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2021 Lect 26 Hellenism — Transcript

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0:02hi this week we're gonna talk about
0:04Hellenism and Hellenism refers to the
0:07spread of Greek culture throughout much
0:09of Eurasia and we're going to see that
0:12this is going to be linked to Alexander
0:14the Great and the largest empire that
0:16we've talked about up until this point
0:18and not only is he going to bring his
0:20soldiers but he's also going to bring
0:23elements of Greek culture now hellenism
0:26is not just Greek culture it's what
0:29happens when aspects of Greek culture
0:31mix with Persian culture Indian culture
0:35North African culture and that amalgam
0:38becomes what we talked about today as
0:40Hellenism Hellenism is also important
0:44because it's going to create a sense of
0:46continuity which the Romans are later
0:48going to build on to create an even
0:50larger Empire so although Greek
0:54democracy is not going to last very long
0:57many of their attitudes and philosophies
1:00and their esthetic in art is going to
1:02have a long lasting legacy in the
1:04ancient world so let's talk about how
1:07this Athenian Empire that we have
1:09established in the last couple lectures
1:11becomes something quite different under
1:14the direction of the Macedonians
1:21the Empire of Alexander the Great as you
1:24can see incorporates many of the
1:26different cultures that we've talked
1:27about so far in the Mediterranean and
1:30Middle Eastern world so we start coming
1:33out of the Greek islands and into the
1:36Persian Empire he moved down into North
1:39Africa and then across the area between
1:43the Tigris and Euphrates River and then
1:46began to push all the way up past the
1:48Caspian Sea into Afghanistan and is
1:51going to even move into northern India
1:53before his campaign is cut short by a
1:56rather untimely death so we're going to
1:59talk about Alexander and the impact that
2:02his empire has
2:07the story of the Empire of Alexander
2:10begins with his father Philip of Macedon
2:14and as his name suggests he came from
2:16this Northern Territory north of the
2:20Greek Isles in the Greek mainland which
2:22of course is today is Macedonia and
2:24Macedonia was a little bit different
2:27than Greece during this period and that
2:29it was mostly agricultural as a rather
2:33rugged terrain
2:34unlike Athens they had not developed a
2:38democratic system but had remained with
2:41kingships and the Athenians truthfully
2:44kind of saw the Macedonians as kind of
2:46backwater as as Hicks so to speak but
2:50they are quickly have to change their
2:53point of view when Philip of Macedon is
2:55able to unify many of the Macedonian
2:57cities and build up his power base and
3:00then he moves down into mainland Greece
3:02and into the Greece Peloponnesus and
3:05takes over all of that territory he's
3:08able to do that for a couple of reasons
3:11partially he seems to have been at a
3:13very capable military leader and - he's
3:16building upon this weakening that's
3:20happened in the Greek Isles because of
3:22the Peloponnesian War remember that
3:24Athens and Sparta had been warring for
3:26quite some time and it really weakened
3:29both of those powers Sparta had taken
3:33over Athens for a period of time and yet
3:36both of these these entities are really
3:39not at their peak any longer and filled
3:41with Macedon subs have been a great
3:42opportunity and and come in and
3:45established his kingdom there his son
3:49Alexander the Great is going to be the
3:52person that takes this Empire then to
3:54its next level and he seems to have had
3:57some advantages that have allowed him to
4:00to do that first of all at a very young
4:03age he's being trained and tutored in
4:06Warcraft and he seems to have had a kind
4:09of a knack for it he has a brilliant
4:11military strategist
4:13I mean people today even continue to
4:15study Alexander and some of the
4:17strategic decisions that he made
4:20and he's also being tutored in both the
4:23macedonian tradition and the greek
4:24tradition and probably one of the most
4:27famous student-teacher relationships
4:30Alexander is tutored by Aristotle so I
4:33think that shows that from the very
4:35beginning Alexander is going to bring an
4:37amalgam of both Macedonian and Greek
4:41thought and Greek approaches to doing
4:44things will run through his campaigns
4:47relatively quickly here he's going to
4:51build upon his father's successes moving
4:53out of the Greek islands in the Greek
4:55mainland down into North Africa where he
4:59is able to secure the crown of Pharaoh
5:02in 320 BC he'll then move up the Levant
5:07and into the Mesopotamian region which
5:10had been conquered by the Persians we
5:13have he moves into what is today
5:14Afghanistan and India by 326 and it's at
5:19this point that he really begins to
5:21suffer some pushback from these loyal
5:24troops which have followed him all over
5:27Eurasia and as Alexander went on his
5:32campaign he would emphasize himself or
5:37he would present himself as a liberator
5:39I'm someone who's going to liberate you
5:42from your your overlord your oppressive
