Western Civilization. Paul R. Waibel
had once been, still Alexander's conquest of it in less than 10 years was a feat seldom, if ever, matched. What his real intentions were for the future can only be guessed. Did he really intend to promote a fusion of cultures and, thus, some sort of new world order as some suggests, or was he merely trying to build a power base from which to launch a conquest of the western Mediterranean? Perhaps in the final analysis, Alexander the Great was only a madman who set out to conquer the world. Whatever his real motives, he changed the world.
The Hellenistic Age (323–31 BC)
Shortly after his death Alexander's empire was divided among his leading generals. Alexander's mother Olympia was murdered in 316 BC. His wife Roxana, daughter of a Bactrian chief, and their son were both killed in 310 BC. Roxana had previously killed two of Alexander's other wives fearing they were a threat to her and her son. After dividing the administration of the empire among them, the generals fought one another until 281 BC, when three successor kingdoms were recognized. The Antigonids ruled Macedonia; the Seleucids ruled Asia Minor and Mesopotamia; the Ptolemies ruled Egypt.
During the Hellenistic Age, following the death of Alexander the Great, the independent city‐state that characterized the Hellenic Age was replaced by a cosmopolitan world of kingdoms and empires, all of which were permeated by Greek culture. Koine, a form of Greek, became the lingua franca throughout most of the Mediterranean world. Alexandria in Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great, became the economic and cultural center of the Mediterranean world. There, Hebrew scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek and began studying Greek philosophy. Historians began to write universal or world histories. The spread of Greek culture from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus River was one of the great legacies of Hellenization. But this Hellenization remained only a thin veneer limited largely to the urban centers. Outside the cities, in the countryside, there was not even a veneer. There, the old ways remained dominate and the “world” did not extend beyond the immediate experience.
Greek Society
For the sake of brevity, and because we know more about Athens than the other city‐states, we will consider Greek society during the classical period as it existed in Athens. The population of Athens and other city‐states, except Sparta, consisted of three classes: citizens, resident foreigners (metics), and slaves. Only free adult men were citizens allowed to participate in governing the city‐state. Beginning in 451 BC, only male children of parents who were both Athenians were granted citizenship. Resident foreigners, who were often traders and craftsmen, were not citizens. Freed slaves were included in the metics.
Women in Greek Society
Women were Athenians, but little else. Athens was a men's only club. Girls in their mid‐teens normally married men in their early thirties. The marriage was arranged by the girl's male guardian. Often the bride did not meet her chosen husband until the wedding day. Once married, her life was largely restricted to the women's quarters. She did not go out in public unless accompanied by a male. Men did the shopping, not women. Wives did not dine with their husbands. They could not act in plays, and if they attended a play, they were required to sit in the rear, away from the men. Married women were not allowed to attend the Olympic Games, where the athletes competed in the nude. The penalty for violating this regulation was death. Unmarried women were allowed to attend the games.
Women were not given any formal education, unless one considers training in household chores an education. A wife's proper station in life was to keep her husband's house and raise his children. Aristotle believed that women were incomplete males. They were necessary for a successful and happy community, but “the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled” (Perry et al. 2003, p. 57). The character Procne (sister of Philomela and wife of king Tereus) in Sophocles play, Tereus, points to a woman's fate in classical Athens:
And now I am nothing on my own. But often have I seen women's nature to be like this, since we are nothing. Young girls in their father's house live, I think, the happiest life of all humanity. For folly always brings up children delightfully. But when we have reached the prime of life and are prudent, we are pushed out and sold, away from our ancestral gods and our parents, some of us to foreign husbands, some to barbarians, some to joyless homes, and some to abusive ones. And, when a single night has yoked us, this is what we must approve of and think of as a good life
(Sophocles n.d.).
Slaves in Greek Society
Slavery was a part of life throughout the ancient world. A census of Attica taken between 317 BC and 307 BC showed that there were 21 000 citizens, 10 000 metics, and 40 000 slaves. Slaves were the lowest class. Most were purchased from slave traders, though many were obtained as the spoils of war. Most Athenian citizens owned at least one slave. In fact, not being able to afford at least one slave was a sign of poverty.
Domestic slaves were often treated well and considered part of the family. Some served as tutors or domestic servants. Some could even purchase their freedom. Many, perhaps the majority, labored on farms. Some were owned by the city‐state. They functioned much like civil servants. It was a slave who attested to the genuineness of the city‐state's coinage. They served as policemen and aided in the arrest of criminals. The official executioner was a state‐owned slave.
However “good” the life of a slave appeared to be, the fact remained that slaves were legally classified as chattel property. A slave could be sold, punished, or even killed by the master, though killing one's slave was frowned upon in Athens during the classical period. Athenian law required that a female slave be tortured before she could give evidence in court. Aristotle said that slaves were a “sort of living possession.” He defended slavery as being “natural,” since some human beings lacked the capacity to reason. Such a position, of course, was hard to defend if the slave was another Greek obtained in war.
The lowest of all slaves were those who worked in the Laurium silver mines located less than 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Athens. Much of the wealth that made Athens an imperial power and the glory of the classical period came from the Laurium mines. The mines were owned by the city‐state and leased to individuals. Private individuals leased slaves to the miners to labor in the mines or the surrounding facilities that converted the silver ore into coins. About 350 mines employed approximately 20 000 slaves, according to Thucydides, and produced 1000 talents (26 kg or 57 lb.) of silver annually.
Slaves working in the mines were considered disposable slaves. Their life was short and brutal. Naked, the miners descended down a vertical shaft by ladder, and then entered a narrow horizontal shaft. Bent over, they worked with pick and iron hammer to extract the ore. They were poorly fed, savagely beaten, and seldom saw daylight. Because the silver ore contained large amounts of lead, the miners usually died in one to two years from lead poisoning.
Sex in Greek Society
Homosexuality was a characteristic part of society in classical Athens, as elsewhere. In Plato's Symposium homosexuality is lauded as “a pure form of Celestial Love.” What Plato called the only true love, the love between two males, was really between an adult male and a young boy. It was the norm for an adult male to take a young boy as his lover until the boy was old enough to grow a beard. The relationship between the adult and his lover was considered an educational one. The adult guided his young lover on his way to adulthood.
Intercourse between male and female, husband and wife, was necessary for procreation. “Women for children; boys for pleasure” is an apt description of sexual activity in classical Athens. It is evident from images on vases and art objects, that love was public as well as private. There are vases with pictures portraying intercourse between two individuals while others look on.
Figure