Features of the origin of Greek civilization. History of ancient Greece Periods of ancient Greece

Civilizations and democracies

From the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Ancient Eastern civilizations began to lose priority in historical development and gave way to a new civilizational center that arose in the Mediterranean Sea, called the “Ancient Civilization of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.” It was based on qualitatively different, democratic foundations in economic, political and socio-cultural relations, and was more dynamic compared to ancient Eastern civilizations. Based on the achievements of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the entire modern Western and Russian civilization was formed. The features of the development of modern civilizations cannot be understood without knowledge of ancient history and culture.

The beginning of ancient civilization was laid in Greece. King Hellenes is considered the legendary ancestor of the Greeks. Therefore, the Greeks themselves called themselves Hellenes and their country Hellas. But at first, relatively sparsely populated Ancient Greece developed in the general mainstream of ancient Eastern civilizations. For example, the oldest civilization in Europe is the Aegean civilization, usually called Minoan, named after its legendary founder, King Minos. It existed in the 3rd – first half of the 2nd millennium BC. on the islands of the Aegean Sea, partly in mainland Greece and Asia Minor; known from the monuments of the Knossos Palace of King Minos on the island of Crete, explored in the first half of the 20th century. English archaeologist A. Evans. This palace had about 300 rooms, the walls of which were decorated with numerous frescoes. In total, there were four palaces in Crete, in which the kings, their entourage and servants lived. Around the palaces there were settlements of farmers, cattle breeders and artisans.

Other regions of Greece, which was poor in fertile lands, were inhabited by small tribes of Danaans, Ionians, Aeolians, and others, led by kings or basileus. Some of the Hellenic tribes, in search of more fertile lands, migrated to the North of the Balkan Peninsula. The Pelasgians lived in Thrace; they mastered agriculture before anyone else in Europe. One part of the Pelasgians moved to the lands of continental Greece, the other, together with the Thracians and, possibly, with part of the Wends (the future Western Slavs) - to Asia Minor. On the banks of the Danube, right up to the Northern Black Sea region, lived the Hellenic tribes of the Achaeans and Dorians, who managed to largely preserve the traditions of “military democracy”. By the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Achaeans and Dorians came into contact with the Aryan tribes - descendants of the Hyperboreans - the Rus (Rus) and the Wends with no less developed traditions of “military democracy”. From the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The Achaeans and part of the Aryans began to move to the south. This ethnic expansion, which also captured Crete, was called the “Achaean conquest” of Greece. The Minoan civilization was seriously weakened. But she died as a result of a powerful earthquake and eruption of the Santorini volcano in the middle of the 17th century. BC. Some of the Rus (Rus) remained in Greece after this, but the majority returned across the Danube to their fellow tribesmen.

From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the south of Greece, freed from the power of Crete, a new Mycenaean civilization emerged, centered in the city of Mycenae on the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Its creators, the Achaean Greeks, borrowed many of the achievements of the Minoans from Crete. The centers of Mycenaean civilization were the well-fortified palaces of tribal leaders (kings, basileus), to whom rural settlements gravitated. Homer's Odysseus, for example, was the king (basileus) of the Achaean tribe living on the island of Ithaca. The Achaeans waged frequent wars among themselves. But sometimes, for the sake of victory over a common enemy, they united in alliances. It was an alliance of Achaean tribes that fought the Trojan War, which ended around 1270 BC. the capture and destruction of the rich city of Troy (Ilion) in Asia Minor. Some of the Hellenic tribes that migrated to Asia Minor, primarily the Pelasgians, as well as the Thracians and Wends, fought on the side of Troy. The real reason for the war was that the Hellenic city of Troy, located near the Dardanelles, blocked its competitors, other Greek cities, from reaching the Black Sea colonies, and not the abduction of Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus, by the son of the Trojan king Priam, the handsome Paris. These events are reflected in Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey".

The Mycenaean civilization of the Achaean Greeks, weakened by the Trojan War, suffered at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. a new invasion from the north. The next conquerors were the Dorian tribes, who were again supported by the tribes of the Slavic-Russians (Ross) and the Wends. The Iron Age was beginning and the new conquerors were already armed with iron swords, against which the bronze weapons of the Achaeans were ineffective. The small states of the Achaeans were quickly destroyed by the Dorians. After this, part of the Slavic-Russians and Wends, who supported the Dorians and showed themselves to the Hellenes as brave and “glorious warriors,” returned to the north. The remaining Wends and Slavic-Russians settled in Crete, the Peloponnese, Asia Minor, in the middle part and in the north of the Apennine Peninsula. Weakened by the Trojan War, Greece was thrown back to the time of the birth of civilization.

This zigzag in development had serious historical consequences. The Achaeans, Dorians and the Rosas (Russ) who remained in Greece mixed with the local population and adopted its mythology and religion. In turn, the local population adopted the name of the new settlers and began to be called Hellenes - Dorians. Ancient Greece at this stage of its history was a country with an ethnically mixed population, a significant part of which came from the north. In the Hellenic states that were revived after the Dorian invasion, the power of the kings disappeared over time, and where it remained, it was limited. Greece turned into a conglomerate of small city-states (polises), which at the same time remained communities. Every free, full-fledged resident of such a state-community or polis had the right to his own plot of land, had civil rights, and participated in the elections of rulers.

What is the reason for the unique social mutation that occurred in Hellas, the only one in the history of the Ancient World? Firstly, the Hellenes adopted the art of shipbuilding and navigation from the Phoenicians and became brave sailors. And sailors already in ancient times were people of a special kind. Let us recall, for example, Homer’s Odysseus and how much initiative, ingenuity, independence, activity, courage, and desperate courage he showed during his many-year return to Ithaca. On the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, Marmara, Black and Azov Seas, the Hellenes, following the example of the Phoenicians, founded over a hundred colonies that supplied mainland Greece with bread, other products, and slaves, which they bought from local rulers. These colonies, together with the metropolis in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, formed Magna Graecia.

Secondly, the religion and mythology of the ancient Greeks, which established itself after the Achaean and Dorian conquests, were fundamentally different from the ancient Eastern myths and religions. The ancient Gods, according to Hellenic myths, “descended from heaven to earth” and settled on Mount Olympus. The Olympian gods of the ancient Greek pantheon constantly argued and quarreled among themselves, fought, and committed adultery. These were Gods with “human faces”, and not with animal heads, as in Egypt or Mesopotamia. They, according to myths, directly communicated with the Hellenes, helped or hindered them, and set examples of pluralism, independence, ingenuity, initiative, and spiritual looseness. The Hellenes, in turn, sought to imitate the Olympian Gods and learn from their experience and examples.

Hellenic myths mention that Hephaestus, the God of fire and blacksmithing, had mechanisms (industrial robots) with which he forged weapons and armor. Jason's Argonauts, during their journey to Colchis for the Golden Fleece, observed on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus the mechanisms created by the “Gods who descended from heaven” (tractors and tractor plows), with the help of which the land was plowed, etc. But this is in myths. The Hellenes, unlike the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians, did not have common affairs and did not meet with the real “Alien Gods,” but sometimes (as we will see later) they used their help. And Callisthenes is a historian and writer of the last third of the 4th century. BC. he himself became the author of a novel about Alexander the Great that has survived to this day, acting as the creator of a myth popular in Hellas, calling his hero and contemporary nothing less than the son of Zeus himself - the head of the pantheon of the Olympian Gods.

It was in Hellas that classical ancient society was formed, based on democracy, pluralism in political relations and private property. There had never been anything like this in the Ancient East. The emergence of private property relations and the emergence of market-oriented commodity production contributed to the emergence of fundamentally different socio-political and legal structures that determined the specifics of ancient society. Namely: the emergence of a polis (city-state) in Ancient Greece or “civitas” - a civil community in Ancient Rome as the main form of political organization of society; the presence of concepts of popular sovereignty and democratic government; a developed system of legal guarantees for the protection of the rights and freedoms of every citizen, recognition of his personal dignity, a system of socio-cultural principles that contributed to the comprehensive development of the individual.