5:45Kings who are taxing you and now you
5:47have this opportunity to become this
5:50part of a new vision and I think in some
5:53ways we can see he's building on some of
5:55the the early traditions of the Persians
5:58these are the kinds of things that
5:59series the gray used also
6:11I want to pause for a moment and just
6:14look at a source a contemporary source
6:16that gives us some insight into the
6:18person of Alexander and it also gives us
6:21a chance to think about a source
6:24critically a lot of the information that
6:27we have about some of these leaders like
6:29Pericles like Alexander comes from
6:33speeches that were recorded or or
6:36they're attributed to these different
6:39leaders so here's the job of the story
6:42in is to look at these different
6:44speeches and say how accurately does
6:47this reflect the person that's
6:50supposedly saying these different words
6:52now in most cases it's pretty unlikely
6:55that someone was sitting there with pen
6:57and pencil and copying down everything
6:59that these different leaders said
7:01however you do have with some of these
7:06more powerful leaders you do have a
7:09cadre of people who are travelling with
7:12them who get to know them or maybe it's
7:15secondhand these are people who have
7:18gotten to know the inner circle of an
7:21Alexander or a Pericles and so there's a
7:25good chance that they would have had an
7:26idea of the kinds of things that these
7:29leaders said so we don't have any way of
7:32knowing if Alexander spoke these words
7:35however when you look at his career it
7:38does seem that he embraced some of the
7:41ideas that are presented in this
7:43particular speech now this speech is
7:47given at a really critical moment in
7:50Alexander's campaign
7:52he's been wildly successful and he's
7:55marched out of Greece down into North
7:58Africa he's gone across the Mesopotamian
8:01region but he's reached this point at
8:04which his troops are really saying we
8:06have gone far enough we are too far from
8:10home
8:11now Alexander's armies were very loyal
8:14and as he moved across these different
8:17territories he would also invite
8:20different people to join in his millet
8:24to swell the ranks of people who had
8:27died in battle or who died of disease
8:29and so it's really a mixed bag of people
8:33that are traveling with Alexander
8:34however he does have this core of
8:37Macedonians at Greeks who have said
8:40we've gone too far particularly when
8:42they move into India and possibly
8:45because by this point the culture is
8:47quite different than anything they would
8:49have known the dress is different the
8:50food is different and they're just ready
8:52to go home and so this is the speech
8:56that the historian puts in the mouth of
8:58Alexander and there's a couple things I
9:00want to I want to key in on here first
9:03of all he starts by talking about the
9:07men that are travelling with him and all
9:09of the victories that they've won so far
9:12let me remind you he says through your
9:15courage and endurance you have gained
9:17possession of all of these different
9:19territories the Ionia the house fajn
9:21cappadocia etcetera with all that
9:25accomplished why do you hesitate to
9:27extend the power of Macedon your power
9:30to the Hephaestus and the tribes on the
9:32other side so he's saying he's really
9:36been taking a very communal approach
9:40here and saying you know this is what
9:42you've been able to accomplish and I
9:44think again it kind of speaks to the
9:46idea that that Alexander was someone who
9:49could connect with people who were in
9:52the saddle who were marching alongside
9:55him he wasn't a distant figure but
9:58someone that they seemed to relate to
10:00personally and then he goes on these
10:03natives either surrender without a blow
10:05or are caught on the run or leave their
10:08country undefended for your taking so
10:11he's trying to encourage them saying
10:13look at all this wealth that we've been
10:14able to enrich ourselves with personally
10:18and as as a nation Macedonia and when we
10:22take it we make a present of it to those
10:25who have joined us of their own free
10:26will
10:27and fight on our side so this is an
10:29important point because similar to
10:31Cirrus the great he does seem to have
10:35taken an attack
10:37assimilation he intends to empower those
10:42locals who will follow him not just
10:45decimate them and loot them and then
10:48carry all of the slaves in the loop back
10:50now there are times when Alexander
10:52certainly looted cities we have talked
10:54before about Persepolis and that he ends
10:57up carting out so much gold and jewels
11:01and other precious items that were at
11:02Persepolis but he does once he takes
11:06control of a territory it seems as if
11:07he's interested in forming an
11:10assimilated society where you have
11:13aspects of Greek culture and aspects of
11:16the local culture merging together
11:23in 323 as Alexander is preparing his
11:27troops to undertake his next military
11:30campaign which is going to be in the
11:32Arabian Peninsula he is us commemorating
11:37it appears to be that he was
11:38commemorating the death of one of his
11:40close military associates when he takes
