Pavlac B.A. A Concise Survey of Western Civilization: Supremacies and Diversities throughout History
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CHAPTER 4
started because three goddesses fought over who was the most beautiful. Despite,
or perhaps because of, this divinely trashy behavior, the Greek myths conveyed a
rich and deeply textured heritage. How the human spirit rose above fate and the
cruelty of the gods, not the gods themselves, inspires us even today.
The Greeks revered their gods and ancestors by forming restrictive cults that kept
outsiders out of each polis. Indeed, each city was dedicated to a deity, who might
also have been believed to be a parent of semidivine heroic founders. Civic cults
structured the worship of the city’s gods in particular and all gods (out of concern to
neglect no divine power). The polis organized religious ceremonies as a political
responsibility. As mentioned before, the Greeks had no priestly caste or class.
Instead, every citizen accepted an obligation to ensure that the civic rites of appeas-
ing and worshipping the gods were performed properly. Consulting the gods
through oracles provided guidance for everyday activities and major political deci-
sions. The city fathers brought the cultic practices into their own homes by tending
sacred fires (of which the Olympic torch is an offshoot) and sharing sacred meals.
Some Classical Greeks soon turned away from the austere formality of civic cults
and the lack of spirituality in the Greek pantheon. They instead embraced mystery
cults, which were centered on rituals of fertility, death, and resurrection. We know
little about the worship that focused on deities such as Demeter or Dionysius, since
their followers kept most of their activities secret. The cults seemed to promise a
conquest of death. Although the cults were popular privately, every citizen still
upheld the civic rituals in public. All governing was performed in a religious context.
Little in these religious cults, however, offered much of a guide for the moral
or ethical decisions that always have been at the heart of politics. For answers, the
Greeks took one important step beyond religion with their invention of philosophy.
The word philosophy is from the Greek for ‘‘love of wisdom.’’ Philosophy began in
the sixth century
B.C.
in Ionia, where some men began to wonder about the nature
of the universe. Compared with modern scientific investigation (explained in chap-
ter 11), the Greek theories about how the universe was based on air or water seem
rather silly. But they were progress. Instead of relying on myth for explanation,
these philosophers began to apply the human mind. The concept that the human
mind can comprehend the natural world, rationalism, became a key component
of Western civilization.
The philosophers who examined geometry or the composition of matter were
soon joined by others who speculated about humans. By the fifth century, the so-
called Sophists (‘‘wise men’’) had started to create ideas about moral behavior that
are still with us today. They were itinerant teachers who, for a fee, educated Greeks
about the ways of the world. Several distinct schools of thought competed for atten-
tion. Skepticism doubted knowing anything for certain. Hedonism pursued plea-
sure as the highest good. Cynicism abandoned all moral restraints to gain power
over other people. Many Sophists seemed to offer methods for becoming wealthy
without worrying about moral scruples. Against them, a trinity of Greek philoso-
phers offered alternative views for human action.
First, Socrates (b. 469–d. 399
B.C.
) argued against the materialism of the Soph-
ists. As he strolled through the streets and plazas of Athens, Socrates constantly
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TRIAL OF THE HELLENES
67
asked questions of his fellow citizens. Moreover, through questioning, he tried to
give those who would engage in his conversation the chance to learn. This is the
Socratic method. Socrates claimed to hold no set of doctrines he wanted to teach;
he only desired to seek the truth. Indeed, he said that he knew little at all. When
the Delphic Oracle had answered someone’s query as to who was the wisest man
in Greece with the answer ‘‘Socrates,’’ the philosopher was at first puzzled. Then
he realized that his self-description (‘‘the only thing I know is that I know nothing’’)
explained the oracle. He concluded that true wisdom was self-knowledge. There-
fore, Socrates advocated that every person should, according to the Delphic Ora-
cle’s motto, ‘‘know thyself.’’
Amid the conflict of the Peloponnesian Wars, the trial of the philosopher Socra-
tes highlights the Greeks’ failure to live up to high ideals. In 399
B.C.
