Evolution from Hunting and Gathering to an Agricultural Society
The Neolithic Revolution is also known as the Neolithic Demographic Transition. Data indicate that this began about 12,500 years ago. People formed communities and they developed settlements as they began to domesticate certain species of plants (Tignor, 23). This “revolution” occurred in several places around the world. The earliest revolution occurred in the Fertile Crescent area of Mesopotamia between 10,000 to 8,000 BC, in the Kuk Early Agricultural Site of Melanesia at about 8000 BC, and in Subsaharan Africa at about 2500 BC. One theory that is used to explain this phenomenon is that agriculture was the result of an evolutionary adaptation of both humans and plants. Wild plants were first domesticated, followed by the identification of locations and then full-blown domestication of plants (Rindos, 5).
The Persian Wars
The Persian Wars were series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and several Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and ended in 449 BC. The conflict started when the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great invaded the Greek island of Ionia in 547 BC. It is believed that after the collapse of the Mycenaean regime, many Greeks had emigrated to Asia Minor. These immigrants formed the 12 cities of Ionia, and were very bonded together. Eventually, the Ionians came under the rule of the Lydians. Cyrus, who wished to fight and conquer the Lydians, asked the Ionians to follow him and rebel against the Lydians. After Cyrus defeated the Lydians, the Ionians offered to be under his rule. He rebuked the Ionians, recalling their refusal to heed his call earlier. This series of wars officially began with the Ionian Revolt in 499 BC. The Greek cities of Ionia were dissatisfied with the tyrants sent by Persia to govern and rule them. While fighting between the Ionians and the Persians broke out, this was eventually settled with a peace accord (Holland, 175-177). However, soon Greece would once more be invaded by the Persians, led by Mardonius, Datis and Artaphernes. After these campaigns, almost all of Greece would be conquered by the Persians, except for Athens and Sparta. One important event is the Battle at Marathon, where the Athenians were able to score a victory against the Persians, and reveal to them that the Persians could be defeated despite their huge numbers. The more sophisticated armor and weaponry of the Greeks proved to be the winning factor during the Battle of Marathon (Holland, 195-197). A second wave of Greek invasions by the Persian King Xerxes then occurred beginning in 480 BC, with the famous Battle of Thermopylae wherein the Spartan King Leonidas and his 300 men were defeated because of the betrayal of Ephialtes, a local in the area who revealed a secret mountain pass to Xerxes such that Leonidas and his men were outflanked.
A crucial turning point in the Persian War was the Battle of Salamis. At this point in time, after the victory at Thermopylae, Xerxes wished to end his military conquest already. The strategy of the Persians was to overwhelm the Greeks with their great numbers, while the Greeks decided to keep the Persians at specific locations. This Battle was fought at sea in between the Greek mainland and the isle of Salamis to the west. The Persians were kept locked in a certain area, and due to their large numbers, were unable to coordinate their maneuvers, and were largely confused, allowing the Greeks to overwhelm and defeat them. After this critical battle, the Persians suffered a huge blow to their morale, and lost a considerable number of ships and men. The Greek victory is essential as it is thought that Greek culture would have remained stifled and controlled by the Persians if the Greeks had lost (Lazenby, 248-253).
The Typical Athenian Family
Any individual in Ancient Greece belonged to his own “oikos” or family. Each person belonging to a family had the right to protect it. Collectively, an “oikos” had three components: the family itself, the property and the house itself. The patriarch of the family had complete authority over it, and made decisions in behalf of it as well. The father had the right to leave a child who was born deformed or with a debilitating illness to the elements in order to die. Thus the welfare of the family apparently superseded the rights of babies to live. On the other hand, from birth, women were always placed under the guardianship of others. They were born into their own oikos, and given to their husbands’ oikos upon marriage. Typically, a young woman married at the age of 15. However, women did not have the same rights as the men. The men enjoyed the rights and privileges of a citizen. The man had to care for his parents, and in return received his inheritance from them. The man ate in a room separate from his wife and children, where his slaves could serve him (Pomeroy, 141).
It was the parents who arranged the marriage, with the family of the woman paying the dowry. Then there was usually a party, and the woman moved into the home of the man. The new household also had its own set of slaves. Married women rarely went out of the house. If they did, it was to attend religious rituals such as during funerals and weddings. In fact, the woman could not leave the home without the permission of the man. Wives had the task of running the household, and were responsible for the health of the members of the “oikos”. Young boys from the more affluent families were sent to school at age seven, whereas the young boys from poorer families had to work with their fathers. Young girls were not allowed to go to school. They learned the household chores and other duties in the home from their mothers and from trusted slaves who were usually treated well if they worked for an affluent family (Rhodes, 95).
