13.1 - mediterranean europe

Europe:Europe:Mediterranean EuropeMediterranean Europe

Not surprisingly, this is the area of southern Europe around the Mediterranean Sea.

• One of the prominent civilizations in this area was the Ancient Greeks.

Greece: the basis of the West

Some important places -

Athens

Sparta

Corinth

Thebes

Olympia

Troy

Ephesus

The Greeks didn’t stay put in Greece or the Aegean, though. They colonized all over the Mediterranean

As your book notes, geography helped shaped Greek civilization

• Rugged rocky terrain meant that the interaction, communication, and ability to travel that’s necessary for empire was difficult

• The cities developed as city-states and were fiercely independent. They each also developed their own government and sub-culture while remaining Greek.

• The Greeks were pretty proud of themselves. The ability to speak Greek marked one as civilized. Those who couldn’t (or whose first language wasn’t Greek) were barbarians.

• In fact, ‘barbarian’ comes from the Greek word barbaros. That’s because it sounded to the Greeks like non-Greeks were just going “Bar bar bar bar.”

Athenian

hoplite

Spartan

hoplite

Due to the equipment, fighting could be a trial of endurance as much as anything.

• Those bronze helmets, chest plates, and greaves didn’t have ventilation

• The average daytime temperatures in Greece in the summer can be in the 80’s and 90’s.

The aspis was made out of wood (maybe bronze) and was concave in shape. It reached from shoulder to knee and was carried on the left arm. It usually had a decoration on it that identified the hoplite or city-state and which was also meant to intimidate their opponents.

The cuirass was made out of bronze and came in several varieties.

• It could just cover the front, or it would front and back pieces.

• It was bell-shaped or muscled.

• Some versions reached all the down near the groin, while others stopped at the waist (especially for cavalry).

• Your shield overlapped with the guy next to you in the phalanx line and so helped protect him as well as yourself.

An actual curiass from the 500’s BC

A modern recreation of a bell cuirass that follows the design of the actual one from the previous slide.

Bell cuirass illustrations.

Muscle cuirass illustrations

• Note those little loops.

• You put a strap through them to tighten the pieces together and then you slipped a pin through the hinge.

Modern recreation of a muscle cuirass.

The purpose of the cuirass (obviously) was to protect the body from sword or spear strikes.

Actual Greek helmets (Corinthian style)

Modern recreations of helmets

The purpose of the nose and cheek guards wasn’t merely to protect the nose and cheeks. It was also to deflect blade blows away from the body. Note how the helmet flares out at the bottom.

• Note how little room you had to see. It made holding formations all the more important.

Greaves were shin guards worn on, well, the lower legs.

• They varied in length and often wrapped around the leg.

With all these pieces, the hoplite was almost completely protected.

• The only exposed body parts were the feet, neck, and right arm. The rest were either armored or covered by the shield.

The main offensive weapon was the spear.

• You would usually fight overhand as we’ll see.

• Also had a spear butt spike in case the spear broke.

• This was sometimes a problem as you could accidentally stab the guy behind you.

• The butt spike could also be used to dispatch fallen enemies.

Modern recreations of a butt spike (top) and spearhead.

• The spearhead was iron while the butt spike was bronze.

The xiphos was only used if the spear was broken and lost. Here’s a modern recreation.

Fighting positions.

As I said (a long time ago), the Greeks fought in the phalanx formation.

• This was a rectangular formation, typically about eight men deep and however long across both the hoplite numbers and terrain allowed.

• They were in rows and columns. The job of the men in the back were to push forward on the ranks in front to help maintain the front line as well to move up and replace the guy at the front should he fall.

Here are a few illustrations of what the Greek battle by phalanx would have looked like.

Here are a few illustrations of Greek warfare from Greek vases.

You can see why keep the formation was so important.

• If the front ranks broke, the entire phalanx could fall apart as opposing soldiers got in.

• The shields created a wall.

The great acropolis is built up during the golden age

Here’s what it looks like today.

What it would have looked like then.

Placement of stuff on the acropolis.