11:43ill and they probably because just days
11:47before he had seemed so vigorous he had
11:50seemed so a figure of command people at
11:53the time and then in the 2,000 years
11:55since then have questioned what happened
11:57to Alexander to make him so ill and
12:00eventually he's going to die within
12:02about a week's time we have a different
12:05a couple different accounts of these
12:07last days of his life and I think it
12:09gives us a little bit of insight into
12:10the character of Alexander but also
12:12maybe into Hellenistic culture also the
12:18Greek author Arion of nickim idea in the
12:21second living in the second century
12:22gives us this account of Alexander's
12:26last days and they say that he had been
12:29drinking and carousing with his fellow
12:30soldiers and then he basically collapses
12:33and for the next week to 10 days he is
12:37slipping in and out of consciousness he
12:39seems to have periods of relative
12:41lucidity he's still trying to get his
12:45troops ready for this campaign he orders
12:48his generals to prepare the land troops
12:50to move out within about three days and
12:52then the ships are going to leave in
12:54about four days at the same time he
12:58seems to have been preparing his body
13:00spiritually also he has he requests that
13:05he be rode across the Euphrates River
13:07where he takes a bath he makes
13:10sacrifices in between these preparations
13:13that he's making for the campaign he
13:16retreats to his private quarters and
13:18undertakes religious rituals and
13:21ritualistic type of bathing and
13:24cleansing ceremonies and so I think that
13:27this shows too that during this period
13:30religion is still very much a part of
13:34daily life and it
13:36something that even someone as powerful
13:38as Alexander is gonna take very
13:40seriously making sure that he's prepared
13:42for death but also seeking the God's
13:45wisdom seeking the God's comfort at this
13:48time unfortunately despite these
13:51different preparations
13:52Alexander continues to become more and
13:54more ill the sources say that he was
13:57suffering from seizures he was suffering
13:59from periods of delirium intense muscle
14:02cramps and then eventually he dies now
14:06after Alexander dies his body is put on
14:11display for his troops and I think this
14:14is in part this is also not just a
14:18matter of a death ritual but I think
14:22it's also was important for his
14:24immediate successors they wanted
14:26everyone to know that the commander in
14:27chief had died and that they were going
14:30to be the new leaders because of this it
14:34has led a lot of historians at the time
14:36and as recently as a few years ago
14:39people were still doing research into
14:40this and many people have have
14:42speculated that Alexander was poisoned
14:46by one of these generals who saw an
14:49opportunity to seize a great deal of
14:51power once this person had been removed
14:53from authority there was a study done in
14:572017 looking at the different symptoms
15:00that are described in the sources and
15:02the types of the types of poisons that
15:06would have been available to them at
15:08that point in that area of northern
15:11arabia where they were and it's led them
15:14to speculate that he was poisoned by a
15:17type of wine that became quite toxic
15:20when it was fermented and probably was
15:23passed to him by one of these generals
15:24and it caused the cramping and the
15:26seizures and that type of thing of
15:28course we'll never know for sure but
15:30these are some of the speculations that
15:32were made probably at the time as well
15:34after Alexander dies the generals do in
15:38fact relatively quickly
15:40divide the Empire among themselves
15:46although Alexander did have a young son
15:49he's going to be taken out of succession
15:51which often happens when someone is is
15:53very young and not able to press their
15:55claim to the throne and instead his key
15:59generals are going to divide up the
16:01empire into three really big chunks the
16:04Seleucid Empire is going to be located
16:08in Syria and what those regions that had
16:10been conquered in Mesopotamia and in the
16:12Persian Empire the Ptolemies are going
16:15to take over Egypt and North Africa and
16:17the antagonists are going to be centered
16:20in that home territory Alexander's
16:23homeland Macedonia and in Greece
16:29although as we've seen Alexander is not
16:32alive very long he's a young man when he
16:35dies and although he creates this very
16:38large polenta political unit it's going
16:41to be divided up pretty quickly into
16:43these three major chunks however his
16:45cultural legacy is going to be much more
16:48enduring we've been kicking around this
16:51term Hellenism and Hellenism refers to
16:54this cultural milieu which is created by
16:59combining Greek culture with these other
17:02indigenous cultures such as African
17:05Indian and Asian cultures one of the
17:09ways that we can see that is in all of
17:13the different cities that Alexander
17:15names after himself he's a very humble
17:18person and as he goes into these
17:21different territories he will establish
17:23administrative center which he'll
