Ancient Greece: an Illustrated History

AG_Prelims_.qxd 3/29/10 8:07 PM Page 1 Ancient Greece AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY Marshall Cavendish Reference New York 1st Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: PL0310-78/3173 AG_Prelims_.qxd 3/29/10 8:07 PM Page 2 Marshall Cavendish This publication represents the opinions Copyright © 2011 Marshall Cavendish Corporation and views of the authors based on personal experience,knowledge,and research.The Published by Marshall Cavendish Reference information in this book serves as a general guide only.The author and publisher have An imprint of Marshall Cavendish Corporation used their best efforts in preparing this All rights reserved. book and disclaim liability rising directly and indirectly from the use and application No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a of this book. retrieval system or transmitted,in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise, Other Marshall Cavendish Offices: without the prior permission of the copyright owner.Request Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) for permission should be addressed to the Publisher,Marshall Private Limited,1 New Industrial Road, Cavendish Corporation,99 White Plains Road,Tarrytown,NY Singapore 536196 • Marshall Cavendish 10591.Tel:(914) 332-8888,fax:(914) 332-1888. International (Thailand) Co Ltd.253 Asoke, 12th Flr,Sukhumvit 21 Road,Klongtoey Website:www.marshallcavendish.us Nua,Wattana,Bangkok 10110,Thailand • Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang,Lot 46,Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park,Batu Tiga,40000 Shah Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Alam,Selangor Darul Ehsan,Malaysia Ancient Greece :an illustrated history. Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of p.cm. Times Publishing Limited Includes index. ISBN 978-0-7614-9955-8 (alk.paper) All websites were available and accurate 1. Greece--History--To 146 B.C.2. Greece--Civilization--To when this book was sent to press. 146 B.C. DF215.A55 2010 PHOTOGRAPHICCREDITS 938--dc22 Front Cover:Shutterstock:Raimond Siebesma 2010002924 (main),David H Seymour (background). Back Cover:Shutterstock:Raimond Siebesma (main),David H Seymour (background). Inside:AKG:21,75,92,103,135,136,148,149,156, 179,Andrea Baguzzi 87,171,Pietro Baguzzi 153,Orsi Battaglini 178,Herve Champollion 145,170,Peter Connolly 19,60,73,157,Gerard Degeorge 102,Electa 61,Rainer Hachenberg 48,John Hios 10b,56,77,97, 113,116,Andrea Jemolo 47,Tristan Lafrancis 49,58, Printed in Malaysia 167,Erich Lessing 7,8,10t,15,16,20,22,24,25,33,39, 62,67,68,72,76,78,83,84,86,89,98,106,114,117, 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 118,120,123,127,139,141,159,165,168,175,176, Nimatallah 44,45b,53,59,105,112,155,173,Jean- Louis Nou 38,Ullstein Bild-Agelou 142;Ancient Art and Architecture Collection:B.Wilson 82;Art Archive:Archaelogical Museum Eretria/Gianni Dagli Orti 42,45t;Corbis:Barney Burstein 146,Gianni Dagli Orti 46,Hulton-Deutsch Collection 151;Lebrecht:37, MARSHALLCAVENDISH H.J.Shunk/Interfoto 163;Mary Evans Picture Publisher:Paul Bernabeo Library:57,124,150;Science Photo Library:131; Shutterstock:70,Cornelie LEU 1,Elpis Ioaninidis 63, Project Editor:Brian Kinsey Nikita Rogul 79,Scion 3,Valery Shanon 5,Olga Production Manager:Mike Esposito Shelego 140,Nikolas Strigins 12;Still Pictures:126; Superstock:Yiorgos Depollas 54;Topham:11,23,27, THEBROWNREFERENCEGROUPPLC 51,91,101,104,137,147,162,172,Alinari 32,65,69, 81,95,143,152,177,183,Mike Andrews 35,Ann Managing Editor:Tim Harris Ronan Picture Library/HIP 125,128,130,132,Arena Designer:Lynne Lennon PAL 93,Art Media/HIP 133,160,British Library/HIP Picture Researcher:Laila Torsun 34,36,74,94,100,111,119,161,Fortean 129,HIP 41, Indexer:Ann Barrett 85,90,134,164,Image Works 18,107,144,Prisma- Vew 121,Roger-Viollet 13,180,181,Charles Wallker Design Manager:David Poole 115;Werner Forman:71,108,British Museum, Editorial Director:Lindsey Lowe London 109. 