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Introduction
1. Ancient civilization: general characteristics
2. Stages of formation and development of ancient Greek civilization
3. Polis value system
4. Hellenistic era
5. Roman civilization: origin, development and decline
5.1 Royal period of Roman civilization
5.2 Roman civilization during the Republican era
5.3 Roman civilization during the imperial era
Conclusion
List of sources and literature used
Introduction
Ancient civilization is the greatest and most beautiful phenomenon in the history of mankind. It is very difficult to overestimate the role and significance of ancient civilization and its services to the world historical process. The civilization created by the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans lasted from the 8th century. BC. until the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. AD, i.e. more than 1200 years - was not only an unsurpassed cultural center of its time, giving the world outstanding examples of creativity in essentially all spheres of the human spirit. She is also the cradle of two close to us modern civilizations: Western European and Byzantine Orthodox.
Ancient civilization was divided into two local civilizations;
a) Ancient Greek (8-1 centuries BC)
b) Roman (8th century BC - 5th century AD)
Between these local civilizations stands out the particularly vibrant Hellenistic era, which covers the period from 323 BC. to 30 BC
The purpose of my work will be a detailed study of the development of these civilizations, their significance in the historical process and the causes of decline.
1. Ancient civilization: general characteristics
The global type of civilization that emerged in ancient times was the Western type of civilization. It began to appear on the banks Mediterranean Sea and reached its highest development in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, societies that are commonly called the ancient world in the period from the 9th to the 8th centuries. BC e. to IV--V centuries. n. e. Therefore, the Western type of civilization can rightfully be called the Mediterranean or ancient type of civilization.
Ancient civilization went through a long path of development. In the south of the Balkan Peninsula, for various reasons, early class societies and states arose at least three times: in the 2nd half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. (destroyed by the Achaeans); in the XVII-- XIII centuries. BC e. (destroyed by the Dorians); in the IX-VI centuries. BC e. the last attempt was a success - an ancient society arose.
Ancient civilization, like eastern civilization, is a primary civilization. It grew directly from primitiveness and could not benefit from the fruits of the previous civilization. Therefore, in ancient civilization, by analogy with Eastern civilization, the influence of primitiveness is significant in the minds of people and in the life of society. The dominant position is occupied by the religious-mythological worldview.
Unlike eastern societies, ancient societies developed very dynamically, since from the very beginning a struggle flared up in it between the peasantry enslaved into shared slavery and the aristocracy. For other peoples, it ended with the victory of the nobility, but among the ancient Greeks, the demos (people) not only defended freedom, but also achieved political equality. The reasons for this lie in the rapid development of crafts and trade. The trade and craft elite of the demos quickly grew rich and economically became stronger than the landowning nobility. The contradictions between the power of the trade and craft part of the demos and the receding power of the landowning nobility formed the driving force behind the development of Greek society, which by the end of the 6th century. BC e. resolved in favor of the demos.
In ancient civilization, private property relations came to the fore, and the dominance of private commodity production, oriented primarily at the market, became evident.
The first example of democracy in history appeared - democracy as the personification of freedom. Democracy in the Greco-Latin world was still direct. The equality of all citizens was provided for as a principle of equal opportunity. There was freedom of speech and election of government bodies.
In the ancient world, the foundations of civil society were laid, providing for the right of every citizen to participate in government, recognition of his personal dignity, rights and freedoms. The state did not interfere in the private lives of citizens or this interference was insignificant. Trade, crafts, agriculture, family functioned independently of the authorities, but within the framework of the law. Roman law contained a system of norms regulating private property relations. Citizens were law-abiding.
In antiquity, the issue of interaction between the individual and society was resolved in favor of the former. The individual and his rights were recognized as primary, and the collective and society as secondary.
However, democracy in the ancient world was limited in nature: the mandatory presence of a privileged layer, the exclusion of women, free foreigners, and slaves from its action.
Slavery also existed in the Greco-Latin civilization. Assessing its role in antiquity, it seems that the position of those researchers who see the secret of the unique achievements of antiquity not in slavery (the work of slaves is ineffective), but in freedom, is closer to the truth. The displacement of free labor by slave labor during the Roman Empire was one of the reasons for the decline of this civilization
2. Stages of formation and development of ancient Greek civilization
Ancient Greek civilization went through three major stages in its development:
· early class societies and the first state formations of the 3rd millennium BC. (History of Crete and Achaean Greece);
· the formation and flourishing of city-states as independent city-states, the creation of high culture (in the 11th - 4th centuries BC);
· the conquest of the Persian Empire by the Greeks, the formation of Hellenistic societies and states.
For the first stage it is ancient Greek history Characteristic is the emergence and existence of early class societies and the first states in Crete and in the southern part of Balkan Greece (mainly in the Peloponnese). These early state formations had in their structure many remnants of the tribal system, established close contacts with the ancient eastern states of the Eastern Mediterranean and developed along a path close to that followed by many ancient eastern states (states of the monarchical type with an extensive state apparatus, bulky palace and temple economies, strong community).
In the first states that arose in Greece, the role of the local, pre-Greek population was great. In Crete, where class society and the state developed earlier than in mainland Greece, the Cretan (non-Greek) population was the main one. In Balkan Greece, the dominant place was occupied by the Achaean Greeks, who came at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. from the north, perhaps from the Danube region, but even here the role of the local element was great. The Creto-Achaean stage is divided into three periods depending on the degree of social development, and these periods are different for the history of Crete and mainland Greece. For the history of Crete they are called Minoan (after the name of King Minoscus who ruled on Crete), and for mainland Greece - Helladic (from the name of Greece - Hellas). The chronology of the Minoan periods is as follows:
· Early Minoan (XXX - XXIII centuries BC) - the dominance of pre-class tribal relations.
· The Middle Minoan period, or the period of old palaces (XXII - XVIII centuries BC), - the formation of a state structure, the emergence of various social groups, writing.
· Late Minoan period, or the period of new palaces (XVII - XII centuries BC) - the unification of Crete and the creation of the Cretan maritime power, the flourishing of Cretan statehood, culture, the conquest of Crete by the Achaeans and the decline of Crete.
Chronology of the Helladic periods of mainland (Achaean) Greece:
· Early Helladic period (XXX - XXI centuries BC) dominance of primitive relations, pre-Greek population.
· Middle Helladic period (XX - XVII centuries BC) - settlement of the Achaean Greeks in the southern part of Balkan Greece, at the end of the period of decomposition of tribal relations.
· Late Helladic period (XVI - XII centuries BC) - the emergence of an early class society and state, the emergence of writing, the flourishing of the Mycenaean civilization and its decline.
At the turn of the 2nd - 1st millennia BC. Balkan Greece is undergoing major socio-economic, political and ethnic changes. From the 12th century BC. The penetration of the Greek tribes of the Dorians, living in conditions of a tribal system, begins from the north. The Achaean states are dying, the social structure is being simplified, and writing is being forgotten. On the territory of Greece (including Crete), primitive tribal relations are re-established, and a decrease in the socio-economic and political level of social development occurs. Thus, a new stage of ancient Greek history - the polis - begins with the decomposition of tribal relations that were established in Greece after the death of the Achaean states and the penetration of the Dorians.
The polis stage of the history of Ancient Greece, depending on the degree of socio-economic, political and cultural development, is divided into three periods:
· Homeric period, or the dark ages, or the pre-polis period (XI - IX centuries BC) - tribal relations in Greece.
· Archaic period (VIII - VI centuries BC) - formation of polis society and state. The settlement of the Greeks along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas (Great Greek Colonization).
· The classical period of Greek history (V - IV centuries BC) - the heyday of ancient Greek civilization, rational economy, polis system, Greek culture.
The Greek polis, as a sovereign small state with its own specific socio-economic political structure, which ensured the rapid development of production, the formation of civil society, republican political forms and remarkable culture, exhausted its potential in the middle of the 4th century. BC. entered a period of protracted crisis.
Overcoming the crisis of the Greek polis, on the one hand, and the ancient Eastern society, on the other, became possible only through the creation of new social structures and state formations that would combine the beginnings of the Greek polis system and the ancient Eastern society.
The so-called Hellenistic societies and states that arose at the end of the 4th century became such societies and states. BC, after the collapse of the world empire of Alexander the Great.
Combining the development of Ancient Greece and Ancient East, previously developing in a certain isolation, the formation of new Hellenistic societies and states opened a new stage of ancient Greek history, deeply different from the previous, actually polis stage of its history.
The Hellenistic stage of ancient Greek (and ancient Eastern) history is also divided into three periods:
· Eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great and the conversion of the system of Hellenistic states (30s of the 4th century BC);
· The crisis of the Hellenistic system and the conquest of states by Rome in the West and Parthia in the East (mid-II - I centuries BC);
· Capture by the Romans in the 30s BC. The last Hellenistic state - the Kingdom of Egypt, ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty - meant the end of not only the Hellenistic stage of ancient Greek history, but also the end of the long development of ancient Greek civilization.
3. Polis value system
The policies formed their own system of spiritual values. First of all, the Greeks considered a unique socio-economic, political and cultural structure, the polis itself, to be the highest value. In their opinion, only within the framework of the polis is it possible to exist not only physically, but also to lead a full-blooded, fair, moral life worthy of a person.
The components of the policy as the highest value were personal freedom of a person, understood as the absence of any dependence on any person or group, the right to choose occupations and economic activities, the right to certain material support, primarily to a plot of land, but at the same time, condemnation accumulation of wealth.
