124 CHAPTER 4 Hellenistic Civilization
CHRONOLOGY: THE WORLD OF THE CELTS ca. 750 B.c.E.
ca. 450 B.c.E.
ca. 400 B.c.E.
ca. 390-386 B.C.E. 279 B.C.E.
270s B.c.E.
Hallstatt Celts start settling in Europe La Tene Celts develop centers in Rhine and Danube valleys Celts expand from Central Europe Celts invade Italy and plunder Rome Celts invade Greece Celts establish kingdom of Galatia in Anatolia
HELLENISTIC SOCIETY AND CULTURE B W h a t were the d i s t i n g u i s h i n g features o f
H e l l e n i s t i c society a n d c u l t u r e , a n d w h a t was the result o f encounters b e t w e e n Greeks a n d non-Greeks?
Chronic warfare among monarchs made p o l i t i - cal u n i t y among the Hellenist ic k ingdoms impos- sible. Nevertheless, the social inst i tut ions and culture of Greek-speaking people in a l l these k ingdoms gave them a u n i t y that their monarchs could n o t achieve.
Urbaiii Society Greek city l ife defined Hellenist ic c i v i l i z a t i o n . Alexander and his successors seized dozens of Greek city-states scattered across the eastern Medi te r ranean and founded dozens of new cities in all the terri tories they conquered. Hel lenist ic cities were m u c h more than garrisons estab- lished to enforce the conquerors ' power. They cont inued t radi t ions o f learning, ar t , architec- ture, and cit izen par t i c ipa t ion in public l i fe that had f lour ished i n the classical poleis. M o s t i m p o r t a n t , people i n cities t h r o u g h o u t the H e l - lenistic w o r l d spoke a standard version of Greek called Koine that gave t h e m a sense of c o m m o n ident i ty .
O n the surface, many of the inst i tut ions of the classical poleis remained the same: magis-
' trates, councils, and p o p u l a r assemblies r a n the cities' affairs, and some f o r m of democracy or
election to office remained the n o r m in local government . Yet beneath the surface, the poleis had undergone radical changes. Because kings wielded absolute power, once-independent cities such as Athens and C o r i n t h lost their freedom to make peace or wage war. A l t h o u g h they chose their o w n local governments, these cities n o w served as the bureaucratic centers that adminis- tered their rulers ' huge kmgdoms .
As we saw i n Chapter 3, cit izenship i n the city-states of classical Greece was a careful ly l imi ted c o m m o d i t y that gave people a sense of identity, guaranteed desirable r ights and p r i v i - leges, and demanded certain responsibilit ies. The terr i tories that any city-state c o n t r o l l e d were relatively smal l , yet even Athens at the height of its empire i n the f i f t h century B.C.E. never considered g iv ing A t h e n i a n cit izenship t o all the people i t r u l e d , even w i t h i n A t t i c a . I n contrast , d u r i n g the Hellenist ic Age, large k i n g - doms conta in ing many cities were the basic po l i t i ca l units . People were both subjects of a k i n g and citizens of their par t i cular cities. To be sure, some philosophers played w i t h the idea o f a universal cit izenship of a l l h u m a n k i n d , b u t there was no n o t i o n of a cit izenship that al l the people in one k i n g d o m w o u l d share. Cit izenship lost its p o l i t i c a l force because i n d i v i d u a l cities had lost their p o l i t i c a l autonomy. I n a sharp break w i t h earlier practice, i m p o r t a n t men sometimes gained the honor of cit izenship i n more than one city, w h i c h Greeks i n the Classi- cal Age w o u l d have f o u n d inconceivable.
To mainta in the i l lusion of the cities' inde- pendence, Hellenistic kings permitted considerable
autonomy ir while democr the Archaic s interests of t l Hellenistic A and governm deteriorated, i the k ing con magistracies, court of the k civic leaders A land grants, the monarchs ties that hour these urban ( their vast for t gymnas iums, ; citizens.
Hel len is t ! their cities in Dis t inc t ive st t i o n q u i c k l y s R o m e , and o Medi terranea j t u r a l i n n o v a t i complexes, w the Hellenisti< i n the success o n a g r i d p l a n ranean w o r l d , space. Stone t counc i l halls , stoas sprang baths w i t h [ complexes w i t lecture halls.
