Beaton - A Global History of the Greeks

Did the Greeks really plant the seeds of democracy that some contemporary politicians idealize? What of the monumental Greek revival style buildings that grace many cultural and governmental centers throughout the world? What happened to the cultural foundations that archeologists have uncovered over the years?

These are questions addressed by Roderick Beaton in A Global History of the Greeks (2021). Beginning in 1500 BCE and ending in 2021, Beaton traces the roots and tendrils of Greek thought and culture through the ages and around the world. Mycenae, the Bronze age citadel, provides evidence of the first of these complex societies. Mycenaean warriors conquered Crete by 1450 and turned it into a blended culture between Minoan Crete and Greek-speaking mainland. This culture included an integrated economic structure that supported a population center greater than any that preceded it and fostered trade throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Some sort of systems collapse resulted in the decline of Mycenean dominance around 1200 BCE, signaled by its failure to conquer Troy, an important rival of the age. The population of mainland Greece fell by almost half and cultural and economic prosperity descended into a 'dark age' through 1000 BCE. The darkness lifted around 800 BCE as the Iron Age allowed the Greeks to again move further throughout the Mediterranean, establishing trade with Phoenicians and Etruscans.

Written records improved once the Greeks picked up Phoenician notation systems and combined them with Semitic signs that used "mnemonics for the respective sounds: alf, bet, and so on" (page 61) to form the alphabet. This alphabet improved communication to such a great degree that fields such as history, philosophy, and literature began to emerge. The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (now understood as possibly multiple authors) are transcending evidence of the new importance of language and written records, acquiring a level of prominence almost equivalent to sacred scripture. As movie theaters await the introduction of the story of Odysseus in the summer of 2026, his long journey and its symbolization of a difficult quest will no doubt stir numerous conversations. It's important to recognize that these stories are of an imagined age of heroes rather than reflecting historical evidence.

The growing population centers on the coastlines of the Mediterranean came to be known as polis (poleis in plural) which can be translated as 'city-state.' With ceremonial and trade areas at their centers, the deliberation to organize citizens into a polis led to the idea of reasoned argument in politics (affairs of the people). The three forms of polis known to these settings were rule by one man (tyrannis) rule by the many (demokratia), or rule by the few (oligarchia). The "world's first functioning democracy is usually said to have been created in Athens during the years 508-507 BCE" (page 100). Adding to the richness of the poleis, authors/poets performed in private houses with food and drink (symposium) and philosophoi (lovers of wisdom) emerged for Greeks to look outward to the rest of the known world. A fascinating attempt to negotiate internal struggles and tensions in some of the new democratic institutions was a yearly vote by 'ostrakon" (painted sherd) whereby citizens could vote someone who they believed had been disruptive to be exiled (known to the the origin of 'ostracism').

The "classical age" of Greece from 494 to 404 BCE was an era of conflict as wars between and among Greek city-states and the distant Persians emerged. The Persian/Greek battle of Thermopylae ('hot gates'), struggles between Islam and Christianity, and other conflicts were in many ways a reprisal of the earlier struggles of Athens and Sparta. Resistance to Persian invasion can be seen as the beginning of what historically has been viewed as the conflict of a 'civilized west' and 'barbarous east'. During this age of conflict and perhaps stimulated by it, Socrates emerged as the great philosopher who engaged fellow citizens in dialogue on the purpose of life. For him, "the goal of all human beings was arete" (page 146) meaning 'goodness' and 'virtue'. To not explore this meaning meant resigning oneself to an unexamined life, one not livable for a human being. Almost immediately after Socrates' death, Xenophon and Plato picked up his intellectual legacy. Isocrates extended their historical and philosophical musings into what would be recognized as identity, "understood as a set of values that anyone can aspire to attain" (page 171). Although a hereditary monarch, Phillip II, King of Macedonia, fully embraced these ideas, personifying the Hellenic ideal, and was responsible for an era that attracted painters, sculptors, and philosophers from Athens and other southern Greek cities to the north. Among the most notable was Aristotle who had studied with Plato and would become tutor to Phillip's son, Alexander. No doubt that Aristotle's teaching "that the goal of human life is 'so far as possible to become immortal and to strive in every way to live according to the finest thing that is in us," (page 195) contributed to the heroic aspirations of young Alexander. Influencing, conquering or enveloping numerous cultures along the way, Alexander the Great extended the influence of Hellenism to the farthest reaches of the known world of the day. This success of notable thinkers and leaders is significant because it connects the importance of an examined life to an understanding of identity in a free society and the spread of Hellenic (e.g., Greek) culture through influence and battle.

Beaton traced the idea of Hellenism as it influenced Egypt, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Perhaps the most important influence was Rome as it expelled its last king in 109 BCE and defined its new state as res publica, a state belonging to the people. The rule of Augustus resulted in a 200-year pax romana that expanded continents and spread the ideal of Hellenism that Roman's had incorporated into their views of government and culture. The births of Jesus of Nazareth around 4 BCE and crucifixion in 30 BCE led to the emergence of Christianity. One of its central authors was Paul, whose letters are the oldest Christian texts and were written in Greek due to the continuing influence of Greece on language and culture. Perhaps because of these early Christian texts being in Greek, and their content challenging the abuses of the Roman empire, Christians at different times were persecuted or, under the rule of Constantine, embraced. Both the rejection and adherence to Christianity continued to be controversial and a threat to the Roman empire until its conclusion during the reign of Diocletian in 305 AD.

As I skip chapters that summarized centuries, and fast-forwarding to the present, Beaton declared that the present global movement across national boundaries may be larger and impacting more nation-states but, in some ways, it is not dissimilar from the inclination of Greeks from their earliest days 5,000 years ago. In the "Epilogue" Beaton advised that, with half of those who consider themselves Greek living outside the Hellenic Republic, the story of Greece and its influence is not over. Perhaps the poem by Iranian refugee in Greece, Hiva Panahi, captures the journey of so many over so many generations (p. 505):

We the wandering, We the barefoot, We without space or country, We the burnt and fiery winds. We say you, with those final breaths, that burned a piece of the sea.