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The Light of Alexandria By James Maynard Chapter Two - Why Ionia? View as .PDF Ionia was a series of small city-states in what is now western Turkey, in Asia Minor and a chain of small islands off the coast of Greece, in the Aegean Sea. Although they all used the same alphabet and spoke nearly the same language, they employed four different dialects, including one peculiar one which was only spoken on the island of Samos. A series of invasions by the Dorians, a nomadic people, created a dark age in the Aegean world, which lasted three hundred years, from 1200 to 900 BCE. The areas of Ionia and Asia Minor were first populated by mainland Greeks when they were kicked out of Athens after the fall of monarchy there after the year 1000 BCE. In the years leading up to the Ionian awakening, Mycenae1, which had been a dominant force in the region, began to fall. The Dorians, a people driven from their lands and unwelcome anywhere else in the Aegean world, burned the citadels of Mycenae and conquered their capital city. The people of Greece then began to populate the islands of the Aegean and Asia Minor and took up residence in twelve cities on the western coast of Asia Minor, including Miletus, Clazomenae and Ephesus. This was the height of classical Greek Paganism as people worshipped Zeus and Apollo, Aphrodite and Athena, among others. They built a great Temple to Hera in Olympia, Greece that stands to this day. Wearing purple became popular throughout the Mediterranean and fabrics were produced which were dyed with alum and purple snails. The ninth century BCE was the time of Homer, who wrote The Odyssey and The Iliad, two of the ancient world’s greatest works. Both of these books center around the Trojan War which legend tells ended in 1184 BCE, during the dark ages of the Aegean. This war, once thought to be a myth, is now likely to have been based on an historical event. Possibly, the events surrounding the Trojan Horse actually occurred, and the city lost the war due to history’s greatest deception. But this was not a war of swords. Bronze bends easily and so swords and daggers were likely a weapon of last resort for soldiers of the bronze age. Most probably, the Trojan War was fought almost exclusively with spears. When the Aegean woke from its collective sleep, they would emerge like a butterfly from a moth’s cocoon, from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age. It seems strange to many people that the Iron Age (in most societies) came after the Bronze Age. However, this had to do with the melting point of the various materials. Ancient kilns could barely melt the copper needed for bronze (90% copper, 10% tin) and fell several hundred degrees short of the 1500+ degrees Celsius (2800 degrees Fahrenheit) required to melt pure iron. Much of this early iron was likely found in the form of a nickel-iron alloy within meteorites. Even stony meteorites (which make up about 90% of all meteorites) still contain a significant portion of this nickel-iron compound. Until about 800 BCE, the Greek alphabet (which was based on Semitic-Phoenician letters, to which they added vowels) used only capital letters. Meanwhile, the Chinese developed their full written script about this same time and the Hebrews developed their own alphabet and began to write literature. Later, as the classical Greek city-states continued to form, they would soon gather together into the Ionian Confederacy. At the beginning of the eighth century BCE, some Greeks began to settle on the coast of Spain. Later, other Greeks began to settle in Southern Italy, founding Messina and Syracuse, in Sicily; the Spartans founded Taranto, another southern Italian city. This century also saw the First Messenian War – the first of three conflicts between Sparta and nearby Messenia. The overt cause of this war was the fear of the people of Messenia concerning rapidly expanding Spartan influence and dominance of the area. This revolt leads to the forming of the government and social structure of Sparta into a well-run war machine, under the leadership of Lycurgus. Round one found Sparta the victor, controlling the eastern part of southwestern Greece. The people of Ionia saw a flourishing of arts and crafts; they began to create pottery with geometric patterns, along with intricately carved griffins (which were used as furniture legs), carefully crafted carpeting and embroidery, along with carvings made from stone. They also produced kouros statues, which were bronze statues of nude youthful athletes, first small, later life-size or larger. Other popular figurines included kores (a standing, draped young woman) and small statuettes of seated matronly women. By the time of the birth of Thales, Athens had flooded the Mediterranean markets with vases, which usually had a black background with raised red and white figures sculpted upon them. The first Olympic games were held in 776 BCE and the author of the day was Hesiod, whose most famous poem, Works and Days, followed Greek rural life throughout five ages, from a pristine, idyllic past, up to the his time, the Iron Age. This also reflected the widespread feeling in ancient Greece that the poor should receive little sympathy, unless they also gave of themselves. For in this work, Hesiod states “Give to one who gives, but do not give to one who does not give”2. That does not mean that charity was unheard of in ancient Greece, but that many people gave freely to their communities, as opposed to individuals. Approximately twenty years after Hesiod wrote Works and Days, a new city state would form in Italy, which would later come to have a great effect on Ionia and the rest of the world as Rome was founded upon seven hills in the western central arm of the Italian Peninsula. The people of this city would go on to form the greatest republic the world had ever seen and then fall into an often despotic dictatorship as the future people of this empire-to-be began to rule the Mediterranean world. 
