The Long Shadow of the Ancient Greek World

Begin your exploration of Archaic and Classical Greek history with a survey of the three major themes of this course: democracy, law, and empire. Then briefly examine the Bronze Age, which set the stage for many of the later developments you study.

The Bronze Age was followed by four centuries of turmoil (1150–750 B.C.), termed the Dark Ages of ancient Greece. Investigate the civilization that emerged from this era, which ended with a renaissance in the 8th century, marking the start of the Archaic period.

This lecture considers the rule of the tyrants of three important states in the Peloponnese: Argos, Sicyon, and Corinth. "Tyrant" was a title assumed by those who illegally seized power. Surprisingly, many tyrants played a positive role in bringing peace and stability to their cities.

Athens, like other states, was ruled by aristocratic families who felt threatened by the rise of tyrannies elsewhere. This background helps you understand the nature of political power in Athens before the revolutionary democratic reforms of Solon, Ephialtes, and Cleisthenes.

With Athens facing a revolt of the lower classes, the ruling families appointed a man called Dracon to codify the laws. His severity gave rise to the epithet "draconian," but his inauguration of a formal system of procedures, courts, trial by jury, and other measures earned him the Greek accolade "the father of law."

In 594 the ruling nobles elected an Athenian named Solon to end civil strife, giving him absolute power for one year. Study the revolution wrought by this political genius, who invented democracy.

Consider Solon's political and judicial legislation. How did he go about creating democracy? What did he do to help develop the legal code? You consider the view of Aristotle's Athenian Constitution on the three most democratic aspects of Solon's constitution.

The decades after Solon were marked by anarchy, aristocratic faction fighting, and further civil war. Chart the rise to power of the tyrant Pisistratus, a nobleman who championed the cause of the poor.

Examine how Pisistratus benefited Athens economically, artistically, and culturally by his exploitation of religion and his power as tyrant. This is when the first official texts of the Homeric poems were established, when tragedy was born, and when Athens began to emerge as the cultural center of Greece.

To what extent did Pisistratus have the people's interests at heart, rather than cynically exploiting them to maintain his regime? After exploring this question, look at the inauspicious reign of his sons and the growing tension with the powerful military state of Sparta.

In the wake of the Pisistratid tyranny, a politician named Cleisthenes gained the upper hand by promising the people widespread changes. His legislation dramatically increased the fledgling democracy by revising the map of Attica to limit aristocratic influence.

Learn how Cleisthenes' political restructuring ended factional strife and is the forerunner of today's division of local, state, and federal administration. In taking democracy to the masses in a way that Solon had not, Cleisthenes may be more deserving of the title "the father of democracy."

Turn to the polis that was the odd man out: Sparta. Other Greeks viewed the Spartans with a combination of admiration and alarm for their austere military culture. Yet in the early Archaic period, Sparta was developing like other Greek cities until it underwent a radical transformation.

Sparta's traditional lawgiver was a possibly mythical figure named Lycurgus. His reforms included a brutal system of military education called the agoge, with the aim of building the best army in Greece. You look at what this demanding and dangerous schooling involved.

Spartan women played a more overt role in public life than their counterparts in Athens, exhorting their sons to die in battle rather than survive in defeat. Sparta's slaves, or helots, far outnumbered the Spartans—and created an internal security problem that may have triggered Sparta's obsession with military superiority.

Conclude your exploration of Spartan society with a look at its weaknesses, among them high mortality of Spartan males due to their constant military service. Further, Sparta's deteriorating relations with Athens in the 490s did not bode well for the Greeks as Persia prepared to invade the Greek mainland.

In 490 Athenian troops fighting virtually alone defeated the invading Persian army at Marathon. Learn how this victory was crucial in Athens' coming of age as a military power.

The Persians sought revenge for their defeat at Marathon by invading Greece in 481 with a massive army and fleet led by the great king Xerxes. You focus on the famous battle at Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans led by Leonidas refused to surrender and were wiped out.

This lecture covers the advance of Persian forces deeper into Greece. At Salamis, Themistocles lured the Persian fleet to battle, virtually annihilating it. Then in spring 479 a pitched battle was fought at Plataea, in which the Persians were defeated.

Examine the aftermath of the Persian Wars, asking why the Persians lost. Then probe the surprisingly momentous question of whether the wars form the natural end of the Archaic period, or whether they should be considered the opening of the Classical period.

Building on its military success in the Persian Wars, Athens formed an alliance of Greek states known as the Delian League, which became a de facto Athenian empire, alarming Sparta. Look at the working methods of Thucydides, the historian who recorded these developments.

Examine Thucydides' analysis of the early years of the Delian League and the growth of Athenian imperialism. Initially, relations between Athens and its allies were good, but from the 470s on Athenian expansion and the disregard of allied autonomy seriously strained ties.

This lecture reads between the lines of the ancient sources to uncover the political and judicial revolution crafted by Ephialtes, a little-known general and politician who introduced radical or direct democracy to Athens, in which the people became sovereign in the state. He may also be responsible for trial by jury.

Ephialtes' radical democracy created a demand for orators. These individuals were called rhêtores, or speakers. Out of this grew the term "demagogue," or leader of the people, which took on an odious connotation. You examine how rhetoric came to be exploited for political ends—and for deceiving the people.

