The Hellenistic Kingdoms, 323-30 B.C.E.

I. The Hellenistic Kingdoms

A. Creating New Kingdoms

1. The Death of Alexander the Great--Alexander's heir, Alexander IV, was not yet born when Alexander died in 323 B.C.E. Alexander's mother, Olympia, tried to protect her grandson, but Alexander's former commanders executed her in 316 B.C.E.; the murder of Alexander's son and wife Roxane followed shortly after.

2. Three Rival Kingdoms--Three of Alexander's former commanders--Antigonus (c. 382-301 B.C.E.), Selecus (c. 358-281 B.C.E.), and Ptolemy (c. 367-282 B.C.E.) emerged to lead their respective kingdoms. Antigonus laid claim to Anatolia, the Near East, Macedonia, and Greece; Selecus seized control of Babylonia and the East as far as India, and Ptolemy grabbed Egypt. In the beginning, the three kingdoms' greatest threat was from each other, but by the middle of the third century B.C.E. (that is, around 250 B.C.E.), the borders of the three kingdoms had become relatively stable. The Antigonid Kingdom had shrunk to a slightly enlarged Macedonia, although they compelled the Greek city-states to follow their lead in foreign policy. The Seleucid Kingdom remained in contol of only Syria and Mesopotamia. Only Ptolemic Egypt remained relatively stable, although all three kingdoms continued to compete with one another for territory.

3. Minor Hellenistic Kingdoms--this competition among the three larger kindoms created the opportunity for others to create smaller kingdoms.

a. Attalid Kingdom--in western Anatolia, centered in Pergarum, a long-established trading center.

b. Bactrian Kingdom--originally settled by Greek colonizes moved to the region by Alexander the Great, the Bactrians were able to break free from the Seleucids, and enrich themselves acting as brokers for trade between Asia (mainly India and China) and the Mediterranean.

B. The Structure of the Hellenistic Kingdoms--the Hellenistic Kingdoms imposed Macedonian kings and queens on indigenous population, but incorporated local traditions into their rule to build legitimacy with the people they ruled over. They also sought to impose a system of law and justice in the areas they controlled, which also helped to build legitimacy. But rule could no be maintained simply with carots; there also had to be the threat of the stick.

1. Royal military forces--Royal armies and navies provided security against both internal and external threats. Professional soldiers provided the personnel for these forces. Initially, the three kingdoms utilized Macedonians and Greeks who were enticed to emigrate to serve in the army with the promise of free land; when these sources dried up, the three kingdoms had to recruit from the local population. They had to not only pay for these soldiers, but also for the equipment they used: huge catapaults, war elephants, and ever-larger ships, now manned with crews in excess of 200.

2. Royal administration--The larger military committment meant a larger, more efficient government administration, to collect taxes. Initially, the Hellenic kingdoms recruited mostly Greeks and Macedonians for upper administration posts--who in turn recruited local collectors who could speak the local language, and thus better collect revenues. It was adventageous, obviously, for a local official to learn to speak Greek, since that was the easiest way to advance in the system was to learn to speak and write Greek. In many ways, the Hellenistic royal administrations resembled those of earlier Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires, in that the administrators' role was to maintain order and to direct the kingdoms' tax system.

3. Cities--Cities were the economic and social hub of Hellenistic kingdoms. Many Greeks and Macedonians lived in the new cities in Egypt and the Near East that had been founded by Alexander. Hellenistic kings promoted living in these new cities by building the expected Greek amenities in these new cities--theaters, gymnasiums, and other civic buildings. The cities also develop some of the polticial institutions usually found in mainland city-states, but these councils had no power to develop foreign policy for their locality. As in other Greek city-states, the economic elite had the responsibility to fund civic celebrations and public works like theaters and temples, and to ensure that there was a reliable source of grain to feed the city's residents.

C. Layers of Hellenistic Society--Hellenistic monarchy reinforced social hierarchy. At the top of Hellenistic society were the royal family and the king's friends. Ranked next were the Greek and Macedonian elites of the major cities, local elites, local lords of rural areas, merchants, artisans, laborers, and at the bottom were slaves.

1. The Poor--Made up the majority of the population, and made their living by the sweat of their brow and the load on their backs. Although a significant number lived in cities, most worked in rural areas. Some poor farmers owned the land they tilled, but most worked as early tenant farmers, owing much of what they raised as payment to those who actually owned the land they worked. Although they could not be bought and sold like slaves, their economic situation was very similar; they often experienced hunger even as they raised the food that fed everyone else.

2. Women--the lives of women depended very much on their economic situation in life; those women whose families were well-off financially were treated quite well, whereas women from poor families were treated quite poorly. Generally speaking, economically advantaged women were treated better than women had been in Classical Age Greece. Hellenic women in ruling families often acted as co-rulers with their husbands. Girls were often treated poorly, however; boys were almost never abandoned in "infant exposure," while girls even in families that were fairly well-off could suffer that fate.

3. The Wealthy--following the lead of the royal families, the wealthy in Hellenistic cities willingly funded many philanthropic institutions, paid for festivals, public buildings, and in many places schools and doctors. In return, the wealthy were paid respect and honor. Because the many poor had no political power, and were beholden to the generosity of the rich for the very necessities of life, the poor were usually willing to sing the praises of the rich.