1st Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: PL0310-78/3173 AG_Prelims_.qxd 3/29/10 8:07 PM Page 3 CONTENTS Foreword 4 Macedon and Alexander the Great 154 Bronze Age Greece 6 After Alexander 166 The Minoans 14 The Greek Legacy 174 Mycenae and Troy 26 Glossary 184 The Dark Age and Greek Expansion 40 Major Historical Figures 187 Sparta and Athens 52 Index 188 From Tyranny to Democracy 64 Greek Religion 80 The Birth of Drama 88 The Persian Wars 96 The Age of Pericles 110 The Great Philosophers 122 The Peloponnesian War 138 1st Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: PL0310-78/3173 AG_Prelims_.qxd 3/29/10 8:07 PM Page 4 FOREWORD I n the preface to his lyric drama “Hellas” gives them the background needed to interpret (1821), written the year before he died, the current circumstances.Such background is sore- poet Percy Bysshe Shelley declared to readers ly needed,for the past has always served as the throughout the English-speaking world that: prologue to the future.Beginning with a survey “We are all Greeks.Our laws,our literature,our of Stone Age culture from the Paleolithic era and religion,our arts,have their root in Greece.”For a study of the life of the island peoples inhabit- citizens of the West,Shelley’s statement is as true ing Crete and the Cyclades, this book then now as it was then.Take, for example, the evi- introduces its readers to the Bronze Age warrior dence from our everyday language. Nouns in culture populated by the men and women who common usage such as “democracy,” “tragedy,” were made immortal by the poet Homer in the “odyssey,”“tyrant,”“theater,”and “poet,”as well Iliad:Agamemnon,Helen,Hector,and Achilles, as the adjectives “spartan,” “stoic,” “comic,” among others.When the Mycenaean hegemony “olympic,”“epic,” and “platonic,” testify to the fell apart,there followed a prolonged period of enduring influence of the Hellenic past. decline,from whose ruins rose a system of city- At no time in recent history have the peoples states such as those of Sparta, Corinth,Thebes, of Europe and of Western civilization in general and Athens.These cities in turn created eco- been as engaged as they are today in areas of the nomic engines, forms of art and architecture, globe that were involved for centuries in repeat- structures of government, techniques of diplo- ed conflicts and continuous cultural exchange macy,methods of warfare,and systems of philos- with the Greeks.Scarcely a day passes in which ophy, religion, and law that are now applied an event in the Near East,western Asia,or South worldwide. The successes, failures, biases, and Asia does not make up some aspect of the daily shortcomings of these systems remain of great news cycle.Looking back to the last century,the consequence to us.The warning made by the British invasion of Iraq during the Anglo-Iraqi Greek historian Herodotus to his audience in War in May 1941 marked the first time since the fifth century BCE still pertains:the divinities Alexander the Great’s siege of the island city Tyre who sanction prosperity will just as frequently in 333 BCE that armed forces of any nation had destroy it. marched east from the eastern shores of the Over time, this pan-Hellenic network of Mediterranean Sea to the Mesopotamian city of Greek-speaking city-states absorbed and was Babylon. That invasion occurred roughly 70 itself absorbed by neighboring cultures. The years ago.How little the world changes! network became truly multicultural as it spread Covering the major periods of Greek histo- westward throughout the Mediterranean region ry,Ancient Greece:An Illustrated Historybrings the into Sicily, portions of Italy, southern France, past alive to a new generation of students and and the Iberian Peninsula,southward into Africa, 4 1st Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: PL0310-78/3173 AG_Prelims_.qxd 3/29/10 8:07 PM Page 5 FOREWORD and eastward as far as the Hindu Kush and artifacts as well as presenting modern views of northern India—where Alexander the Great ancient sites—sustains the reader’s interest. made the final thrusts of his military campaign. Instructors will enjoy teaching from this book Alexander’s death in Babylon in 323 BCE and students who learn from it will come away marked the beginning of the Hellenistic Age. with a strong sense that “the glory that was It may indeed be no exaggeration to say that we Greece,” vis-à-vis Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “To are still living in the Hellenistic Age, because Helen”(1845),is no frothy sentiment of poetic the Greek cultural diffusion, quickened by hyperbole,but in fact an assertion