1. Classical Civilization
Greeks, Persians, Guptas, Mauryans, The Han, The Qin, Romans

2. Classical Periodization
8000 BCE – 600 BCE = ANCIENT
600 BCE – 600 CE = CLASSICAL

4. PHYSICAL MAP OF AREA
Greece is part of an ecological zone around the Mediterranean Sea (Atlantic Ocean to the west, Syrian desert to the east, Alps to the north, Sahara desert to the south)
Greek mainland, the islands, and the tips of Anatolia
There aren’t a ton of rivers --- Greeks depend on rainfall to support their agriculture
Greece is a relatively poor region when it comes to resources – Greek merchants, mercenaries, and travelers were able to access the materials/markets needed to develop, w/ brings in influences from foreign areas
Because the coastline has a lot of natural harbors, and the need to import things like metals, timber, grain  Greeks start usning the sea to get the materials they need (gold/iron from Anatolia, tin from wester Mediterranean, grain from Egypt)
Cheaper and faster than transporting overland (no rivers), lots of rocky land and mountain ranges

5. Ancient & Classical Greece
Ancient: 2000 BCE – 1100 BCE
Minoans
Mycenaeans
Classical Greeks will inherit language, gods, technology, trade routes, early political and social structure from their two predecessors.
Cosmopolitan Mediterranean at this time
Greek Dark Age: 1100 BCE – 800 BCE
Iliad/Odyssey composed by Homer in this period
Invasion of Troy
Phoenicians begin to reconnect Greece with the rest of the Mediterranean
Result: Greece trades again ~800 BCE
Result: Greeks borrow the Phoenician alphabet & make their own
Minoans (in Crete)
The first European civilization to have complicated political and social structures and advanced technologies (like what’s going on in Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc.)
We’ve named this after King Minos, a guy in Greek legend who ruled a naval empire and held the Minotaur in a labyrinth – later Greeks recall this civ being very good at craftsmaking and shipmaking (and labyrinths)
Have not translated language
Were not militant --- no fortifications at the palaces, didn’t prioritize it
What we’ve concluded:
Pottery around Mediterranean distributed around Middle East = widespread trading connections
Palaces = centralized government and bureaucracy
In their art, fertility goddesses – lots of depictions of stylized nature
All of their palaces were deliberately destroyed around 1450 bce – and it’s probably the Mycenaeans
Mycenae (first civ on the Greek mainland, around 1650 bce)
We discovered these guys through a German businessman named Henrich Schliemann in found these huge graves full of gold jewelery, weapons, and a bunch of men/women/children
So….why and how did they rise?
They borrowed a lot from the Minoans – the writing system, the government bureaucracy, their architecture, their pottery
Wealth/power may have come from trade/piracy
We’ve excavated Mycenae first, then other sites – we find centralized fancy palaces with big fortifications, a citadel that contains the palace and the administrative complex and could house the whole community in time of danger --- frescoes depicting war/hunt/daily life and nature
Lower on the hill, tombs, then aristocracy right outside the walls, then peasants further down by the land they worked
From their script, we’ve found that the government had a lot of centralized control over the economy, kept extensive inventory – but don’t say much about history, politics, social structure, gender, religion, etc.
The key things the Mycenaeans are good at:
Trade – very good at seafare, we’ve found pottery and crafted goods around the Aegean, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, textiles, weapons, etc. – in exchange for the grain and the metals they needed to develop
Fighting --- conflicted with the Hittites in Anatolia bc if you were weak, they’d take from you! --- they destroyed Troy around 1200 bce
Re-explain cosmopolitanism (Mycenae probably fell apart bc they lost the support of that interconnectedness)

6. ANCIENT GREECE

7. Archaic Greece: 800-480 BCE Oral tradition kept Greek culture alive
Imagine keeping the Odyssey or Iliad alive through memory and speech…disgusting, right?
Polis (pl. poleis) – city-state. Autonomous. Geography!
Colonization – Black Sea, Southern Italy, Sicily, Anatolia, Aegean Islands, North Africa, Southern France
Economically motivated
Took fire from hearth of home city to colony
Greeks = Hellenes. Non-Greeks = Barbaroi
Councils of nobles = pol. dominant, owned lots o’ land
Peasants/debt slaves worked land
Small middle class of merchants, craftsmen
Religion – anthropomorphic gods. Athena, Zeus, etc.
Humanism – celebration of the individual
Greece slowly moving from monarchy/oligarchy to democracy

