This document provides an overview of the Classical Tradition of Greece and Rome. It begins with discussing Bronze Age cultures in the Aegean region, including the Minoan civilization that flourished on Crete. Next, it covers the rise of city-states in Greece and the Golden Age in Athens during the 5th century BC. This included the architectural works on the Acropolis and the development of philosophy with thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The document then discusses the Hellenistic period after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the establishment of Hellenistic kingdoms. Finally, it provides an introduction to the origins and developments of ancient Rome, including the early Roman Republic and the transition to an

1. The Classical Tradition:
Greece and Rome
HUM/100 – Intro to the Humanities I
The Ancient World to Medieval Time
Prof. Francisco Pesante-Gonzalez
University of Phoenix – Puerto Rico Campus

2. Objectives
 Identify significant world events from ancient Greece
and Rome.
 Identify example of the humanities in classical
civilizations, such as art, architecture, philosophy,
music, and literature.
 Identify major key examples from the humanities that
reflect developments in world events and cultural
patterns in ancient Greece and Rome.

3. The Greek World:
The Classical Tradition
Bronze Age Culture in the Aegean
The Rise of the Greek Polis
The Golden Age
The Hellenistic World

4.  The Cyclades: a group of more than 100 islands in the
Aegean Sea between mainland Greece and the
island of Crete.
 By about 2200 BCE, trade with Crete to the south
brought the Cyclades into the larger island’s political
orbit and radically altered late Cycladic life.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean

5.  To the south of the Cyclades lies Crete, the largest of
the Aegean islands. Bronze Age civilization developed
there as early as 3000 BCE. Trade routes from Crete
established communication with such diverse areas as
Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Scandinavia,
from which the island imported copper, ivory,
amethyst, lapis lazuli, carnelian, gold, and amber.
 A distinctive culture called Minoan flourished on Crete
from about 1900 to 1375 BCE.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean

6. Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean
Palace of Minos at Knossos

7. Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean
Palace of Minos at Knossos

8. Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean
The Legend of Minos
and the Minotaur

9. Mycenean Culture on the Mainland.
 When the Minoans abandoned the palace at Knossos
in about 1450 BCE, warriors from the mainland culture
of Mycenae, on the Greek mainland, quickly
occupied Crete . Reasons: either the deforestation of
the island. Or the negative aftermath of the volcanic
eruption on Thera.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean

10. Mycenean Culture on the Mainland.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean

11. Mycenean Culture on the Mainland.
 The Homeric Epic: Iliad
 Areté: often translated as “virtue,” but actually
meaning something closer to “being the best you can
be” or “reaching your highest human potential.”
 Hubris: Exaggerated pride and self-confidence.
Bronze Age Culture
in the Aegean

12. Mycenean Culture on the Mainland.
 Greek Gods
Reference: http://padhopperspeaksmore.blogspot.com/2013/01/greek-
god-family-tree.html

13. Olympia and the Olympic Games
“The most important thing in the
Olympic Games is not winning but
taking part”
Baron Pierre Coubertin
The Rise of the Greek Polis

14. Olympia and the Olympic Games
 First modern Summer Olympics: Athens, Greece 1896
 Professionalism v Ammateurism
The Rise of the Greek Polis

15. Olympia and the Olympic Games
 The first Olympic Games (776 bC)
 Panhellenic Games, open to all city-states in the
Greek world.
 Olympia: a sanctuary dedicated to Hera and Zeus
also housed an elaborate athletics facility.
The Rise of the Greek Polis

16. The Rise of Democracy and the Threat of Persia
 In 508 BCE, the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes
instituted the first Athenian political democracy—from
the Greek demokratia, the rule (kratia) of the people
(demos).
The Rise of the Greek Polis

17. The Rise of Democracy and the Threat of Persia
 In 490 BCE, a huge Persian army, estimated at 90,000,
landed at Marathon.
The Rise of the Greek Polis

18. THE GOLDEN AGE
 Delian League (477-431 b.C.)
 Pericles (495-429 b.C.)
 Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.C.)
The Rise of the Greek Polis

19. THE GOLDEN AGE: The Architectural Program at the
Acropolis
The Rise of the Greek Polis

20. THE GOLDEN AGE: The Architectural Program at the
Acropolis
 Six caryatids
The Rise of the Greek Polis

21. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE:
Philosophy and the Polis
Socrates (469-399 b.C.)
 “How do we know what
we think we know?” and,
crucially, “How can we
trust what we think we
know?”
 Dialectic method
 Good government was
unattainable “unless
either philosophers
become kings

22. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE:
Philosophy and the Polis
Plato (428 – 347 b.C.)
 Idealism—it seeks the
eternal perfection of
pure ideas, untainted
by material reality
 “Allegory of the Cave”
 Rule by an intellectual
philosopher king

23. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE: Philosophy
and the Polis
Aristotle (384–322 b.C.)
 Reality was not a
reflection of an ideal
form, but existed in the
material world itself, and
by observing the material
world, one could come to
know universal truths.
 Empirical Investigation

24. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE: Philosophy
and the Polis
Aristotle (384–322 b.C.)
 The Golden Mean
 Courage
 Syllogism

25. The Rise of the Greek Polis
THE GOLDEN AGE: Philosophy
and the Polis
Aristotle (384–322 b.C.)
 “Man is a political
animal”
 The essential purpose of
the polis was to
guarantee, barring
catastrophe, that each of
its citizens might flourish.

26. THE HELLENISTIC WORLD: The Empire of Alexander the
Great
Charles Le Brun (1665) Alexander Entering Babylon, or The
Triumph of Alexander
The Rise of the Greek Polis

27. THE HELLENISTIC WORLD: The Empire of Alexander the
Great
Hellenistic Kindoms
The Rise of the Greek Polis

28. Questions?

29. Empire: Urban Life and
Imperial Rome
 ROME MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGINS
 THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF THE ROMAN
REPUBLIC
 TURNING INTO AN EMPIRE
 PAX ROMANA
 DECADENCE AND DISSOLUTION OF THE EMPIRE

30. ROME MYTHOLOGICAL
ORIGINS
 ROMULUS AND REMUS

31. ROME MYTHOLOGICAL
ORIGINS
 AENEID

32. THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF
THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
Tarquin the Proud
509 b.C. Res Publica
Patricians
Plebeians

33. • Sayre, H. (2014). Discovering the Humanities
(3rd ed). Pearson Education.
• World History: Patterns of Interaction
(2007). McDougal Littell.
REFERENCES