The communal structure of ancient states determined the entire system of values that formed the basis of the morality of the ancient citizen. Its components were:
Autonomy- life according to its own laws, manifested not only in the desire of policies for independence, but also in the desire of individual citizens to live by their own minds.
Autarky- self-sufficiency, expressed in the desire of each civil community to have a full range of life-supporting professions and stimulated the individual citizen to focus on natural production for their own consumption in their household.
Patriotism- love for one’s fatherland, which was played not by Greece or Italy, but by the native civil community, since it was she who was the guarantor of the well-being of citizens.
Liberty- expressed in the independence of the citizen in his private life and the relaxedness in the citizen’s judgments regarding the public good, since it was derived from the efforts of everyone. This gave me a sense of the value of my personality.
Equality- an orientation towards moderation in everyday life, which formed the habit of correlating one’s interests with those of others, and others with their own, and taking into account the opinions and interests of the collective.
Collectivism- a feeling of unity with the collective of one’s fellow citizens, a kind of brotherhood, since participation in public life was considered mandatory.
Traditionalism- veneration of traditions and their guardians - ancestors and gods, which was a condition for the stability of the civil community.
Respect for the individual - expressed in a feeling of support or self-confidence in one’s abilities, which was given to the ancient citizen by an existence guaranteed by the civil community at the subsistence level.
Hard work- orientation towards socially useful work, which was any activity that directly or indirectly (through personal benefit) benefited the team.
The value system set a certain framework for the creative energy of ancient people.
In the system of spiritual values of the polis, the concept of a citizen as a free individual, who has a set of inalienable political rights, has been formed: active participation in public administration, at least in the form of discussing affairs at the People's Assembly, the right and duty to defend his polis from the enemy. A deep sense of patriotism towards one’s polis has become an organic part of the moral values of a citizen of the polis. The Greek was a full citizen only in his small state. As soon as he moved to a neighboring city, he turned into a disenfranchised metek (non-citizen). That is why the Greeks valued their polis. Their small city-state was the world in which the Greek most fully felt his freedom, his well-being, his own personality.
4. Hellenistic era
A new milestone in the history of Greece becomes the campaign to the East of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). As a result of the campaign (334-324 BC), a huge power was created, stretching from the Danube to the Indus, from Egypt to modern Central Asia. The era of Hellenism begins (323-27 BC) - the era of the spread of Greek culture throughout the territory of the empire of Alexander the Great.
What is Hellenism, what are its characteristic features?
Hellenism became a forced unification of the ancient Greek and ancient Eastern worlds, which had previously developed separately, into a single system of states that had much in common in their socio-economic structure, political structure, and culture. As a result of the unification of the ancient Greek and ancient Eastern worlds within the framework of one system, a unique society and culture was created, which differed from both the Greek proper and the ancient Eastern social structure and culture itself and represented a fusion, synthesis of elements of the ancient Greek and ancient Eastern civilizations, which gave a qualitatively new socio-economic structure, political superstructure and culture. ancient greek civilization value roman
As a synthesis of Greek and Eastern elements, Hellenism grew from two roots, from historical development, on the one hand, of ancient Greek society and, above all, from the crisis of the Greek polis, on the other, it grew out of ancient Eastern societies, from the decomposition of its conservative, sedentary social structure. The Greek polis, which ensured the economic rise of Greece, the creation of a dynamic social structure, a mature republican structure, including various forms of democracy, and the creation of a remarkable culture, eventually exhausted its internal capabilities and became a brake on historical progress. Against the backdrop of constant tension between classes, an acute social struggle unfolded between the oligarchy and the democratic circles of citizenship, which led to tyranny and mutual destruction. Fragmented into several hundred small city-states, the small territory of Hellas became the scene of continuous wars between coalitions of individual city-states, which either united or disintegrated. Historically, it seemed necessary for the future fate of the Greek world to end internal unrest, to unite small, warring independent policies within the framework of a large state formation with a strong central authority that would ensure internal order, external security and thus the possibility of further development.
Another basis of Hellenism was the crisis of ancient Eastern socio-political structures. By the middle of the 4th century. BC. The ancient eastern world, united within the Persian Empire, was also experiencing a serious socio-political crisis. The stagnant conservative economy did not allow the development of vast areas of empty land. The Persian kings did not build new cities, paid little attention to trade, and in the basements of their palaces lay huge reserves of currency metal that were not put into circulation. Traditional communal structures in the most developed parts of the Persian state - Phenicia, Syria, Babylonia, Asia Minor - were disintegrating, and private farms as more dynamic production cells became somewhat widespread, but this process was slow and painful. From a political point of view, the Persian monarchy by the middle of the 4th century. BC. was a loose formation, ties between the central government and local rulers weakened, and separatism individual parts has become commonplace.
If Greece mid-IV century. BC. suffered from excessive activity inside political life, overpopulation, limited resources, then the Persian monarchy, on the contrary, from stagnation, poor use of huge potential opportunities, disintegration of individual parts. Thus, the task of some kind of unification, a kind of synthesis of these different, but capable of complementing each other, socio-economic and political systems was on the agenda. And this synthesis became the Hellenistic societies and states formed after the collapse of the power of Alexander the Great.
5. Roman civilization: origin, development and decline
The following periods are distinguished in the history of Rome:
· Royal period - from 753 BC. e. (appearance of the city of Rome) to 509 BC. e. (exile of the last Roman king Tarquinius)
· Republic period - from 509 BC. .e. to 82 BC .e. (beginning of the reign of Lucius Sulla, who declared himself dictator)
· Empire period - from 82 BC. e. to 476 AD e. (the capture of Rome by barbarians led by Odoacer and the confiscation of symbols of imperial dignity from the last emperor).
5.1 Royal period of Roman civilization
The emergence of Rome is the starting point of Roman civilization; it arose in the territory of the region called Latzi, at the junction of the settlement of three tribal associations, which were called tribes. Each tribe had 10 curiae, each curia had 10 clans, thus the population that created Rome consisted of only 300 clans, they became citizens of Rome and formed the Roman patriciate. The entire subsequent history of Rome is a struggle of non-citizens, those who were not part of the 300 clans - the plebeians for civil rights. State structure archaic Rome had the following forms, at the head was a king who performed the functions of a priest, military leader, legislator, judge, supreme body The power was the Senate - the council of elders, which included one representative from each clan, the other highest body of power was the people's assembly or assembly of curiae - curiat commissions. The main socio-economic unit of Roman society was the family, which was a unit in miniature: headed by a man, a father, to whom his wife and children were subordinate. The Roman family was mainly engaged in agriculture; participation in military campaigns, which usually began in March and ended in October, also played a huge role in the life of the Romans. As already mentioned, in addition to the patriciate, there was another stratum in Rome - the plebeians, these were those who came to Rome after its founding or residents of conquered territories. They were not slaves, they were free people, but they were not part of the clans, curiae and tribes, and therefore did not take part in the national assembly and did not have any political rights. They also did not have rights to land, so to obtain land they entered the service of the patricians and rented their lands. Plebeians were also engaged in trade and crafts. Many of them became rich.
In the 7th century BC. the rulers of the Etruscan city of Tarquinia subjugate Rome and rule there until 510 BC. The most famous figure of that time was the reformer Servius Tullius. His reform was the first stage of the struggle of the plebeians with the patricians. He divided the city into districts: 4 urban and 17 rural, carried out a census of the population of Rome, the entire male population was divided into 6 categories, no longer based on gender, but depending on their property status. The richest constituted the first category; the lower category was called the plebs, these were the poor who had nothing but children. The Roman army also began to be built depending on the new division into categories. Each rank fielded military units called centuries. In addition, plebeians were henceforth included among the citizens. This affected the public life of Rome. The former assemblies of gurias lost their importance; they were replaced by people's assemblies of centuries, which had their votes at the people's assemblies, and the first category had more than half of the centuries. This naturally dealt a blow to the patriciate, so a conspiracy was hatched and Tullius was killed, after which the Senate decides to abolish the institution of the king and establish a republic in 510 BC.
The Republican period is characterized by an intense struggle between patricians and plebeians for civil rights and for land; as a result of this struggle, the rights of the plebeians increase. The position of a people's tribune was introduced in the Senate, who defended the rights of the plebeians. The tribunes were elected from the plebeians for a term of one year, numbering first two, then five and finally ten people. Their personality was considered sacred and inviolable. The tribunes had great rights and power: they were not subordinate to the Senate, could veto Senate decisions, and had great judicial power. During this period, the growth of land among the citizens of Rome was limited; each could have no more than 125 hectares. land. In the 3rd century BC. The Roman patrician-plebeian community was finally formed. The bodies of state power were the Senate, the People's Assembly, and the magistracy-executive bodies. The masters were elected by the people's assembly for one year. The consuls had the highest military and civil power; they also had the highest judicial power and governed the provinces; they were also elected by popular assemblies for one year. Another important position in government was the censors, who were elected every five years and carried out a census of the population, transferring citizens from one category to another; their competence included religious issues. The Roman Republic combined various principles of government: the democratic principle was personified by the people's assembly and tribunes, the aristocratic principle was personified by the Senate, the monarchical principle was personified by two consuls, one of whom was a plebeian. Thanks to constant, continuous wars, Rome first subjugates all of Italy, and by the end of the period of the republic, Rome becomes a huge state that has subjugated the entire Mediterranean. The main enemy that they had to face was Carthage, a city that was the capital of a large and rich state located along the islands and coast of the western Mediterranean. The city of Carthage itself was located in Africa on the territory of modern Tunisia. The wars between Rome and Carthage were called Punic, they continued intermittently from 264 BC. to 146 BC and ended with the complete victory of Rome, the subjugation of all enemy lands, and Carthage itself was wiped off the face of the earth.