D. The End of the Hellenistic Kingdom--despite their successes, the suspicion with which the Hellenistic Kingdoms regarded one another left them unwilling to come to the aid of another, and in the end all of the kingdoms fell under the sway of Rome.

II. Hellenistic Culture

A. The Arts Under Royal Support--Hellenistic kings became supporters of scholarship and the arts on a vast scale, competing with one another to lure the best scholars and artists to their capitals with lavish salaries.

1. Literature--a flowering of poetry--by both men and women--played a major part of the prominent place poetry had in Hellenic society. Hellenic comedies stayed away from the barbed observations that had personified Golden Age poetry, in part because of the prominent role the rich and the powerful had in providing artists with a living.

2. Emotion in sculpture--for Hellenic sculptures, it was no longer enough to portray life-like characters of beauty; Hellenic sculpting conveyed much of the emotion of everyday life.

B. Philosophy for a New Age--New philosophies arose in the Hellenistic period, all asking the same question: What is the best way to live? Hellenistic philosophers concetrated upon materialism, rejecting Plato's metaphyiscal concept of the soul.

1. Epicureanism--Epicurus sought to help men and women achieve a life of true pleasure, which to Epicurus meant the "absence of disturbance." Epicurus believed that all matter was made up of irreducible pieces called "atoms" in random movement, and death merely allowed these things to finally separate painlessly from the body. Epicurus' followers sought to live their lives soberly, shut off from turmoil and the cares of the world.

2. Stoicism--Stoics believed that fate controls people's lives but individuals should still make the pursuit of excellence--virtue--their goal. While Stoics believed fate ruled all, men should struggle against fate will accepting the pain that setbacks caused.

3. Skepticism

4. Cynicism

C. Scientific Innovation--Scientific investigation was separated from philosophy during the Hellenistic period, which greatly benefited science. Scientific innovation flourished because Alexander's expeditions opened the door to increased curiosity and knowledge about the world's diversity.

1. Advance in Geometry and Mathematics--the age of both Euclid and Archimedes

2. Discoveries in Science and Medicine--the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World) used mirrors to refract and reflect light, creating a powerful beam from a rather tepid source of light.

D. Religious Transformation--Traditional Greek cults remained popular, but new cults, especially those deifying kings, reflected changing political and social conditions. Preexisting cults that previously had only local significance gained adherents all over the Hellenistic world. Because most people were polytheists, they had no problem worshiping gods from both old and new cults.

1. Religious themes--the main theme of Hellenistic thought was the concern about the relationship between man and chance. Particularly since advances in astronomy had furthered earlier Mesopotamian science on the mathematical precision of the universe's heavenly bodies, people sought to explain why such shapeless chaos was a part of life on earth.

2. Being protected from chance--many people of the time turned to ruler cults to protect themselves from the vagaries of chance, appealing to the ruler as a deity to protect them from chance. This development helped spread the idea that someone could be both human and a god at the same time--an important development for the spread of Christianity.

3. Healing divinities--people also often turned to gods to heal illnesses and deformities, patronizing shrines in the hope that the god would heal them.

4. Hellenistic Judaism--the cultural interaction between Greeks and Jews produced important changes in Judaism during this period. Ptolemy II made the Hebrew Bible widely available by having it transcribed in Greek. Many Jews, particularly those who had grown up in Hellenistic cities outside their homeland, began to speak Greek. This eventually created a schism within Judaism, briefly resolved by the successful result of the rebellion led by Judah the Maccabee, which re-claimed the Temple in Jerusalem for traditional Jewish services.

III. Conclusion.

The Fall of the City-States and the Rise of the Hellenistic World, 400-323 B.C.E.

I. Failure of the City-State and the Triumph of Macedonia

A. Peloponnesian War (431-404BCE)--resentment towards the high-handed attitude of Athens led a number of other city-states, under the direction of Sparta, to begin the two-decade long Peloponnesian War. During the early years of the conflict, Athens refused to engage the invading army outside the walls it had constructed to connect it to the port of Piraeus; the hoplites that made up the bulk of the attacking force would have to withdraw during the year to harvest the crops at their farms. With the financial assistance of Persia, however, Sparta was able to build a navy to defeat the Athenians, and Sparta quickly assumed Athens place as the most despised city-state because of its own haughty attitude. The skirmishing continued in Greece until the king of Persia brokered the King's Peace in 387BCE. Problems in the eastern portion of the empire diverted Persian attention elsewhere,  but the position of the King of Persia as the guarantor of the status quo kept the Greek city-states in a weakened condition.

1. Fall of Sparta--When Sparta turned to Persia for assistance, it lost prestige with the other Greek city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Sparta attempted to extend its influence (and enrich the city itself) by extending its control into central Greece. This provoked the city-states in central Greece--Thebes, Corinth, Argos, and Athens--to form a coalition among themselves to unite against Sparta. In response, Sparta sought alliance again with Persia, in return for acknowledging the Persian king's right to rule Anatolia--in effect, shirking their traditional stance of defending Greece from outsiders in 386 B.C.E.

