'Elliniki Istoria' "Greek History": The History of Greek, (Elliniki), (Romaios); Technological, Military, Social and Political Development and Advancement

By Patrick Tapinou

The book Elliniki Istoria, is a book about all of pre-modern Greek history, with a focus on Greek warfare and the political development of the Greek world, from it's beginnings in the Ancient era until the dawn of the early modern era. So, this book covers the Ancient Greeks from the proto-Greek culture, through to the Greek Bronze Age, Greek Dark Ages, Archaic Greek period, the Classical Age of the Greek World, the Hellenistic Age of the Greeks, and then to the Medieval Greek era of the Byzantine Greeks. The book will seek to enlighten readers on Greek military history and Greek warfare, while showing the sophistication of pre-modern Greek civilization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483661070

Patrick Tapinou

Author Patrick (Panayiotis) Christos Tapinou is a student of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History, studying at the University of Queensland in Brisbane City, in the South-East corner of the State of Queensland in Australia. He is currently working his way through a Bachelor of Arts, with a single combined major in Ancient History and History, with a minor and electives in other areas. He was born in the Brisbane City area in 1990, and has lived in Brisbane for all of his life, with travels to Cyprus and Greece to see some of the historical sites, and to see relatives who live there. Patrick has had a keen interest in history and military history from a young age. He is of Greek Cypriot ethnic descent, and of Greek Orthodox Christian faith, though a moderate Christian, choosing not to subscribe to fundamentalist Christianity. Being of Greek Cypriot descent means that Patrick has a passion for Greek history, and this, combined with his studies in Ancient, Medieval and Modern History (including the study of Greek history in these three eras) at a relatively well ranked university, makes him a good writer of a book about Greek history.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Patrick Tapinou. 520566

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013911588

ISBN:   Softcover   978-1-4836-6105-6

   Hardcover   978-1-4836-6106-3

   EBook      978-1-4836-6107-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 01/31/2017

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

Contents

Acknowledgment

1.0: Introduction

2.0: Proto-Greeks Circa 2000 BCE - 1600 BCE.

3.0: Mycenaean Greece (Or Mycenaean Age) circa 1600 BCE - 1100 BCE.

4.0: Greek Dark Ages or (Dark Age Greece) circa 1100 BCE - 900 BCE.

5.0: Archaic Greek Period (Archaic Greece) circa 900 BCE - 500 BCE.

6.0: Classical Age of Greece circa 479 BCE - 323 BCE

7.0: The World of the Hellenistic Era, Pyrrhos I and Epiros, the Rise of Rome, and the Impact of its Power on the Greeks; circa 322 BC - 272 BC.

8.0: The ‘Medieval Greek Empire’ (Byzantine Greek Empire)

9.0: Byzantine Territorial Progression, and Political and Military History

10.0: Conclusion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pictures

Maps

Acknowledgment

I have worked on this book for much of my adult life. Throughout this time, I have had support from many people who are close to me in my life, as well as many family acquaintances. I would personally like to thank Joshua, my good friend who I met at the University of Queensland at St Lucia during my studies there. He helped me proof-read the book more than a few times, and encouraged me to keep working on the book and to finish it when I had given up on it due to its long and drawn out production. His help was indispensable to me, and I would like to thank him for his past and continued friendship. Joshua and I have a great bond as friends and fellow intellectuals. I would like to thank my immediate family, that is my father Christos, my mother Peggy Frida, my second youngest brother Andreas, and my youngest brother Kyriakos. All four of them encouraged me and drove me to keep working on the book when I had almost given up on it. They were also always there for me when I needed them, and still are always there for me now. I love all four of them with all my heart. My oldest friend and best friend Sebastian, who I have known since grade one at Saint Martins Catholic Primary School in Carina, that is, since we were both five years of age. We have known each-other for the last twenty-one years of our lives. He helped motivate me to continue work on the book when all seemed hopeless, and has been the best friend anyone could ask for, for most of my life, as long as I can remember. I would like to thank Les and Bronwen, a very talented couple and friends of my extended family, who proof-read my book for me when it was in the early stages. Dr’s Caillan and Amelia from the University of Queensland at St Lucia, who were my lecturers in several Ancient History classes, and who gave me pointers on my book after reading over it in their own time, and Associate Professor Tom, who also gave me pointers on the book, and who also lectured over classes that I attended. I would like to thank all of the other lecturers and tutors at the University of Queensland at St Lucia who taught me much about Ancient and Medieval History of all types, but especially that regarding the Greeks, and all of the lecturers and tutors who taught me about any other era of history, and historiography and research skills, skills that I utilized during the writing and research involved in my book. I would like to thank all of my extended family from the Tapinos’, Nicholaou’s, Toumbas’, Toumpas’, Zacharia’s, Trattos’, Pavlou’s, and Tapinou’s, from Australia, Cyprus, Greece, and anywhere else that they might be living. I would also like to thank all of my friends from child-hood, school, university, and anywhere else, who I may not have mentioned. You all knoww who you are, and I thank you for your friendship and support. Finally, I would like to thank the design team, marketing team, production team, and authors representatives, from the self-publishing book company that I am publishing with, XLibris Publishing. They have all done a great job in keeping up with me, putting in place the design and format that I wanted, being patient with me these last three or more years, and helping me achieve this goal.

