Ancient Greece
As civilizations developed around the world, one particularly important civilization emerged in the Aegean Sea region: Greece. At its height, ancient Greece would become one of the most influential cultures in history, leaving behind a legacy that is still felt today.
The Roots of Ancient Greece
The first civilization to appear in the Aegean region was that of the Minoans, who settled on Crete, an island located south of the Greek mainland, and thrived between 2600 and 1450 BCE. The Minoans were commercially active, establishing trading relations with many other civilizations. The remains of the palace at Knossos, an extravagant royal dwelling, is evidence of their vast wealth.
Around 1450 BCE, the Minoan culture fell into an abrupt decline. Although the exact cause of the decline is unknown, the prevailing theory is that it resulted from an invasion by the Mycenaeans, who lived on the Greek mainland. The warlike Mycenaeans assumed control of Crete between 1700 and 1100 BCE and started their own trading network. For a time, the Mycenaean civilization prospered and conquered other Aegean islands. Before long, however, Mycenaean cities on the Greek mainland began to destabilize as different invaders overran them. Wracked by internal struggles, the Mycenaean civilization finally collapsed around 1100 BCE.
The end of the Mycenaean civilization marked the beginning of a difficult time in Greek history, known as the Dark Age. Although a number of peoples lived in Greece at the time, a group called the Dorians largely dominated the region. During the Dorian period, a significant number of Greeks migrated to Asia Minor. This led to a sharp decline in food production, and Greece plunged into a state of disarray. Perhaps the main reason Greece survived the Dark Age was the emergence of a new political unit called the polis (city-state). Each city- state, which was composed of a major city and the land surrounding it, was independently governed. Isolated from one another by Greece's mountainous landscape, the city-states flourished, and Greece slowly emerged from the Dark Age.
Another important element in Greece's revitalization was the introduction of new written language. The original written languages of the Greeks, which had been created by the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, were lost in the Dark Age. The Greeks constructed a new language based on a modified version of the Phoenician alphabet. Once this language was in place, the earliest examples of Greek literature began to appear. Most notable among them were the works of the famed poet Homer. Around the ninth century BCE, Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, a pair of epic poems telling the story of the Trojan War. These serve as two of the earliest written records of Greek culture and mythology.
The Rise of Sparta and Athens
As classical Greece developed, two of its city-states emerged as the dominant cultural epicenters of the civilization: Sparta and Athens. Although the two were quite dissimilar, they would each play crucial roles in Grecian history.
SPARTA
Sparta was an agricultural military state located on the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Its population was composed of a relatively small percentage of actual Spartans and a large majority of agricultural laborers known as helots, who were people whom the Spartans had conquered in Laconia and Messina. The Spartan government, though it had a ceremonial dual monarchy and a freely elected assembly, was, in fact, governed largely by a group of five elected officials known as ephors.
The all-encompassing goal of the Spartans was to increase the strength of the state through military force. The entire Spartan society was built around its military. All Spartan men were required to serve in the military, and all Spartan women were expected to produce healthy children, particularly boys, since they were a vital resource for the military. When male children reached the age of seven, they were removed from their homes and placed in military barracks. Although they were free to leave the barracks once they turned thirty, military service continued until they reached the age of sixty.
The Spartan commitment to the military state was so strong that the population lived under strict laws that severely limited personal freedoms. As a result of their single-minded devotion to their military, the Spartans, in stark contrast to the Athenians, made few contributions to the arts or sciences.
ATHENS
Early in its history, Athens, which was located on the peninsula of Attica, was ruled first by a monarchy and, later by wealthy landowners. This system of government proved ineffective and led to severe economic turmoil. Eventually, Athens evolved into a direct democracy governed by an assembly in which all official citizens of society had a say in legislative matters. However, official citizenship was limited to male Athenians over the age of twenty-two who had served in the military.
As opposed to the extreme military focus of Sparta, Athens was a highly cultured society. The Athenians placed great value on arts and
sciences and made significant contributions to both fields. One scientific field in which the Athenian Greeks particularly excelled was philosophy. Athens produced many of the world's earliest and most influential philosophers, and they made significant contributions to the fields of astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and others.