2. Brief Rise of Thebes--Thebians crushed an attempted Spartan invasion of Thebes in 371 B.C.E., and then invaded the Peloponnesian peninsula shortly thereafter. The Thebians freed most of the helots, greatly weakening Sparta. Because Thebes was only 40 miles from Athens, the growing military might of the city-state was viewed as a threat by the Athenians, who promptly launched their own attack on the city. This near constant warfare between city-states kept any one city-state from prevailing over another--but also left them susceptible to attack from outsiders.

B. Philip of Macedonia--if he had not been murdered as he was reaching the height of his powers, Philip II might have procured the honorary title "The Great" before his son Alexander. Phillip II transformed his previously backward kingdom of Macedonia into the premier military power in the Greek world. He refined the hoplite battle tactics, and incorporated and coordinated the use of cavalry and infantry together. His military engineers developed the early catapults,  which transformed siege warfare. By 338BCE, Philip brought this new technology to use against a coalition of Greek city-states, defeating them and then establishing the Confederacy of Corinth to attack Persia. He had just established a bridgehead on the Asiatic side of Hellespont when he was killed by assassins in 336BCE.

1. Macedonia Society--the Macedonians military prowess sprang from the character of their monarchy and their people's ethnic pride. The Macedonian king maintained political control by maintaining the support of the elite, who ranked as the king's social equals and maintained many followers. Men spent their time training for war, hunting, and drinking heavily (the last should be kept in mind when we discuss Alexander the Great). The king had to excel at all three to remain in power. While the elite saw themselves as ethnical Greek, Macedonians in general were contemptuous of the Greeks, who they saw as too soft to survive in their country's northern climes.

2. Rule of Philip II, 359-336 B.C.E.--Philip came to power in 359 shortly after a military disaster for Macedonia, in which the king was killed along with about 4000 Macedonian troops. Philip re-organized the Macedonian army, introduced his superior tactical use of the phalanx, and was able to overcome the Illyrians--and the also eliminate his local rivals and maintain his kingship. Philip then used the combination of his military, diplomacy, and bribes to persuade or force most of the city-states of northern and central Greece into alliance with him. Fearful of the havoc his powerful army could cause in Macedonia, Philip turned his attention to the east, vowing to conquer the Persian empire to "avenge" the Greeks of 150 earlier. While some Greek city-states attempted to counter Philip's growing influence, but were defeated at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C.E., and Philip forced them to join his alliance.

3. Battle of Chaeronea--marked the turning point in Greek history: never again would the city-states of Greece act independently in foreign policy. City-states remained Greece's central economic and social organization, but the city-states hereafter always had to be concerned about the control a foreign king had over them.

C. Alexander the Great--used the military innovations of his father, and the avowed goal of revenging Xerxes invasion of Greece, to roll through the Persian Empire, eventually reaching the Indus Valley. Also demonstrating that he could learn from his avowed enemy, he maintained the framework of the Persian administration, while replacing the administrators themselves with those personally loyal to him--while at the same time, marrying several well-connected Persian and Iranian women,  and adopting Persian-style dress and some customs--much to the dismay of the Macedonian nobility. His death in 323BCE  ended this controversy.

1. The Energy--Alexander succeeded his father in 336 B.C.E., at the age of 20; by the time of his death in 323 B.C.E., he had conquered Anatolia, much of the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, and southwestern Asia as far east as the Indus Valley (present-day Pakistan. Alexander inspired his troops from the front (as would only be proper for a Macedonian king), riding into battle at the head of his troops in a brightly plumed helmet and flowing cape. Alexander spent so much of his time in conquest, in fact, that he was not able to sire an heir in his lifetime--his son was not born until after he died.

2. The Hedonist--Alexander's death at such an early ages has spawned a host of rumors, from claims that he simply drank himself to death (maybe that explains his attraction to Iron Maiden?), that he and his male lover Hephaestion died of AIDS. It should be recalled, however, that Alexander's behavior would have been well within the cultural norms of the Macedonian elite, who regularly got quite drunk. Alexander also took a great number of wives, in part as a means of diplomacy, and the we do not know for sure if he and Hephaestion were actually lovers or not--and in any means, we cannot judge Alexander's sexuality by todays standards. From Macedonian practice, in all likelihood, Alexander was poisoned--and if he wasn't poisoned, he may have simply picked up some mysterious disease during his conquest of southwest Asia. All we know for certain is that Alexander died without a viable heir, and as a result his empire was divided into three parts.

D. The Hellenistic Sythesis, 323-30BCE--the short-lived Macedonian dynasty was broken into three kingdoms after Alexander's death:  Seleucid, Ptolemaic, and Antigonid.




1. Selucid--took over the bulk of the empire, and promptly lost great portions of it--the Indus Valley and Afghanistan,  and most of Iran by the middle of the second century BCE. From their capital is Syrian Antioch, the Selucid monarchs controlled Mesopotamia, Syrian, and parts of Anatolia

2. Ptolemies--ruled Egypt, which was more homogenous than the Selucid kingdom, and easier to control. The Ptolemies ruled from Alexandria, planned by Alexander himself. The Ptolemies were happy to collect taxes from the rich agricultural lands, but did little to attempt to integrate Egyptians into the kingdom; only the last Ptolemy ruler,  Cleopatra (51-30BCE) even bothered to learn the Egyptian language.

