortress that became the city's sacred center. By 1400, Athens was a major capital of the Mycenaen empire.

When Dorian invaders sacked other Mycenaen cities in 1180, Athens was spared, and its citi- zens did not disperse. The city lost influence during the Greek Dark Ages, but had regained its centrality in mainland Greek life by the 700s BCE, gaining an advantage over such rivals as Sparta and Thebes. Other nearby towns came under Athenian control in the years that followed. During this time, a king and a council of aristocrats called the Aeropagus ruled Athens.

In 594 BCE, the Aeropagus instructed the leader Solon to create a constitution. Solon divided Athenians into four classes, based not on birth but on wealth and achievement. In 510, Cleisthenes reformed Solon's system into a kind of democracy.

During the 400s BCE, a Greek coalition led by Athenians, the Delian League, defeated the Persian Empire in the battles of Marathon and Salamis. During this time, too, Athenian achievements in philosophy, literature, architecture, and the arts marked the time and place as a peak of world culture-the "Golden Age of Greece."

Athens' successes laid the groundwork for its Alexander, born in 356 BCE, the son of King Philip of Macedon, lived only 33 years. In that downfall, however, as Sparta led other Greek brief lifetime, however, his amazing conquests made him one of history's most influential figures. states against Athens and its allies in the Philip of Macedon was a military innovator: for hundreds of years most fighting had been Peloponnesian War, which ended with Athens' conducted via horse-drawn chariots; Philip added mounted infantrymen, charging in formation, to defeat in 404. Conquest by Philip of Macedon hold off the enemy infantry while a cavalry attacked the enemy's flanks. This new way of making in 338 ended Athenian sovereignty. war made Philip a successful conqueror; by the year 336 BCE, he had subdued Greece and made it part of a Greco-Macedonian union. That year, too, Philip was assassinated. Alexander, then 20 and already a skilled general, became king. He first consolidated power in Greece. Then, in 334 BCE, he moved against the Persian Empire. He conquered the western part of Asia Minor and then Tyre and Gaza in 332. Next, Syria and Egypt fell, and Babylon and Central Asia were conquered by 328. Alexander advanced as far as the Punjab region Critical-Thinking Question: Critical-Thinking Question: in the eastern part of India by 326 BCE, and he was prevented from going farther only by his own mutinous men. He then headed west Did Alexander's conquests follow a What were the key structures on the through what are now parts of Afghanistan and Iran, stopping at Susa and then heading to Babylon. Alexander died of a fever in 323 BCE straightforward route, for example, from at Babylon. east to west or from north to south? Acropolis? Alexander's empire fragmented after his death. His most enduring importance lies in the fact that his military conquests spread Greek culture throughout much of the Old World. How do you know?

In about 550 BCE, King Croesus of Lydia gained control of the Greek city-states on the coast of Asia Minor (Ionia), only to be conquered in 546 BCE by the Persian Empire. The city-states came under Persian control. Many Greeks chafed under Persia's harsh rule, which included oner- ous taxation and forced military service.

For this reason, an independence movement was gathering by 499 BCE, spearheaded by the Persian-appointed leader of Miletus, Aristogorus. Aristogorus sought to rally the stronger city- states to his cause and convinced Athens' leaders to give him a fleet of 20 ships. In 498 BCE, this armada gained control of Sardis, Lydia's capital. All the Greek city-states in Asia Minor eventually joined the Athenian cause. By 494, however, revolutionary enthusiasm had waned, and Persia had reasserted its authority. The Persians sacked Miletus that year.

Persian leaders wanted to punish the Athenian rebels so, under King Darius I, they launched an offensive in 490. The Greeks, under command of Militiades, defeated the Persian Empire at Marathon. It was a great Greek victory, but the Persian Empire remained powerful and still planned to punish Greece.

In 486 BCE, Xerxes succeeded Darius as Persian king. Athens, urged by the powerful Themistocles, was meanwhile assembling a large navy. Led by Sparta, Corinth, and Athens, it defeated Persian forces off the island of Salamis in 480 BCE. Greece also defeated Persia When Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE, there were few strong connections among the far-flung regions at Thermopylae that year. A year later, a hold- his armies had conquered. There also was no undisputed leader to replace him. Instead, his generals divided the empire into three main dynasties-Ptolemaic Egypt, Macedonia, and the Seleucid Kingdom, named for its out Persian general, Mardonius, fell at the Battle leader Seleucus I Nicator. By 281 BCE, only the Seleucid and Egyptian dynasties remained as political entities. of Platea. Greek dominance in the region was assured. Seleucus's reign was marked by overreaching, defeat, and finally the assassination (in 281 BCE) of its leader. In 304 BCE, an invasion of India by Seleucus's forces was rebuffed; over the next few years, the provinces of Gedrosia and Arachosia broke free. By about 275 BCE, the Seleucid Kingdom had been reduced to Syria, Bactria, and Parthia, and in 250, Bactria and Parthia seceded. Critical-Thinking Question: Despite the political disintegration of the Seleucid Kingdom, its fragments, along with Macedon and Egypt, all retained features of the Hellenistic culture. Great advances were made in science, technology, and the arts throughout the Hellenistic world. How does the map allow us Critical-Thinking Question: to reconstruct key events Antiochus III, the most powerful of the Seleucid kings, ruled the Syrian region from 223 to 187 BCE. His attempts to extend his power over Greece, How does the map indicate that Greek however, were resented by the rising Roman Empire, which would eventually conquer all the lands Alexander had won for Hellenism. Meanwhile, influence was widespread after from the Persian Wars? Hellenic expansion created various tensions in Greece itself that weakened the great civilization. By 146 BCE, Greece was no more than a Roman province itself. Alexander's conquests?

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The emergence of the Persian Empire was one of history's examples of a swift trans- formation of an obscure people into a great world power. In 549 BCE, King Cyrus, ruler of a small Persian kingdom, united two Aryan peoples, the Persians and the Medes. Within 10 years, he had subdued a vast swath of territory including Asia Minor and Babylonia. During the next few decades, his son Cambises and then the stronger leader Darius engulfed territory to the north and to the east, including parts of Central Asia and the Indus Valley. Lands as far west as Egypt and Thrace, on mainland Greece, fell under Persian sway.

A bureaucracy based in Persia controlled the Empire, and its government was marked by its relatively humane treatment of conquered people. Cyrus wrote of working for the well being of Babylonia's people: "I did not allow any to terrorize the land of Sumer and Akkad," and "Their dilapidated dwellings I restored." Persia's leaders divided the empire into 20 provinces (satrapies), each ruled by a governor (satrap). Military officials appointed by the king checked the satraps' powers.

The Persian Empire, the most powerful the ancient world had known, was famous for post roads that linked major cities. Stations were set up every 14 miles to allow the king's couriers to travel vast distances effi- ciently. The Empire was also known for its artistic tradition, to which all civilizations under its control contributed.

Critical-Thinking Question: Why would the construction of well-main- tained and supplied roads have been a priority for the leaders of the Persian Empire?