Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Classical Greece

The Parthenon, in Athens, a temple to Athena

Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (5th and 4th centuries BCE) in Greek culture.

^[1]This Classicalperiod saw the annexation of much of modern-day Greece by the Persian Empire^[2]and its subsequent independence. Classical Greece had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and on the foundations of western civilization. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought (architecture, sculpture), scientific thought, theatre, literature, and philosophy derives from this period of Greek history. In the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece, the Classical period^[3] corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE (the most common dates being the fall of the last Athenian tyrant in 510 BCE and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE). The Classical period in this sense follows the Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period.

5th century BC

Greece in 5th century BC

 Archaic Greece

Part of a series on the
History of Greece
Neolithic Greece[show]
Greek Bronze Age[show]
Ancient Greece[show]
Medieval Greece[show]
Early modern Greece[show]
Modern Greece[show]
History by topic[show]
Greece portal
v t e

This century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than the other ancient Greek states. From the perspective of Athenian culture in Classical Greece, the period generally referred to as the 5th century BCE extends slightly into the 4th century BCE. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this century occurs in 508 BCE, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant and Cleisthenes’ reforms. However, a broader view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at the Ionian Revoltof 500 BCE, the event that provoked the Persian invasion of 492 BCE.The Persians were defeated in 490 BCE. A second Persian attempt, in 481–479 BCE, failed as well, despite having overrun much of modern-day Greece (north of the Isthmus of Corinth) at a crucial point during the war following the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Artemisium.^[2][4] The Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens’ instrument. Athens’ excesses caused several revolts among the allied cities, all of which were put down by force, but Athenian dynamism finally awoke Sparta and brought about the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. After both forces were spent, a brief peace came about; then the war resumed to Sparta’s advantage. Athens was definitively defeated in 404 BCE, and internal Athenian agitations mark the end of the 5th century BCE in Greece.

Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by a diarchy. This meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty. According to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles, twin descendants of Hercules. They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War.

Athens under Cleisthenes

Main article: Cleisthenes

In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratos. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras. But his rival Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, now supported by the Athenians. Through Cleisthenes’ reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomicinstitutions — equal rights for all citizens (though only men were citizens)—and established ostracism.

The isonomic and isegoric (equal freedom of speech)^[5] democracy was first organized into about 130 demes, which became the basic civic element. The 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of the assembly (ἐκκλησία, ekklesia), headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random.

The city’s administrative geography was reworked, in order to create mixed political groups: not federated by local interests linked to the sea, to the city, or to farming, whose decisions (e.g. a declaration of war) would depend on their geographical position. The territory of the city was also divided into thirty trittyes as follows:

• ten trittyes in the coastal region (παρᾰλία, paralia)
• ten trittyes in the ἄστυ (astu), the urban centre
• ten trittyes in the rural interior, (μεσογεία, mesogia).

A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one from each of the three groups. Each tribe therefore always acted in the interest of all three sectors.

It was this corpus of reforms that allowed the emergence of a wider democracy in the 460s and 450s BC.

The Persian wars

Main article: Greco-Persian Wars

In Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of Turkey), the Greek cities, which included great centres such as Miletus and Halicarnassus, were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of the Persian Empire in the mid-6th century BC. In 499 BC that region’s Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt, and Athens and some other Greek cities sent aid, but were quickly forced to back down after defeat in 494 BC at the Battle of Lade. Asia Minor returned to Persian control.

In 492 BC, the Persian general Mardonius led a campaign through Thrace and Macedonia. He was victorious and again subjugated the former and conquered the latter,^[6] but he was wounded and forced to retreat back into Asia Minor. In addition, a fleet of around 1,200 ships that accompanied Mardonius on the expedition was wrecked by a storm off the coast of Mount Athos. Later, the generals Artaphernesand Datis led a successful naval expedition against the Aegean islands.

In 490 BC, Darius the Great, having suppressed the Ionian cities, sent a Persian fleet to punish the Greeks. (Historians are uncertain about their number of men; accounts vary from 18,000 to 100,000.) They landed in Attica intending to take Athens, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army of 9,000 Athenian hoplites and 1,000 Plataeans led by the Athenian general Miltiades. The Persian fleet continued to Athens but, seeing it garrisoned, decided not to attempt an assault.

In 480 BC, Darius’ successor Xerxes I sent a much more powerful force of 300,000 by land, with 1,207 ships in support, across a double pontoon bridge over the Hellespont. This army took Thrace, before descending on Thessaly and Boeotia, whilst the Persian navy skirted the coast and resupplied the ground troops. The Greek fleet, meanwhile, dashed to block Cape Artemision. After being delayed by Leonidas I, the Spartan king of the Agiad Dynasty, at the Battle of Thermopylae (a battle made famous by the 300 Spartans who faced the entire Persian army), Xerxes advanced into Attica, and captured and burned Athens. The subsequent Battle of Artemisium resulted in the capture of Euboea, bringing most of mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth under Persian control.^[2][4] However, the Athenians had evacuated the city of Athens by sea before Thermopylae, and under the command of Themistocles, they defeated the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis.

Map of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars (500–479 BC)

In 483 BC, during the period of peace between the two Persian invasions, a vein of silver ore had been discovered in the Laurion (a small mountain range near Athens), and the hundreds of talents mined there were used to build 200 warships to combat Aeginetan piracy. A year later, the Greeks, under the Spartan Pausanias, defeated the Persian army at Plataea. The Persians then began to withdraw from Greece, and never attempted an invasion again.

The Athenian fleet then turned to chasing the Persians from the Aegean Sea, defeating their fleet decisively in the Battle of Mycale; then in 478 BC the fleet captured Byzantium. At that time Athens enrolled all the island states and some mainland ones into an alliance called the Delian League, so named because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of Delos. The Spartans, although they had taken part in the war, withdrew into isolation afterwards, allowing Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power.

The Peloponnesian war

Peloponnesian War

Cities at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War

In 431 BC war broke out between Athens and Sparta. The war was a struggle not merely between two city-states but rather between two coalitions, or leagues of city-states:^[7] the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.

Delian league

The Delian League grew out of the need to present a unified front of all Greek city-states against Persian aggression. In 481 BC, Greek city-states, including Sparta, met in the first of a series of « congresses » that strove to unify all the Greek city-states against the danger of another Persian invasion.^[8] The coalition that emerged from the first congress was named the « Hellenic League » and included Sparta. Persia, under Xerxes, invaded Greece in September 481 BC, but the Athenian navy defeated the Persian navy. The Persian land forces were delayed in 480 BC by a much smaller force of 300 Spartans, 400 Thebans and 700 men from Boeotian Thespiae at the Battle of Thermopylae.^[9] The Persians left Greece in 479 BC after their defeat at Plataea.^[10]

Plataea was the final battle of Xerxes’ invasion of Greece. After this, the Persians never again tried to invade Greece. With the disappearance of this external threat, cracks appeared in the united front of the Hellenic League.^[11] In 477, Athens became the recognised leader of a coalition of city-states that did not include Sparta. This coalition met and formalized their relationship at the holy city of Delos.^[12] Thus, the League took the name « Delian League ». Its formal purpose was to liberate Greek cities still under Persian control.^[13]However, it became increasingly apparent that the Delian League was really a front for Athenian hegemony throughout the Aegean.^[14]

Peloponnesian (or Spartan) league

A competing coalition of Greek city-states centred around Sparta arose, and became more important as the external Persian threat subsided. This coalition is known as the Peloponnesian League. However, unlike the Hellenic League and the Delian League, this league was not a response to any external threat, Persian or otherwise: it was unabashedly an instrument of Spartan policy aimed at Sparta’s security and Spartan dominance over the Peloponnesepeninsula.^[15] The term « Peloponnesian League » is a misnomer. It was not really a « league » at all. Nor was it really « Peloponnesian ».^[15] There was no equality at all between the members, as might be implied by the term « league ». Furthermore, most of its members were located outside the Peloponnese Peninsula.^[15] The terms « Spartan League » and « Peloponnesian League » are modern terms. Contemporaries instead referred to « Lacedaemonians and their Allies » to describe the « league ».^[15]

The league had its origins in Sparta’s conflict with Argos, another city on the Peloponnese Peninsula. In the 7th century BC, Argos dominated the peninsula. Even in the early 6th century, the Argives attempted to control the northeastern part of the peninsula. The rise of Sparta in the 6th century brought Sparta into conflict with Argos. However, with the conquest of the Peloponnesian city-state of Tegea in 550 BC and the defeat of the Argives in 546 BC, the Spartans’ control began to reach well beyond the borders of Laconia.

The thirty years peace

Athenian empire.

