Western Civilization I

Notes from 1/29/01

I.   Crete (Minoan) Civilization

Although the Cretans were probably from Asia Minor (and are therefore not considered Greek), their influence on Greek culture was extremely significant.  A great deal of what we know about ancient Crete comes from the ruins of a villa at Knossos (on this map, spelled "Cnossus"), the sight of a magnificent palace.  The site is also called the "Palace of King Minos," and Cretan civilization is sometimes also referred to as "Minoan."

The ruins date back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.  They demonstrate a highly advanced civilization, in which the arts and commerce flourished.   Most significantly, archaeologists have found two forms of writing on Crete, called "Linear A" (used between 1700 and 1500 B.C.) and "Linear B" (used between 1450 and 1400 B.C.).  Whereas early Sumerian and Egyptian writing were both pictographic, the writing found on Crete is phonetic.   Linear A has yet to be deciphered; tablets written in Linear B most often contain commercial records, things like inventories, numbers of vessels, seeds, etc.  Linear B is written in a form of Greek, which means that the Greeks must have had a significant presence on Crete during the 15th century B.C.

Around 1380 B.C., the Cretan civilization collapsed.   We are not sure exactly why, although we know that an earthquake damaged the island of Crete at that time.  If, as the Linear B tablets suggest, the Greeks had come to power on Crete during the 15th century B.C., there might have been a violent rebellion.  Whatever the cause, the archaeological record show evidence of some violent catastrophe, in which many of the island's palaces were burned or destroyed.

II.  Mycenaean Civilization

The next successful civilization in Greece was that of Mycenae, a city located slightly to the southwest of Corinth (on the map above).  Mycenae reached the height of its power between 1400 and 1200 B.C.  Elaborate ornaments and artwork (particularly items found at burial sites, such as a child wrapped completely in a suit of gold foil, and gold death masks) attest to the Mycenaean civilization's vast wealth.

The Mycenaeans also used Linear B writing.  Their cities were ruled by strong palace-centered kings, and each city appears to have enjoyed a considerable autonomy.   According to Homer's Iliad, the Mycenaean cities were united in a brief war against the City of Troy, a wealthy outpost on the west coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey, see above map).  But Homer's Iliad is a poem, not an historical source.  Certainly, many of the stories that appear in the famous Iliad and Odyssey epics were legends originally passed from one generation to another orally.  Whether there was actually a beautiful princess, Helen of Troy ("the face that launched a thousand ships"), or a Trojan Horse is debatable.

Mycenaean civilization went into decline during the 13th century, B.C.  For one thing, piracy throughout the Mediterranean diminished Mycenaean commerce.  People who spoke a dialect of Greek known as Doric began to overrun Mycenae; these Dorian invasions, combined with internal conflicts among Mycenaean kings, doubtless contributed to the decline of the civilization.  But, as with the demise of Crete, no one is entirely sure of what caused the final decline of this Bronze Age society.

III.  The "Dark Ages" of Greece

With the decline of Mycenaean civilization, Greece entered a sort of "Dark Ages."  The archaeological record from between 1100 and 800 B.C. shows a decline in art; pottery from this period is typically more crude, burial sites are far less elaborate, and there are none of the massive palaces and temples that characterized the architecture of Crete and Mycenae.  Most significantly, the Greeks appear to have become illiterate again; Linear B writing completely disappears after 1100.

IV.  The Greek "Renaissance" and the Rise of the Poleis

The period between 800 and 600 B.C. is sometimes referred to as a Greek "Renaissance." During this period, several hundred relatively autonomous, self-governing city-states (singular: polis; plural: poleis) replaced the palace-centered kingdoms that had characterized Cretan and Mycenaean civilizations.

In addition to the rise of the city-state, a number of other developments characterize this Renaissance period:

1. A revival of Greek culture; poetry, art and architecture become more sophisticated again, break new frontiers;

2. Economic expansion and overseas colonization;

3. Development of public games (1st Olympiad held in 776 B.C.);

4. A new form of writing, borrowed from the Phoenicians, which will eventually become our own alphabet;

5. The development of a polytheism which adopted gods and goddesses from different regions to create a flexible, "Panhellenic" religion.

I talked about how and why so many of the Greek city-states were able to develop democratic forms of self-government during this period. Certainly, geographic factors were important. Because of Greece's topography, each city-state was relatively small. In such small communities, it is difficult for individual rulers to become distant and authoritarian, as the Egyptian pharaohs or Sumerian kings were able to do. Second, as the city-states developed, many needed to expand their armies to include not only the aristocrats, but also ordinary male citizens. These citizen-soldiers (called "hoplites") began to demand greater political rights in return for their service, pressuring individual city-states to democratize. Third, the relative separation of religion from government and the absence of a strong priest class meant that rulers would be unlikely to assert theories of divine right or divine kingship that had been the basis for authority for the pharaohs and Mesopotamian rulers. Finally, climate and economic conditions meant that free Greek males had additional leisure time, which they often spent congregating in public spaces. This ultimately led to increased civic participation and a stronger sense of community in many of the city-states.

Of course, none of the city-states was entirely democratic. Class distinctions remained, and there were substantial numbers of slaves who had no political, legal or economic rights. Women also were excluded, and male citizenship was limited by birth and ancestry. Nonetheless, the experiments in self-government that took place in many of the Greek poleis, particularly Athens, would profoundly influence political thought in the western world throughout modern times.

Athens and Sparta

Certainly, the two most influential Greek poleis were Athens and Sparta.  While Athens developed along democratic lines, Sparta was governed as an oligarchy (rule by the few).  Moreover, Sparta was highly militaristic, owing in large part to its need to keep a huge slave population (called "helots") in check.  (Sparta had acquired so many slaves when it conquered a neighboring city-state, Messenia, during the 7th century B.C.E.)

As the Greek city-states flourished, they attracted the attention of a powerful neighbor to the east, Persia (in what is now modern-day Iran).  The Persians launched a full scale invasion of Greece, but were defeated by a league of city-states, led by Athens, in 479 B.C.E.  Under the able statesman Pericles (c. 495-429 B.C.E.), Athens emerged as the dominant power in Greece, much to the dismay of Sparta, which feared Athenian ambition.  The two city-states became fierce rivals, and with their respective allies fought two long wars against one another known as the Peloponnesian Wars.  Athens was ultimately defeated, in 404 B.C.E., but by that time all of the poleis had been seriously weakened.  As we will see next week, this will open the door to another invasion, this time by the Macedonians, a people to the north.  The Macedonian conquest will put an end to the city-state system and to the Greek experiment with democracy, as Philip of Macedon, and his son, Alexander the Great, create a strong, centralized empire.