, as the Atheni-
ans tried to recover from their defeat by Sparta, a new democratic leadership
charged the oligarchic Socrates with two crimes: blasphemy and corruption of the
young. For one day, a jury of five hundred citizens who had been chosen by lot
heard the arguments, where plaintiffs and defendants represented themselves. Soc-
rates defended himself of the first charge by openly mocking the nonsense of Greek
mythology. How could someone believe in gods who did so many silly and cruel
things to humans? He defended himself against the second charge by saying he only
encouraged young people to become critical of their elders and society. Socrates
gladly saw himself as an annoyance, a gadfly, provoking and reproaching the leaders
of Athens. The jury found him guilty. Consequently, when he wryly suggested his
own punishment be a state pension, they sentenced him to death. Obedient to the
laws of his city, Socrates committed suicide by drinking hemlock, a slow-acting
paralytic poison. This political trial illuminated how democracy failed to adapt to
changing circumstances.
Second, Socrates’ pupil Plato (b. 427–d. 347
B.C.
) explored new philosophical
directions. Since Plato wrote his philosophy in the form of dialogues conducted by
his master Socrates, it is sometimes difficult to define where Socrates’ views end and
Plato’s begin. Still, Plato offered the doctrine of ideas, or idealism, as an answer for
the nature of truth. In his famous allegory of the cave, Plato suggested that our
reality is like people chained in a cave who can see only strange shadows and hear
only odd noises. But if a person were to break free and climb out of the cave,
though blinded by sunlight, he would confront the genuine reality. Actual forms in
our world only poorly imitate real universal ideas. How could the person who
sees truth then describe it to those still inside the cave, who do not share such an
experience? Plato saw the philosopher’s task as describing ultimate reality.
Third, Plato’s student Aristotle (b. 384–d. 322
B.C.
) turned away from the more
abstract metaphysics of his teacher to refocus on the natural world and people’s
place in it. Thus, he studied nature and wrote books on matters from zoology to
meteorology that would define scientific views for centuries (even if many were
ill informed by our modern standards). Aristotle’s rules of logic covered politics,
literature, and ethics. He used syllogisms, called dialectic logic, where two pieces
of known information are compared in order to reach a new knowledge. It was the
most powerful intellectual tool of its day, and indeed long after. Finally, Aristotle
promoted the ‘‘golden mean’’ of living a life of moderation.
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CHAPTER 4
Altogether, these philosophers helped to establish an idea called humanism.
As this book will use it, humanism means that the world is to be understood by and
for humans. A phrase by the philosopher Protagoras, that ‘‘man is the measure of
things,’’ embodies the approach. (And the Greeks usually meant specifically ‘‘man,’’
considering females to be an inferior form of the idealized male.) According to
humanism, our experiences, perceptions, and practices are important and useful
in dealing with life, here and now. This belief has repeatedly offered an alternative
to religious ideas emphasizing life after death.
One of the great humanistic triumphs of Greek culture was its literature. Many
educated people knew the epic poems of The Iliad and The Odyssey by heart. Lyric
poetry also was quite popular. Then, as today, lyric poetry meant shorter, personal
poetry about feelings, rather than stories. In Greece, all poetry was literally said, or
sung, while someone played the lyre, a stringed instrument, or a flute. Many Greeks
declared Sappho to be one of the greatest lyric poets. Instead, more people now
know her name as standing for female same-sex love, sapphism; the alternate term
lesbianism also is connected to Sappho, namely from the island where she had
her school, Lesbos. As far as literary historians can tell, though, she loved both men
and women. Her poetry has come down to us in only a few fragments (much of it
destroyed later by Christians offended by her sensuality).
When the Greeks combined literature and performance, they invented theater
(see figure 4.2). Like politics, theater had a religious context in Greek culture. Ritual
stories of the gods turned into festivals, where actors dramatized the poetry with
voice, movement, music, and even special effects. The most famous of the last is
the deus ex machina (Latin for ‘‘god from the machine’’), where a tangled plot
could be instantly resolved by divine intervention, an actor playing a god lowered
onto the stage from above. The most popular and important plays were tragedies,
where the protagonist of the story fails, often due to pride (in Greek, hybris). The
most famous tragedy is Oedipus Tyrannos (‘‘Clubfoot the Tyrant,’’ usually called
Oedipus Rex). By trying to do what is right, the title character causes suffering.