We could spend a semester talking about everything on the acropolis, but let’s focus in on its most famous structure, the Parthenon.

There’s also the Roman Empire

The armor

• In the early republican days, soldiers wore bronze cuirasses, much like the Greek hoplites.

• These are later worn by just higher ranking officers and were usually nicely decorated.

• They also used chain mail (Lorica Hamata)

• This was a long chain mail shirt that went down to around mid-thigh to the knees.

• It would weigh around 15 pounds and a belt would be worn to take some of the weight off the shoulders and to keep it from flapping around as much.

• Some used Lorica Squamata, or scale armor.

• This was cheaper and easier to produce than chain mail but was less flexible and more vulnerable to attack, especially by upward thrusts that just bypassed the scales.

• The classic Roman armor, though, is the Lorica Segmentata (this is what we call it – we actually don’t know what the Romans called it).

• The lorica segmentata were layered bands of iron riveted to strips of leather.

• It allowed for good degree of movement (which the solid cuirasses lacked) while still offering a solid amount of protection (which the chain mail and scale armor lacked)

• The helmet

• The main one is the imperial Gallic helmet.• It had hinged cheek

guards.

• Also had a front visor and a very wide rear visor for the purpose of deflecting blows (they weren’t for shade).

• Just looking at this helmet and comparing it to the Greek helmet, what does it tell you about how the Romans fought?

• The helmet of a Roman centurion (kinda like a modern day army captain).

The centurion was in charge of the basic battle units. Because he was the mobile field commander, he had to be identifiable and so wore the transverse crest on his helmet (no, it wasn’t Mohawk or Mandinka style).

Actual Roman helmets

Top down view

Back view

One more

• The scutum

• The shield. It was a about 3 to 4 feet in length and was curved in a semicircle.

• It would be held by a handle right about where that pommel is. The pommel protected your hand and could also be used to whack an enemy in the face.

• The top and bottom would also be lined with metal. This enabled both the ends to be used offensively. Why bother using your sword to dispatch an enemy when a shield blow to the throat will work just as well?

• It was made of strips of wood, so it was lightweight, but strong.

• The shields would overlap each other in battle.

The weapons

The Gladius

• This was a short thrusting sword about 22 inches long and weighed about 3 pounds.

• The gladius was worn on the right side and drawn out with one hand (you didn’t want to risk cutting the guys to your side by bringing it across your body).

• The pilum

• A throwing spear (javelin) about 6 feet long.

• It had a pyramidal iron tip and a narrow iron shaft that attached to the main, heavy wooden shaft.

• A legionary carried two into battle. Shortly before engaging the enemy, he would throw both.

• The weight of the wood combined with the throw on that narrow point would drive it through most shields, armor, and flesh.

• The narrow iron shaft would almost immediately bend and deform, no matter what it hit.

• This made it a non-returnable weapon. If it hit the ground, the enemy couldn’t pick it up and throw it back. It was useless after one use.

• The tip’s shape also meant that it couldn’t be removed. If it hit your shield, you had a heavy bent spear hanging off of it. You either had to leave it, thus making your shield extremely unwieldy or you had to throw away your shield, leaving you defenseless.

• Brilliant!

• So one guy throwing a pilum, not too intimidating. What if it was 10 guys like below. Now imagine 100 pila coming your way followed quickly by a second volley. I wouldn’t like it one bit.

So you put it together and…

Artillery

• Ballista

• A bit like a giant crossbow that used torsion springs to propel the arrow or stone.

What’s R. Lee Ermey doing there?

Actual fighting:

• I’ll let this guy tell it:

Up to 500 soldiers would be deployed in a line, shoulder to shoulder facing the enemy. The shield (scutum) is held slightly away from the body so the soldier can move it up and down to block incoming missiles

They would wait for the enemy to come close, then as one they would take a step forward and thrust their scuta into the bodies of faces of the enemy, causing them to lose balance and so render them vulnerable.

The scutum is then withdrawn and the sword (gladius) is thrust into the body of the opponent. Note the way in which the gladius is deployed horizontally to pass between the enemy's ribs into his vital organs.