As the two coalitions grew, their separate interests kept coming into conflict. Under the influence of King Archidamus II (the Eurypontid king of Sparta from 476 BC through 427 BC), Sparta, in the late summer or early autumn of 446 BC, concluded the Thirty Years Peace with Athens. This treaty took effect the next winter in 445 BC^[16] Under the terms of this treaty, Greece was formally divided into two large power zones.^[17] Sparta and Athens agreed to stay within their own power zone and not to interfere in the other’s. Despite the Thirty Years Peace, it was clear that war was inevitable.^[18] As noted above, at all times during its history down to 221 BC, Sparta was a « diarchy » with two kings ruling the city-state concurrently. One line of hereditary kings was from the Eurypontid Dynasty while the other king was from the Agiad Dynasty. With the signing of the Thirty Years Peace treaty Archidamus II felt he had successfully prevented Sparta from entering into a war with its neighbours.^[19] However, the strong war party in Sparta soon won out and in 431 BC Archidamus was forced to go to war with the Delian League. However, in 427 BC, Archidamus II died and his son, Agis II succeeded to the Eurypontid throne of Sparta.^[20]

Causes of the Peloponnesian war

The immediate causes of the Peloponnesian War vary from account to account. However three causes are fairly consistent among the ancient historians, namely Thucydides and Plutarch. Prior to the war, Corinth and one of its colonies, Corcyra (modern-day Corfu), went to war in 435 BC over the new Corcyran colony of Epidamnus.^[21] Sparta refused to become involved in the conflict and urged an arbitrated settlement of the struggle.^[22] In 433 BC, Corcyra sought Athenian assistance in the war. Corinth was known to be a traditional enemy of Athens. However, to further encourage Athens to enter the conflict, Corcyra pointed out how useful a friendly relationship with Corcyra would be, given the strategic locations of Corcyra itself and the colony of Epidamnus on the east shore of the Adriatic Sea.^[23] Furthermore, Corcyra promised that Athens would have the use of Corcyra’s navy, the third-largest in Greece. This was too good of an offer for Athens to refuse. Accordingly, Athens signed a defensive alliance with Corcyra.

The next year, in 432 BC, Corinth and Athens argued over control of Potidaea (near modern-day Nea Potidaia), eventually leading to an Athenian siege of Potidaea.^[24] In 434–433 BC Athens issued the « Megarian Decrees« , a series of decrees that placed economic sanctions on the Megarian people.^[25] The Peloponnesian League accused Athens of violating the Thirty Years Peace through all of the aforementioned actions, and, accordingly, Sparta formally declared war on Athens.

Many historians consider these to be merely the immediate causes of the war. They would argue that the underlying cause was the growing resentment on the part of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over Greek affairs. The war lasted 27 years, partly because Athens (a naval power) and Sparta (a land-based military power) found it difficult to come to grips with each other.

The Peloponnesian war: Opening stages (431–421 BCE)

Sparta’s initial strategy was to invade Attica, but the Athenians were able to retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of plague in the city during the siege caused many deaths, including that of Pericles. At the same time the Athenian fleet landed troops in the Peloponnesus, winning battles at Naupactus (429) and Pylos (425). However, these tactics could bring neither side a decisive victory. After several years of inconclusive campaigning, the moderate Athenian leader Niciasconcluded the Peace of Nicias (421).

A soldier’s helmet on black-figure pottery

The Peloponnesian war: Second phase (418–404 BCE)

In 418 BC, however, conflict between Sparta and the Athenian ally Argos led to a resumption of hostilities. Alcibiades was one of the most influential voices in persuading the Athenians to ally with Argos against the Spartans.^[26] At the MantineaSparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. Accordingly, Argos and the rest of the Peloponnesus was brought back under the control of Sparta.^[26] The return of peace allowed Athens to be diverted from meddling in the affairs of the Peloponnesus and to concentrate on building up the empire and putting their finances in order. Soon trade recovered and tribute began, once again, rolling into Athens.^[26] A strong « peace party » arose, which promoted avoidance of war and continued concentration on the economic growth of the Athenian Empire. Concentration on the Athenian Empire, however, brought Athens into conflict with another Greek state.

The Melian expedition (416 BCE)[edit]

Ever since the formation of the Delian League in 477 BC, the island of Melos had refused to join. By refusing to join the League, however, Melos reaped the benefits of the League without bearing any of the burdens.^[27] In 425 BC, an Athenian army under Cleon attacked Melos to force the island to join the Delian League. However, Melos fought off the attack and was able to maintain its neutrality.^[27] Further conflict was inevitable and in the spring of 416 BC the mood of the people in Athens was inclined toward military adventure. The island of Melos provided an outlet for this energy and frustration for the military party. Furthermore, there appeared to be no real opposition to this military expedition from the peace party. Enforcement of the economic obligations of the Delian League upon rebellious city-states and islands was a means by which continuing trade and prosperity of Athens could be assured. Melos alone among all the Cycladic Islands located in the south-west Aegean Sea had resisted joining the Delian League.^[27] This continued rebellion provided a bad example to the rest of the members of the Delian League.

The debate between Athens and Melos over the issue of joining the Delian League is presented by Thucydides in his Melian Dialogue.^[28]The debate did not in the end resolve any of the differences between Melos and Athens and Melos was invaded in 416 BC, and soon occupied by Athens. This success on the part of Athens whetted the appetite of the people of Athens for further expansion of the Athenian Empire.^[29] Accordingly, the people of Athens were ready for military action and tended to support the military party, led by Alcibiades.

The Sicilian expedition (415–413 BCE)

The greek theater in Taormina

Thus, in 415 BC, Alcibiades found support within the Athenian Assembly for his position when he urged that Athens launch a major expedition against Syracuse, a Peloponnesian ally in Sicily.^[30] Segesta, a town in Sicily, had requested Athenian assistance in their war with another Sicilian town — the town of Selinus. Although Nicias was a sceptic about the Sicilian Expedition, he was appointed along with Alcibiades to lead the expedition.^[31]

Artemision Bronze, thought to be either Poseidon or Zeus, c. 460 BCE, National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Found by fishermen off the coast of Cape Artemisium in 1928. The figure is more than 2 m in height.

However, unlike the expedition against Melos, the citizens of Athens were deeply divided over Alcibiades’ proposal for an expedition to far-off Sicily. In June 415 BC, on the very eve of the departure of the Athenian fleet for Sicily, a band of vandals in Athens defaced the many statues of the god Hermes that were scattered throughout the city of Athens.^[32] This action was blamed on Alcibiades and was seen as a bad omen for the coming campaign.^[33] In all likelihood, the coordinated action against the statues of Hermes was the action of the peace party.^[34] Having lost the debate on the issue, the peace party was desperate to weaken Alcibiades’ hold on the people of Athens. Successfully blaming Alcibiades for the action of the vandals would have weakened Alcibiades and the war party in Athens. Furthermore, it is unlikely that Alcibiades would have deliberately defaced the statues of Hermes on the very eve of his departure with the fleet. Such defacement could only have been interpreted as a bad omen for the expedition that he had long advocated.

Even before the fleet reached Sicily, word arrived to the fleet that Alcibiades was to be arrested and charged with sacrilege of the statues of Hermes, prompting Alcibiades to flee to Sparta.^[35] When the fleet later landed in Sicily and the battle was joined, the expedition was a complete disaster. The entire expeditionary force was lost and Nicias was captured and executed. This was one of the most crushing defeats in the history of Athens.

Alcibiades in Sparta

Meanwhile, Alcibiades betrayed Athens and became a chief advisor to the Spartans and began to counsel them on the best way to defeat his native land. Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to begin building a real navy for the first time — large enough to challenge the Athenian superiority at sea. Additionally, Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to ally themselves with their traditional foes — the Persians. As noted below, Alcibiades soon found himself in controversy in Sparta when he was accused of having seduced Timaea, the wife of Agis II, the Eurypontid king of Sparta.^[20] Accordingly, Alcibiades was required to flee from Sparta and seek the protection of the Persian Court.

Persia intervenes

In the Persian court, Alcibiades now betrayed both^{[clarification needed]} by helping Sparta build a navy commensurate with the Athenian navy. Alcibiades advised that a victory of Sparta over Athens was not in the best interest of the Persian Empire. Rather, long and continuous warfare between Sparta and Athens would weaken both city-states and allow the Persians to dominate the Greek peninsula.

Among the war party in Athens, a belief arose that the catastrophic defeat of the military expedition to Sicily in 415–413 could have been avoided if Alcibiades had been allowed to lead the expedition. Thus, despite his treacherous flight to Sparta and his collaboration with Sparta and later with the Persian court, there arose a demand among the war party that Alcibiades be allowed to return to Athens without being arrested. Alcibiades negotiated with his supporters on the Athenian-controlled island of Samos. Alcibiades felt that « radical democracy » was his worst enemy. Accordingly, he asked his supporters to initiate a coup to establish an oligarchy in Athens. If the coup were successful Alcibiades promised to return to Athens In 411, a successful oligarchic coup was mounted in Athens, by a group which became known as « the 400 ». However, a parallel attempt by the 400 to overthrow democracy in Samos failed. Alcibiades was immediately made an admiral (navarch) in the Athenian navy. Later, due to democratic pressures, the 400 were replaced by a broader oligarchy called « the 5000 ». Alcibiades did not immediately return to Athens. In early 410, Alcibiades led an Athenian fleet of 18 triremes against the Persian-financed Spartan fleet at Abydos near the Hellespont. The Battle of Abydos had actually begun before the arrival of Alcibiades, and had been inclining slightly toward the Athenians. However, with the arrival of Alcibiades, the Athenian victory over the Spartans became a rout. Only the approach of nightfall and the movement of Persian troops to the coast where the Spartans had beached their ships saved the Spartan navy from total destruction.