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KEY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS |
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PHILOSOPHER |
LIVED |
NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS |
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Socrates |
470-399 BCE |
introduced the “Socratic method” of teaching that encouraged students to question everything. |
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Plato |
c. 428- 348/347 BCE |
Wrote The Republic, in which he outlined his idea of a perfect state as one ruled by philosophers. |
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Aristotle |
384-322 BCE |
Student of Plato; theorized about government and argued that a constitutional government would be the best form of governance for most peoples. |
Although the Athenians produced many valuable examples of literature, architecture, sculpture, and other forms of art, their greatest artistic contribution was to the field of drama. The plays written by Greek dramatists were classified as one of two forms: tragedy or comedy. Tragedies were serious dramas that often focused on a strong main character who possessed many great qualities and one fatal flaw. Some of the most notable tragedies included Oedipus Rex and Antigone (both written by Sophocles) and Medea (written by Euripides). Comedies were lighter dramas that included humor and satire. Among the best-known Greek comedies was Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes.
Like other Greeks, the Athenians adhered to a polytheistic religion centered on humanlike gods. Greek deities included Zeus, the chief god; Hera, his mate; Athena, the goddess of wisdom; Apollo, the god of the sun; Aphrodite, the goddess of love; Poseidon, the god of the sea; and Hades, the god of the underworld, among many others.
Persia
In the fifth century, Athens and Sparta faced a mutual enemy from the east: Persia. Hailing from present-day Iran, the Persians built a vast empire through military force. As early as 546 BCE, the Persians had turned their attention toward Greece, conquering several of the Greek city-states located in Asia Minor. Later, after some of these city-states attempted to revolt with the help of the Athenian navy, the Persians sought to take revenge on Athens and establish a presence on the Greek mainland.
The animosity between the Greeks and Persians culminated in the Persian Wars, which lasted from 490 to 449 BCE. At the Battle of Marathon, the first of the two major battles of the conflict, the Athenians defeated the Persians. Determined to attack Athens directly, the Persians devised a battle plan that required them to first take on the Spartans at Thermopylae. Although the three-hundred-man Spartan army was vastly outnumbered and largely powerless to stop the Persian advance, they fought to the very end to slow the Persians as much as possible. Eventually, the Persians reached and sacked Athens. Later the Athenian navy defeated them. The Athenians then joined forces with a number of other Greek city-states to expel the Persians from Greece completely.
The Athenian victory secured Athens's place as the leading Greek city-state. As Athens became increasingly powerful, its relationships with some of the other city-states grew strained. In particular, the relationship with Sparta became tense. When Sparta chose to defend the Corinthians against Athenian advances, the Spartans and Athenians declared war on each other. Known as the Peloponnesian War, this conflict led to Athenian defeat and the end of classical Greek culture.
Alexander the Great
The squabble between Athens and Sparta continued even after the Spartan victory. Philip II of Macedon, the monarch of the Macedon kingdom to the north of Greece, seized the opportunity to attack his southerly neighbors. By 336 BCE, his forces had taken full control of Greece. A short time after, Phillip II was assassinated; his son Alexander succeeded him. Alexander the Great, as he came to be known, had once been a student of Aristotle. He would go on to build one of the world's first great empires.
Alexander's army defeated the Persians in 333 BCE. Over the following two years, he conquered Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Syria, all with the goal of uniting the territory under his imperial control. Alexander's efforts took him as far east as India, where he intended to complete his mission of conquest. By the time he got there, however, his troops, who had been fighting constantly for years, refused to move into the Indian subcontinent and subsequently dispersed. Not long after, Alexander died of a fever at the age of thirty-two.
