Ancient Mediterranean History-Part One

unites Upper&Lower Egypt; complex admin, irrigation; religion, predictable world (Nile)--Ma'at; pharaoh is God & Nile; hieroglyphics--records, admin

pyramids--tomb for pharaoh, temple complex; need resources, elevate status of local elite (nomarchs&priests)

weaker pharaoh, smaller pyramids; pharaoh's after-life democratized--diffusion of pwr down

Semites from Levant, war chariot; able to overrun leaders (b/c dynastic instability); control N. (lower) Egypt; ruling military elite, assimilate culturally; expelled by Ahmose I

est. standing armies, military campaigns for expansion buffer; pharaoh now a warrior figure

complex civ. centered in Crete; crossroads; indep. city-states based on palaces--warehouses; Linear A; "hilltop" religion; minotaur; pre-Greek NOT Greek

Indo-Europeans arrive in Balkan peninsula; destroy & rebuild palaces; take over trade; add fortifications to palaces; warrior societies; adopt Minoan writing for own language--Linear B

2 diff groups: Dorian (from N Greece) & Ionian (to Athens & Ionia); Dorian Greeks--indep. subsistence villages (oikos), king pol privilege justified by mil service; villages grow, fuse into poles--farms & marketplace, acropolis & agora; 3 Tiered Pol System--rotating archons, standing boule (both open only to aristocracy), assembly that votes yes/no on boule legislature; Panhellenism

stabilized polis structure, pop growth, partially offset by re-engagement in trade, social dislocations (aristocrats, newly wealthy, tenant farmers); inc. bureaucracy; colonization--expand trade networks w city states as intermediary marketplaces, primarily in Sicily & S. Italy & Black Sea coast; tyranny

most dominant city-state of Archaic Period; full time soldiers; conquest of neighbors (instead of colonization); conquered made helots; agr economy & helots=more rights for Spartan women; small proportion of citizens (compared to helots)=oligarchy

ruler of Athens, not a tyrant; 2 sets of reforms: agr reforms for tenant farmers & pol reforms for "middle"; oligarchy; cancels debt, outlaws debt bondage; long term: doesn't solve problem of unequal land distribution

naval based power; large pop, pop outgrows territory=middle & tenant probs

tyrant; promoted trade; no official pol position (oligarchy still in place); exiles some aristocracy; pays for public works (is rich)

advocates democracy; boule & non-military offices chosen by sortition (lottery); assembly can intro and debate policy

Persian attempt to expand empire west; defeated by temp. coalition of mainland Greeks under Sparta; Athens discovers rich silver vein after 1st invasion, rich--build navy (Trireme) under Themistocles; Athenian Greeks help Ionian Greeks w/ failed revolt against Persia

Delian league; poor rowers participate pol & contribute to security of state--reinforce democracy; concentration of wealth & importance of debate=culture (Parthenon, Sophistic oratory)

land pwr (Sparta) vs. naval pwr (Athens); Athens was using tribute money for itself=allies discontent; Athens expand W-Corinth, ally of Sparta; preemptive war; siege; Persian interference--subsidizes Spartan navy; Athens surrenders (democracy survives, but Athens no longer big player)

indo-europeans; non Semitic people; northern Medes dom. Southern Persians; Assyrian collapse allows Medes to stretch N. of Tigris

Unites Persians against Medes; expands W into Anatolia for port; involved in civil ear in Chaldean Babylon & conquers it; returns Jews from captivity

begun under Cyrus the great (Achemis common ancestor); After Darius, moderate taxation & military requirements--standing bodyguards (10,000 Persian Immortials) AND vast regular army; Zoroastrianism: dualistic religion (spirit/matter) w final judgement; king=earthly agent of Ahura Mazda

son of Cyrus the Great; conquers Saite, declares self pharaoh

formalizes Persian empire's structure (20 provinces/satrapies), cousin of royal fam; promotes trade (Royal Road, united coin system)