Following Alcibiades’ advice, the Persian Empire had been playing Sparta and Athens off against each other. However, as weak as the Spartan navy was after the Battle of Abydos, the Persian navy directly assisted the Spartans. Alcibiades then pursued and met the combined Spartan and Persian fleets at the Battle of Cyzicus later in the spring of 410, achieving a significant victory.

Lysander and the end of the war

Sparta then built a fleet, with the financial help of the Persians, to challenge Athenian naval supremacy, and found a new military leader in Lysander, who attacked Abydos and seized the strategic initiative by occupying the Hellespont, the source^{[clarification needed]} of Athens’ grain imports.^[36] Threatened with starvation, Athens sent its last remaining fleet to confront Lysander, but he decisively defeated it at Aegospotami(405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with bankruptcy. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. Lysander abolished the democracy and appointed in its place an oligarchy called the « Thirty Tyrants » to govern Athens.

Meanwhile, in Sparta, Timaea gave birth to a child. The child was given the name Leotychidas, after the great grandfather of Agis II — King Leotychidas of Sparta. However, because of Timaea’s alleged affair with Alcibiades, it was widely rumoured that the young Leotychidas was fathered by Alcibiades.^[20] Indeed, Agis II refused to acknowledge Leotychidas as his son until he relented, in front of witnesses, on his deathbed in 400 BC.^[37]

Upon the death of Agis II, Leotychidas attempted to claim the Eurypontid throne for himself, but this was met with an outcry, led by Lysander, who was at the height of his influence in Sparta.^[37]Lysander argued that Leotychidas was a bastard and could not inherit the Eurypontid throne;^[37] instead he backed the hereditary claim of Agesilaus, son of Agis by another wife. With Lysander’s support, Agesilaus became the Eurypontid king as Agesilaus II, expelled Leotychidas from the country, and took over all of Agis’ estates and property.

4th century BC

 Spartan hegemony and Theban hegemony

Grave relief of Thraseas and Euandria from Athens, 375–350 BC, Pergamon Museum (Berlin)

The end of the Peloponnesian War left Spartathe master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role.^[38]Within a few years the democratic party regained power in Athens and in other cities. In 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth, the latter two former Spartan allies, challenged Sparta’s dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC. That same year Sparta shocked the Greeks by concluding the Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia. The agreement turned over the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus, reversing a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Sparta then tried to further weaken the power of Thebes, which led to a war in which Thebes allied with its old enemy Athens.

Then the Theban generals Epaminondas and Pelopidas won a decisive victory at Leuctra (371 BC). The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of Theban dominance, but Athens herself recovered much of her former power because the supremacy of Thebes was short-lived. With the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea (362 BC) the city lost its greatest leader and his successors blundered into an ineffectual ten-year war with Phocis. In 346 BC the Thebans appealed to Philip II of Macedon to help them against the Phocians, thus drawing Macedon into Greek affairs for the first time.^[39]

The Peloponnesian War was a radical turning point for the Greek world. Before 403 BC, the situation was more defined, with Athens and its allies (a zone of domination and stability, with a number of island cities benefiting from Athens’ maritime protection), and other states outside this Athenian Empire. The sources denounce this Athenian supremacy (or hegemony) as smothering and disadvantageous.^[40]

After 403 BC, things became more complicated, with a number of cities trying to create similar empires over others, all of which proved short-lived. The first of these turnarounds was managed by Athens as early as 390 BC, allowing it to re-establish itself as a major power without regaining its former glory.

The fall of Sparta

This empire was powerful but short-lived. In 405 BC, the Spartans were masters of all – of Athens’ allies and of Athens itself – and their power was undivided. By the end of the century, they could not even defend their own city. As noted above, in 400 BC, Agesilaus became king of Sparta.^[41]

Foundation of a Spartan empire

The subject of how to reorganize the Athenian Empire as part of the Spartan Empire provoked much heated debate among Sparta’s full citizens. The admiral Lysander felt that the Spartans should rebuild the Athenian empire in such a way that Sparta profited from it. Lysander tended to be too proud to take advice from others.^[42] Prior to this, Spartan law forbade the use of all precious metals by private citizens, with transactions being carried out with cumbersome iron ingots (which generally discouraged their accumulation) and all precious metals obtained by the city becoming state property. Without the Spartans’ support, Lysander’s innovations came into effect and brought a great deal of profit for him – on Samos, for example, festivals known as Lysandreia were organized in his honour. He was recalled to Sparta, and once there did not attend to any important matters.

A Kylix (drinking cup) from Attica showing a goddess performing a libation, 470 BC, white ground technique pottery

Sparta refused to see Lysander or his successors dominate. Not wanting to establish a hegemony, they decided after 403 BC not to support the directives that he had made.

Agesilaus came to power by accident at the start of the 4th century BC. This accidental accession meant that, unlike the other Spartan kings, he had the advantage of a Spartan education. The Spartans at this date discovered a conspiracy against the laws of the city conducted by Cinadon and as a result concluded there were too many dangerous worldly elements at work in the Spartan state.

Agesilaus employed a political dynamic that played on a feeling of pan-Hellenic sentiment and launched a successful campaign against the Persian empire.^[43] Once again, the Persian empire played both sides against each other. The Persian Court supported Sparta in the rebuilding of their navy while simultaneously funding the Athenians, who used Persian subsidies to rebuild their long walls (destroyed in 404 BC) as well as to reconstruct their fleet and win a number of victories.

For most of the first years of his reign, Agesilaus had been engaged in a war against Persia in the Aegean Sea and in Asia Minor.^[44] In 394 BC, the Spartan authorities ordered Agesilaus to return to mainland Greece. While Agesilaus had a large part of the Spartan Army in Asia Minor, the Spartan forces protecting the homeland had been attacked by a coalition of forces led by Corinth.^[45] At the Battle of Haliartus the Spartans had been defeated by the Theban forces. Worse yet, Lysander, Sparta’s chief military leader, had been killed during the battle.^[46] This was the start of what became known as the « Corinthian War » (395 BCE – 387 BCE).^[43] Upon hearing of the Spartan loss at Haliartus and of the death of Lysander, Agesilaus headed out of Asia Minor, back across the Hellespont, across Thrace and back towards Greece. At the Battle of Coronea, Agesilaus and his Spartan Army defeated a Theban force. During the war, Corinth drew support from a coalition of traditional Spartan enemies — Argos, Athens and Thebes.^[47] However, when the war descended into guerilla tactics, Sparta decided that it could not fight on two fronts and so chose to ally with Persia.^[47] The long Corinthian War finally ended with the Peace of Antalcidas or the King’s Peace, in which the « Great King » of Persia, Artaxerxes II, pronounced a « treaty » of peace between the various city-states of Greece which broke up all « leagues » of city-states on Greek mainland and in the islands of the Aegean Sea. Although this was looked upon as « independence » for some city-states, the effect of the unilateral « treaty » was highly favourable to the interests of the Persian Empire.

The Corinthian War revealed a significant dynamic that was occurring in Greece. While Athens and Sparta fought each other to exhaustion, Thebes was rising to a position of dominance among the various Greek city-states.

The peace of Antalcidas

In 387 BC, an edict was promulgated by the Persian king, preserving the Greek cities of Asia Minor and Cyprus as well as the independence of the Greek Aegean cities, except for Lymnos, Imbros and Skyros, which were given over to Athens.^[48] It dissolved existing alliances and federations and forbade the formation of new ones. This is an ultimatum that benefited Athens only to the extent that Athens held onto three islands. While the « Great King, » Artaxerxes, was the guarantor of the peace, Sparta was to act as Persia’s agent in enforcing the Peace.^[49] To the Persians this document is known as the « King’s Peace. » To the Greeks, this document is known as the Peace of Antalcidas, after the Antalcidas who was sent to Persia as negotiator. Sparta had been worried about the developing closer ties between Athens and Persia. Accordingly, Antalcidas was directed to get whatever agreement he could from the « Great King ». Accordingly, the « Peace of Antalcidas » is not a negotiated peace at all. Rather it is a surrender to the interests of Persia, drafted entirely for its benefit.^[49]

Spartan interventionism

On the other hand, this peace had unexpected consequences. In accordance with it, the Boeotian League, or Boeotian confederacy, was dissolved in 386 BC.^[50] This confederacy was dominated by Thebes, a city hostile to the Spartan hegemony. Sparta carried out large-scale operations and peripheral interventions in Epirus and in the north of Greece, resulting in the capture of the fortress of Thebes, the Cadmea, after an expedition in the Chalcidice and the capture of Olynthos. It was a Theban politician who suggested to the Spartan general Phoibidas that Sparta should seize Thebes itself. This act was sharply condemned, though Sparta eagerly ratified this unilateral move by Phoibidas. The Spartan attack was successful and Thebes was placed under Spartan control.^[51]