3. Antigonids--ruled over the ethnically homogeneous region of Macedonia and northern Greece. While they maintained garrisons in the southern part, and the threat of invasion kept the southern city-states in line, they did not control southern Greece. The southern city-states banded together in various alliances, except for Sparta and Athens. Sparta continued to believe its own myth of invincibility, even while losing battles to Macedonia, and Athens was content to remain neutral, an educational center.

E. Alexandria--was the premier city of the Hellenistic Age, the center of learning, culture, and Greek-style democracy.

F. Conclusion

The Fall of Athens and the End of the Greek Golden Age

I. The Urban Landscape in Athens

A. The Benefits of the Delian League--Athens prospered due to the dues fees from other Delian League members, war plunder, and taxes on the booming seaborne trade. Its navy ensured the empire's numerous ports remained safe for travellers, merchants, and their wares, and its courts resolved legal disputes. Artisans were able to sell the goods they made, which were found in locations throughout the Mediterranean--and beyond.

B. Civic Building Program--Athens spent these riches not just to pay for its citizens to participate in democratic government--although that was an important use for the money--but also to build civic buildings, public art, and religious festivals. Some rich urban dwellers splurged on luxury goods in the Persian style, but there were few ostentatious displays of public wealth that did not serve a public function.

1. Taxes--there were no income taxes or property taxes, but the rich were required by law to pay for certain public events, and also to equip warships.

2. The Parthenon--built on the acropolis during the 440s-430s B.C.E., and meant to honor the god Athena, for whom Athens was named, the Parthenon (the virgin goddess's house) probably cost somewhere in excess of a billion dollars in today's money when it was built; Pericles' political rivals of course criticized this extravagance. The Parthenon was not a church, where Athenians gathered to worship Athena; it was rather her house when she might visit Athens after descending from Mt. Olympus. The Parthenon was constructed using a number of innovative techniques. It was much more massive than other structures of its time, and the architects and buildings used a number of techniques (tapering columns so they appeared straight to the human eye, and compensating for the tendency of the human eye to perceive rectilinear objects as curved, strategically places slight curves in the building to make it appear perfectly rectilinear). The frieze that ran along the top inside depicted the Athenians themselves, who therefore inhabited the same space as depictions of the gods themselves.

3. Sculpture's New Message--Sculpture took on a breathtakenly new realism, looking more like humans in motion (but also looking like perfect humans). This new sculpture in fact seems to celebrate the human body, and curves are hinted at when humans are depicted with clothing one.

II. Tradition and Innovation in Athen's Golden Age--the prosperity and international contacts that created the innovations in architectue, art, drama, education, and philosophy also created tension with traditional ways of living--just as we experience in the modern world.

A. Religious Tradition in a Period of Change--Greeks maintained religious traditions publically by participating in the city-state's sacrifices and festivals, and privately by participating in the rituals of hero cults and mystery cults.

1. Public worship--Greek gods required ritual sacrafices to remain in good spirits. The usual practice during a public fesitval was to sacrafice (kill) a large animal (or three, depending upon how public this festival was), roast it (the aroma created by this process was the gods portion), and then the sacrifice was distributed among the crowd at the festival. For many poor Greeks, this might be the only time they would taste meat. Athens demonstrated its prosperity by sponsoring more public festivals than any other Greek city--in fact, nearly half the days of the year were dedicated to one public festival or another. The biggest festivals also featured parades and contests, with valuable prizes in music, dancing, poetry, and athletics. some festivals were for women only, including one dedicated to Demeter, the goddes of agriculture and fertility.

2. Private worship--people of this time in Greece took a keen interst in affirming their personal relationship with the divine. Families marked significant events--births, marriages, deaths--with prayers, rituals, and sacrafices. They honored ancestors with offerings at their tombs, consulted seers about the meanings of dreams and omens, and paid magicians for potions to improve their love lives or curse their enemies.

a. Hero cults--Greek heroes were thought to have special powers that remained with their bodies after death, and were thought to retain the power to heal the sick, provide protection in battle, and inspire oracles to reveal the future. The strongman Hercules (or Herakles) inspired cults all over the Greek world because of his superhuman reputation

b. Mystery cults--involved a set of prayers, sacrifices, and other forms of worship that initiated members into secret knowledge about the divine and human worlds. Initiates believed that they gained divine protection from the cult's god or gods.

B. Women, Slave, and Metics--Women, slaves, and metics (foreigners who were granted permanent resident status in return for paying taxes and serving in the military) made up the majority of the population in Athens, but they lacked political rights

1. Women--bearing children in marriage earned women status because it was literally the heart of Greek society. To defend this fundamental institution, men were expected to respect and support their wives. Childbirth was often, however, the most dangerous time during a woman's life. Women brought property into a marrage (dowry), which she was entitled to if her husband divorced her for some reason. Property was to be accumulated and passed on to the sons; daughters became part of the family they married into. If the parents died without a son, the closest relative of the father then had to marry the eldest daughter, and the property would be inherited by their son.

a. The daily life of women--the main task for Greek women was to produce a male heir--that guaranteed the continuation of the family, and of the family's wealth. Women were largely kept within the household, and contact with strange men (that is, men they were unfamiliar with) was kept to a minimum; this was thought to guarantee that any male children would therefore be legitimate heirs. While this sounds restricting to we moderns, for Greek women it would have been a sign of their social standing. Hetairas (usually foreign-born women) were the exception to this rule--but they had to be physically attractive, witty in speech, skilled in music and poetry--and often times willing to serve as prostitutes.

