Key:
[] Personal Notes
“” Quotes From the Book
() Key Dates, Connections, etc From the Book
text Main Sections
text Sub Sections
Introduction:
Cultural Differences - The people of ancient Greece Persia, and India all deferred
in many fundamental ideas in which each believed its own to be superior. In practice,
however, the Greeks and Persians were actually quite similar, especially when
compared to India.
There is actually a lack of ancient Persian documentation of its history. Most of the
recorded events regarding the Persians are written by Greeks and thus have the bias
of the Greeks.
Iran itself is bounded by the “Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caucasus Mountains
and Caspian Sea to the northwest and north, the mountains of Afghanistan and the
desert of Baluchistan to the east and southeast, and the Persian Gulf to the
southwest.”
Ancient Iran never had a “dense” population. This was limited by water resources
[rivers].
To expand from the mountains [river sources], people of the 1st millennium B.C.E.
created and maintained subterranean irrigation channels. Since the maintenance was
labor intensive, an organized leadership system developed, forming what can be said
to be the first royal/governmental systems of Persia. [Governmental expansion was
corresponding to irrigation and development expansion. Water was important.]
Minerals were also exploited but in limited scales.
Ancient Iranians arrived to Iran near the end of the 2nd millennium B.C.E.
After the securing of Persian base empire Cyrus started his conquest compaign. He
expanded the Persian Empire to Lydia in the East and of course covered the
Mesopotamian plain, including Neo-Babylon. Babylonians accepted him with grace in
which he used propaganda to crown his son with the traditions of Babylon.
Cyrus died campaigning against nomadic Iranians in the northeast and his son
Cambyses (Kambujiya 530 – 522 B.C.E. [Short Rule Life]) took power. Like his
father, Cambyses also expanded Persia. He defeated Egypt and sent expeditions to
Nubia and Libya. In addition, he acted like his father in that he respected the
cultures and traditions of the locals. [So far, we see that by respecting the
conquered people, the Persian Expansion is quite successful.]
After Cambyses died in 522 B.C.E., Darius I (Darayavaush) took power of Persia. He
expanded the Persian Empire to the doorsteps of Greece and Indus Valley. He also
completed canal linking the Red Sea with the Nile. [These technological
advancements obviously show a connection with the size and expansion of an
empire.]
Persia was divided into 20 provinces in which each was governed by a “Satrap” with
probable royal marriage connections. Each Satrap’s court was like a mini royal court.
The Satrap court was most likely hereditary. Darius determined the amount of
precious materials each province was to donate annually to the central treasury. This
long-term tribute to the king caused inflation and an economic decline at around the
4th century B.C.E.
Roads connected all the provinces to the heart of the Persian Empire. The
administrative center of Persia was “Susa,” the ancient of Elam in southwest Iran.
The few resources about women tell that Kings were polygamists and had many
wives. These wives were many times used to as political claims. i.e. “Darius
strengthened his claim to the throne by marrying a daughter of Cyrus, and later
Alexander the Great married a daughter of the last Persian king.”
As the kingdom grew, so did the monuments. Darius built palaces in the capitol of
Persepolis (Parsa) in which his son, Xerxes, finished.
Darius and his successors were Zoroastrians in which they believed the god
Ahuramazda gave them the power to rule. The origin of the religion was probably
from Zoroaster. The ancient religions of still had roots in Persia. In addition, the
Persians cared much about the natural aesthetics and worshipped things such as fire.
At around 1000 B.C.E., Greeks began to settle around the edge of Anatolia. The
distance across the Aegean Sea was so short that many could sail across Greece
without the lost visual of land. Thus the Sea was always seen as a bridge, not a
barrier. The many islands and areas of Greece required much trade. Most of the
trade was done by water and shipping. Water transport was always faster and
cheaper than overland transport. [This shows that the Greeks had formidable naval
abilities. Naval technologies were important to trade and Development.]
The Greeks experienced a “Dark Age” from 1150 – 800 B.C.E. This ended with the
Phoenician ships coming to Greek to trade. Later Greeks borrowed the Phoenician 22
lettered alphabet (In which vowels were not present) and developed it to adapt to
their own language. This created the world’s first true “Alphabet.” [With the
development of the Alphabet, many more people were able to read. Phonetic reading
was much easier than the cuneiforms and hieroglyphics because it did not require
the full years of training to understand every word. This form of language many have
given the Greeks a much quicker advantage of development.]
