Crime and Punishment in

Ancient Greece and Rome

The University of Western

Ontario
Randall Pogorzelski

few notes about dates:

BC=Before Christ
AD=Anno Domini (In the Year of the Lord)
BCE=Before the Common Era
CE=Common Era
Years BCE count down (323 BCE is the year before
322 BCE).
There is no year zero, so 1 CE comes right after 1
BCE.
323 BCE is in the fourth century BCE.
BCE, CE, and BC all go after the year, but AD goes
before the year (e.g. 2012 CE or AD 2012).

Periods of Greek History:

6500-3000 BCEThe Neolithic Period
3000-2000 BCEThe Early Bronze Age
2000-1600 BCEThe Middle Bronze Age
1600-1100 BCEThe Late Bronze Age
1100-900 BCEThe Early Dark Age
900-750 BCEThe Late Dark Age
750-480 BCEThe Archaic Period
480-323 BCEThe Classical Period
323-30 BCEThe Hellenistic Period
Periods of Roman History:
753-509 BCEThe Regal Period
509-27 BCEThe Republican Period
27 BCE-284 CEThe Imperial Period
284-476 CEThe Later Roman Empire

The Franchthi
Cave in the
Peloponnesus was
inhabited
continuously from
about 20,000 to
3000 BCE.
The first evidence
of agriculture and
the domestication
of animals at the
cave dates to
about 6000 BCE.

Minoan civilization was remarkably advanced, but we know little about it.
The language of Crete during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages was not
Greek, and their gods were not Greek either.

Around 2000 BCE, there is evidence of widespread destruction in

mainland Greece followed by the emergence of a new culture.
Archaeologists theorize an incursion of Indo-European peoples.

During the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BCE), the dominant Minoan
civilization on Crete greatly influenced the emerging Mycenaean
civilization (named after Mycenae) of the mainland. It was during this time
that Greek mythology as we know it developed.

In the 15th and 14th centuries BCE almost all Minoan centers were
destroyed by fire. When the palace at Cnossus was rebuilt, the language
changed from a language we dont know written in Linear A to a kind of
Mycenaean Greek written in Linear B. Art and architecture also changed
dramatically in the 15th century BCE as Mycenaean culture absorbed and
superseded Minoan culture.

The domination of Mycenaean civilization in the Aegean lasted from about

1400 BCE to about 1100 BCE. It was during this time that the historical
Trojan War happened. Frank Calvert (1863-1868), Heinrich Schliemann
and Wilhelm Drpfeld (1870-1873 and 1879-1890), and Carl Blegen
(1932-1938) excavated at Hissarlik and proved that it was the site of Troy.

There are nine levels of

Troy. Troy VI was
particularly impressive but
was destroyed by an
earthquake around 1250
BCE. Troy VIIa was
destroyed by an invasion
around 1150 BCE. Blegen
argued convincingly that
Troy VIIa was the Troy of
Homer.

Around the time of the Trojan War, Mycenaean civilization collapsed for
mysterious reasons. Starting in about 1200 BCE, the great cities were
destroyed by fire one by one over the course of about two generations.
Similar destruction occurred all over the eastern Mediterranean from the
Hittite Empire in the east to Sicily in the west. Egyptian inscriptions
describe a powerful invasion of northern peoples, or sea peoples.

Between 1100 BCE and 900 BCE (the Early Dark Age) communities were
small and simply organized, but around 900 BCE they started to get larger
and more complex. It was during the Late Dark Age (900-750 BCE) that
the legends surrounding the Trojan War took shape.

The 8th century BCE was a time of great change in Greece. The traditional
date of the first Olympic games was 776 BCE, and this is probably not far
from the truth. The Homeric epics were written down during the 8 th
century. The formation of the polis (pl. poleis) occurred around this time as
well.

The Greeks also sent out colonies around the Mediterranean and Black
Seas during the 8th century BCE.

The 7th century BCE saw the introduction of the hoplite phalanx,
institutionalizing warfare between the Greek poleis. This was an era of
intense competition between classes, as traditional aristocrats resisted
tyrannies and the emerging middle class.

In 594 BCE Solon the Athenian circumvented the competition between

tyranny and oligarchy by reforming the Athenian government. He
eliminated debt-slavery and made political representation based on wealth
rather than birth. In 508, Kleisthenes further reformed the government of
Athens in the direction of democracy. The sixth century also saw the
beginnings of Greek philosophy thanks to Thales, Anaximander, and
Pythagoras.

In 499 BCE the cities in Ionia rebelled against Persian rule, and Athens
sent aid to the rebels, who were nevertheless defeated in 494. Shortly
afterwards the Persian king Darius I invaded Greece, but he was defeated
not far from Athens at Marathon in 490. A subsequent invasion by Xerxes
was turned back after battles at Thermopylae, Artemisium, and Salamis in
480 and finally at Plataea in 479.

