Friday, May 28, 2010

EXAM REVIEW - GREECE PRIMARY SOURCES: on democracy.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herodotus-persdemo.html
- Darius is king. He tries to turn Persian territory into a democracy. He wanted everyone to pay him. "Such then were the governments, and such the amounts of tribute at which they were assessed respectively. Persia alone has not been reckoned among the tributaries---and for this reason, because the country of the Persians is altogether exempt from tax. The following peoples paid no settled tribute, but brought gifts to the king: first, the Ethiopians bordering upon Egypt, who were reduced by Cambyses when he made war on the long-lived Ethiopians, and who dwell about the sacred city of Nysa, and have festivals in honour of Bacchus."

- The Athenians tried to take over the Melian people and their land. They refused, and just told the Greeks, that they were going to neutral in the war. But the Greeks were putting much military force on them. The Greeks just left some soliders there to guard the land and sea. In the end, the Greeks wiped out all the people and occupied the land with their own people.

- Pausanias begins his description of each city with a synopsis of its history followed by an account of the monuments in topographical order. He also discusses local daily life, ceremonial rituals, legend and folklore. His main concentration is on artistic workd from the glories of classical Greece, especially religious art and architecture. That he can be relied on for building and works which have since disappeared is shown by the accuracy of his descriptions of buildings which do survive.

- Solon instituted a policy eunomia or harmonious government. citizenship! Solon's reforms attempted to address the grievances of the demos by having wealth, not birth, determine the individual's status in the community. The fragments of Solon's poetry, focus on ways in which Solon reflects: (1) the political, economic, and social difficulties of his age, and (2) the new religious and ethical outlook associated with the emergent polis.

- This explains what laws were written on. As what kind of issues were laws enforced Solon's laws in general about women are his strangest. Another commendable law of Solon's is that which forbids men to speak evil of the dead. He is likewise much commended for his law concerning wills.

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