What is the difference between the democracy of Classical Athens and ours today? What were the shortcomings of the Athenian system? How democratic was it? After exploring these questions, you turn to the influence of ancient rhetoric on modern.

Thucydides gave two reasons for the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War: Sparta's fear of the growth of Athenian power, and a sequence of actions that provoked the Spartans to declare war. You also hear the theory that Pericles, the leader of Athens, deliberately engineered the war.

You cover the first few years of the Peloponnesian War, focusing on Pericles' strategy, the effects of the great plague that wiped out about one-quarter of Athenians, the rise of the demagogue Cleon, and the revolt of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos.

This lecture takes the war down to the Peace of Nicias in 421, which was a temporary cessation of hostilities. You study the successful Athenian campaign at Pylos and Sphacteria and the pivotal role played by Cleon, whom history has treated dismissively.

Thucydides attributed Athens's loss in the war to the Sicilian expedition and the decline in leadership after Pericles. You examine the collapse of the Peace of Nicias and the background to the Sicilian campaign, noting how Athenians committed rashly to the enterprise.

Look at the results of Athens' great defeat, which led to the imposition of oligarchy in Athens in 411, an event foreshadowed in Aristophanes' biting comedy Lysistrata. The oligarchy was soon deposed and replaced by a moderate form of democracy.

Survey the war's last years and the climactic defeat of Athens at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405. The terms imposed on Athens by Sparta included the end of the Delian League, the abolition of Athenian democracy, and the installation of a cruel, pro-Spartan oligarchy.

Why did Athens lose the Peloponnesian War? This lecture examines the failure of the radical democracy, whose actions lay behind every event that was to Athens' detriment. The second half of the lecture takes Greek history to the accession of Philip II of Macedonia.

Turn from military campaigns to a study of Greek law and society. Investigate the Athenian family and its integral role in law and society, focusing on the various members of the family, especially women, and what the state expected of them.

Three ancient literary works provide a window into Athens' legal system. You look at Aristophanes' Wasps, Plato's Crito, and Sophocles' Antigone for insight into how the Athenian legal code developed, how seriously citizens viewed it, and how it also afforded a means of entertainment.

The rudimentary justice of the Bronze Age is depicted in a famous passage in Homer. You begin with this scene and follow the development of Greek law through the introduction of trial by jury and the protection of individual rights in the Classical period.

This lecture discusses the major components of Athens' judicial system: the magistrates, courts, and private and public arbitrators. Athenians attached great importance to the law and were enthusiastic participants in legal proceedings, both as litigants and jurors.

The origin of lawyers may trace to professional consultants in Athens, who composed and sometimes delivered court speeches on behalf of clients, whether for the prosecution or defense. You also learn of the positive role played in law enforcement by sycophants, or blackmailers.

When a case got to Athenian court, how long did a trial last? What role did the jury have? How did it vote? What sorts of penalties were prescribed? The conduct of jurors would seem shocking by today's standards, but their frequent cheering and jeering were strictly professional.

Returning to the theme of imperialism, you investigate Macedonia in the age of Philip II and Alexander III, also known as "the Great." Before Philip's reign, Macedonia was a backwater with a weak army and no centralized rule, beset by frequent attacks by neighboring tribes.

How did Philip become "the greatest of the kings of Europe in his time," according to one ancient historian? You follow his early steps to consolidate Macedonia's position by a combination of diplomacy, deceit, and a series of canny political marriages.

This lecture surveys Philip's war with Athens over Amphipolis and his involvement in the Third Sacred War, both of which he used as stepping stones into central Greek affairs. At their conclusion he had become a significant force in the politics of the region.

As Philip tightened the screws on the Greek states, the Athenian orator Demosthenes worked tirelessly to discredit him. The tensions reached a peak at the battle of Chaeronea in 338. Philip's victory put Greece under Macedonian control, and Greek autonomy came to an end.

Trace Philip's reign down to his assassination in 336, focusing on his incorporation of the Greek states into the Macedonian Empire, his plan to invade the Persian Empire, and his controversial seventh marriage that led to an open clash with his son Alexander.

For all Alexander's brilliance as a general and strategist, was he truly great? Begin your investigation of history's most celebrated conqueror, getting at the man behind the myth. Alexander had ample motives to wish his father dead, and circumstantial evidence suggests that he was involved in Philip's assassination.

Alexander enormously expanded Philip's foreign ventures. This lecture recounts his three major battles that captured the entire Persian Empire: Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela. All were won against great odds. Alexander spread his conquests as far as present-day Pakistan before his army mutinied.

Exploring Alexander's claim to greatness, you look at his increasingly erratic behavior during his conquests, evident when he used the excuse of two apparent attempts on his life to get rid of vocal opponents. You also consider the accuracy of the view that he was an idealist.

One of the most controversial aspects of Alexander's reign is whether he considered himself divine. This lecture explores his self-identification as son of Zeus, his desire to be worshiped as a god, and the attitude of his court and army toward this very un-Greek-like behavior.

The final lecture sums up the course by examining several questions: What happened to Greece after the Classical period? What has been the role of Greek civilization in the Western tradition? And what lessons have we learned—or not learned—from the Greek experience with democracy, law, and empire?