Alexander's conquests gave rise to Alexander's vision of the Hellenistic culture, or one that combined many elements of East and West. Alexander also spread the Greek culture throughout the ancient world. After Alexander's passing, Athens and Sparta resumed their place as the dominant Greek city-states. Their power was greatly diminished, however, and they were highly vulnerable to invasion. As a result of their collective weakness, in 146 BCE, they fell under the control of the newest power emerging in the Mediterranean region: Rome.
Rome
With Alexander's defeat of the Persians and the decline of the Greeks, the civilization of Rome on the Italian Peninsula was positioned to become the leading culture of its time. Eventually, Rome would become one of the most widespread and dominant empires in history.
Early Rome
According to legend, Rome itself was founded in 753 BCE by Romulus, who, along with his twin brother Remus, was said to have been abandoned as a young child along the banks of the Tiber River by his father Aeneas. According to the story, a she-wolf rescued Romulus and Remus, and Romulus later founded Rome and proclaimed himself its first king.
In reality, Rome can be traced back to around 800 BCE, when a group known as the Etruscans entered and settled in the Italian Peninsula. The Etruscans established a monarchical government and a strong military force. Etruscan culture would have a significant impact on that of their Roman successors.
The Roman Republic
In 509 BCE, the landowning aristocracy of Rome dethroned the Etruscan king. In his place, they established the Roman Republic. The Republic divided citizens into two classes: patricians and plebeians. The patricians accounted for the upper class of Roman society and exercised the most political control. They were responsible for electing both the consuls, the “executive branch” of the Roman government, and the members of the Senate, Rome's major legislative body.
Initially, the plebeians, who comprised the majority of Rome's population, held very little political power beyond the right to vote. In time, members of the plebeian class would be allowed to hold seats in the Senate. They also operated their own assembly, the Tribal Assembly, through which they could elect tribunes, or representatives who supported their interests.
One of the most important accomplishments of the early Roman government was the writing of the Twelve Tables in 451 BCE. The Twelve Tables set forth the fundamental tenets of Roman law, guaranteeing that all Roman citizens had a right to be protected by law. Although they were modified over time, the Twelve Tables remained an integral part of the structure of Roman society.
In time, Rome began to expand beyond its original borders. By 265 BCE, Rome had assumed control of almost all of Italy. Rome's ability to conquer neighbors was due, in large part, to a large and skilled army. The army was divided into a series of legions, each of which was composed of about five thousand to six thousand well-trained men. In addition, a cavalry division complemented each legion. Enrollment in the Roman army was mandatory. Landowning citizens were expected to serve and supply their own weapons and other equipment.
Rome's success in expanding its territory was also attributable to its policies toward the natives that were conquered. Those geographically closest to Rome were allowed to become legal Roman citizens. More distant peoples were granted all the privileges of citizenship, save for the right to vote. Others were permitted to maintain their own governments and were simply considered allies. This uniquely tolerant approach to conquest strengthened Rome's power and tightened its grip over its territories.
The first major test of Rome's military might came in a series of battles with the North African people of Carthage, known as the Punic Wars. As two of the leading powers in the western Mediterranean region, Rome and Carthage frequently found themselves in territorial disputes.
The First Punic War erupted in 264 BCE, and was fought for control of Sicily, an island with vital grain resources. Rome eventually emerged victorious. The Second Punic War (218 BCE) began when the Carthaginian general Hannibal marched his troops across the Alps and into Italy with the intention of taking Rome itself. Although his campaign was initially successful and resulted in massive losses for the Romans, he was eventually forced to retreat back to Carthage to defend the homeland against an invasion led by the Roman general Scipio. Once back in Carthage, Hannibal and the remnants of his forced were defeated.
The Third Punic War (149 BCE) marked Rome's final triumph over Carthage. Although any notion of Carthage being an actual threat to the Roman Republic had long since passed, the Romans were still anxious to avenge the heavy losses they endured at the hands of Hannibal. To that end, they launched a vicious attack on Carthage that destroyed the city. To ensure total victory, the Romans went so far as to salt the soil and either kill or enslave all surviving Carthaginians.
