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The Ancient World Part V:
Hellenistic Civilization to 200 BCE
Time Line of Art History: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In his famous book, "Organism," Abraham Maslow originated the idea of self-actualization within a hierarchial structure of physilogical and psychological needs. Within this structure are what Maslow calls "esteem needs." From the very beginning of time historians have made manifest evidence of man's expression of "esteem needs." Over 30,000 years ago in Chauvet France the discovery of dynamic, vibrant paintings of animals drawn on limestone cave walls stand as a testament to man's need to express his world through art.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,
That is all ye know on earth and
All ye need to know.
-------- John Keats (1819) "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
Take the time to see the truth, to see the beauty that man has created across time and space. "Click away!"
Italian Peninsula, 1000 B.C.E..–1 C.E.
The
Eastern Mediterranean, 1–500 C.E.
Time Line Index:
The Timeline Index : People, Periods, Places and Events in a chronological context.
The Peloponnesian War 431-404 B.C.E.
The History of the Peloponnesian War 395 B.C.E.
Socrates, Greek Philosopher 469-399 B.C.E.
Plato, Greek Philosopher 427-347 B.C.E.
Aristotle, Greek Philosopher 384-322 B.C.E.
Alexander the Great 356-323 B.C.E.
Hellenistic Period 332-63 B.C.E.
Readings:
Washington State University-World Cultures to 1500
The Decline of Athens:
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)
Suspicious and fearful of Athenian power and wealth, the Spartans were not happy with the thirty year peace they had agreed to. The Athenians themselves had become chauvinistic and power hungry, and seemed ready to begin to reassert their power on the mainland of Greece. In 431, spurred on by a relatively trivial event in a distant part of the Greek mainland, Sparta and Athens fell into another war which is simply called, The Peloponnesian War.
The Spartan Hegemony (404-307 BCE)
After the unconditional surrender of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta became the undisputed major power among the Greek city-states. Stripped of its navy and its empire, Athens simply became just one more city under the political control of its more powerful neighbor in the south. This period in Greek history is called the Spartan hegemony, for although Sparta didn't rule the city -states of Greece as if it were an empire, Sparta did exercise considerable influence over the domestic and foreign decisions of these independent states: it exercised, then, hegemonic control over these states.
The Theban Hegemony (371-362 BCE)
Under the leadership of two brilliant generals, Apaminondas and Pelopidas, the Spartans were defeated in 371 BC at the battle of Leuctra. Life in Greece changed overnight. The Thebans dismantled the Peloponnesian League and created a new league of states which didn't include Sparta. The Thebans took territory away from the Spartans, whose population had been severely depleted because of Agesilaus's wars, freed all of the helots, and allowed them to set up an independent state. For the next thirty years, Thebes, a democracy would hold sway over much of the politics of the Greek mainland. The Thebans, however, were no more enlightened in their hegemony than the Spartans were, and they soon met bitter resentment and resistance. In 362, in the face of the rivalry of a new Peloponnesian coalition and a resurgent Athenian empire, as well as the deaths of Apaminondas and Pelopidas, Thebes quickly slipped out of its powerful position.
The Second Athenian Empire (362-355 BCE)
After the bitter defeat at the hands of the Spartans and the dismantling of the Athenian Empire in 404 BC, Athens soon began building its empire even during the period of Spartan hegemony. In 378 BC, Athens formed the Second Athenian Confederation, a league of Aegean city-states; the sole purpose of this confederation was to resist the growth of Spartan power in the Aegean Sea. However, after Sparta had been conclusively defeated in 371 BC and Thebes just as conclusively defeated nine years later, the reason for the league evaporated. Persia no longer seemed to be a threat, and there seemed no reason to pour tribute money into Athens. The Second Athenian Empire, then, soon crumbled in a series of revolts. In 355 BC, when the Athenians gave over the Confederation, Greece had once again become a nation of independent, unallied city-states. In less than two decades, those city-states would disappear forever as political units, to be replaced by a vast kingdom under an ambitious Macedonian king, Philip II.