17:25promptly named after himself and then
17:28this administrative center is also going
17:30to support Greek learning and Greek
17:34culture he will set up a library there
17:38they'll begin to study philosophy in
17:41many cases there'll be a marketplace so
17:43there really is a push toward this
17:45cosmopolitan way of life the many of
17:49these cities still exist today we of
17:51course have the city of Kandahar in
17:53Afghanistan which was founded by
17:54Alexander and probably the most famous
17:57city is the city of Alexandria in Egypt
18:01which really becomes the inheritor of
18:05Athens so Athens had had the Academy and
18:08as we know Athens had had begun to fall
18:12out of its place of supremacy and in its
18:15place we'll have the city of Alexandria
18:17which was purported to have the largest
18:20library in the world they took Scrolls
18:23from all over Eurasia and scholars would
18:26come from all over the world to study in
18:28the libraries of Alexandria so this is
18:32these are some ways in which Alexander's
18:34legacy endures long beyond his own
18:38personal accomplishments and
18:40and this is certainly not something
18:41that's that's being done by by one
18:44person it's incorporating a real
18:47connectivity that we have not seen
18:49before Alexander's political conquests
18:53are going to bring different cultures in
18:54in contact with one another but as we'll
18:58turn a little bit later and look at
19:00what's going on in the eastern side as
19:02well different things are happening
19:04within India within China which are also
19:07contributing to this connectivity will
19:10talk about the Silk Road which is a way
19:12that merchants are moving Goods and
19:15along with moving those Goods they're
19:17going to be moving ideas as well so when
19:19we use that term Hellenism we are
19:21referring to this connectivity which
19:24results from a combination of Greece
19:26Africa reak African Indian and Asian
19:29culture and that's really going to be
19:31characterized and located in that third
19:34second centuries BCE
19:41in addition to the dissemination of
19:43philosophy and math and language and art
19:47there's going to be a combinations of
19:49religions which also takes place during
19:52this Hellenistic period and I think this
19:55reflects a greater trend toward religion
19:59being less associated with a state
20:01remember that when we looked at
20:03Mesopotamia there was this real sense
20:05that the God sponsored a religious
20:08leader and their family and although
20:10Alexander did have a particular affinity
20:16for Apollo and he kind of represented
20:20himself as Apollo in many cases with the
20:22Sunburst behind his head Alexander was
20:26also willing to let most of the areas
20:28that he conquered continue to practice
20:30their local religions and cults and it
20:33becomes very in vogue within this 3rd
20:36and 2nd century BCE to belong to one of
20:40these cults or indeed a few of these
20:42cults and many of them became mysterious
20:47when you think about some of the
20:49traditions that we have today with
20:50fraternities and sororities that gives
20:53you a sense of how many of these cults
20:55were they were something that you joined
20:57for status for sociability and they
21:01often had a secret secret languages
21:04secret symbols that you would be
21:06initiated into for this cult one of the
21:10most popular cults became the cult of
21:12Isis and it really has roots that are
21:14quite ancient remember that we have this
21:17sky goddess Horus which is who is
21:21portrayed with the sky the mother of
21:25Horus who was the sky God in Egypt and
21:27then we had this cult of the cow
21:29representing the feminine energy and by
21:32this point this had merged with a cult
21:34of Isis and this is readily adopted by
21:38the Greeks and then later by the Romans
21:41on this slide you can see on the bottom
21:43image there you have a Roman goddess who
21:46is carrying the ceremonial rattle and
21:48most historians art historians think
21:51that this is a representation of Isis so
21:54although she's ware
21:55Roman clothes in a Roman hairstyle it's
21:58really heartening back to a much more
22:00ancient Egyptian called and this is
22:02going to be something that pervades
22:04until we start to look at these
22:06universal religions it'll be the
22:08beginnings of Christianity and later of
22:12Islam that's going to really be the
22:15death knell for many of these ancient
22:18cults but during this time and all
22:20throughout the Roman period it would
22:22have been widely accepted and encouraged
22:24that you would have worshipped many of
22:27these different gods and goddesses there
22:28was no reason to be exclusive and in
22:31many times they in many cases it was a
22:33sign of status as well as religious
22:36piety
22:41another aspect of Hellenism is a shift
22:45in philosophy now we have talked about
22:48the big three Socrates Aristotle Plato
22:50and the types of big questions that they
22:53asked they were interested in how to
22:56create a perfect society how to create a
22:59working state and it seems like toward
23:03the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE people