The Republic Becomes an Empire
The end of the Punic Wars marked the beginning of a difficult time for Rome. Managing Rome's vast territory was a formidable challenge. Of particular concern was the ever-increasing economic gap between the wealthy and the poor. In many Roman-conquered lands, large estates called latifundia appeared shortly after fighting had ceased. The owners of these estates were able to create an agricultural workforce by enslaving the former inhabitants of the land. Smaller landowners soon found themselves unable to compete and quickly becoming impoverished.
Rome's increasingly unstable economic situation led to a period of unrest and civil war. During this time, a number of military leaders came into power and attempted to alleviate the turmoil, though none of them were successful. The chaos continued until 49 BCE, when Julius Caesar took control of Rome.
Caesar began his ascent when he joined General Pompey and an aristocrat named Crassus to form the first triumvirate. The following year, he became consul and worked to gain the people's favor. He then spent the following ten years as proconsul of Gaul and used his military expertise to secure the entirety of Gaul in the name of Rome. In 49 BCE, following the death of Crassus, Caesar returned to Rome with the goal of seizing power from Pompey. For a time, he fled to Egypt, where he gained an important political supporter in Cleopatra, whom he installed as queen there. Before long, he returned to Rome, displaced Pompey, and accepted the title of “dictator for life.”
As dictator, Caesar continued his public policies of appeasement by awarding citizenship to the people living in Roman provinces and by giving public land to military veterans and the poor. As popular as he was among the common people of Rome, he was distrusted and despised by many of the senators whose power he had greatly reduced. Convinced that he was trying to turn the Republic into a monarchy, the senators decided to take matters into their own hands, and Caesar was stabbed to death on the floor of the Senate on March 15, 44 BCE.
With Caesar's death, Rome entered another period of civil war to determine who would succeed Caesar as leader of the Republic. Initially, control of Rome fell into the hands of another triumvirate, this time composed of Marc Antony (a close military ally of Julius Caesar's), Lepidus, and Octavian (Caesar's nephew and adopted son). This arrangement lasted only a short while, as Lepidus was forced out and Octavian and Antony became bitter rivals. While commanding his military forces abroad, Antony met and fell in love with Cleopatra. Retreating to Egypt with Cleopatra, Antony assumed control of the eastern half of the empire and left the western half to Octavian. The two soon went to war with one another and Octavian emerged victorious. Antony and Cleopatra, unwilling to submit to Octavian's authority, took their own lives. Octavian then assumed total control of Rome and took on the title of Augustus (27 BCE), meaning “exalted one.” With this, the Roman Empire was born.
For the following 207 years, Rome enjoyed a period of peace known as the Pax Romana. During this time, the ailing empire was revitalized and expanded to its greatest extent. Rome was at its height.
Rome and Christianity
As most other cultures of its time, the Romans practiced a polytheistic religion. Roman religion borrowed heavily from the spiritual heritage of the classical Greeks. It was the religion of Christianity, however, that would eventually come to dominate the Roman Empire.
In 63 BCE, the Romans took control of a region of Palestine inhabited by the Hebrews. They named this region Judea. It was here, around 4 BCE, that Jesus Christ, a figure who some believed was the Messiah promised to the Hebrew people in their sacred Scriptures, was born. Upon turning thirty years old, Jesus took up a public ministry with the help of his twelve apostles, spreading his teachings about monotheism, the relationship between God and man, and the promise of eternal life. Within just a few years, Hebrew and Roman officials alike began to view Jesus as a potential threat to authority. He was put to death. However, his message was spread by his followers across the Mediterranean and, eventually, into Rome itself.
Early Roman Christians took serious risks to practice their newfound faith. Abandoning traditional Roman religion and refusing to acknowledge the divinity of the emperor, the early Roman Christians were violently persecuted. Despite the hardships it faced, the Christian community of Rome grew quickly. In time, the influence of Christianity became so great that by the fourth century Emperor Constantine legalized its practice, and in 380 CE, Theodosius made it the official religion of the empire.