A distinctive feature of ancient Greek life was its agonistic character (from the Greek “agon” - struggle, competition) - an uncontrollable desire for competition in all spheres of life. For example, sports competitions, the Olympic Games, held since 776 BC. once every four years. From the middle of the 2nd century. BC. to 394 AD they already took place within the framework of the Roman state, of which Greece became an integral part. During the Olympic Games, frequent wars between the ancient Greek city-states ceased. Musical and poetic competitions were also favorite in Hellas - the Delphic or Pythian games in honor of Apollo, the god of harmony, spiritual activity and the arts. Common in everyday life was the desire of the Hellenes to do something better than a neighbor in the community did, to build a temple in honor of the Olympian Gods more beautiful than in the neighboring polis, etc. This contributed to the powerful development of all spheres of life of Hellenic society. Sports and other competitions were very common in Ancient Rome, and gladiator fights became a favorite spectacle of the Romans.

The emergence of the optimal form of slavery for that time was associated with Greek colonization. They began to turn into slaves not compatriots who were debtors, but captured foreigners. Most often and in large quantities, they were bought in the colonies from local rulers and sold in the markets of Greek policies. Slave labor was used in all spheres of the economy, and free citizens had more free time to engage in politics, sports, literature, art, and philosophy. Literate slaves helped Hellenic intellectuals, copied and “replicated” their works for sale or for use in public libraries.

For the Hellene, the polis, and for the Roman, his civil community - “civitas” - were the only place where a free person felt like a member of a society whose life was regulated by laws, protected from arbitrariness and under the protection of the Gods. So Jupiter (the Roman analogue of Zeus) patronized Rome, and Pallas Athena - Athens, etc. The economic basis of the polis was the ancient, dual form of ownership: on the one hand, the ownership of the civil community over the entire territory and wealth of the polis, and on the other, the individual ownership of the citizen’s house (“oikos”) in which he lived. The free Hellene simultaneously acted as the owner of the house - “oikon”, as a citizen - “polites”, and as a militia warrior, ready to defend his native city with his own weapons in his hands. The formation of ancient democracy and civil society took place in an acute struggle between the people - the “demos” and the tribal aristocracy. In those policies where the demos won, democracy was established - the power of the people. But even where the aristocracy managed to defend its power (for example, in Sparta), it existed in the form of an aristocratic or oligarchic republic, but not a monarchy. In Sparta there were elected kings, but their power concerned only the army and military affairs.

The great Hellenic legislators played a major role in establishing democratic values: the Athenians - Solon, Cleisthenes, Peisistratus and the Spartan - the legendary Lycurgus. The most significant among the reforms of Solon in the 6th century. BC. became a reform of debt law, the so-called “shaking off the burden.” All debts and interest on them were declared invalid, the sale of family members into slavery and self-mortgage transactions were prohibited. Previously concluded such transactions were canceled by law. This saved a significant part of the Athenians from enslavement and made possible the further development of democracy. The heyday of Athens, the most brilliant era in the history of the Athenian polis, occurred during the reign of Pericles (444-429 BC). He was elected 15 times to the highest position of strategist in Athens, the de facto head of the polis. Pericles satisfied the demands of the average and poor Athenian citizens to involve them in the management of the policy and introduced payment for elected positions. Impoverished citizens were given land. The highest legislative power in Athens was the people's assembly - the Areopagus, at which all officials, including strategists, were elected. The executive power was in the Council of Five Hundred, which dealt with current affairs and prepared them for discussion and approval at the Areopagus. The Athenian polis turned into the largest economic, political and cultural center of the entire Hellenic world, and became a standard and example for other ancient Greek polis.

In the everyday life of the Athenian polis, naturally, antagonisms between the upper and lower classes existed and developed. Equality of citizens in practice was often formal; it concerned only a minority of the population of Athens. Women and metics, which included all residents of Athens not of purely Athenian origin, did not enjoy civil rights. There is no need to talk about slaves and freedmen at all. At the Council of Five Hundred, for example, the issue of introducing insignia for slaves was once raised. But this idea was immediately abandoned, because... it may turn out that slaves made up the majority of the population of Athens. This is how it actually happened. A similar situation occurred in other policies. It was not uncommon to be suspicious of anyone who rose above the masses, even if he stood out for his selfless service to the Athenian polis. Themistocles - the organizer of the Greek victory over the Persian fleet in the Battle of Salamis 480 BC. a few years later he was expelled from Athens and ended his life in the service... of the Persian king. In the last years of his life, Pericles, even being elected by the Areopagus to the highest position of strategist, was under investigation on charges of financial abuse during the reconstruction of the Acropolis. The great sculptor Phidias, an active participant in the reconstruction of the Acropolis and the creator of the giant statue of Olympian Zeus in Olympia, considered one of the “seven wonders of the world,” ended his life in prison. The famous philosopher Socrates was accused of anti-democracy, imprisoned, where he was forced to take a cup of poison.

The Greco-Persian wars of the first half of the 5th century became a serious test for Hellas and the Hellenes. BC, which began with the conquest of the Greek city-states in Asia Minor by the Persians, led by Xerxes, the Persians even occupied part of Greece, including Athens, whose inhabitants left the city. As a result, the victory in the wars with the Achmenid Empire was won by the Greek city-states, united in the name of this goal. The most famous events of this era were the battles: 490 BC. near the village of Marathon, 42 km from Athens, 480 BC. - defeat of the Persian fleet near the island of Salamis in the Aegean Sea. In the memory of the Greeks, the feat of 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas, who died heroically in 480 BC, but did not allow the Persians to enter the center of Greece through the mountain pass of Thermopylae, remained forever.

The Greeks defended their independence. The result was the strengthening of Athens, which led the Athenian Maritime League. He united democratic cities. Over time, the Athenians began to interfere in the internal life of the allies. Their monetary contributions to the treasury of the union actually turned into tribute to Athens, part of which was used under Pericles for the reconstruction of the Acropolis. The unity of Hellas turned out to be fragile and short-lived. In 431 BC. A war began between the Peloponnesian (led by Sparta) League and the Athenian Naval League. The war ended in 404 BC. the defeat of Athens and the dissolution of the Athenian Maritime League, the establishment of Spartan dominance in Greece. The winners imposed oligarchic rule everywhere. Many city policies continued grueling wars with Sparta. The crisis of the polis system was manifested in increasing economic inequality between citizens. Many of them went bankrupt, got into debt, and lost their livelihood.

To the north of Greece was Macedonia, where a population related to the Hellenes lived. In the middle of the 4th century. BC. Philip II, an admirer of Hellenic culture, an outstanding diplomat and commander, became the king of Macedonia. Many Greeks hoped that Philip would restore order and stop the wars between the policies. Some of the Greeks, led by the Athenian Demosthenes, called for a unification of forces to fight Macedonia. But in 338, in the battle of the town of Chaeronea, the Greeks were defeated. Hellas came under the rule of Philip. He was preparing for war with Persia, but in 336 BC. was killed. His son Alexander, soon nicknamed the Great, became king of Macedonia. He suppressed the anti-Macedonian uprising in Greece, and in 334-31. BC. defeated the main enemy of Hellas - the Achmenid Empire. The chronicles of the campaigns of Alexander the Great repeatedly mention the appearance of unknown disc-shaped objects (UFOs) in the sky. So during the assault in 332 BC. of the Phoenician city of Tyre, 5 “flying shields” appeared above the city, from which lightning flashed, forming gaps in the walls of the fortress. The delighted Greeks rushed to storm and captured the city. After this, the “flying shields” rose up and disappeared.

The conquests continued. Alexander the Great became the founder and ruler of a huge empire, which, in addition to Greece, included the territories of Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, parts of Transcaucasia, Central Asia and India. Alexander’s main goal was to unite the West and the East into a single civilization, the capital of which he made Babylon. Only about a dozen cities with the name “Alexandria” appeared in the conquered territories. They were intended to become strongholds of a new civilization and centers of a new Hellenistic culture with theaters, libraries, and scientific centers. True, most of these “Alexandrias” were not newly built cities (such as Alexandria in the Nile Delta), but renamed old cities. In 327 BC. Alexander led his army to India. On the eastern bank of the Indus, he defeated the army of the local king Porus. When it became clear to the Greeks that the world inhabited by India in the East was far from ending, and that endless China lay ahead, the army rebelled. Alexander returned to Babylon. He was planning new trips. But in 323 BC. The “conqueror of the world,” who had not known a single defeat, suddenly died of tropical fever before reaching the age of 33.

