Iran/Persia

C H A P T E R 4 L E C T U R E N O T E S

Iran/Persia

     To be clear- Iran and Persia are the same place.

Ringed by mountains and lacking resources, Persia was a hostile landscape and had few resources. What does this mean for the economy?

Agricultural technology, like underground irrigation, allowed people to expand into previously unusable land.

There were three main kings of Persia, all of whom expanded the empire and ruled with an iron fist: Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. The capital city was Persepolis, which we’ll see in a minute.

Our modern perspective on Persia has some serious reliability issues, because most of what we know is from Greece. Few written records have survived from inside the empire. How does that affect our perspective?

Persepolis

Persepolis

Persepolis: City Gate

Persepolis: Temple

Iran/Persia: King Cyrus

    Cyrus was the first king of Persia. He united the empire by overthrowing the ruling class, the Medes.

His strategy for conquest had two parts:  Military: conquering land using strong armies and advanced weapons  Psychological: Cyrus used a lot of propaganda within his empire to maintain it, and also made deals with unhappy groups in lands he wished to conquer. How would this help him?

This strategy was very successful. He took over both Mesopotamia and Egypt easily, then kept going.

Cyrus died in battle, leaving his son Cambyses in charge.

Iran/Persia

   Persia had three major social divisions:  Warriors   Priests Peasants What groups are missing from the typical social hierarchy? What does this information tell us about Persian society?

   What professions or skills are valued?

Who works and why?

How do the powerful earn and keep their power?

Iran/Persia: King Darius

   After Cambyses died, a high-ranking soldier named Darius seized power by force. Under his control, the Persians conquered as far east as the Indus River Valley and as far west as Europe.

Land trade continued, but Darius began maritime trade as well in the Indian Ocean. What might be different about land v. maritime trade?

Under Darius, the Persian empire became the largest land empire in the world.

Empire of Persia

Empire of Persia

Iran/Persia

   The empire was divided into twenty provinces, called satrapies. The person in charge of the province was called a satrap.

The satrap’s responsibilities included collecting taxes, administering the law and punishment, and overseeing the bureaucracy in their area.

As usual, the further a province was from the capital, the more autonomous the satrap was.

Iran/Persia

      In Persia, the king was a very important person, but was NOT divine.

He had multiple wives, a lot of land, and a huge entourage of admirers and servants. Although he was not himself divine, the Persian king had a mandate from the gods. (Sound familiar?) The Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, was polytheistic and focused on purity: of nature, water, and women. How would this affect their social status and behavior?

Life was seen as a struggle between good and evil. People made their own choices and would be punished or rewarded accordingly in the afterlife. Questions about Persia?

A Few Notes About Ancient Greece

C H A P T E R 4 L E C T U R E N O T E S

Grecian Geography

   Like Persia, Greece was fairly rocky and ringed with mountains. They also had to trade for most of their needs.

Greeks traded mostly with neighbors by sea, not by land, since the overland roads were perilous.

Ancient Greece had many new ideas and technologies:  Polis, or city-state, with an acropolis (fortified shelter and meeting place) and an agora (market)    Coins, which helped make trade easier and faster The first true alphabet, with one mark representing one sound Hoplite armies

Hoplite Army

Hoplite Army

Democracy in Greece

    Ancient Greece is acknowledged as the birthplace of democracy. However it is not what we recognize as democracy today.

Like our own democracy, only citizens were allowed to vote and participate. However, “citizens” were only about 10-15% of the Greek population: free adult males of pure Athenian ancestry.

Women, children, slaves, and foreigners were not permitted to participate- yet, they had to follow the laws and policies created by the citizens.

Democracy was still a novel invention, though, because it opened the government to men of all financial levels.

Athens v. Sparta

  Athens and Sparta were the two largest city-states in ancient Greece, but they were completely different and often at odds.

  Athens: center of learning, strict social structure, lots of politics and philosophy. Citizen militia only.

Sparta: center of military strength. Conquered people became helots (slaves), boys were taken from home at age 7 to train for the military, trade was forbidden and there were no cultural pursuits.

Slaves of both genders were literally property of their owners, to be treated however the owner wanted. This included choosing what type of work, when to do it, and how much; participation in sexual acts with their owner or others; and punishment at the owner’s discretion.

The Social World of Athens and Sparta

   In Athens, women were rarely seen. Men were educated and moved freely; women were uneducated, married young, and rarely saw their husband or left their homes. Their closest relationships would most likely be with their household servant or slave.

In Sparta, women were encouraged to exercise, so they were seen a lot more in public. Women were valued for their ability to produce sons that were great warriors.

Bisexuality and same-sex relationships between men were common in ancient Greece. In Athens, it would be in the context of a mentor or other close relationship. In Sparta, it would be with other men in your fighting force, and that was part of the military strategy. Men that were in relationships with other soldiers were more likely to remain loyal to the unit and to exhibit courage and valor in battle.

Philosophy in Ancient Greece

   The first of the three famous Greek philosophers was Socrates. He used a method of teaching that we now call the “Socratic method”- asking students questions in order to lead them down a path of self-discovered knowledge. He was, however, a bit full of himself, and ended up condemned to death.

Socrates wrote nothing down. What we know of his teachings came from his student, Plato, who created written dialogues based on his conversations with his teacher. Plato was interested in the mystical and metaphysical.

Aristotle, a student of Plato’s, was the last of the three. He was Alexander the Great’s tutor. He, unlike Plato, was interested in facts and what could be proved. He organized knowledge of his world in the sciences, ethics, logic, politics, poetry, etc.

Alexander the Great

   Alexander’s father, Philip II, conquered the rest of Greece and planned an attack on Persia. However, he was killed by an assassin, so his young son took over.

Alexander proved to be more ruthless and successful than his father. He defeated Persia and continued to extend his empire into Africa and Asia. When he died suddenly at 32, his empire descended into chaos and split in three pieces. The land he had conquered, however, created a Hellenistic synthesis the mixing of Greek, Egyptian, and Persian cultures into a more blended Mediterranean culture.