World Civ: Wars and the Rise of Macedon

Now we come to the decline of the free Greeks. Through the hubris of a few men their great governments shall clash and fracture against one another until they lie broken and wounded, but stubbornly refusing to let go of their fierce independent ideals. Such policies as they choose shall cause a shift in power wherein new states come to the fore in Greek politics and a tribe of horse-loving barbarians will come to believe themselves capable of doing what the might of Persia failed to enact.

After the destruction of Xerxes’ armies, Athens and Sparta are now arch rivals once again. The Delian League has made Athens rich beyond its dreams and enabled many building projects and civil benefits – it is a golden age. Sparta, on the other hands, has lost many Spartiates, and thanks to an earthquake that has devastated her infrastructure, the helots have risen up in revolt. In desperation one of the Spartan kings sends word to his friend, Cimon, in Athens, who quickly mobilizes a personal force to march to the aid of Sparta. But the garousia will non of it, and Cimon is turned back in disgrace. In a fit of “rage” the Athenians ostracize Cimon and declare war on Sparta to right this debacle, but in reality they wish to force the hand of Sparta’s allies and neighbors, thus reinforcing their League. In all truth, Sparta can do little to oppose Athens, but watches in frustration as her rival gobbles up the other Greek states and signs a peace treaty with Persia, securing the Ionic coastline.

The first Peloponnesian War has ended and the Spartans continue to rebuild whilst the Athenians triumph in all that they do. Trouble begins again when Athens takes action to secure the allegiance of Sparta’s long-time allies, Corinth and Magara. Sparta declares war as a result and Pericles, the ruling strategos of Athens, has the advantage: all he must do is pick at the Spartans, then slink behind his Long Walls, which the Spartans cannot take. This strategy works brilliantly until a plague breaks out in Athens during one such siege, killing Pericles and the majority of the ruling classes. Stricken, the people want results, so soldiers are sent into the Peloponnese and to Syracuse. This latter attack in Sicily is the true deciding factor the war, as the destruction of the majority of Athens’ army and navy spells doom for their cause. What’s more, the sea-faring Syracusians have joined the war, countering the Athenian naval power. Before long, even the Spartans know how to sail on the Aegean, thanks to a deal that they cut with the Persians, and the Athenian fleet is destroyed outright by the Spartan general, Lysander.

The Spartans have won, but they have been severely weakened by the conflict. Thebes therefore steps up to try her hand at exercising power, as does Corinth and the Greek island. After all the trouble taken since their first bid for freedom so many years ago, the Ionians are once again under Persian control. Ironically, since Athens has begun asserting her power again, many tired Greeks defect to the Ionians, seeking a better life in the lands that they sought to take from their enemies. Meanwhile, a Theban general, Epaminondas, drives all the way into the Peloponnese, freeing the helots in all the west, though Sparta itself still stands.

Throughout all this drama, Macedonia has gone unnoticed. The kingdom is a backwater as far as the Greeks are concerned, but she has grown rich off of the continual warfare to the south. They fight much like the Greeks do, with a double row of heavy infantry, but their new king, Phillip II, wishes to expand his power, and for that he needs men. Considering his options, the clever king reorganizes his army, arming peasant soldiers with smaller shields and longer spears, grouping them together into phalanxes of such impenetrable strength that no hoplite could hope to come to grips with them. Being a horse-loving people, Phillip takes those soldiers who feel short-changed by the sudden promotion of the lower classes and mounts them upon fine Macedonian steeds, reasserting their status while creating a cavalry that no Greek could ever expect. Now all Phillip needs is a perfect storm.

He gets his chance when the Thebans make an effort to take the Phocans, the people who’s polis, Delphi, hosts that famous shrine. Desperate Phocans have broken into the temple and raided its stores in an effort to use the riches to hire mercenaries and the priests have called a sort of proto-Crusade by all free Greeks. The Greeks are slow to respond – if they would have responded at all – but from the north comes the jingle of bridle bits and the ominous tramp tramp of numerous marching feet as the barbarous Macedonians answer the call.

