lecture 1 who were the greeks 2 (2)

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Archaic Classical Hellenistic

Greek HistoryIntroduction to Greek and Roman History

20 credit module (with Roman history)

Semester 1 will be looking at the history of the Greek world.

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Greek HistoryCourse Content

Greek History from the Archaic period to the Hellenistic period

Lecturers: Dr Andrew Bayliss (module co-ordinator)Dr William Mack

Roman History from the mid-Republic to the early Imperial period

Lecturers: Dr Gareth SearsDr Hannah Cornwell

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Greek HistoryCourse Structure

Each semester:• 10 lectures, 1 study week and 4 small group

classes• Lectures: Fridays 2-3, Haworth Building 203 • ‘Classes’: with a tutor, see class list and times

on Canvas which will appear very soon.

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Greek HistoryWhat we expect from you

• Consult the weekly ‘Lecture Notes’ and Reading Lists in the Coursebook on Canvas

• Do all of the set reading for each of the seminars, think about the reading and contribute to the seminar discussions

• Read one item per week from the bibliography provided for all of the lectures (ideally in advance). Take notes and think about it.

• In the lectures listen, take notes of material not on the PowerPoint presentations, answer questions, take part in any discussions

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Greek HistoryLearning Outcomes

By the end of the module you will be able to:• Display knowledge and comprehension of key

aspects of Greek and Roman Civilisation• Relate primary material to social and cultural

contexts;• Respond to questions concerning the material

studied by producing a coherent argument supported by reference to primary material.

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Greek HistoryAssessment

• 3 hour examination in the summer examination period. If you fail the exam you will be re-assessed by examination in the resit period.

• There will be a mixture of essays and factual-based questions, and the material for the questions can come from any of the lectures and seminars.

• You will have to answer questions on both Greece and Rome.• If you keep up with the reading and attend the sessions it will

all be OK!• There will be a revision session after Easter to help you

prepare.

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Greek HistoryCourse Resources

• Canvas – Introduction to Greek and Roman History– Main course pack– Seminar group lists– PowerPoints (sometimes after the lecture)

• Library catalogue and elibrary service: http://findit.bham.ac.uk

• JSTOR – www.jstor.org

http://findit.bham.ac.uk/

http://www.jstor.org/

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Greek History

Week Lecture Topic Seminar Topic

1 Introduction – Herodotus, weird sheep, gold-digging ants, funny foreigners, and Greek identity (AB)

2 Sparta – Better to die than to eat the food? (AB)

3 Athens – the Birthplace of democracy? (WM) Greek ethnicity

4 Religion – How important were the gods to the Greeks? (AB) [Greek ethnicity]

5 Persian Wars – How did the Greeks repel the Persians? (WM) Essay Planning

Reading Week

7 Athens and Sparta 479-421 BC – Good vs Evil? (AB) [Essay Planning]

8 Spartan dominance 421-371 BC – Sparta betrays Greece? (AB) Greek women

9 Philip of Macedon – barbarian conqueror or unifier of Greece? (AB)

[Greek women]

10 Alexander the Great – Great leader or madman? (WM) Alexander

11 The Hellenistic Age – a period of decline? (AB) [Alexander]

Semester 1 Plan

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Greek History

• Who were the Greeks?• Why do we know about the Greeks?• Who was Herodotus?• What was he writing about?• Who were the Persians? What does Herodotus tell us

about them?• What is a polis?• What is a hoplite? Why is this important?

Today’s Lecture

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Greek History

‘We are all Hellenes – one race speaking one language, with temples to the gods and religious rites in common, and with a common way of life.’ (Herodotus 8.144)

Who were the Greeks?

• Well they were actually ‘Hellenes’ not ‘Greeks’!

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Greek HistoryWhere do we find Greeks?

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Greek HistoryGreek city-states – polis (sing.), poleis (pl.)

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Greek HistoryHow do we know about these Greeks?

