Transcript Hebrews, Persians and Greeks, 1100

Building the Classical World:
Hebrews, Persians and Greeks,
1100-336 B.C.E.
The West
CHAPTER 3
Settlement in Canaan
• Ca. 1100 Hapiru (Hebrews) arrived in
Canaan from Egypt, with a monotheistic
religion
• Confederation of Hebrew tribes evolved in
Canaan
• Ca. 1020 Saul chosen as first Hebrew king
The Israelite Kingdoms
• David (ca. 1000-962 B.C.E.) developed
centralized government from Jerusalem
• Solomon (ca. 962-922) built the first temple
of Jerusalem and developed international
commercial and diplomatic links
• Ca. 922 B.C.E. division of Hebrew
kingdom into Israel and Judah
The Hebrew Prophets
• Critique of moral and and religious decay
• Elijah (ninth century B.C.E.) taught that
kings and rulers were not above the law
• Amos and Isaiah (eighth century B.C.E.)
attacked social and religious hypocrisy
• Jeremiah (ca. 627 B.C.E.) challenged
Jerusalem’s priesthood
Destruction of the Israelite
Kingdoms
• 733 B.C.E. Assyrians conquer Israel
• 597 B.C.E. Babylonians sack Jerusalem and
burn the Temple of Solomon
• 20,000 Hebrews deported to Babylon
• Babylonian astronomy influenced Hebrew
calendar
Second Temple Judaism
• 515 B.C.E. Second Temple of Jerusalem
built
• Ezra (ca. 458 B.C.E.) instituted reformed
temple worship
• Compilation of the Hebrew Bible (Old
Testament): established a moral vision of
human existence
Cyrus the Great and Persian
Expansion
• Cyrus the Great (550-530 B.C.E.) founded
the largest empire in the known world,
stretching from India to the Mediterranean
• Government based on tolerance of all
religious and ethnic groups
• Zoroastrianism: official religion of Persian
empire included concepts of a final
judgment, and of heaven and hell
The Achaemenid Dynasty
• Founded by Darius in 522 B.C.E.
• Reorganized
administration
into
a
provincial system of satrapies
• Military failures of Darius and Xerxes,
against the Greeks, demonstrated the limits
of Persian imperial expansion
The Dark Age (ca. 1100-750
B.C.E.
•
•
•
•
Urban life disappeared
Collapse of maritime trade
Decline in agriculture and population
Interaction of Ionian Greeks with
Phoenicians, from ca. 800 B.C.E., marked
the end of Greek isolation
The Archaic Age (ca. 750-479
B.C.E.)
• New literary works and themes: Iliad and
Odyssey
• New social and political forms: the polis
(city-state), tyranny, democracy
• Colonization of coastal regions in Italy,
France, Spain and North Africa spread
Greek culture and language throughout the
Mediterranean
Sparta: A Military Society
• Political power held by male warriors - “the
Equals”
• Control of helots through terror
• Valued courage, blind obedience, personal
simplicity and contempt for fear and pain
• Military bonds outweighed family
Athens: Towards Democracy
• First democracy of the ancient world
• Solon (ca. 650-570 B.C.E.) limited power of
aristocracy, opened political participation to
all male citizens and abolished debt-slavery
• Cleisthenes, in 508 B.C.E., founded the
council of 500
The Persian Wars
• Marathon, 490 B.C.E. - Athenians and allies
defeat superior Persian army
• Thermopylae, 480 B.C.E. - Spartans and allies
delay Persian invasion force
• Salamis, 480 B.C.E. - Athenian navy routs Persian
navy in one day
• Plataea, 479 B.C.E. - final Persian attempt to
invade Greece ends in defeat
The Rise and Fall of the
Athenian Empire
• Athens transformed the Delian League into
an empire
• Pericles (461-429 B.C.E.) chief architect of
the Athenian empire
• 431-404 B.C.E. - Peloponnesian War fought
between Athens and Sparta
• Athenian democracy survived the collapse
of the Athenian empire
Society and Religion in
Classical Greece
• Strict gender hierarchy in favor of males
• Idealization of male homosexual relations
• Economic prosperity and cultural legacy
founded upon slavery
• Polytheistic religion
Intellectual Life
• Use of dramatic performances to examine social
values
• Pioneered scientific thought, by seeking to explain
natural phenomena without reference to divinity
• Foundation of causal, historical writing
• Development of philosophical thought
• Foundation of artistic ideas of beauty, symmetry
and proportion
Classical Foundations of the West
• Religious and ethical teachings of Hebrews
• Administrative efficiency of Persian empire
• Political, philosophical and artistic ideas of
Greek culture