As a result of the Punic Wars and the victory of Rome, its territory expanded greatly and, consequently, the problems that were characteristic of Roman civilization throughout its history, namely the problems of citizenship and obtaining land, aggravated.
The struggle for civil rights, and therefore for the land, continues and in 91 BC the “Allied” civil war begins - the Italian war for civil rights, which lasted until 88 BC, under the pressure of these demands the Senate could not stand it and in 90 BC granted civil rights to the Italians. This ends the existence of the Roman civil community. This means that the people's assemblies, tribunal commissions and curiat commissions (assemblies of tribes and gurias, respectively) ceased to play any noticeable role.
The first century BC is the most important stage in the life of Roman civilization, it is marked by the fact that all political life in Roman society developed in two directions: the optimates (best) supporters of this direction are mainly the plebeian-patrician elite. They defended the power of the Senate and the position of the nobility (patriciate and plebeian elite). The second direction is the popular ones. Supporters of this trend demanded agrarian reforms, the provision of civil rights, and strengthening the power of the people's tribunes. One of the brightest representatives of this trend was the famous commander Gaius Mari. This is in the political life of Roman society, but in this important processes occurred in society itself, its mentality. The Punic Wars not only expanded Rome territorially, but also changed the mentality of the Romans, thanks to the inclusion of many ethnic groups from three parts of the world into the state: Europe, Asia and Africa.
As a result of the Punic Wars, the territory of the Roman state expanded and effective management it requires strong individual power. There were two attempts to gain dictatorial powers in the Roman Republic. The first of them is associated with the name of the commander Sula. To whom, in the first half of the 1st century BC, at a tense moment of confrontation between the optimates and the populares, which threatened to develop into a civil war, the Senate granted dictatorial powers. The court took tough measures to prevent the start of civil war. The second figure who received dictatorial powers was Gaius Julius Caesar, a famous and talented commander who was first the governor of Spain, and then, becoming the governor of a small part of Gaul that belonged to Rome, managed to conquer all of Gaul in 10 years, which no one had managed before. After the death of Caesar, a struggle for power unfolded after a series of intrigues, in which the main participants were Caesar's associate Antony, his great-nephew Octavian and the Senate, as a result of which Octavian became the only ruler of the huge state, who was proclaimed Augustus (divine), this happened in 30 BC AD At this point, the Roman Republic ceased to exist, and the period of the Roman Empire began.
The initial period of the Roman Empire, lasting from 30 BC. to 284 AD was called the period of the Principate, this name came from the naming of Octavian Augustus “Principles”, which means first among equals. The second stage of the Roman Empire is called the period of dominance from the word “dominus” (lord) - 284-476 AD.
The first steps of Octavian Augustus: stabilizing relations between different sectors of society. The reign of Octavian is a period of rise of science, literature and especially Roman historiography.
Features of the Roman civilization of the era of the Principate:
1. Sole power opens up opportunities for both wise and despotic rulers.
2. Roman legislation, which is the basis of many modern legal systems, is being actively improved.
3. The inconsistency of slavery is revealed. Slaves begin to be recruited into the army due to a lack of population.
4. Italy is losing its role as the center of the Roman Empire.
5. Development of construction (roads, water pipelines)
6. Strengthening the education system, increasing the number of literate people.
7. Spread of Christianity.
8. Holidays (180 days a year)
Emperor Anthony Pius - the golden age of the Roman Empire, the absence of conflicts, economic growth, peace in the provinces, but this period did not last long; already in 160 AD one of the wars began, which determined the future fate of Roman civilization - the beginning of a catastrophe.
The Roman Empire was adjacent to a diverse barbarian world, which included Celtic tribes, Germanic tribes and Slavic tribes. First encounter barbarian world and Roman civilization occurred under Emperor Marcus Aurelius on the territory of the provinces of Raetium and Noricum, also Panonia - modern Hungary. The war lasted approx. 15 years old, Marcus Aurelius managed to repel the onslaught of barbarian tribes. Subsequently, during the 3rd century, the pressure of the barbarians intensified, and a “limes” was built along the Danube and Rhine - a border consisting of checkpoints and militarized settlements. On the "limes" trade was carried out between Rome and the barbarian world. In the 3rd century, tribes stood out among the barbarians, waging wars with Rome, on the border along the Rhine these were the Franks, and along the Danube - the Goths, who repeatedly invaded the territory of the empire. Then, in the 3rd century, Rome lost its province for the first time in history, this happened in 270, the imperial army left the province of Dacia, then the loss of the “Tithe Fields” occurred - in the upper reaches of the Rhine. At the end of the 3rd century, the era of the Principate ends: Emperor Diocletian in 284 decided to divide the empire into 4 parts for more effective management. The co-rulers were: Maximian, Licinius and Constantine; for himself and Maximian he retained the title of Augustus, and for the other two - the title of Caesar. Although after the death of Diocletian, Clore's son Constantine again became the sole ruler, it was precisely this division that marked the beginning of the collapse of the Roman Empire. In 395, Emperor Theodosius finally divided the empire into two parts between his sons, one of them Arcadius became the ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the other, Honorius, became the ruler of the Western Roman Empire. But the situation developed in such a way that the young Gonorrhea could not rule the state and the actual ruler was the Vandal Stilicho, who headed it for 25 years. The barbarians began to play a huge role in the army of the Western Roman Empire, this fully reflects the crisis of the empire. Under pressure from the Huns, in the 4th century the Goths moved to the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire, who, under the leadership of Allaric, in search of land to live, invaded Italy and captured Rome in 410. Then in 476, the leader of the Sciri, Odoacer, finally overthrew the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. This date is the date of the final fall of the western part of the Roman Empire, its eastern part existed for about 1000 years. The era of dominance reflects the crisis of Roman civilization. Signs of a crisis: desolation of cities, cessation of tax payments, a decrease in the number of trade transactions, disruption of ties between provinces.
Conclusion
Ancient culture revealed an amazing wealth of forms, images and methods of expression, laying the foundations of aesthetics, ideas about harmony and thus expressing its attitude to the world.
Common to ancient states were the paths of social development and a special form of property - ancient slavery, as well as the form of production based on it. What they had in common was a civilization with a common historical and cultural complex. This does not deny, of course, the presence of undeniable features and differences in the life of ancient societies.
Getting to know the rich cultural heritage ancient Rome and ancient Greece, which was the result of the synthesis and further development of the cultural achievements of the peoples of antiquity, makes it possible to better understand the foundations of European civilization, show new aspects in the development of ancient heritage, establish living connections between antiquity and modernity, and better understand modernity.
Ancient civilization was the cradle of European civilization and culture. It was here that those material, spiritual, aesthetic values were laid down, which to one degree or another found their development among almost all European peoples.
List of sources used andliterature
Educational literature:
3. Semennikova L.I. Russia in the world community of civilizations. -- M., 1994.
Electronic resources
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Analysis of Eurasia as a specific civilization in the history of mankind, its geographical features and history of formation. The most ancient civilizations of Eurasia, located on the shores of numerous seas: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Judea.
Ancient Greece. In the VIII-VI centuries BC. Ancient civilization begins to take shape in Greece. The appearance of iron and corresponding tools played a major role in its development. In Greece there is not enough land for cultivation; therefore, cattle breeding and then crafts have become widely developed here. The Greeks, familiar with maritime affairs, were actively engaged in trade, which gradually led to their development of the surrounding territories located along the coast. With the division of labor and the appearance of a surplus product, the clan community is replaced by a neighboring community, but not a rural one, but an urban one. The Greeks called this community a polis. Gradually the policy was formalized into a city-state. Within the framework of the polis, a fierce struggle took place between the tribal nobility, who did not want to give up their power, and the demos - the ignorant members of the community.
The Greeks were aware of their unity - they called their homeland Hellas, and themselves Hellenes. They had a single pantheon of Olympian gods and pan-Hellenic sports competitions. One of the main features of Hellenic culture is the principle of competition and the desire for primacy, which is not typical for the civilizations of the East. Greece was not united by one polis - their fragmentation and disunity prevented this. As a result, Greece found itself conquered first by Macedonia and then by Rome. The achievements of Greek culture ultimately formed the basis of all European culture and civilization.
Ancient Rome. Rome was founded in 753 ᴦ. BC. in the center of Italy. During its development, Rome borrowed the culture and achievements of its neighbors. Using its location in the center of the Apennine Peninsula, Rome managed to conquer the Etruscans, the Celts of Italy, Magna Graecia (as the Greek colonies in Italy were called) and other tribes. In the 3rd century. BC. Rome clashed with Carthage, a Phoenician colony in northern Africa. During three fierce wars, Rome defeated its rival and became the most powerful power in the Mediterranean. The Roman state was structured in the likeness of poleis, which was effective for the city and its surroundings, but was not suitable for a huge power. After a long civil war, imperial power is established in Rome. During the era of the empire, Rome reached its greatest power, annexing the lands of Western and Southern Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. During this period, the slave system began to play a major role. The onslaught of barbarians associated with the Great Migration of Peoples, profound changes in the life of the empire, led to a crisis, as a result the Roman Empire split into two parts - Western and Eastern. In the 5th century AD The Western Roman Empire fell. 476 ᴦ. It is considered to be the boundary between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The successor to Rome was the Eastern Roman Empire, centered in Constantinople.