During the day on which the play takes place, Oedipus reviews his past. He has left
his home of Corinth because he heard a prophecy that he would be responsible for
the death of his parents. After killing the monstrous sphinx by answering her ques-
tion, Oedipus has taken over nearby Thebes, whose ruler was recently killed by
bandits. Oedipus discovers in the course of the play that he was actually adopted,
had killed his own father, and had married his mother. She hangs herself, and he
blinds himself and goes into exile.
Performances of several tragedies would be balanced by a comedy. Some Greek
Figure 4.2. The theater outside the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia lies poised for the next
performance more than a thousand years after its last.
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TRIAL OF THE HELLENES
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comedies were merely bawdy farces, but others rose to transcendent political satire.
For example, Lysistrata by Aristophanes, first performed during the Peloponnesian
Wars, managed to harpoon both male aggression and ego. The heroine of the title
successfully organizes the women of two warring poleis to go on a sexual strike
until their men stop fighting.
It often happens that enduring culture is produced during brutal war. As rival
Greek kings too often fought over their shares of Alexander’s empire, the ruling
Greek elites fostered a new phase of creativity called Hellenistic civilization (338–146
B.C.
). While critics often characterize Hellenistic culture as less glorious than Athens’
Golden Age, elites spread that age’s classic works along with fostering their own new
products. The cities became cosmopolitan, growing vibrant with peoples from many
diverse ethnic groups. Alexander founded several and named them after himself,
such as the most successful Hellenistic city, Alexandria, located at the mouth of the
Nile. Streets laid out on grids connected places of education and entertainment:
schools, theaters, stadiums, and libraries. Commerce in the Eurasian-African trade
networks supported luxuries. Sculpture conveyed more emotion and character than
the cool calm of the Classical Age. Greek philosophers who studied nature gained
enduring knowledge in astronomy, mechanics, and medicine.
The two most popular philosophies to come out of the Hellenistic period
reflected pessimism about the future, however. Epicureanism sought to find the
best way of life to avoid pain in a cruel world. Epicureans taught that the good life
lay in withdrawal into a pleasant garden to discuss the meaning of life with friends.
In contrast, stoicism called for action. Stoics accepted the world’s cruelty but called
on everyone to dutifully reduce conflict and promote the brotherhood of mankind
(women not included, as usual). This duty should be pursued even if one failed,
which was likely.
The Greeks ultimately failed largely because of fighting among themselves, not
because of external enemies. A few of their city-states managed to defeat the world’s
greatest empire. They briefly held supreme power over masses of Asians and North
Africans. The Greeks, however, were too few and too divided to permanently domi-
nate these peoples. Although they contributed many high ideals, they betrayed
them just as often. The Greek heritage of art, literature, and philosophy enriched
the peoples of the ancient world, as it continues to do for many in the world today.
Nevertheless, democracy fell to imperialism; imperial unity fell to particularism;
and the intellectual honesty of Socrates fell to fear. The Greeks’ cultural arrogance
condemned them to become marginalized instead of being the ongoing bearers of
history. The next founders of Western civilization would soon conquer most of
what Alexander had and add yet more to the foundations of the West.
Review: What Greek culture expanded through the ancient West?
Response:
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5
CHAPTER
Imperium Romanum
The Romans, 753
B.C
.
to
A.D.
300
W
hile Greeks quarreled themselves into fragmentation, another people, the
Romans, were proving much more adept at power politics. The Romans
forged the most important and enduring empire of the ancient world.
This achievement is all the more impressive since Rome started out as just another
small city-state. Roman success can, perhaps, be attributed to their tendency to be
even more vicious and cruel than the Greeks, although, as seen in the preceding
chapter, the Hellenes could be fairly nasty themselves. The Romans’ empire rose
through military supremacy, cultural diversity, and political innovation (see map
5.1). The glory of the Imperium Romanum, the Roman Empire, still appeals to the
historical imagination.
WORLD CONQUEST IN SELF-DEFENSE
The city-state of Rome was, at first, small and surrounded by enemies. According
to Rome’s own mythological history, refugees from the destroyed city of Troy in
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CHAPTER 5
Map 5.1. Roman Europe
Asia Minor had fled westward, eventually settling in the province of Latium, which
was halfway down the western coast of the Italian Peninsula. It was there, according
to the story, that a she-wolf raised two twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. As
adults, they argued about the founding of a new city. In one version, in the year
753
B.C.
