LECTURE 3

CLASSİCAL GREEK AND ROMAN CİTİES 1000 BC TO 500

PROF. DR. NACIYE DORATLI

ARCH 354CULTURE OF CITIES

TO REMEMBER

Mycenaean Greece (c. 1900 BC – c. 1100 BC) was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites.

The last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, it is the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and myth, including the epics of Homer.

TO REMEMBER

•The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. •The early inhabitants of Crete may have settled as early as 128,000 BC, during the Middle Paleolithic age.•However, it was not until 5000 BC that the first signs of advanced agriculture appeared.

Emergence of the Polis

The Greek civilization emerged by way of direct circumstances in the Mycenaean and Minoan cultures which were established respectively on the Greek mainland and on the island of Crete.

Greece is known to have had direct links with the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations.

Emergence of the Polis

Completely different geography (than in Mesopotamia):- Rocky islands of the Aegean;- Mountain masses and wide plains of the Balkan peninsula;- The soil, the climate, the geological formation, the vegetation;

   Economic activities, health of the inhabitants, general

view of life.

Emergence of the Polis

City development in this part of the world began in Crete. (Minoan cultures)

Beginning was with the Neolithic agriculture.Early villages formed distinct communities,

without any common system of control.

Emergence of the Polis

Early phase of Minoan Culture 3650 – 2160 BC: Due to its natural characteristics, the island provided an overall safe

environment against invasion (from the sea) etc. (A certain freedom from fear and disruptive tension).

Middle Minoan Age 2160 -1600 BC:

Minoan city: (based on the findings from excavations) Towers, houses and a fortified town  Houses: two-three storey with sophisticated facades. WINDOWS: They have used a transparent material (still unknown). This is an

evidence of high technology in those periods as they had to produce in relatively large quantities.

Advanced design of the dwelling house and techniques of sanitation found in palaces: distinctly recall SUMER.

In other palaces (at Phaestos): a sewer, drinking water pipes of terra cotta have been found.

Emergence of the Polis

Knossos The ceremonial and political centre of the

Minoan civilization and culture.

It is possible to identify: the Core of the early city The citadelThe temple embedded in the palace.

Emergence of the Polis

With the wholesale destruction of Cretan cities later (before the 5th century), city development has shifted to the western Aegean (Ionia)

8-6th centuries BCIntroduction of alphabetInvention of coined money (650 BC) Devolution of power from the citadel to the

democratic village-based community.

Emergence of the Polis

Rise of the village itself to a new degree of self-consciousness and cosmic insights (perception, understanding)

Homely practical insights + religious myth and

speculation 

Gave rise to a new urban order Colonization begins (from Egypt to Sicily)

Emergence of the Polis

As surplus increases there was a great achievement in many fields:

Drama, poetry, sculpture, painting, logic, mathematics and philosophy.

Additionally, a collective life more highly energized, more heightened in its capacity for aesthetic expression and rational evaluation.

All these achievements were concentrated in Greek Polis, in particular in Athens.

Emergence of the Polis

Due to the topography ( mountain-locked valleys): The city was a natural stronghold

No need for extra fortification for defense and the city was surrounded by a group of villages. (A common feature of Greece, Italy)

The Hellenic city: a union of villages, synoecism (means "dwelling together" or "to unite together under one capital city)

Sometimes brought about by: - voluntary democratic action;- king’s force.

Emergence of the Polis

The original components for kingship and city building were very much the same with those in Mesopotamia, but with some difference.

In Greece: natural defense; no need to depend on engineering skills.

In their best days the Greek polis had no great surplus of goods. What they had was a surplus of time: leisure,

During early stages, the Greek cities have never lost their connections with their countryside or their villages.

OLYMPIA, DELPHI, AND COS

OLYMPIA, DELPHI, AND COS

As an organ of culture, the Greek city reached its maturity in the fifth century.

This is before the cities achieved a rich organization of physical form (except ACROPOLIS).

In order to understand the Greek Urban Culture, Olympia, Delphi, and Cos has to be further studied.

What transportation and interchange of goods meant to the cities in Mesopotamia, a personal visit to Olympia, Delphi, and Cos did for religious, literary and athletic development of the Greeks.

From these centers, flowing vital energy has been transmitted by pilgrims and participants.

OLYMPIA

Home of the Olympian games (776 BC);

At the beginning the games and contests had a religious origin.

Olympia stood for the body as the active physical expression through disciplined play, of the human spirit.

