a) pomerium brought sacred city limit under gods' protection
b) space left for gate to avoid pollution of sacred ground with
bloodstain, burial, childbirth, hides, etc. (compare to
purification of Theseus at river).
c) Romulus's prayer and temple to Jupiter Stator (p. 37)
1. Explanation of Roman ritual: the Lupercalia (p. 39)
a) Parallel w/Greek Lycaea (bit more savage, equally
primitive)
b) Polytheistic religious tolerance
A. Plutarch's acceptance of Tarrutius's date for founding of Rome
1. Astrologically derived--Tarrutius "back-horoscoped"
Romulus to 1st year of 2nd Olympiad, which equals 776
+4+1=773 and has him founding Rome at 17 (close
enough).
2. Olympics held every 4 years, universal Greek system of
dating
a) Athenians dated by Eponymous Archon
b) Romans dated by consuls, recorded in fasti lists
3. Agreed with accepted date of 753 for founding of Rome
(about end of Greek dark age, and as good a date as any)
4. Plutarch, priest again, believed in Astrology.
B. Roman wedding rite--Thalasio! Thalasio! appears in Livy (p.
34)
C. Again, Washington-style sanction (Entangling alliances, two-
terms) for
1. Patrician status/Senate
2. Roman Legion
3. Roman tribes (basic political units), (p. 38)
D. Plutarch pushed too far--Romulus did NOT slay 7,000+
Veiiantines in battle
1. Messenian parallel from horrible Guerilla war with Sparta
2. "Sardi Venales" Saturnalia parade--bad general vs. modern
interpretation
a) Bulla--child's good luck item
b) Old man--senex, valued
c) Etruscan slaves lazy, close to safety, so worthless
E. Death of Romulus--Republican and Imperial Traditions (p. 43)
1. Republican hatred of title "rex" and association with
Etruscan rule
2. Tradition of tyrannicide--the Senior Brutus
a) Popular belief that Senate murdered their protector
b) Parallel with Greek tyrants (e.g., murder of Hipparchus in
Athens in 514)
3. Post Julius-Caesar adaptation of deification for political
ends
4. Numina, Greek Heroes, Aeneas as Quirinus
IX. The Comparison--What's to be learned here?
A. What Plutarch wanted you to--how the two men, the Greek and
the Roman, measured up to his standards of absolute virtue.
1. Note phrase (p. 46): "worthy of memory." It's only worth
knowing if it's useful.
2. "By nature meant for governors." Plutarch's acceptance of
Imperial claim to rule.
3. Theseus's tragedy vs. Romulus's tragedy
a) Public sentiment less excusable (?) than private passion
b) Gods killedy Hippolytus, Romulus killed Remus
c) Romulus born to lower standards, variant legends anyway
4. Theseus guilty of de facto parricide because of Aegeus
incident
5. Romulus's more stable domestic life
B. Plutarch the priest--Life of Theseus in defiance of Apollo's
(his) oracle, therefore unpleasing to the gods.
X. Life of Artaxerxes: Who Were the Persians? What's a
Barbarian?
A. The Greco-Roman concept of the _Oikumene_, the inhabited
world.
1. Awareness of older, ancient civilizations, e.g.
a) Solon in Egypt as described by Plato (p. 113)
(1) Plutarch's acceptance and use of Plato's Timaeus and
Critias
(2) High priest, quite correctly, asserts continuity of
Egyptian civilization as opposed to "dark aged" Greeks
(3) Atlantis older civilization still-posssible fusion of
Mycenean civilization
b) Legend of King Minos (again!)
2. Barbarians: Barbarbar-they didn’t speak Greek
a) The savages who you couldn't talk to: Triballos in
Aristophanes "the Birds," literally a caveman
b) The people you could talk to-either they spoke Greek or
you learned because they had something you wanted to
talk about
(1) Trade-Naucratis the emporion
(2) The mercenaries in the 8th Century at Memphis
(3) Solon's Interaction with Croesus: "O, Solon, Solon (p.
114)
(4) Darius's acceptance (in the story) of the worth of Greek
knowledge-hardly a savage! And yet...
3. Dichotomy between Persian achievements and Persian
culture
a) Legend (Herodotus to Xenophons’ Cyropaideia to Horace's
Poetry) of Persian values: "to shoot straight and tell the
truth."
b) Extremes of Persian piety and impiety:
(1) Cambyses in Egypt
(2) Rites of Accession-p.1252. Drinking turpentine
c) Generosity
(1) Artaxerxes’ gift to the laborer (p. 1253)
(2) The Caunian who’d wounded Cyrus (p.
d) Savagery
(1) Good queen Parysatis
(a) Supports her "baby" Cyrus against her eldest son,
finances an attempted coup
(b) Poisons likeable (accessible), p. 1253 Statira (p. 1263)
(c) Horrible death of Mithridates (p. 1260) (boats), the
Carian who'd wounded Cyrus (rack), p. 1259.
