Survey in

the
Western
Civilization

Accomplished By:

Maricar A. Rosalinas

AB HISTORY2B

Submitted to:

Mr. Ian Brando Equipado

Professor
Outline

I. Origins
a. Prehistory, Early Greece
and Greco Roman World
II. Emergence of Earliest
Civilizations
a. Minoan Crete
Culture and Traditions
b. Mycenaean Greeks
III. The Greeks in a Dark Age
a. Influence of Homer /
Homer’s Ideal of Influence
IV. The World of the Greek City States
V. Sparta And Golden Age of Athens
VI. Greek Culture in Archaic Age
VII. Classical Ideal
VIII. Daily Life in Classical Athens
IX. Hellenistic period – Greek
art/culture merges
X. The Passing of the Roman World
and Emergence of Medieval
Civilization
Prehistory, Early Greece and Graeco-
Roman World

Greek and Roman Citv civilizations, In

investigative the impact that the ancient world
has had on modern Western civilization, the two
ancient civilizations which are frequently
understood as having had the greatest influence
are Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. These
two civilizations would eventually come to
shape much of what would become the modern
culture, politics and society, and by extension, a
vast proportion of global culture and society.
Since it is the daily lives and adopted of one
nation from the other civilization. That would be
the passing from generation to generation and
that’s the reason why it has an identity of one
society. Furthermore the influences of the
earliest civilizations had a great impact for the
development of cultural and traditional.

Minoan Civilization

According to Spielvogiel since the

earliest civilization in the Aegean region
emerged on Crete wherein this civilization used
metals, especially bronze in making armours
and weapons had been launch on the large
island Crete. We do know from archaeological
remains the people of Minoan Crete were
accustomed to sea travel and had made
contact with the more advanced civilization of
Egypt. The palace at Knossos, the royal seat of
the kings, demonstrates the obviously our
fortune and supremacy of this civilization. They
have a elaboration of structure for build a
central courtyard and inclined numerous
private living rooms for the royal family and
workshops for making decorated vases, small
sculptures, such as ivory figurines and
jewelries and accessories. Even the bathrooms
were decorated with frescoes in bright colours
showing sport events and naturalistic scenes
that have led some to assume that Cretans
had a great love of nature. However the
information of the historians the maintaining of
the destruction was the result of conjugation
and loot by mainland Greeks known as
Mycenaean.
Mycenaean Greeks Culture

It especially noted for its fortified

palace-centers, which were builts on hills
surrounded by gigantic stone walls. While the
royal families lived within the walls of these
complexes, the civilian inhabitants lived in the
scattered location outside the walls. The
noticeable during this time is the Royal families
were buried. Known as tholos tombs, they
were built into hillsides. This time they were
consisted a lot of powerful monarchies
centered in the palace complexes such as
found Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Thebes and
Orchoemos. These are independent states
with the Mycenae the strongest. They also
have a society hierarchy or social level they
importance the king were commanders of the
army, priests and bureaucrats who kept vigilant
record. The free citizen includes peasants,
soldiers, and artisans with the lowest rung of
the social ladder or social level consisting of
serfs and slaves. 500 women listed as slaves
from Asia this time they were distinguished the
people and status to determine the social life of
inhabitants.

The Greeks in Dark Age

This is the period after the Dark Age, the

economic growth, social hierarchy and political
change. It is the evidence or the proof from the
Greeks life that is intended the culture, art and
literature. The some pottery and sculpture
influenced by the east. They culture has a
different and unique the life-size stone statues
of male nudes known as kouros figures. Those
statues which were replaced in temples were
meant to be representation of the faithful
dedicated to the gods.

Influence of Homer

For earlier times archaeological

remnants and the Homeric epics are only
guides. The testimony of Homer and the record
revealed by archaeology do not bear out any
such simple scheme. Actually, the immigration
of the Greek-speaking population into the
Aegean basin appears to have been a
complicated process, involving many separate
conquests and flights, and extensive mixing of
populations.The Odyssey considered as a
masterpiece that recounts the journey of of one
Greek heroes.That Iliad and Odyssey
considerable describe the heroes of
Mycenaean age of the 13th century B.C. It is
the standard text for the education of
generations of Greek Males. Homer gave to
the Greeks one universally known model of
heroism, honor and nobility. This is natural
tendency for us want to believe the tales of
heroic men and women from the remote of the
past,.