Either the husband or the wife could initiate a divorce. The woman’s closest male relative could also initiate the divorce. After the divorce, the husband was duty-bound to return the dowry to the family of the wife, so that the wife could have some form of livelihood afterwards. If there were any children, they stayed with their father who now became responsible for their upbringing. If a woman committed adultery, the husband was required by law to divorce his wife (Cohn-Haft, 3).
Slavery
Slavery was a very common practice in Ancient Greece. The first role of slavery during the ancient times was for economics. Slave labor helped enhance production in the farms and estates of the wealthy Greeks. Other rich Greek citizens had many slaves working hard in the mines and quarries. It is said that the wealthy Nicias had over a thousand slaves working in the silver mines in Attica (Finley, 180). In addition to this, there was a wide-scale commodification of slaves in Ancient Greece. The slaves who worked in the homes often had a better life than the slaves working in the fields or the mines. Slaves who served Greek families were often treated as part of their families.
Slavery is thought to have contributed to the Classical Age in Ancient Greece. The presence of slaves in almost all aspects of life is said to have allowed the ancient Greeks to focus on the more “noble” pursuits in life, such as the organization of society and government. Thus Athenian slaves were treated quite better than the other slaves in the other empires of Europe at the time. Slavery formed the backbone of the Athenian economy; most of the labor inputs in ancient Greek society at the time was from slave labor (Academia: Greek Slavery: From Domination to Property and Back Again).
Under the ancient Romans, slaves did not have any identity or legal personhood. They could suffer corporal punishment, and sometimes slaves also worked as prostitutes. Slaves to scholars could be well tutored and learned, such as the case of Tiro, who was a slave who worked as the secretary of Cicero. However, for the freed slaves, they were allowed to become Roman citizens. A freed male slave could enjoy the right to vote. A freed slave was called a “libertus”, and his former master who freed him was called his “patronus” (Mouritsen, 36).
With the great number of slaves in Ancient Rome, Roman society could be termed as a slave society. The economics of Ancient Rome was one that thrived on the use of slaves. The mode of production was mainly based on slavery, which was an integrated system of enslavement, the trade of slaves and the use of slave employment in production. Slaves occupied many trades in ancient Rome – they were hunters, shepherds, domestic employees, retailers, miners, construction workers and even entertainers. There is the proposition that the labor of freedworkers actually declined during this period because business owners, homeowners, landowners and other persons needing laborers turned to obtain slave labor for their enterprises and activities (Princeton: Slavery in the Roman Economy).
The Development of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian Civilizations
The development of these two civilizations is similar in the sense that they were what one would call riverine civilizations. That is, their development was facilitated by the fact that they were based on the banks of the Nile River for the Egyptians and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers for the Mesopotamians. The development of Egyptian civilization is credited to the early Egyptians’ ability to take advantage of the conditions of the Nile River and its surrounding valley area and use these conditions for agriculture. The Egyptians were able to understand the cycle of flooding and develop irrigation methods such that they produced bountiful harvests of wheat and other crops. With the growth of the local population that could be fed with the surplus crops, a social system and a system of government then evolved (Manuellian, 6-7). The same events also led to the development of the Mesopotamian civilization. The early Mesopotamians found out that the land in between the Tigris and the Euphrates was very fertile, and that it could support large-scale agriculture. This led to the settlement of the Mesopotamians in this area beginning around 5800 BC. The soil was made rich and fertile by the runoff from the surrounding mountains, which were deposited in the valley (Seattle PI: How Did Mesopotamia’s Geography Lead to Its Development?).
The two civilizations differed in the form of government. In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was the supreme overlord. He was the descendant of the gods, and thus had supreme power over all the land and the people. The Pharaoh was in control of his administrators, and of economy. Local governors in charge of the various districts reported to him. Also under the Pharaoh were the departments of granaries, agriculture and farming, building works as well as the army, the navy, trading centers, and the treasury (David, 91). As for Mesopotamia, what evolved was a series of city-states around the area that were each governed by their own individual leaders. The leader of the city state was considered not a descendant of god, but an intermediary between the god and the people of the city-state. As a result of the differences between city-states, it was not uncommon for city states to go to war against one another (Facts and Details: Mesopotamian Government). Both the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations evolved because they were able to take advantage of the benefits brought about by the river systems in their locales. However, the Egyptians organized a strong centralized government under the leadership of the Pharaoh while the Mesopotamians were divided into various city-states under their own leaders.
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