Ancient vs Modern: Exploring Daily Life and Justice in Greece and Israel

Today we will learn and reflect on what it was like to live in the ancient
world versus the modern world. We will reflect on how the ancient world
differed from the modern world with regards to medicine, life
expectancy, wild beasts, technology, clothing, housing, concubines,
entertainment, and printing, and how this should affect our
interpretation of the classics and scriptures passed down to us from the
ancient world. We will discuss what differs in the core of our societies,
how ancient societies were warrior societies, how slaves were the
employees of the ancient world, the growth of democracy in ancient
Greece, and how a more equitable system of justice evolved with
democracy and the ever-maturing Judeo-Christian tradition.
Sometime later in 2022 we will record a video on what it was like to be a
woman in the ancient Greece, Rome and Israel.

When you see the DO NOT SLANDER label on the video, you might ask, What
does this video on the ordinary life of the ancients have to do the
commandment,
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor?
Although this commandment applies to our everyday lives, it especially applies
to our testimony when we accuse our neighbor, demanding justice, whether in
an argument or in judicial procedures. The historical context from the ancient
world is that in ancient times, eyewitness testimony was usually the only
evidence available, or even admissible.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this video. Please feel
free to follow along our PowerPoint script posted to SlideShare. Please, we
welcome interesting questions in the comments. Let us learn and reflect
together!

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The ancient world is very different from the modern world.
We in the modern world view life is sacred, today we
expect our children to survive until old age, because
modern medicine ensures a long healthy life to most of us.
Many people died of high fever in the ancient world, fever
that we bring down with aspirin. Aspirin alone has greatly
increased our life expectancy. If I had lived in the ancient
world, I would have died as a teenager from appendicitis.

In the ancient world, parents often did not name their children
until they were a few weeks old due to the high infant mortality
rate. Only half of children survived to adulthood, some scholars
estimate that only one in ten survived to a ripe old age. However,
if an ancient child survived to his late teens, he had a decent
chance of living to fifty years or more. One prime example is
Socrates, who was healthy and argumentative at the age of
seventy, during the time of his trial and execution.

Socrates Address by Belgian artist Louis Joseph Lebrun, 1867

The ancient and medieval societies were helpless to defend themselves
against the onslaught of disease and plague. This painting shows the
tremendous suffering caused by the Black Death that caused hundreds of
million deaths in Europe in the fourteen century and beyond. In the early
years of the black death, mortality rates ranged from 30% to 70%,
depending on the location.
When people in the modern world pass away, they often die in the
hospital. When people in ancient world passed away, they often died in
their home. The sanctity of human life is more evident to modern people
than it was to ancient people, literally because people in the ancient
world encountered death their daily lives far more often than we do
today.

Pieter Bruegel's The
Triumph of Death
reflects the social
upheaval and terror
that followed
plague, which
devastated
medieval Europe,
circa 1562

Professor Philip Cary of the Teaching Company posits that
the anxieties of the ancient and modern worlds differ
greatly.
The ancient world was a wild and savage place without
the security we take for granted, the anxieties of the
ancients are not our anxieties. Few in the ancient world
lived in cities or towns, most lived in the forests and
fields, the wolves and lions hid in the forests, they could
rip apart the livestock and sometimes your children.

Meleager &
Atalanta
and the
Hunt of the
Calydonian
Boar, by
Peter Paul
Rubens,
circa 1619

Herodotus tells us that there were lions in some regions of the
Greek world, scholars have recently confirmed that. And the
name, King Leonidas of Sparta, means descendant of lions. As you
can see, Dr Wikipedia in is article on lions in Europe shows proof
that the ancient Mycenaean Greek warriors hunted lions in
Greece, they could have been responsible for the extinction of
lions in mainland Greece. This explains why the virtuous pagans
sought to control their passions; their anxiety was they feared the
wild passions would drag them down to the level of the beasts in
our nightmares.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe
Depiction of hunting scene on dagger found in Mycenae, Greece, 16th century BC
Upper Paleolithic
cave painting
depicting lions,
found in the Chauvet
Cave, France

We who live in the modern world have quite an opposite
anxiety, we live in cities, our lives are organized by clocks
and computers and cars, we only safely see wild animals in
zoos. We do not fear our passions, instead we seek to be
passionate, our modern anxiety is we will become like the
machines that rule our lives, we fear that we will become a
Borg as almost happened to Captain Picard in Star Trek, or
become an android like Data, although we are not as
threatened by the chirping R2D2 and C3PO.