There were other powers already on the Italian Peninsula that would challenge Rome in the early years of the city. The most powerful and dominant of these were the Etruscans. Originally either from Lydia or perhaps Italian natives, this society was ritualistic and exercised great control over her people. Even family life was dominated by an all-powerful government. They would also extended their control over much of the Italian mainland throughout the sixth century BCE. The Etruscans were a people acclaimed for their gifts of prophecy and known for being great builders; it was from the Etruscans that the Romans learned to build aqueducts. They were also the first civilization of which we know that constructed marble statues and clay figures of people. The role of women in Etruscan culture was a dichotomy. In many ways, they were expected to be very subservient, not only to their husbands, but to any man who desired and evening with her. During their drinking parties, couples would pair up for lovemaking, often within sight of each other. In addition, every Etruscan woman was expected to prostitute herself once in her lifetime. 
However, the Etruscan women were also given freedoms that even the Greeks and Romans would never extend to their women. The Etruscan women were allowed to go to public events and sit with the men; this was unheard of in the ancient world. More importantly, Etruscan women kept their names after marriage and the names of their children would reference their mother and perhaps their father. Unlike all of the other ancient Mediterranean civilizations, the Etruscan households were guided largely by the woman of the house, who had great discretion in how to raise her children and in her style of dress. Many of the Greeks and Romans considered these traditions barbaric, but the question needs to be asked about how much of this was due to actually moral reprehension. After all, the Romans were famous for their public adult activities after a dinner and night of drinking, as well. It is possible that much of this apprehension was due to their distaste of the public and home life of the Etruscan women. It was from the Etruscan alphabet that the Romans would develop their own alphabet, which (with a few modifications) we use today in English. Their language, however, was totally unlike all the other languages in Europe. It appears to have developed entirely independently of any outside influence. Etruscan art (used strictly for practical and religious purposes) also greatly influenced later Roman art works, as well. 
One practical Etruscan development used later in Rome was their style of helmet for the military. This helmet allowed easy visibility, while still providing a good deal of protection for the soldier wearing it. Eventually, the Roman military uniform would be a mixture of the best armor found among other civilizations, but the “Roman” helmet seen so often in movies and pictures was taken directly from the Etruscans. Another adaptation from the Etruscans by the Romans was the method of dress; The Etruscan style toga became a Roman favorite, when people wore them, which was not as often as many might believe. Most citizens of Greece and Rome wore a tunic and the ones who did wear a toga, usually over a tunic. At first, Rome was a monarchy, but the post of king was not an inherited position, as it is in most cultures. For the early Romans elected their kings, who served until they died. Many Romans were brave, but they were also a superstitious people, believing in the power of omens and living their lives at least partly to please the Gods, who they saw all around them. Early Rome was made up largely of escaped slaves, bandits and mercenaries. This early influence produced a population that would not lie passive in the face of tyranny or aggression. When the threat came from the outside, they became the finest fighting force in the world, carrying symbols of their mascot, the wolf. When the threat of tyranny came from within, they were the most dangerous subjects any leader could imagine and no leader was safe. The Romans had a tradition in declaring war that existed (in a sense) even into the late Republic, in the first century BCE. War could not be declared solely by the king, or the later consuls. They would bring their grievances first to the potential enemy themselves and make an offer that would avert war. If the land in question did not accept these terms, the proposal of a declaration of war would go before a panel of high priests, known as the Fetiales. Once this board determined that the war was just, a member of their group would head to the border of the land in question and throw a spear into the land of the enemy. Only then was war officially declared. As the Republic grew larger and it became difficult to bring these members of the Fetiales to the actual border in question, the Senate would dedicate a portion of the Senate room to the country or city-state to be attacked and the spear would be thrown into that instead. Rugged survivalists, the Ionians were a strong and determined people. The area they chose to live in was marginal for farming and they quickly found they could grow little but olives and a few grapes for wine. In fact, the nature of growing olives played a significant part in the development of Mediterranean culture and social organization, for the olive tree is not a labor-intensive crop, but it does require a great deal of patience, stability and an investment in long-term care, as it does not bear fruit for the first ten or twelve years. Therefore, the people of the area could not live a nomadic lifestyle; once the trees were planted, the farmers needed to tend their crops for over a decade in order to reap the benefits of its fruitful bounty. For in addition to olives as food, the fruit was also the most important source of soap and fuel for the people of this time and place. Olive trees also survive through severe summer droughts, thereby not requiring the type of mass collective construction projects required in Egypt for irrigation farming. Thus, people gathered in smaller groups, with more of an emphasis on local politics and community. Whereas the irrigation-farming societies suffered greatly when the central bureaucracy inevitably fell apart from time to time, causing mass starvation and pestilence, the smaller, decentralized communities of the Aegean could quickly recover from natural and manmade disasters. Turning to the sea for survival (not to mention a break from eating olives and grapes), they found themselves surrounded by two great maritime powers: the Babylonians to the east and the Egyptians to the west. 