• We know about them because the Greeks started to record their own history.

• Today we are going to focus on Herodotus who is sometimes known as the ‘father of history’

• His work begins: “Herodotus of Halicarnassus here puts on display his research (historia). His purpose is that the things that have been done by men should not be forgotten with the passage of time”.

• Herodotus’ History tells the story of the escalating conflict between the Greeks and the Persians from 546 to 479 B.C.

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Greek History

• See e.g. Herodotus 2.19-22 on why river Nile flooded

• According to Herodotus it was – not because of snow or rain from the south (Ethiopia) as some people thought.

• Why not? (It helps if you think ‘Greek’)

• Because Ethiopia was very hot.

• Herodotus an enquiring and questioning mind...

Herodotus liked to explain things

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Greek History

See e.g. Herodotus 3.102 on ‘giant’ gold-digging ants:

“Here, in this desert, there live amid the sand great ants, in size somewhat less than dogs, but bigger than foxes. The Persian king has a number of them, which have been caught by the hunters in the land whereof we are speaking. Those ants make their dwellings under ground, and like the Greek ants, which they very much resemble in shape, throw up sand heaps as they burrow. Now the sand which they throw up is full of gold”.

But Herodotus has a reputation as a fibber

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Greek History

See also Herodotus 3.113 for some amazing sheep.

“There are also two varieties of sheep that are worthy of wonder and occur nowhere else [outside Arabia]. The one of these has a long tail, not less than four and one-half feet. If this were suffered to trail after the sheep, it would be injured because of the rubbing of the tail on the ground. As it is, every shepherd knows enough about carpentry to make a small cart on which to fasten the tail, one for each sheep. The other variety has a thick tail that is one and one-half feet broad”.

Herodotus the fibber?

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Greek History

• Obviously, Herodotus is an idiot, isn’t he?

• But...

What does this leave us with?

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Greek History

• The chances are that Herodotus was right! • There is a type of fat-tailed sheep which is common in

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries.• It has a tail which can take several shapes. • The Awassi, which probably resembles the original fat-tail

breed pretty closely, has a roughly rectangular beaver-tail shape.

• The Karaman breed, which accounts for two thirds of the sheep in Turkey, also has a beaver-shaped tail

• The Daglic, which is prominent in west-central Turkey, has a more triangular tail.

There really are weird sheep in Asia!

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Greek HistoryBut clearly the giant ants were a mistake?

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Greek History

• In the 1990s the French Ethnographer Peissel suggested that Herodotus was wrong about the ants, but not wrong about the gold.

• Peissel found that in India the Himalayan Marmot digs big holes, which allow the locals to gather gold dust!

• According to Peissel: “It was astonishing. There were the marmots and the burrow and the piles of sand they had thrown up”. Moreover, he said, a landslide had exposed the darker, gold bearing soil that was three feet below the surface. That was the same soil the marmots brought up from under the sand.

• So Herodotus mistook “giant squirrel” for “giant ant”. • Who hasn’t made that sort of mistake?

Perhaps Herodotus was only partly wrong

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Greek History

• What we need now is a test case on how Herodotus constructed the ‘truth’.

Herodotus on the Persians

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Greek History

• Herodotus tells us about how Cyrus defeated Croesus, king of Lydia

• When Cyrus died he was succeeded by his (mad) son Cambyses whose career charts a progression from hubris (arrogance) to nemesis (disaster).

• 3.27ff Cambyses kills the Apis bull. Secretly murders brother Smerdis but dies himself...

• Persian priests (Magi) take opportunity to put an impostor into power. Weirdly, called Smerdis -

• But the impostor Smerdis has no ears… 3.61ff.

Herodotus on Cambyses and ‘Smerdis’

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Greek History

• Smerdis’ new wife discovers the “false Smerdis’” earlessness…and reports it to her father Otanes

• Group of noblemen overthrow the impostor… (3.68-79)

• Then they settle to a debate. Monarchy? Oligarchy? Democracy? (3.80ff)

• Darius becomes king after story involving horse-sex. You couldn’t make this **** up?