The World of the Greek City-states

This is known as new energies

beginning the period of Archaic age of Greece.
Two modernize stand out in this era the
evolution of polis or city-state and the Greek
colonization. The system of polis also relied on
local patriotism which was encouraged by the
veneration of a god or goddess as patron of
the community. But there was also a negative
side to local patriotism. The cultural unity of the
Greeks reinforced by a common language and
common gods, did not mean made politically.
The Greeks trade too, they produced dyed
woollen fabrics and pottery, and these goods,
along with the olive oil and wine, were playing
important roles in a growing commerce. The
Greek set up colonies in Thrace and Greeks
settled along the shores of the Black Sea that
can cause of diffusion of Greeks culture that
spread throughout the Mediterranean basin.
After they sent a a pottery, wine and olive oil in
return they received grain and metals form the
west and fish, timber, wheat, metals from the
Black Sea region.

The polis consisted of citizens with

political righat (adult males), citizens with no
political rights (women and children) and
noncitizens (slaves and resident aliens. The
system of polis also relied on local patriotism,
which was encouraged by the veneration of a
god or goddess as patron of the community.

The Hoplite forces were heavily armed

infantrymen, who wore bronze or leather
helmets, breastplates and greaves. Initially this
created a bond between the aristocrats and
peasants, which minimized class conflict and
enabled the aristocrats to dominate their
societies.

The Greek tyrants were rulers who

came to power in an unconstitutional way; a
tyrant was not subject to the law. The
aristocrats some of them they opposed the
control of ruling aristocratic factions in their
cities. Corinth is one of the example of most
prosperitious states the Greece under the rule
of an oligarchy. Then cypselus popular tyrants
who was well liked by the people that he could
rule w/out a bodyguard.The children and
grandchildren of tyrants, who tended to be
corrupted by their inherited power and wealth,
often became cruel and unjust rulers, making
tyranny no longer seem such as desirable
institutions. It is very nature to contradictory to
the ideal of played a significant event in
evolution.

Sparta

The lives of Spartans now rigidly

organized. At birth, each child was examined
by state officials who decided whether it was fit
to live. Those judge unfit were exposed to die.
Boys were taken from their mother at the age
of seven and put under the control of the state.
They lived in military-like barracks, where they
were subjected to harsh discipline to make
them tough and given an education that
stressed military training and obedience to
authority. At twenty, Spartan males were
enrolled in the army for regular military service.
Although allowed to marry, they continued to
live in the military barracks. All meals were
eaten in public dining halls with fellow soldier.
Meals were simple; the famous Spartan black
black broth consisted of a piece of pork boiled
in blood, salt, and vinegar, causing a visitor
who ate in a public mess to remark that he now
understood why Spartans were not afraid to
die.

Spartan males were recognized as

mature and allowed to vote in the assembly
and live at home, but they remained military
service until the age of sixty. While their
husbands remained in military barracks until
age of thirty, Sparta women lived at home.
Spartan women had a greater freedom of
movement and greater power in the household
than was common for women elsewhere in
Greece. They were encouraged to exercise
and remain fit to bear and raise healthy
children. Like men, Spartans women engaged
in athletic exercises in the nude. Many Spartan
women upheld the strict Spartan values,
expecting their husbands and sons to be brave
in war. Each Spartan citizen has owned a
piece of land, worked by the helots, to provide
economic sustenance.

Athens

Athenians allowed individual differences

and stressed freedom. Although the two states
shared a common heritage, their differences
grew so large in their own minds that they were
ultimate willing to engage in a life-and death-
struggle to support their separate realities.

Since Athens had been ruled by

monarchy they possessed the best land and
controlled political and religious life by means
of a Aeropagus assisted by the nine archons.
Increasing the number of Athenian farmer
found themselves sold into slavery when they
were unable to repay the loans they had
borrowed from their aristocratic neighbours,
pledging as collateral.

Greek Culture in the Archaic Age

Some aspects of archaic Greek culture,

such as pottery and sculpture, were especially
influenced by the east. The statue of a young
male nude is dated around 600 B.C making it
an early example of kouros sculpture. These
statues which were replaced in temples were
meant to be the representations of the faithful
dedicated to the gods.
 Born in the seventh century, Sapho lived
on the island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea.
The worl lesbian is derived from Sappho’s
island of Lesbos. Sappho, like the upper-class
Greeks, accepted that homosexual and
heterosexual feelings could exist in the same
individual. Sappho was both a wife and a
mother who also wrote the poems about love
between men and women.

Archaic Greece is also known for poets

who reflected the lifestyle both aristocrats and
peasants.

The Class Ideal

The classic style based on the ideal of

reason, moderation, symmetry, balance and
harmony in all things, was meant to civilize the
emotions. The Greeks considered that the
Doric orders evolved first in the Dorian
Pelopponesus, consisted of thick, flued
columns with simple capitals resting directly on
a platform without a base. Doric order grave,
dignified and masculine.The Greeks
characterized the Iionic order as slender,
elegant and feminine in principle.

