Ancient Greece Final Exam

A key building block of the democracy was the people’s courts known as dicasteries (dikasteria). Ahtenian society was notoriously litigious, and in the hands of unscrupulous politicians court cases often became tools of factional strife. Traisl of impeached officialsstrategoi in particular-were frequently of a political nature, for impeachmnt at Athens was often used as a forum for a debate on foreign policy. Because decrees proposed in the assembly could be challenged by the graphe paranomon (“indictment for illegal proposals”), it can be argued that in fourth-century Athens the dicasteries rather than the ekklesia were the ultimate arbiters of policy. In the absense of a supreme courts or a body of jurisconsults, diacasteries were also the arbiters of law. Courts were also used, of course, in the adjudication of private lawsuits and criminal cases with no political ramification. All male citizens over the age of thirty were eligible to serve on dicateries, and dicasts (jurors) were chosen each year by lot from those who volunteered. To ensure that the composition of the coursts would reflect the voters of Athens, pericles had instituted pay for jury service. The three obols a day, or half the average wage of a laborer, doubtless attracted the poor, who could not earn three obols another ways, as well as comfortably retired older men who enjoyed the opportunity to sit with their fellow citizens in situations that often offered spellbinding entertainment. The number of dicasts allocated to a given case varied usually from 201-501 (odd numbers prevented a tie) although a larger body might be used for high pprofile traisl of a political nature, and some important political trails were hel in the assembly itself. Large jeuries were designed in part to involve large numbers of citizens in decision making, in part to discrougage juries by lot and the cutstom of choosing them at the last possible moment before the trial. Small plaques, each inscribed with a dicast’s ma,e were insterted into a kleroterion, an allotment device that distributed the names haphazardly among the daily jueries. Voting was by secret ballot. Each dicast was given two pebbles or bronze discs, one of which ahd a hole punched through it; a herald would proclaim that “the pebble with the hole is a vote for the prosecutor, and the whole pebble a vote for the defendant.” To cast his vote, the dicast would throw the one he wanted to be counted into a copper receptacle and discard the other pebble into the wooden one.

Plato’s star pupil. Founded the great insitution of scientific learning at Athens, the Lyceum. His father had been a court physicians in macedon and he had been trained in scientific observation from his youth. He was neverhappier than in the meticulous observation and classification of species. Had a powerful belief in natural hierarchies-free over slave, Greek over non greek, adult over child, male over female. Aritostle was a staunch supporter of patriarchy, which he bleived had a solid basis in women’s biological inadequacy. Women, he maintained, had coler bodies than men. For this reason, although they were able to provide matter for embryos, only men could provide the soul. In the womb, embroyos that stopped short of full development for lack of heat became female. Thus women were literally half baked. From this case the inferior strength he identified in avariety of specifies. The female, he contended “is so to speak, a deformed male.” Plato and Aristotle shared a passionate convition that the goal of philosophy was to enable selected people to pursue enlightement in a republib of virtuous citizens. Turtored Alexander the Great

An aristocrat from one of athens’ most distinguished families and a relative of the oligarch critias, plato became a discriple of Socrates and was profoundly shaken by his death. The loss of his mentor, however, only heightened his creative powers. Composed numerous dialogues, in most of which the principal part is played by a character he identifies as Socrates. Explored the questions of beauty, piety, justice and love. As plato’s thinking evolved with the pasing of time, this “Socrates” had less and less in common with te historical Socrates and came to serve as a vehicle for Plato’s own ideas. Cheief among these was the theory of forms. Plato’s belief in forms was connected to his passion for definiitions, for both depend on a conveition that seemingly disparate acts and items can cnontheless be classified in categories=that beautiful objects and acts and ideas for example all have omething in common. In plato’s view they all partake of the ideal form of beauty. A beautiful sunset might seem different from a beautiful mathatmical proof or a beautiful young athletee, but in fact what ties them together is more enduring than what sets them apart. In many ways, plato was a revolutionatry. Plato identified values that were more important than being well liked or envied. Within the republic, he asked the important question about justice: if you had a magic ring that would make you invisible, would you practice justice, or take advantage of the ring’s powers?

