TR

ISTANBUL MEDENIYET UNIVERSITIY

FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES
HISTORY DEPARTMENT

ANCIENT MEDITERRENEAN

Take-Home Midterm Exam Questions

HALIL IBRAHIM BOZATLI

17011011036

Instructor

KUTLU AKALIN

02.12.2020
The Differences in the Political Establishment of Sparta and Athens

The Sparta political establishment was very different from that of an ordinary
monarchy.Initially, when villages combined to form a city-state structure, the two
combined forces had to find some compromise points.This compromise resulted in
Spartan by the left to the two kings.These kings had two prime powers, being
military and religious leadership.They were also members of gerousia where was the
name of the senate with 30 members elected by the majority of citizens among, being
over at 60 age, the elderly aristocrats.The popular assembly existed both in Sparta
and elsewhere, and many other cities were being ruled by tyranny.One of these was
Athens.Athens was initially dominated by the landed aristocracy and by aristocratic
clans of different names.Clans elected three archons, who were high-ranking
officials in the council.Problems between aristocrats and poor landowners began to
get serious, so Draco was to be charged with drafting harsh laws.We can see this
period as the weakening of aristocrats' power and their interests being restricted.In
Sparta, what triggered the transition to oligarchy was Argos' defeat of Sparta.This
defeat caused both political and social changes.A structure that can be called the
minority administration, which the Greeks call oligarchy, formed the new political
administration of Sparta.The people assembly had a more effective say in this
structure, and the newly emerged ephors, who had a tenure of one year, began to
have a say in the administration.The ephors who have the power to straighten kings
had the right to convene the gerousia and exercise the judicial and punitive powers of
the judiciary.The ephors could accuse or imprison a king, thus restricted the authority
of gerousia and the king.Even if these practices were not a democracy, they created a
balanced structure.

On the other hand, Solon was the person who changed the main structure in
Athens.Draco's practices were a temporary solution.Solon has been appointed as a
plenary archon.For Sollon, the problem was the greed of the riches.He took the
concept of justice, called Dike, as the starting point for his reforms.First, it abolished
the borrowing system and extortion, then expanded participation in
management.Unlike Spartans, to participate in the administration, he divided the
citizens into groups according to their wealth.When the ruling of the aristocracy
gradually diminished, and the group separated in the lowest of the four classes were
granted only the right of civil service.Solon also created a council(boule) of 400
citizens.The remarkable difference between Sparta and Athens was that Solon's
reforms were written on tablets as a law so that they could be seen by everyone
because there is no written law in Sparta.After Solon left his duty, the conflicts
among the aristocrats caused the Peisistratid tyranny to take over
again.Subsequently, Peisistratos emerged as a military leader.Despite not being much
information, we see that the tyranny of Peisistratos controlled both the aristocratic
families and continued reforms of Solon.Sparta had some problems within itself.The
attitude of King Cleomenes on his own, when he returned to it, probably caused his
liquidation within the oligarchy system.

We see that Athenians asking for help from the Spartan Hoplites for overthrowing
the tyranny that came to power after Peisistratos, which broke down during the
second period of it.Perhaps Peisistratos could solely rein in the aristocracy, like
Draco in the early period.Subsequently, Kleisthenes tried hard to seize power, and he
succeeded.Examining his reforms, we can say that some steps towards democracy
have been progressed again for Athens.The success of Kleisthenes' reforms was in
being radical.In the reforms, the phratry system was eliminated, the demes were
given the task of maintaining local order, and Athens was divided into three to break
its regional powers.The aim was to take one Trittyes from each region to form a tribe
out of three and divide the whole Attica into ten tribes.Each of the ten tribes elected
(annually) 50 members to the 400 members council established by Solon, and the
council reached 500.Except for Kleisthenes' reforms, each tribe was obliged to
choose Strategos as general.The Strategos was determined by the Assembly and the
generals were involved in political life in this way.The concept of isonimia, roughly
the concept of equality, has emerged in this structure.

The stages of the political development in Athens

Athens has undergone many changes, both socially and politically, with the people in
its administration and their policies.In this article, we will try to answer the question
of what are the stages of political development in Athens.

