HUMA 1825 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Greek Dark Ages, Hoplite, Basileus
20 Sep 2020
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Lecture 1:
Bronze Age:
- People were divided into classes and all the power belonged to the Kings.
- Were seen as Gods
- Reflection of extreme inequality of society, people at top and the bottom
- The name bronze comes from the most important metal required for their military and
economy. It was really expensive and can only be afforded by really rich people
- Those people also had a lot of slaves and had access to a lot of weaponry
- Another name for this age is Mycenae which is named after a city which is a city
- Mycenae is important because we will read speeches of athenian law and then Oresteia
- This story shows how the centre of power moved from Argos to Athens
- The bronze age is where the course is started and shows how things changed from the
elites being godlike to the more equality approach
Early Iron Age:
- Greek Dark Ages
- Archeological evidence suggests that something caused the palace system to collapse
which results in loss of writing
- There's a suggestion that in the whole area there was a severe economic downturn
- Scholars have noticed that this caused a reorganization of society
- Poleis is an emergence of smaller city states which means more independence
- There became less material inequality
- Bronze is replaced by Iron and iron became cheaper to produce and became more
available by people which lessens inequality amongst people
- It changes how people fight wars as it shifts its dependance on numbers
- Morale motivation and rally in greater numbers is more important
- Changing methods of war drives an institutional process of egalitarian relations in these
cities
- At the same time we see a change in the written language of greek as it becomes more
simplified and that makes it easier and more accessible by the common man
- Rulers are no longer described as God like beings in a lineage of other godlike beings
- Rulers instead are seen as human beings that must consult one another
- We don't see Kings and Queens as divine entities
- We see them as Archons which is more like Master, Ruler, Chief
- Basileus Archon (king )
- KIng is the highest ruler but not like God on earth
- More equality of relations and Cultural changes
Archaic Age:
- The impact of the previous changes starting to stabilize society
- Average Athenian citizens are Hoplites
- Hoplite is a soldier citizen which is a citizen who is armed
- Common person is who carries arms and is willing to die to defend their city
- The soldier class is the common class
- At this time we see in war the explorations of maneuvers on the battlefield
- People organizing strategically
- This is the time of Sparta's supremacy
- We also see that with the available of weapons and more engagement of common
people in wars and politics as it causes people to be hired out as mercenaries
- This changes the role of wealth and if you have money you can hire your bodyguards to
take power in your community and you don't depend on their approval
- The ruler that emerges in this age is a new kind of way of ruling
- The ruler is perceived by the people as illegitimate
- Not a God on earth but rather a human people that's corrupt and someone who is equal
but has forgotten that
- That ruler is a tyrant
- Rivalries emerge in powerful families as well as rivalries between rich and poor
- Theres alot of conflict and divisions in society
- If there is a conflict and someone kills a member of your family that means you will have
the right to revenge and can kill one of theirs
- If you kill one of the other person you have to kill them all
- This leads to a situation where one powerful faction will go against another and the other
would need to flee
- When a family flees it allows them to regroup and hire more mercenaries and when they
come back they can continue with more family
- The leave for exile and then come back for revenge
- This leads to bloodshed
- This is endless conflict called stasis
- With the growth in equality there was not the same growth in institutions of law which did
not provide in a productive way to resolve conflict
Classical Age (Solon) :
- Solon is an athenian who becomes Archon
- There's only a handful of Archons (Judge, Ruler)
- When Solon becomes an archon he's given the responsibility to finish conflict between
families, classes etc.
- Law of Stasis: Solon introduced that whenever there's a conflict like that there should be
no bystander or spectator, people need to take sides
- This meant that this had a dampening effect on this conflict
- IF you're a powerful family against another powerful family, because of the law of stasis
you have to think about the bystanders which means you have to appeal to everyone
- Penalty of not being a bystander is severe
- Its utterly disgraceful to avoid battle when faced with it
- Its like renouncing your citizenship
- It's like you're giving power to rulers like godlike entities
- HUbris is another law which is a crime of violating this whole perspective that sees
citizens as equal
- A Hubris is someone who desires power over everyone else and thinks themselves as
gods
- This makes them a tyrant
- Someone can be accused of that and its equivalent to be put into trial
- Hubris is a crime subject to prosecution
- Solon establishes 3 important venues where the common people can work together to
rule athens
- One is the Heliala which is the people's court
- Ekklesia is the assembly, its like 6000 people and all citizens were invited
- Boule is a council of 500 people who are the executive committee of Athens. All the
background work is done at the Boule
- These three venues are the way the average citizen can participate in politics and
decision making
- This is a way conflict can be resolved without bloodshed
- You can charge someone with hubris during heliala and if someone is charged they can
get kicked out of the city
- Solon's reforms also included the right of athenians to take vengeance on behalf of the
other
- The Law before was that only the injured party can do that
- After solon you could have taken revenge on behalf of someone else
- You can speak about what's in the greatest interest of other people
- He also gave athenian slaves freedom
- Poor people couldnt pay their detbs and turned to slavery, a class of athenians turned to
slavery but Solon forgave it and banned ATHENIAN SLAVERY
- With these massive sweeping reforms of solon there's a cultural shift that happens as
bloodshed in the city becomes taboo
- If someone kills someone it causes a lot of fear in the city and it is seen as a disease as
opposed to before when it was normalized
- It becomes a miasma
- Tyrant has a very insulting connotation which makes them seem hubiristic and someone
is considered to be uncooperative and uncivilized
- As opposed to people in the archaic age rented soldiers and tyrannos was normal like a
ruler
Peisistratid Tyranny:
- This is a pause in development of democracy
- Dynasty of rulers
- These people take power and then suspend the assemblies that solon introduced
- They become known as tyrants
- They take power at the risk of being disliked
- They need a big show of being humble in front of the Gods
- They talked about democracy and the rule of people and acted like they were on
their side
Document Summary
People were divided into classes and all the power belonged to the kings. Reflection of extreme inequality of society, people at top and the bottom. The name bronze comes from the most important metal required for their military and economy. It was really expensive and can only be afforded by really rich people. Those people also had a lot of slaves and had access to a lot of weaponry. Another name for this age is mycenae which is named after a city which is a city. Mycenae is important because we will read speeches of athenian law and then oresteia. This story shows how the centre of power moved from argos to athens. The bronze age is where the course is started and shows how things changed from the elites being godlike to the more equality approach. Archeological evidence suggests that something caused the palace system to collapse which results in loss of writing.