8. RATIONITY AND PHILOSOPHY
The formation of Greek cultural traditions
From the 8th century, drew inspirations from Mesopotamia and Egypt
About 800 B.C.E., adapted the Phoenicians' alphabet to their own language
The Greek cultural feature: a philosophy based on human reason, rationality
Socrates ( B.C.E.)
Athenian philosopher, determined to understand humans
Encouraged reflection on ethics and morality
Integrity was more important than wealth and fame
"The unexamined life is not worth living"
Critical scrutiny to traditional ethical teachings
Condemned to death for corrupting Athenian youths
Plato ( B.C.E.)
A zealous disciple of Socrates
The theory of Forms or Ideas
His Republic expressed the ideal of philosophical kings
Aristotle ( B.C.E.)
Plato's disciple, but distrusted theory of Forms or Ideas
Devised rules of logic, scientific method, father of western science
His Nicomedian Ethics became later basis in Christianity
Legacy of Greek philosophy
Intellectual authorities for European philosophers until 17th century
Intellectual inspiration for Christian and Islamic theologians.
Provided a powerful intellectual framework for future generations

9. GREEK TRIBES

10. THE GREEK WORLD

11. Classical Greece: 480-323 BCE
Athens & Sparta = politically dominant poleis
Sparta:
professional army, people existed to support Sparta
Isolated mostly, few political alliances
Women: raise strong children, voices welcomed in public debate
Athens:
4 classes of people, classes 1-3 = participated politically, class 4 = no political participation. Really, only about 15% of people participated.
Classes separated by amount of wealth/land holdings
Pericles later will alter system to let lower classes hold office
Strong navy – secured trade routes, used to hold down Delian League members
Women: produce children, stay at home, no political rights
Hoplite – Greek footsoldier. Fought in phalanx.
Persia comes into the picture
Ionian Greek Mitelene. Persia squashes it.
Athens had supported Ionian Greeks. Persia goes after Athens.
Darius’ Invasion
The battle of Marathon, 490 B.C.E.
Greeks led by Spartans and Athens battled Persia to a draw
Xerxes Invasion
To fight Persians, Athenians build a wall of wood, or a navy
Xerxes seized, burned Athens
Athenian navy destroys Persian in the battle of Salamis, 480 B.C.E.
Persian army retreated back to Anatolia, 479 B.C.E.

12. POLIS OF ATTICA

13. LACONIA: SPARTA

14. MAPPING THE PERSIAN WARS

15. Classical Greece (cont.)
Peloponnesian War (431 ~ 404 BCE): everyone hates Athens.
Athens = greedy, tyrannical towards Delian League.
Rebuilt by Pericles
Sparta, Delian League, money from Persia go to war w/Athens.
Fighting rampant, even goes as far west as Sicily.
Sparta wins, even w/lesser navy than Athens.
Plague in Athens helped, too.
Spartan rule was no better than Athenian rule.
Political unrest in Greece continued.
Spartan hegemony soon replaced by Theban hegemony.
Meanwhile, in Macedonia…
King Philip II ( BCE) – great military leader/strategist
Father of Alexander the Great
Longer spears, cavalry, catapults
Defeats southern Greece, tries to launch attack vs. Persia
However, is assassinated before he can see it through.

16. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

17. Hellenistic Greece: 323-30 BCE
Alexander the Great ( BCE)
Avenges Persian attacks on Greece, conquers the known world.
Conquered an empire that expanded from Greece, to Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Persia, and even into India.
How do you manage a beast this big?
Put loyal Greek officials in charge of conquered poleis.
Later, this changed to Persian officials, much resented by Greek soldiers.
Saw himself as the rightful heir to the Persian throne
Began dressing in Persian clothing, adhering to Persian culture
Again, this is VERY unpopular with his Greek friends and fellow soldiers
Dies at the age of 32.
Other than the military conquests, why is he important?
Later kings, Caesars will develop an “Alexander complex”
Julius Caesar is known to have cried on his 32nd birthday because his achievements were nothing like Alexander’s.
Tomb/body of Alexander – relic site long ago, unknown whereabouts now.
Greek Hellenistic age ends after Rome finally subjugates Greece.

18. ALEXANDER’S EMPIRE

19. HELLENISTIC WORLD

20. TEMPLES AND THEATRES