Once Christianity became a formally recognized religion, it developed its own organizational structure. The church as a whole was led by the bishop of Rome (the pope), while separate dioceses were controlled by bishops, who, in turn, led the priests who operated local parishes.
The Fall of Rome
While Christianity flourished, Rome crumbled. For some time, the Germanic tribes living in areas just outside Rome's borders had been undertaking periodic incursions into Roman territory. In the 400s, many of these tribes, threatened by the approach of Attila the Hun, began pushing deeper into Roman territory in the hopes of finding safety there. In addition, civil war caused a sharp decline in trade. These and other factors led to another economic crisis that significantly weakened the empire.
Desperate to repair the failing empire, the emperor Diocletian chose to split it in half between two emperors, in the hopes that this arrangement would make it easier to govern. The once-massive Roman Empire was divided into smaller eastern and western empires. While Rome itself remained the western capital, Constantine named Constantinople the capital of the east.
In the meantime, the Germanic tribes continued to press inward into Roman territory to escape the Huns. One of the tribes, the Visigoths, sacked the city of Rome in 410 CE. Later, the Romans would be forced to ally themselves with the Visigoths as a defense against the Huns. Although they won the battle, the Roman army was left in shambles and was unable to defend Rome further. In 476 CE, the last western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, was overthrown. Although Constantinople would continue on for nearly a thousand more years, the Roman Empire was at an end.
The Han Dynasty
As Rome reigned in the west, another power rose to dominance in the east. Between 206 BCE and 220 CE, the Han dynasty ruled over China during one of the most important and influential periods in its history.
The Han dynasty first rose with the fall of the Qin dynasty in 206 BCE. Upon defeating the Qin, rebel leaders Gaozu (also known as Liu Bang) and Xiang Yu assumed control of their territories and established separate kingdoms. Eventually, the two turned on each other in a bid for power. In the end, Gaozu emerged victorious and founded the Han dynasty.
As emperor, Gaozu quickly moved to establish a strong central government to control and secure the entire empire. In part, the operation of this government was made possible by a complex bureaucracy that was funded through the implementation of a tax system. Rather than making monetary contributions, peasants fulfilled their tax obligations by handing over part of their yearly agricultural harvest to the government. They were also required to complete a month of government labor or military service on a yearly basis. The Han government used this system of enforced labor to complete a variety of projects that helped improve the Chinese way of life.
The Han dynasty also used taxes to fund its educational system. In addition to maintaining an imperial university, the Han government established the first Chinese civil service test. This commitment to education was mainly due to adherence to Confucian philosophy.
In time, the Han dynasty moved beyond its original borders and evolved into an empire, conquering both Korea and Vietnam. The Han culture was also spread through migration to various parts of Southeast Asia.
The Silk Roads
Perhaps the single most important factor in the success of the Han dynasty, however, was the development of the Silk Roads, which were a series of trade routes that connected China to the west. The trading network built by the Chinese along the Silk Roads was a significant source of financial prosperity and helped to establish China on the world stage. Composed of both land and sea routes, the Silk Roads allowed China to conduct trade with the Roman Empire, Africa, other parts of Asia, and beyond.
As the name implies, the most important product traded along the Silk Roads was silk. As a particularly valuable commodity, silk was traded extensively, and the methods for its production quickly spread across China. Other trade goods included iron, spices, jewels, olive oil, and grain, among others.
The influence of the Silk Roads went beyond trade. The Silk Roads contributed to the spread of various religions between the cultures it connected. Early in their history, the Silk Roads helped facilitate the spread of Buddhism throughout the Eastern world. Later, the Silk Roads would also be an important conduit for the spread of Christianity into the Mediterranean region.
Unfortunately, the Silk Roads also helped encourage the spread of disease. Epidemics of disease in both Rome and China spread via the Silk Roads and caused significant declines in population. The reduced population, in turn, led to a decline in trade along the Silk Roads and diminished their importance.
