This document provides an overview of the Classical Tradition of Greece and Rome. It begins with discussing Bronze Age cultures in the Aegean region, including the Minoan civilization that flourished on Crete. Next, it covers the rise of city-states in Greece and the Golden Age in Athens during the 5th century BC. This included the architectural works on the Acropolis and the development of philosophy with thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The document then discusses the Hellenistic period after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the establishment of Hellenistic kingdoms. Finally, it provides an introduction to the origins and developments of ancient Rome, including the early Roman Republic and the transition to an
1. The Classical Tradition:
Greece and Rome
HUM/100 – Intro to the Humanities I
The Ancient World to Medieval Time
Prof. Francisco Pesante-Gonzalez
University of Phoenix – Puerto Rico Campus
2. Objectives
Identify significant world events from ancient Greece
and Rome.
Identify example of the humanities in classical
civilizations, such as art, architecture, philosophy,
music, and literature.
Identify major key examples from the humanities that
reflect developments in world events and cultural
patterns in ancient Greece and Rome.
3. The Greek World:
The Classical Tradition
Bronze Age Culture in the Aegean
The Rise of the Greek Polis
The Golden Age
The Hellenistic World
4. The Cyclades: a group of more than 100 islands in the
Aegean Sea between mainland Greece and the
island of Crete.
By about 2200 BCE, trade with Crete to the south
brought the Cyclades into the larger island’s political
orbit and radically altered late Cycladic life.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean
5. To the south of the Cyclades lies Crete, the largest of
the Aegean islands. Bronze Age civilization developed
there as early as 3000 BCE. Trade routes from Crete
established communication with such diverse areas as
Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Scandinavia,
from which the island imported copper, ivory,
amethyst, lapis lazuli, carnelian, gold, and amber.
A distinctive culture called Minoan flourished on Crete
from about 1900 to 1375 BCE.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean
9. Mycenean Culture on the Mainland.
When the Minoans abandoned the palace at Knossos
in about 1450 BCE, warriors from the mainland culture
of Mycenae, on the Greek mainland, quickly
occupied Crete . Reasons: either the deforestation of
the island. Or the negative aftermath of the volcanic
eruption on Thera.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean
11. Mycenean Culture on the Mainland.
The Homeric Epic: Iliad
Areté: often translated as “virtue,” but actually
meaning something closer to “being the best you can
be” or “reaching your highest human potential.”
Hubris: Exaggerated pride and self-confidence.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean
12. Mycenean Culture on the Mainland.
Greek Gods
Reference: http://padhopperspeaksmore.blogspot.com/2013/01/greek-
god-family-tree.html
13. Olympia and the Olympic Games
“The most important thing in the
Olympic Games is not winning but
taking part”
Baron Pierre Coubertin
The Rise of the Greek Polis
14. Olympia and the Olympic Games
First modern Summer Olympics: Athens, Greece 1896
Professionalism v Ammateurism
The Rise of the Greek Polis
15. Olympia and the Olympic Games
The first Olympic Games (776 bC)
Panhellenic Games, open to all city-states in the
Greek world.
Olympia: a sanctuary dedicated to Hera and Zeus
also housed an elaborate athletics facility.
The Rise of the Greek Polis
16. The Rise of Democracy and the Threat of Persia
In 508 BCE, the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes
instituted the first Athenian political democracy—from
the Greek demokratia, the rule (kratia) of the people
(demos).
The Rise of the Greek Polis
17. The Rise of Democracy and the Threat of Persia
In 490 BCE, a huge Persian army, estimated at 90,000,
landed at Marathon.
The Rise of the Greek Polis
18. THE GOLDEN AGE
Delian League (477-431 b.C.)
Pericles (495-429 b.C.)
Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.C.)
The Rise of the Greek Polis
19. THE GOLDEN AGE: The Architectural Program at the
Acropolis
The Rise of the Greek Polis
20. THE GOLDEN AGE: The Architectural Program at the
Acropolis
Six caryatids
The Rise of the Greek Polis
21. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE:
Philosophy and the Polis
Socrates (469-399 b.C.)
“How do we know what
we think we know?” and,
crucially, “How can we
trust what we think we
know?”
Dialectic method
Good government was
unattainable “unless
either philosophers
become kings
22. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE:
Philosophy and the Polis
Plato (428 – 347 b.C.)
Idealism—it seeks the
eternal perfection of
pure ideas, untainted
by material reality
“Allegory of the Cave”
Rule by an intellectual
philosopher king
23. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE: Philosophy
and the Polis
Aristotle (384–322 b.C.)
Reality was not a
reflection of an ideal
form, but existed in the
material world itself, and
by observing the material
world, one could come to
know universal truths.
Empirical Investigation
24. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE: Philosophy
and the Polis
Aristotle (384–322 b.C.)
The Golden Mean
Courage
Syllogism
25. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE: Philosophy
and the Polis
Aristotle (384–322 b.C.)
“Man is a political
animal”
The essential purpose of
the polis was to
guarantee, barring
catastrophe, that each of
its citizens might flourish.
26. THE HELLENISTIC WORLD: The Empire of Alexander the
Great
Charles Le Brun (1665) Alexander Entering Babylon, or The
Triumph of Alexander
The Rise of the Greek Polis
27. THE HELLENISTIC WORLD: The Empire of Alexander the
Great
Hellenistic Kindoms
The Rise of the Greek Polis
29. Empire: Urban Life and
Imperial Rome
ROME MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGINS
THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF THE ROMAN
REPUBLIC
TURNING INTO AN EMPIRE
PAX ROMANA
DECADENCE AND DISSOLUTION OF THE EMPIRE