The market place was insufficient for such activities.

Therefore the gymnasium has been developed at the outskirt of the city. (Place enough for open air activities)

DELPHI

Chief shrine of Apollo; (a great unifying civic and religious influence)

Delphi had the same importance as Jerusalem for the Christian

COS

Health placeAsclepeion was a

healing temple.

Basic Elements of the POLIS

At the center of the Greek city (took form in the 5th century) the characteristic institutions of the citadel:

The ACROPOLIS: The ritual center. As the house of the city’s god, the temple took the form of the traditional palatial mansion. In this building sculptural image of the god or goddess took place.

The temple (around the quarters for priests)The old palace (turned into a town hall later)The AGORA (often situated at the base of the citadel)The GYMNASIUMThe THEATERDaily activities of a Greek town were performed

outdoors.

The ACROPOLIS

the center of the most valued activities the essence of its total existence

It was the house of the city’s god In Athens: the Acropolis was a holly mountain

The ACROPOLIS

THE AGORA

THE DYNAMIC CENTER OF THE GREEK CITY From the very beginning agora has been separated from the

temple precinct. (unlike Mesopotamia)

Its oldest and most persistent function was the COMMUNAL MEETING PLACE.

A MARKET PLACE in the 5th century economy.   The early Agora had an amorphous and irregular form. Primarily it is an open space. The adjoining buildings or objects are located in an irregular

order (A temple, a statue of a hero, a fountain, row of workshops of craftsmen.

In the middle temporary stalls for the peasants to sell their products (vegetables etc.)

THE AGORA

•From 7th century on with the introduction of gold and silver coins, commerce became a more important element of the city’s life.

•Economic functions of the AGORA expanded. •At the end of the 6th century, political and legal activities had moved out of agora.•Since the Agora combined many important urban functions (law, government, commerce, industry, religion, sociability, it was the most vital and distinctive element of the city.

WEAKNESS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE POLIS

Apart from the craftsmen (citizens of low degree, foreigners or even slaves), trade activities were in the hands of foreigners.

These foreigners (money making people) were a politically excluded minority.

Trade has been an inferior occupation for the Greek. Business and industry were not included in the education of the Greek.

As business increases, number of foreigners increases and there was a gap between the citizens and a ‘dominant minority’.

Although ‘democracy’ is a significant part of the Greek culture, many of the citizens of the city (Athens) didn’t have the means to live the leisured aristocratic life.

  The foreign trader in the fifth century Greek economy played a part not dissimilar to

that which the Jew played in the Christian economy of the medieval town: Needed but not wanted.

Population of Athens (at its peak): 40,000 citizens (male) 150,000 free people (metics, women and children) 100.000 slaves

The GYMNASIUM

The gymnasium functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games.

It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual recreations.

Mostly located at the outskirts

THE THEATRE

Arose out of the religious festivals

Entered into the urban scene as an urban institution at about the same time with gymnasium.

First at the agora, then established itself on the slope of a hill on the outskirts.

The drama symbolized the route of urban development.

When the religious connections were broken, the theatre remained as one of the distinguished elements of the classic city.

HOUSES

Very simpleBuilt of unbaked brick with tiled roof A major proportion of the cityIn Athens:Quarters of rich and poor were side by

side.To some degree sanitary facilities were

available.

HELLENISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND URBANITY

The Greek city was a community that was determined for its own good to remain small. Natural constraints have forced them to think that way. Thus the Greek city was small in size (in general).

The good life depended upon intimacy and small numbers.

City growth had been controlled by ORDERLY COLONIZATION.

When a Polis sent out a colony, it made no effort to expand either its territorial or its economic domination:

It sought only to reproduce conditions similar to those of the mother city.

After 300BC the Polis no longer was internally strong enough to challenge:

The political tyranny The class divisions The unsuccessful wars all characterizing the ancient city.

FROM DISORDER TO REGULAR

From 7th century on the Greek cities developed along two different ways:

Largely spontaneous, irregular, organic (Greek mainland:the spirit of the acropolis dominated)

Systematic and regular poleis of Ionia, Asia Minor (the spirit of the agora) Miletus by Hippodamus (Milesian layout)

Grid-iron plan streets of uniform width; city blocks of uniform dimensions

Geometrical order, once established in the general plan of the city, penetrated its architectural conceptions.

Agora in Miletus was a formal rectangle, surrounded by a wall of shops on at least three sides.

ATHENS

PRIENNE