Occupied Borg "alcove" prop at the
Hollywood Entertainment Museum
Patrick Stewart as Locutus of Borg, the
assimilated Jean-Luc Picard, android
StarFleet Officer Data, R2D2 and C3PO

The ancient world was a wild and savage place because it was a warrior
society, in many ways it resembled the society of the American Indians
than modern American Society. Although those who lived in the Roman
Empire at the time of Christ and beyond could live in relative safety,
before then the ancients lived in a world of perpetual warfare, where at
anytime your city could be captured in war, your men slain or sentenced
to be worked to death in the mines, while the women and children were
enslaved. We examine this in several of our other videos/blogs, and we
also examined the brutal fact that women and girls were often forced to
be concubines when they were enslaved when their city was conquered.

The ancient world was also a very different place from the modern world
because there were no employees in the ancient world. Those who
worked were either farmers or independent tradesmen, or they were
slaves. These slaves could perform menial work, but it was not unusual to
hire slaves as craftsmen, teachers, or even managers, which meant that
many slaves were not only literate, they were well educated. As
Christianity spread through the Roman Empire and became the state
religion, slavery was tolerated less and less, gradually evolving into a
system of serfdom where peasants were tied to the land but were no
longer chattel slaves. Both slaves and serfs were often abused, as low
paid workers today are often abused and impoverished.

HOW DIFFERENT THE MODERN WORLD IS FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD
We have a hard time putting ourselves in the shoes of the ancients, we
forget how thoroughly the inventions and the social changes made
possible by the Industrial Revolution have so thoroughly changed both
our lives and mindsets. The science that makes technology possible robs
us of awe and wonderment that the ancients felt when confronted by the
forces of nature, the ancients thought weather was caused by
thunderbolts hurled by Zeus. Indeed, the accusation by Aristophanes that
Socrates believed that the weather had natural causes, that Socrates did
not believe that the gods caused the weather, may have been a factor in
the trial and execution of Socrates, which we examined in several our
videos.

Zeus Casts His
Thunderbolts
at Rebellious
Giants,
by Johann
Michael
Rottmayr,
circa 1695

Even the poorest among us today have a closet full of clothes, our used
clothes fill landfills, even aborigines in deepest Africa wear Michael
Jordan jerseys. This was not true in the ancient world, the Bible bids us to
feed and clothe the poor, these each were just as difficult before the days
of factories. Have you noticed how many fairy tales feature the spinning
wheel? Nearly all women spun yarn from wool and flax and used looms
to weave coarse cloth. Women spinning and weaving cloth was so
common that even goddesses in the Odyssey had spinning wheels. Most
people owned only one or two changes of clothes. We are puzzled when
the young St Francis becomes estranged from his cloth merchant father
when he sells a few bolts of cloth to buy building materials to repair
some run-down chapels, but these bolts of cloth were probably as
expensive as a good used car is today.

The Rose Bower, by Edward Burne-Jones, circa 1890

Domestic Scene with
Musicians and
Woman Spinning, by
Giacomo Francesco
Cipper, circa 1725

TYPICAL ANCIENT HOUSES:
The typical early Old Testament house had two stories with a
roof. The first floor often had stables and work areas, perhaps
you relieved yourself at night in the stables, and the living
quarters were on the second floor. You could also sleep on the
smooth flat roof in the summer where it is cooler, the Mosaic law
requires you build a parapet around the edges of the roof so
nobody can fall off. Sometimes on hot summer days people
bathed on the roof, as did Bathsheba, future queen to King David.

David and Bathsheba,
by Jan Matsys, circa 1562,
displayed at the Louvre

These Old Testament houses were somewhat like the early
Greek houses, the women’s quarters were in the rear,
innermost parts of the second floor away from the street.
This was the layout for the palace in Ithaca in the Odyssey.
When there were windows, they were usually small. Often
the first floor was locked with wooden keys. In the ancient
Greek houses, the symposia, or drinking parties, were on
the first floor near the street. The men would often invite
girls who played the flute and had other talents, but the
wives were not welcome at these drinking parties.

Plato's Symposium, depiction by Anselm Feuerbach, painted 1869

JUSTICE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
When someone attacks us or tries to steal something from us, what do we do? We
call the police, we file a police report, they look for evidence, maybe dust for
fingerprints, or review recordings from security cameras. Sometimes the police
capture or go pick up the bad guys, they go to trial, and if they are guilty they go to
prison or pay a fine or both.
This has only been totally possible for the past few hundred years. For most of
recorded history there were no professional policemen, there were jails but no
prisons, there were no well-developed court system available to all citizens, and
forensic evidence was made possible by modern science.