1.0:Introduction

THROUGHOUT PRE-MODERN HISTORY, THE GREEKS WERE ONE OF THE MOST ADVANCED CIVILISATION IN THE WORLD SPEAKING IN TERMS OF TECHNOLOGY, MILITARY, SOCIETY, LAW, POLITICS, MEDICINE AND OVERALL ACADEMIC AND INTELLECTUAL DISCIPLINES. This goes from as far back as the Greek Bronze Age in 1600 BCE when the Pentekonter was thought to have been invented by the Mycenaean Greeks, or even in circa 700 BCE when the Greeks of the city of Corinth first invented the Trieres (Trireme), until around 146 BCE by which time most of the city-states or states of the Greek world had been absorbed and incorporated into the Roman Empire through either alliances, conquests or becoming protectorates. This was the case with the Greeks again during Byzantine times from circa CE 610 until (if thinking conservatively) CE1025 at the height of Byzantine power at the death of ‘Vasilios Vasili II Vulgaroktanos’ (Emperor Basil 2nd Bulgar-slayer), and quite reasonably until CE 1204, when the 4th Crusade resulted in the sacking of Constantinople, or even possibly until CE 1453 when the empire finally fell. This work will explore the complexity and development of Ancient and Medieval Greek civilization in their heydays, with a focus on Greek military, political, and territorial development.

2.0: Proto-Greeks Circa 2000 BCE - 1600 BCE.

W HEN THE PROTO-GREEKS MIGRATED INTO THE BALKAN PENINSULA, AND THEN GREECE, FROM SOMEWHERE TO THE NORTH OR NORTH-EAST OF THE BALKANS, IN CIRCA 2000 BCE DURING THE BRONZE AGE, they were a relatively average people in terms of their advancement in technology and culture. They knew techniques for farming and the domestication of livestock and were excellent makers of pottery decorated with paintings. They also knew how to work bronze and to use it to make weapons, tools and jewellery. The Greek landscape is largely mountainous, so these settlers moved into suitable areas throughout mainland Greece, such as hills within the rare large and fertile valleys, on equally rare and easily defendable and fertile plateaus, on large hills surrounded by farmland, on coastal harbours protected by hills or without, and on the many fertile habitable islands throughout the Aegean. They soon developed the skills to build, maintain and sail ships and became excellent seafarers using ships such as the stroggula type of vessel. The stroggula was a style of long round ship which was widespread during those times and used by many civilisations around the Mediterranean. This era was known as the Middle Helladic cultural period or Middle Helladic Culture.

Sources –

-Hammond, N. G. L., A History of Greece to 322 B.C. Third Edition, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, Oxford USA,

1986, Chapter 2 Part 1

- Pomeroy, Sarah B.; Burstein, Stanley M.; Donlan, Walter; Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert, Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History Second Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford USA, 2007, Chapter 1, pages 20-22

- Robertson, John Charles; Robertson, Hartley Grant, The Story of Greece and Rome: Their Growth and Their Legacy to Our

Western World, J.M. Dent and Sons, 1947, Chapter 2

- Grundy, George Beardoe, A History Of The Greek And Roman World, Methuen & co., 1926, Chapt

3.0: Mycenaean Greece (Or Mycenaean Age) circa 1600 BCE - 1100 BCE.