Clash with Thebes

In 378 BC, the reaction to Spartan control over Thebes was broken by a popular uprising within Thebes. Elsewhere in Greece, the reaction against Spartan hegemony began when Sphodrias, another Spartan general, tried to carry out a surprise attack on Piraeus.^[52] Although the gates of Piraeus were no longer fortified, Sphodrias was driven off before Piraeus. Back in Sparta, Sphodrias was put on trial for the failed attack, but was acquitted by the Spartan court. Nonetheless, the attempted attack triggered an alliance between Athens and Thebes.^[52]Sparta would now have to fight them both together. Athens was trying to recover from its defeat in the Peloponnesian War at the hands of Sparta’s « navarch » Lysander in the disaster of 404 BC. The rising spirit of rebellion against Sparta also fueled Thebes’ attempt to restore the former Boeotian confederacy.^[53] In Boeotia, the Theban leaders Pelopidas and Epaminondas reorganized the Theban army and began to free the towns of Boeotia from their Spartan garrisons, one by one, and incorporated these towns into the revived Boeotian League.^[49]Pelopidas won a great victory for Thebes over a much larger Spartan force in the Battle of Tegyra in 375 BC.^[54]

Theban authority grew so spectacularly in such a short time that Athens came to mistrust the growing Theban power. Athens began to consolidate its position again through the formation of a second Athenian League.^[55] Attention was drawn to growing power of Thebes when it began interfering in the political affairs of its neighbor, Phocis, and, particularly, after Thebes razed the city of Plataea, a long-standing ally of Athens, in 375 BC.^[56] The destruction of Plataea caused Athens to negotiate an alliance with Sparta against Thebes, in that same year.^[56] In 371, the Theban army, led by Epaminondas, inflicted a bloody defeat on Spartan forces at Battle of Leuctra. Sparta lost a large part of its army and 400 of its 2,000 citizen-troops. The Battle of Leuctra was a watershed in Greek history.^[56] Epaminondas’ victory ended a long history of Spartan military prestige and dominance over Greece and the period of Spartan hegemony was over. However, Spartan hegemony was not replaced by Theban, but rather by Athenian hegemony.

The rise of Athens

The Temple of Hephaestus at the Agora of Athens, built 449–415 BC

Financing the league

It was important to erase the bad memories of the former league. Its financial system was not adopted, with no tribute being paid. Instead, syntaxeis were used, irregular contributions as and when Athens and its allies needed troops, collected for a precise reason and spent as quickly as possible. These contributions were not taken to Athens — unlike the 5th century BC system, there was no central exchequer for the league — but to the Athenian generals themselves.

The Athenians had to make their own contribution to the alliance, the eisphora. They reformed how this tax was paid, creating a system in advance, the Proseiphora, in which the richest individuals had to pay the whole sum of the tax then be reimbursed by other contributors. This system was quickly assimilated into a liturgy.

Athenian hegemony halted

This league responded to a real and present need. On the ground, however, the situation within the league proved to have changed little from that of the 5th century BC, with Athenian generals doing what they wanted and able to extort funds from the league. Alliance with Athens again looked unattractive and the allies complained.

The main reasons for the eventual failure were structural. This alliance was only valued out of fear of Sparta, which evaporated after Sparta’s fall in 371 BC, losing the alliance its sole ‘raison d’etre’. The Athenians no longer had the means to fulfill their ambitions, and found it difficult merely to finance their own navy, let alone that of an entire alliance, and so could not properly defend their allies. Thus, the tyrant of Pherae was able to destroy a number of cities with impunity. From 360 BC, Athens lost its reputation for invincibility and a number of allies (such as Byzantium and Naxos in 364 BC) decided to secede.

In 357 BC the revolt against the league spread, and between 357 BC and 355 BC, Athens had to face war against its allies—a war whose issue was marked by a decisive intervention by the king of Persia in the form of an ultimatum to Athens, demanding that Athens recognise its allies’ independence under threat of Persia’s sending 200 triremesagainst Athens. Athens had to renounce the war and leave the confederacy, thereby weakening itself more and more, and signaling the end of Athenian hegemony.

Theban hegemony – tentative and with no future

5th century BC Boeotian confederacy (447–386 BCE)

This was not Thebes’ first attempt at hegemony. It had been the most important city of Boeotia and the centre of the previous Boeotian confederacy of 447, resurrected since 386.

The 5th-century confederacy is well known to us from a papyrus found at Oxyrhynchus and known as « the Anonyme of Thebes ». Thebes headed it and set up a system under which charges were divided up between the different cities of the confederacy. Citizenship was defined according to wealth, and Thebes counted 11,000 active citizens.

The confederacy was divided up into 11 districts, each providing a federal magistrate called a « boeotarch », a certain number of council members, 1,000 hoplites and 100 horsemen. From the 5th century BC the alliance could field an infantry force of 11,000 men, in addition to an elite corps and a light infantry numbering 10,000; but its real power derived from its cavalry force of 1,100, commanded by a federal magistrate independent of local commanders. It also had a small fleet that played a part in the Peloponnesian War by providing 25 triremes for the Spartans. At the end of the conflict, the fleet consisted of 50 triremes and was commanded by a « navarch ».

All this constituted a significant enough force that the Spartans were happy to see the Boeotian confederacy dissolved by the king’s peace. This dissolution, however, did not last, and in the 370s there was nothing to stop the Thebans (who had lost the Cadmea to Sparta in 382 BC) from reforming this confederacy.

Theban reconstruction

Pelopidas and Epaminondas endowed Thebes with democratic institutions similar to those of Athens, the Thebans revived the title of « Boeotarch » lost in the Persian King’s Peace and – with victory at Leuctra and the destruction of Spartan power – the pair achieved their stated objective of renewing the confederacy. Epaminondas rid the Peloponnesus of pro-Spartan oligarchies, replacing them with pro-Theban democracies, constructed cities, and rebuilt a number of those destroyed by Sparta. He equally supported the reconstruction of the city of Messene thanks to an invasion of Laconia that also allowed him to liberate the helots and give them Messene as a capital.

He decided in the end to constitute small confederacies all round the Peloponnessus, forming an Arcadian confederacy (the King’s Peace had destroyed a previous Arcadian confederacy and put Messene under Spartan control).

Confrontation between Athens and Thebes

The strength of the Boeotian League explains Athens’ problems with her allies in the second Athenian League. Epaminondas succeeded in convincing his countrymen to build a fleet of 100 triremes to pressure cities into leaving the Athenian league and joining a Boeotian maritime league. Epaminondas and Pelopidas also reformed the army of Thebes to introduce new and more effective means of fighting. Thus, the Theban army was able to carry the day against the coalition of other Greek states at the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC and the battle of Mantinea in 362 BC.

Sparta also remained an important power in the face of Theban strength. However, some of the cities allied with Sparta turned against her, because of Thebes. In 367 BC, both Sparta and Athens sent delegates to Artaxerxes II, the Great King of Persia. These delegates sought to have the Artaxerxes, once again, declare Greek independence and a unilateral common peace, just as he had done in twenty years earlier in 387 BC. As noted above, this had meant the destruction of the Boeotian League in 387 BC. Sparta and Athens now hoped the same thing would happen with a new declaration of a similar « Kings Peace ». Thebes sent Pelopidas to argue against them.^[57] The Great King was convinced by Pelopidas and the Theban diplomats that Thebes and the Boeotian League would be the best agents of Persian interests in Greece, and, accordingly, did not issue a new « King’s Peace. »^[50] Thus, to deal with Thebes, Athens and Sparta were thrown back on their own resources. Thebes, meanwhile, expanded its influence beyond the bounds of Boeotia. In 364 BC, Pelopidas defeated the Alexander of Pherae in the Battle of Cynoscephalae, located in south-eastern Thessaly in northern Greece. However, during the battle, Pelopides was killed.^[58]

The confederational framework of Sparta’s relationship with her allies was really an artificial one, since it attempted to bring together cities that had never been able to agree on much at all in the past. Such was the case with the cities of Tegea and Mantinea, which re-allied in the Arcadian confederacy. The Mantineans received the support of the Athenians, and the Tegeans that of the Thebans. In 362 BC, Epaminondas led a Theban army against a coalition of Athenian, Spartan, Elisian, Mantinean and Achean forces. Battle was joined at Mantinea.^[50] The Thebans prevailed, but this triumph was short-lived, for Epaminondas died in the battle, stating that « I bequeath to Thebes two daughters, the victory of Leuctra and the victory at Mantinea ».

Despite the victory at Mantinea, in the end, the Thebans abandoned their policy of intervention in the Peloponnesus. This event is looked upon as a watershed in Greek history. Thus, Xenophon concludes his history of the Greek world at this point, in 362 BC. The end of this period was even more confused than its beginning. Greece had failed and, according to Xenophon, the history of the Greek world was no longer intelligible.

The idea of hegemony disappeared. From 362 BC onward, there was no longer a single city that could exert hegemonic power in Greece. The Spartans were greatly weakened; the Athenians were in no condition to operate their navy, and after 365 no longer had any allies; Thebes could only exert an ephemeral dominance, and had the means to defeat Sparta and Athens but not to be a major power in Asia Minor.

Other forces also intervened, such as the Persian king, who appointed himself arbitrator among the Greek cities, with their tacit agreement. This situation reinforced the conflicts and there was a proliferation of civil wars, with the confederal framework a repeated trigger for them. One war led to another, each longer and more bloody than the last, and the cycle could not be broken. Hostilities even took place during winter for the first time, with the invasion of Laconia in 370 BC.