2. Slaves and metics--traditional social and legal restrictions in Golden Age Athens meant slaves and metics counted as outsiders, no matter how much they contributed to the city-state.

a. Slaves--captured in war, purchased from traders, or those Greek children abandoned by their parents (an accepted practice called infant exposure) who were then picked up by others and raised as slaves. Slave may have made up about 100,000 people in a population of 250,000 in the city of Athens. Slaves worked on farms, in homes, rowed next to their owners in the navy (the owner got double pay for that)--or, if they were really unfortunate, they worked in the silver mine Athens owned, slaves did most of the work in Golden Age Athens. Unlike in Sparta, slaves in Athens never rebelled, since they came from so many different places, they had a difficult time organizing.

b. Metics--the economic growth and possibilities of Athens attracted many metics from around the Mediterranean, hoping to make money as importers, artisans, entertainers, and laborers. At the start of the Peloponnesian War, metics may have constituted a population of  50,000 to 75,000 of the estimated 150,000 free men, women, and children. Metics paid for the privilege of living in Athens through a special tax, and by serving in the military.

C. Innovative Ideas in Education, Philosophy, History, and Medicine--Building on the intellectual foundation of rationalism that emerged in the Archaic Age, thinkers in the Greek Golden Age developed innovative ideas in education, philosophy, history, and medicine. These innovations delighted some 5th Century BCE Greeks, but frightened others, who thought it undermined tradition (which, of course, it did).

1. Education--the only formal education came from private teachers, which meant that only those who could afford to pay for it received it. Well-to-do families sent their sons to learn to read, write, play a musical instrument or sing, and to develop the physical skills and stamina suitable for war--which they gained be exercising nude in the gymnasium every day. Greek girls also learned to read, write, and to calculate, so they could assist their husbands and manage a household. Poor children received no education; they learned a trade, and as much reading and writing as they could pick up on their own.

a. Public life--after their education was completed, young men from prosperous familes learned how to participate in public life through their association with a mentor--an older man known to the family. They often accompanied these men to various events--both political and social--and exercised in the gymnasium everyday. Sometimes tis led to sexual relations between the two, which were accepted as an expected occurence in some cities (Sparta, Athens), while condemned in others

2. Sophists and Philosophers as a Threat to Tradition--to rise in politics in Athens during this time, young men sought to approve their oratorical skills, and sought out master teachers called Sophists, who used a new technique called reason to persuade others. Sophistry now has a negative connotation (and developed one at this time because traditionalists opposed to them. Sophists created controversy because they used rational arguments to challenge traditional ways of thinking; this caused their opponents to accuse them of moral relativism, agnosticism, and other crimes against society. While this provided a way to challenge authority and tradition, because only the rich could afford these lessons, it did indeed threaten democracy in Athens.

3. Socrates on Ethics--Socrates, the most famous of the Greek philosophers, lived in Athens during this time, challenged tradition, but claimed he was not a Sophist, because he did not take money for his teaching. Socrates did not write philosophical texts, the knowledge of the man, his life, and his philosophy is entirely based on writings by his students and contemporaries. Foremost among them is Plato. Xenophon, Aristotle, and Aristophanes also provide important insights. The difficulty of finding the “real” Socrates arises because these works are often philosophical or dramatic texts rather than straightforward histories. Aside from Thucydides (who makes no mention of Socrates or philosophers in general) and Xenophon, there are in fact no straightforward histories contemporary with Socrates that dealt with his own time and place. A corollary of this is that sources that do mention Socrates do not necessarily claim to be historically accurate, and are often partisan (those who prosecuted and convicted Socrates have left no testament). Historians therefore face the challenge of reconciling the various texts that come from these men to create an accurate and consistent account of Socrates' life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, merely consistent.

Plato is frequently viewed as the most informative source about Socrates' life and philosophy. At the same time, however, many scholars believe that in some works Plato, being a literary artist, pushed his avowedly brightened-up version of "Socrates" far beyond anything the historical Socrates was likely to have done or said; and that Xenophon, being an historian, is a more reliable witness to the historical Socrates. It is a matter of much debate which Socrates Plato is describing at any given point—the historical figure, or Plato's fictionalization.

It is also clear from other writings and historical artifacts, however, that Socrates was not simply a character, or an invention, of Plato. The testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes' work (especially The Clouds), is useful in fleshing out a perception of Socrates beyond Plato's work.

4. History Writing--Herodotus of Halicarnassus (c. 485-425 B.C.E.) and Thucydides of Athens (455-399 B.C.E.) changed he way history was written during this time, and are considered the co-fathers of written history. His Histories attempted to explain the Persian wars as a result of cultural differences. Herodotus recognized that other cultures with respect, pushed his inquiries deep into the past, and focused on human psychology and interactions to explain events, rather than the intervention of gods. Thucydides wrote contemporary history--specifically, the history of the recently concluded Peloponnesian War, of which he had served briefly--and unsuccessfully--as a general. Thucydides again concentrated upon the actions of men and politics, rather that the intercession of the gods, as the driving force in history

5. Hippocrates and the Birth of Scientific Medicine--Hippocrates challenged tradition by grounding medicine in clinical observation, rather than relying upon magic and ritual. This didn't improve actual treatment much--Hippocrates believed that if one kept the four fluids in balance, good health would follow--but it provided a system to begin diagnoses and treatment using the scientific method.