Philip II born about 382 BC, the last son of Amyntas III and his Illyrian wife Eurydice. Plutarch says that Eurydice learned to read in order to educate her children, but philip’s education ended abruptly with the defeat of his brother Alexander II and his own exile as a hostage in Thebes from 369 to 367 BC. Philip’s stay in thebes soon after its victory at leuctra gave hi invaluable insight into contemporary greek politics and military tactics. Returned to macedon in 367 as the kingdom descended into chaos. Political instability also provided Philip with an unexpected opportunity because the crisis following Perdiccas’ death demanded a ruler capable of taking decisive action. That ruler could only be phillip, as he was the sole surviving adult Argead. Philip quickly supplanted his infant nephew Amyntas as king of Macedon. Took power in 360, was threatened by foreign enemies and rivals. His reign conincided with a revolution in military tactics and weaponry that ended the greek hoplite’s dominance of the battlfield.created a new phalynx that replaced the undisciplined militia that had served Macedonian kings so poorly in the past. Phalynx equipped with new weapons and assigned a new role in battle. Each member wore a metal helmet and carried a small shield and short sword. Principal weapon was a sarissa, an enormous pike that could be up to 18 ft long, allowing the soldier to strike a blow before hi enemies could close and use their shorter weapons. Also strengthened the bonds between army and the king by sharing its hardships and dangers, as the loss of an eye and other wounds attested. He conferred a new title on the common soldiers, suggesting that they were also the king’s personal companions. Philip’s ill advised marriage to Cleopatra proved his undoing, as he became embroiled in the enmities of her family and one of them involved his assassin, pausanias, who killed Philip because the king had ignored extreme abuse of him by cleopatra’s uncle attalus. Pausanias had been raped by attalus’ servent to avenge the death of a young relative of attalus.

336-Assassination of Philip II; Accession of Alexander III (Alexander the Great) 334-Alexander invades Asia. He was the first Macedonian to land on Asian soil.
333-Alexander at Gordium 331-Visit to Siwah by Alexander
331-Foundation of Alexandria 327-Marriage of Alexander and Roxane 327-325-Alexander's Invasion of India
323-Death of Alexander III; accession of Alexander IV

The polis formed the basic framework for the life of most Greeks. Ole poleis such as Athens, Syracuse, and Ephesus grew and prospered. At the same time, while was between poleis continued, cities increasingly attempted to peacefully settle international disputes by arbitration and to insulate themselves against attrack by gaining recognition for themselves as asylos, “inviolate”, from their other Greek cities and kings. Even the notorious particularism of the classical polis was partially overcome by the creation of strong federal states by the Aetolians and Achaeans. The Aetolian and Achaean leagues were alliances of cities governed by councils of city representatives, assemblies of league citizens, and elected league officials. In the Hellenistic period both leagues expanded their membership to include cities outside their traditional homes in central Greece and the northern Peloponnesus. By the late third century BC, the Achaean league included most of the Peloponnesus except Sparta and th aetolian league and its allies reached all the way to the borders of attica. Ot surprisingly, the two leagues were able to deal with Macedon and the other Macedonian kingdoms on a roughly equal basis for much of the third century BC. Although the democracy was never fully restored, Athens flourished as the cultural center of mainland Greece. Hellenistic Athenian culture differed greatly from that of the classical city. The change is most obvious in drama, where the grand tragedies and biting political comedies of the classical era were replaced by a lighter genre known as new Comedy. The plays of Menander, its most famous practitioner, reflect the new political order and the interest of its upper class audience. Menander had been a pupil of Theophrastus, aristotle’s successor as head of the Lyceum. Menander’s plays depict a Greece populated by swaggering mercenaries, impoversished citizens living next door to wealthy people, courtesans and pimps, spendthrift youths, and respectable young women whose destiny is marriage. Menander’s characters are enegrossed in their private worlds, as through weary of war and political upheaval. Slaves are ubiquitous in new comedy and in Hellenistic Athens. Constant warfare had reduced many people to slavery and slave dealers took advantage of the practice of exposing unwanted newborns. Infant exposure forms the theme of several of menanader’s plots.

the most famous and enduring of alexander’s foundations and the site of his tomb. The first three Ptolemies transofmed it into the foremost city of the Hellenistic world with a multiethnic population including Macedonians, jews, greeks and Egyptians. The clearest symbol of alexandria’s dynamism and originality was it signature monument, the Pharos. Built by Ptolemy II, the pharos was the first skyscraper, a 300 foot high polygonal tower topped by a statue of zeus soter whose beacon fire guided ships to Alexandria. The ptolemies also made Alexandria the cultural center of the greek world. Like Alexander, Ptolemy I and his immediate successors encouraged prominent greek scholars and scientists to come to Egypt. With the enormous wealth of Egypt at their disposal, they could afford to subsidize intellectuals, encouraging aritistc and scientific work by establishing cultural institutions of a new type. The ptolermies’ principal cultural foundation was the museum, so named because of its dedication to the nine muses, the patron goddesses of the arts. There distinguished scholars, supported by government stipends, could pursue their studies in congenial surroundings including dormitories, dining facilities, and pelasant gardens. To assist the museum’s scholars, Ptolemy I established a libarary intended to contain copies of every book written in greek. The library’s collection is said to have ultimately reached 700,000 papyrus rolls. Petolemy II supposedly sponsored the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible, the Septuagint, and Ptolemy III allegedly stole the official Athenian copy of the works of the three canonical tragedians. The scholar and poet Callimachus catalouged the library in 120 books, therby laying the foundation for the history of Greek literature. Theocritus’ seventeenth Idyll extravagantly praised the first decade of the reign of Ptolemy II, comparing the king and his sister-wife to gods.