well worth the Alexander’s wide reach and later extended by scrutiny and analysis of every generation. the Romans and the Byzantines, has not yet ended. Michele Ronnick Ancient Greece:An Illustrated History has many Michele Ronnick is president of the Classical merits and is a commendable asset to the 21st- Association of the Middle West and South and a pro- century classroom. Its prose is clear and well- fessor in the Department of Classical and Modern paced,and its pagination and format are visually Languages,Literatures,and Cultures at Wayne State attractive.In addition to the neat summations of University,Detroit,MI. information arranged in time lines and the valu- able details of geography conveyed by the vol- Additional related information is available in the ume’s many maps,a positive boon is the book’s 11-volume History of the Ancient and Medieval illustrations. World, second edition, and the corresponding The images are large, mostly in color, and online Ancient and Medieval World database at their varied arrangement—depicting actual www.marshallcavendishdigital.com. 5 1st Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: PL0310-78/3173 AG_06-13_.qxd 3/30/10 8:52 AM Page 6 BRONZE AGE GREECE In the third millennium BCE, a relatively sophisticated culture TIME LINE grew up on both the Greek mainland and the surrounding islands. In particular, the inhabitants of the Cyclades began to c.6500 BCE Farming produce beautiful works of sculpture. communities established on Greek mainland. Greece consists of mainland Greece on third millennium BCE.In addition to a the Balkan Peninsula and a mass of knowledge of bronze,the invaders intro- c.3000 BCE islands,large and small,scattered over the duced the swing-plow, which greatly Distinctive culture Aegean Sea and extending as far south as improved farming methods.The period emerges on Cycladic islands Crete in the Mediterranean.The climate between around 2800 and 2600 BCE in Aegean Sea. is volatile, with extreme fluctuations in (called Early Helladic I) was a time of temperature, strong winds, and sudden great change. Walled hilltop villages c.2800 BCE downpours of torrential rain.The main appeared, with a chief who ruled over Invaders with knowledge of agricultural products are olives, grapes, the surrounding farmland.Trading with metalwork arrive and figs.In ancient times,both cattle and other communities,some of them over- on Greek mainland; horses were grazed in the eastern central seas, led to the emergence of a wealthy beginning of regions of mainland Greece. class, who built their houses of stone Early Helladic I period. rather than mud bricks.Along with the Greece in the Stone Age rise of this merchant class came the c.2600 BCE There is evidence of Stone Age hunters craftsman class and the use of symbols to Beginning of Early living in mainland Greece in the mark goods and seal containers. Helladic II period. Sophisticated Paleolithic Age,and by the seventh mil- During the period called Early stone settlements lennium BCE it seems that farming Helladic II (c.2600–2100 BCE),this civ- built. communities were established. These ilization peaked, building settlements c.2100 BCE early farmers lived in villages of circular surrounded by towering stone walls and mud huts, grew grains, peas, and lentils, containing houses with several rooms. Migrants from central Asia and kept animals, such as pigs, cattle, Excavations at Lerna have uncovered arrive on Greek goats,and sheep,for meat and milk.The what was probably an important civic mainland to farmers supplemented their diet by building, the massive House of Tiles, establish Minyan hunting and fishing and made stone tools which was built two stories high with a culture. such as axes and chisels.By the end of the balcony on the upper story.The house c.1500 BCE Neolithic Age, people were living in takes its modern name from a number of Traditional date walled towns,in which some large hous- small, flat tiles of baked clay that were given for eruption es had a central hall—indicating that found in its ruins. The tiles may have of volcano on Greek island of some individuals had now become covered a sloping roof and are thought to Thera. wealthier than others, or had even be the earliest roof tiles ever discovered. become chieftains. From 2100 BCE onward, successive