Romulus killed his brother Remus and named the new city after himself.
Thus Rome was founded on fratricide. The Romans were proud of their violent
inheritance; they themselves later became some of the best practitioners of state-
sponsored violence in the history of the world.
Whatever truth may lie in the myth of Romulus, Rome’s actual founders took
advantage of a good location. The Tiber River provided easy navigation to the sea,
yet the city was far enough inland to avoid regular raids by pirates. The city also lay
along north-south land routes through central Italy. Hence, the founders had ready
contact with nearby stronger societies and began to borrow from them liberally.
The early Romans cobbled together a hodgepodge culture, learning much from the
Greeks who lived in the cities of Magna Græcia in southern Italy and Sicily. The
Romans borrowed the Greek Olympian gods and goddesses, usually giving the dei-
ties new names better suited to the Romans’ language of Latin. Another important
influence on Roman culture was the neighbors to the north, the Etruscans (who
have lent their name to Tuscany). Actually, for much of Rome’s early history, the
city itself was so weak that Etruscan kings ruled the Romans.
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IMPERIUM ROMANUM
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Roman myth supplied another violent story about winning freedom from the
Etruscans. According to the legendary history, Sextus, the son of an Etruscan king,
lusted after Lucretia, the wife of a Roman aristocrat. When the husband was away
from home one day, Sextus demanded that Lucretia have sex with him. If she did
not, he promised to kill both her and a male servant. He promised he would then
put them in bed together and report that he had found and rightfully killed them
for shameful adultery and violation of class distinctions. So Lucretia gave in to Sex-
tus. When her husband and his companions returned home, Lucretia confessed
what had happened before stabbing herself in the heart to remove her shame. The
outraged Romans organized a rebellion and threw the Etruscans out of their city.
Thus, rape and suicide inspired Roman political freedom.
This charming tale passed down through the generations probably has as little
fact behind it as the tale of Romulus and Remus. For the Romans, though, this myth
proudly showed once again how violence and honor were woven into their history.
Moreover, historical and archaeological evidence indicates that around 500
B.C.
the
Romans had indeed won freedom from Etruscan domination.
What the Romans then did with their new freedom was something remarkable:
they chose a democratic form of government. Technically, the Romans founded a
republic, where citizens chose other citizens to represent them. So, like the
Greeks, they had no kings, although unlike the Greeks, they did not require all
citizens to hold public office. The most important government institution was the
Senate, a council of elders who protected the unwritten constitution and were
involved in all major decisions. Initially, the Senate had three hundred members
who served for life and were supposed to embody the collective wisdom of the
state. As the head of their city-state, the Romans also elected two consuls as adminis-
trators. These two ran the city government, commanded the army, spent the money,
and exercised judicial power. The two consuls held office at the same time, and
each had veto power over the other. The consuls served only a year, and only two
terms were permitted for any individual in a lifetime. Many other magistrate posi-
tions (praetors, questors, censors, lictors) were similarly limited. Thus, the Senate
and People of Rome (using the initials SPQR) began an elaborate system of checks
and balances, where, according to their constitutional structure, no single individ-
ual or family could gain too much power.
Officially, all male citizens voted and held official government positions, while
privately, a handful of families actually made the major decisions behind the scenes.
Roman society was divided into two main groups: the aristocrats (a few dozen fami-
lies called patricians) and the free-born peasants (called plebians). In the early
centuries of the Roman Republic, patricians controlled all the political positions.
Indeed, someone could hardly hold office without patrician wealth since govern-
ment service was unpaid. After the Romans reformed their military along lines simi-
lar to the Greek phalanx, however, male peasants replaced aristocrats as the
essential warriors of Rome. Inevitably, as patricians declined in number and, more
especially, in significance on the battlefield, the plebians wanted a larger say in
government. Their demands followed the Greek example of political change follow-
ing military innovation.
A key event that pushed these military changes was Rome’s near destruction by
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CHAPTER 5
the Celts or Gauls. These peoples spread through primitive Europe from the sixth
through the fourth centuries
B.C.
Many eventually settled in what is now France and
the British Isles, retaining their ethnic identity to the present. In the course of their
ancient travels, they stormed down the Italian Peninsula, plundering and laying
waste. They attacked Rome itself in 390
B.C.