Hellenistic populat ions thi Egypt's largest city, boasted la Greeks, Jews, ; these groups l i and often f o u g l all part ic ipated culture. For e: spoke Greek into Greek, a •
Hellenistic Society and Culture 125
autonomy in local government. Nonetheless, whi le democracies had developed i n Greece dur ing the Archaic and Classical periods to protect the interests of the poor as wel l as the r ich, in the Hellenistic Age the wealthy dominated society and government, and the condit ion of the poor deteriorated. Rich men appointed or approved by the k i n g control led all the courts, held all the magistracies, and represented all the cities at the court of the kings, w h o i n return showered these civic leaders w i t h honors and rewards. T h r o u g h land grants, tax immunit ies , and other favors, the monarchs developed networks of personal ties that bound civic leaders to them. I n return, these urban elites served their k ing and spent their vast fortunes bui ld ing magnificent temples, gymnasiums, and other structures for their fe l low citizens.
Hel lenist ic kings and aristocrats turned their cities in to showcases of art and design. Dis t inc t ive styles of b u i l d i n g and ornamenta- t i o n q u i c k l y spread f r o m the east to Carthage, Rome, and other communi t ies i n the western M e d i t e r r a n e a n . The most dis t inct ive architec- t u r a l innovat ions i n the cities were vast palace complexes, w h i c h were b u i l t to accommodate the Hel lenis t ic monarchs and their entourages in the successor k i n g d o m s . L a y i n g o u t streets on a g r i d p l a n became standard i n the M e d i t e r - ranean w o r l d , l ending a sense of order t o u r b a n space. Stone theaters for plays and spectacles, counci l halls, and roofed colonnades called stoas sprang up everywhere, as d i d p u b l i c baths w i t h heated pools and gymnas ium complexes w i t h sports faci l i t ies , l ibrar ies , and lecture halls .
Hellenistic cities contained more diverse populat ions than had classical poleis. Alexandr ia , Egypt's largest and most cosmopol i tan Greek city, boasted large communit ies of Macedonians, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, and Egyptians. A l t h o u g h these groups lived i n different areas of the city and often fought violent ly w i t h one another, they al l part ic ipated to varying degrees in Alexandria 's culture. For example, Alexandr ian Jews w h o spoke Greek translated the H e b r e w Bible in to Greek, a version called the Septuagint, so
li APHRODITE OF MELOS Ij Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, displayed the p perfection of the female form. This marble statue of Ij her, which was found on the Greel< island of Melos, !j was sculpted in the middle of the second century I B.c.E. Popularly known by her Italian name, Venus di i Milo, the goddess is half-nude. She rests on her right I foot and seems to step forward toward the viewer. 1 Originally one of her missing arms was probably I raised to cover her breasts in a gesture of modesty. I Her facial expression is serene. The garment draped i! loosely around her hips allowed the sculptor to ;] explore the play of thin cloth over her thighs, I; expressing his delight in movement and physicality.
More sedate than other voluptuous representations 1 of Aphrodite from the Hellenistic period, this statue li portrays a male vision of a perfect woman, highly i sexual but also charmingly modest.
that Jews w h o had lost their command of H e b r e w could understand i t . The Septuagint later prov ided early Christians, many of w h o m
126 CHAPTER 4 Hellenistic Civilization
spoke and read Greek, w i t h their knowledge of the H e b r e w Bible, w h i c h Christians refer to as the O l d Testament.
N e w Opportunities for Women One measure of the status of w o m e n i n a society is the level of female infant ic ide . Greek parents in the Classical Age rout ine ly abandoned unw a nted female babies, leaving them to die. Hel lenist ic famil ies , however, p a r t i c u l a r l y those of the Ptolemaic n o b i l i t y , raised more baby girls than before. Greek w o m e n i n Egypt and other Hellenized lands as w e l l as m a n y other H e l l - enized lands, enjoyed f u l l citizenship and held religious offices. M a n y o w n e d land and p r o p - erty, paying taxes as men d i d , but they could o n l y enter in to business contracts of m i n i m a l value o n their o w n .
Some aristocratic Hellenistic w o m e n wielded considerably more power than had been conceiv- able i n the classical Greek per iod. The wives of Hellenistic kings were models of the new, more p o w e r f u l Hellenistic w o m a n . Inscriptions praise Hellenistic queens for demonstrat ing such t rad i - t ional female virtues as piety and for produc ing sons. As publ ic benefactors, these w o m e n bui l t temples and publ ic w o r k s , sponsored charioteers at the O l y m p i c Games, and prov ided dowries for poor brides. Queens sometimes exerted real authori ty , support ing and commanduig armies. For example, Arsinoe 11 (r. 276 -270 B .C.E . ) , sister and wi fe of Ptolemy I I , directed the Egyptian armies and navies of the Ptolemaic k i n g d o m i n their conquest of Phoenicia and m u c h o f the coast of Anato l ia . Egyptian sources refer to her as Pharaoh, a roya l t i t le usually reserved for men,
and she was often identtfied with the goddess Isis. To a lesser extent, opportuni t ies for non-
aristocratic Greek w o m e n also increased d u r i n g
d'i'ivcws,, wvwc, Kadvug, and w r i t i n g , and scholarship and phi losophy. O f t e n the daughters o f scfiofars became scholars chem- seWes. We k n o w that non-aristocratic Greek w o m e n w r o t e about astronomy, musical theory, and i i terature , and many female poets competed
for honors . I n a d d i t i o n , a few Hellenistic w o m e n distinguished themselves as p o r t r a i t painters, architects, and harpists. Despite these accom- plishments, w o m e n stil l had fewer rights and opportuni t ies than men, and they remained under the supervision of their male relatives. I n Egypt, a w o m a n could not travel overnight w i t h - o u t her husband's permission.