III. Greek Theatre

A. The Development of Greek Tragedy--portrayed events from mythology or recent history that provoked its audience to consider controversial issues in contemporary Athens. In that city, tragedies were presented at a theatre dedicated to the god Dionysus built into the southern slope of the acropolis, which held about 14,000 people. The best known of the playwrights are Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.E.), Euripides (c. 485-406 B.C.E.), and Sophocles (c. 496-406 B.C.E.). Sophocles wrote some of the works best know today--Antigone, Electra, and especially Oedipus the King (which some guy named Shakespeare appropriated to write Hamlet).

B. The Development of Greek Comedy--while tragedies often made oblique commentary on contemporary Athenian life, comedies openly satirized, lampooned, and ridiculed the rulers of the city. Like the tragedies, the comedies were written in verse, and used clever profanity, bodily functions, and sex to get laughs (Judd Apatow has nothing on Aristophanes).

IV. The End of Athen's Golden Age, 431-403 B.C.E.

A. The Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.E.--fearing that the Athens-led Delian League threatened the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League, Sparta attacked Athens. The great Athenian leader, Pericles, seeing a long war of attrition ahead, advised using the Delian League navy to attack the coastal cities of the Peloponnesian League, and to remain within the impenetrable walls of Athens in response to Spartan attacks. If Athens would have followed this advice, they might of won, but Pericles influence died with him in an epidemic in 429--and epidemic that killed thousands of Athenians during the war. Athens and  Sparta made peace in 421 (after a contingent of Spartans unexpectedly surrendered in 425 B.C.E.--obviously, they forgot about the 300). An ambitious Athenian general, Alcibiades, persuaded the Athenian assembly to reject peace in 418. In a savage campaign of 416-415 B.C.E., Athens and allies overpowered the tiny and strategically meaningless Aegean island of Melos because it refused to abandon its allegiance to Sparta--killing all the men, selling all the women and children into slavery, and colonizing the island. Alcibiades in 415 persuaded the assembly to launch the greatest and most expensive invasion in Greek history against the Spartan allies at Syracuse on the island of Sicily. They Syracusans prevailed, however, and so weakened the Athenian forces that they were unable to resist the Spartan counterattack, which devastated the Athenian countryside. In 411 B.C.E., the assembly voted itself out of existence, political chaos ensued, and when the Persian king provided Sparta with the funds to build a navy, Athens was forced to surrender in 404 B.C.E.

B. Tyranny and Civil War, 404-403 B.C.E.--following Athens defeat, Sparta installed a regime of antidemocratic Athenians known as the 30 Tyrants who were willing to collaborate with the Spartans. Brutally suppressing the democratic opposition, the Tyrants embarked on an 8 month campaign of murder and plunder, until democratic forces that had organized outside the city were able to take advantage of a political dispute in Sparta to overthrow the Tyrant forces. Much of the city seethed in anger at the conduct of the Tyrants, and leaders attempted an early version of the Truth and Justice Commissions, but those efforts largely failed.

The Rise of Athens and the Golden Age of Greece, c. 500 B.C.E to c. 400 B.C.E.

A. The Athens-Sparta Rivalry--these two cities were the pre-eminent Greek city-states of the Archaic and Classical periods.  The different  character of these two cities underscores the diversity of human societies, even when they share similar climates and cultures.

1. Sparta--Sparta's unique (to Greece) solution for handling the conundrum of an exploding population and lack of arable land--the annexation of Messenia and the enslavement of its population--changed Sparta politically and, eventually, culturally.

a. Land near Sparta and Messenia was divided into several thousand lots and assigned to Spartan citizens. The helots (the enslaved population of Messenia) worked the land and turned over a portion of  what they grew to their Spartan masters who, being freed from the work of food production, could spend their lives  in military training and service.

b. The Spartan army was undoubtedly the finest in  Greece, far superior, militarily, than the citizen militias of the other city-states. Military training  for Spartan boys began at age seven, when they were taken from their families and placed in barracks, under strict discipline, often placed in conditions of deprivation, to prepare them for such conditions on the battlefield.

c. A Spartan male's whole life was subordinated to the military needs of the state. Sparta essentially stopped the cultural clock at about 500BCE, and took no part in the flowering of Greek culture that occurred during the Archaic period.

d. Sparta's military might was largely used to ensure that there was no uprising of the helots; after proving  their bravery and military skill early in the Archaic period, Sparta's military prowess became a given, and few rivals felt the need to test it. The need to remain in close range of Sparta meant that the city-state adopted a cautious and isolationist foreign policy.