(2) Parysatis (the rocks), p. 1262-3.
e) Story of Xerxes and the Pythius of Celaenae-rich man,
feeds ARMY, and the death of his son. (481, Herodotus)
B. Why are the Persians important?
1. Because (Invaders from the North!) they forced the Greeks
to notice them.
a) Persians conquer Greek (Lydian) cities of Asia Minor
b) Ionian revolt of 499: Sardis=Miletus
c) Darius’s Invasion of Greece,
(1) Eretria burned
(2) Marathon, 490
d) Xerxes’s Invasion of 480
(1) Thermopyle, Artemisium: Anecdotes
(2) Salamis: Aeschylus’s Persae (sympathy-triumph)
(3) Plataea-479
e) Cimon's Campaigns-the Eurymedon in 468
f) Egypt in 459-8
g) Persia during the Peloponnesian War-Kerosene on the
Flames
(1) Tissaphernes’ humiliation of the Greeks, and what
happened, p. 1265.
(2) (Same page) Financing of Athenian counterrevolution
against Spartan hegemony, Cnidos 395; Corinth, 394.
h) King's Peace of 386: Isocrates and pan-Hellenism
i) Alexander's Campaigns-336-323
2. Romans and Parthians-Carrhae, 54 and later.
C. Basic Indo-European Similarity
1. Aeschylus's Persae, again
2. Plutarch's Life of Artaxerxes, complete with tragic flaw:
Like Theseus, Murders Sons
XI. What's Been Going on in the West--Political Developments
Elsewhere
A. Solon in Athens--From Oligarch to Tyranny, with a stop at a
Nomothetes
1. "Good King Theseus's" Legacy--Unification of Attica led to
diverse elements within proto-Athenian government
a) Plutarch's Parties (1.126) The Plain:--farming interests
b) The Sea-Side--trade, fishing
c) The Hill-party--poorest, supporters of the Pisistradae
2. Besides conflicting interests, economic gulf developed.
Three classes of Athenian citizens:
a) Hippeis: Could keep horses, owned land
b) Zeugitae: Could farm with draft animals owned
c) Thetes: Free, but not much besides
3. Existing system began to collapse--
a) "Sixth Part Men" (Hektemeroi) paid 1/6 of their crop to farm
the Hippeis's land
b) This was NOT that bad a rate--old social contract still in
effect
c) Economic stress--bad harvest, desire of Hippeis for
additional capital--provoked strain and enslavement of
insolvent Thetes, some of whom were sold abroad
d) "Nothing to lost but your chains" is an extremely
dangerous situation
4. Russia, 1918/U.S., 1930's/China, 18/1950's
a) Cylon's conspiracy of 632--Lenin-Style power grab by
former Olympic Athlete (don't laugh! Idi Amin was a boxer!)
b) Draco's Code of 620--imposition of order, but little done to
do anything besides support status quo
5. Solon--imaginative leader acceptable to all sides
a) Poet, well-known
b) Megarian War--poem, ambush of Megarian raider (Plutarch,
1.110-1)
c) Poor Aristocrat
6. Solon the Nomothetes of 594
a) Seisactheia--cancellation of agricultural debts
b) Release and repatriation of debt slaves
c) BUT refusal to redistribute Land
d) Re-classification of classes --pentakosiomedimnoi plus
hippeis gave wealthiest classes sole control of highest
offices
(1) Justice Here--largest stake in the government
(2) Middle and Poorest classes had say in juries,
assembly
(3) Something to do besides Fight, namely, talk
e) Prudently left town for ten years
f) Legends of His Travels: Croesus, Atlantis (1.128)
7. Collapse of Solon's Reforms
a) Upper classes unwilling to share power they already
had
b) Quarreling cliques of aristocrats allowed Pisistratus to
make his move
8. Tyranny Classic
a) Pisistratus had support of Hill Party, poorest
population--most zealous, with the least to lose.
b) Solon's remark (1.126) about the Media: "if we tolerate
it on stage, we'll end up tolerating it in public life!"
Mention Thespis, Thespians
c) Pisistratus's Three Tries: The bodyguard, the phony
Athena, the Mercenary army.
d) And (READ IT!) "Gun Control."--Arist. Ath. Pol. 15.3.
e) Turns on fellow aristocrats
f) Public works (1st Parthenon), theatres for the poor
g) "Ruler for life," so... Murder of Hippias, expulsion
9. Solon too popular to kill, and (mercifully!) too popular to
be forgotten.
End as of 2/5/95