After the death of Alexander, the struggle for his legacy began between the diadochi - former comrades-in-arms, commanders of the great conqueror. The collapse of the state was inevitable. The conquered lands were too large, and the system of governing them was too weak. In place of Alexander's empire, several Hellenistic states arose from the Balkan Peninsula to the lower reaches of the Indus. The Antigonid dynasty established itself in Macedonia, the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Attalids in Pergamum, and the Seleucids in Mesopotamia, Syria and part of Asia Minor. They developed a unique culture that combined Greek and Oriental features to varying degrees. This was precisely the prerequisite for the spread of Hellenic civilization and culture far beyond the borders of Hellas and giving them global significance.

The most significant center of Hellenistic culture was Egypt, with its capital at Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the Nile Delta. Alexandria, built very quickly, occupied an area of about 100 square meters. km and amazed contemporaries with the wealth, luxury and uniqueness of its layout, architecture, multi-storey public buildings and residential buildings, maintained in the best traditions of antiquity. The city was divided into four quarters by two straight highways, intersecting in the center and running from north to south and from west to east. The secondary streets were also straight. The most famous center of Hellenistic culture was the Museion (Greek “place of residence of the muses”) - the largest library of Alexandria in the Ancient World, containing over 700 thousand books (papyrus scrolls) in various branches of knowledge. The Ptolemies spared no expense in purchasing books from other countries or copying them. Due to the high consumption of papyri, their export outside Egypt was prohibited. Scientists from another major center of Hellenistic culture - Pergamon in the north of Asia Minor - discovered a method of using parchment - specially treated calfskin - as a writing material. Established in the 2nd century. BC. the production of parchment satisfied the needs of the Pergamon Library, which successfully competed with the Library of Alexandria.

The Alexandrian Museion was a serious scientific center of the Hellenistic era. The scientists who worked there studied problems of philosophy, philology, mathematics, astronomy, botany and zoology, using the most modern scientific instruments and equipment of that time. One of the outstanding scientists of antiquity was Claudius Ptolemy, the author of works on many branches of knowledge, incl. on history. The most famous thing is that in the 2nd century. AD he substantiated the geocentric system of the world, which was refuted by the heliocentric system of N. Copernicus only in 1453. At the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. On the island of Pharos near the seaport of Alexandria, a 110-meter lighthouse, unique in its design, was built, the light of which was visible more than 100 miles away. The Faros lighthouse, one of the “seven wonders of the world,” stood until 1326 and collapsed, probably as a result of an earthquake. The Museion with its library, the last citadel of ancient science and culture, was destroyed by Christian fanatics at the end of the 4th century. during fierce religious strife with the pagans.

The most important result of Alexander’s conquests was the further weakening of Greece and its subjugation in the middle of the 2nd century. BC. Roman Republic as a province. As for the Hellenistic states, in most of them, with the exception of Egypt, which became a Roman province, the influence of antiquity turned out to be fragmentary and formal. In the final historical result, everything returned “to normal”: the West remained the West, and the East remained the East. Nevertheless, the influence of Greece and the charm of its highly developed Hellenistic culture was exceptionally great. The Romans even called themselves barbarians compared to the Hellenes. Libraries, some marble sculptures, many of which have survived to this day in Roman bronze copies, and educated slaves were taken to Rome from Greece. The Greek intellectual elite became an integral part of the intellectual elite of the Roman Republic, and then the empire. The Roman poet Horace wrote at the end of the 1st century. BC: “Greece, having become a captive, captured the rude victors.” Differences between ancient Greece and Rome remained, but we can confidently talk about common features in their subsequent political and socio-cultural development. The very era of political dominance of the Roman Republic, and then the empire, as one of the eras of antiquity, is often called Hellenistic-Roman.

. Ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, Macedonia)

The history of the ancient world has long attracted special attention of European scientists. The point is not only that of all the periods of antiquity it is the best studied. It is believed that the civilizations of Greece and Rome stood at the origins of European traditions of political, economic and spiritual life.

Ancient Greece

At the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. residents of Greece and adjacent islands learned to make tools from bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. During this period, the first state formation in Europe was formed on the island of Crete. Archaeologists have found ruins of palaces on the island, evidence of the existence of a developed writing system.

Figure 2.4.1.

In 1450 BC. The civilization of Crete was destroyed by a volcanic eruption and earthquakes. Around the same time, Mycenaean (Achaean) tribes, who then lived in Greece, invaded Crete. They adopted the Cretan writing system and began to play a prominent role in trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, in the 12th century BC. the developing Achaean civilization was destroyed by the alliances of the Greco-Dorian, Thessalian, Boeotian, Ionian tribes of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor (they were known to the Egyptians as the “peoples of the sea”). Having moved to Greece, these tribes partially merged with the Achaeans and partially enslaved them.

After the conquest, the Greek economy fell into decline, and the population decreased sharply. Only from the 8th century BC. the rise of the Greek city-states began. The features of their development were largely determined by natural conditions and the geopolitical position of Greece.

The relatively small, mountainous area was favorable for gardening and cattle breeding, but not agriculture. The sea played a big role here: fishing and maritime trade made it possible to make up for the lack of food. From the 5th century BC. The colonization of the coast of Asia Minor, the Black Sea region, and Italy began to acquire increasing importance. An excess population flocked to the colonies; they supplied Greece with the missing products. The first Greek colony, the city of Qom, was founded in 750 BC. on the coast of Italy.

City-states of Greece

In ancient Greece there was no large, unified state. The gradual development of tribal communities led to the formation on their basis of several hundred small independent states-policies, including a settlement (city) and adjacent land. Each policy had its own laws and a special system of governance, although common features inherited from the tribal system were also preserved. Thus, a special role was played by the councils of elders, which represented the clan aristocracy and meetings of tribe members, for whom the rights of citizens were recognized. Foreigners, even wealthy ones, and slaves did not have the right to participate in public life. Land was considered as the common property of the policy, its property. With the development of commodity-money relations, the purchase and sale of plots of land became possible (although in some policies it was limited), but only by citizens of a given policy.

Ancient Greece is considered to be the birthplace of democracy. Indeed, over time, in the largest city-states, especially in Athens who escaped the Dorian conquest, significant changes occurred in social life.

Instead of the hereditary power of tribal leaders (kings), the principle of election of the supreme ruler (archon) and his reporting to the council of heads of clans (areopagus) was introduced. The power of tradition and custom was gradually replaced by laws (the first of them, establishing general standards of behavior for all citizens and punishment for their violation, were adopted in 621 BC).

At the beginning of the 6th century BC. on the initiative of Archon Solon (635-559 BC), the entire population of the polis was divided into four categories depending on their property status. This weakened the position of the tribal nobility. Traders and artisans who became rich became equal in rights with her.

At the end of the 6th century BC. Instead of dividing the policy into family domains, the principle of dividing it into 10 districts was adopted, each of which elected its representatives to a new council (council of five hundred), which dealt with all current affairs. The Areopagus retained only judicial functions in cases that did not involve property disputes. Foreigners who successfully conducted business in Athens received the rights of citizens. The total number of citizens was about 30 thousand people.

According to the tradition established in Athens, active participation in the affairs of the polis and the defense of democracy were the most important rights and duties of citizens. At the meetings, issues of war and peace were decided and officials were elected. The assembly could sentence to expulsion from the polis persons who posed a threat to democracy and were prone to tyranny.

Thus, by the 5th century BC. the tribal system in Athens was finally supplanted by a new state organization, which was called democracy .