At this time, Greek was formed with many “Polis,” or City-States. These were the
urban centered that controlled each territorial area. Acropolis means hill top city.
Each Polis was protected and fortified. They were the economic and market centers.
In addition, each Polis was also fiercely jealous of its independence and suspicious of
its neighbors. Hoplites (heavily armored infantrymen) arrived at the early 7th century
B.C.E.
When the Greeks saw the people of other areas, they were self-aware and
understood the similarities that bounded their people together. Thus, they called
themselves Hellenes (Graeci is what the Romans called them.).
Coins were introduced in the 6th century B.C.E. in Lydia and spread throughout the
Greek world and beyond. [Coinage allowed accurate data keeping and trading of
money.]
Greeks city states had local Tyrants that were politically ambitious. The Greeks either
headed toward Oligarchy or Democracy of free men.
Greeks were polytheistic. They worshipped many gods. Their main form of worship is
sacrifice, the best which is the burning of a sacrifice. [This could possibly indicate
that ancient people smoked due to the fact that writings point that sacrifices allow
the gods to enjoy the sweet aroma of the smoke.]
Athens: Athens in the region of Attica was quite different from Sparta. Athens
developed many forms of governmental systems in which it eventually evolved into a
type of democracy.
Early Encounters
After Cyrus took over Lydia in western Anatolia, the Greek city states there were
peaceful to oblige to the rule of Persia. However, the Ionian revolt broke out in 499
B.C.E., causing the Persian Wars – 2 Persian attacks on Greece. Thus in 490 B.C.E.
)9 years after the Ionian revolt), Darius sent a naval fleet to punish Eretria and
Athens, two Greek states that helped the Ionian rebels. Eretra was betrayed to the
Persians by its own citizens in which the survivors were sent to exile in southwest
Iran. However, hoplites defeated Persian troops marching to Athens at Marathon, 42
km from Athens.
300: Xerxes in 480 B.C.E. sent a huge Persian invasion across the Hellespont and
into central and southern Greece. He sent messengers with the message of “Earth
and Water” for tokens of submission of Greek states. However, the southern Greek
Spartan alliance attempted to hold back the Persians. At the time, 300 Spartans lost
their lives at Thermopylae holding back the Persians to let their fellows to escape.
However, after the Persians seized and ransacked Athens in 480 B.C.E., they were
lured to Salamis and suffered defeat. Later the Persians were swept out of Greek by
the Delian League lead by Sparta. [Watch 300, the Film.]
480 – 323 B.C.E. (Classical Greece) After the Persians were swept away from
Greece, the Athenians took power and built upon their naval fleet. They created a
democratic system. At this time, there were many traveling teachers called sophists.
The most popular was Socrates (470 – 399 B.C.E.). He was put to trial and
condemned to death by drinking hemlock. Plato (428 – 347 B.C.E.) was the disciple
of Socrates. He actually wrote down many things unlike Socrates, who just mainly
conversed. Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.E.) was another great philosopher. His student
was Alexander the Great.
There were slaves in Greece. Most women in Greece were subjugated under men.
However, the women of Sparta were supposed to give birth to strong children and
thus had much exercising and freedom. Infanticide [As seen in 300, the film] might
have existed. Bisexuality was normal in Greek. Greek men searched for their
intellectual and emotional counterpart.
In 431 B.C.E., the Peloponnesian War broke out between Sparta and Athens. The
war dragged on for 3 decade. Philip of Macedonia grew his state and increased the
strength of his hoplites. When he was assassinated in 336 B.C.E., his son Alexander
took power. Philip had urged the people of Greece to crusade against the Persians to
unify their struggle. Alexander the Great took over Persia.
Alexander the Great died at the age of 32 in 323 B.C.E. The epoch created by the
conquests of Alexander the Great is called the “Hellenistic Age” (323 – 30 B.C.E.).
Cities called Alexandria were laid out for and by Alexander. At this time, Archimedes
287 – 211 B.C.E.) made many mechanical devices and advances in the field of
science. After all the war and struggle, Greece finally settled to be a much more
peaceful society in which more art and science flourished. However, a precursor to all
this was most likely the wars that caused the advancements in the first place.