Allegory of Justice, by Raphael, circa 1611, and in Lisbon Court of Appeal, 18th Century

The commandment, Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor,
reflects this reality, eyewitness testimony was the only evidence
available, your reputation was your only defense. In ancient Athenian
trials there was no evidence presented other than the testimony of
witnesses and the defendants and their accusers.
In contrast, in Ancient Israel, if you had a complaint with someone you
might bring it up to the elders in the community, but usually you were on
your own to seek revenge.
The ancient Greeks were the first to build a rudimentary judicial system,
serious offenses became a crime against the state to control the chaos
caused by revenge feuds.

Allegory of
Justice, by
Alex
Proimos,
Sydney,
Australia

In the seventh century BC the Athenian aristocrat Draco was appointed
archon with dictatorial powers to draft the first Athenian legal code. His
laws had harsh penalties; nearly all crimes were punishable by death, but
what other choices were there? You could not sentence people to prison
for years or for life, there was not room for this to be a common
sentence, so your choice of punishment was death, exile, or fines.
(REPEAT) Someone asked Draco why most crimes carried the death
penalty, “Draco replied that petty crimes deserved the death penalty, so
he could not find a heavier penalty for more serious offenses.” We still
remember Draco when we say a punishment is draconian.

Justice (or Prudence, Justice, and
Peace), by Jürgen Ovens, 1662
Statue of Justice at Haarlem City
Hall, Netherlands

Someone asked Draco why most crimes
carried the death penalty, “Draco
replied that petty crimes deserved the
death penalty, so he could not find a
heavier penalty for more serious
offenses.” We still remember Draco
when we say a punishment is draconian.

The ancient Athenian jury and justice system developed hand in glove
with democracy, starting with Draco and the lawgiver Solon, which we
recorded as a companion video to this video. An important manuscript
that was originally a study by a student of Aristotle titled the Athenian
Constitution discovered in the later nineteenth century provides many
details of the Athenian judicial system.
In ancient Israel and many other societies, the elders were the judges,
and often there were no juries, but in ancient Athens there were public
juries and no judges. Also, in Athens there were no lawyers, although if
you were wealthy, you could pay someone to write you a speech for your
trial, but they couldn’t deliver the speech for you.

School of Aristotle by Gustav Adolph Spangenberg, circa 1888
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In Athens there were also no prosecutors, or police, which meant you had to
apprehend the guilty party you were planning to sue yourself, though if you or your
friends were insufficiently burly to force them to appear, you could appeal for a
magistrate to arrest and detain them. Any citizen could pose as a prosecutor and
bring charges, but they were fined if fewer than twenty percent of jurors voted to
convict. Also, there was a steep fine for a wrongful arrest.
The Athenian jury system was very different from modern juries, juries were
assigned randomly to cases on the day of the trial, and juries were huge, with 201
or 501 jurors depending on the seriousness of the case. This made it impossible to
bribe jurors. Jurors were paid a working man’s wages rather than the token jury pay
in today’s US. Jurors were volunteers, one of the plays by Aristophanes had a chorus
of wasps, who were old retired men who liked to serve on juries.
Since Athenian women did not participate in public life, women did not serve on the
juries, nor could they bring charges. If they were a defendant, they were compelled
to have a male relative represent them in court, they could not speak.

"Solon, the wise lawgiver of Athens",
by Walter Crane, circa 1910
Solon, depicted as a medieval scholar
Solon, Library of Congress,
Thomas Jefferson Bldg, DC

All jury trials were decided in the same day. A water clock determined
how long each side had to present its case, if witnesses were questioned
or other procedural matters decided, the water clock was temporarily
stopped. There were no rules on what could or could not be said in the
speeches by the defendants and the accusers, there were no rules of
evidence, but no other evidence was allowed. Cross examination was
permitted until the 370’s BC, when it was banned. When the speeches
were done, the jury voted immediately by secret ballot, there was no
deliberation. If the defendant was found guilty, then another short trial
was held to determine the sentence, the accusers suggesting a harsh
sentence, the defendant suggesting a lighter sentence, and the jury
immediately voted on which sentence to impose.