Herodotus on Smerdis and Darius

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Greek HistoryHow Darius became King…

http://www.livius.org/be-bm/behistun/behistun03.html

http://www.livius.org/be-bm/behistun/behistun03.html

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Greek History…according to Darius himself!

King Darius says: A son of Cyrus, named Cambyses was king here before me. That Cambyses had a brother, Smerdis by name. Afterwards, Cambyses slew this Smerdis. When Cambyses slew Smerdis, it was not known unto the people that Smerdis was slain. Thereupon Cambyses went to Egypt. When Cambyses had departed into Egypt, the people became hostile…even in Persia and Media, and in the other provinces. King Darius says: Afterwards, there was a certain man, a Magian, Gaumâta by name, who raised a rebellion…on the fourteenth day of the month Viyaxana [11 March 522]. He lied to the people, saying: ‘I am Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, the brother of Cambyses’... He seized the kingdom; on the ninth day of the month Garmapada [1 July 522]•Darius goes on to report how he was one of a ‘few’ noblemen who learned the truth and rose up against the false Smerdis.•But rather than a devious servant, it was the god (the one and only god!) Ahuramazda who made Darius king!

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Greek HistorySo what does all this tell us about Herodotus?

• Well the giant ants story suggests that Herodotus was no linguist, but he was covering the whole of Western Asia...

• The story of Smerdis tells us that he talks to the right people, but is sometimes getting ripping yarns rather than what we might think of as the truth.

• We also need to remember that Herodotus is taking evidence from descendants of those involved.

• So many of his stories might be answers to ‘Daddy, what did you do in the war?’ questions…

• So is Herodotus’ method of gathering information getting him into trouble?

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Greek History

• Herodotus (for better or worse) is our main source for Archaic Greece

• This was a time of serious social problems in the Greek world.• These were largely caused by pretty serious population

growth.• The population in Greece started to multiply in the ninth and

eighth centuries (the 800s and 700s B.C.) – perhaps due to greater availability of iron, or perhaps climate change.

ca. 1000 B.C. a big community = 1,500 peopleca. 700 B.C. a big community = 5,000 peopleca. 400 B.C. a big community = 30,000+ people

Herodotus is describing interesting times

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Greek History

1. The poor go hungry2. Resources get redistributed3. New resources are acquired4. Output goes up to meet demand5. Social dislocation6. All of the above!

Responses to Increases in Population

If there is a sudden massive population increase the following things can happen:

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Greek HistoryResponses to Increases in Population

1. INTENSIFICATION– Iron tools– Irrigation technology– More investment

2. EXTENSIFICATION– Use of new land nearby – Go abroad

3. REORGANISATION– Share-cropping– Redistribute land

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Greek History

“As eighth-century Greeks scrambled to make a living, their decisions generated resistance and conflict” (Morris 2009: 70).

State formation and social conflict

• Intensification might widen the gap between peasants with capital and those without

• Extensification might produce “sturdy independent farmers” or wealthy landlords

• Extensification might encourage close-kin or village-based co-operation, but it might also produce tensions within the community if some got too big for their boots

• Extensification might lead to outright warfare between rival states• Setting up colonies overseas might reduce the pressure, but travel

could lead to other internal problems because new colonies could show that traditional order wasn’t the only one.

• Reorganisation might forestall or bring about full scale revolution

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Greek HistoryGreek Colonisation: 800-500 B.C.

Massilia 598 B.C.

Cyrene 762 B.C.

Magna Graeca 730-700 B.C.

Black Sea Coast ca.500 B.C.

Byzantium ca.660 B.C.

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Greek History

• One of the inevitable consequences of the scramble for resources in the Greek world was warfare.