World Civ: Outbreak of the Persian Wars

In the Fertile Crescent, another empire is growing in Persia, the first stirrings of the Persian Empire itself. After the fall of the Assyrians the Neo-Babylonians have filled the power vacuum. Perhaps some people feel as though the new power is weak enough to shrug away. Judah certainly thinks so, and the Palestinian nation rebels, only to see its people deported. But the Persians are a truly cosmopolitan people and take advantage of the best and brightest of their captives, elevating several young men to positions of power, as described in the Hebrews’ Book of Daniel. But though the Persian society offers many attractive advantages and many people fall away, some Hebrews cling to the God of their fathers and dream of a day when they can return home. In the mean time they seclude themselves in ghettoes and solidify their teachings, focusing on restitution for wrongs and rewards for the steadfast.

The Hebrews get their chance to return under the reign of Cyrus the Great. That doughty Persian is a mercenary lord, hired out by the Medes before establishing a power for his own people. He looks to the west out of the Persian steppes and finds the view to his liking, but unlike past warlords, he bypasses the Babylonians altogether and takes Lydia in Asia Minor, subjugating Croesus and gaining control of the rich king’s trade routs. Now with money to spare, Cyrus turns to the other Persian lords and to the Ionic Greeks and with these hired forces dominate the Fertile Crescent. Cyrus is a good king, for he takes steps to honor the gods of the lands he has conquered, to include Yahweh of the Hebrews. It is this favorable disposition that allows those holdouts to return home to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

Some years pass and Darius come to the throne. Perhaps the peoples have not learned from Judah’s example, because the Ionic Greeks revolt against Persian influence, only to be systematically punished and deported. But Darius is concerned by the reports that Athenian ships were spotted aiding the rebels, so he determines to take all of Greece by force and solve this problem. The Greeks know that they are facing the might of the whole East, but they love their comparative freedoms and prepare for war. In this they are successful, when the Persians are caught by surprise at Marathon and duped into thinking that the Athenians yet have soldiers in their polis. So they sail away, vowing revenge.

Sparta did not get a chance to spill Persian blood thanks to a religious festival being held at the time of the invasion. But they shall now reassert themselves as the greatest land force in Levant. The Persians have returned under Darius’ successor, Xerxes. Years has this man spent in preparing to avenge his forebear’s failure and the charms of his beautiful Hebrew wife are not sufficient to discourage his personal attendance when the new Persian army crosses into Europa. Down the coasts march the Persian army, with the heavy Persian fleet ducking and swaying in the surf nearby, sustaining the army with their supplies. And there at Thermopylae are the Spartans, led by one of their kings, Leonidas, and attended by other free Greeks. There they give the Persians bloody combat, even casting off the attentions of the infamous Immortals, the crack soldiers of the East. But time is running out and the Persians at last circle around through the mountains to surround the Greeks, prompting Leonidas to send away many of the volunteers, staying behind with his 300 Spartans and a few brave others to hold the line.

After the fall of the brave 300, Xerxes has only to drive out the Athenians before he can march upon the Peloponnesius. But he has one great obstacle to overcome yet: the Athenian navy. Not to be outdone by their rivals, the Athenians have withdrawn to their own Thermopylae at a place called Salamis. There the Persian fleet is decimated, leaving the over-sized Persian army to struggle for the next few years before fighting out of the country and back to beloved Anatolia.

World Civ: The Infancy of Rome

But what of Rome, that great power which will shortly dominate the whole Mediterranean, from Palestine to the Pillars of Hercules? The people of that city are a mere city-state now, and a subdued one at that. Always a backwater after its own right, the Italian peninsula is lagging far behind the other regions of the world in terms of achievement. Why, just back in 800 B.C. they finally exited pre-history! But the Romans are a rising force in the region and they do not like being controlled.

The people who master the Romans at this time are the Etruscans, a mysterious race that settled the Po river valley in times past. Like many conquering races, they have iron that gives them an edge over their enemies. Despite setbacks at the hands of the Celts, they have managed to eke out an imperial existence for themselves on the western side of the Apennines with Rome acting as a trading site along the border with Latium. But theirs is a precarious position, for though they are powerful, the Celts to the north, the Greeks to the south, and the competition over Corsica and Sardinia with the Greeks and the developing Carthaginian merchant empire puts undo strain upon them. What’s more, Rome is growing in power and will presently throw off the yoke.