Starts off with the Eastern Empire and then by the end of his reign had conquered the orange parts.

• The walls were virtually impregnable.

• The Walls of Theodosius were double layered. The inner wall was 16 feet thick and 40 feet tall. It had 96 staggered towers that were 70 feet tall. The external wall was 6.5 feet thick and 28 feet tall. In between the two was a ditch 65 feet wide and 20 feet deep.

Hagia Sophia

• Justinian commissioned the building of one of the world’s great structures (it replaced a version that was burned down during the Nika Riots).

• The solution was pendentives.

Note the large medallions with Arabic writing.

• Causes for the First Crusade

• The Byzantine Empire needed help to retake its lost territories. Though Alexius wasn’t exactly a papal friend, he appealed to Christian unity and hinted at a reconciliation between the western and eastern churches if he got help.

• Urban felt some religious motivation, but also political ones. He could assert some authority over the eastern orthodox church and over European rulers. It was the pope, the religious leader, after all, who was declaring a war on behalf of the European powers.

• Pressure Valve

• Religious zeal had been on the increase around this time. This was a good opportunity to release some of that zeal. It helped that the knights were told that dying while fighting this holy war was a golden salvation ticket to heaven.

• The borders of European Christendom had also stabilized to some extent and all these knights had little better to do with their warrior talents than fight amongst each other and terrorize the peasants. A Crusade would give them something to do and keep them from making trouble in Europe.

“’The bearer of this ticket will go to heaven if getting slaughtered on a Crusade!’ Awesome! I’m gonna be a

knight!”

• Some people just wanted to make a name and fortune for themselves. Seemed like a good opportunity to do so when there wasn’t much of one at home. In fact, most Crusaders who volunteered were peasants.

• And finally, the Italian merchant cities that controlled all the major ports and Mediterranean shipping were all in favor of it. They were cleaning up by transporting all these Crusaders, supplying them with food and arms, getting trade routes, etc. There’s good money to be made in war.

• Causes for the First Crusade

• The Byzantine Empire needed help to retake its lost territories. Though Alexius wasn’t exactly a papal friend, he appealed to Christian unity and hinted at a reconciliation between the western and eastern churches if he got help.

• Urban felt some religious motivation, but also political ones. He could assert some authority over the eastern orthodox church and over European rulers. It was the pope, the religious leader, after all, who was declaring a war on behalf of the European powers.

• Pressure Valve

• Religious zeal had been on the increase around this time. This was a good opportunity to release some of that zeal. It helped that the knights were told that dying while fighting this holy war was a golden salvation ticket to heaven.

• The borders of European Christendom had also stabilized to some extent and all these knights had little better to do with their warrior talents than fight amongst each other and terrorize the peasants. A Crusade would give them something to do and keep them from making trouble in Europe.

“’The bearer of this ticket will go to heaven if getting slaughtered on a Crusade!’ Awesome! I’m gonna be a

knight!”

• Some people just wanted to make a name and fortune for themselves. Seemed like a good opportunity to do so when there wasn’t much of one at home. In fact, most Crusaders who volunteered were peasants.

• And finally, the Italian merchant cities that controlled all the major ports and Mediterranean shipping were all in favor of it. They were cleaning up by transporting all these Crusaders, supplying them with food and arms, getting trade routes, etc. There’s good money to be made in war.

New art

• The Renaissance saw a flourishing of new artistic techniques.

• Medieval art tended to be very flat and nearly always had religious overtones.

• The art that started developing in the Renaissance, however, was different.

• The biggest innovation was the use of perspective.

• When you look at a scene, parallel lines seem to get closer to each other the farther in the distance they go until they meet at a vanishing point. Think of standing on a railroad track and looking down them.

• Renaissance artists started exploiting this optical illusion in their art. The advantage of it is that you created the illusion of a three dimensional image on a flat, two dimensional surface.

• Interestingly, perspective can also be used as to create false perspective, such as here.

• Or in M.C. Escher’s works (though he wasn’t Renaissance).