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