WESTERN CIV. I C

Greece: From Oikos to The Greek Art of War Sparta Polis and The Polis

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Today we are going to turn away from the Near East for the first time and begin to look at Europe. The first civiliza- tion of Europe that we are to study is that of Greece; but before turning to history, we must look briefly at the geog- raphy of the Greek lands. In ancient times, the center of the Greek world was not the modern country of Greece at all, but the body of water called the Aegean Sea. The Greeks settled along the coasts of this sea, including the eastern fringe which is now a part of Turkey. In general, the most important Greek areas were those close to the sea. There was also considerable settlement in the islands of the Aegean. The Aegean area where the Greeks lived was very different from the Near Eastern regions which we have discussed so far. There are no large rivers in the Greek world, so that Greek development was not dominated by rivers as in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Fortunately, rainfall in Greece was heavier than in the East so that desert conditions Mycenaean Civilization did not appear. The country is generally broken up by mountains which form many Mycenae was a citadel small valleys but few large plains. Because of the mountains it was difficult for Greeks palace that included exten- to travel from one place to another by land. This is why from very earliest times, the sive fortifications, granaries, Greeks relied on the sea as a means of getting from place to place. They were sailors guardrooms, shrines and a and traders. few private dwellings situ- This Aegean region was inhabited by civilized peoples from about 1950 B.C. on- ated around the palace ward. The civilization in this early period differed in many respects from the civiliza- tion of later Greece, and I want to consider it as a separate phase of Aegean history. complex. It is among the Bronze Age civilization in Greece is called by historians the Mycenaean Civilization, best examples of Bronze or sometimes, the Helladic. It lasted from about 1600 to 1200 B. C. The name Myce- Age Aegean architecture. naean was given to the period by archaeologists who read their Homer and believed that the first Greek site that they discovered was the city of Mycenae in the Iliad.

P a g e 1 o f 16 Until relatively recently, modern scholars had very little information as to what this Mycenaean Civilization was like. The Greeks of later times had many myths and legends about great heroes who lived in Greece in the Bronze Age, but most of these stories were long regarded as fictitious. Then, in 1876, a German archeologist named Heinrich Schliemann decided to go to Greece to look for traces of the Bronze-Age inhabitants. He conducted archeological work at a place called Mycenae in southern Greece. As a re- sult, he found the first important remains of the Bronze Age peoples. For this reason, the civilization is called Mycenaean. Since Schliemann’s time, there have been many finds at other sites. Most of the discoveries have consisted merely of buildings and artifacts, but in 1938, an American expedition found a series of 600 clay tablets which were preserved in a build- ing that had burned down at Pylos. The tab- lets are written in a kind of syllabic picture writing, which archeologists called Linear B script. In 1953, an Englishman named Mi- Bronze Age Aegean Civilization chael Ventris succeeded in deciphering this script, thus making it possible to read the tab- Three distinct Bronze Age Civilizations grew up in the Aegean lets and to identify the language in which they area. The Minoan culture (in an earlier lecture) grew up on the were written. The discovery was important island of Crete. The Cycladic culture grew up on the Aegean because it showed that the language was not islands in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, and the only a member of the Indo-European family, Mycenaean culture (see map but an ancestor of later classical Greek. So above). Mycenaean culture the Mycenaeans were evidently one group of was a Late Bronze Age ancestors of later Greeks who migrated into Culture that employed the Aegean world before the other Greeks chariot warfare and fell arrived. during the Catastrophe of On the basis of this evidence, it is now 1200 to be replace with a possible to draw some tentative conclusions new Iron Age Culture in about the organization of the Mycenaean Greece after about 1100 Civilization. There were many different cen- ters of Mycenaean settlement, and they are B.C.. all very similar. Each is dominated by a large fort set on a high hill. Inside the fort is a pal- ace, residences for a few officials, and large storerooms for grain, wine and other prod- Right: A Mycenaean ucts. The fort itself was reserved for the ruler and his aides. Most of the population lived in amphora, ca. 1350 B.C. small crude villages scattered in the farmlands surrounding the fort.