Ancient civilization. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Ancient civilization." 2017, 2018.
The next global type of civilization that emerged in ancient times was the Western type of civilization. It began to emerge on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and reached its highest development in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, societies that are commonly called the ancient world in...
II semester
Historical geography Ancient Greece.
Written sources on the history of Ancient Greece.
Minoan civilization on Crete.
Mycenaean Greece.
Trojan War.
Dark Ages" in the history of Greece.
Greek mythology: main plots.
Poems of Homer.
Great Greek Colonization.
Sparta as a type of polis.
Formation of the polis in Athens (VIII-VI centuries BC).
Solon's reforms.
Tyranny of Pisistratus.
Cleisthenes' reforms.
Greco-Persian Wars.
Athenian democracy in the 5th century. BC.
Athenian maritime power in the 5th century. BC.
Peloponnesian War.
Crisis of the polis in Greece in the 4th century. BC.
Greek culture of archaic times.
Greek culture of classical times.
Rise of Macedonia.
Alexander's campaigns.
Hellenism and its manifestations in economics, politics, culture.
The main Hellenistic states.
Northern Black Sea region in the classical and Hellenistic era.
Periodization of the history of Rome.
Historical geography of Rome, Italy and the Empire.
Written sources on Roman history.
Etruscans and their culture.
The royal period of Roman history.
The Early Republic: the struggle between patricians and plebeians.
Rome's conquest of Italy.
Second Punic War.
Conquest of the Mediterranean by Rome in the 2nd century. BC.
Reforms of the Gracchi brothers.
The struggle between optimates and popularists. Marius and Sulla.
Political struggle in Rome in the 1st half. I century BC.
Conquest of Gaul by Caesar.
Rise of Spartacus.
The struggle for power and the dictatorship of Caesar.
The fight between Antony and Octavian.
Principate of Augustus.
Emperors from the Tiberius-Julian dynasty.
Roman provinces in the 1st-2nd centuries. AD and their romanization.
Golden Age of the Roman Empire in the 2nd century. AD
Roman culture during the civil wars.
Roman culture of the era of the Principate.
The era of "soldier emperors".
Reforms of Diocletian-Constantine.
Ancient Christian church. Adoption of Christianity in the 4th century.
The onslaught of Germanic tribes on the borders of the empire in the 4th-5th centuries.
Eastern provinces in the IV-VI centuries. Birth of Byzantium.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Culture of the Late Empire.
Ancient traditions in the culture of subsequent eras.
The main features of ancient civilization, its differences from the civilizations of the Ancient East.
Ancient civilization is an exemplary, normative civilization. Events took place here that were only repeated later; there is not a single event or manifestation that was not meaningful that did not occur in Ancient Greece and others. Rome.
Antiquity is understandable to us today, because: 1. in antiquity they lived according to the principle of “here and now”; 2. religion was superficial; 3 the Greeks had no morals, no conscience, they maneuvered through life; 4 personal life was a person's personal life if it did not affect public morality.
Not like: 1. There was no concept of ethics (good, bad). Religion was reduced to rituals. And not to evaluate good and bad.
1. In ancient civilization, man is the main subject of the historical process (more important than the state or religion), in contrast to the civilization of the ancient East.
2. Culture in Western civilization is a personal creative expression, in contrast to Eastern civilization, where the state and religion are glorified.
3. The ancient Greek relied only on himself, not on God or the state.
4. Pagan religion for antiquity did not have a moral norm.
5. Unlike the ancient Eastern religion, the Greeks believed that life on earth was better than in the other world.
6. For Ancient civilization, the important criteria of life were: creativity, personality, culture, i.e. self-expression.
7. In ancient civilization there was mainly democracy (national assemblies, council of elders), in the Ancient East - monarchies.
Periodization of the history of Ancient Greece.
Period
1. Civilization of Minoan Crete - 2 thousand BC – XX – XII century BC
Old palaces 2000-1700 BC - emergence of several potential centers (Knossos, Festa, Mallia, Zagross)
The period of new palaces 1700-1400 BC - the palace at Knossos (Palace of Mitaurus)
Earthquake XV - conquest of Fr. Crete from the mainland by the Achaeans.
2. Mycenaean (Achaean) civilization - XVII-XII centuries BC (Greeks, but not yet ancient)
3. The Homeric period, or the dark ages, or the pre-polis period (XI-IX centuries BC), - tribal relations in Greece.
Period. Ancient civilization
1. Archaic period (archaic) (VIII-VI centuries BC) - the formation of a polis society and state. The settlement of the Greeks along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas (Great Greek Colonization).
2. Classical period (classics) (V-IV centuries BC) - the heyday of ancient Greek civilization, rational economy, polis system, Greek culture.
3. Hellenistic period (Helinism, postclassical period) – end. IV - I century BC (expansion of the Greek world, depleted culture, lighter historical period):
Eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great and the formation of the system of Hellenistic states (30s of the 4th century BC - 80s of the 3rd century BC);
Functioning of Hellenistic societies and states (80s of the 3rd century BC - mid-2nd century BC);
The crisis of the Hellenistic system and the conquest of the Hellenistic states by Rome in the West and Parthia in the East (mid-2nd century - 1st century BC).
3. Historical geography of Ancient Greece.
The geographical framework of ancient Greek history was not constant, but changed and expanded with historical development. The main territory of ancient Greek civilization was the Aegean region, i.e. the Balkan, Asia Minor, Thracian coasts and numerous islands of the Aegean Sea. From 8-9 centuries BC, after a powerful colonization movement from the Aeneid region, known as the Great Greek Colonization, the Greeks mastered the territories of Sicily and South. Italy, which received the name Magna Graecia, as well as the Black Sea coast. After the campaigns of A. Macedonian at the end of the 4th century. BC. and the conquest of the Persian state on its ruins in the Near and Middle East up to India, Hellenistic states were formed and these territories became part of the ancient Greek world. During the Hellenistic era Greek world covered a huge territory from Sicily in the west to India in the East, from the Northern Black Sea region in the north, to the first rapids of the Nile in the south. However, in all periods of ancient Greek history, the Aegean region was considered its central part, where Greek statehood and culture arose and reached their dawn.
The climate is Eastern Mediterranean, subtropical with mild winter(+10) and hot summer.
The terrain is mountainous, the valleys are isolated from each other, which interfered with the construction of communications and presupposed the implementation of natural agriculture in each valley.
There is an indented coastline. There was communication by sea. The Greeks, although they were afraid of the sea, mastered the Aegean Sea and did not go out to the Black Sea for a long time.
Greece is rich in minerals: marble, iron ore, copper, silver, wood, pottery clay good quality, which provided Greek craft with a sufficient amount of raw materials.
The soils of Greece are rocky, of average fertility and difficult to cultivate. However, the abundance of sun and mild subtropical climate made them favorable for agricultural activities. There were also spacious valleys (in Boeotia, Laconia, Thessaly) suitable for agriculture. In agriculture there was a triad: grains (barley, wheat), olives (olives), from which oil was made, and its extracts were the basis for lighting, and grapes (a universal drink that did not spoil in this climate, wine 4 -5%). Cheese was made from milk.
Cattle breeding: small cattle (sheep, bulls), poultry, because there was nowhere to turn around.
4. Written sources on the history of Ancient Greece.
In Ancient Greece, history was born - special historical works.
In the 6th century BC, logographs appeared - word writing, the first prose, descriptions of memorable events. The most famous logographs are Hecataeus (540-478 BC) and Hellanicus (480-400 BC).
The first historical research was the work “History” by Herodotus (485-425 BC), called in ancient times by Cicero “the father of history.” “History” is the main type of prose, has public and private significance, explains the whole history as a whole, broadcasts, transmits information to descendants. The work of Herodotus differs from chronicles and chronicles in that the causes of events are present. The purpose of the work is to present all the information communicated to the author. Herodotus's work is dedicated to the history of the Greco-Persian wars and consists of 9 books, which in the 3rd century. BC e. were named after 9 muses.
Another outstanding work of Greek historical thought was the work of the Athenian historian Thucydides (about 460-396 BC), dedicated to the events of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Thucydides' work consists of 8 books, they set out the events of the Peloponnesian War from 431 to 411 BC. e. (the essay remained unfinished). However, Thucydides does not limit himself to a careful and detailed description of military actions. He also gives a description of the internal life of the warring parties, including the relationships between different groups of the population and their clashes, changes in political system, while partially selecting information.
A diverse literary legacy was left behind by Thucydides' younger contemporary, the historian and publicist Xenophon from Athens (430-355 BC). He left behind many different works: “Greek History”, “The Education of Cyrus”, “Anabasis”, “Domostroy”.
The first Greek literary monuments - Homer's epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" - are practically the only sources of information on the history of the dark ages of the 12th - 6th centuries. BC e., i.e.
Among the works of Plato (427-347 BC) nai higher value have his extensive treatises "State" and "Laws", written in last period his life. In them, Plato, starting from the analysis of socio-political relations of the mid-6th century. BC e., offers his own version of the reconstruction of Greek society on new, fair, in his opinion, principles.
Aristotle owns treatises on logic and ethics, rhetoric and poetics, meteorology and astronomy, zoology and physics, which are substantive sources. However, the most valuable works on the history of Greek society in the 4th century. BC e. are his works on the essence and forms of the state - “Politics” and “Athenian Polity”.