Rome itself is just a protectorate at this time, governed by petty kings who look to Etruria for their authority. But power in Rome is not the rich versus the poor; it is much more dynamic. In this society, it is patrons and clients, those who can provide services in exchange for services. Nor are these two different classes, for every man (with exception of the poorest poor and the richest rich) is both a patron and a client. But if one must have a system of classes, then consider the patricians and the plebeians. Though the patricians were originally the blue bloods of society, the distinctions are much more muddled. Wealth has little to do with patricianhood, so much as a sense of place and the opinions of others. A family of Brutus might call itself patrician, but their proud Foucus neighbors may remember them better as plebeians, and so on. But please note: the kings are always drawn from the patrician families, no matter what the Foucuses say. These kings are granted “imperium,” a kind of power reserved for such men. These are classical tyrants, leaders by personality who are advised by the leaders of the other highest-ranking families in Rome, who form a body of councilors called the Senate. What powers do they have? They might proclaim a king, if they like, or call up the Public Assembly (the polite term for the mob gathered outside the palace for a show of community interest).

But as politics in Rome develop, more committees arise. There is the Generals Assembly (the Comitia Curiata), representative of the masses. Each of the thirty curia has one vote, and these curia stand for a gentes, or family, which actually comprises all those associated with a given clan, to include their clients. Further developments are influenced by the military.

The phalanx has come to Rome from the Greeks to the south, and the Romans find the military so attractive that one of their leaders, Servius Tullius, organizes a tax system around the formation of the army, based upon families and wealth. Patricians are to send cavalry to the new army, whilst the plebeians provide the foot soldiers. The horsemen are called equites and this title shall follow them into the new public assembly, the Comitia Centuriata. This body is made up of centuries, each of a hundred soldiers, though with the rich equites, this is not necessarily true. Each century is provided by a group based upon wealth and each century has one vote. Being liberal-minded people, the Romans also provide a century space for those people unable to provide any soldiers. This new governing body shall take the place of the kings shortly, but the power still remains with the upper classes within the patricians. It shall take the influence of the general assembly for that to change.

World Civ: Sparta and Athens

Let us look closer at two of the most famous Greek poleis, one known for its warriors, the other for its government.

Sparta is the undisputed master of the Peloponnesius, having forcibly taken much of it from its original Dorian masters and subjected the rest to subservient city-states or intimidated allies – with the notable exception of Argos. The poor Messenians, heirs to the Mycenaean civilization, have been made “helots,” a kind of state-slave, whom the Spartans keep down via yearly wars carried out against them – the Spartans even have a secret police force, the krypteai, who keep an eye on the helots. This is very important, since the helots greatly outnumber their belligerent masters and the Spartans want to devote a majority of their energies to raising every man to be a soldier, relegating agriculture to their state-slaves. What makes the Spartans such great warriors? A long time ago, the Spartans did away with their kings, establishing a curious governmental and societal system that undermines the traditional Grecian tribal politic and makes their boys the toughest warriors in the known world.

Spartan upbringing is a dangerous affair. When children are born, they are first checked for any defects. If none are found, the child is allowed to grow up. After a few years at home, the children are taken to the agoge where they are trained in basic education and fighting – even the girls. Once the children are twelve years old, the girls are sent home to learn how to run a house and handle managerial work; the boys are quite literally turned out. Trained to fight, the boys are gathered together in packs and fed only enough to keep body and soul together, and maybe not enough then. To instill in them a spirit of independence and survival, the boys are encouraged to steal from the helots (this also served to keep the state-slaves down) and at one point it becomes a right of passage to kill a helot in combat. When sixteen years old, the boys seek out a mess (very important, as Spartans who don’t have a mess by age twenty are made helots), where they are entrusted to a big brother, who mentors them further in the ways of the fighting Spartans, and once the boys grow to be thirty, they are granted a plot of land from the state and inducted into the ranks of the homoioi, the grown men of Sparta. Once a man, the Spartans join the apellai, the council of Spartan males, which is led by five ephors. This is paired with another council, the gerousia, which is open only to men aged sixty years. Besides these councils, there are two “kings” of Sparta who lead her armies into battle – but only one at a time outside the Peloponnesius, and only half the army at that; the other half and its king remain in Spartan lands to make sure that the helots do not overstep their bounds. As one can imagine, the Spartans have a difficult time forming an empire with such a selective population and such strict standards, but they are excellent mercenaries and offer their services across the eastern Mediterranean.