Another path of policy development was demonstrated Sparta. This state was founded by a Dorian tribe, which, having settled in the south of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, turned the local population into powerless slaves (helots). The Spartans considered it unworthy for themselves to cultivate the land, engage in trade, and crafts. This was the lot of slaves and newcomers from surrounding settlements. War was considered the only respectable occupation for men. The education system was subordinated to one goal - training hardy, taciturn, disciplined warriors. The Spartans' tradition of killing children who were born weak and whom they believed would not make good soldiers went down in history.

Figure 2.4.2.

In Sparta, the tribal system remained unchanged. It was governed by a council of elders and a meeting of warriors; the role of leaders (kings) was limited. Equal distribution was maintained. All Spartans wore simple clothes, ate communally, and did not accept money.

The Spartan state waged constant wars against neighboring policies, capturing slaves, collecting tribute and gradually expanding its territory. If in Athens slave labor was used to a limited extent, only in mines and workshops, then in Sparta it was the basis of the economy.

City-states of Italy. Founding of Rome

The development of cities in Italy and Greece showed many similarities. In the VIII-VI centuries. BC. The Greeks colonized the coast of Southern and Central Italy, built Naples and Syracuse, which became important trading centers in the Mediterranean. This had a great influence on the tribal formations inhabiting Italy. In the north of Italy (in the territory of present-day Tuscany) the Etruscans dominated. Their origins are not precisely known; it is assumed that, like the Dorians, they belonged to the “peoples of the sea” and came from the East, conquering the local population.

In 753 BC. the city was founded by three Latin tribes living in the area of the Tiber River Rome.

Figure 2.4.3.

View drawing

According to legends, Rome was built by a descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas, Romulus, who, together with his brother Remus, miraculously escaped assassins in infancy and was suckled by a she-wolf.

Initially, as in Athens, the social life of Rome was built on the basis of tribal traditions. The highest governing body was the Senate (from the Latin "senex" - "old man"), consisting of 300 people, the elders of the clans that founded the city. Ordinary members of the tribe, united in the curia according to the clan principle, could also express their opinions on the issues under discussion. The role of supreme ruler was assigned to an elected king, who was supposed to rule in accordance with tradition and the will of the Senate. From 616 BC People from the noble Etruscan family of the Tarquinii were elected kings, which reflected the special role of the Etruscans in Italy.

The descendants of the city's founders called themselves patricians ("patres" - "fathers"), they owned lands adjacent to Rome. These lands were cultivated by individual families, in which the strict principle of patriarchy was in effect: the head of the family owned all the property and could execute or sell into slavery the guilty member. At the same time, the lands were considered the common property of the Romans; they could not belong to strangers. Since Rome often waged wars of conquest against neighboring tribes and city-states, the amount of land that was at the disposal of the patrician families constantly increased.

The newcomer population, members of other tribes who settled in Rome, were called plebeians. They had no right to participate in the life of the city, although they were involved in military service in auxiliary units. They could ask for patronage from the patricians, becoming their “clients,” and get work on their farms, becoming artisans and traders.

Tribal traditions limited royal power. Under Servius Tullius (578-534 BC), reforms similar to those of Solon in Athens were carried out, which dealt a serious blow to the privileges of the clan nobility.

The entire male population, including the plebeians, was divided into five categories, depending on their property status and, accordingly, the ability to acquire light or more expensive heavy weapons. Each rank was divided into centuries (hundreds), which in case of war took to the battlefield. There were 193 centuries in total, the patricians fielded 19 centuries of horsemen. (Equipping mounted warriors required the greatest expenses.) In peacetime, members of each century received the right to discuss the current affairs of the city, becoming a governing body.

The poorest Romans, unable to buy weapons, united, regardless of their number, into a century of “proletarians” (from the Latin “proles” - “offspring”. It was understood that they were only fit for its reproduction).

Infringement of the interests of the clan nobility caused resistance. Tullius was killed, the new king Tarquin the Proud canceled the reforms. However, the tyrannical nature of his rule also angered the Senate. In 509 BC. he was expelled. Established in Rome republic . A form of government in which supreme power belongs to a person or several persons or bodies elected by the population for a certain period of time. Antique r. Bourgeois R. Sovetskaya r. (Ushakov’s Russian language dictionary). The supreme power passed into the hands of two consuls, who were elected by the Senate from among the patricians for a period of one year. In the outbreak of war with the Etruscans, the Romans managed to defend their independence.

In 494 BC. The plebeians, dissatisfied with their position, refused to participate in the next military campaign and left Rome fully armed. The patricians were forced to restore the order introduced by Tullius. The plebeians received the right to elect tribunes of the people to defend their interests before the Senate. In particular, the tribunes could suspend the implementation of decisions made by him.

In 451-450. BC. in Rome, for the first time, uniform laws were adopted for everyone (before that, disputes were resolved on the basis of tribal customs and traditions). From 445 BC Marriages between patricians and plebeians were allowed. Another century later, plebeians were given access to elected positions, including consular ones. At the same time, in Rome, officials did not receive a salary; they covered all expenses associated with their service at their own expense. This ensured only wealthy citizens had access to power.

The changes that took place meant that in the 5th century BC. in Rome, as earlier in Athens, a new political system of social organization took shape, in which citizenship was more important than tribal ties.

These changes contributed to the transformation of city-states into large centers of trade and craft. They began to build up their military power and began to fight for dominance over the Mediterranean.

The struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean

The growing economic importance and profitability of Mediterranean trade led to the beginning of a struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean coast. It lasted from the 5th to the 2nd century BC. and ended with the triumph of Rome, which created the largest world power.

The first center of civilization arose on the island of Crete at the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC. Around the 15th century BC. Cretan culture tragically dies (apparently after a volcanic eruption). It is replaced by the Achaean culture. The Achaean tribes spread to most of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea. The eras of the Cretan and Achaean cultures can be considered a kind of preparatory stage, after which the history of Greek civilization proper begins.

From the 8th to the 6th centuries. BC. Greece occupied the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the western coast of Asia Minor. Around 500 BC the great Greek colonization begins, which opened up enormous opportunities for trade, accelerated the development of shipbuilding and all the various crafts associated with it. Rich cities quickly grew in the colonies - Chalkis, Corinth, Megara, Miletus, Eretria. Strong trade ties were established between them and the metropolis. Grain, timber, metals and products were supplied from the colonies. In turn, from the metropolis to the colonies they brought what Greece was so famous for - handicrafts, wines, olive oil.

By the 5th century BC. Greece acquired those characteristic features that still arouse the interest of millions of people, forcing them again and again to turn to the monuments of Greek history, reread the works of Homer and admire the ruins of the Athenian Acropolis.

The main form of social organization in Ancient Greece was the polis - a civil community based on ancient form of ownership. Only a Greek by birth could become a citizen of the polis; he must be free (not a slave) and have property. The polis consisted of a city center and an adjacent agricultural district. All land was owned by the policy. Only a citizen of the policy could become the owner of a plot of land. The main occupations were agriculture (gardening, viticulture), cattle breeding (sheep breeding, pig breeding), and crafts. The policy was characterized by a natural economy, which was built on the principle autarky. Polis lived by its own laws. The norms of behavior and life in the polis gradually evolved into civil law. The policy was considered the main value. The welfare of each citizen depended on the well-being of the polis. All citizens of the policy were formally equal and had certain political (civil) rights, which allowed them to participate in the management of the policy.

Ancient Greece became the cradle of democracy. The classical form of democracy took shape in Athens. All citizens of the policy had the right to be elected to senior positions (except for the position of military leader). People's Assembly became the supreme authority and received broad powers:

passed laws

resolved issues of war and peace,

entered into or terminated contracts with other policies,

elected officials and checked their work.

At the meetings, all issues were thoroughly discussed, and everyone had the right to express their point of view. Supreme governing body - College of Archons consisted of nine people who were chosen by all the free citizens of Athens (later replaced by the Council of Five Hundred). In addition to the College of Archons and the People's Assembly, there were other government bodies in Athens - helium(high court) and College of Strategists. Athenian citizens themselves brought forward accusations, defended themselves (the one against whom the accusation was directed had to personally appear in court, as well as the one who accused. It was forbidden to present a representative), they themselves made decisions on the case.