A r t and architecture d u r i n g the Hellenist ic per iod changed as Greek c iv i l iza t ion was i n t r o - duced i n t o the successor k ingdoms . Art ists and architects continued to use classical mot i f s and themes, but instead of s imply i m i t a t i n g classical models, they used them i n new ways. This cre- ative development of Greek classicism resulted f r o m b o t h the freedom that artists experienced w o r k i n g in a new environment and f r o m the influences of native cultures. The most notable stylistic i n n o v a t i o n of the Hellenist ic age was the baroque style, w h i c h suggested movement rather than repose and of ten appealed to the emotions.
The baroque style was evident i n m a n y of the Hellenist ic temple precincts, where the designers created sweeping vistas across care- f u l l y p lanned terraces and grand stairways. Some of the finest examples of Hellenist ic baroque architecture have survived i n Perga- m u m , a Greek c i ty on the southern coast of modern Turkey, close to the Aegean Sea. To commemorate the v i c tory of Pergamum over the Celts and the Seleucids, K i n g At ta lus I ( 2 4 1 - 1 9 7 B.C.E.) commissioned a series of monuments . The Acropohs i n Athens prov ided the classical model for this w o r k , but the commiss ion of native craftsmen to create these monuments helps to expla in their baroque features, most notab ly their vast scale and their m a n y di f ferent local ^Qvrtts, v>;lvvcb. lead tlve wewev's e\ across t\ie bqades ol tVieWVid'mgs.
Hellenist ic sculptors also t o o k classical GreeJc lornis in new directions. T u r n i n g away f r o m representations of ideal perfection, Hellenistic artists delighted i n explor ing the movement of rhe h u m a n body and varieties of
XysTicj Divine fusi
The widespi such as illne property, in led people i crimes. The such as thel eery, and ac crimes such insulting thi ary without clothes. It d person had intentionall; sign of the > offenders b̂ guilt, they c ary to disco anger and I their misbel receive sign cles or in di
lnscripti( dess Demel the late sec reveal that ' sometimes depositing. sanctuary. 1 the alleged force the of ary to conf( inscriptions dedicate to goddess, D who has m [claiming] t mv own m.
j „ : n inscn] "curse tabl tic world 0
128 CHAPTER 4 Hellenistic Civilization
justice that would give the aggrieved party moral satisfaction or possibly revenge.
People suspected of crimes could also appeal to the gods to establish their innocence. When a woman named Tatias heard rumors that she had given her son-in-law a magical potion that had driven him insane, she went to the local sanctuary and "deposited curses in the temple." This public ceremony, which differed from the writing of a malevolent curse in private, was her way of demonstrating to the community that she was innocent. Unfortunately for Tatias, her relatives publicly annulled her curses, leaving her guilty in the eyes of society.
Ideally the only parties involved in this process were the accusers, the confessing criminals, and the gods, but the priests in the sanctuary often played a crucial role in the process. They would receive or perhaps even solicit accusations from the victims of crime, assist in writ ing the confessions, and interpret the supposed signs of the divine wil l . In many cases they attempted to show that the afflictions that brought people to the sanctuary in the first place were punishments for their offenses. The priests did not, as historians once believed, inflict corporal punishment, but they did advise those who confessed how they might atone for their transgressions. Sometimes they interro- gated an afflicted person who came to the sanc- tuary to determine the cause of the gods' wrath. Thus, the priests played a role usually assigned to judges in actual trials. The procedures fo l - lowed in the sanctuaries were not trials in the proper sense of the word because they did not involve the testimony of witnesses or the deliv- ering of verdicts. But the inscriptions often used legal language, which the priests probably
suggested, and the procedure served the same purpose as a trial, which was to resolve conflict in society. Like trials, these proceedings involved encounters between the priest serving in a quasi-judicial capacity and the person w h o came to the sanctuary, as well as between that person and the god who was believed to have spoken through an oracle or a dream.