The visual arts reflect the combination of old and new that is a distinctive feature of the Hellenistic Age. Classical arists had perfect a limited number of artistic genres or types such as the idealized figure of an unemotional youthful nude male. This type of figure continued to be sculpted as a heroic representation of Hellenistic kings. Hellenistic art is, however, characterized by variety and experimentation, providing dramatic renderings of a cross section of humaniety experiencing a variety of emotions under extreme stress as in the case of Laocoon, where the doomed effort to escape a horrible death is captured in stone; or the Boxer, where the pathos of defeat is equally vividly depicted in bronze. Sculpture thus provides strong evidence of the new focus on the individual as special and unique, rather than only a citizen on a polis. The production of small terra cotta figures began in the fourth century and flourished in the Hellenistic period. These mold made figurines were relatively inexpensive and popular throughout the greek world. They are our best evidence or the visual arts as a reflection of reality, portraying people of all ages, every social status, and a range of ethnicities. Small bronze sculptures, although more expensive, also depict a broad variety of people.portraiture on coins and in sculpture was also fostered by interest in the individual and in the personality. Hellenisitc portraits osught not only to portray the actual features of the subject, but also to influence the viewer’s perception of the character.

the founder of Stoicism, a friend of Antigonus Gonatas, lived in Athens and taught at the Stoa Poikile (“Painted Porch.”) his followers received the name of Stoics (ie, “Porchers”). His philosophy reflected the new political order. Stoicism entailed a large dose of humanitarianism and public service. Urged his followers to seek an inner tranquility that was proof not only against agonizing pain but also against excessive pleasure as well. Followers were supposed to uphold justice, but not to engage in any serious attempts at reform. Considered slaves spirtitually as free as their owners, but they did not try to abolish slavery.

established a school of philosophy in his home in Athens, known as “the Garden”, including women among his students. Adopted the atomic theory, but rejected determinism. Agreed that atoms fell in straight lines from the sky, argued that the multiplicity of substances in the universe arose from periodic swerves in the atoms’ paths, causing them to collide at a variety of angles. The universe, in short, was created by chance combinations, and would perish and regenerate by chance.

a principal theorist of the Cynic movement, maintained that civilization was unnatural. Denying that humans had needs different from those of animals, Diogenes scandalized contemporaries and earned the name of the Cynic (“dog”) by brazenly maintaining that people should follow instinct just as animals do, even urinating and masturbating in public.

May have been one of cleisthenes' most remarkable innovations a procedure throught to have been intended to prevent the emergene of a new tyrant. every spring the athenians had the option of voting to send one of their fellow citizens into exile for ten years. the process took its name from the ostraka-broken pieces of pottery-on which voters scratched the name of teh man they wanted to banish. ostracized athenians stood accused of no crime, but they had to live in exile for ten years simply because they had received a plurality of six thosand votes by their fellow citizens. hipparcus was the first man to be exiled. historians wonder if cleisthenes really created this procedure. hipparchus' ostracism may not have been the first attmpted ostracism but merely the first successful one. the first man ostraized was related to former tyrant hippias. all but one of the other men ostracized in the 480s were members of the alcmaeonid family that had been accused of trying to betray athens to the persians.

His writing showed no interest in women. saw the actions of people as pretty much exclusively responsible for how things turn out. served as a general; came from an aristocratic family. exiled after failing to keep the spartans from taking amphipolis. could no longer attend meetings of the athenian assembly. quest to determine the truth and expressed impatience with those less committed to the search for knowledge. has been described as the world' first scientific historian and his work has been cited for its objectivity.

unlike the tragedians, aristophanes did not take his plots from mythology; rather, his story lines were firmly grounded in the culture and politics of his day. everything he saw around him was grist for his mill-pretentious teacher,overactive law courst, pompous aristocrats fro the horsy set, and self interested politicians whom he blamed for the chaos and misery of life in athens during the peloponnesian war. obscene and boisterous, aristophanes' plays also manifest a tender love of the countryside, a nostalgia for a simple time, and a sober commitement to peace. although aristophanes' comic genius was unique, his values must have been congenial to the community; the decision whether to grant a chorus for traininng lay with the city magistrates, and of course prize were awarded by citizen judges.

it was only during the peloponnesian war that the genre we know as old comedy reuopted on the athenian stage. comic dramas were produced twice a year in athens, both times in competitions among severage dramatists at festivals of the god dionysus. the only complete plays that survive, however, were written by the comic genius aristophanes.