Another characteristic feature of Ancient Greece is classical slavery. The entire population of Greece was divided into free citizens and slaves. They became slaves by birth (children of slaves were also considered slaves) and as a result of military captivity. The owner had unlimited power over the slave; he could sell, buy, punish, or kill him. Slaves were not considered people. They were often called “talking tools” that must be taken care of, since they themselves cannot make independent decisions.

But Ancient Greece is known not only as the birthplace of democracy. The culture and art of Ancient Greece became the basis for the development of European culture. Sciences developed in Greece - mathematics, medicine, logic, rhetoric, philosophy. A feature of ancient culture is the epic way of perceiving reality and the combination of myth and man. The fantastic interpretation of reality was artistic in nature, while heroism was considered an indispensable condition of life. Syncriticism is gradually being broken in artistic culture, and new genres are appearing - drama, comedy, tragedy. The desire to reflect the harmony of nature and man is reflected in sculpture, architecture, painting, and art.

The modern world owes a lot ancient Greece. This relatively small state had a huge influence on the development of all areas of human life. Take, for example, myths, which are a reflection of human life, both in those times and today. Ideas about the world - about man, medicine, politics, art, literature - on a global scale originated in Greece. This state was located in the south of the Balkan Peninsula and on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Accordingly, such a relatively small territory accommodated a small number of population, but, as Alexander the Great said, “One Greek is worth a thousand barbarians.” Greece stood out among other states - Babylonia, Egypt and Persia - and not without reason.

Map of ancient Greece

Ancient times of Ancient Greece

Territory of Ancient Greece It is customary to roughly divide it into three parts: Southern, Middle and Northern. In the southern part was Laconia, better known as Sparta. Athens, the main city of Greece, was located in the middle part of the state, along with such areas as Attica, Aetolia and Phocis. This part was separated from the North by almost impassable mountains and separated Athens and Thessaly, which today is itself a major historical center.

About the population of Ancient Greece can be judged by numerous examples of art that have been preserved almost in their original form - these are sculptures, frescoes and elements of painting. In any museum in the world you will find a hall of ancient Greek art, where you will see many images of tall, slender people with an ideal physique, with fair skin and dark curly hair. Ancient historians call them Pelasgians - the people who inhabited the islands of the Aegean Sea in the 3rd millennium BC. Despite the fact that their occupations were no different from those of other ancient peoples and included cattle breeding and agriculture, it should be noted that their land was difficult to cultivate and required the use of special skills.

The peoples of Greece and their development

Those who inhabited Greece almost five thousand years ago were expelled from their lands exactly in the same millennium in which they appeared. The reason for this was the Achaeans who invaded from the north, whose state was also located on the island of the Peloponnese with its capital in Mycenae. This conquest was epochal in nature, as it marked the beginning of the Achaean civilization, which suffered the same sad fate - at the end of the 13th century BC, just as the Achaeans invaded the Greek lands, the Dorians came to this territory. Unfortunately, the conquerors destroyed almost all the cities and the entire Akhian population, although they themselves, at the same time, were at a lower stage of development of civilization. This fact could not but affect the culture of Ancient Greece. The ancient writing created by the Pelasgians was forgotten, not to mention the fact that the construction and development of tools stopped. This period, which is deservedly called “dark,” lasted neither more nor less from the 12th to the 9th centuries AD. Among the cities, Athens and Sparta still stood out, where two antagonistic societies were located.

So, in Lakonica (Sparta) the governors were two kings who ruled, passing on their power by inheritance. However, despite this, real power was in the hands of the elders, who made laws and were involved in judging. The love of luxury in Sparta was severely persecuted, and the main task of the elders was to prevent class stratification of society, for which each Greek family received from the state an allotment of land, which it had to cultivate without the right to receive additional territories. Soon the Spartans were forbidden to engage in trade, agriculture and crafts; the slogan was proclaimed that “the occupation of every Spartan is war,” which was supposed to fully provide the population of Laconia with everything necessary for life. The morals of the Spartans are eloquently evidenced by the fact that warriors could be expelled from their troops only because he did not fully eat his portion of food at a common meal, which indicated that he dined on the side. Moreover, a wounded Spartan had to die silently on the battlefield, without showing unbearable pain.

The main rival of Sparta was the current capital of Greece - Athens. This city was a center of the arts, and the people who inhabited it were the complete opposite of the rude and tough Spartans. Nevertheless, despite the ease and carefreeness of life, it was here that the word “tyrant” appeared. Initially it meant “ruler,” but when the authorities of Athens began to engage in outright robbery of the population, this word acquired the connotation that it has to this day. Peace was brought to the devastated city by King Solon, a wise and kind ruler who did a lot to improve the lives of the townspeople.

The 6th century brought new trials to the inhabitants of Greece - the danger came from the Persians, who quickly conquered Egypt, Media and Babylonia. In the face of the Persian power, the peoples of Greece united, forgetting about centuries-old strife. Of course, the center of the army was the Spartans, who devoted their lives to military affairs. The Athenians, in turn, began building a flotilla. Darius underestimated the power of the Greeks and lost the very first battle, which is immortalized in history by the fact that a joyful messenger ran from Marathon to Athens to convey the good news of victory, and, having covered 40 km, fell dead. It is with that event in mind that athletes run the “marathon distance.” Xerxes, the son of Darius, having enlisted the support and help of the conquered states, nevertheless lost a number of important battles and abandoned any attempts to conquer Greece. Thus, Greece became the most influential state, which gave it a number of privileges, especially to Athens, which became the capital of trade in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Sparta united with Athens the next time in the face of the Macedonian conqueror Philip II, who, unlike Darius, quickly broke the resistance of the Greeks, establishing power over all areas of the state except Sparta, which refused to submit. Thus, the Classical period of development of the Hellenic states ended and the rise of Greece as part of Macedonia began. Thanks to Alexander the Great, Greeks and Macedonians by 400 BC became the sovereign masters of all of Western Asia. The Hellenistic era ended in 168 BC, when large-scale conquests of the Roman Empire began.

The role of Greek civilization in the history of the development of the world

Historians agree that cultural world development would have been impossible without the heritage that Ancient Greece left us. It was here that the fundamental knowledge about the universe that modern science uses was laid. The first philosophical concepts were formulated here, defining the basis for the development of spiritual values of all humanity. The Greek philosopher Aristotle laid the foundations for ideas about the material and immaterial world, Greek athletes became the first champions of the first Olympic Games. Any science or field of art is somehow connected with this great Ancient state - be it theater, literature, painting or sculpture. “The Iliad” is the main work that has survived to this day; it very vividly and colorfully tells about the historical events of those times, about the way of life of the ancient Eleans, and, more importantly, is dedicated to real events. The famous Greek thinker Herodotus contributed to the development of history, whose works were devoted to the Greco-Persian wars. The contribution of Pythagoras and Archimedes to the development of mathematics cannot be overestimated. Moreover, the ancient Greeks were the authors of numerous inventions, which were used primarily during military operations.

The Greek theater deserves special attention, which was an open area with a round structure for the choir and a stage for artists. This architecture meant the creation of excellent acoustics, and spectators sitting even in the far rows could hear all the cues. It is noteworthy that the actors hid their faces under masks, which were divided into comic and tragic. Reverently revering their gods, the Greeks created their statues and sculptures, which still amaze with their beauty and perfection.

Special place Ancient Greece in world ancient history makes it one of the most mysterious and amazing states in the ancient world. The progenitor of science and art, Greece to this day attracts the attention of everyone who is interested in world history.