Allegory of
Justice and
Peace, by
Corrado
Giaquinto,
circa 1754

Equipment from Law
Courts: Kleroterion.
This device was used
for the jury selection
system in Athens.
Bronze identification
tickets were inserted to
indicate eligible jurors
who were also divided
into tribes. By a
random process, a
whole row would be
accepted or rejected
for jury service. There
was a kleroteria in front
of each court. Ancient
Agora Museum in
Athens.

The Jury (1861) by John Morgan

Athenians could appeal administrative decisions made by magistrates to
a jury, but once a jury voted their decision, there was no appeal, there
was no provision for a retrial. It was rare for a jury to sentence someone
to death, Socrates was an exception, fines were common, exile less
common.
The Roman judicial system was more professional, although there were
juries, there were not as powerful, and there were judges adjudicating
the cases. We know there were attorneys, as we read that Cicero started
his career by making speeches in legal cases.
In contrast, in ancient Israel, we read in the Talmud that there were no
juries, elders were selected to serve as jurists, three for civil cases,
twenty-one for criminal cases, though this varied over time. We will
possibly cut a future video on this topic.

Cicero Denounces Catiline, by Cesare Maccari, circa 1889

Allegory of Justice,
by Bernardino
Mei, circa 1656

JESUS EXHORTS US TO VISIT THOSE IN JAIL
Why did Jesus exhort us to visit those in jail? Simply because jails in the
ancient world were meant to be temporary holding cells, if their families
and friends did not bring them meals they may just starve. You probably
had to bring them water to drink as well. There was no concept of
habeas corpus, the requirement that you could not imprison someone
without charging them with a crime, was unknown in the ancient world,
Dr Wikipedia says this concept first originated in England in the
fourteenth century. So, though it was rare to be jailed, if you were so
unlucky to anger the monarch or local governor your loved ones might
be stuck feeding you in jail for many years with no prospect of a trial or a
release, until maybe the king died.

Boethius in
prison, with
Lady
Philosophy,
by Mattia
Preti, circa
1600’s

EXAMPLES FROM ANCIENT LITERATURE
Odysseus recalls how his crew did the Viking thing, raiding coastal villages for booty and women,
they received some justice when they lingered too long and then men from the surrounding
towns attacked them.
Odysseus’ wife Penelope waited for more than a decade for her husband to return home from the
Trojan War. In Greek culture widows were expected to remarry when they had an estate,
Penelope had to endure the stay of over a hundred local suitors who threatened to consume her
estate while she entertained them, she had no legal redress. Her son Telemachus could only call a
meeting of the elders who did nothing. When Odysseus returned, he was forced into a Clint
Eastwood stand-off, slaying over a hundred suitors with only his son Telemachus, the goddess
Athena, and a few loyal servants. This sounds harsh, but what else could he do? There were no
police, there were no courts, there were no prisons, he was the king, and his warriors had all died
on the way home.
Then the fathers of the slain suitors then put on their armor to seek revenge for the slaying of
their sons. The endless cycle of revenge killings was only ended by the direct intervention of the
goddess Athena, or so the story goes.

Rudolph Seitz, Ulysses' revenge on Penelope's suitors, 1893

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg - Ulysses' revenge on Penelope's suitors, painted 1814

We have a clearer picture how the Greek judicial system worked around the time
of Socrates, and we have a rather complete account of Socrates’ trial and
sentencing, one of the Platonic dialogues includes his short stay in jail waiting for
the time of his execution. His friend stayed with him in jail for the entire day of his
execution in the evening. In the Athenian democracy, since all citizens served in
the military, all citizens could vote. Capital cases like those of Socrates had 501
jurors.

There are no prisons in the ancient world, only jails, and often jails are filled
simply by those who irritate the authorities. If you break a law in the ancient
world, you are either fined, exiled, or executed, there are no long prison
sentences. The state does not have the resources to run a prison, so when
you are thrown in jail awaiting a hearing the government expects you to
visit and bring food with you to feed the prisoner, and maybe the jailers
too. We see in our video on the death and execution of Socrates how his
friends were able to come and stay with Socrates for his entire last day on
earth.
How should we interpret his advice in his epistles to the various churches?
Let us ponder the opinions of two leading scholars, one Anglican, one
Orthodox.
https://youtu.be/Mip1vgRKH1E

We read in the Old Testament that Joseph and those unfortunate
servants who irritated Pharaoh could spend years in jail. There
was no appeal, they could be forgotten and left in the dungeons
for many years. We can surmise from these comments that
perhaps prisoners in Egypt may have been treated better than
usual, they must have been fed by the state.

