Week 8 – Social Organization in the Eastern Mediterranean

Readings: Walbank, p. 159-175

Social changes during the Hellenistic period

• Context of the Greek populations in the Hellenistic world
• Egypt: ruled from cosmopolitan Alexandria.
• Population of more than 5 million native peasants.
• Ptolemies benefited generally from traditionally monolithic and hierarchical society

• Persia: Seleucids ruled from Antioch.
• Natural tendency to fragment (periphery, independent city states, temples).

• Egypt maintained distinct heritage.
• Mesopotamian region accepted some Greek impositions (Syria).
• Greek: lingua franca.

Hellenistic societies

• Government: imposition upon the people from the top down.
• Breaking down of tribal and polis loyalties (multicultural exposure).
• Increase of reciprocity, negociation, diplomacy among neighboring cities.
• Greater physical and social mobility
• Professionalization.
• Declining importance of citizenship duties
• Increasing importance of personal wealth
• Progressive disenfranchisement of the lower classes

Family and Gender

• Redefinition of Masculinity (wealth instead of force of arms).
• Shift from force of arms and citizenship responsibilities to wealth as measure of status
• Increasing influence of strong female leaders.
• Demand for Greek women, fidelity.

Hellenic Polis vs. Hellenistic City

• Hellenistic city borrowed heavily from Greece, but developed differently.
• Greek citizen concerned with Polis, conformist, oriented toward the pleasures of public life.
• Hellenistic citizen has a cosmopolitan outlook, is individualistic and oriented toward the pleasures of private life.

Similarities between Hellenic and Hellenistic city:

• Architecture.
• Cities usually run by Greeks and Macedonians.
• Greek was spoken.
• Greek deities were worshiped.
• Education based on Greek gymnasium.

Differences between Hellenic and Hellenistic city

• Politics: externally, they had to work with one another; internally, citizenship was more widely available.
• Economy: both based on agriculture, but growing importance in trade, industry, and commerce.
• Society: more tolerant of outsiders (cultural exchange), public life much less satisfying.
• Family life: family more private, status of upper-class women improved.
• Religion: monarchs are divine, rise of mystery cults.
• Intellectual trends: more personal questions: happiness, meaning of life (Epicureans, Stoicism).

Economic and Social Structure

·        Ancient agricultural economy.

·        Emphasis on slavery.

·        Ambivalence toward the status of women.

·        Initially society, divided into

·        a militarized aristocracy

·        and a larger group of free landowners.

·        As the Greek economy became more commercialized, the society became more diverse and hierarchic.

·        Mountainous geography: important reliance on trade and colonization.

·        Frequent war produced a greater dependence on slavery.

Rural Life and Agriculture

·        Greek population was predominantly rural and agricultural.

·        From the eighth century BC, tendency for aristocrats to force small farmers to become tenants or laborers.

·        Mediterranean agriculture particularly market-oriented (basic food supplies had to be imported).

·        Purpose of Greek colonization: in part, to develop new sources of grain.

·        This helped to spread Hellenistic culture.

Slavery and Production

·        Slavery: key component of the classical Mediterranean economy.

·        City-states used slaves for all types of labor from agriculture to mining.

·        Manumission of slaves was relatively common.

·        Control of slave labor systems required extensive military controls.

·        Use of slaves discouraged investment in technological improvement.

Importance of slaves

·        Large part of the labor force of ancient Greece.

·        Finley: ancient Greece was a "slave dependent society."

·        They were so essential to the economy.

·        In Classical Athens slaves comprised over a third of the total population and outnumbered adult male citizens by three to one.

·        They performed almost every kind of work imaginable:

o       agricultural labor

o       mining labor

o       shop assistants

o       domestic labor

o       police force

o       secretaries for the government in Athens.

Origin of slaves

·        Many were war captives.

·        Some were enslaved for failure to pay debts.

·        Some were abandoned children rescued.

·        The children of slaves would also be slaves.

·        Extensive and regular slave trade.

·        No particular race was singled out for enslavement.

·        Many from the Black Sea and Danubian regions.

·        In most cases, probably captives from tribal wars and sold to slave traders who shipped them to various parts of the Greek world.

Slave’s conditions

·        The treatment of slaves varied, depending on individual slave owners and the types of jobs done by the slaves.

·        Silver mines of Athens: dangerous conditions, large numbers of slaves.

·        Slaves who worked in households: probably treated much better (sometimes part of the family).