2. Athens--Athens was also fairly unique in Greece. It lies in a fairly prosperous region, with a larger plains area suitable for the cultivation of grain and olive trees, which also supported numerous villages and several larger towns--all of which became satellites of Athens.

a. Political turmoil--by 594BCE, Athens was on the verge of a civil war, as aristocratic families vied for control of the city. To reduce this growing conflict, a respected member of the elite class, Solon, was given extraordinary powers as a lawgiver. First, he divided Athenians into four classes, based upon the annual yield of their farms. Those members of the top three social classes were granted the right to hold political office, while members of the lowest class could not. While this arrangement cannot really be classified as democracy, it did break the political stranglehold wealthy aristocratic families had exercised in Athens.

b. Continued political turmoil--despite this broadened political base, political turmoil continued in Athens until 546BCE, when an aristocrat named Pisistratus seized power as a tyrant. To strengthen his position and weaken the power of the other members of the aristocracy, Pisistratus began a major building program (he is responsible for the construction of the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis) to provide public space in the city that, in conjunction with an expanded program of festivals, religious processions, play performances, athletic contests, and the equivalent of modern-day "poetry slams" to entice people in the hinterland to identify with Athens, were he was most popular. In large part, this strategy worked, and he was able to pass on the leadership of the city on to his son.

c. Pericles and Athenian Democracy--the son of Pisistratus proved to be somewhat less popular, and in the last decade of the sixth century BCE, with the assistance of Sparta, the Athenians turned out the ruling family. By the middle of the fifth century (between 460 and 450BCE), Pericles and his political allies took the last step in the evolution of Athenian democracy, and transferred all power to popular organs of government: the Assembly, the Council of 500, and the People's Courts. Now men of moderate or small means could participate fully in the political process, even filling the highest positions, because government officials were now paid, so they could afford to take time from work. the focal point for governing Athens quickly became the  Assembly, where several times a month proposals were debated, decisions were made openly, and any citizen could speak to the issues of the day.

B. Wars Between Persia and Greece, 546-323BCE--this series of wars was probably more meaningful to the Greeks, who saw the Persians as a threatening enemy, while Persia was more concerned with rivals to the east. Before Persia was a threat, however, Athens tried to enlist the kingdom as an ally in its struggle against the influence of Sparta. Finding the price of alliance too high, Athens let the matter drop--but never informed Persia, which continued to regard Athens as a vassal state.

1. Early Encounters, 546-499BCE--Cyrus' conquest of Lydia in 546BCE led to the subjugation of the Greek city-states on the Anatolian coast, called by the Greeks Ionia. In the years that followed, local groups or individuals who collaborated with the Persians ruled their home cities with minimal Persian interference as tyrants--but tyrants with little local support. All of this changed with the Ionian Revolt, when the Greeks and other subject peoples on the western frontier of the Persian Empire took up arms to wrest control from Persia. After five years and a massive infusion of troops, the rebellion was finally put down.

a. First Persian War, 490BCE--Darius dispatched his army to punish  Eretria and Athens, the two mainland city-states that had aided the Ionian rebels. Eretria was betrayed to the Persians, and the survivors were marched of to permanent exile in southwestern Iran. The Athenians probably would have suffered a similar fate, but their hoplites defeated the more numerous but lighter-armed Persian troops at the battle of Marathon, 26 miles from Athens.

b. Second Persian War, 480BCE--Darius' son and successor, Xerxes, led a huge invasionary force consisting of the Persian army, contingents from all the peoples of the empire, and a large fleet of ships drawn from maritime subjects. This huge force met little initial resistance from Greek city-states, who chose to submit "earth and water" rather than face the possibility of annihilation. The city-states in the southern part of the Greek peninsula rallied under the leadership of Sparta in the Hellenic League, and 300 Spartans slowed the advance at Thermopylae long enough to allow their allies to escape certain death or capture. The Persian army continued its advance, sacking Athens. Shortly afterward, the Persian navy was lured into the narrow straits near Salamis, where their superior numbers and maneuverability were neutralized, and suffered a devastating defeat. The following spring, in 479BCE, the Persian army was defeated at Plataea, and the Persian threat largely receded. Keeping a large army in the field far from friendly territory proved impossible one the Persian naval superiority was wiped out proved to be impossible.

c. On the Offensive--Athens stubborn refusal to submit, and the vital role its navy had played in defeating the Persian advance--coupled with the losses Sparta had suffered at Thermopylae, and Sparta's preferred isolationist stance--made Athens the natural choice to lead a counter-offensive to liberate those Greek states still under Persian control. The formation of the Delian League (477BCE),  initially a voluntary alliance of Greek states and led by Athens, permitted  them to sweep the Persians from the waters of the eastern Mediterranean within twenty years.

2. The Height of Athenian Power--the reluctance of other Greek states to continue to supply troops for this enterprise allowed Athens to transform the Delian League from a voluntary association to a means of dominating the other city-states.

a. Naval technology--Athens transformed naval technology with the development of the trieme, a sleek, fast vessel that was powered by 170 rowers, in addition to its sail power. This new naval technology is also a reflection of the changed Athenian political climate; while hoplites had provided their own armor, and thus had been part of the middle class, rowers came predominately from the lower orders, and their importance to ensuring the supremacy of the trieme made it difficult to deny them greater political power.

b. Pre-eminent Trade Center--Athen's port, Piraeus, became the most important commercial center in the eastern Mediterranean, and Athens  did not hesitate to use its naval power to promote its economic interests. Subject states were forced to pay tribute, and Athenian political leaders like Pericles used this tribute money to build monuments and temples on the Acropolis--as well as buildings throughout the city, thereby transferring the tribute money to the citizens of Athens though wages and goods for buildings these structures.

