Transcript Persia and Greece

Iran/Persia
CHAPTER 4 LECTURE NOTES
Iran/Persia
 To be clear- Iran and Persia are the same place.
 Ringed by mountains and lacking resources, Persia was a hostile
landscape and had few resources. What does this mean for the
economy?
 Agricultural technology, like underground irrigation, allowed
people to expand into previously unusable land.
 There were three main kings of Persia, all of whom expanded the
empire and ruled with an iron fist: Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes.
The capital city was Persepolis, which we’ll see in a minute.
 Our modern perspective on Persia has some serious reliability
issues, because most of what we know is from Greece. Few
written records have survived from inside the empire. How does
that affect our perspective?
Persepolis
Persepolis
Persepolis: City Gate
Persepolis: Temple
Iran/Persia: King Cyrus
 Cyrus was the first king of Persia. He united the empire
by overthrowing the ruling class, the Medes.
 His strategy for conquest had two parts:
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Military: conquering land using strong armies and advanced
weapons
Psychological: Cyrus used a lot of propaganda within his empire to
maintain it, and also made deals with unhappy groups in lands he
wished to conquer. How would this help him?
 This strategy was very successful. He took over both
Mesopotamia and Egypt easily, then kept going.
 Cyrus died in battle, leaving his son Cambyses in charge.
Iran/Persia
 Persia had three major social divisions:
 Warriors
 Priests
 Peasants
 What groups are missing from the typical social
hierarchy?
 What does this information tell us about Persian
society?
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What professions or skills are valued?
Who works and why?
How do the powerful earn and keep their power?
Iran/Persia: King Darius
 After Cambyses died, a high-ranking soldier named
Darius seized power by force. Under his control, the
Persians conquered as far east as the Indus River
Valley and as far west as Europe.
 Land trade continued, but Darius began maritime
trade as well in the Indian Ocean. What might be
different about land v. maritime trade?
 Under Darius, the Persian empire became the largest
land empire in the world.
Empire of Persia
Empire of Persia
Iran/Persia
 The empire was divided into twenty provinces, called
satrapies. The person in charge of the province was
called a satrap.
 The satrap’s responsibilities included collecting
taxes, administering the law and punishment, and
overseeing the bureaucracy in their area.
 As usual, the further a province was from the capital,
the more autonomous the satrap was.
Iran/Persia
 In Persia, the king was a very important person, but was
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NOT divine.
He had multiple wives, a lot of land, and a huge
entourage of admirers and servants.
Although he was not himself divine, the Persian king had
a mandate from the gods. (Sound familiar?)
The Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, was polytheistic
and focused on purity: of nature, water, and women.
How would this affect their social status and behavior?
Life was seen as a struggle between good and evil. People
made their own choices and would be punished or
rewarded accordingly in the afterlife.
Questions about Persia?
A Few Notes About Ancient
Greece
CHAPTER 4 LECTURE NOTES
Grecian Geography
 Like Persia, Greece was fairly rocky and ringed with
mountains. They also had to trade for most of their
needs.
 Greeks traded mostly with neighbors by sea, not by land,
since the overland roads were perilous.
 Ancient Greece had many new ideas and technologies:
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Polis, or city-state, with an acropolis (fortified shelter and meeting
place) and an agora (market)
Coins, which helped make trade easier and faster
The first true alphabet, with one mark representing one sound
Hoplite armies
Hoplite Army
Hoplite Army
Democracy in Greece
 Ancient Greece is acknowledged as the birthplace of
democracy. However it is not what we recognize as
democracy today.
 Like our own democracy, only citizens were allowed to
vote and participate. However, “citizens” were only about
10-15% of the Greek population: free adult males of pure
Athenian ancestry.
 Women, children, slaves, and foreigners were not
permitted to participate- yet, they had to follow the laws
and policies created by the citizens.
 Democracy was still a novel invention, though, because it
opened the government to men of all financial levels.
Athens v. Sparta
 Athens and Sparta were the two largest city-states in
ancient Greece, but they were completely different and
often at odds.
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Athens: center of learning, strict social structure, lots of
politics and philosophy. Citizen militia only.
Sparta: center of military strength. Conquered people became
helots (slaves), boys were taken from home at age 7 to train for
the military, trade was forbidden and there were no cultural
pursuits.
 Slaves of both genders were literally property of their
owners, to be treated however the owner wanted. This
included choosing what type of work, when to do it, and
how much; participation in sexual acts with their owner or
others; and punishment at the owner’s discretion.
The Social World of Athens and Sparta
 In Athens, women were rarely seen. Men were educated and moved
freely; women were uneducated, married young, and rarely saw their
husband or left their homes. Their closest relationships would most
likely be with their household servant or slave.
 In Sparta, women were encouraged to exercise, so they were seen a lot
more in public. Women were valued for their ability to produce sons
that were great warriors.
 Bisexuality and same-sex relationships between men were common in
ancient Greece. In Athens, it would be in the context of a mentor or
other close relationship. In Sparta, it would be with other men in your
fighting force, and that was part of the military strategy. Men that were
in relationships with other soldiers were more likely to remain loyal to
the unit and to exhibit courage and valor in battle.
Philosophy in Ancient Greece
 The first of the three famous Greek philosophers was Socrates.
He used a method of teaching that we now call the “Socratic
method”- asking students questions in order to lead them
down a path of self-discovered knowledge. He was, however, a
bit full of himself, and ended up condemned to death.
 Socrates wrote nothing down. What we know of his teachings
came from his student, Plato, who created written dialogues
based on his conversations with his teacher. Plato was
interested in the mystical and metaphysical.
 Aristotle, a student of Plato’s, was the last of the three. He was
Alexander the Great’s tutor. He, unlike Plato, was interested
in facts and what could be proved. He organized knowledge of
his world in the sciences, ethics, logic, politics, poetry, etc.
Alexander the Great
 Alexander’s father, Philip II, conquered the rest of
Greece and planned an attack on Persia. However, he
was killed by an assassin, so his young son took over.
 Alexander proved to be more ruthless and successful
than his father. He defeated Persia and continued to
extend his empire into Africa and Asia.
 When he died suddenly at 32, his empire descended
into chaos and split in three pieces. The land he had
conquered, however, created a Hellenistic synthesisthe mixing of Greek, Egyptian, and Persian cultures
into a more blended Mediterranean culture.