P a g e 2 o f 16 Mycenaean Society This suggests that there was a clearly dominant class of rulers who were set apart from everyone else. The graves seem to bear this out. A few Mycenaean families were buried in elaborate tombs dug out of the ground and lined with blocks of stone. They were often buried with gold and other precious items. But most people were buried simply in the ground with a few pots. The 600 clay tablets are all economic records, lists of goods deposited in the forts. But they do give us some idea of what the government was like. There was no central government in Greece extending over the whole civilization. Each fort was the residence of an independent ruler called a wanax. The word wanax, which means lord, is significant in itself. The later classical Greeks used this world only in referring to gods. We also know from the tablets that the wanax was con- nected in some way with various fertility gods of the Mycenaeans. From this evidence, modern scholars have concluded that the wanax was either considered to be a god or appointed by gods. The very fact that the tablets are economic records suggests that the wanax controlled economic life in the region he ruled. The wanax at Pylos, where the records were found, collected tribute from a large area in southwestern Greece – an area greater than any ruled by a single state in classical Greek times. He apparently had a number of lesser administrative and military officials to help him maintain his government. Now all of this ought to sound familiar to you because it is similar to what we saw earlier in the ancient Near Eastern civilizations. The Mycenaeans had a divine or semi-divine ruler, they had a highly centralized government and economy, and a small ruling class. Why it is so similar to the Near East is not hard to figure out, because the Mycenaeans had a lot of contact with the East. They were good sailors, and it was easy for them to trade with the more advanced peoples of the Near East. We know from pottery and other objects that they did trade with the Hittites, the Canaanites, and especially with Egypt. They seem to have gotten their ideas of what government should be like from the Near East. They were far enough away so that there was some differences in organization, art, and religion. But basically they were not too different from the Near Easterners. Collapse of Mycenaean Civilization The Mycenaean culture flourished until about 1200 B.C. At this time, new settlements and burial patterns became established all over the Aegean – especially in Greece. Somewhat later, Bronze Age tools began to be replaced with iron technology. The Mycenaean culture that had dominated Greece vanished altogether. In fact, archaeological evidence indi- cates that around 1200 B.C. civilizations all over the eastern Med. were either destroyed or aversely effected by something, and scholars have come to call that something the catastrophe of the 1200s B.C. Various scholars have come up with a number of interpretations to try to explain the catastrophe. So, we should review the main interpretations briefly. Whatever the cause, the collapse was complete. All of the traits which we associate with the civilization disappeared. Linear B writing disappeared, and it was not found again. Writing does not start again until about 750 B. C., and it is a completely different kind of writing introduced from Phoenicia. The forts were abandoned, and no large buildings or elaborate tombs are found again for about 400 years. Metal did not disappear completely, but bronze tended to be re- placed by a very inferior, at first, kind of iron. Written records vanished along with Bronze Age technology. The period of Greek history from the collapse of the Bronze Age to about 800 B.C. is often called the Greek Dark Age because so little written evidence of the period exists. We will look at this period in a bit, but first, let’s take a look at the geography of the Aegean and Greece because the geography of the area will have a great deal of influence on Greek civilization.

P a g e 3 o f 16 Greece: From Oikos to Polis

Location and Climate: The Greek world consists of the Mediterranean basin. The center of the Greek world in ancient times is the Aegean Sea. Although culturally diverse the Mediterranean can be considered a geographical unit. The most distinctive feature of it is its seasonal variation in rainfall. Summer rainfall is limited and the weather in the northern Mediterranean is warm. In the winter, the winds shift and bring more rainfall. The average summer rainfall is 6-10". In the winter it is 20". The winter is the growing season in the Greek world.

Topography: The topography of the Greek world is marked by broken lands. It was created by a land uplift where rising and falling continues today. Active volcanoes still exist in the lower Balkans and earthquakes are still common. Because of this ragged terrain, only about 20 percent of the area of mainland Greece is agriculturally useful. Mountains are not high – Olympus is only about 10,000 feet. The soil is high in limestone content which makes agriculture difficult. The hilltops are covered with scrubs which are useful for graz- ing sheep and goats and for burning to make charcoal.

Mineral Resources are somewhat more dependable than the agricultural resources. Several sites near rivers yield a high quality clay for pottery, a very important resource in the ancient world. There are also some metal ores near Athens, especially silver, and iron is found near Sparta.

Geography and World View: Because of the broken mountainous topography of Greece, travel on the mainland is very difficult. This factor is important if we wish to understand the ancient Greeks. It accounts for the isolated settlement patterns that began in Greek prehistory and continue even today. It also accounts for the fact that the Greeks became a seafaring people. It was easier to travel long distances by sea in order to trade, raid, or colonize their excess population, than to cross the mountains of their homeland.

Finally, this terrain contributed greatly to the way that the Greeks saw themselves in relation to their culture. A Greek tended to see himself as a Hellene, that is a member of the community of Greek speakers, only when all of Greece was threatened. Usually a Greek identified himself with his city first. For instance, an Athenian citizen felt that his first loyalty was to Athens, not to Greece. As we shall see, Greece was not one country or nation, but a bunch of independent city-states. Greece was populated from the Stone Age, but it is not very important to study these peoples here. We have already looked at Greece in the context of the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. So, now we’ll pick up our study just after the collapse of the Bronze Age at the beginning of the Iron Age during the period that some historians call the Greek Dark Age (1150-800 B.C.) and archaeologists and art historians call the Protogeometric pe- riod (1050-900 B.C.). As you can see, the two periods describe two slightly different, but overlapping spans of time.