Of the historical works that provide a coherent account of the events of Hellenistic history, the works of Polybius (the work details the history of the Greek and Roman world from 280 to 146 BC) and Diodorus’s “Historical Library” are of greatest importance.
Great contribution to the study of history Dr. Greece also has the works of Strabo, Plutarch, Pausanias, and others.
Mycenaean (Achaean) Greece.
Mycenaean civilization or Achaean Greece- cultural period in the history of prehistoric Greece from the 18th to the 12th centuries BC. e., Bronze Age. It got its name from the city of Mycenae on the Peloponnese Peninsula.
Internal sources are tablets written in Linear B, deciphered after World War II by Michael Ventris. They contain documents on economic reporting: taxes, land lease. Some information about the history of the Archean kings is contained in Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristotle, which is confirmed by archaeological data.
The creators of the Mycenaean culture were the Greeks - the Achaeans, who invaded the Balkan Peninsula at the turn of the 3rd–2nd millennium BC. e. from the north, from the region of the Danube lowland or from the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, where they originally lived. The newcomers partially destroyed and plundered the settlements of the conquered tribes. The remnants of the pre-Greek population gradually assimilated with the Achaeans.
In the first stages of its development, the Mycenaean culture experienced strong influences from the more advanced Minoan civilization, for example, some cults and religious rituals, fresco painting, plumbing and sewerage, men's and women's clothing, some types of weapons, and finally, linear syllabary.
The 15th–13th centuries can be considered the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization. BC e. The most significant centers of early class society were Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos in the Peloponnese, in Central Greece Athens, Thebes, Orchomenus, in the northern part of Iolcus - Thessaly, which were never united into one state. All states were at war. Male martial civilization.
Almost all Mycenaean palace-fortresses were fortified with stone cyclopean walls, which were built by free people, and were citadels (for example, the Tiryns citadel).
The bulk of the working population in the Mycenaean states, as in Crete, were free or semi-free peasants and artisans, who were economically dependent on the palace and were subject to labor and in-kind duties in its favor. Among the artisans who worked for the palace, blacksmiths occupied a special position. Usually they received from the palace the so-called talasia, i.e. a task or lesson. Craftsmen recruited for public service were not deprived of personal freedom. They could own land and even slaves, like all other members of the community.
At the head of the palace state was the “vanaka” (king), who was among ruling nobility occupied a special privileged position. The duties of Lavaget (military leader) included command of the armed forces of the kingdom of Pylos. C The king and the military leader concentrated in their hands the most important functions of both an economic and political nature. Directly subordinate to the ruling elite of society were numerous officials who acted locally and in the center and together constituted a powerful apparatus for the oppression and exploitation of the working population of the Pylos kingdom: karters (governors), basilei (supervised production).
All land in the Pylos kingdom was divided into two main categories: 1) palace land, or state land, and 2) land that belonged to individual territorial communities.
The Mycenaean civilization survived two invasions from the north with an interval of 50 years. In the period between the invasions, the population of the Mycenaean civilization united with the goal of dying with glory in the Trojan War (not a single Trojan hero returned home alive).
Internal reasons the death of the Mycenaean civilization: a fragile economy, an undeveloped simple society, which led to destruction after the loss of the top. The external cause of death was the invasion of the Dorians.
Eastern-type civilizations are not suitable for Europe. Crete and Mycenae are the parents of antiquity.
7. Trojan War.
The Trojan War, according to the ancient Greeks, was one of the most significant events in their history. Ancient historians believed that it occurred around the turn of the 13th-12th centuries. BC e., and began with it a new - “Trojan” era: the ascent of the tribes inhabiting Balkan Greece to a higher level of culture associated with life in cities. The campaign of the Achaean Greeks against the city of Troy, located in the northwestern part of the Asia Minor peninsula - Troas, was told by numerous Greek myths, later united in a cycle of legends - cyclical poems, among them the poem "Iliad", attributed to the Greek poet Homer. It tells about one of the episodes of the final, tenth year of the siege of Troy-Ilion.
The Trojan War, according to myths, began by the will and fault of the gods. All the gods were invited to the wedding of the Thessalian hero Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis, except Eris, the goddess of discord. The angry goddess decided to take revenge and threw a golden apple with the inscription “To the Most Beautiful” to the feasting gods. Three Olympian goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, argued over which of them it was intended for. Zeus ordered young Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, to judge the goddesses. The goddesses appeared to Paris on Mount Ida, near Troy, where the prince was tending flocks, and each tried to seduce him with gifts. Paris preferred the love of Helen, the most beautiful of mortal women, offered to him by Aphrodite, and handed the golden apple to the goddess of love. Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, was the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Paris, who came as a guest to the house of Menelaus, took advantage of his absence and, with the help of Aphrodite, convinced Helen to leave her husband and go with him to Troy.
Insulted Menelaus, with the help of his brother, the powerful king of Mycenae Agamemnon, gathered a large army to return his unfaithful wife and stolen treasures. In response to the brothers' call, all the suitors who had once wooed Helen and swore an oath to defend her honor appeared: Odysseus, Diomedes, Protesilaus, Ajax Telamonides and Ajax Oilides, Philoctetes, the wise old man Nestor, and others. Achilles, the son of Peleus, also took part in the campaign. Thetis. Agamemnon was elected leader of the entire army, as the ruler of the most powerful of the Achaean states.
The Greek fleet, numbering a thousand ships, assembled at Aulis, a harbor in Boeotia. To ensure the fleet's safe voyage to the shores of Asia Minor, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. Having reached Troas, the Greeks tried to return Helen and the treasures peacefully. Odysseus and Menelaus went as envoys to Troy. The Trojans refused them, and a long and tragic war began for both sides. The gods also took part in it. Hera and Athena helped the Achaeans, Aphrodite and Apollo - the Trojans.
The Greeks were unable to immediately take Troy, which was surrounded by powerful fortifications. They built a fortified camp on the seashore near their ships, began to ravage the outskirts of the city and attack the allies of the Trojans. In the tenth year, Agamemnon insulted Achilles by taking away his captive Briseis, and he, angry, refused to enter the battlefield. The Trojans took advantage of the inaction of the bravest and strongest of their enemies and went on the offensive, led by Hector. The Trojans were also helped by the general fatigue of the Achaean army, which had been unsuccessfully besieging Troy for ten years.
The Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and nearly burned their ships. Achilles's closest friend, Patroclus stopped the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself died at the hands of Hector. The death of a friend makes Achilles forget about the insult. The Trojan hero Hector dies in a duel with Achilles. The Amazons come to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles kills their leader Penthesilea, but soon dies himself, as predicted, from the arrow of Paris, directed by the god Apollo.
A decisive turning point in the war occurs after the arrival of the hero Philoctetes from the island of Lemnos and the son of Achilles Neoptolemus to the Achaean camp. Philoctetes kills Paris, and Neoptolemus kills the Trojans' ally, the Mysian Eurinil. Left without leaders, the Trojans no longer dare to go out to battle in the open field. But the powerful walls of Troy reliably protect its inhabitants. Then, at the suggestion of Odysseus, the Achaeans decided to take the city by cunning. A huge wooden horse was built, inside which a selected squad of warriors hid. The rest of the army took refuge not far from the coast, near the island of Tenedos.
Surprised by the abandoned wooden monster, the Trojans gathered around it. Some began to offer to bring the horse into the city. Priest Laocoon, warning about the treachery of the enemy, exclaimed: “Fear the Danaans (Greeks), who bring gifts!” But the priest’s speech did not convince his compatriots, and they brought the wooden horse into the city as a gift to the goddess Athena. At night, the warriors hidden in the belly of the horse come out and open the gate. The secretly returned Achaeans burst into the city, and the beating of the inhabitants, taken by surprise, begins. Menelaus, with a sword in his hands, is looking for his unfaithful wife, but when he sees the beautiful Helen, he is unable to kill her. The entire male population of Troy dies, with the exception of Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, who received orders from the gods to flee the captured city and revive its glory elsewhere. The women of Troy became captives and slaves of the victors. The city was destroyed by fire.
After the destruction of Troy, strife began in the Achaean camp. Ajax Oilid brings the wrath of the goddess Athena upon the Greek fleet, and she sends a terrible storm, during which many ships sink. Menelaus and Odysseus are carried by a storm to distant lands (described in Homer's poem "The Odyssey"). The leader of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, after returning home, was killed along with his companions by his wife Clytemnestra, who did not forgive her husband for the death of her daughter Iphigenia. So, not at all triumphantly, the campaign against Troy ended for the Achaeans.
The ancient Greeks had no doubt about the historical reality of the Trojan War. Thucydides was convinced that the ten-year siege of Troy described in the poem was historical fact, only embellished by the poet. Certain parts of the poem, such as the “catalog of ships” or the list of the Achaean army under the walls of Troy, are written as a real chronicle.
Historians of the 18th-19th centuries. were convinced that there was no Greek campaign against Troy and that the heroes of the poem were mythical, not historical figures.
In 1871, Heinrich Schliemann began excavating the Hissarlik hill in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, identifying it as the location of ancient Troy. Then, following the directions of the poem, Heinrich Schliemann carried out archaeological excavations in “gold-abundant” Mycenae. In one of the royal graves discovered there lay - for Schliemann there was no doubt about this - the remains of Agamemnon and his companions, strewn with gold jewelry; Agamemnon's face was covered with a golden mask.
Heinrich Schliemann's discoveries shocked the world community. There was no doubt that Homer's poem contained information about the events that actually took place and their real heroes.