Rise of Macedon

Rise of Macedon

Thessalian cavalryman on the Alexander Sarcophagus, late 4th century BC (Istanbul Archaeological Museum)

A wall mural of a charioteerfrom the Macedonian royal tombs at Vergina, late 6th century BC

Thebes sought to maintain its position until finally eclipsed by the rising power of Macedon in 346 BC. The energetic leadership within Macedon began in 359 BC when Philip of Macedon was made regent for his nephew, Amyntas. Within a short time, Philip was acclaimed king as Philip II of Macedonia in his own right, with succession of the throne established on his own heirs.^[59] During his lifetime, Philip II consolidated his rule over Macedonia. This was done by 359 BC and Philip began to look toward expanding Macedonia’s influence abroad. The dream of restoring Greece to its grandeur by liberating all Greek lands from Persian dominion was alive even in this early stage. This dream even included conquering Persia itself.^[60]

Under Philip II, (359–336 BC), Macedon expanded into the territory of the Paeonians, Thracians, and Illyrians.^[61] In 358 BC, Philip allied with Epirus in its campaign against Illyria. In 357 BC, Philip came into direct conflict with Athens when he conquered the Thracian port city of Amphipolis, a city located at the mouth of the Strymon River to the east of Macedonia, and a major Athenian trading port. Conquering this city allowed Philip to subjugate all of Thrace. A year later in 356 BC, the Macedonians attacked and conquered the Athenian-controlled port city of Pydna. This brought the Macedonian threat to Athens closer to home to the Athenians. With the start of the Phocian War in 356 BC, the great Athenian orator and political leader of the « war party », Demosthenes, became increasingly active in encouraging Athens to fight vigorously against Philip’s expansionist aims.^[62] In 352 BC, Demosthenes gave many speeches against the Macedonian threat, declaring Philip II Athens’ greatest enemy. The leader of the Athenian « peace party » was Phocion, who wished to avoid a confrontation that, Phocion felt, would be catastrophic for Athens. Despite Phocion’s attempts to restrain the war party, Athens remained at war with Macedonia for years following the original declaration of war.^[63] Negotiations between Athens and Philip II started only in 346 BC.^[64] The Athenians successfully halted Philip’s invasion of Attica at Thermopylae that same year in 352 BC. However, Philip defeated the Phocians at the Battle of the Crocus Field. The conflict between Macedonia and all the city-states of Greece came to a head in 338 BC,^[65] at the Battle of Chaeronea.

The Macedonians became more politically involved with the south-central city-states of Greece, but also retained more archaic aspects harking back to the palace culture, first at Aegae (modern Vergina) then at Pella, resembling Mycenaean culture more than that of the Classical city-states. Militarily, Philip recognized the new phalanx style of fighting that had been employed by Epaminondas and Phielopidas in Thebes. Accordingly, he incorporated this new system into the Macedonian army. Philip II also brought a Theban military tutor to Macedon to instruct the future Alexander the Great in the Theban method of fighting.^[66]

Philip’s son Alexander the Great was born in Pella, Macedonia (356–323 BC). Philip II brought Aristotle to Pella to teach the young Alexander.^[67] Besides Alexander’s mother, Olympias, Philip took another wife by the name of Cleopatra Eurydice.^[68] Cleopatra had a daughter, Europa, and a son, Caranus. Caranus posed a threat to the succession of Alexander.^[69] Cleopatra Eurydice was a Macedonian and, thus, Caranus was all Macedonian in blood. Olympias, on the other hand, was from Epicurus and, thus, Alexander was regarded as being only half-Macedonian (Cleopatra Eurydice should not be confused with Cleopatra of Macedon, who was Alexander’s full-sister and thus daughter of Philip and Olympias).

Philip II was assassinated at the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra of Macedon with King Alexander I of Epirus in 336 BC.^[70] Philip’s son, the future Alexander the Great, immediately claimed the throne of Macedonia by eliminating all the other claimants to the throne, including Caranus and his cousin Amytas.^[71] Alexander was only twenty (20) years of age when he assumed the throne.^[72]

Thereafter, Alexander continued his father’s plans to conquer all of Greece. He did this by both military might and persuasion. After his victory over Thebes, Alexander traveled to Athens to meet the public directly. Despite Demosthenes‘ speeches against the Macedonian threat on behalf of the war party of Athens, the public in Athens was still very much divided between the « peace party » and Demosthenes’ « war party. » However, the arrival of Alexander charmed the Athenian public.^[73] The peace party was strengthened and then a peace between Athens and Macedonia was agreed.^[74] This allowed Alexander to move on his and the Greeks’ long-held dream of conquest in the east, with a unified and secure Greek state at his back.

In 334 BC, Alexander with about 30,000 infantry soldiers and 5,000 cavalry crossed the Hellespont into Asia. He never returned.^[75]Alexander managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states, but also to the Persian empire, including Egypt and lands as far east as the fringes of India.^[61] He managed to spread Greek culture throughout the known world.^[76] Alexander the Great died in 323 BC in Babylon during his Asian campaign of conquest.^[77]

The Classical period conventionally ends at the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the fragmentation of his empire, divided among the Diadochi,^[78] which, in the minds of most scholars, marks the beginning of the Hellenistic period.

Legacy of classical Greece

The legacy of Greece was strongly felt by post-Renaissance European elite, who saw themselves as the spiritual heirs of Greece. Will Durantwrote in 1939 that « excepting machinery, there is hardly anything secular in our culture that does not come from Greece, » and conversely « there is nothing in Greek civilization that doesn’t illuminate our own ».^[79] Noted commentator Marianna de Marzi has also observed the extent to which Classical Greek thought has influenced the progression of Western civilization, writing: « The profundity of the knowledge gained through this period in history; in art, mathematics, music and more, is incomparable to almost any other chapter in human inquiry. »

• Classical antiquity
• Classics
• Art in ancient Greece

References

1. Jump up^ The « Classical Age » is « the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. » (Thomas R. Martin, Ancient Greece, Yale University Press, 1996, p. 94).
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Brian Todd Carey, Joshua Allfree, John Cairns. Warfare in the Ancient World Pen and Sword, 19 jan. 2006 ISBN 1848846304
3. Jump up^ AA.VV., Art: Perception and Appreciation, University of the East, p. 169.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Aeschylus,; Peter Burian; Alan Shapiro (17 February 2009). The Complete Aeschylus: Volume II: Persians and Other Plays. Oxford University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-19-045183-7.
5. Jump up^ isegoria: equal freedom of speech
6. Jump up^ Joseph Roisman,Ian Worthington. « A companion to Ancient Macedonia » John Wiley & Sons, 2011. ISBN 144435163X pp 135–138
7. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (Cornell University Press: Ithaca, New York, 1969) p. 9.
8. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, p. 31.
9. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1966) pp. 244–248.
10. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 249.
11. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 254.
12. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 256.
13. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 255.
14. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, p. 44.
15. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, p. 10.
16. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, p. 128.
17. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 261.
18. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, pp. 2–3.
19. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives (Penguin Books: New York, 1980) p. 25.
20. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 26.
21. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, pp. 206–216.
22. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 278.
23. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, p. 278.
24. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, pp. 278–279.
25. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, pp.252.
26. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1966) p. 287.
27. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Donald Kagan, The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian ExpeditionCornell University Press: New York, 1981) p. 148.
28. Jump up^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War: Book 5 (Penguin Books: New York, 1980) pp. 400–408.
29. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times p. 288.
30. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, p. 171.
31. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Peace of Nicias and the Sicialian Expedition, p. 169.
32. Jump up^ Donald Kagan,The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, pp. 193–194.
33. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The world of Ancient Times, pp. 288–289.
34. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, pp. 207–209.
35. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 289.
36. Jump up^ Donald Kagan, The Fall of the Athenian Empire (Cornell University Press: New York, 1987) p. 385.
37. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 27.
38. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 305.
39. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, pp. 319–320
40. Jump up^ These sources include Xenophon’s continuation of Thucydides’ work in his Hellenica, which provided a continuous narrative of Greek history up to 362 BC but has defects, such as bias towards Sparta, with whose king Agesilas Xenophon lived for a while. We also have Plutarch, a 2nd-century Boeotian, whose Life of Pelopidas gives a Theban version of events and Diodorus Siculus. This is also the era where the epigraphic evidence develops, a source of the highest importance for this period, both for Athens and for a number of continental Greek cities that also issued decrees.
41. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander, p. 28.
42. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1966) p. 305.
43. ^ Jump up to:^a b Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 306.
44. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, pp. 33 to 38.
45. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 39.
46. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 45.
47. ^ Jump up to:^a b Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 307.
48. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, pp. 307–308.
49. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 308.
50. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 311.
51. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 81.
52. ^ Jump up to:^a b Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 82.
53. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, pp. 308–309.
54. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 83.
55. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 309.
56. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 310.
57. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 97.
58. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 99.
59. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1966) p. 317.
60. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 76.
61. ^ Jump up to:^a b Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 317.
62. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 198.
63. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, p. 231.
64. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 319.
65. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 65.
66. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon (Pinnacle Books: New York, 1946) p. 9.
67. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 30.
68. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 55.
69. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 83.
70. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 82.
71. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 86.
72. Jump up^ Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander (Penguin books: New York, 1979) pp. 41–42.
73. Jump up^ Harold Lamb, Alexander of Macedon, p. 96.
74. Jump up^ Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, p. 64.
75. Jump up^ Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, p. 65.
76. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 349.
77. Jump up^ Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, p. 395.
78. Jump up^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p. 362.
79. Jump up^ Will Durant, The Life of Greece (The Story of Civilization, Part II) (New York: Simon & Schuster) 1939: Introduction, pp. vii and viii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Greece