P a g e 4 o f 16 The Greek Dark Age

The end of the Mycenaean period marked the end of any high civilization on the Greek mainland for about 350 years. This period is referred to as the Greek dark ages. Greece became isolated from the rest of the eastern Medi- terranean. In the Mycenaean period there had been a dominant, and very clearly defined, ruling class. During the Dark Age these older class distinctions largely disappeared, pri- marily because there simply wasn’t enough material wealth for an elite class to exist. City states on the Myce- naean model gave way to small family groups tied to spe- cific, relatively small tracts of land. The basic unit of gov- ernment and society was the oikos, which might best be translated as “household.” each household had its own religious observances, laws and loyalties. Members of the oikos included the central extended family, landless warri- ors who threw in with the family, retainers who were tech- nically free, and farmed and tended livestock, and finally a very few slaves who had been taken in battle. Government of the oikos was relatively simple. The family acted to protect its members from outsiders, and Greek family dwelling during the Dark Age male family members combined both to defend their own family, lands and livestock, and, from time to time, to raid This Dark Age house indicates the relative poverty of the neighbors and steal livestock and women. Decisions af- period. Note that whole extended family lived inside these fecting the whole oikos were made by a council of elders, probably under the guidance and influence of the family walls. Also note that there is only one way in and out of the head. house; a sign that the times were insecure — the entry hall Greece in the dark ages might best be described as a frontier society. Folks to protected what was theirs and could serve as a point of defense if the household was at- occasionally took what they could from other oikoi. Inter- tacked. These are not sumptuous digs. familial activities were most often those of the blood feud. Because there were virtually no differences of wealth within the family, there existed a strong assumption the all males old enough to fight were equal. Religion in the dark ages was rather complicated. These early Greeks were animists and ancestor worshipers. Greek households were filled with spirits that protected the family, its storehouses, its livestock, and encouraged fertility. Members of the oikos also venerated the dead. At death the body and soul of the deceased was thought to be filled with dangerous and powerful manna, and a great deal of care had to be taken to insure that the manna would be used for the good of the family. To avoid pollution and to protect the living, family members had to take several steps [you should think of this when you read about death in the Homeric epics]. The body had to be properly disposed of by cremation or a decent bur- ial. Offerings had to be made to feed the dead and insure that the spirit of the deceased was pacified. Family members were supposed to make offerings to the dead at certain times thereafter. So, in effect, it fell to the living to continually care for their ancestors. This tied the family even closer to their traditional lands. The Greeks placed a great deal of emphasis on "home" as a specific geographical place. If a family was pushed out of their ancestral lands then the family graves would go untended, and bad things might come of it. This was a warrior society. The best families were still those who were the most able to defend their own lands, while stealing land, cattle and women from other villages.

P a g e 5 o f 16 A Word on Wife Stealing The idea that Dark Age Greeks stole women should be mentioned in more detail. Wife stealing is not an unusual practice in primitive societies, especially societies in which neighboring families or tribes feud with each other on a regular basis. Here is the problem in a nutshell. a. Every family needs women in order to continue to propagate. b. Incest is universally accepted as a bad thing, so females should come from an- other family to expand the gene pool some. c. But the available supply has to come from another family, and “neighbor” and “enemy” are pretty much synonymous, thus neither marriage arrangements or courtship will work. If Billy shows up to take Kate to a movie, Kate’s family will kill Billy rather than ask him embarrassing questions about his health or future job prospects and make tacky comments about his clothing and haircut. d. So, the only way out of the dilemma is to raid the neighbors and steal brides in addition to livestock, weapons and anything else that isn’t nailed down. This system has another effect that will become important a little later Archaic Hero Cults in Greek history. Since wives have come from neighboring oikoi, over time Although hero cults would become different in the neighbors become cousins, and when they fight a little less, they will begin Classical period of Greece, the earliest to see that they are all part of a much larger extended family. Archaic hero cults centered on some ethnic Genoi and Hero Cults ancestor and united Sometimes, as a result of this realization of relatedness, several families several families into a would form into a larger tribal unit called an genos. These genoi were ruled larger unit, the genos. by a chief (who led in warfare) and a council of elder warriors called the Common early heroes included Herakles boule. This was a very primitive form of government. Yet we can see the (photo above), Oedipus, roots of classical greek political systems in it. In fact some greek city states Theseus, Achilles, or never advanced much beyond this system. other great warriors that One factor that further united the various families (oikoi) was the growth would be associated with the Trojan War. Some heroes were probably female (see photo right). and promotion of the idea that genoi were united by a common important Cult centers to these heroes began to grow up all ancestor known as a hero. Generally a hero was a semi-divine ancestor who over Greece in the early 800s B.C., uniting fami- was long dead. The cult of the hero formed the center of the community. lies into larger communities and becoming the The hero cult united all of the families into a familial and spiritual whole. basis for later Greek religious observances. Each family had an alter to the hero in their homes or on their lands, and a larger alter or building was devoted to the cult to be used by the entire genos on special feast days and other occasions. Over time, small villages began to develop around the cult centers. these villages became the centers of local government, of markets and for craftsmen to produce and market their wares. In the mid-800s B.C., Greek agricultural production began to increase and populations began to rise. As prosperity began to return to greece, some villages began to grow into larger towns and trade all over the Eastern Medi- terranean grew, encouraging further town growth and better organized government and economic activity in the Greek world. Probably the first Greek community to benefit from the prosperity and trade was Athens. This Bronze Age Mycenaean community had been less adversely affected than other areas by the fall of Bronze Age civilization, so it was most likely the first area to revive. Artifacts found at Athens indicate that the economy had weathered the Dark Age and prospered throughout the period. Gold jewelry from an Athenian tomb of a wealthy woman. Ca. 900 B.C.