Subsequently, A. Evans discovered the palace of the Minotaur on the island of Crete. In 1939, American archaeologist Carl Blegen discovered the “sandy” Pylos, the habitat of the wise old man Nestor on the western coast of the Peloponnese. However, archeology has established that the city, mistaken by Schliemann for Troy, existed a thousand years before the Trojan War.
But it is impossible to deny the existence of the city of Troy somewhere in the northwestern region of Asia Minor. Documents from the archives of the Hittite kings indicate that the Hittites knew both the city of Troy and the city of Ilion (in the Hittite version of “Truis” and “Wilus”), but, apparently, as two different cities located nearby, and not one under a double title, as in a poem.
Poems of Homer.
Homer is considered the author of two poems - the Iliad and the Odyssey, although modern science has not yet resolved the question of whether Homer actually lived or whether he is a legendary figure. The set of problems associated with the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, their origin and fate before the moment of recording, was called the “Homeric question”.
In Italy G. Vico (17th century) and in Germany fr. Wolf (18) recognized the folk origin of the poems. In the 19th century, the “theory of small songs” was proposed, from to-x mechanical This is how both poems subsequently arose. The “Grain Theory” suggests that the Iliad and Odyssey are based on a short poem, which over time has acquired details and new episodes as a result of the work of new generations of poets. Unitarians denied participation folk art in the creation of Homeric poems, they considered them as piece of art, created by one author. At the end of the 19th century, a theory of the folk origin of poems was proposed as a result of the gradual natural development of collective epic creativity. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, synthetic theories arose, according to which the Iliad and Odyssey are represented as epics, processed by one or two poets.
The plots of both poems date back to Mycenaean times, which is confirmed by numerous archaeological materials. The poems reflect the Cretan-Mycenaean ( end XII c - information about the Trojan War), Homeric (XI-IX - most of the information, since information about the Mycenaean time did not reach in oral form), early archaic (VIII-VII) eras.
The content of the Iliad and Odyssey is based on legends from the cycle myths about the Trojan War, took place in the XIII–XII centuries. BC uh. The plot of the Iliad is the anger of the Thessalian hero Achilles against the leader of the Greek troops besieging Troy, Agamemnon, for taking away his beautiful captive. The most ancient part of the Iliad is the 2nd song about the “Lists of Ships”. The plot of the Odyssey is the return to the homeland of the island of Ithaca by Odysseus after the Greeks destroyed Troy.
The poems were written down in Athens under the tyrant Pisistratus, who wanted to show that there was sole power in Greece. Poems purchased modern look in the 2nd century BC in the Alexandrian monsoon (Hellenistic era).
The meaning of poems: a book for learning literacy, " desk book» Greeks.
One of the most important compositional features of the Iliad is the “law of chronological incompatibility” formulated by Thaddeus Frantsevich Zelinsky. It is that “In Homer, the story never returns to its point of departure. It follows that parallel actions in Homer cannot be depicted; Homer’s poetic technique knows only a simple, linear dimension.” Thus, sometimes parallel events are depicted as sequential, sometimes one of them is only mentioned or even suppressed. This explains some apparent contradictions in the text of the poem.
A complete translation of the Iliad into Russian in original size was made by N. I. Gnedich (1829), and the Odyssey by V. A. Zhukovsky (1849).
Sparta as a type of polis.
The Spartan state was located in the south of the Peloponnese. The capital of this state was called Sparta, and the state itself was called Laconia. The polis could not be conquered, but only destroyed. All policies developed, but only Sparta in the 6th century. mothballed.
The main sources on the history of the Spartan state are the works of Thucydides, Xenophon, Aristotle and Plutarch, and the poems of the Spartan poet Tyrtaeus. Archaeological materials become important.
During the 9th–8th centuries BC, the Spartans waged a stubborn struggle with neighboring tribes for dominance over Laconia. As a result, they managed to subjugate the region from the southern borders of the Arcadian Highlands to the Capes of Tenar and Maley on south coast Peloponnese.
In the 7th century BC, an acute land hunger began to be felt in Sparta and the Spartans undertook a conquest in Messenia, also inhabited by the Dorians. As a result of the two Messenian wars, the territory of Messenia was annexed to Sparta, and the bulk of the population, with the exception of residents of some coastal cities, was turned into helots.
The fertile lands in Lakonica and Messenia were divided into 9,000 plots and distributed to the Spartans. Each plot was cultivated by several families of helots, who were obliged to support the Spartan and his family with their labor. The Spartan could not dispose of his allotment, sell it or leave it as an inheritance to his son. Nor was he the master of the helots. He had no right to sell or release them. Both the land and the helots belonged to the state.
Three population groups formed in Sparta: the Spartans (the conquerors themselves were Dorians), the Perieki (residents of small towns scattered at some distance from Sparta, along the borders, called periekami ("living around"). They were free, but did not have civil rights) and helots (dependent population).
Ephors - V the highest control and administrative body of Sparta. 5 people are elected for a year. They monitor the behavior of the citizens, acting as overseers in relation to the enslaved and dependent population. They declare war on the helots.
The constant threat of helot rebellion, looming under the ruling class of Sparta, required maximum cohesion and organization from it. Therefore, simultaneously with the redistribution of land, the Spartan legislator Lycurgus carried out a whole series of important social reforms:
Only a strong and healthy person could become a real warrior. When a boy was born, his father brought him to the elders. The baby was examined. The weak child was thrown into the abyss. The law obliged each Spartiate to send his sons to special camps - agels (lit. Herd). Boys were taught to read and write only for practical purposes. Education was subordinated to three goals: to be able to obey, to endure suffering courageously, to win or die in battles . The boys were engaged in gymnastic and military exercises, learned to wield weapons, and live like a Spartan. They walked all year round in one cloak (himatium). They slept on hard reeds, picked with their bare hands. They were fed from hand to mouth. To be dexterous and cunning in war, teenagers learned to steal. The boys even competed to see which of them could endure the beatings longer and more gracefully. The winner was glorified, his name became known to everyone. But some died under the rods. The Spartans were excellent warriors - strong, skillful, brave. The laconic saying of one Spartan woman who saw off her son to war was famous. She handed him a shield and said: “With a shield or on a shield!”
In Sparta, great attention was paid to the education of women, who were highly respected. To give birth to healthy children, you need to be healthy. Therefore, the girls did not do housework, but gymnastics and sports; they knew how to read, write, and count.
According to the law of Lycurgus, special joint meals were introduced - sistia.
The “Lycurgus system” was based on the principle of equality; they tried to stop the growth of property inequality among the Spartiates. In order to remove gold and silver from circulation, iron obols were introduced into circulation.
The Spartan state prohibited all foreign trade. It was only internal and took place in local markets. The craft was poorly developed, it was carried out by the perieki, who made only the most necessary utensils for equipping the Spartan army.
All transformations contributed to the consolidation of society.
The most important elements of the political system of Sparta were the dual royal power, the council of elders (gerusia) and the people's assembly.
The People's Assembly (apella), in which all full-fledged citizens of Sparta took part, approved decisions, accepted by the kings and the elders at their joint meeting.
The Council of Elders - gerousia consisted of 30 members: 28 geronts (elders) and two kings. The Geronts were elected from among the Spartans who were at least 60 years old. The kings received power by inheritance, but their rights in everyday life were very small: military leaders during hostilities, judicial and religious functions in peacetime. Decisions were made at a joint meeting of the council of elders and kings.
The city of Sparta itself had a modest appearance. There weren't even defensive walls. The Spartans said that the best defense of a city is not its walls, but the courage of its citizens.
By the middle of the 6th century. BC. Corinth, Sicyon and Megara were subordinated, as a result of which the Peloponnesian Union was formed, which became the most significant political union of the then Greece.
Solon's reforms
Solon went down in history as an outstanding reformer, who significantly changed the political face of Athens and thus gave this polis the opportunity to get ahead of other Greek cities in its development.
The socio-economic and political situation in Attica continued to deteriorate throughout almost the entire 7th century. BC e. The social differentiation of the population led to the fact that a significant part of all Athenians was already eking out a miserable existence. Poor peasants lived in debt, paid huge interest, mortgaged the land, and gave up to 5/6 of the harvest to their rich fellow citizens.
Failure in the war for the island of Salamis with Megara at the end of the 7th century added fuel to the fire.
Solon. came from an ancient but impoverished noble family, was engaged in maritime trade and was thus associated with both the aristocracy and the demos, whose members respected Solon for his honesty. Pretending to be crazy, he publicly called on the Athenians for revenge in poetry. His poems caused a great public outcry, which saved the poet from punishment. He was tasked with assembling and leading the fleet and army. In the new war, Athens defeated Megara, and Solon became the most popular man in the city. In 594 BC. e. he was elected the first archon (eponym) and was also assigned to perform the functions of the aisimnet, that is, he was supposed to become a mediator in resolving social issues.
Solon resolutely took up reforms. To begin with, he carried out the so-called sisakhfiy (literally “shaking off the burden”), according to which all debts were canceled. Mortgage debt stones were removed from mortgaged land plots, and for the future it was forbidden to borrow money against people's mortgages. Many peasants received their plots back. Athenians sold abroad were redeemed at state expense. These events in themselves improved the social situation, although the poor were unhappy that Solon did not carry out the promised redistribution of land. But the archon established the maximum maximum rate of land ownership and introduced freedom of will - from now on, if there were no direct heirs, it was possible to transfer property by will to any citizen, allowing the land to be given to non-members of the clan. This undermined the power of the clan nobility, and also gave a powerful impetus to the development of small and medium-sized landownership.
