Ian Morris is the Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics and Professor of History at Stanford University, where he teaches large lecture courses on ancient empires and Greek history. He is either the author or the editor of nine books on ancient history and archaeology, and directs a major archaeological excavation in Sicily. His latest book, Why the West Rules ... For Now will appear in 2010. He has lectured at universities across America and Europe, and r appeared on television on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and A&E Channel. Barry B. Powell is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where in his long career he was well known as a teacher of large lecture classes in ancient civilization and myth and for seminars on Homer. He has lectured in many countries and is the author of the bestselling Classical Myth (6th edition, 2008), widely used in college courses. He is best known as the author of Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (1991), which argues that the Greek alphabet was invented in order to record the poems of Homer. With Ian Morris he published the internationally admired A New Companion to Homer (1997). The 2nd edition of his popular introductory text Homer appeared in 2007, and he has written numerous other books, articles, screenplays, a novel, poetry, and a mock-epic The War at Troy: A True History (2006). He Recently, he appeared on the History Channel special Troy: The True Story (2005). His study Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization (2008) establishes a scientific terminology for studying the history of writing.

Contents

 

Maps

Preface

Pronunciation Guide

About the Authors

Credits

 

1.      A Small, Far-Off Land

            Historical Sketch

            Why Study the Greeks?

            Who Were the Greeks?

            The Structure of This Book: History, Culture, and Society

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

2.      Country and People

            Greek Geography, Climate, and Agriculture

            Demography

            Migration

            Health and Disease

            Nutrition

            Economic Growth in Ancient Greece

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

3.      The Greeks at Home

            Gender Relationships: Ideals and Realities

            Sexuality

            Adults and Children

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

4.      The Greeks Before History, 12,000-1200 B.C.

            The End of the Last Ice Age, 12,000-11,000 B.C.

            The Origins of Agriculture, 11,000-5000 B.C.

            Greeks and Indo-Europeans

            Neolithic Society and Economy, 5000-3000 B.C.

            The Early Bronze Age, 3000-2300 B.C.

            The Middle Bronze Age, 2300-800 B.C.

            The Age of Minoan Palaces, 2000-600 B.C.

            The Rise of Mycenaean Greece, 1750-500 B.C.

            The End of Minoan Civilization, 1600-1400 B.C.

            Mycenaean Greece: Archaeology, Linear B, and Homer

            The End of the Bronze Age, circa 200 B.C.

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

5.      The Dark Age, 1200-800 B.C.

            The Collapse of the Old States

            Life Among the Ruins

            Dark Age Heroes

            Art and Trade in the Dark Age

            The Eighth-Century Renaissance: Economy

            The Eighth-Century Renaissance: Society         

            The Eighth-Century Renaissance: Culture

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

6.      Homer

            The Homeric Question

            Milman Parry and Oral Poetry

            The Oral Poet in Homer

            Heinrich Schliemann and the Trojan War

            The Tragic Iliad

            Homer and the Invention of Plot

            The Comic Odyssey

            Odysseus and Homer

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

7.      Religion and Myth

            Definitions of Religion and Myth

            Hesiodâ s Myth of the Origin of the Gods

            Greek Religion in History

            Forms of Greek Religious Practice

            Hesiodâ s Myth of Sacrifice

            Gods and Other Mysterious Beings

            Chthonic Religion

            The Ungrateful Dead and the Laying of the Ghost

            Ecstatic and Mystical Religion

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

8.      Ancient Greece, 800-480 B.C.: Economy, Society, Politics

            Government by Oligarchy

            Elite Culture

            The Tyrants

            The Structure of Archaic States

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

9.      The Archaic Cultural Revolution, 700-480 B.C.

            Natural Philosophy in Miletus

            Pythagoras: Philosophy and Social Science in the West

            Hecataeus, Herodotus, and Histori�     

            Lyric poets

            Material Culture

            Art and Thought in Sixth-Century Greece

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

10.    A Tale of Two Archaic Cities: Sparta and Athens, 700-480 B.C.

            Sparta

            Spartiates, Perioikoi, and Helots

            Plutarchâ s Sparta

            Spartan Government

            Athens

            The Seventh-Century Crisis

            Solon

            Pisistratus and the Consequences of Solonâ s Reforms

            D�mokratia

            Athens Submits to Persia

            Key Terms

            Further Reading          

11.    Persia and the Greeks, 550-490 B.C.

            Empires of the Ancient Near East

            Lydia

            Cyrus and the Rise of Persia, 559â 530 B.C.

            Cambyses and Darius, 530â 52 B.C.

            Persiaâ s Northwest Frontier and the Ionian Revolt, 52â 494 B.C.

            The Battle of Marathon, 490 B.C.

            Key Terms

            Further Reading                    

12.    The Great War, 480-479 B.C.

            Storm Clouds in the West

            Storm Clouds in the East

            The Storm Breaks in the West: The Battle of Himera, 480 B.C.

            The Storm Breaks in the East: The Battle of Thermopylae, 480 B.C.