P a g e 6 o f 16 Emergence of The Polis of the polis. And therefore, despite his duties and political position, he was no more important than any other citizen. Eventually more formal political institutions emerged in some cities of Greece. By the late 800's B.C. limited trade Leadership skills were still linked to battle skills. So, a was restored between Greece and the near east. From this stronger or more able warrior might come along and chal- contact, and from the information about the Mycenaean lenge and replace the basileus. This would make it difficult to age left to them in their epics, some Greek cities began to enforce continuity in leadership. develop more complex structures of government. The solution was for the community to elect an annual The growth of prosperity contributed to growth of gov- magistrate to represent them in political and religious mat- ernment. A food surplus in the late dark ages caused a rise ters and to provide a check on the king. The position carried in population, which in turn led to a need for greater or- no pay and required a lot of time. So, only a wealthy indi- ganization. Family and tribal government was not enough. vidual, who could afford to leave his farm to his family and Towns arose in Greece, and these communities required slaves could serve. Gradually the magistrate came to replace some way to settle disputes peacefully, and to represent the basileus altogether. themselves in extra-community activities. When the king was replaced by a magistrate, the coun- Eventually the communities began to absorb all of the cil, became a deliberative organ of government. The boule functions of the oikos, becoming a sort of super-family. This met and determined policy for the community. In this way is important because it means that there was a strong as- the boule became very influential. sumption in these early Greek communities that everyone At about this time the citizens, that is, all of the males who bore arms in the defense of the community was equal. who bore arms in defense of the community, began to meet This is the basis of the Greek polis. “Polis” could be de- in order to vote on issues that were important to the entire fined as city, or city-state, or community. In fact, the polis population of the polis. They had no power to make propos- was a sort of community headquarters. Most members of als. This power was held by the boule. The assembly could the community lived outside of the polis on small farms. only vote yes or no on the proposals handed down to them They came to the polis only when it was necessary for the by the boule. community to meet as a whole. A polis would never become As you can probably guess, the boule gradually became very large though, because it rarely crossed natural barriers the most important group in the polis. It came to contain the such as the sea or mountains. most important citizens, the “best” men of the community The polis was usually dominated by a large, well-fortified — the aristoi. These men were the members of the commu- hill. This area was a refuge in times when the city had to be nity who were the largest landholders. These men gradually defended. Probably for this reason a temple to the patron came to rule the archaic polis. Aristocratic rule became a god or goddess of the city was built here. This area was feature of greek politics in the period. called the "high" - acro - "town" - polis -- the acropolis. The other major feature was a large flat area, or field. Originally this area was used for town meetings and for mustering soldiers. But as the towns began to prosper it became a market place where farmers and traders could sell their wares. This area was the agora. Amphora Government of the polis — as the polis developed po- featuring the litical power shifted from the family and tribal chieftains to a single hereditary king who had both political and relig- funeral of an ious duties - the basileus. But the king of a polis was never as Athenian strong as an eastern monarch or a pharaoh. There were a Aristocrat. Ca. couple of reasons for this: 800 B.C. There was no precedent for a strong central ruler in Greek tradition. Families and villages had had a war leader, but day-to-day decisions had been made by the council of elders. Even though the basileus was king he was still a member

P a g e 7 o f 16 Aristocratic Rule As I said earlier, between 750 and 600 B.C., there was a strong presupposition of equality in Greek communities. So, what were the origins of these aristocratic families? In the late dark ages prowess in war was considered the most excellent quality that men could have (arete). Some men gained great prestige through military accomplishments. These men were called aristoi. Since the best soldiers tended to obtain more loot, their families became richer than the other families. They got the largest share of any new lands. Since the aristoi had the largest land holdings, they had surplus wealth to lend to the other farmers. If the farmers who borrowed from the aristoi were unable to repay the loans, the lender might either take the borrower's land, or the borrower might be forced into slavery until the debt was paid. Thus the aristoi became even wealthier. These same wealthy families came to have great political power. Their wealth gave them leisure time which was necessary in order to hold the political positions of the polis, as magistrates and council members, they controlled the poli- cies of the polis. The aristocrats became a distinct and elite class within the polis. The aristocrats had more leisure time and more wealth. Which they used to take greater advantage of the fruits of trade with the outside world. They associated with each other. They engaged in intellectual activities such as listening to poets, and discussions about epics, philosophy and war- fare, and improving their military skills. The aristoi developed a “class consciousness.” that is, they began to see themselves as a group set apart from, and supe- rior to, other citizens, not because of their wealth, but because of some special quality which they alone had. They devel- oped family trees which emphasized that their family had been founded by some mythical hero or god. They told stories that emphasized their importance and power, and they controlled their communities. But, as we will see, their control over many greek communities was fairly short lived. The strong presumption of equal- ity, and changes in the economic and social structures within the polis, made it impossible for any one class within the community to exercise complete control. Tyrants and Reform The high-handed manner in which the aristoi treated the people caused a great deal of discontent among the lower classes. Some members of the aris- tocratic class began to support reform. But since the aristoi had a stranglehold on the government of the polis, it was difficult to use the traditional means of legislation to pass reform laws. So the individuals promised reform used violent means to gain their aims. They took control of the polis. In this way the rule by an aristocracy was re- placed by rule by a tyrant. Tyrants usually were them- selves aristoi, who used the broad power base of popu- lar support to defeat their fellow aristoi and gain per- sonal power. Although tyrants gained control of the polis in order to pass reforms, they sometimes became brutal and absolute as time went on. This would usu- ally cause the people, usually led by the to rebel Aristocratic Social Life against the tyranny. The new form of government Aristoi loved to party. They would drink, shmooze with their would vary. In most cases the new government would buddies, and listen to bards sing songs about their hero an- be, to some extent, democratic. cestors. The party became a host’s means of showing off his wealth.