·        Some slaves even lived on their own and ran their owners' businesses largely unsupervised.

·        Most wealthy Greek households had as many as 10-20 slaves.

·        Slaves could not enter the Gymnasium or the Public Assembly.

·        They could not use their own names.

Manumission

·        Manumission was not uncommon.

·        Many slaves could probably hope for freedom, even if most of them never actually obtained it.

·        But manumission was quite self-serving for slave owners (lesser risk of rebellion).

·        Only two noteworthy large-scale rebellions of slaves in Greek history.

·        Slaves almost always had to compensate their owners for their freedom.

·        Thus, manumission of slaves not a proof of humanity of ancient Greek slavery.

·        When slaves were freed, they did not become citizens, but rather metics.

·        They could not possess the full rights and privileges of citizens.

·        But they could prosper economically, just as other metics could.

The Helots

·        Other form of dependent labor in the ancient Greek world.

·        Helotry, known principally from the city-state of Sparta.

·        Agricultural serfs; indigenous peoples conquered by the Spartans and forced to work their former lands for their Spartan overlords.

·        They were not the private property of the individual Spartans.

·        They could not be bought or sold.

·        But their mobility was completely restricted.

·        they had very few rights;

·        They had to turn over a large percentage of their produce to their Spartan overlords.

·        And they were routinely terrorized as a matter Spartan state policy.

·        But the helots, living still on their former homeland (ethnic unity), were prone to revolt.

Social Divisions between men and women

·        Women were inferior to men in law and culture.

·        Female infanticide was practiced.

·        But some Greek women were active in business and did control urban property.

·        Marriages arranged by the patriarchal household head.

·        Husbands could divorce their wives at will.

·        Women restricted to certain portions of the household.

·        Conditions for women appear to have improved in the Hellenistic era.

Women in The Hellenistic World

·        Before the Hellenistic age, women seen as

o       a means to produce kin,

o       take care of the domestic duties,

o       and be subordinate to their husbands.

·        Improvement  in the Hellenistic age.

·        We know this from papyri from Egypt and Coele-Syria.

·        Hellenistic women more educated, more cultured, with more domestic freedom.

Legal rights

·        More legal rights.

·        No need for an escort or chaperone to go outside or in legal matters.

·        This is most notable in the distinction between the women in mainland Greece and those of Egypt.

·        And women now were able to construct marriage contracts that ensured many legal binding conditions.

·        Example of the contract between Heraclides of Temnos and Demetria.

·        In a rare case a woman was awarded a position as a magistrate.

·        (When she contributed to the public works out of her private funds).

·        Thus women were capable to function on a legal level.

Education

·        Education became more available to women in this period as well.

·        Example of Hipparchia (mathematics, music, literature and physical education).

·        Women in physical education: a radically new ideal.

·        But this happened quite rarely.

Royal women

·        Strength and cleverness of the royal women.

·        Examples of Olympias (Alexander’s mother) and Cleopatra VII.

·        They used their cunning and influence to get what they wanted.

·        Olympias had to compete with other women to get her son into position to take the throne after Philip II’s death.

·        Formal and informal polygamy of the Macedonian kings.

·        Climate of intrigue and struggle for power within their courts.

·        Cleopatra VII was shrewd, able and ambitious.

·        Her liaisons with the Romans: legitimate dynastic alliances (Caesar & Antony).

New occupations

·        There are four categories of occupations;

o       arts and literature,

o       practical jobs,

o       medicinal jobs

o       and prostitution.

·        Arts and literature: dancers, musicians, painters and poets.

·        The poets show the literacy of the occupational women that lived in the Hellenistic period.

·        Practical jobs: women are now able to come out of the house and find applications of their capabilities in the world (weavers, pot makers, launders, grocers and bar-maids).

·        Able to function outside of the domestic sphere.

·        Integration into the work force of that time.

·        Medical field: midwives and wet-nurses.

The prostitute

·        The fourth category.

·        Two types: the freed woman and enslaved woman.

·        Many single mothers, or daughters of poor family, prostituted themselves to help the family.

·        But prostitution could be very rewarding.

The new Greek woman

·        The Hellenistic woman acquired many legal rights.

·        Literacy: ability to sign marriage contracts securing her rights.

·        Could in some places have become a magistrate because of her economic status.

·        Better education allowing  her to join the ranks of the educated class.

·        Now women could leave the house and pursue other jobs of interest.

·        And at least They earn an income on her own.

·        Smarter, legally freer and economically stronger.