Ancient Greece A Political, Social, and Cultural History

by Pomeroy, Sarah B.; Burstein, Stanley M.; Donlan, Walter; Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert

• ISBN13: 9780195097436
• ISBN10: 0195097432
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-01-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Lively, up-to-date, and balanced, Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, andCultural History introduces readers to the history and civilization of ancientGreece in all its complexity and variety, from its first beginnings in theBronze Age (c.3000 BC) through the Hellenistic Era (c.150 BC). Employing a trulybalanced approach to history--integrating political, military, social, andcultural aspects--the authors show how the early Greeks borrowed from theirneighbors but eventually developed a distinctive culture all their own; one thatwas marked by astonishing creativity, versatility, and resilience. The book goeson to trace the complex and surprising evolution of Greek civilization to itseventual dissolution as it merged with a variety of other cultures. Using thephysical evidence of archaeology, the written testimony of literary texts andinscriptions, and anthropological mdoels based on comparative studies, the fourrenowned authors provide a thoughtful, sophisticated account of the Greek worldwhich is accessible even to readers with little or no knowledge ofGreece.

Table of Contents

Maps and Battle Plans	p. xii
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Timeline	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
A Bird's-Eye View of Greek History	p. 1
Sources: How We Know About the Greeks	p. 4
Retrieving the Past: The Material Record	p. 4
Retrieving the Past: The Written Record	p. 5
Periodization	p. 7
Frogs Around a Pond	p. 7
City-States	p. 8
Greek City-States	p. 8
Early Greece and the Bronze Age	p. 11
Domestication	p. 13
Sources for Early Greek History	p. 13
The Land of Greece	p. 14
Greece and the Near East in the "Final Neolithic" Period (c. 4000-3000 BC)	p. 18
Greece in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (c. 3000-1600 BC)	p. 19
The Discovery of Aegean Civilization: Troy, Mycenae, Knossos	p. 22
Minoan Civilization	p. 24
Greece and the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC)	p. 31
The Years of Glory (c. 1400-1200 BC)	p. 35
The End of the Mycenaean Civilization	p. 46
The "Dark Age" of Greece and the Eighth-Century "Renaissance" (c. 1200-700 BC)	p. 51
Sources for the Dark Age	p. 51
Decline and Recovery (c. 1150-900 BC)	p. 54
The New Society of the Dark Age	p. 59
Revival (c. 900-750 BC)	p. 63
Homer and Oral Poetry	p. 64
Late Dark Age (Homeric) Society	p. 67
Community, Household, and Economy in the Late Dark Age	p. 80
The End of the Dark Age (c. 750-700 BC)	p. 84
Archaic Greece (c. 700-480 BC)	p. 97
Sources for the Seventh and Sixth Centuries	p. 98
The Formation of the City-State (Polis)	p. 99
The Ethnos	p. 101
Government in the Early City-States	p. 102
The Colonizing Movement	p. 106
Economic and Social Divisions in the Early Poleis	p. 111
Hesiod: The View from Below	p. 116
The Hoplite Army	p. 120
The Archaic Age Tyrants	p. 123
Art and Architecture	p. 126
Lyric Poetry	p. 133
Philosophy and Science	p. 138
Relations Between States	p. 141
Panhellenic Institutions	p. 144
Sparta	p. 150
Sources for Spartan History and Institutions	p. 150
The Dark Age and the Archaic Period	p. 154
The Spartan System	p. 158
Demography and the Spartan Economy	p. 167
Spartan Government	p. 170
Sparta and Greece	p. 173
Historical Change in Sparta	p. 175
The Spartan Mirage in Western Thought	p. 177
The Growth of Athens and the Persian Wars	p. 180
Sources for Early Athens	p. 180
Athens from the Bronze Age to the Early Archaic Age	p. 181
The Reforms of Solon	p. 185
Pisistratus and His Sons	p. 190
The Reforms of Cleisthenes	p. 199
The Rise of Persia	p. 201
The Wars Between Greece and Persia	p. 204
The Other War: Carthage and the Greek Cities of Sicily	p. 222
The Rivalries of the Greek City-States and the Growth of Athenian Democracy	p. 225
Sources for the Decades After the Persian Wars	p. 226
The Aftermath of the Persian Wars and the Foundation of the Delian League	p. 227
The "First" (Undeclared) Peloponnesian War (460-445 BC)	p. 235
Pericles and the Growth of Athenian Democracy	p. 237
Literature and Art	p. 242
Oikos and Polis	p. 253
The Greek Economy	p. 266
Greece on the Eve of the Peloponnesian War	p. 272
Sources for Greece on the Eve of the War	p. 272
Greece After the Thirty Years' Peace	p. 274
The Breakdown of the Peace	p. 277
Resources for War	p. 282
Intellectual Life in Fifth-Century Greece	p. 284
Historical and Dramatic Literature of the Fifth Century	p. 286
Currents in Greek Thought and Education	p. 293
The Physical Space of the Polis: Athens on the Eve of War	p. 301
The Peloponnesian War	p. 316
Sources for Greece During the Peloponnesian War	p. 316
The Archidamian War (431-421 BC)	p. 318
The Rise of Comedy	p. 328
Between Peace and War	p. 332
The Invasion of Sicily (415-413 BC)	p. 335
The War in the Aegean and the Oligarchic Coup at Athens (413-411 BC)	p. 341
Fallout from the Long War	p. 349
The War in Retrospect	p. 356
The Crisis of the Polis and the Age of Shifting Hegemonies	p. 361
Sources for Fourth-Century Greece	p. 362
Postwar Greece and the Struggle for Hegemony	p. 363
Law and Democracy in Athens	p. 374
The Fourth-Century Polis	p. 382
Philosophy and the Polis	p. 387
Phillip II and the Rise of Macedon	p. 404
Sources for Macedonian History	p. 404
Early Macedonia	p. 405
Macedonian Society and Kingship	p. 406
The Reign of Philip II	p. 410
Macedonian Domination of Greece	p. 421
Alexander the Great	p. 429
Sources for the Reign of Alexander	p. 430
Consolidating Power	p. 432
From Issus to Egypt: Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean (332-331 BC)	p. 442
From Alexandria to Persepolis: The King of Asia (331-330 BC)	p. 445
The High Road to India: Alexander in Central Asia	p. 448
India and the End of the Dream	p. 454
Return to the West	p. 456
Alexander's Successors and the Cosmopolis	p. 462
A New World	p. 462
Sources for the Hellenistic Period	p. 464
The Struggle for the Succession	p. 466
The Regency of Perdiccas	p. 466
The Primacy of Antigonus the One-Eyed	p. 468
Birth Pangs of the New Order (301-276 BC)	p. 472
The Place of the Polis in the Cosmopolis	p. 476
The Macedonian Kingdoms	p. 482
Hellenistic Society	p. 486
Alexandria and Hellenistic Culture	p. 487
Social Relations in the Hellenistic World	p. 496
Epilogue	p. 505
Glossary	p. 511
Art and Illustration Credits	p. 525
Index	p. 531
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