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Jacob’s Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican

 

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Jacob’s Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican

 

RAPHAEL (RAFFAELLO SANZIO OR SANTI) 1483 – 1520

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL

Raphael 1506
Self Portrait

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino ( March 28 or April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael , was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking.
After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael’s more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates

References

• Blunt, Anthony, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1660, 1940 (refs to 1985 edn), OUP, ISBN 0-19-881050-4
• Gould, Cecil, The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, National Gallery Catalogues, London 1975, ISBN 0-947645-22-5
• Ettlinger, Leopold D., and Helen S. Ettlinger, Raphael, Oxford: Phaidon, 1987, ISBN 0714823031
• Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, Raphael, Yale, 1983, ISBN 0-300-03061-4
• Landau, David in:David Landau & Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2
• Pon, Lisa, Raphael, Dürer, and Marcantonio Raimondi, Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print, 2004, Yale UP, ISBN 978-0-300-09680-4
• Shearman, John; Raphael in Early Modern Sources 1483–1602, 2003, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09918-5
• Vasari, Life of Raphael from the Lives of the Artists, edition used: Artists of the Renaissance selected & ed Malcolm Bull, Penguin 1965 (page nos from BCA edn, 1979)
• Wölfflin, Heinrich; Classic Art; An Introduction to the Renaissance, 1952 in English (1968 edition), Phaidon, New York.

http://artsviewer.com/raphael-home.html

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Dura – Europos, Syria

Giacobbe Giusti, Dura – Europos, Syria

The Good Shepherd, Adam and Eve. Wall painting in the baptistry of the domus ecclesiae in Dura Europos.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Dura – Europos, Syria

Christ and Simon-Peter walking on water. Wall painting in the baptistry of the Domus ecclesiae in Dura Europos.

Giacobbe Giusti, Dura – Europos, Syria

The healing of the paralytic : wall painting in the baptistry of the domus ecclesiae in Dura Europos.

Giacobbe Giusti, Dura – Europos, Syria

The Samaritan at the well. Wall painting in the baptistry of the domus ecclesiae in Dura Europos.

Giacobbe Giusti, Dura – Europos, Syria

Dura – Europos, Syria – remains of the christian church with the western wall recently restored

Giacobbe Giusti, Dura – Europos, Syria

The Dura-Europos house church with chapel area on right.

The Dura-Europos church (also known as the Dura-Europos house church) is the earliest identified Christian house church.^[1]It is located in Dura-Europos in Syria. It is one of the earliest known Christian churches,^[2] and was apparently a normal domestic house converted for worship some time between 233 and 256, when the town was abandoned after conquest by the Persians.^[3] It is less famous, smaller, and more modestly decorated than the nearby Dura Europos synagogue, though there are many other similarities between them.

Although the fate of the church structure is unknown after occupation by ISIS, its famous frescos were removed after discovery and are now preserved at Yale University Art Gallery.^[4]

History

The site of Dura-Europos, a former city and walled fortification, was excavated largely in the 1920s and 1930s by French and American teams. Within the archaeological site, the house church is located by the 17th tower and preserved by the same defensive fill that saved the nearby Dura-Europos synagogue.

The building consists of a house conjoined to a separate hall-like room, which functioned as the meeting room for the church. The surviving frescoes of the room serving as the baptistry are probably the most ancient Christian paintings. The « Good Shepherd« , the « Healing of the paralytic » and « Christ and Peter walking on the water » are considered the earliest depictions of Jesus Christ.^[5]

A much larger fresco depicts three women (the third mostly lost) approaching a large sarcophagus. This most likely depicts the three Marys visiting Christ’s tomb.^[6] There were also frescoes of Adam and Eve as well as David and Goliath. The frescoes clearly followed the Hellenistic Jewish iconographic tradition, but they are more crudely done than the paintings of the nearby Dura-Europos synagogue.^[7]

Fragments of parchment scrolls with Hebrew texts have also been unearthed; they resisted meaningful translation until J.L. Teicher pointed out that they were Christian Eucharistic prayers, so closely connected with the prayers in Didache that he was able to fill lacunae in the light of the Didache text.^[8]

In 1933, among fragments of text recovered from the town dump outside the Palmyrene Gate, a fragmentary text from an unknown Greek gospel harmonyaccount was unearthed. It was comparable to Tatian‘s Diatessaron, but independent of it.

Gallery

Frescoes of the baptistry

• 

  The Good Shepherd

• 

  Healing of the paralytic

• 

  Christ and Peter walking on water

• 

  Women at the tomb

• 

  The Samaritan Woman by the Well

See also

Dura Europos domus ecclesiae.

• Oldest churches in the world
• Dura-Europos
• Lullingstone Roman Villa, another rare house-church from Roman Britain

References

1. Jump up^ Snyder, Graydon F. (2003). Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine. Mercer University Press. p. 128.
2. Jump up^ The people are holy: the history and theology of Free Church worship by Graydon F. Snyder, Doreen M. McFarlane 2005 ISBN 0-86554-952-4 page 30
3. Jump up^ Floyd V. Filson (June 1939). « The Significance of the Early House Churches ». Journal of Biblical Literature. 58 (2): 105–112. doi:10.2307/3259855. JSTOR 3259855.
4. Jump up^ Yale University
5. Jump up^ Graydon F. Snyder, Ante pacem: archaeological evidence of church life before Constantine, pp. 129-134, (Mercer University Press, 2003) google books
6. Jump up^ Yale: « Unearthing the Christian building », p.4
7. Jump up^ F. Snyder, Ante pacem: archaeological evidence of church life before Constantine, pp. 129-134, Mercer University Press, 2003
8. Jump up^ J.L. Teicher, « Ancient Eucharistic Prayers in Hebrew (Dura-Europos Parchment D. Pg. 25) », The Jewish Quarterly Review New Series 54.2 (October 1963), pp. 99-109

Further reading

• Weitzmann, Kurt, ed., Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century, nos. 360 (fresco) and 580 (architecture), 1979, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ISBN 9780870991790; full text available online from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
• C H Kraeling, The Christian Building, 1967, Yale University Press
• Clark Hopkins, The Discovery of Dura-Europos, Yale University Press, 1979
• Penny Young, Dura Europos A City for Everyman, Twopenny Press, 2014

External links

• Photo of Baptistery
• Diagram of Church
• « 7 vs. 8: The Battle Over the Holy Day at Dura-Europos » Bible Review, Aug. 1996

Categories:

• Churches in Syria
• Fresco paintings
• 3rd-century churches
• Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Syria
• Roman Empire art
• Dura-Europos
• Buildings and structures in Deir ez-Zor Governorate
• Early Christian art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dura-Europos_church

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Salus Populi Romani

Giacobbe Giusti, Salus Populi Romani

Icon of Salus Populi Romani in the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome.

Salus Populi Romani Protectress and Health of the Roman People Giacobbe Giusti, Salus Populi Romani
Location	Basilica of Saint Mary Major
Date	590 AD (first arrival in Rome)
Witness	Pope Gregory the Great
Holy See approval	Pope Gregory XVI Pope Pius XII
Shrine	Basilica of Saint Mary Major

Salus Populi Romani (Protectress, or more literally health or salvation, of the Roman People) is a Roman Catholic title associated with the venerated image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rome. This Byzantineicon of the Madonna and Christ Child holding a Gospel book and is enshrined within the Borghese(Pauline) Chapel of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.^[1][2]

The image arrived in Rome in the year 590 AD during the reign of Pope Gregory I. Pope Gregory XVIgranted the image a Canonical Coronation on 15 August 1838 through the Papal bull Cælestis Regina. The venerated image regained its longstanding devotion and status by being crowned again for the second time by Pope Pius XIIon the Feast of the Queenship of Mary on 11 October 1954 accompanied by his Papal bull Ad Reginam Caeli.^[3]

The phrase Salus Populi Romanigoes back to the legal system and pagan rituals of the ancient Roman Republic.^[4] After the legalisation of Christianity by Emperor Constantine the Great through the Edict of Milanin 313 AD, the phrase was sanctioned as a Marian title for the Blessed Virgin Mary.^[5]

History

The image is held to have arrived from Crete in the year 590 AD during the Pontificate of Pope Gregory the Great, who welcomed the image in person on its arrival borne with a floral boat from the Tiber river. For centuries it was placed above the door to the basilica’s baptistery chapel, wherein the year 1240 it began to be called Regina Caeli (« Queen of Heaven ») in an official document. Later it was moved to the nave, and from the 13th century it was preserved in a marble tabernacle. Since 1613, it has been located in the altar tabernacle of the Cappella Paolina that was built specifically for it, later known to English-speaking pilgrims as the Lady Chapel. The church, Saint Maria Maggiore, is considered the third of the Roman patriarchal basilicas. The church and its Marian shrine are under the special patronage of the popes.^[6]

From at least the 15th century, it was honored as a miraculous image, and it was later used by the Jesuit Order in particular to foster devotion to the Mother of God through the Sodality of Our Lady movement.^[6]

The Roman Breviary states, « After the Council of Ephesus (431) in which the Mother of Jesus was acclaimed as Mother of God, Pope Sixtus III erected at Rome on the Esquiline Hill, a basilica dedicated to the honor of the Holy Mother of God. It was afterward called Saint Mary Major and it is the oldest church in the West dedicated to the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. »

The Roman Pontifical gives the following account:

« The Liberian basilica, today called Saint Mary Major, was founded by Pope Liberius (352-366) and was restored and enlarged by Sixtus III. … Pope Liberius selected a venerated picture that hung in the pontifical oratory. It had allegedly been brought to Rome by Saint Helena… »

Legend of Saint Luke

The second Canonical Coronationgranted by Pope Pius XII on 11 October 1954. Feast of the Queenship of Mary, accompanied by his Papal bullAd Reginam Caeli.