, occupying and destroying much of the
city. Only the last fortress on the Capitoline hill managed to hold out, barely saved
from a surprise attack by the honking of disturbed geese. The Romans then
regrouped and drove off the Celts. This Celtic invasion wounded the Roman world-
view. The Romans decided to make their nation so powerful that it would never be
conquered again, however briefly. For eight hundred years they succeeded in this
goal—a good run for any empire.
The key military innovation that enabled such success was the Roman legion.
The Romans improved upon the Greek phalanx, which they must have encountered
in Magna Græcia. The legion used smaller, more maneuverable groups of men who
marched in formation but threw their spears at the enemy. Then, in the clash of
close combat, the legionaries stabbed their foes with their short swords. Supported
by cavalry and siege weapons, the Romans replaced the Greeks as the best warriors
of antiquity.
So, while the city-state used aggression against its neighbors, its own citizens
sought more representative government where disagreements could be worked out
peacefully. The military participation by the plebians as troops for the burgeoning
empire unlocked their access to power. The peasants threatened to strike rather
than fight. The aristocratic patricians, numerically incapable of defending Rome on
their own, began to make concession after concession. Patricians created the politi-
cal office of the tribunes, who protected the plebian citizens from aristocratic mag-
istrates who unjustly intimidated plebians. Tribunician authority was one of the
broadest and most powerful in the state. Patricians also soon allowed the plebians
a major political body of their own: the Assembly of Tribes. By 287
B.C.
, the Assembly
gained the power to make binding laws, declare war and peace, and elect judges.
Patricians finally allowed wealthy plebians to become magistrates as well. Thus,
more checks and balances perfected the ideal republican government of the Senate
and People of Rome (SPQR).
Although the Romans developed republican government at home, they had to
decide how to treat their new subject peoples in what had become an empire. By
250
B.C.
, the Roman legions took over most of Italy, including ‘‘foreigners’’ such
as the Samnians, who were actually more native to the peninsula than the Romans
were. The secret to Roman success was not pure military force but a good dose of
inclusiveness, which had been so foreign to the Greeks. The Romans offered a
romanization policy to many of the survivors in their new conquests. The van-
quished were allowed to become more like Romans instead of beaten people.
Locals had the option of keeping local govern men t and even their traditional gods
and religion. All they had to do was accept Roman control of foreign affairs, con-
tribute taxes, and provide military service. While originally only Roman citizens
held the political power of voting and holding important offices, their subject
peoples soon gained these privileges as well, especially as they intermarried with
Roman families. Slowly, naturally, Roman culture took over as other peoples
throughout the Italian Peninsula were romanized. Many peoples gave up their
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IMPERIUM ROMANUM
75
own languages and adopted Latin, accepted the sensible Roman laws, worshipped
the Roman deities, and even espoused Roman virtues like responsibility and seri-
ousness.
The city-state of Rome became the model throughout its empire (in fact, if not
yet in name). The center of Roman society was the city, even though most people
lived and worked in the countryside as farmers. Where cities existed, the Romans
transformed them; where cities did not exist, the Romans built them. Most of these
cities were small, with only a few thousand inhabitants each. The heart of each city
was the forum, a market surrounded by government buildings and temples. The
public bathhouse was the most essential institution of civilized life—the Romans
were clean people. For other entertainment they built theaters for plays, amphithe-
aters for the brutal slaughter of beasts and gladiators, and, most popular of all,
stadiums for the chariot races. Architectural innovations such as the arch and the
dome, as well as the use of concrete as a construction material, allowed Roman
cities to be built taller, more graceful, and more grand than any other cities in the
ancient world. The dome of the Pantheon has inspired architects ever since (figure
5.1). Aqueducts brought in fresh water from distant hills and springs (figure 5.2).
The Roman roads were so well designed that some, such as the Appian Way from
Rome to Naples, are still being driven on today. While the roads were meant to
serve the military first, commerce and civil communication naturally followed and
flourished. Roman roads were so well built and widespread that ‘‘all roads lead to
Rome’’ became a byword for their civilization.
As the Romans marched along these roads, they bore their laws to other peo-
ples. Roman law not only supported one of the most sophisticated governments of
Figure 5.1. Light shining through the oculus of the dome of the
Pantheon in Rome.
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