The fifth century, following the victory over the Persians, was the height of
Greek civilization. This was the time of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides as well as Aristophanes, Socrates, Pericles, Herodotus, and
Thucydides. The sculptor Phidias created such statues as the Athena
Parthenos and the Zeus of Olympia as well as the frieze and the
pediments of the Parthenon in this century.

The fifth century was also a time of brutal warfare as a democratic coalition
led by Athens and an oligarchic coalition led by Sparta fought the
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE). It was a time of slavery on a massive
scale as well.

The fourth century BCE was the time of Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes.
When Philip II of Macedon was murdered in 336, the twenty-year-old
Alexander became king. In 323 Alexander died and his empire
fragmented.

The death of Alexander marks the end of the Classical period and the
beginning of the Hellenistic period. The third century BCE was a time of
sophisticated learning. The Stoic and Epicurean schools of philosophy
flourished, and the Library of Alexandria was founded. There was intense
scholarly interest and activity at this time. Euhemerus and Apollonius of
Rhodes, for example, wrote during third century BCE.

The third century BCE also saw Romes first interventions in Greek affairs,
and when the Achaean Confederacy rebelled against Rome in 146 BCE,
Rome defeated the rebellion and destroyed Corinth. After 146, Rome was
the virtually unchallenged ruler of the Mediterranean.

The traditional date for the foundation of Rome was 753 BCE, and there
was a town on the site of Rome at that time. Early Rome was ruled by
elected kings, but at the end of the sixth century BCE an aristocracy
overthrew the monarchy and instituted the Republican government.

From an early date, the influence of Greek colonization in the south of Italy
meant that the Romans connected their traditional Italian gods to the
Greek gods.

In 280 BCE the Greek colony of Tarentum in southern Italy enlisted the aid
of Pyrrhus of Epirus to resist Roman conquest. Rome defeated Pyrrhus in
275 and captured Tarentum in 272, completing the conquest of Italy. A
coin issued by Pyrrhus is our first example of the legend of the Trojan
origin of Rome.

Livius Andronicus was brought to Rome from Tarentum as a slave after the
war with Pyrrhus. In 240 BCE at a festival in honor of Jupiter, he staged a
tragedy on a Greek subjectthe first regular dramatic text in Latin. He
then translated the Odyssey into Latin

The third century BCE was also the time of the First and Second Punic
Wars between Rome and Carthage. In 218 BCE Hannibal crossed the
Alps and ravaged Italy. Rome decisively defeated Carthage in 201 BCE,
but it was not until the Third Punic War (149-146 BCE) that Carthage was
destroyed.

The middle of the second century BCE was the time in which Rome
established Mediterranean dominance, but there was great turmoil in the
city. In 133 BCE a radical senator named Tiberius Gracchus was clubbed
to death by his colleagues.

At the end of the second century BCE and the beginning of the first, Rome
faced great difficulties, including a difficult war in Numidia, a slave revolt in
Sicily, a series of losses against the Cimbri and the Teutones, and finally a
rebellion of the Italian cities. The two generals who succeeded in
overcoming these challenges, Marius and Sulla, fought a civil war that only
ended when Sulla became dictator in 81 BCE.

The precedent of the civil war continued, and the next generation was the
last of the Roman Republic. The first century BCE was the time of Cicero,
Pompey, Caesar, and Cato as well as Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian.

The last major battle of the Roman civil wars was the battle of Actium in 31
BCE. Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra, and when he settled
affairs in Rome in 27 BCE he took the name Augustus and became the
first Roman Emperor.

The age of Augustus was a golden age of Latin literature, and some of our
best sources for Roman mythology are from this period. Virgils Aeneid
and Ovids Metamorphoses are from this time.

The first two centuries CE were a relatively stable time in Mediterranean

history. There were some tyrannical emperors, like Caligula and Nero, and
there were also some civil wars over the imperial succession, but in
general it was a peaceful time. In 212 CE the emperor Caracalla extended
Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire.

The third century CE was a time of increasing instability and frequent civil
war, which was ended only by the powerful emperors Diocletian (285-305)
and Constantine (312-337). The gradual Christianization of the Roman
Empire after Constantines conversion changed but did not end Rome.

Although the Eastern Roman Empire would continue until the Arab
expansion in the 7th century CE, the Western Roman Empire fragmented
and was effectively nonexistent after a Germanic general deposed the last
Western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in 476 CE.

Crime and Punishment in

Ancient Greece and Rome

The University of Western

Ontario
Randall Pogorzelski