The involvement of priests in a process that resembled a trial of both secular and religious crimes reveals that Hellenistic societies drew no f irm line between the secular and the religious spheres. Crimes that were prosecuted in the sec- ular courts could also be dealt with in religious sanctuaries. Without the assistance of the priests, who controlled access to the sanctuaries and helped formulate the confessions, the process could not have functioned properly. The dedica- tion of appeals and confessions to the gods also shows that the gods in these polytheistic societies were believed to play an active role not only in the resolution of problems of everyday life, but also in the administration of justice.
For Discussion
1. Why might a person in a Hellenistic kingdom go to a local sanctuary and later confess to a religious or secular offense?
2. How did Hellenistic religious beliefs influence prevailing notions of justice?
Taking It Further Angelos Chaniotis, "Under the Watchful Eyes of
the Cods," in S. Colvin (ed.). The Creco- Roman East: Politics, Culture, Society (2006). A study based on more than 140 confessions inscribed in stone.
PERGAMl The buildin the Helleni; facades tha shown here with a 371- the altar w; of the Cree founder of
b o w of a sf her garmen painted i n I human fra i l i ebrated beai rhe Celt and the t h i r d ce not only ph of h u m a n ei is c o m m i t t i r
facial expression. Their subjects ranged f r o m al lur ing love goddesses to drunks and haggard o ld boxers. Artists enjoyed p o r t r a y i n g the play of fabrics across the human body to accentuate the
contours of male and female flesh. The statue of N i k e of Samothrace, probably carved on the island of Rhodes about 200 B.C.E., depicts this Greek goddess as i f she has just landed o n the
Literature M u c h H e l l sui'viving w originaUty
Hellenistic Society and Culture 129
j PERGAMUM ALTAR OF ZEUS i The buildings at Pergamum in northwest Anatolia (present-day Turkey) were constructed in
the Hellenistic baroque style. They were based on classical Creek models but had sweeping facades that presented the viewer with multiple focal points. The Altar of Zeus at Pergamum, shown here in a twentieth-century reconstruction, is positioned on a massive stone podium with a 371-foot colonnade (a porch with a line of columns). Like many baroque buildings, the altar was opulently decorated. The two long friezes below the colonnade depict the life
: of the Creek mythological figure Telephos, son of Heracles, who was believed to be the ii founder of the city of Pergamum.
b o w of a ship, w i t h her wings outstretched and her garment b l o w i n g i n the w i n d . Sometimes painted i n bright colors, these statues explored h u m a n f ra i l ty and homeliness as often as they cel- ebrated beauty and lof ty emotions. The statue of the Celt and his wi fe , also carved in Pergamum i n the t h i r d century B.C.E. (see page 109), conveys not only physical movement, but also the depth of h u m a n emotions experienced by the m a n w h o is c o m m i t t m g suicide.
Literature JVIuch Hellenistic literature has vanished, but surviving works give a glimpse of creativity and or iginal i ty that often combined urbani ty and
.scholarship. Hellenisdc poets turned to f r ivolous themes because the repressive poHtical climate dis- couraged them f r o m questioning authorit)-. L ight comedy became immensely popular, especially i n the hands of the p l a y w r i g h t JMenander of Athens (ca. 300 B.C.E.) . This clever author delighted audi- ences w i t h escapist, f ro thy tales of temporar i ly frustrated love and happy endings. These plays, k n o w n n o w as N e w Comedy, developed f r o m the risque satires of classical Athens. They featured v i v i d street language and a cast of stock charac- ters: crotchety parents, naive young men, silly young w o m e n , clever slaves, and wicked pimps.
Theocritus (ca. 300-ca. 260 B.C.E.) , w h o came f r o m the city of Syracuse in Sicily but wrote i n Alexandria, invented a new genre called pastoral
130 CHAPTER 4 Hellenistic Civilization
NIKE OF SAMOTHRACE This statue of Nike, the winged Creek goddess of victory, found on the Creek island of Samothrace, captures the sensation of her flight through the air by portraying her wings outstretched and the wind blowing the folds of her garment. The statue was situated on the sculpture of a bow of a ship, where Nike has just landed.
learning in works ranging f r o m Collections of Wonders of the World to his moving love poems, the Elegies. His poetry provides the best example of the erudite style k n o w n as Alexandrianism, which demonstrated a com- mand of meter and language and appealed more to the intellect than to the emotions.