Athens was founded by Theseus, who claimed to be the founder of

democracy.Because Attica had several good harbors on its coast, the Athenians were
very keen to maritime and contact with other peoples.Athens experienced its first
battles with Eleusis.Another next rival was Aigina, a crucial island in terms of
maritime and trade power, with fierce competition.In the 7th century, Cylon, an
aristocrat, tried to seize power but failed.As a result of the conflicts that followed,
Draco was assigned to prepare laws for the Athenian people.Solon, who became the
fully authorized archon after Draco, set the state system on certain norms.Solon's
successful reforms had partially ended the conflicts, but after his dismissal, the
Athenian political life once again witnessed conflicts between aristocrats.There were
such violent conflicts that archons could not be appointed, and the word anarchy was
used to describe this period.These conflicts made Peisistratos a tyrant.His first
political success was a successful military operation against Megara.Peisitratos
pursued successful policies in both social and commercial fields.The development
and recovery of the Acropolis, which was burned by the Persians, coincides with the
period of Peisistratos.However, the Tyranny dynasty did not always continue like
this.The defeat of Sigeum, the assassination of Hipparchus in the Panathenaean
games, and the ruthless practices of Hippias caused the Athenians to seek help from
the Spartans to overthrow the tyranny.An aristocrat named Isagoras and Cleisthenes
was one of those who subsequently wanted to seize power.Kleisthenes, a member of
the Alcmaeonid clan expelled from Athens, won the fight. He was a good politician
and orator.He destroyed the political power of Phratry and ensured equality, and
Attica separated territories.The general summary of this period was to lay the
foundations of democracy in the classical sense.

As a result, if we look at the points mentioned above, we can see that there is an
attempt to put forward roughly what the political developments of Athens are.
 The Concepts

Cuneiform
Cuneiform is the oldest form of writing.This written language, starting with the
Sumerians, has emerged with archaeological excavations where it has been used in
many different cultures.Sumerian cuneiform was used by combining signs that
represent the sound and meaning of the word.Cuneiform became particularly popular
among merchants dealing with trade.Perhaps one of the critical problems of
cuneiform was that when it was used in Syria and Palestine in the four-century bc, it
had a very complex form that took years to learn.

Al-Mina
Al-mina is an effective trade-post of its time.It is located in the north of Syria, has a
strategic route for the eastern and western trade ports.Apart from Euboia and Greek
influence in Al-mina is to be known the presence of the traders from Phoenician,
Cypriot, and many different regions.Also, the Greeks first learned the Phoenician
alphabet here and developed it.It was also subjected to a series of invasions, one of
the Assyrians.

Canaan
Canaan was a place north of Ugarit and Phoenicians.The appearance of the first
alphabet in Canaan, known as the ancient name given to Philistine, is one of the
features that make this place valuable.A scholar from Canaan found this.Also,
Canaan is considered a sacred place for Israelis with the concept of the promise of
lands.Israelis settled here under the leadership of Moses thanks to the sea people who
caused the population decrease in Canaan and experienced first conflicts with the
Palestinians, who claimed to be sea people.Egypt, Hittite, Assyria, and other empires
have been interested in here because of geopolitical importance.

Minoan Cıvılızation
Crete, where the Minoan civilization began, had a central location for eastern
Mediterranean trade.It was brought the Minoan civilization to light with the
excavations again in Knossos with the contribution of Arthur Evans.Religious rituals
and myths were immediately visible in the Minoan civilization.The Minoans were
among the first representatives of magnificent structures and first used the palaces as
a ritual center.Sailing ships were one of the clues that the Minoans had a say in
maritime trade.Minoan pottery could be found everywhere along the coastline of
Syria and Palestine, as well as in Egypt.The textile and Frescos was also one of the
most prominent in the trade of this period. Besides, the war had a place in the lives of
the Minoans.The Minoans were destroyed by the wave of destruction of the Cretan
palaces.

Henotheism
Henotheism believes in the existence of the most powerful and superior god among
many.Seen from the outside, while accepting the existence of one god, the existence
of other gods isn’t denied, so it can be seen as polytheism, but in principle, we can
call it monotheism.