Periods of ancient Greece. History of development

Early period (1050-750 BC)

Following the final literate civilization, the last of the glorious civilizations of the Aegean Bronze Age, mainland Greece and the islands off its coast entered an era called by some historians "Dark Age". However, strictly speaking, this term rather characterizes a break in historical information that relates to the time interval that began around 1050 BC. e., rather than the lack of knowledge or historical experience among the then population of Hellas, although writing was lost. In fact, it was precisely at this time, the time of transition into the Iron Age, that the political, aesthetic and literary features that were then characteristic of classical Hellas began to appear. Local leaders, who called themselves pari, ruled small, closely connected communities - the forerunners of the ancient Greek city-states. The next stage in the development of painted ceramics is obvious, which has become simpler in shape, but at the same time stronger; her appearance, as evidenced by vessel shown on the right, acquired new grace, harmony and proportionality, which became the hallmarks of later Greek art.

Taking advantage vague memories, Trojans and others, wandering singers composed stories about gods and mere mortals, giving poetic imagery to Greek mythology. By the end of this period, Greek-speaking tribes borrowed the alphabet and adapted it to their language, which made it possible to record many tales that had long been preserved in oral tradition: the best among them that have come down to us are the Homeric epics " 776 BC e., is considered to be the beginning of the subsequent continuous rise of Greek culture.

Archaic (Archaic) period (750-500 BC)

In the 8th century, prompted population and wealth growth Emigrants from ancient Greece spread throughout the Mediterranean in search of new agricultural land and trade opportunities. Greek settlers in foreign countries, however, became more than just subjects cities that founded colonies, but separate, autonomous political entities. The spirit of independence that possessed the settlers, as well as the need for joint action to maintain each community, gave rise to such a political unit as the polis. Throughout the Greek world there were supposedly up to 700 similar city-states. The foreign cultures with which Hellas came into contact during this period of expansion affected the Greeks in a variety of ways.

Geometric pottery painting gave way to oriental-style animal and plant designs, as well as detailed mythological scenes of the new black-figure style of vase painting (see photo gallery below). Artists working with stone, clay, wood and bronze began to create monumental human sculptures. Typical of archaic statue of Kouros(photo left) bears clear traces of Egyptian influence, but at the same time demonstrates an emerging desire for symmetry, lightness and realism. In the seventh century The first truly Greek temples appear, decorated with extended friezes and columns of the Doric order (see photo gallery below). Lyrical and elegiac poetry, deeply personal and emotionally rich, is replacing the stilted verses of the past. The development of trade contributed to the widespread spread of coinage invented by the Lydians. On the mainland at the same time Sparta introduces a political system that emphasizes strict government and discipline, and as a result becomes the largest and most powerful city-state of the period. Athens On the contrary, they change and codify laws, caring for justice and equality, open access to governing bodies to an increasing number of citizens and lay the foundations of democracy.

Classical period (500-323 BC)

The classical period in ancient Greece, when it was incredibly fast blossomed arts, literature, philosophy and politics, limited by the time of wars with two foreign powers - Persia and Macedonia. Hellenic victory over the Persians gave rise to a new spirit of cooperation between the various city-states and Athens, whose fleet played a decisive role in ensuring a favorable turnaround in the fight against the so-called barbarians. The tribute from the allies to the Athenian treasury in exchange for military protection provided the Athenians with the opportunity to increase their already significant wealth and guaranteed the city political, cultural and economic supremacy throughout the Mediterranean. Almost all citizens of Athens, regardless of financial status, were provided with access to elected positions, and they received remuneration for the performance of relevant duties. At public expense, sculptors, architects and playwrights worked on works that still remain the highest creative achievement of mankind. Shown, for example, on the right is bronze Zeus statue 213 centimeters high gives a concentrated idea of the skill of the artists of classical Hellas (ancient Greece), who reproduced the human body in their works with extraordinary dynamism. Greek philosophers, historians, and natural scientists left examples of rational theoretical analysis.

In 431, the long-standing enmity between Athens and Sparta resulted in a war that lasted almost 30 years and ended in the defeat of the Athenians. Decades of continuous fighting led to a weakening of political influence in many city-states, where brutal infighting continued. Calculating and ambitious Macedonian king Philip II managed to benefit from such chaos and soon became the master of the entire territory of ancient Greece. Philip failed to complete the construction of the empire, he was killed, and his son ascended the throne Alexander. Just 12 years later, Alexander the Great (Macedonian) died, but left behind a power stretching from the Adriatic to Media (see photo gallery below).

Hellenistic period (323-31 BC)

From the ruins of Alexander's empire, after almost 50 years of fierce struggle for his inheritance, three major powers emerged: Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid state, stretching from modern Turkey to Afghanistan. It's amazing, that from the Macedonian capital of Pella in the west to Ai-Khanum in the east, the language, literature, political institutions, fine arts, architecture and philosophy in the cities and settlements that arose as a result of Alexander's campaigns remained unambiguously Greek after his death. Subsequent kings emphasized their kinship with Hellas, especially with Alexander: the picture on the left shows Thracian silver coin, in which he is depicted with the ram horns of Zeus-Amun - a god with roots in both the East and the West. Possessing a common language, influenced by constant trade contacts, preserving written texts and attracting numerous travelers, the Hellenistic world became more and more cosmopolitan.

Education and enlightenment flourished, libraries were created - among them was Great Library of Alexandria, which contained about half a million volumes. But the Greek ruling classes refused to allow ordinary subjects into their ranks, and the vast new kingdoms were everywhere shaken by internal turmoil. Steadily weakening and impoverished Macedonia in 168 BC. e. came under domination. One after another, the provincial governors of the Seleucid Empire declared themselves independent, forming many small states with a dynastic form of government. Of the kingdoms into which Alexander's empire broke up, Ptolemaic Egypt still stood as a bastion. Cleopatra VII, the last of this line (and the only one who learned the language of the subject population), committed suicide when the Romans were victorious at Actium. However, although they managed to subjugate the entire Mediterranean, the dominance of the Latins did not yet mean the end of Greek influence: the Romans absorbed the culture of ancient Greece and perpetuated the Hellenic heritage in a way that the Greeks themselves could not.

. Ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, Macedonia)

Ancient Greece

Figure 2.4.1.

City-states of Greece

Thus, by the 5th century BC. the tribal system in Athens was finally supplanted by a new state organization, which was called democracy .

Figure 2.4.2.

City-states of Italy. Founding of Rome

In 753 BC. the city was founded by three Latin tribes living in the area of the Tiber River Rome .

Figure 2.4.3.

View drawing

According to legends, Rome was built by a descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas, Romulus, who, together with his brother Remus, miraculously escaped assassins in infancy and was suckled by a she-wolf.

Infringement of the interests of the clan nobility caused resistance. Tullius was killed, the new king Tarquin the Proud canceled the reforms. However, the tyrannical nature of his rule also angered the Senate. In 509 BC. he was expelled. Established in Rome republic. A form of government in which supreme power belongs to a person or several persons or bodies elected by the population for a certain period of time. Antique r. Bourgeois R. Sovetskaya r. (Ushakov’s Russian language dictionary). The supreme power passed into the hands of two consuls, who were elected by the Senate from among the patricians for a period of one year. In the outbreak of war with the Etruscans, the Romans managed to defend their independence.

The struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean

Greco-Persian Wars

The first attempt to establish control over Mediterranean trade was made by the Persian military despotism. She captured Greek cities in Asia Minor, imposed tribute on them and stationed her garrisons there. In an effort to subjugate the Black Sea Greek settlements to his power, Darius began a campaign to the north. His troops crossed the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, crossed the Danube, the Dniester and reached the lower reaches of the Dnieper. However, here the army of the “king of kings” encountered the warlike tribes of the inhabitants of the Black Sea steppes - the Scythians, who defeated it.

Taking advantage of the failure of the Persians, the cities of Asia Minor in 500 BC. refused to recognize their power. However, in the outbreak of the war, they received only minor assistance from the policies of Greece and were defeated. Following this, Darius demanded obedience from the cities of Greece itself. Many of them agreed to recognize themselves as tributaries of Darius, seeing no way to defend themselves. However, the two largest policies - Athens, which had a strong fleet, and Sparta, which had a powerful army, decided to resist. The union they created included 31 policies.

Peloponnesian Wars IV-V centuries. BC .

The war with the Persians lasted about thirty years and ended with the liberation of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor from their power.