• But more trade and cheaper metals meant that a new type of weaponry allowed more citizens to fight effectively in defence of their homes rather than relying on rich “heroes”.

• The involvement of more ‘Average Joes’ in warfare may have provided the catalyst for social change in the Greek world.

• Some modern scholars have speculated that in the seventh-century the ‘Average Joes’ demanded a say in the running of the state in return for fighting. This is what scholars used to call the “hoplite revolution”.

The Rise of the Greek citizen hoplite

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Greek HistoryGreek citizen hoplites

• A Greek hoplite carried a large wooden (bronze-faced) shield (3 feet – ‘aspis’), a longish thrusting spear (6-8 feet), and a short stabbing sword.

• He wore a large bronze helmet, bronze greaves, a bronze corselet (thorax).

• The whole lot weighed around 32 kg!

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Greek HistoryHow hoplites fought.

• Your big shield protects only half of you in battle and won’t protect you running away.

• Your very heavy armour seriously limits your mobility.

• You have to stand close together and link shields…

• It was called a phalanx.

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Greek HistoryYou win by pushing

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Greek HistoryThere is another flaw!

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Greek History

• Greek hoplites were citizens who provided their own heavy, relatively costly armour to fight in defence of their homes.

• Their shields protect their comrades too, helping create a sense of solidarity.

• These regular citizens as a collective becomes known as “the people” (ho dēmos).

Greek citizen hoplites = ho dēmos

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Greek HistoryPolitical Rights = Power to ‘Mr Average’

• Aristocrats in Corinth, Sicyon and Athens seize power as ‘tyrants’ but with popular consent.

• Some modern scholars suggest that the ‘Average Joes’ demanded a say in the running of the state in return for fighting on behalf of the squabbling aristocrats.

• But in some cities these citizens realised that they could have even more!

• As Aristotle (Politics 1279b3) wrote, “in a politeia the class that does the fighting wields the power”.

• In Athens the tyrants were expelled leading to the first every “democracy” (= rule by the dēmos)

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Greek HistoryThere is NO ‘Greek Empire’!

But we do find lots of independent Greek communities scattered around the Mediterranean!

‘No Greek polis was able to prevent the natural tendency towards the fragmentation of the Greek world, which the establishment of colonies only served ultimately to exacerbate. The fundamental problem of disunity had not been overcome’ (Littman 1974: 69).

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Greek History

1. Greeks were actually called ‘Hellenes’2. They tended to live in independent city-states called poleis3. Greeks tended to live near the sea, and we find them crowded

around the edges of the Mediterranean and Black seas.4. Citizens of Greek poleis were expected to fight on behalf of

their homeland in return for certain rights5. Greek heavy infantrymen were known as hoplites.6. The very nature of hoplite warfare fostered solidarity, and

may have helped shape the nature of the polis.7. The Greeks invented the concept of ‘history’, but sometimes

we have to take our sources with a pinch of salt!

Key Messages for Today

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Greek HistoryNext Week –Sparta

• Finley, M.I. 1981. ‘Sparta and Spartan Society’ in R.Saller and B.D.Shaw (eds.) Economy and Society in Ancient Greece, London, 24-40

• Hooker, J.T. 1980. The Ancient Spartans. London. (115-131) [Scanned and on Canvas]

• Nafissi, M. 2009. ‘Sparta’, in K.A. Raaflaub and H. Van Wees (eds), A Companion to Archaic Greece, Malden, 117-137

• Osborne, R. 1996. Greece in the Making: 1200-479 B.C. London. (pages 177-185) [Scanned and on Canvas]

• Powell, A. 1988. ‘Life within Sparta’, in A. Powell, Athens and Sparta, London, 214-262 [Scanned and available on Canvas]

• Todd, S. 1996. Athens and Sparta. London. [I have scanned pp.34-44, but the whole book would be a swift and cheap read!].

lecture 1 who were the greeks 2 (2)

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