On the mainland, metalworking waves of hostile migrants from central invaders arrived in the first part of the Asia swept through the Balkan Peninsula 6 1st Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: PL0310-78/3153 AG_06-13_.qxd 3/30/10 9:45 AM Page 7 BRONZE AGE GREECE and destroyed most of the fortified uncovered it in the late 19th century CE This marble towns. In their place, the invaders built when he was excavating at Orchomenus, sculpture,made on dwellings of more primitive,one-storied, a city in Boeotia that rose to prominence the island of Keros houses.The invaders brought with them in the Mycenaean era. Schliemann around 2000 BCE, a new kind of pottery,which was made named both the pots and the people who depicts a musician on a wheel and whose angular shapes had produced them Minyan. These playing the harp. seemed to imitate metal pots.This pot- Minyans spoke an Indo-European lan- tery was first discovered by the German guage and have since come to be consid- archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann,who ered the first Greeks. 7 1st Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: PL0310-78/3153 AG_06-13_.qxd 4/23/10 3:41 PM Page 8 ANCIENT GREECE ITALY Scoglio del Tonno SICILY This gold goblet The invaders eventually integrated dates to around with the indigenous inhabitants and 2100 BCE,an learned from them seafaring skills that era known to had been notably lacking. The general archaeologists level of culture remained low, however, as the Early for the Minyans. They lived in simple Helladic IIperiod. “long houses” arranged in villages, and The Cyclades get their name from some of the villages were enclosed the Greek word kyklos,meaning “circle,” within walls. because they are arranged roughly in a circle around the island of Delos,which Island cultures was considered sacred to the god Apollo Prior to the Early Helladic Iperiod on (see box,page 11).The islands have been the Greek mainland,another culture had inhabited since very early times.There is started to develop on the Cycladic evidence of settlements on the larger islands. Located in the southwestern islands, such as Kythnos, Mykonos, Aegean Sea, the Cyclades are a group Naxos,and Milos,dating from the sixth of more than 30 major islands formed millennium BCE. from the peaks of mountain ranges sub- These early Neolithic settlers proba- merged long ago.The islands are rocky bly came from southwestern Anatolia and volcanic and are rich in miner- (present-day Turkey), and as they were als such as gold, silver, obsidian, and seafaring people, they settled near the marble,as well as the ores of lead,iron, coasts on the chosen islands.The settlers and copper. grew barley and wheat,raised pigs,sheep, 8 2nd Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: CPL0410-34/3153 AG_06-13_.qxd 4/23/10 3:42 PM Page 9 BRONZE AGE GREECE GREECE IN THE BRONZE AGE Troy GREECE Aegean Sea LESBOS ANATOLIA Gla Orchomenus Mycenae DELOS Miletus MYKONOS KYTHNOS PAROS NAXOS Pylos M CYCLADES editerranean MILOS THERA Sea CRETE and goats, and caught fish, particularly hard rock that the sculptors obtained tuna, in the Aegean.There is evidence from Naxos. Details were then often from some excavated sites that these peo- picked out in red and blue paint. ple were familiar with copperworking The figurines are extremely distinc- from around 4000 BCE. tive in their style.To begin with, they almost always portray women rather than Cycladic art men.The elongated figures stand upright From around 3000 BCE, the Cycladic with the head tilted back,while the arms islanders began to develop a distinct cul- are usually folded across the chest, with ture of their own.They became expert the left arm above the right.The legs and at carving small, elegant figurines in feet touch one another.The statues vary the pure white marble that they found in size enormously;the smallest are only on the islands of Paros and Naxos. 2 inches (5 cm) tall,while the largest are Archaeologists have discovered these almost life-size. statuettes in burial chambers.To achieve Archaeologists are unsure about the a smooth surface, the figures were purpose of these statuettes. Because rubbed with emery stones, a dark, very many of these figurines were found in 9 2nd Proof Title: Ancient Greece : 28768 Job No: CPL0410-34/3153