The most important result of the war was the growing influence of Athens, which became the largest financial and commercial center in the Mediterranean. Money exchange operations and the provision of loans allowed many Athenians to enrich themselves. The seaport of Athens Piraeus has grown into a large city. Temples were erected in Athens, the ruins of which still amaze tourists with the elegance of their design: the Parthenon (temple of Athena), the Propylaea (the main entrance to the Acropolis).

Athenian democracy reached its peak. Under Archon Pericles (490-429 BC), payment for holding public office was introduced, which opened up access to power for ordinary citizens. Athens became the center of scientific and cultural life in Greece. Philosophy, poetry, and theater arts especially flourished.

The basis of Athens' influence was the maritime union, which included about 200 policies. Athenian garrisons were located in the cities of the union, and all their funds were to be stored in Athens. Their authorities played the role of the highest court in the union.

The hegemony of Athens caused discontent in many of the city-states of Greece that traditionally competed with them - Thebes, Corinth, Megara, as well as in Sparta, which had a negative attitude towards democracy and supported policies where the clan nobility remained in power.

The war between the Peloponnesian League, created under the auspices of Sparta, and the Athenian Naval League began in 431 BC. and continued intermittently for more than 70 years. The Greek city-states in Italy and Sicily, as well as Persia, were drawn into its orbit. Ultimately, Sparta was defeated, but the war so weakened all the Greek city-states that none were able to reap its benefits. Athens suffered the greatest damage. They had to endure ruin, plague, and the erosion of influence in Greece.

Rise of Macedonia

Mountainous Macedonia in the 4th century BC. was a land of shepherds and farmers. The clan nobility, heads of tribes, and princes were subordinate to the king. His power was inherited. Relations with the city-states of Greece were limited, but the wars that engulfed them also affected Macedonia, which was forced to pay tribute to the Peloponnesian League. Thus, King Philip II (359-336 BC) in his youth lived in Thebes as a hostage and studied Greek military art.

Philip began his reign with the reorganization of the army. It was based on heavily armed infantry. Protected by armor and armed with long spears (sarissas), the former shepherds, moving in formation (phalanx), literally swept away the opposing troops, the defeat of which was completed by heavy cavalry.

Having reorganized the army, Philip II began a war with the Greek city-states, proving himself not only to be a talented commander, but also a skillful politician who took advantage of the contradictions between city-states. After the Battle of Chaeronea in Boeotia in 338 BC, where the combined forces of the Greeks were defeated, the king of Macedon convened a pan-Greek congress in Corinth. At it, Philip II proposed creating an alliance and joining forces to fight the traditional enemy of the Greeks - the Persian military despotism.

Many Greek politicians, especially the brilliant Athenian orator Demosthenes (384-322 BC), considered Macedonia a more dangerous enemy than Persia. However, the fear of Philip II was too great. The Greek city-states entered into an alliance with Macedonia and pledged to provide troops for the war with Persia. In 336 BC, when the Macedonians moved into Asia Minor, Philip II was killed. His twenty-year-old son became the head of the army Alexander(356-323 BC) (Fig. 2.4.4). He had to begin his reign by suppressing uprisings against Macedonian rule in Greek cities. They soon felt the harshness of the new king: one of the largest policies, Thebes, was completely destroyed, and its inhabitants were sold into slavery.

Figure 2.4.4.

In 334 BC. Alexander's troops - about 35 thousand people - set out on a campaign against Persia.

Conquests of Alexander the Great

Numerous, but not trained to fight in formation, the Persian troops fled when confronted with the iron phalanxes of the Macedonians. Revolts against Persian rule began in the satrapies. In the Greek cities of Asia Minor, Alexander's army was welcomed as a liberator. In Egypt, the priests proclaimed Alexander the son of God and heir to the power of the pharaohs. In Babylon, surrounded by impregnable walls, the inhabitants opened the city gates to the Greco-Macedonian army. Alexander proclaimed himself king of the new Persian state.

Pursuing the fleeing Persian king Darius III, Alexander's troops reached Central Asia, then turned to India, attracted by rumors of its fabulous riches. The Macedonians met war elephants for the first time and, nevertheless, won. However, exhausted by the campaign, which had already lasted eight years, and the unusually hot climate, the troops mutinied and refused to move further. Alexander had to return to Babylon.

The conqueror dreamed of creating a great empire; in particular, he intended to undertake a campaign to the west, to Italy. These plans were not destined to be fulfilled: in 323 BC. at the age of 32, Alexander died (either from poison or illness), and his empire began to disintegrate.

The fact is that, having defeated the troops of the Persian military despotism, which formed its backbone, Alexander was unable to create a system for managing the conquered lands. His campaign was more reminiscent of a barbarian raid, ravaging everything in its path, than a well-thought-out conquest. Alexander's attempts to bring the Persian nobility closer to him (in particular, according to his will, 10 thousand Macedonian soldiers were to marry the daughters of Persian nobles) did not yield results. Neither the Macedonians nor the Persian nobility had sufficient strength to maintain the integrity of the huge conglomerate of tribes, nationalities, and city-states that were part of Darius's empire. Several states arose on its ruins, led by generals and relatives of Alexander.

The largest state formations were Egypt, where the Ptolemaic dynasty established itself, the Syrian kingdom, which included lands before the Indus, including Babylonia (Seleucid dynasty), and Macedonia, which retained control over Greece and the policies of Asia Minor.

Alexander failed to create a Greco-Persian empire. And yet his conquests had a great influence on the development of the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean. Trade opportunities increased, and the horizons of the scientists of Ancient Greece expanded significantly.

Religions of soul salvation, which originated in the countries of the East, did not spread in Greece, where belief in gods who personified the forces of nature remained: Zeus - the lord of lightning, Poseidon - the god of the seas, Hermes - the god of trade, Ares - the god of war, etc. At the same time At that time, echoes of the worldview inherent in such religions as Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Confucianism found some reflection in the philosophical systems of Greek thinkers. Later, many of their ideas gained popularity in the Roman Empire, were revived in medieval Europe, and became the basis of modern philosophy.

Interaction with Greek culture and science did not pass without a trace for the societies of the Ancient East. The curiosity of Greek thinkers, geographers, historians, combined with the knowledge of the priests of the religious cults of the East accumulated over centuries, gave a new impetus to the development of science. Alexandria, the capital of Egypt under the Ptolemies, became a major scientific center; the Alexandrian library was revered in the Ancient world as one of the wonders of the world.

The Roman Empire

The most ambitious attempt in the history of the ancient world to create a vast, efficiently governed empire was undertaken by Rome, whose possessions covered the entire Mediterranean.

In the 4th century BC. The Romans, as a result of numerous wars with the Italian tribes (Latins, Samnites) and the Etruscans, subjugated Central Italy.

In the 3rd century BC. The Romans began to conquer the Greek city-states on the coast of southern Italy. The largest of them, Tarentum, turned for help to the king of Epirus (northwest Greece) Pyrrhus, descended from Alexander the Great. In 280 BC. his troops landed in Italy. The Romans encountered war elephants and the Macedonian phalanx for the first time and were defeated. However, Pyrrhus suffered such losses that it became difficult for him to continue the war. Meanwhile, Rome fielded one army after another. In 275 BC. Pyrrhus was forced to leave Italy.

Punic Wars

The next step towards the rise of Rome was the destruction of Carthage. This city was founded by the Phoenicians back in the 9th century BC. and became the largest center of trade in the Western Mediterranean. The Carthaginians (the Romans called them Punes) created their own colonies in Spain, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica.

First Punic War(264-241 BC) took place mainly in Sicily. After the Romans created a powerful fleet and achieved dominance at sea, Carthage was forced to admit defeat. He paid indemnity, Sicily passed to the Romans, who then easily captured Corsica and Sardinia.

During the Second Punic War(218-202 BC) the Carthaginians attempted to take revenge. Their troops, led by a talented commander Hannibal(246-183 BC), setting out from Spain, passing through the Alps, invaded Italy and inflicted heavy defeats on the Romans. She became an example of excellence in military art Battle of Cannes(216 BC), during which the Roman legions were surrounded and completely defeated. However, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion. Carthage could not provide support to Hannibal's troops, isolated in southern Italy. Meanwhile, the Romans landed near Carthage, forcing Hannibal to urgently return to North Africa. In 202 BC. near the town of Zama he suffered his first and last defeat.