P a g e 8 o f 16 THE GREEK ART OF WAR AND THE POLIS

I read in the papers a couple of years ago that there was a booming trade in the U.S. in funerary objects from the 1800s. You know, the little marble or cement statues of angels, tearful kids, and so forth that were used to decorate graves. If you go to New Orleans and visit an old cemetery down there you see them all over the place. People would actually steal them and ship them up north to sell in ritzy antique stores in New York or Boston. You’d go to place some flowers at Great Aunt Winona’s grave, and notice that the concrete angel was gone... Well, it occurred to me the other day as I was reading the Iliad that one of the things that the members of the Archaic oikoi were doing to make ends meet, was grave robbing. How did I arrive at this weird conclusion? Actually, by looking at the descriptions of warfare in the Iliad. Let me illustrate: First, let’s look at chariots. The Greeks of Homer’s day didn’t have them. But, apparently they knew that the Mycenaeans did. They appear in every battle scene in the Iliad. What the Homeric Greeks didn’t know was how they are used in battle. Homer describes chariots as battlefield taxis that take heros here and there on the field, then stop, and the hero gets off the chariot to fight duels with other heros on foot. This makes chariots, that were such awesome Bronze-Age missile weapon platforms about as useful as a bicycle in a swimming pool. So... Archaic Greeks knew about chariots. How? Simple. Chariots were among the grave goods in the tombs of Mycenaean warriors. Homer knew that heroes had them, but he didn’t have a clue how they used them. He needed chariots in his epics, because everybody knows, heroes have chariots; hell, they’re buried with ‘em. Homer lived in an age when Greek aristoi bred and rode horses. When Greek aristocrats went into battle with their retainers, they rode horses to the battle field, but they dismounted to fight. So, Dark Age pot showing chariot. Greeks of Homer’s time Homer reasoned that Mycenaean heroes did the same thing, but with chariots. knew about chariots, but not how to use them.

P a g e 9 o f 16 Second, Homer knew about the weapons and armor apart from the common people, so, we can assume that that Mycenaean warriors wore, and warriors of his age when they went to war they had some kind of code that didn’t. Homer gives Ajax and a couple of other heroes big required them to engage in lots of individual warfare, and “figure eight” shields that were made out of ox hide and primarily only with other aristoi on the other side. We know covered a fighter from head to toe. He gave some warriors from other cultures that when one class believes that they helmets made of leather with boars tusks sewn onto the are superior in war to another, they adopt such codes. A leather. His heroes use mostly bronze weapons, and consider couple of other examples of this kind of military culture iron a luxury, but don’t actually use iron for their main ar- would be the knightly culture of the European Middla Ages mor and weapons. Homeric warriors used iron weapons. and the samurai culture of Japan. Part of this code also re- Admittedly lousy iron weapons, but iron nevertheless. So, quires that individuals display what has been called “rage how did Homer know about all of these Mycenaean arti- militaire,” that is, aristocratic warriors were impelled to fight, facts lost to Greece some 300 years earlier? Simple. Greeks driven to risk life and limb, no matter what the odds. The of his day were grave robbers. I have to admit that I have warrior relishes opportunities to engage in battle, especially only circumstantial evidence for this theory, but it seems to individual combat with other warriors. It is on the battle- fit the facts. The truth is that Homer really didn’t know field in individual combat with other warriors of his own HOW Mycenaean warriors fought. But he knew how men class that the warrior proves himself, wins fame, prestige, of his own age fought, so he described that and added the honor. Remember that there were also lots of other, non- elements of the earlier civilization to make an epic. So what aristocratic, men on those battlefields, they are, for Homer a was warfare like in the late Archaic? fairly faceless bunch who usually show up as a sum (i.e. “a thousand Myrmadons”), but to Homer and his aristocratic Rage Militaire listeners they don’t count. It’s the melee between aristoi, the Remember that a while ago I said that the aristoi (the great heroes like Achilles, Ajax, Hector, Diomedes, that are excellent ones) had come to consider themselves an elite important. The thousands of other nameless footsloggers on class within the late Archaic polis. Well, one of the things the battlefield are just so much window dressing. that they thought made them excellent was their military skills. They had the spare time to drill and train in arms. The Art of War Changes They also had the disposable income to buy really good So much for warfare in the Homeric Age. By the end of weapons and armor. They viewed themselves as “lean the 700's B.C., economic and social dynamics began to mean killing machines,” and they had the ability and the change, and over the next century the Greek art of war equipment to prove it. They also saw themselves as a class changed with it. As I said a week or so ago, during this

For Homeric Age Greeks its not the big armies that are important, but the one-on-one duels where aristocratic warriors strive for excellence in individual combat.

P a g e 10 o f 16 period poleis began to prosper, and more and more citizens simply replaced by the man behind him. were able to afford to buy the equipment that they needed This new system was very successful, especially against to fight. Since there was already a strong assumption among the older melee method of warfare. In fact, it was so Greeks that those who defended the polis should have some successful that by the end of the 7th century B.C. just about say in the way it was run, citizen armies grew bigger, and every Greek polis employed the phalanx. the aristoi became a far smaller part of the total size of the For some cities, anything that endangered their phalanx army. Gradually the aristocratic warrior became less endangered the polis. Sparta, for instance, as we will see, significant, and the Greek art of war changed. responded to a slave revolt at about this time by simply It is possible that the person responsible for the change organizing its citizens into what might be called a perpetual was a tyrant and general from the city of Argos named phalanx. Pheidon. Tradition suggests that Pheidon developed a new The phalanx required the participation of a large style of warfare in the mid-600's B.C. We are told that he citizen body. The bigger, the better. Or perhaps, more aptly, enlarged the army of Argos, and that in 667, Pheidon used the wider, the better. The weakest parts of the phalanx were his new army to defeat the Spartans. It is possible that this the flanks. If one side could hit the right or left flank it could tyrant invented and introduced the phalanx at that time roll up the whole phalanx. So if your phalanx was wider both to defeat Argos’s enemies and to reduce the than your enemy’s you had a distinct tactical advantage. importance of the aristoi in Argos. I have to admit that this is mostly speculation, but it fits most of the circumstantial Men had to purchase their own weapons and armor, evidence that we have. So, how did this new form of this meant that the ability to defend your polis was based on warfare work? personal wealth. But during this period Greek states had become prosperous, so there were more men who had the First, the new art of war depended on lots of men who wealth to arm themselves and to take part in the defense of dressed alike called hoplites. Each hoplite had a helmet, a the city. breastplate, a round shield, greaves, a short thrusting sword, and a thrusting spear. The phalanx required discipline and training. What was required in the new art of war, was not the rage militaire of Second, the hoplites were required to act alike. The the Homeric tradition. In fact, that individual code of phalanx was a densely packed infantry formation that was warfare that required aristocratic heroes to run around the eight men deep and as long as you could make it. Hoplites battlefield looking for a hero of equal fame and reputation trained to advance and retreat across the battlefield in to fight was a liability under the new system. Hoplites had unison. Defensively, the phalanx was a row of interlocked to stick together. They had to move in unison to the beat of shields. Offensively, hoplites used thrusting spears to stab the drum or the melody of the flute, so that their wall of their enemies. If a man in the front row was killed, he was