Science never took root in either Babylon, nor in Egypt. The climates there were regular and the people believed that all they would ever need to know was knowledge needed for the day-to-day life of an agricultural society. If they knew when to plant which crops and how to take care of them, then they had all the information needed for life. The Egyptians had a strange flirtation with science, but again, it was mainly directed towards the practical problems of everyday life, such as answering the question “When is the Nile going to flood again?” The greater questions of life were answered, for them, by a great belief in the super natural and a rich and varied afterlife. This was not the case in Ionia. There, the marginal land, hostile neighbors and the fact they had no room for expansion made these people begin to think differently. The lack of any official state religion made the people of Ionia reject the idea of theocratic kings and instead, they governed their city-states by consent of the slave owners. The slaves in ancient Ionia were debtors, who were slaves to their creditor until the debt was paid off and then they were released. 
In the sixth and seventh centuries BCE, the Lydians, who lived in what is now northwest Turkey, ruled the whole region. They were known at that time for the splendor of their magnificent capital, Sardis. In their greatest contribution to our own time, they first introduced coins as a method of exchange for goods and services. The coins were made of electrum (60% gold and 40% silver) and were traded throughout Ionia and Greece. The Lydians also gave us the word tyrant, which, in the language of Lydia, meant lord. Their government was a series of oligarchies: rule by the few. By this time, the Ionians had established great trading routes dealing in copper, gum, grains and salt, among other products. To aid their trade, they produced the first maps we know of today. 
This same era also saw an explosive growth in epic poetry and song, sung to the accompaniment of lyre and a type of flute known as a tibia. Tibiae (the plural of tibia) were often made of wood and later, bone (sometimes even human bone). Players who were proficient with this instrument would sometimes even play two of them at once, providing their own harmony. This instrument would remain popular, even through the Roman Empire . When life would end for these Greeks and Ionians, the body was carefully washed and anointed with oils. The deceased was then wrapped in two layers of cloth and a gathering was held. At the ceremony, people would sing music and play instruments, later bringing the body to a cemetery, where they would be buried in the ground and memorialized through either a stele (similar to a tombstone) or, if they could afford it, a small bust upon the grave. By 545 BCE, a Persian defeat of the Lydians left the area under the control of a distant empire (roughly modern Iran), barely able to keep an eye on their distant quarry. This encouraged Ionian society to an even greater level of respect and desire for diversity and competition. There were over two hundred major religions in Ionia, but a few individuals chose to believe none at all. The alphabet of the Ionians was the most important of the Eastern Greek alphabets and the version used in Miletus was later made the official alphabet of Athens in 403 BCE. It was partly the development of this rich, complex way of communicating that made the Ionian language the first one to ever be both complex and flexible enough to allow scientific discussion of any depth. Even with the first light of science, the seeds of its destruction were already being sown. For although Greece and Ionia would offer the world great minds, theories and discoveries, there was little innovation for the common person. Most of this early scientific advance was considered “off limits” for those who were not philosophers. This created a paradigm in the minds of the Ionian people that there were certain castes of intellect which those who wished to learn should never cross. The advances in science and technology were never made available to the common person, who saw little reason to believe or trust the scientists. There was little experiment in the ancient world, but experiment started at nearly the same time as true scientific theory. A man named Anaximander was the first experimental scientist and he was best of friends with the first theoretician, Thales of Miletus. 1 Homer refers to this city in the Odyssey and the Iliad, calling her people the Achaeans. 2Finley, M.I. The Ancient Economy. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1973. © Copyright 2005 James Maynard |
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