23:06become more interested in asking
23:08questions about personal happiness and
23:12and how to live a good life personally
23:15now this might have been a result of
23:18some disillusionment with the death of
23:20the polis seeing that perfect society
23:23that they had tried to create really
23:25start to fall apart and so the focus
23:28becomes more toward the individual and
23:31finding a sense of internal peace there
23:34are two major philosophies that we'll
23:37talk about just for a moment
23:39the first is stoicism and this is going
23:41to have a lot of longevity throughout
23:43the Roman Empire as well it's attributed
23:46to a philosopher called Zeno of City 'm
23:49and the real pour of stoicism is
23:54pursuing virtue through living
23:57harmoniously with fortune there's the
24:02quote by Zeno fate is the endless chain
24:05of causation whereby things are the
24:08reason a formula by which the world goes
24:11on and in those words there's the idea
24:14that you are going to be find yourself
24:18because of fate in some position in life
24:21you might be a janitor you might be a
24:25shopkeeper you might be the Emperor and
24:28your job is to live out that life the
24:31best way you can it's not really to push
24:34endlessly to try to improve your station
24:37in life
24:37instead you should try to be the best
24:40most virtuous person that you can within
24:44that position and that's going to have a
24:47lot of appeal particularly for the Roman
24:49aristocracy I think this is a
24:52philosophy that that works well if you
24:54find yourself in a position that you
24:56like it might be a little less I don't
25:00know attractive if you find yourself
25:02working in a very unpleasant job or if
25:07you are a slave or somebody that's an
25:09unpleasant position just coming to terms
25:11with where you are in life might not be
25:13as attractive but it is going to gain a
25:15lot of traction with the aristocracy in
25:19particular another way of looking at
25:22personal happiness and personal peace is
25:25provided by an ticinese and he is
25:29associated with a philosophy of cynicism
25:31and that's a word that we continue to
25:34use a lot today being cynical about
25:36something and at the heart of cynicism
25:38is the rejection of convention in favor
25:42of living simply and in harmony with
25:45nature but this has really taken to the
25:49extreme
25:50Diogenes is a famous cynic who really
25:55takes this to its ultimate expression by
25:58living in a bathtub in the streets of
26:01Athens and arguing and this is an empty
26:04bathtub and so he's arguing that even
26:06conventions like having a house or
26:09performing basic hygiene wearing clothes
26:12is really a distraction and instead you
26:15should just be living simply in favor of
26:18finding pure virtue and if you do that
26:22you're going to receive a kind of mental
26:25clarity or lucidity you're going to get
26:28rid of all this ignorant sand and
26:30conceit and instead be in accord with
26:34nature
26:41the last Hellenistic philosophy that
26:44we'll talk about today is skepticism and
26:46although it's not going to have the same
26:49popularity as stoicism does in the first
26:53second and third centuries it is
26:55something that's going to have quite a
26:57long legacy the 19th century
26:59philosophers like Rene Descartes are
27:02going to pick up on some of these ideas
27:03of the skeptics such as Pierrot of Ellis
27:06and they're building on the sophist
27:10tradition remember that the Sophists
27:13were considered those philosophers
27:15before Socrates some of the
27:18pre-socratics who argued that truth was
27:22relative you know remember the Sophists
27:24were all about creating an argument and
27:27if you could get people to believe that
27:29argument then you had essentially
27:30achieved your goal
27:33but the skeptics are gonna take that
27:35even a little bit further and argue that
27:36nothing can really be known and that
27:39reality is determined by our individual
27:43experiences and beliefs so what's true
27:45for me is not necessarily true for you
27:48it's neither false nor true and so as I
27:52said although it challenges the Stoics
27:55it's not the belief system that's going
27:57to gain the most traction it certainly
27:59is going to have a long legacy when we
28:01look at later philosophers who are
28:03talking about issues of relativism so
28:07that's what we're going to end our
28:08discussion of Hellenism remember the
28:12takeaway I think here for the period is
28:14that we're moving out of that classical
28:17Greek period and it's a time of much
28:20greater connectivity both because of the
28:24military campaigns of Alexander and also
28:28because of increasing trade routes we
28:30have dissemination of different
28:32philosophies and we also have sharing of
28:35religious ideals we'll be talking a
28:38little bit more in the future as I said
28:40about what's going on in the East and
28:42how changes that they are making and the
28:45increase in the Silk Road and trade is
28:47also going to contribute to this kind of
28:50amalgamation which
28:52we talked about as Hellenism

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