By contrast, the Athenians have a much more governmental focus. These governments have formed in a series of steps under the watchful eye of a number of reformers. The first is Drako, an aristocrat who codifies the Athenian laws, defending the masses from their oppressors in the eupatridae (blue-blood families), who alone supply archons to the aereopagus (council). Though the powers of this group tyranny are curbed for a time, civil unrest prompts an archon, Solon, to define the classes; in this way, he establishes who can hold what office and determines who has rights in Athens. He also cancels all debts and establishes a governing council of 400 and a jury trial of 501 men. Another thirty years pass under this new system until a new tyrant takes the city. Peisistratus wants to undermine the familial tribal makeup of his polis, but unlike the Spartans, he takes civil measures, promoting nationalism though games and establishing traveling judges who do not give an olive what family the guilty party belongs to.

But the eupatridae are unhappy, because they cannot throw their weight around like before, so once Peisistratus dies, they go to the Spartans, crying out that their “liberty” is at stake. The Spartans cannot stomach the idea an upper class without its liberty, so they march to Athens and liberate the city, prompting more civil unrest in the form of struggles among the eupatridae over who will take control once again. After a few years of such maneuvering, one Kleisthenes comes to power and sets out to divide the families as never before. He first divides Athens and its possessions into ten phyles, each subdivided into three trittys: a coastal, an urban, and an inland. Then each trittys is divided again into demes. Each phyle contributes fifty men to a council of 500, though each deme also has its own council. And in a brilliant move, Kleisthenes divides the families of Athens into the different demes such that their old power is broken.

In addition to the land divisions, Kleisthenes creates a council of ten stratagoi (generals) and introduces the ostracism policy. Unfortunately, these systems shall prove troublesome for Athens, as the generals will grow too powerful and those usually ostracized are the best and the brightest of the polis.

World Civ: Emergence of the Greek Polis

By this time the Greeks are rising as a civilization. The Aegean has been repopulated since the destruction wrought by Thera and though the new civilization will build few empires, it is one that will influence the greater powers of the western world for centuries to come.

At the heart of this new system is the polis, a “city” after a sort, though more of an idea than a walled town, though the agora, or local meeting place, can function as a defensible location. Each of the local families is known as an oikos, and each oikos includes the extended family, as well as dependents. Local families join together to form a genos and it is a collection of these clans that collect into a polis. Curiously, the individual oikos do not restrain their allegiance to their polis, but allow for close ties to the families of other cities, forming an ethnos that competes with the polis establishment.

As time goes on, the various cities coalesce into actual towns, as farming in the deforested Grecian countryside leads to population growth. Once the towns grow to a certain size, however, some people begin seeking new homes and leave to form colonies, or apoika. Unlike the colonies of other peoples, however, these establishments hold themselves politically aloof, preferring to maintain only ceremonial ties to their mother cities. The Greeks hate the idea of another lording over them, and this attitude stalls the colonization effort around the middle 500s, as the now sea-faring Greeks find the Mediterranean increasingly occupied by Phoenicians, Etruscans, and other peoples. It is also this staunch individualism that shall prevent the Greeks from forming empires, as we shall see by and by.

But if the Greeks are sundered politically and by the mountainous terrain, they are unified by their culture. They share the same warrior standards of hoplites in close phalanxes and the love the tales of Homer, wherein the heroes do battle for glory – an irony since the warrior heroes at Ilium battled individually, so unlike the phalanx formations used by the Greeks. More, the Greeks love philosophers, who love to discuss strange ideas, from the rationalization of reality, to the religion created by their Homer. Interestingly, said religion has little bearing on politics, which are rather more defined by personality (a tyranny) or by citizenship.