The homogeneity of the Greek world was reinforced by its festivals and games. The traditional ones, at Olympia, the Isthmus, and Delphi, remained, but many new ones were founded by monarchs and cities eager to build up prestige and cash in on the trade they brought (a continuing tradition, as seen in the frenzied bidding by rival cities to host the modern Olympics). Their ambition was to make their games isolympios, equal in prestige to the Olympic Games. Some games were set up in honour of a dead king (the Ptolemeia in Alexandria, for instance, which honoured the memory of Ptolemy I), others to commemorate victories, such as the new games at Delphi established by the Aetolian League to celebrate the city’s defeat of invading Celts in 279 BC. (The shock effect of an attack on the sacred oracle must have resonated as the repulse of the assault was long commemorated.) In a few instances non-Greeks are recorded as participating in these games and carrying off the crowns in chariot races or the athletic events. The Romans were known to compete at the Isthmian Games, and after 189 BC, when Roman influence became predominant in Greece, new festivals sprang up in honour of Rome.
Although traditional cults remained much as they had been, this was, spiritually, a restless age. In the place of the Olympian gods, aspirations focused on personifications such as Tyche, ‘Chance’ or ‘Fortune’, who was worshipped as a semi-divine entity. There was a growing interest in mystery religions, several of which were imported from outside the Greek world. The goddess Isis from Egypt, and Cybele, the great mother-goddess from Anatolia, were both adopted into the Greek (and later into the Roman) world and developed their own elaborate initiation cults. Of the traditional Greek gods, worship of Demeter through her mysteries at Eleusis (see p. 243) and of Dionysus proved the most resilient. Restless though this world may have been one can also be positive about the growing range of spiritual alternatives. So long as the gods were not openly mocked and public order maintained there was freedom to explore one’s spirituality in a variety of ways. The most fascinating, if complex, relationships were those developed by eastern kingdoms, that of Asoka the Great (304-232), ruler of the vast Mauryan empire, and the Bactrians, independent from 255, who adapted Greek cults to their own purposes.
As in any mobile and vibrant world, the ambitious knew how to make good money. There is no evidence that the Mediterranean was any richer than it had been. In fact in many areas continuous warfare seems to have made it poorer while the mass of the population depended, as they had always done, on what they could grow for themselves, with no certainty of an agricultural surplus. However, it appears that what wealth there was, from landownership, trade, or a share in the influx of precious
Metals that were released from the east by the conquests of Alexander, was concentrated into fewer hands. Trade probably expanded especially after 200 bc. Much of it was in smaller ships (50 tonnes is suggested by shipwreck evidence, though ships up to 165 tonnes were known) that exploited whatever markets there were as they passed along the coast. Before 225 bc there is very little evidence of any major expansion in the use of coins; after this there is good evidence of new mints and issues suggesting that demand for this medium of exchange was growing.
While the staples, grain, wine, and olive oil, always formed the bulk of goods, there was an increasing range of smaller manufactured goods packed into the empty corners of holds. The inhibitions on public display of wealth that had proved so influential in democratic Athens were relaxed, and the typical home of a cultured family would now boast wall paintings (landscapes were a favourite), mosaics in the reception rooms, and a host of smaller objets d’art in bronze or silver.
The appearance of more comfortable homes reflects a trend towards a more family-centred life. Women were given a higher profile, as can be seen from the wide array of ornaments, diadems, tiaras, earrings, and necklaces which survive. Marriage contracts, of which a few have been found, show that women now gained the right to divorce their husbands if they brought home other women or had children by them. The epigraphs on grave monuments speak freely of the loss felt when a wife dies, a suggestion of mutual affection, or at least the pretence of one. This would have been unheard of in fifth-century Athens. What Sarah Pomeroy in her Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves (New York, 1975) has described as ‘a sophisticated etiquette of romance’ was developing. Vase paintings now show love-making taking place in private (in contrast to the public nature of many sex scenes of the fifth century) and in comfort in bed. Women of the upper classes also enjoyed a higher status in public life. There are examples of women holding public office, and a wealthy woman from Priene donated a reservoir and aqueduct to the city. Women now seem able to deal in land and slaves, borrow money, and even enter horses in the Olympic Games. There is one early fourth-century example of a woman from Sparta being the winning owner in a chariot race at Olympia.
In the cities the richer citizens had lost many of their traditional roles as soldiers and statesmen. In response many became important benefactors of their cities, providing games or donating public buildings or statues, a tradition that lasted for some centuries with impressive results, as can be seen in surviving ruins. In Rhodes there was a long-standing tradition that, at times of famine, the richer classes would help the poor. The motives for these benefactions were varied and difficult to assess. There was undoubtedly an element of social aggrandizement involved in the public display of wealth, but the new rich may also have been defending their position against social upheavals (by the patronage of ‘bread and circuses’) or even profiting by hoarding grain and distributing it at times of famine. Occasionally there is even a mobilizing of the poor. In Sparta king Cleomenes III (ruled 235-219), faced with a declining citizen body and ambitious for expansion in the Peloponnese, freed a large number of helots and integrated them into a citizen army.
World History