c. Cultural achievements--were also supported by the profits of empire. Wealthy Athenian (who profited directly from the empire) paid for the production costs of the tragedies and comedies performed at state festivals. The most creative artists  and thinkers in the Greek world were thereby attracted to Athens, including a sculptor by the name of Socrates, who enjoyed the attention he received from deflating the pretensions of those who thought themselves wise. This propensity, along with the coterie of young men he attracted while performing in this way, led to his downfall, especially his lack of contrition despite the seriousness of the charges (to others, that is). Although Socrates himself wrote nothing, one of his students, Plato, did write down his recalled Socratic dialogues, eventually moving to write his own interpretation of the conversations Socrates directed over the major questions discussed during  these dialogues--the nature of truth, knowledge, justice, and wisdom, among others.

4. Inequality in Classical Greece--Athenian democracy was enjoyed by a relatively few men, perhaps 30,000 to 40,000, out of a total population in Athens of some 300,000 people.

a. Slave--slaves made up possibly one-third  of the population of Classical Athens, and did nearly all of the word; in fact, it was the labor of slaves that made it possible for Athenian men to engage in the democratic process. Greeks like Aristotle rationalized the institution of slavery by arguing that the barbaroi lacked the capacity to reason, and thus were better off under the direction of rational Greek owners--an argument that would be made again and again in history to legitimize slavery.

b. Women--the status of women varied from state to state in Classical Greece. Ironically, women were perhaps the most free in Sparta, where they were expected to raise strong virile children, and enjoyed a level of visibility  and outspokenness that shocked other Greeks; in Athens, women were perhaps the most oppressed, where men attempted to confine them to the home to reign in their alleged promiscuousness. In Athenian society, the main role of women was to produce children, and preferably male children, since female offspring were more likely to suffer from infanticide.

5. Failure of the City-State and the Triumph of Macedonia

a. Peloponnesian War (431-404BCE)--resentment towards the high-handed attitude of Athens led a number of other city-states, under the direction of Sparta, to begin the two-decade long Peloponnesian War. During the early years of the conflict, Athens refused to engage the invading army outside the walls it had constructed to connect it to the port of Piraeus; the hoplites that made up the bulk of the attacking force would have to withdraw during the year to harvest the crops at their farms. With the financial assistance of Persia, however, Sparta was able to build a navy to defeat the Athenians, and Sparta quickly assumed Athens place as the most despised city-state because of its own haughty attitude. The skirmishing continued in Greece until the king of Persia brokered the King's Peace in 387BCE. Problems in the eastern portion of the empire diverted Persian attention elsewhere,  but the position of the King of Persia as the guarantor of the status quo kept the Greek city-states in a weakened condition.

b. Philip of Macedonia--Philip II transformed his previously backward kingdom of Macedonia into the premier military power in the Greek world. He refined the hoplite battle tactics, and incorporated and coordinated the use of cavalry and infantry together. His military engineers developed the early catapults,  which transformed siege warfare. By 338BCE, Philip brought this new technology to use against a coalition of Greek city-states, defeating them and then establishing the Confederacy of Corinth to attack Persia. He had just established a bridgehead on the Asiatic side of Hellespont when he was killed by assassins in 336BCE

c. Alexander the Great--used the military innovations of his father, and the avowed goal of revenging Xerxes invasion of Greece, to roll through the Persian Empire, eventually reaching the Indus Valley. Also demonstrating that he could learn from his avowed enemy, he maintained the framework of the Persian administration, while replacing the administrators themselves with those personally loyal to him--while at the same time, marrying several well-connected Persian and Iranian women,  and adopting Persian-style dress and some customs--much to the dismay of the Macedonian nobility. His death in 323BCE  ended this controversy.

C. The Hellenistic Sythesis, 323-30BCE

1. The Three Kingdoms--the short-lived Macedonian dynasty was broken into three kingdoms after Alexander's death:  Seleucid, Ptolemaic, and Antigonid.

a. Selucid--took over the bulk of the empire, and promptly lost great portions of it--the Indus Valley and Afghanistan,  and most of Iran by the middle of the second century BCE. From their capital is Syrian Antioch, the Selucid monarchs controlled Mesopotamia, Syrian, and parts of Anatolia

b. Ptolemies--ruled Egypt, which was more homogenous than the Selucid kingdom, and easier to control. The Ptolemies ruled from Alexandria, planned by Alexander himself. The Ptolemies were happy to collect taxes from the rich agricultural lands, but did little to attempt to integrate Egyptians into the kingdom; only the last Ptolemy ruler,  Cleopatra (51-30BCE) even bothered to learn the Egyptian language.

c. Antigonids--ruled over the ethnically homogeneous region of Macedonia and northern Greece. While they maintained garrisons in the southern part, and the threat of invasion kept the southern city-states in line, they did not control southern Greece. The southern city-states banded together in various alliances, except for Sparta and Greece. Sparta continued to believe its own myth of invincibility, even while losing battles to Macedonia, and Athens was content to remain neutral, an educational center.

2. Alexandria--was the premier city of the Hellenistic Age, the center of learning, culture, and Greek-style democracy.

D. Conclusion