BY CIRCA 1600 BCE, THE PROTO GREEKS HAD DEVELOPED INTO A CIVILISATION THAT WE REFER TO AS THE MYCENAEAN CIVILISATION OR MYCENAEAN CULTURE. This was named after one of the earliest discovered Mycenaean sites at Mycenae which was also a major settlement of this civilisation. They had perfected all the previously mentioned skills and were spread out amongst hundreds of cities and towns that would have been considered major settlements for their time. These settlements ranged from semi- autonomous or fully independent kingdom city-states to powerful kingdom-states that controlled several other cities and their surrounding countryside. They were composed of a warrior aristocratic class that was led by a King, all of whom, both king and warriors, ruled over non warrior citizens who specialised in other areas and jobs or professions that were essential to the running of their society, such as pottery makers, farmers, black smiths, merchants, jewellery makers and various others, all of whom had also the previously mentioned early Helladic Era skills. The King and warriors also kept slaves. The King and his essential people or his entourage, and his warriors, and all non-warrior citizens who they required to keep them running, lived in a fortified citadel that was usually located on an easy to defend hill. The rest of the non -warrior citizens lived in the settlement around the citadel that was usually not defended by another set of walls, or lived in the surrounding farmland in the case of the farmers and their families. However, rich or more well off cities had walls protecting the entire settlement, as well as a citadel for the king and aristocracy. The Mycenaean’s were the people who conquered the Minoans on Crete, bringing an end to that civilisation and subsequently adding that island to the lands they populated. This cultural and civilisation era of the Bronze Age that is being discussed, starting from 1600 BCE and lasting until circa 1100 BCE, is called the Late Helladic period when regarding the Greek World.

3.1:

It is from the Minoans that the Mycenaean’s got their writing symbols, the Linear B script, which was a modification of the Minoan Script or Linear A script. The Mycenaean’s had elaborate forms of bronze plate armour suits for the more higher ranking warriors who fought from chariot and fought with large wooden shields covered in animal hide and with long spears, while a lower ranking warrior drove the chariot. There could also be a third man on the chariot as an archer. The average warrior also fought with this large shield and long spear but wore little or no armour. Most warriors also had a bronze sword as a secondary weapon that was kept in a sheath on their belts. Most of the warriors fought in large compact armies as infantry that would keep formation until within charging distance of the enemy at which point they would charge, thrusting with their spears at the enemies and into their ranks then switching to their bronze swords when or if the spears snapped. They were supported by the charioteers on the flanks who would try to use their speed and height to their advantage. A more disciplined, well trained or well led army would instead march into the enemies’ ranks while trying to keep some sort of battle formation in order to minimise confusion and maximise and coordinate the effect on the enemy. Similarities can be seen when comparing the fighting style and tactics of these Mycenaean warriors and the later Greek hoplites. The fact is however that the later had a much more effective and complex set of tactics as they fought in the hoplite phalanx formation, however, it could be argued that the later Greeks might have based hoplite warfare on earlier Mycenaean warfare by modifying and adapting it extensively.

3.12:

By the beginning of their civilisation the Mycenaean Greeks had also begun to establish minor settlements on the coasts of Southern Italy, Eastern Sicily and Western Asia Minor. They had also invented the Pentekonter type of ship, which was a ship with around 50 oars, 25 on each side and with one rower per oar. Most of the men manning the ships were warriors who would be rowing as, or when, it was needed. The rest would be officers. The typical crew of a Pentekonter would be about 60 men, but could sometimes be as high as 120 for larger ships and/or if they were crowded with men. These types of ships were called makra-bleia or long ships. By this time the Greeks were about as advanced as any of the other civilisations of the Mediterranean, though a long way from being the most advanced civilisation at that time. The Mycenaean Greeks flourished from about 1600 BCE until circa 1100 BCE, when their civilisation and several others around the Mediterranean collapsed in a short space of time. This is evidenced by the fact that there has been found no archaeological trace of written records from either the Mycenaeans or any other surrounding cultures dating from circa 1100 BCE to circa 900 BCE and due to the archaeological findings, also dating to this period of time, of burnt and destroyed Mycenaean cities and large numbers of skeletal remains in and around these cities, as well as the same for other civilisations. This period of time is often called the Greek Dark Ages.

Path3959-83.tif

Map 1

Name - Path3959-83.png

Description - Χάρτης του Μυκηναϊκού πολιτισμού 1400-1200 π.Χ. (ανάκτορα, εγκαταστάσεις κλπ.) (Map of Mycenaean Greece 1400-1200 BC: Palaces, main cities and other settlements.)

Source - Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Εκδοτική Αθηνών, τ. Α› χάρτες σε σελ (History of the Greek Nation, Editorial Athens , Vol. I p maps). Wikimedia/Wikipedia user Alexikoua

Location And Time Of Access – Accessed through Wikimedia Commons 15/08/2016

License - Map is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Sources –

- Hammond, N. G. L., A History of Greece to 322 B.C. Third Edition, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, Oxford USA,

1986, Book 1

- Pomeroy, Sarah B.; Burstein, Stanley M.; Donlan, Walter; Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert, Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and

Cultural History Second Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford USA, 2007, Chapter 2, Chapter 1 pages 42-49