The Phalanx The new warfare of the phalanx depended on each man acting dependently with his fellow soldiers. Uniformity, discipline and steadfastness replaced the old rage militaire. Uniformity became the rule and independent action was discouraged.

P a g e 11 o f 16 shields would not break as they advanced and retreated, to him. An act of personal bravery could break the line and wheeled and turned, on the battlefield. Acts of personal lead to disaster. bravery were discouraged because each man’s shield protected not only him, but the right side of the man next

The Values of the Phalanx The values of the phalanx — equality, discipline, towing the line — carried over into the political life of the polis as well. Since the phalanx demanded equal participation of every citizen, then it made sense that every hoplite should also have a say in government. Remember the rule of the Archaic community. If you risk your life for your community, then you should have some say in its policies. It also stood to reason that the polis should make certain that every citizen would be content to participate in the phalanx, and that meant every citizen should be fairly treated. The phalanx, in other words, demanded that every citizen receive justice, because a citizen with a grudge might not do his part in the phalanx — and this would endanger the whole polis. And this became an important issue in Greek plays, philosophy and literature. But here was a problem. Remember that the values that Homer stressed in the epics were those older values of the warrior code – especially the pursuit of individual martial excellence (arete). These old values clashed with the new values of equality, steadfastness and personal discipline in the face of violence. If a Greek made certain that he was no different from his fellows, that he stayed in sync with everyone else on the battlefield. If he had the same rights as everyone else in the political sphere, then how could he achieve excellence. Where was arete? Basically, Greeks decided that each individual should pursue excellence in honor of his polis. A rich man should not use his money to build a mansion for himself and his family. He should spend it to help build a temple to the city’s patron god, of pay for a civic celebration, or contribute toward some public building. An intelligent man should not write stories or poems to be recited at aristocratic gatherings. He should write them for the literary festivals so that all of the citizens could enjoy them, and so that they would add to the prestige of the polis. A great sculptor should not spend all of his time making busts and statues for wealthy individuals. He should contribute his work to the city by decorating its temples and public buildings. A man who had the athletic prowess to be a great warrior couldn’t use it in war anymore, but he could represent his polis at various athletic events, and train the youth of the city. But the pursuit of excellence required competition. The only way to measure excellence was by comparison. In order to be great one had to be GREATER than someone else, so where was the competition? Athletes competed for prizes, so did playwrights, actors and producers. Artists and architects competed for city commissions. So, Classical Greek civilization emerged as the glorification of the polis. It became ill-mannered, improper, and just plain ungreek to differ in conspicuous ways from one’s fellow citizens. As a result, the monuments of Greek civilization are not palaces of kings but temples to the gods, amphitheaters in which all of the citizens might meet, and works of art that glorified, not so much individuals, but one’s home city. Aristotle wrote that, “We must not regard the citizen as belonging to himself; we must rather regard every citizen as belonging to the state.”

P a g e 12 o f 16 SPARTA

Perhaps nowhere in classical Greece were the military virtues of the phalanx and its relationship to citizenship in the polis more apparent than in the polis of the Lacedaemonians which we call Sparta. Since Sparta will figure into our study of Greece in such an important way – as the great competitor with Athens, I though that I would use the time left today to talk a little about the Spartan polis today. The Spartans inhabited an area called Laconia, in the southern part of mainland Greece on what is called the Peloponnesus (see map). Laconia is ringed by hills, but most of the land area is dominated by one of the few rivers of any size in Greece, the Eu- rotas River. As it flows down from the north, the Eurotas has created a broad flat flood plain which is relatively open. This means that Sparta had more good, us- Sparta able farmland than almost any other polis in Greece The homeland of the Lacedaemonians (Spartans) is Laconia. Located proper. When you add this to the fact that there are at the souther tip of Greece, Laconia is the valley of Eurotas River. no really good harbors in Laconia, you will see why This is the most fertile area of Greece. Because the Spartans had the basis of Spartan economy was farming until very ample agricultural land, they never resorted to trade to support late in her history. This also helps to explain why the themselves. headquarters of the polis was not on the sea, but right in the middle of the valley far from the coast.

