Lecture 3. Classical Civilizations (600 BCE – 400 CE)
Lecture 3. Classical Civilizations
(600 BCE – 400 CE)
Asia
1. Ancient China: the earliest farming societies – 8000 to 6000 BCE; the dynasty of Xia (2000–1600 BCE); the dynasty of Shang (1600–1045 BCE): chariots, pictographs; the dynasty of Zhou (Chou) (1045–220 BCE): fragmentation (480–221 BCE), iron, celestial bureaucracy, the Mandate of Heavens.
2. The Persian Empire (or the Achaemenid Empire) – 550–330 BCE
Darius I (550–486 BCE) – the mightiest king (Shahanshah). 20 satrapies – provinces governed by satraps. Castes (the king’s slaves): warriors, mags (priests), peasants. Prophet Zoroaster à Zoroastrianism (Ahura Mazda vs Ahriman).
Parthia (200 BCE – 200 CE), the Sassanid Empire (200–500 CE) – successors of Persia.
3. Phoenicia (1500–300 BCE): Carthage, Byblos and other towns, trade posts, the cult of Baal.
Europe
1. The Minoan civilization (2000–1450 BC): the isle of Crete, the palace of Knossos, the cult of bull (myth of Minotaur).
2. Mycenaean civilization (1600–1200 BC): Mycenae, the Trojan war (1250 BC) described by Homer in Iliad in 850 BC.
3. The ancient Greece – Hellas (1100\800–300 BCE): city-state – polis (over 1000 poleis existed), Athens vs Sparta, discriminatory democracy (no rights of women and slaves), the Greco-Persian wars (492–479 BC) and Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta (431–404 BC) à devastation of Greece.
4. Macedonia (399–168 BC): Philip II (359–336 BC) conquered Greece. Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) conquered the Persian Empire à the Hellenistic culture.
5. The Hellenistic states in the Near East (300–200 BC): symbiosis of cultures.
Rome (800 BCE – 476 CE). The legend of Romulus and Remus. 500 CE – monarchy was replaced with republic. Patricians vs plebeians. Legions and legionaries. Gladiators. 200s – 100s BCE – Punic wars with Carthage. Increase of large landownership à increase of slavery. Civil wars of the 1st BC (Marius, Sulla, Mark Antonius). Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE). Octavian Augustus (Emperor in 27 BCE – 14 CE). The Roman Empire (30 BCE–476 CE) – Pax Romana. Paganism with many gods and cult of Genius. The 1st century CE – Christianity. The crisis of third century CE. Constantine the Great (272–337 CE) Christianized the Roman Empire. Splitting of the Empire into Western and Eastern parts (latter known as Byzantine). Rome destroyed by the Vandals (455) and Goths (476).