Solon carried out a monetary reform, making Athenian coins lighter (reducing weight) and thereby increasing money circulation in the country. He allowed export abroad olive oil and wine prohibited the export of grain, thus contributing to the development of the Athenian sector that was most profitable for foreign trade Agriculture and preserving scarce bread for fellow citizens. An interesting law was adopted to develop another progressive sector of the national economy. According to Solon's law, sons could not provide for their parents in old age if they did not at one time teach their children some craft.
The most important changes occurred in the political and social structure of the Athenian state. Instead of the previous classes, Solon introduced new ones, based on the property qualifications he carried out (census and income accounting). From now on, the Athenians, whose annual income was at least 500 medimni (about 52 liters) of bulk or liquid products, were called pentacosiamedimni and belonged to the first category, at least 300 medimni - horsemen (second category), at least 200 medimni - zeugites (third category) , less than 200 medimn - fetami (fourth category).
Highest government agencies from now on there were the Areopagus, the Bule and the People's Assembly. Bule was a new organ. This was the Council of Four Hundred, to which each of the four Athenian phyla elected 100 people. All issues and laws had to be discussed in advance before they were subject to consideration in the People's Assembly. The People's Assembly (ekklesia) itself began to meet much more often under Solon and acquired greater importance. The Archon decreed that during periods of civil strife, every citizen must take an active political position under the threat of deprivation of civil rights.
WITH light hand A. Toynbee, the concept of “civilization” has become familiar in the historian’s toolkit. However, as often happens, it is easier to introduce a word into circulation than to give a clear explanation of its meaning. Russian science, especially prone to theorizing, is now experiencing the peak of its fascination with this concept. Unfortunately, this love is as blind as the hostility towards the recently popular Marxism that feeds it.
They say that they do not argue about terms, but agree. However, an agreement that presupposes a tendency to compromise is not an instrument for opening something new. While terms are iconic symbols of the movement of knowledge along the path of its complexity. The use of a new term is determined not by the agreement of authoritative researchers, but by the intuition of gifted individuals who were able to grasp the beginning of as yet unknown knowledge and take a step towards it before others.
They say that history is made by peoples, classes, politicians... Of course, they all “create” something. Irony is probably inappropriate when judging the greats of this world from the point of view of an ordinary person. There is a suspicion of inflated ego. But if you look at the world, having approached God through the work of your mind and soul, it is not easy to distinguish the powerful of the world from us sinners. This is where Socrates comes to mind: “but I just know that I don’t know anything...”
But history remains only in the works of historians. Everything else passes, transforming into completely new forms. Only a few traces of the past remain. Ars longa, vita brevis ... Historians are those who have made it their profession to read the traces of once-former people, states, and civilizations. There is no modern history, there is life that has not yet become history. For most of our readers, the civilizing mission of, say, British colonialists somewhere in Africa or India is quite imaginable. However, rarely does anyone agree with the statement that Napoleon's soldiers or army fascist Germany acted on the territory of Russia in the role of the same instrument of European civilization as the conquistadors of Cortez or the pioneers of the Wild West. Is it just that some completed their work successfully, while others did not?
The articles on the development of ancient civilization offered here are not completed works. Already now I see the need to correct some of their statements. However, any theory is nothing more than a working tool of knowledge, the possibilities of which are as limited as the limits of human knowledge itself. Therefore, I wish you to perceive what is written here with the same degree of irony with which I wrote it. Many people take science too seriously, getting carried away by formal logic and “statistics”, which in fact do not prove anything in themselves. It is appropriate to recall here a small poem by the great A.S. Pushkin about the alleged dispute between the concepts of Heraclitus and Parmenides, which goes far beyond the boundaries of the ancient topic:
“There is no movement,” said the bearded sage.
The other fell silent and began to walk in front of him.
“He couldn’t have objected stronger,”
Everyone praised the intricate answer.
However, gentlemen, this is a funny case
Another example comes to mind:
After all, every day the sun walks before us,
However, stubborn Galileo is right.
MECHANISM OF DEVELOPMENT OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
The emergence of ancient civilization.
Ancient civilization can be defined as subsidiary in relation to the civilizations of Western Asia and as secondary in relation to the Mycenaean civilization. It arose on the periphery of the Middle Eastern cultural complex in the zone of influence of the Syrian-Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Therefore, its birth can be considered as a consequence of a social mutation that occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean under a special combination of a whole set of circumstances.
These include, first of all, the extreme proximity of the two mother civilizations - Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian - whose zones of influence inevitably had to intersect. Their centuries-long parallel development had a cross-impact on neighboring peoples. As a result, a zone of powerful socio-cultural tension was formed, which included the Middle East, Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean (Aegean, Balkans, Crete). Egypt and Mesopotamia gradually acquired a cultural periphery that developed under their direct influence and often control: Libya, Kush, Canaan, Phenicia, Anatolia, Urartu, Media, Persia. The convergence of the zones of influence of the two civilizations led to the possibility of their unification, which, with the transition to iron age became real. Attempts to create “world” powers by Assyria, Urartu, Babylonia, and Media were a way to give this process a certain form. It was completed by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It became the political form of a unified Middle Eastern civilization. Babylonia became its logical center, so Egypt forever retained a separate position, which it periodically tried to formalize politically, and a special culture.
The civilizations of the more distant periphery of Mesopotamia, such as Bactria, Sogdiana, Crete, Hellas, were under the weakened influence of their mother culture and therefore were able to create their own value systems, different from the original one. In the East, such a system was embodied in Zoroastrianism. However, the absence of natural boundaries capable of stopping the expansion of the Middle Eastern civilization led to the inclusion of the daughter civilizations of Bactria, Margiana, and Sogdiana into the Persian state, and therefore into the zone of spread of Middle Eastern culture. Zoroastrianism became the dominant religion of the Achaemenid Empire.
A different situation developed in the zone of Western influence of Mesopotamian culture, where it intersected with Egyptian. Two factors had a deforming effect on the spread of Middle Eastern culture in the Eastern Mediterranean - a different landscape zone in Anatolia and the Balkans and the pressure of ethnic groups of Indo-European origin. Already in the Bronze Age, natural and economic complexes were formed on the territory of Anatolia and the Balkans, completely different from those in Mesopotamia. The proximity of the sea had a particularly great influence, leaving its mark on the culture of Crete and the Aegean islands. However, during this era, the familiarization of the ancient Mediterraneans and their northern neighbors, the Indo-Europeans, with the achievements of Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures was only developing. Therefore, the culture of the Minoan civilization of Crete and the Mycenaean civilization of the Balkans seem at first glance so unique in relation to their mother civilizations. The local ethnic component still predominated in their culture, but the social organization was built on similar principles.
Qualitative changes were brought about by a third factor - the transition of the Middle East and the Mediterranean to the Iron Age. The spread of iron was, although smaller in scale than the transition to a productive economy or industrial production, but a significant technological revolution in the history of mankind. It led to the final separation of crafts from agriculture, and consequently the development of the division of social labor, specialization and a qualitative change in human relations, which only from that time began to take the form of economic ones.
The change in the economic basis shook up the entire society of Middle Eastern civilization, which was forced to undergo, to one degree or another, restructuring in order to adapt social forms to the needs of new relations of production. Moreover, if changes in the traditional centers of concentration of the civilizational field were relatively small, the periphery found itself in a different position. The comparative weakness of the population field on the periphery led in many places to its complete destruction during perestroika, which was expressed in the elimination of city and palace centers that acted as socio-cultural cells of the civilization field. At the same time, the buffer zone between civilization and the primitive world began to move, which was expressed in the movements of the Arameans, Sea Peoples, Dorians, Italics, Pelasgians, Tyrrhenians, etc. The reason for these movements was the intensification of the socio-cultural impact of civilization on its ethnic periphery, which had the objective goal of further expansion of the civilizational field. Thus, a historical phenomenon arose in the Eastern Mediterranean, called by modern historians the Dark Ages or a temporary return to primitiveness.
However, everyone agrees that the disappearance of the Minoan and Mycenaean palaces could not completely erase the social memory of the people. Perhaps the orientation of the population towards the proto-urban or protopolis centers of the Homeric era was a consequence of the persisting orientation of Bronze Age social networks towards palace centers. Demographic growth, spurred by the Dorian migration and the economic development of iron, only strengthened this orientation, thus laying the foundation for the formation of a new type of civilizational cells. Their small size and nature of organization were largely determined by the dominant landscape of the geographical environment, represented by relatively small plains or plateau territories, separated by mountain ranges, sea expanses, or a combination of both.
With the transition to the Iron Age, community organizations came to the fore as cells of organization of the social field instead of the palaces of the Mycenaean era. Increased population density and land scarcity made the struggle for land the main organizing principle of social development. The territorial proximity of opponents to each other and focus on the same landscape areas did not contribute to the formation of a hierarchy of subordinate communities. Instead, simpler forms of organizing communities arose: the complete subjugation of some communities by others (Laconica), unification into a union of equals around a single center (Boeotia), synoicism - merging into a single collective (Attica). The new organization led either to the conservation of the primitive the principle of opposing one's own to another's(Laconica), or to transfer it to a larger association of representatives of different tribes. Thus, taking shape in the VIII-VI centuries. BC. state formations in the territory inhabited by Hellenes were formed in close dependence on the conditions of the natural and geographical environment and retained a strong connection with the primitive category of community. It is no coincidence, therefore, that a characteristic feature of ancient civilization, which determined the socionormative principles and orientation of public culture, was the autonomous urban civil community (polis).