Salus Populi Romani is one of the so-called « Luke images » of which there are many throughout the world. These were believed to have been painted from life by Saint Lukehimself. According to the legend: « after the Crucifixion, when Our Lady moved to the home of St. John, she took with her a few personal belongings–among which was a table built by the Redeemer in the workshop of St. Joseph. When pious virgins of Jerusalem prevailed upon St. Luke to paint a portrait of the Mother of God, it was the top of this table that was used to memorialize her image. While applying his brush and paints, St. Luke listened carefully as the Mother of Jesus spoke of the life of her son, facts which the Evangelistlater recorded in his Gospel. Legend also tells us that the painting remained in and around Jerusalem until it was discovered by St. Helena in the 4th century. Together with other sacred relics, the painting was transported to Constantinople where her son, Emperor Constantine the Great, erected a church for its enthronement. » ^[7]

Description

The image is five feet high by three and a quarter feet wide (117 x 79 cm) – very large for an icon, especially one with an early date. It is painted on a thick cedar panel. Mary wears a gold-trimmed dark blue mantle over a purple/red tunic. The letters in Greek at the top identify Mary as « Mother of God » (Μήτηρ Θεοῦ in lower case and ΜHΤHΡ ΘΕΟΥ in upper case), as is usual in Byzantine art (Christ may originally have had an inscription under later re-painting). Christ is holding a book in his left hand, presumably a Gospel Book. His right hand is raised in a blessing,^[6] and it is Mary not he who looks directly out at the viewer.

Giacobbe Giusti, Salus Populi Romani

The image with added metal crowns and jewellery, which has now been removed.

The folded together position of Mary’s hands distinguishes this image as a version of the earlier type from before the development of the iconography of the Hodegetriaimage in the 10th century, where she points to Christ with her right hand.^[8] « Rather than offering the Child, she keeps his body closer to hers and seeks physical and tactile contact with him. »^[8] However the few other examples of this type do not have the Virgin’s hands folded together – the right hand holds Christ’s knee.

Although neither wear crowns, the holding by Mary in her right hand of a mappa (or mappula, a sort of embroidered ceremonial handkerchief), originally a consularsymbol, later an imperial one, means this image is probably one of the type showing Mary as Regina coeli or « Queen of Heaven ».^[9]

Dating by art historians

The image « has been confidently dated to almost every possible period between the fifth century and the thirteenth ».^[10] The recent full-length study by Gerhard Wolf says, cautiously, that it is « probably Late Antique » in its original form.^[5]

The icon in its current state of overpainting seems to be a work of the 13th century (as witnessed by the features of the faces), but other layers visible under the top one suggest it is a repainting of a much earlier piece; especially revealing is the modeling of Child’s right hand in the first layer, which can be compared to other early Christian icons that display ‘Pompeian’ illusionistic qualities ^[11] The areas of linear stylization, such as Christ’s garment which is rendered in golden hatching producing a flat effect, seem to go back to the 8th century, and can be compared with a very early icon of Elijah from Mount Sinai. A second restoration process started around 1100 and came to an end in the 13th century. The Virgin’s blue mantle which is wrapped over her purple dress was severely altered in the outline; the red halos are also not part of the original image.

Giacobbe Giusti, Salus Populi Romani

An Eastern Orthodoxexample of the later Hodegetriaicon type, the Theotokos of Tikhvin of c. 1300

The image type itself suggests it is not a medieval invention, but rather an Early Christian concept dating from antiquity: a majestic, half-length portrait showing a frank outward gaze of the rulerlike Virgin, with her upright, stately pose, and folded hands gently clasping the Child, unique among all icons. Lively turning of the maturely developed and attired Child also attests to the painting’s antiquity. The vivid contrapposto of the two bodies, which suggests direct observation, can be compared with a 5th-century Mount Sinai icon of the Virgin and Child in Kiev, and contrasted with the Pantheon Marian icon from 609, which already shows the Mother slightly subordinated to the Child by the imploring gesture and the turn of the head, and where the interaction of the bodies exists only in a flat plane.^[12] These comparisons suggest a date of the 7th century for the icon.

The early fame of the icon can be gauged from the production of replicas (a fresco in Santa Maria Antiqua seems to have reproduced it already in the 8th century), and the role it played in the ritual on the feast of the Virgin’s Assumption, where the achiropiite (the panel painting of Christ from the Lateran Basilica) was moved in a procession to Santa Maria Maggiore to ‘meet’ with it. Monneret de Villard has shown that engravings of this icon brought by Jesuits to Ethiopiainfluenced the art of that country from the 17th century onwards, repeating « every detail of her own and the Child’s posture, the position of the hands being especially characteristic. »^[13] More far flung apparent copies include a Moghul miniature, presumably based on a copy given to Akbar by the Jesuits, and copies in China, of which a 16th-century example is in the Field Museum in Chicago.

Papal patronage

Part of a series on the
Mariology of the Catholic Church
The Immaculate Conception, by Murillo
Overview[show]
Prayers[show]
Antiphons[show]
Hymns to Mary[show]
Devotional practices[show]
Catholicism portal
v t e

The Salus Populi Romani has been a favorite of several Popes and acted as a Roman Catholic Mariological symbol, especially in Rome itself.

The icon has been considered as miraculous and has been carried in processions around Rome many times. In 593 Pope Saint Gregoryhad the icon carried through Rome and prayed for an end to the Black Plague^[14] as did Pope Pius V in 1571 to pray for victory at the Battle of Lepanto and as did Pope Gregory XVI in 1837 to pray for the end of the cholera epidemic.^[2] The same Pontiff would crown the image a year later, on the Feast of the Assumption.

Roman-born Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) celebrated his first Holy Mass in front of it on 1 April 1899.^[14]In 1953, the icon was carried through Rome to initiate the first Marian year in Church history. In 1954, the icon was crowned by Pope Pius XII as he introduced a new Marian feast Queenship of Mary.^[15]

Recent papal devotion includes Pope John Paul II who highlighted its iconography during the World Youth Day for the Jubilee Year of 2000. Pope Benedict XVI also venerated the image on various occasions with that specific Marian title.^{[16][17][18][19]} Pope Francis also made this icon one of his first places of pilgrimage the day after his election to the Papacy.^[2][20]

Mother Thrice Admirable

Main article: Mater ter admirabilis

Salus Populi Romani is also said to be the source of the title Mater ter Admirabilis (Mother Thrice Admirable) used for the Blessed Virgin Mary within the Schoenstatt Marian Movement.

Salus Populi Romani was the centerpiece of the Colloquium Marianum in Ingolstadt, in 1604. According to the Schoenstatt, on 6 April 1604, Father Jakob Rem, SJ, desired to know which of the invocations from the litany of Loretowould please the Virgin Mary the most. He reported that after meditation and looking at the image of Salus Populi Romani, the title Mother Thrice Admirable was revealed to him.^[21]

The title Mother Thrice Admirablehas since become part of the Schoenstatt Movement and is also associated with another well known Madonna, namely the 1898 Refugium Peccatorum Madonna by the Italian artist Luigi Crosio which was purchased by the Schoenstatt Sisters in Switzerland in 1964 and has since been called the Mother Thrice Admirable Madonna.