The Fall of the Han Dynasty
As with Rome, the great success of the Han dynasty led to the circumstances that would eventually threaten the empire. Unequal distribution of land increased economic disparity between the rich and poor. In addition, the Han faced the challenges of simultaneously defending their borders from neighboring peoples while trying to expand territory. This inhibited the ability to do either and ultimately weakened their empire. The empire was further destabilized by ineffective government rule and peasant revolts.
In 9 CE, the turmoil in China led to the overthrow of the Han dynasty by Wang Mang, who installed himself as leader. By 23 CE, subsequent revolts forced Wang Mang to abdicate. After this brief interruption, the Han dynasty returned to power. Conditions failed to improve, however, and with the addition of epidemic disease and invasion by the neighboring Hsiung-nu, the empire continued in its decline. When the Han dynasty finally collapsed in 220 CE, hordes of barbarians flooded across its borders. As a result, China was plunged into a four-hundred-year period of turmoil and disorder.
Review Questions
1. During the first Punic War, the Romans were MOST interested in acquiring Sicily because it
A. offered an array of natural resources
B. could serve as a strategic military base
C. would allow Rome to avenge civilian losses
D. would increase Rome's ability to trade with the East
E. could serve as a key location in a Carthaginian invasion of Italy
2. The Battle of Thermopylae was key to Athenian victory in the Persian War because it
A. prevented the Persians from reaching and sacking Athens itself
B. wiped out a large portion of the Persian army before it reached Athens
C. delayed the Persians' approach and gave the Athenians time to prepare
D. eliminated the Persian navy and forced them to rely on a land attack
E. weakened Persian morale and left the soldiers unwilling to fight
3. Who split the Roman Empire into two halves?
A. Augustus
B. Diocletian
C. Julius Caesar
D. Constantine
E. Marc Antony
4. Usage of the Silk Roads for trade declined near the end of the Han dynasty primarily due to
A. economic conditions that made long-distance trade too expensive
B. constant warfare that made roads unsafe for travel
C. a decrease in the demand for silk goods in the Mediterranean
D. a devastating shortage of Chinese silk
E. epidemic disease that traveled along the roads and decimated the population
5. During the Dorian period, Greece experienced food shortages as the result of a
A. period of unusually warm and dry weather conditions
B. decrease in trade with other Mediterranean cultures
C. long-term agricultural blight that damaged crops
D. trend of immigration out of the Greek mainland
E. war with Persia that used significant resources
Answer Explanations
1. A. Rome was primarily interested in taking control of Sicily during the first Punic War because of the valuable natural resources it provided. As a major grain-producing territory, Sicily could provide some strategic advantages to Rome, which was dependent on outside sources of grain for survival.
2. C. The Battle of Thermopylae played an important role in Athens's
success in the Persian Wars because it delayed the Persian army's approach and allowed the Athenians time to prepare for battle. At Thermopylae, the Persians had to first annihilate a three-hundred- man Spartan army to pass through the mountains and reach Athens. Although they were vastly outnumbered, the Spartans prevented the Persians from proceeding to Athens long enough to give the Athenians time to prepare. Although Athens was initially sacked, the Athenian navy eventually defeated the Persians.
3. B. The Roman Empire was formally divided into two halves by Diocletian. By 286 CE, the Roman Empire, which was in the midst of an economic crisis, had grown too large to be effectively governed in a single location by a single leader. To remedy this situation, Diocletian divided the empire in two.
4. E. The decline in trade along the Silk Roads near the end of the Han dynasty was primarily the result of a significant reduction in the population caused by epidemic disease that traveled the road. Because the Silk Roads connected so many different regions of the world, it was an ideal conduit for the transmission of disease. By the end of the Han dynasty, various diseases had taken a heavy toll on the population in China and elsewhere. As a result of the diminished population, trading decreased.
5. D. The food shortages that occurred in Greece during the Dorian period were the result of a trend of immigration out of the Greek mainland. During the Dorian period, also known as the Dark Age, many Greeks who had been living on the mainland immigrated over the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor. This trend caused a decline in food production on the mainland that left the remaining population to endure severe food shortages.