The World of (not quite) Late Antiquity
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Transcript of The World of (not quite) Late Antiquity
The World of (not quite) Late Antiquity
HIST 10079/4/13
Old Babylonian Empire
• Hammurapi (1696-1654BCE)
Labor Diversification
• Not just farmers vs. craftsmen• Kings• Priests• Soldiers• Scribes• Merchants• Domestic laborers• builders
Social Stratification
• Mesopotamia –• Awilu – Free land owning class• Mushkenu – dependent farmers and
craftsmen• Slaves
The Lapis Lazuli Road
Gulf Trade
Arabian Trade
Neo-Assyrian Empire (r. 934-609BCE)
• Ashur – Northern Mesopotamia• Late Bronze Age collapse• Ashur – City and God• Military development• Propaganda
Land of Assyria / Yoke of Assyria
Calculated Frightfulness
• Pay me tribute or bad things will happen…• Propaganda and Terror
The Garden Party
• An example of calculated frightfulness?
Deportation
• Or forced migration…• Over 4,000,000 people• Commemorated in Old Testament/Hebrew
Bible
Fall of the Neo-Assyrians
• Neo-Babylonians – Chaldeans• Medes – Northwest Iran• Ashur wiped off the map• Dominance is good for expansion…• Bad in the long run…
Qanat Irrigation
Achaemenid Persia (ca. 550-330BCE)
Persian Hegemony
• Repatriates deported peoples• Respect for local self-rule and local cultures• Cosmopolitan imperial imagery• Shahanshah – King of kings
Images of Hegemony
Organization under Darius (r. 550-486BCE)
• 20 Satraps• 2 Capitals – Susa and Persepolis• Traveling Court –– Persian Aristocracy, Nobles, Central Administration, Royal Bodyguard, Courtiers and Slaves
Zoroastrianism
• Zoroaster (1700-500BCE)• Ahura Mazda• Ohrmazd and Ahreman (and Mihr)• Religio-political propaganda• Unite the world in Ahuramazda’s divine order
But I thought the Achaemenids were these guys?
The Persian Wars
• 499BCE – Ionian Revolt• 492-490BCE – Darius invades Greece• Battle of Marathon• 480BCE – Xerxes invades Greece• “300”
Archaic Greece (800-400BCE)• Phoenicians inspire advances in ship construction.• 7th century BC = population boom• Urbanization and colonization• Polis – City-state
Hellenes and Barbaroi
• Graeci is a Latin term used by the Romans.• Awareness of shared identity… language, religion, lifestyle
How it all looked…
Alexander the Great (r. 336-323BCE)
• Macedonia• Philip II• 334BCE – Launches campaign against
Achaemenids