• Our Lady of Siluva

Notes

1. Jump up^ Gerhard Wolf, « Icons and sites » in Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium, Maria Vasilakē, ed.: « the dates proposed by various authors (often in an apodictic way) stretch from the fifth to the thirteenth century » ; Wolf gives a bibliography; his date, based on a close examination in 1987 of the icon, a « palimpsest » of restorations of a « Late Antique » icon, is « relatively early »: « I have no hesitation in seeing it as part of the group of icons extant by the late sixth or early seventh centuries » pp31-33.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Relics by Joan Carroll Cruz 1984 ISBN 0-87973-701-8page 96
3. Jump up^ Time Magazine, Nov 8th, 1954
4. Jump up^ Livy, Book 7: « Nobis deum benignitate, felicitate tua populique Romani, et res et gloria est integra… »
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b Gerhard Wolf, « Salus Populi Tomani » in Die Geschicte römische Kultbilder (Weinheim, 1991) pp161-70; J. Linderski, The Augural Law in Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase, eds. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren p 2256 (this paper in English)
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Frisk, M. Jean. « Salus Populi Romani », Marian Library, University of Dayton
7. Jump up^ Cruz OCDS, Joan Carroll. Miraculous Images of Our Lady, 1993, p. 137f.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Vasilakē, Maria. Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium,p.196, Ashgate publishing Co, Burlington, Vermont, ISBN 0-7546-3603-8
9. Jump up^ Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages By Mayke de Jong, F. (Frans) Theuws, Carine van Rhijn, p64
10. Jump up^ de Jong op cit, p64, n.33
11. Jump up^ Herbert Kessler, Rome 1300: on the path of the pilgrim, Yale University Press, 2000.
12. Jump up^ Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence: a history of the image before the era of art, The University of Chicago Pres, 1996.
13. Jump up^ David Buxton, The Abyssinians(New York: Praeger, 1970), p. 148
14. ^ Jump up to:^a b « Salus Populi Romani », The Tablet, December 9, 1939, p.8
15. Jump up^ The Church at Prayer by Irénée Henri Dalmais, Aimé Georges Martimort, Pierre Jounel 1985 ISBN 0-8146-1366-7 page 135
16. Jump up^ Vatican web Homage To The Immaculate At The Spanish Steps
17. Jump up^ Vatican web Visit at the Capitoline Hill
18. Jump up^ Zenit Benedict XVI on the Rosary Archived 2008-10-23 at the Wayback Machine.
19. Jump up^ Univ of Dayton Benedict XVI’s Message to Rome Conference on Laity
20. Jump up^ Wooden, Cindy. « Pope: Mary is a mother who helps Christians grow », Catholic News Service, May 6, 2013
21. Jump up^ Peters, M. Danielle. « 400 Years ‘Mother Thrice Admirable' », Marian Library, University of Dayton

• K Noreen, R People, « The icon of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome: an image and its afterlife inRenaissance Studies, 2005.
• Wolf, Garhard. « Salus populi Romani », Die Geschichte römischer Kultbilder im Mittelalter 1990, – VCH, Acta Humaniora
• Wolf, Gerhard. “Icons and Sites: Cult Images of the Virgin in mediaeval Rome.” In Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium, ed. Maria Vassilaki, 23-49. Aldershot, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005.

 

 Giacobbe Giusti, Salus Populi Romani

Icône Salus Populi Romani

La Salus Populi Romani(en français : « Sauvegarde du peuple romain ») est une icône représentant la Vierge Marie et l’Enfant Jésus qui a fait l’objet d’une dévotion particulière au moins depuis le xiii^e siècle. Elle se trouve dans la Chapelle Pauline (ou Borghese) de la basilique Sainte-Marie-Majeure à Rome.

Description

De larges dimensions pour une icône (117 x 79 cm), elle est peinte sur un support de cèdre. De style byzantin ou romain orientalisant, l’icône représente la Vierge tenant l’Enfant Jésus, qui tient lui-même un livre et, les yeux tournés vers sa mère, effectue de sa main droite le geste de bénédiction. C’est Marie et non l’Enfant Jésus qui regarde le spectateur.

L’image est enchâssée dans un cadre de bronze doré listé d’améthystes.

Localisation

Ce n’est pas un hasard si la basilique Saint Marie-Majeure abrite cette icône de la Vierge. La basilique est fondée en 356 à la suite de l’apparition de la Vierge en songe au pape Libère et à un riche Romain et au miracle de la neige tombée sur l’Esquilien. Moins d’un siècle plus tard, le Concile d’Ephèse et la proclamation du dogme de la maternité divine de Marie contre l’hérésie nestorienne (Marie Théotokos, accoucheuse de Dieu), est l’occasion pour le pape Sixte III de reconstruire l’édifice et de renforcer la dévotion à Marie.

Avant d’intégrer la Chapelle Pauline en 1613 (la chapelle est terminée deux ans plus tôt), l’icône était probablement placée au-dessus de la porte du baptistère de la basilique, puis dans la nef.

Histoire

Origine

Selon la légende, l’icône Salus populi romani aurait été rapportée de Jérusalem à Constantinople par Sainte Hélène, la mère de Constantin, au iv^e siècle. Elle aurait été peinte par Saint Luc sur une table construite par Jésus dans l’atelier de son père Joseph.

Dévotion

Depuis ses premières attestations à Rome, l’icône est associée au culte marial et estimée par de nombreux fidèles, pèlerins, papes et saints. Considérée comme miraculeuse, elle est portée à la vénération des fidèles à travers la ville par le pape Grégoire Ier en 593 au moment des épidémies causées par la Peste de Justinien. En 1571, le pape Pie V demande son intercession lors de la bataille de Lépante. En 1837 le pape Grégoire XVI la prie pour que cesse l’épidémie de choléra. Né à Rome, Eugenio Pacelli, futur Pie XII, célébra sa première messe devant l’icône. En 1953, elle fut transportée à travers la ville pour célébrer le début la première année mariale de l’histoire de l’Église. L’année suivante, Pie XII couronne l’icône en introduisant une nouvelle fête mariale. Depuis, Paul VI, Jean-Paul II, Benoît XVI et François ont honoré l’icône par des visites et des célébrations. À travers les siècles, des saints tels que saint Charles Borromée l’ont également tenue en grande dévotion. Après avoir été restaurée par les Musées du Vatican, l’icône a été installée de nouveau dans la basilique avec une messe présidée par le pape François, le 28 janvier 2018.

Datation

Les déclarations des historiens d’art sur la datation de l’œuvre sont multiples. Il faut distinguer la datation de l’icône elle-même et celle d’un éventuel original dont elle ne serait qu’une copie ou un re-travail en surcouche. La plupart des spécialistes datent l’icône d’une période allant du xiii^e au xv^e siècle.

L’hypothèse la plus probante date le travail de surface du xiii^e siècle, mais l’analyse révèle une couche inférieure datant probablement du vii^e siècle.

Salus Populi Romani

Материал из Википедии — свободной энциклопедии

Salus Populi Romani
Дата появления:	VI век
Иконографический тип:	Одигитрия
Местонахождение:	Санта-Мария-Маджоре, Рим

«Salus Populi Romani» («Спасение римского народа») — энкаустическая икона Богородицы, хранящаяся в римской базилике Санта-Мария-Маджоре. Икона особо почитается горожанами и является главным богородичным образом Рима. В 1954 году икона была коронована папой Пием XII.

Предание приписывает авторство иконы апостолу Луке. Искусствоведы традиционно датируют икону VI веком. Восточное происхождение иконы косвенно подтверждает кипарисовая доска, на которой она написана. Г. С. Колпакова отмечает, что образ представляет собой конгломерат разновременных частей, который сформировался не ранее VIII века. При этом она указывает, что, возможно, это впечатление создают прориси иконы 1100 года и XIII века.

Наименование «Спасение народа римского» (Santa Maria «Salus populi romani») присвоено этой иконе потому, что именно её святой Григорий Двоеслов носил в 590 году крестным ходом по Риму во время свирепствовавшей моровой язвы, которая тогда же прекратилась^[1].

Главным богослужением, в котором вплоть до второй половины XVI века участвовала икона, было шествие по Риму в ночь с 14 на 15 августа, в честь Успения Девы Марии^[2].

Размеры иконы — 117 на 79 см. Богородица изображена в ярко-красном мафории и с красным нимбом. На её правой руке изображено консульское кольцо, символизирующее её обручение с римским народом. В левую руку помещёна маппула, небольшой льняной плат, использовавшийся древнеримской знатью^[2]. Руки Девы Марии скрещены в кольцо — она заключает в них младенца Иисуса, сидящего на её коленях. Лик Богомладенца обращён к Богородице, правая рука сложена в благословляющем жесте.

Фигуры Богородицы и Богомладенца на иконе монументально массивны. Складки одежд отличаются гранёностью и выглядят как рельеф, что усиливается использованием светотени. Все это является характерными признаками искусства XI века, когда икону подновляли. К этому же периоду относится и условная обводка мафория Богородицы золотой каймой и ассист на одеждах Иисуса.

Примечания

1. ↑ Архимандрит Дионисий. Спутник православного богомольца в Риме. Санта Мария Маджоре, 1908
2. ↑ Перейти к:^1 2 Христианство в искусстве. Богоматерь Римская. Salus populi romani — Спасение народа римского

Литература

• Колпакова Г.С. Искусство Византии. Ранний и средний периоды. — М.: Азбука, 2010. — С. 253—254. — 528 с. — (Новая история искусства). — ISBN 978-5-9985-0447-1.
• Кондаков Н.П. Иконография Богоматери. — СПб., 1915. — Т. 2. — С. 170—172.
• Noreen K. The icon of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome: an image and its afterlife. — 2005.
• Wolf G. Salus populi Romani, Die Geschichte römischer Kultbilder im Mittelalter. — VCH, Acta Humaniora, 1990.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salus_Populi_Romani

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com