P a g e 13 o f 16 This headquarters was a village, or rather, a collection The Spartan council was called the gerousia. Gerousia of villages known as Sparta. There were a few temples and means old men. To serve on this council, a man had to be at other large buildings, but Sparta never became a real city in least sixty-years-old. There were twenty-eight members of the physical sense of a large settlement. Nevertheless, it was the gerousia, and they served for life. When a member died, the center of a city-state, and that city-state was not called the remaining members nominated several candidates to Sparta or Laconia. It was named after those who made up replace him, and his successor was chosen by a voice vote of the polis – the Lacedaemonians. The Lacedaemonians and other peoples of Laconia were all Dorians. They spoke the the assembly. It was the gerousia that decided if the basileus Doric dialect. So there were probably Greeks who came to should be replaced, and it also decided what the assembly Laconia in the early Iron Age. would discuss and vote on. In the 700s and the 600s, when farming was still the The assembly, which did all the electing and other main way of making a living in Greece, the Lacedaemoni- decision-making, was made up of all adult male citizens. ans were quite advanced in most respects. But when com- They all had the same political privileges, with the merce became more important, they fell behind and re- exception of the kings. They could hold any elective office. tained a form of organization which seemed very primitive Moreover, they were economically the same. The lands of in later times. the polis were all held in common. Spartans had no private property and no monetary wealth – Lycourgos had banned Lycourgos and the Organization of the money. Well, that isn’t exactly true. He didn’t ban money, he Spartans just ordained that the Spartans would henceforth use iron coins instead of gold, or silver or copper. Iron coins have no Now that we have a notion of the conditions under real international trade value and they are very heavy, so which the Lacedaemonians lived, lets look at their Spartan money would be useless anywhere but Sparta. Each organization. We don’t know what the polis was like in the citizen family was given a plot from which to maintain itself. 700s, but by 600, it reached a point where it did not need to So the members of the assembly are sometimes called change thereafter. That is the organization that I wish to “equals.” discuss. Now this might seem to be an equitable system, but the The constitution of the Lacedaemonians is attributed to problem with it was that not every inhabitant of Laconia a Spartan leader named Lycourgos who ruled in the early was a citizen of the polis. Out of an estimated population of 450,000 persons in 450 B.C., only 30,000 were members of 700s B.C. The executive branch is the most unusual part the citizen families. because the Spartans continued to have a basileus. In fact, About 125,000 persons were what Spartans called they had two of them. In most places, remember, the basileus perioikoi – those who live around. These were probably disappeared. Maybe the fact that there were two kings inhabitants of outlying farms and villages that were taken helped to preserve the institution in Sparta. This post was over by the Spartans when they expanded in Laconia. hereditary in two families. That is, one basileus came from These persons were free, and they were even allowed to one family and the other came from the other family. hold land and other private property. They held office in Normally, they ruled for life. As in the Dark Ages, their job their own towns. They paid taxes and served in the army, was to lead the army in war and to perform certain religious but they did not have any political rights of citizens. ceremonies. They had no other official responsibilities. The remaining 300,000 inhabitants were called helots, Other officials handled the other executive duties. and they belonged to a group apart. The helots were slaves belonging to the state, and they had no rights at all. They There were five of these men, and they were called ephors. were assigned to the common land owned by the polis, and The world ephor means overseer, and one of their jobs was they did all the work on Spartan farmland. How they got to to accompany the king and see to it that he did not abuse be slaves we don’t know. Perhaps they were Myceneans who his authority. They could recommend that a basileus be were conquered by the Dorians when they invaded. Because deposed and replaced by one of his relatives. The ephors the helots were exploited by the Lacedaemonians, there was were elected each year from the whole body of citizens, and always a chance that they might revolt and destroy the polis. they could not succeed themselves in office. The only way the Spartans could control them was with a strong army. Thus, all life in the city was oriented toward the military.