Joseph in prison,
by Gerbrand van
den Eeckhout,
17th century

In addition to the references we have of Socrates in the
Athenian jails, and later of St Peter and St Paul in Roman
jails, that ancient jails allowed visitors to stay for extended
periods, much like visitors in hospitals. Likewise, in the
second generation of the Apostolic Church Fathers, we
read how St Ignatius was able to receive visitors for
extended stays and was permitted to draft epistles to the
local churches while being imprisoned in jails while
enroute to Rome with Roman soldiers.

Liberation of St. Peter from
Prison, by Pieter de Hooch,
circa 1655

REMEMBERING HISTORY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
The ancient world had no printing presses, all literary works had to be
laboriously copied by hand onto papyrus in ancient Greece and Rome,
and onto expensive velum made from animal skins in the Middle Ages.
The ancients often had to memorize texts they read or heard once if they
wanted to refer to them again, oral tradition was much more important
than it is today. We in the modern world trust most the latest discoveries,
science is always challenging yesterday’s assumptions, but this was not
true in the ancient cultures, the ancients treasure tradition and long-
settled authority.
Also, the ancient world defined intelligence differently than we do. In the
ancient world, the true geniuses were those who photographic memoery.

Scribe working on a
manuscript, surrounded
by his research material,
by Jean Le Tavernier,
circa 1400's

ENTERTAINMENT
The ancient world also had very few opportunities for
entertainment. For example, most of the theatrical productions
in ancient Greece were held during the religious festivals, which
were held many times during the year somewhere, but were not
held every weekend. In Rome, there were frequent gladiatorial
contests, but as Christianity increased its influence, these were
replaced more and more by chariot races. And there were no
news outlets.

Audience in
Athens For
Agamemnon
by Aeschylus,
by Blake
Richmond,
circa 1884

Chariot Races, by Alfredo Tominz, circa 1904. There
was actually no races in arenas, as chariot-races were
usually run in hippodromes.

This makes it easier to understand why the ancient Christian
congregations could listen to St Augustine and St John
Chrysostom preach for hours at a time during the liturgy, which
lasted for a good part of the day. We may be puzzled at the
complaints of these saints, although they are feeble complaints,
at how much the parishioners shouted and applauded their
sermons. The weekly church services were an important part of
week, to socialize with your friends, to listen to the sermons, and
no doubt to catch up on what was happening around them.

Icon of St John Chrysostom
criticizing Empress Eudoxia for
her worldly excesses in a sermon,
which caused controversey and
chatter, as she caused him to be
exiled to the Black Sea, where he
passed away.

Writers in the ancient world just could not record history with the
precision we do today, they had a much different view of the world than
we do today. This is excellently expressed by this author:
“For the people of the biblical word, history as we understand it was
almost meaningless. For them, uninterrupted facts did not help them
understand who they were. Consequently, the two most common
genres in the Bible are story and law, not history. But biblical stories are
not lies or propaganda. Storytellers in the Bible did not just make up the
Bible, but they did explain what was going on around them in colorful
and artistic language, which we lovers of history must patiently learn to
understand and appreciate. History is the genre of ‘What happened?’
Story is the genre of ‘What does it mean?’”

“For the people of the biblical word, history
as we understand it was almost
meaningless. For them, uninterrupted facts
did not help them understand who they
were. Consequently, the two most common
genres in the Bible are story and law, not
history. But biblical stories are not lies or
propaganda. Storytellers in the Bible did
not just make up the Bible, but they did
explain what was going on around them in
colorful and artistic language, which we
lovers of history must patiently learn to
understand and appreciate. History is the
genre of ‘What happened?’ Story is the
genre of ‘What does it mean?’”
Victor Matthews and Don Benjamin, “Social
World of Ancient Israel Animals entering Noah's Ark, Leandro Bassano, late 1500's

DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
One major source were the videos from the Great Courses on the Other Side of
History and the lecture in Athenian Democracy on the judicial system of Athens,
both by Professor Garland. The Long Shadow of the Ancient Greek World covers the
history of Greece from the Dark Ages when literacy was revived through the time of
the Greco-Persian Wars, and beyond. Our video on Draco and Solon is meant to be a
companion video on Athenian democracy and justice.
We found the books on Life in Biblical Israel and the Social World of Ancient Israel to
be excellent resources, with many useful illustrations.
And of course, the Iliad and the Odyssey and the histories of Herodotus, and their
Great Courses videos, are invaluable resources on the insecure life lived by ancient
Greeks.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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