Daily Life in Classical Athens

Slavery was a common institution in the

ancient world. Owners of slaves in Athens
were permitted to treat their slaves as they
wished, although it was obviously not to their
advantage to be over harshly.
Most often slaves in Athens performed
domestic tasks, such as being cooks and
maids or worked in the fields.The Athenian
economy was Largely agricultural, but highly
diversified as well. Consisted of growing grain,
vegetables and fruits trees for local
consumption. Athens did not have a large
numbers of artisans, but they were important to
the economy. Athenian lifestyle was basically
simple. Athenian houses were furnished with
necessities bought from artisans such as beds,
couches, tables, chest, pottery, stools, baskets,
and cooking utensils. The Athenian diet was
rather plain. Basic foods consisted of barley,
wheat, millet, lentils, grapes, figs, olives,
almond, read made at home. Olive oil was
used not only for eating, but for lighting lamps,
and rubbing on the body after washing and
exercise. Meat was consumed in only on
special occasion, such as festivals.

The family was an important institution

in Athens. It was composed of husband, wife,
and children, although other dependent
relatives and slaves. The social function was to
produce new citizens. Athenian women could
participate in most religious cults and festivals.
Her obligation to bear the children especially
male children who would preserve the family
line.

Women in Athens served males in other

ways as well. Prostitution both male and
female flourished in classical Athens. Most
female prostitutes were slaves in brothers run
as a business or trade by the Athenian.

The Hellenistic World

The culture of Hellenistic cities, based

on the dialect used in the Athens called koine.
In Macedonia, a pattern of alliances of between
mothers and sons provided opening for women
to take an active role in politics. Moreover, the
traditional pattern in which male guardians
arrange marriages to further diplomatic and
military alliances persisted.

The Laocoons and his sons they

patronized by Hellenistic and rich citizens.
These sculptures dignify the unity of uniformity.
One of the traditional areas of Greek science
was astronomy and two Alexandrian scholars
continued this exploration. This view was not
widely accepted and most scholarsclung to the
earlier geocentric view of the Greeks which
held that the earth was at the center of the
universe.
Roman Society and Culture Changes
And The Passing of the Roman World and
Emergence of Medieval Civilization

One of the most noticeable

characteristics of Roman society and culture is
the impact of the Greeks. The Romans had
experienced Greek influence early on,
indirectly through the Etruscans and directly
through the Greek cities. Greeks models
affected virtually every area of Roman Life ,
from literature, philosophy to religion and
education. Every aspect of Roman Society was
permeated with religion. As Rome developed
and came into cntact with other peoples and
gods, to the community simply adopted new
deities.

At the heart of the Roman social

structure stood the family headed by the
paterfamilias the dominant male. The
household included the wife, sons with their
wives and children, unmarried daughters and
slaves. He held absolute authority over his
children he could sell them or have them put to
death. Roman males believed that the
weakness of the female sex necessitated male
guardians.

Fathers arrange the marriages of

daughters, although there are instances of
mothers and daughters having influence on the
choice. Father is also the complete the
authority over everyone in his household
including his wife, child and slaves.
Traditionally the Roman marriages were
intended to be for life, but divorce was
introduced and became relatively easy to
obtain to breakdown of the marriage.They were
very concerned about maintaining the mos
maiorum, the customs or traditions of their
ancestors. The roman emphasized parental
authority and, above all, their obligations to the
state. The highest virtue was pietas-the dutiful
execution of one’s obligations to one’s fellow
citizens, to the gods, and to the state.
Moreover, the magistracies and senate were
increasingly controlled by a relatively select
circle of wealthy and powerful families-both
patrician and plebeian –called the nobiles
(“nobles”). The nobiles were essentially the
men whose families were elected to the more
important political offices of the republic. In the
100 years from 233 to 133 B.C., 80 percent of
the consuls came from twenty-six families;
moreover, 50 percent came from only ten
families.

After marriage, in well-off marriages the

wife’s responsibility was to look after the home,
and bring up the children, while the husband
worked. In poorer households they would be
needed in the family workshop.

The challenges of childhood always

great risk the new born. When a child was
born, the midwife inspected it before the
umbilical cord was cut, to judge whether it is
perfectly. At the age of 6 or 7 were put in the
care of tutors, and their formal education
began. Girls also learned to spin and weave
wool. By age of 12 boys, graduated to higher
schooling learning different fields like
arithmetic, music etc.