Under the terms of the peace, Carthage lost all its colonies and paid indemnity. The Romans received his entire fleet and war elephants. The military and economic power of Carthage was undermined. Rome turned its attention to the Eastern Mediterranean. His iron legions defeated Macedonia, turning it into a Roman province. The city-states of Greece, which the Romans had declared liberated from Macedonian rule, were devastated. Corinth, which tried to fight for its independence, was destroyed. The Romans defeated the troops of the Syrian king Antiochus, who tried to come to the aid of Macedonia. Greek thinkers, poets, traders, enslaved, were sold in the slave markets of the new great power.

In 149 BC. Rome accused Carthage, which had begun to restore its trading influence, of violating the terms of peace and again started war against it. In 146 BC. The Roman Senate decided to completely destroy the rival city. Carthage was burned, the territory it occupied was plowed up and condemned to eternal damnation. Rome's dominance over the Mediterranean became undivided.

Crisis of the Roman Republic

The influx of wealth from the conquered lands, the growth of income from trade, and the increase in the number of slaves at the disposal of the Roman nobility became the reasons for the growth of contradictions in Rome itself.

With the increasingly widespread spread of commodity-money relations, the small, natural and semi-natural farms of the Roman colonists in Italy went bankrupt. The lands passed into the hands of large landowners, mainly patricians. They produced marketable products and used slave labor.

The ruin of small landowners had the most unfavorable consequences for Rome. It was they who made up the main contingent of heavily armed infantry for the legions. Deprived of their land, the citizens of Rome returned to the “Eternal City”, where only a few of them found work. The majority lived off the distribution of free bread by noble citizens who sought the support of the plebs.

Contradictions also intensified among the nobility. Wealthy Romans, rich from trade and conquest, came from the plebeians (they were called equestrians because they fielded cavalry in the army of Rome) began to seek political influence, coming into conflict with the patrician families of landowners who controlled the Senate.

In 133 BC. was elected tribune of the people Tiberius Gracchus who proposed land reform. He wanted to redistribute the lands owned by Rome, setting a limit on the size of land holdings (250 hectares per family) for patricians, and transfer the surplus on an equal basis (7.5 hectares each) to the poor. Despite the stubborn resistance of the patricians, Gracchus succeeded in getting the land reform law passed, but in an armed clash on the streets of Rome in 132 BC. he was killed. His brother Gaius Gracchus allocated land to approximately 50 thousand people, but this did not solve the problem of the ruin of small owners. In 121 BC. On the streets of Rome, fighting broke out again between supporters of the patricians and the plebs. Guy and about 3 thousand of his supporters died.

A major problem was the greatly increased number of slaves. Those of them who were used as servants in the families of noble Romans were literate (this especially applied to immigrants from Greece), were highly valued and had tolerable living conditions. However, slaves were mainly used on plantations; they had no rights and were subjected to cruel treatment. They had nothing to lose, and keeping them in obedience required large armed forces. Soon there was an uprising of slaves in Sicily, who captured the entire island and, since many of them were from Syria, proclaimed the creation of the New Syrian kingdom. It took the Romans four years to regain control of the island.

The most dangerous challenge for Rome was its conflict with the cities of Italy, which led in 90-88. BC. to the civil war on the Apennine Peninsula. Residents of these cities, previously subordinate to Rome, were required to serve in the Roman legions. But they had no right to receive a share of the spoils of war. The lands of Italian cities also came under the control of large property owners and Roman patricians. However, the cities did not have the funds to feed the poor that Rome had.

Rome could not cope with the uprising against Roman rule that swept across all of Italy. He had to make concessions. All residents of Italian cities began to be considered Roman citizens.

Turbulent events at the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st century BC. in Rome and its possessions marked the offensive crisis of the Roman Republic .

Discussion of current political issues by Roman citizens, now living in dozens of cities, largely lost its meaning, since it became impossible to take their opinions into account. The principles of communal democracy, which grew out of the tribal system, could not maintain their effectiveness in the vast state created by Rome.

The management of a power that covered the entire Mediterranean caused great difficulties. During the period of the republic, the provinces were administered by governors. Their main concern was the efficient collection of taxes and maintaining order. Governors were appointed for one year, but the Senate of Rome and the consuls could not really control their activities. Extortion and arbitrariness became the cause of frequent uprisings; they, like the protests of slaves, were suppressed by military force.

The army was the main support of Rome's power over the conquered lands. This led to the collapse of the Roman Republic and its replacement by an empire that had many of the features of a military despotism. This was the only possible form of existence of the major powers of the Ancient World, which were conglomerates of conquered tribes and state entities.

The rise of the Roman Empire

Only those commanders who were popular in the army and achieved military victories could lay claim to the role of dictators. Attempts to establish dynastic rule were made repeatedly, but the heirs of the imperial crown, who did not have military talent, were most often removed from power by the army.

The first of the dictators in Rome was Sulla(138-78 BC), a talented commander, commander of an army stationed in southern Italy. In response to an attempt by the tribunes of the people to remove him from command, he moved troops to Rome and took it in battle. Having defeated the king of Pontia Mithridates, who began the war with Rome, Sulla in 83 BC. returned to Italy and recaptured Rome, establishing his dictatorship. To combat political opponents, he introduced a system of proscriptions - lists of people declared outlaws. Under Sulla, about 100 senators and 2,500 horsemen were thus killed.

After the death of Sulla and a long civil strife, power in Rome passed into the hands of triumvirate(60 BC) - Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. The most ambitious of these leaders, Gaius Julius Caesar(102-44 BC), became governor of Gaul, which had yet to be conquered. Having recruited an army, he began the war and proved himself to be a brilliant commander. The Rhine became the border of Rome's possessions in the north, and Britain was subjugated. Caesar brought 300 tribal associations into obedience, took 800 cities by storm, the wealth of which came to Rome. About 1 million captives were sold in slave markets.

At the end of the war, Caesar did not disband the troops in 49 BC. captured Rome. In the outbreak of a civil war that engulfed all Roman possessions, Caesar achieved victory and was proclaimed dictator for life. But his power was short-lived: in 44 BC. he was killed by supporters of the preservation of the republican system. They, however, did not receive support in Rome and were forced to flee. Power passed into the hands of military leaders close to Caesar - Antony, Octavian and Lepidus. The rivalry between them led to a new civil war. Anthony, suffering defeat, entered into an alliance with the ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra. However, Octavian's legions defeated the Egyptians. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Egypt was annexed to the Roman dominions.

Returning in triumph to Rome, in 27 BC. Octavian was proclaimed Caesar (emperor) and given the title of Augustus. He reigned for 40 years, until 14 AD.

Under Augustus, the external attributes of a republic were preserved. He emphatically expressed his respect to the Senate, which regularly elected him consul, and was at the same time a tribune and high priest, concentrating all power in his hands. A policy of “bread and circuses” was pursued towards the plebs, and theatrical art was encouraged. Construction began on the Colosseum, designed for 50 thousand spectators, and new temples, in particular the Pantheon, which was close in size to the Egyptian pyramids.

Augustus was merciless towards slaves. During his reign, a law was introduced according to which, in the event of the violent death of the owner, all slaves living in his house were subject to execution. It was forbidden to set slaves free.

Augustus sought to make his power hereditary. However, his successors were not flexible. They openly demonstrated disdain for the Senate and showed despotic tendencies.

Grandson of Augustus Guy Caesar(12-41), nicknamed Caligula, became famous for producing his own horse as a senator. Nero (37-68), who killed his brother and his own mother, executed many senators and spent huge amounts of money on maintaining the court. He is credited with a grand fire in Rome, which he allegedly ordered to be set on fire in order to admire the unprecedented spectacle.

Protests against tyranny took the only possible form of military coups. As a result, the most successful commanders came to power and sought to found their own dynasties.

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