The most accomplished h is tor ian of the Hellenistic period was Polybius (ca. 2 0 2 - 1 2 0 B .C .E . ) , a native of the Greek ci ty of Me ga- lopol is . Polybius devoted the latter par t o f his life to w r i t i n g a history of Rome's mete- oric rise to power w i t h i n the Medi terranean region. As a w o r k of l i terature, Polybius's Histories cannot compete w i t h those of the great Greek historians Thucydides and He ro do tus ; his leaden style prevented h i m f r o m captur ing the drama of events. The strength of Histories lies i n its comprehen- sive coverage o f events i n al l the countries of the Mediterranean w o r l d and its adher- ence to high standards of accuracy and impar t ia l i ty , both of w h i c h were noticeably absent in the w o r k s of his predecessors.
HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE m W h a t d i d Hel lenis t i c th inkers c o n t r i b u t e t o p h i l o s o p h y and the scientif ic invest igat ion o f the n a t u r a l w o r l d ?
poetry. His verses described idyllic life in the coun- tryside, but his rustic herdsmen reflected the sad- ness and tensions of city life. O f all the Hellenistic poets, Theocritus has had the most wide-ranging and enduring influence, providing a model for pas- toral verse in Rome, Shakespeare's England, and even nineteenth-centuty Russia. The other great poet of Alexandria, Callimachus (ca. 305-240 B.C.E.) , combined playfulness w i t h extraordinary
Hellenist ic philosophers distinguished between three branches of their discipline: logic or the study o f abstract reasoning; ethics, the study of h o w one should conduct
one's l i fe ; and physics, the study of the natura l w o r l d . I n the M i d d l e Ages educated people began to refer to physics as natural phi losophy; since the eighteenth century they have identi f ied this type of investigation as science. D u r i n g the Hellenistic period al l three branches of philoso- phy remained anchored i n the w o r k s of Plato and Aris to t le , but phi losophy acquired its o w n distinctive features.
• f i g
Philosop of Mind The Hel ler most s t r i k i p h i l o s o p h i p e r i o d — t h Cynics—si an inner tj ing to X e i the Platoni s tudying p disturbanc t r a n q u i l i t y people. Its interact ing w h i c h w e r
Katie Posh runs an upscale nail salon. The service process includes five activities that are conducted in the sequence described below. (The time required for each activity is shown in parentheses)
Activity 1: welcome a guest (1 minute)
Activity 2: Clip and file nails (3 minutes)
Activity 3: Paint (5 minutes)
Activity 4: Dry (10 minutes)
Activity 5: Check out the customer (4 minutes)
Three servers (S1, S2, and S3) offer the services in a worker-paced line. The assignment of tasks to servers is the following: S1 does Activity 1; S2 does activities 2 and 3; S3 does activities 4 and 5. The drying process does not require server 3’s constant attention; she/he needs to only escort the customer to the salon’s drying chair (equipped with fans for drying). The time to do this is negligible. There exists only one drying chair in the salon
Question 1: assuming that the customers arrive at a rate of 7 customers per hour, what is the implied utilization rate of server 1?Round your answer to the nearest whole number and ignore the percentage sign. For example, if your answer is 0.45 or 45%, fill in 45; if your answer is 0.76 or 76%, fill in 76.
Question 2: Based on the same setting in question 1, what is the implied utilization rate for server 2?
Round your answer to the nearest whole number and ignore the percentage sign. For example, if your answer is 0.45 or 45%, fill in 45; if your answer is 0.76 or 76%, fill in 76.
Question 3: Based on same information, what is the implied utilization rate for server 3?
Round your answer to the nearest whole number and ignore the percentage sign. For example, if your answer is 0.45 or 45%, fill in 45; if your answer is 0.76 or 76%, fill in 76.
Question 4: Based on the same information, what is the implied utilization rate for the dryer?
Round your answer to the nearest whole number and ignore the percentage sign. For example, if your answer is 0.45 or 45%, fill in 45; if your answer is 0.76 or 76%, fill in 76.
Question 5: What is the actual flow rate of this process when demand rate is 7 customers per hour?
Round the answer to the nearest whole number. For example, if your answer is 2543.65, round to 2544; if you answer is 2543.12, round to 2543.
Question 6: The manager suggests that a new employee should be hired to help server 3, what will be the new process flow rate if demand rate stays at 7 customers per hour?
Round the answer to the nearest whole number. For example, if your answer is 2543.65, round to 2544; if you answer is 2543.12, round to 2543.
Question 7: Instead of hiring a new employee, you suggest that the manager should purchase a new dryer (so you have two dryers), what will be the new flow rate with an additional dryer (still assuming 7 customer per hour demand rate)?

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