Philip II of Macedon (382–336 BCE)
Philip of Macedon ascended the throne of Macedon in his late twenties. He had found himself regent, that is, the individual in charge of the kingdom because the king was only an infant. As regent, he promptly overthrew his infant nephew, the king, and crowned himself king in 359 BC. In his early twenties, however, he had been a Macedonian hostage living in Thebes during the heyday of the Theban hegemony. Political hostages generally lived a good life, they were simply kept in order that they may be executed if hostilities commenced between the government the hostage came from and the government that held him (or her). Philip lived a good life in Thebes and was well-integrated into the politics and military. He grew to think of himself as a Greek rather than as a Macedonian, but he also learned Greek politics and Greek military strategy. Philip had learned to be a general.
Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE)
The decisive battle of Philip's conquest of Greece occurred in 338 BC at Chaeronea in Boeotia, when Philip beat the Athenians and their allies. The military feat that won that day was a cavalry charge by Philip's eighteen year old son, Alexander. Alexander seems to have inherited much from his brilliant father: physical courage, arrogance, extreme intelligence, and, most importantly, unbridled ambition. For when his father died in 336 BC at an assassin's hand, Alexander quickly consolidated his power and set out to conquer the world. At the age of twenty-one.
While there is much controversy among historians about the significance of Alexander in Greek history and culture, there is no question that the Alexandrian empire was built because of his military genius and his unbridled ambition. Whether or not Alexander could have kept this unimaginably large empire together is an unanswerable and ultimately useless question. It is clear, however, that his death, only a year after completing his Herculean conquest of the world, spelled the end of the empire he had acquired so quickly.
Alexander's great conquests led to the end of the independence of most of the small city-states and the founding of huge empires ruled by dynasties of monarchs, with arbitrary powers and a massive bureaucracy; there was also a great deal of mixing of Greeks and non-Greeks because of the settlements of Greek armies and the founding of new cities, such as Alexandria and Antioch. So there were no longer small communities of self-governing citizens, but great administrative organizations controlling taxes, the judiciary, water and corn supplies, etc. In a time of universalism and individualism the world expanded, linked by a common language (Greek). Cults of the Olympian gods yielded to worship of the ruler; educated men turned to philosophy, others to the mystery-cults and private religious associations. Cults of Isis, Dionysus, Serapis became important; there was a tendency towards syncretism, fusing deities from several traditions to produce One God. Astrology, magic, and Fortune (or Chance: tyché ) grew in importance. There was little or no independent political life, but there was in general freedom of thought and religion. The centers of life were no longer assemblies and councils, but gymnasia (schools) and shrines of the mystery cults.
Video Presentations
The Greek World to 300 B.C.E.
This segment begins by exploring at how Sparta and Athens fell out after the Persian Wars, with a look at Athenian politics and society and how these contrasted to Sparta's. This is a refreshingly non-partisan treatment, not hesitating to be equally critical of Athens. Women's life in Sparta is given much attention. Sparta comes off as considerably more enlightened, by modern Western standards, than Athens.
Engineering an Empire - Greece Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
Lost Treasures Of The Ancient World- Ancient Greece
Video Presentations
Hellenism and Alexander the Great
The Fall of the Great Empire: Persia-Rise of Alexander the Great
Did the Persian Empire fall because it was a colossus built on shaky foundations? For centuries the Persian Empire had existed in what appeared to be resolute stability--until collapsing in a relatively short period of time under the military strikes of Alexander the Greek.
The Age of Alexander: Engineering an Empire Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
The Western Tradition: The Hellenistic Age
Hellenistic kingdoms extended Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean
Hellenistic Philosophies: Cynicism - Epicureanism - Stoicism
This lecture is a VERY simplified explanation of cynicism, stoicism, and epicureanism as incompatible with Catholic Christianity.
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