            The Fall of Athens          

            The Battle of Salamis          

            The End of the Storm: Battles of Plataea and Mycale, 479 B.C.

            Conclusion 

            Key Terms   

            Further Reading

13.    Democracy and Empire; Athens and Syracuse, 479-431 B.C.

            The Expansion of the Syracusan State, 479â 461 B.C.

            The Western Democracies, 461â 433 B.C.

            Economic Growth in Western Greece, 479â 433 B.C. Cimon and the Creation of the Athenian Empire, 478â 461 B.C.

            The First Peloponnesian War, 460â 446 B.C.

            Pericles and the Consolidation of Athenian Power, 446â 433 B.C.

            Economic Growth in the Aegean

            The Edge of the Abyss, 433â 431 B.C.

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

14.    Art and Thought in the Fifth Century B.C.

         Philosophy

            Material Culture

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

15.    Fifth-Century Drama

            Tragedy

            The City of Dionysia

            The Theater of Dionysus

            Narrative Structure

            Character and Other Dimensions of Tragedy

            Tragic Plots

            Conclusion

            The Origins of Comedy

            The Plots of Old Comedy

            The Structures of Old Comedy

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

16.    The Peloponnesian War and Its Aftermath, 431-399 B.C.

            The Archidamian War, 431â 421 B.C.

            The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, 421â 413 B.C.

            Sicily and the Carthaginian War, 412â 404 B.C.

            The Ionian War, 412â 404 B.C.

            Aftermath, 404â 399 B.C.

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

17.    The Greeks between Persia and Carthage, 399-360 B.C.

            Spartaâ s Empire, 404â 360 B.C.

            Economy, Society, and War

            Spartaâ s Collapse, 371 B.C.

            Anarchy in the Aegean, 371â 360 B.C.

            Carthage and Syracuse, 404â 360 B.C.

            The Golden Age of Syracuse, 393â 367 B.C.

            Anarchy in the West, 367â 345 B.C.

            Conclusion     

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

18.    Greek Culture in the Fourth Century B.C.

            Material Culture

            Plato

            Aristotle

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

19.    The Warlords of Macedon I: Philip II and Alexander the King

            Macedonia before Philip II

            Philipâ s Struggle for Survival, 359â 357 B.C.

            Philip Consolidates His Position, 357â 352 B.C.

            Philip Seeks a Greek Peace, 352â 346 B.C.

            The Struggle for a Greek Peace, 346â 338 B.C.

            Philipâ s End, 338â 336 B.C.

            Alexander the King

            The Conquest of Persia, 334â 330 B.C.

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

20.    The Warlords of Macedon II: Alexander the God

            The Fall of the Great King Darius, 331-330 B.C.

            After the War, 330â 324 B.C.

            War in India, 327â 326 B.C.

            The Long March Home, 326â 324 B.C.

            The Last Days, 324â 323 B.C.

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

21.    The Successors to Alexander, 323â 220 B.C

            The Wars of the Successors, 323â 301 B.C

            The Hellenistic World after Ipsus

            The Seleucid Empire 

            Ptolemaic Egypt

            The Antigonids: Macedonia          

            Key Terms          

            Further Reading

22.    The Greek Poleis, 323â 220 B.C

            Impoverishment and Depopulation in Mainland Greece       

            Athens in Decline

            Spartaâ s Counterrevolution

            The Western Greeks: Agathocles of Syracuse (361â 289/8 B.C)

            Pyrrhus of Epirus

            Hellenistic Society: The Weakening of the Egalitarian Ideal

            Conclusion          

            Key Terms          

            Further Reading

23.    Hellenistic Culture, 323â 30 B.C.

            Hellenistic Historians

            Poetry

            Material Culture

            Hellenistic Philosophy

            Medicine

            Quantitative Science in the Hellenistic Age

            Conclusion

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

24.    The Coming of Rome, 220â 30 B.C.

            The Rise of Rome, 753â 280 B.C.

            Rome, Carthage, and the Western Greeks, 280â 200 B.C.

            Rome Breaks the Hellenistic Empires, 200â 167 B.C.

            Consequences of the Wars: The Greeks 

            Consequences of the Wars: The Romans 

            New Roman Army

            The Agony of the Aegean, 99â 70 B.C.

            Pompeyâ s Greek Settlement, 70â 62 B.C.

            The End of Hellenistic Egypt, 61â 30 B.C.

            Aftermath

            Key Terms

            Further Reading

25.    Conclusion

            The Bronze Age (c. 3000-1200 B.C.; Chapter 4)

            The Dark Age (c. 1200-700 B.C.; Chapter 5)

            The Archaic Period (c. 700-500 B.C.; Chapters 6-10)

            The Classical Period (c. 500-350 B.C.; Chapters 11-18)

            The Macedonian Takeover (c. 350-323 B.C.; Chapters 19-22)

            The Hellenistic Period (c. 323-30 B.C.; Chapters 23-24)

            Conclusion