P a g e 14 o f 16 that education, but only because they served military ends. LACEDAEMONIANS 30,000 Unlike the other Greek city-states, Sparta provided Perioikoi 125,000 training for girls that went beyond the domestic arts. The girls were not forced to leave home, but otherwise their Helots 300,000 training was similar to that of the boys. They too learned to run, jump, throw the javelin and discus, and wrestle. Not every inhabitant of Laconia was a citizen of the polis. Out of Somewhere between the age of 18-20, Spartan males an estimated population of 450,000 persons in 450 B.C., only had to pass a difficult test of fitness, military ability, and leadership skills. Those who survived it continued with their 30,000 were members of the citizen families. military education and were enrolled in the local militia. If they passed the tests, they might also be elected into a par- ticular mess. The mess was a local dining facility, military Growing Up Spartan unit and club. This is where Spartans would eat the main As soon as a child was born in Sparta, the mother meal of the day for the rest of their lives. If they were not would wash it with wine, in order to make sure that it was elected to a mess, they were not worthy to be Spartans and strong. If the child was weak. Later it was brought by his would usually leave the country or commit suicide out of father to the elders, who carefully inspected the newborn humiliation. infant. If they found that the child was deformed or weakly, After eleven years of training, the young man entered they threw it off of a cliff. Until the age of seven the child the army itself at 18, and he served on active duty until he was reared by his mother. At the age of seven, every Spar- became 30. After age 30, the man would marry, have a fam- tan boy left home and went into a military training program ily, and participate in government. If he did not find a wife, called the agogé. They lived, trained and slept in their the a suitable Spartan woman would be found for him by the barracks of their brotherhood. At school, they were taught state. The state would then provide the family with land and survival skills and other skills necessary to be a great soldier. helots to work that land. But even then, he was still a soldier. School courses were very hard and often painful. Although Every man over 30 was still required to eat the main meal students were taught to read and write, those skills were not each day with the other men in his military mess, rather very important to the ancient Spartans. than with his family. In time of war, of course, all men Only warfare mattered. The boys were not fed well, and served as long as they were physically able to do so. This were told that it was fine to steal food as long as they did not military organization gave the Spartans the power it needed get caught stealing. If they were caught, they were beaten. to keep the helots under control. They boys marched without shoes to make them strong. It was a brutal training period. Sparta in the Greek Context The internal organization of the Spartan polis gave it Legend has it that a young Spartan boy once stole a live great strength and helped to determine the role it would fox, planning to kill it and eat it. He noticed some Spartan play in the Greek world as a whole. The Spartan military soldiers approaching, and hid the fox beneath his shirt. system gave this polis an enormous advantage militarily When confronted, to avoid the punishment he would re- over the other city-states of Greece. In most Greek city- ceive if caught stealing, he allowed the fox to chew into his states before 400 B.C., the armies were essentially militia stomach rather than confess he had stolen a fox, and did not forces made up of the citizens of the community. The fight- allow his face or body to express his pain. ing men were not professional soldiers. They were farmers, They walked barefoot, slept on hard beds, and worked craftsmen, and merchants. at gymnastics and other physical activities such as running, In Greece, crops are planted in early fall and harvested jumping, javelin and discus throwing, swimming, and hunt- in the spring. Wars were fought in the summertime when ing. They were subjected to strict discipline and harsh there was not a lot of work to do on the farms. Thus, the physical punishment; indeed, they were taught to take pride armies would fight in the summer and then go back home in the amount of pain they could endure. to farm or to make a living in some other way. This was The typical Spartan may or may not have been able to necessary because they did not receive any pay for fighting. read. But reading, writing, literature, and the arts were con- In most cities, the soldiers were strictly amateurs who were sidered unsuitable for the soldier-citizen and were therefore not well trained for war. not part of his education. Music and dancing were a part of

P a g e 15 o f 16 But in the polis of the Lacedaemonians, the situation Spartans free. To us freedom means that a person is largely was quite different. The Spartans did not have to work on left alone to do what he pleases provided he does not inter- farms, because the helots did all of the work for them. They fere with anyone else. The Spartans were not free in that were soldiers all the time and throughout their entire lives. sense. They belonged to the polis. After the age of seven, the They were trained for military life from childhood onward. state replaced the family as the main force in a child’s life. They were much better drilled, much better disciplined, and The only reason older Spartans were allowed to marry later much more willing to fight than the soldiers of other city- is that that was the only way to keep producing new sol- states. This gave them such an advantage that for 300 years diers. no other polis was able to defeat them seriously in battle. To a Greek, a man was free if he was a citizen of a free You might imagine that the Lacedaemonians were so polis. He was free to help direct and advance the affairs of much more powerful than the other city-states that they the community. But a man could never be free from the would simply conquer all of Greece and bring it under their demand of the polis itself. In return for being permitted to power. But this was not possible. Very early the Spartans participate in the political life of the polis, a citizen was ex- realized that they would destroy themselves if they tried to pected to put the interests of the community before his own conquer the other Greeks. They could send armies to beat personal interests. Thus, the privilege of citizenship also any other polis, but to hold on to anyone they conquered, brought heavy obligations. they would have to leave soldiers in the conquered cities for The polis of the Lacedaemonians when much further in long periods of time. They could not do that because they insisting on those obligations than other cities, bu the same had to keep the army at home to guard the helots. idea about citizenship applied everywhere. You might be Thus, they developed a semi-isolationist policy in for- interested to know that most other Greeks, even Greek intel- eign affairs. To protect their immediate frontiers, they en- lectuals, regarded the Spartan system as being just about tered into a mutual defense alliance called the Peloponne- perfect. The Spartans had come closer to creating what a sian League with the neighboring states in 550 B.C. It in- polis should be than any other community in Greece. It is cluded most of the states in the large peninsula known as well to keep this in mind if you begin to think of the Greek the Peloponnesus. Outside the Peloponnesus, they tried to city-state as having free societies in our sense, just because maintain a balance of power with a limited commitment of they didn’t have absolute governments. In Greece, all troops. If any Greek states felt threatened or coerced by its worthwhile activities were designed to serve the polis. Any neighbor, it could appeal to Sparta for assistance. The Spar- activity which did not serve the community was by defini- tans often responded to complaints with threats and war if tion worthless and improper. Because the polis was small necessary. This policy earned the Spartans the reputation as and self-contained, anyone who violated this principle was protector of weaker states in the face of aggression. It also likely to be found out. helped to protect the polis system, allowing it to develop without the military pressures present in Mesopotamia. Was Sparta a Democracy? Now it is time to look back over and review the Spartan system, considering some of its implications of it for Greek civilization as a whole. If I were able to ask you what form of government Sparta had, you might be unable to answer. Strange as it may seem to us, a Greek would say that the Lacedaemonian government was a democracy. Democracy means rule of the demos, the citizens. In Sparta, it was the citizens who ruled with no distinction among them. Looked at from the point of view of the helot, it was not a democ- racy, but in Greece, only the citizens mattered. The helots were not citizens. There is an even more curious point that needs to be considered: that is the condition of the citizens themselves. In the Greek world, the mark of a citizen was that he was a free man. You might wonder whether you consider the

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