The formation of civilization.
The formation of autonomous urban civil communities occurred in parallel with the expansion of the population of Hellenic city-states in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. The transformation of associations of rural and tribal communities into uniform civil collectives was a complex and lengthy process, stretching over the 8th-6th centuries. BC. In accordance with the traditions of the Bronze Age, archaic kings ( basilei). However, their claims were not supported by their role as organizers of craft production, nor by their significance as a religious symbol of collective unity. In addition, the nature of the military organization changed, in which the chariot army was replaced by cavalry. Therefore, with the beginning of the Iron Age, the role of the clan aristocracy in society sharply increased, controlling the lives of commoners - their younger relatives. The associations of communities around the palace centers of the Bronze Age were replaced by clan groups, in which the role of the custodian of traditions and the unifying principle for the team was played by the aristocracy. Family property was the economic lever of her power, and the labor of her relatives was her economic support, which allowed her to have leisure for improvement in military affairs and education. The power of the aristocratic cavalry was also based on the labor of the entire tribal collective that supported it.
Therefore, the claims of the Basilei to the role of real rulers of the emerging policies turned out to be untenable: they hopelessly and everywhere lost in the competitive struggle with the aristocracy, which relied on clan collectives. Around the 8th century BC. The power of the Basilei was eliminated in almost all policies of Greece and collective rule of the aristocracy was established everywhere. In all other social structures of the transitional system between primitiveness and class society, the struggle between the clan aristocracy and the royal (princely, royal) power ended in the victory of the latter. The large size of proto-state associations in other regions and eras, compared to Greece, allowed the archaic rulers to rely on the people and subjugate the tribal aristocracy. In large areas, a hierarchy of communities always developed, the contradictions between which allowed the royal power to act as an arbiter. In small-sized Greek city policies at the early stage of their development, there were practically no free people who were not part of clan collectives and were not subordinate to clan rulers. The conditions of existence in an environment of constant threat from the outside world (“war is a common work,” in the words of K. Marx) formed the equality of rights of individual clans and the aristocrats representing them. This was the beginning of the social mutation that led to the establishment of a special social system in the Hellenic city-states.
The next three centuries of Greek history were filled with struggles between aristocratic clans associated with the concentration of land ownership, demographic growth and economic development. The results of these processes turned out to be significant both for the internal development of individual policies and for the development of polis civilization as a whole. The struggle between aristocratic factions and the scarcity of land, which worsened due to the concentration of land ownership, became the cause of periodic evictions of policy residents to the colonies. They carried with them the forms of polis community life that were becoming familiar. In addition, in the new territory, the Hellenes often found themselves surrounded by people who were culturally alien, so they inevitably had to cling to the principles of communal order. Therefore, their settlements along the entire coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas took the form of policies, the communal features of which in the new lands appeared even more clearly due to greater freedom from tribal traditions. Great Greek colonization VIII-VI centuries. BC. was a form of expansion of the polis civilization, the initial center of which was located on the Ionian and Aeolian coasts of Asia Minor along with the adjacent islands.
The culture of this region, in which most of the Hellenic metropolises were located, was closely related to the culture of the peoples of Anatolia, essentially being peripheral to the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. However, in the new policies on the colonized lands, their influence was significantly weakened. The most active population of the metropolises, who had not adapted to the conditions of clan subordination of life in their homeland, were evicted there. On the one hand, this made him more adaptable to changes (mutations) in public culture. Hence, apparently, there is a flourishing of philosophy, science, lawmaking and political ideas in the West in Magna Graecia. On the other hand, this contributed to the active adaptation of the Hellenes to new living conditions, the development of crafts, trade, and navigation. The newly founded Greek cities were seaports, and this promoted navigation and trade to the role of institutions that supported the population field. This distinguished the polis civilization from traditional “land” civilizations, where political institutions and ideology served as tools for maintaining the population field.
The presence of colonies stimulated the development of metropolises and accelerated the development of Greek city-states as a whole. The diversity of conditions in the areas inhabited by the Greeks led to the development of trade, specialization and monetary relations. As a result, it becomes possible to save money and ensure one’s existence without clan support. Among the Greek demos, rich people appear who are burdened by the obligation to support the family aristocracy. They themselves can act as exploiters of a considerable number of people, but these people are not free, but slaves. Wealth and nobility are losing their original connection. Some of the wealthy demotes live in their native cities, the communal mutual assistance of which is recognized by them as an important life value. Others, mainly artisans and merchants, flee from their aristocrats to other policies, becoming metics there. The quantitative growth of the mass of these people created the preconditions for a social revolution that overthrew the power of the tribal aristocracy. But it was possible to defeat it only when the demos was able to take over the leading role in military affairs from the aristocracy, when the aristocratic cavalry was replaced by a phalanx of heavily armed hoplite infantry.
The rise of the polis system.
By the end of the 6th century. BC. The ancient socio-normative culture has finally matured and the Greek city-states are turning from communal associations of clans and clans into autonomous states. At the same time, ancient civilization itself approached the natural boundaries of its expansion. This is probably why the moment has come for her to realize her essence and her separation from the original maternal civilizational complex of the Middle East.
Politically united by the Persians, the Middle Eastern world viewed the Eastern Mediterranean periphery as its natural extension. The Scythian campaign of Darius was a manifestation of the expansion of the Middle Eastern civilization, equally expressed in the Central Asian campaign of Cyrus, and in the Nubian and Libyan campaigns of the armies of Cambyses. The most active role in the colonization movement was played by the Greeks of Asia Minor, whose cities came under the rule of the Persians. But their relations with the Persians were built on a different basis than the latter’s relations with the Phoenicians, the natural competitors of the Greeks in trade, navigation and the colonization of new lands. Realized by the end of the 6th century. BC. The Greek world perceived the Persians as barbarians and did not want to put up with their domination. The Greco-Persian Wars became the first milestone in the development of ancient civilization, at which the Hellenes defended their right to its independence and uniqueness.
However, by and large, the confrontation between the Greeks and Persians continued until the end of the 4th century. BC, when it resulted in the eastern campaign of Alexander the Great. Already in the 5th century. BC. this confrontation was understood as a confrontation between Europe and Asia, in which the Persians only personified the Asian Middle Eastern civilization, seeking to absorb the European civilization of the Hellenic polis world. The formation of political instruments for maintaining the population field began among the Greeks under the direct influence of Persian expansion and was expressed in the creation of the Delian Maritime Union. Protecting the general interests of the population (civilization) was the objective task of the social organisms that were part of it. Therefore, political unifications of Greek city-states were a natural way of adapting them to environmental conditions. In the West, the pressure of the Italian barbarian world and especially Carthage led to the formation of the Syracusan power, in the Black Sea region communication with the Scythian world - the Bosporus Kingdom, in the Aegean competition with the Phoenicians and the fight against the Persians - the Athenian Maritime Union. In fact, within the framework of a single polis civilization, there is a separation of several populations of polises with their own private interests and some specific development - Magna Graecia, Cyrenaica, the Balkan coast and the Aegean islands, the Northern Black Sea region.
But this separation was not a divergence of cultures of different parts of ancient civilization. It only contributed to an even greater deepening of the specialization of regions and, as a result, to a more active development of navigation, trade and money circulation. Commodity-money relations not only remain a tool for maintaining civilizational socio-normatives, but are also increasingly increasing their importance in this capacity. This leads to an increase in the density of the population field, which in practice means an intensification of intercity relations (economic, political, military, cultural). It should be emphasized that, unlike other (traditional) civilizations, in which the density of the population field decreases from the center to the periphery, in the polis civilization of the Greeks it was almost uniform both in the center and on the periphery. This was due to the fact that it was created by one ethnic group and ethnic socionormatics never came into conflict with civilizational ones.
The specifics of the social field of Hellenic civilization were different. It was woven from formally homogeneous cells, which actually had different internal contents. Greek city-states are conventionally divided by modern researchers into those that developed according to a conservative (Sparta) and a progressive (Athens) model. This difference actually provided that necessary element of the struggle of opposites, which allowed the development of the unity of a homogeneous social field. Conflicts between poleis of different models, which embodied (to some extent, absolutized) two opposite sides - community and class - of polis statehood, go back to the very beginning of their formation and fade only as a result of the subjugation of the polis world by Macedonia. We can say that these conflicts were inherent in the polis system, based on the autonomy of the polis. But with a more strict look, it is obvious that this conflict acquired a purposeful nature from the end of the 6th century. BC, when the formation of polis statehood is completed and the initial socio-economic difference between the policies takes on delineated political forms.
In this regard, a different view on the problem of the crisis of the polis system in the 4th century becomes justified. BC. Intrapolis conflicts and changes in archaic forms of community life acted as a form of adaptation of the polis to the increasingly dense social field of civilization, that is, to new historical conditions. The more actively the polis participated in pan-Hellenic economic and political life, the more noticeable its modification occurred. Only the peripheral cities of backward regions remained faithful to the traditional archaic principles of life. The crisis of the polis was a crisis of its internal growth and improvement.
Crisis of the polis system.
Simultaneously with the crisis of the polis, the literature draws attention to the parallel developing crisis of the polis system as a whole. Its decline is assessed through the prism of the inability of the polis world to create a new type of political unification on its own and the subjugation of Hellas by Macedonia. Indeed, the struggle for hegemony in Greece had the objective goal of uniting as many poleis as possible. This goal was recognized by the Greeks themselves and was promoted, in particular, by Isocrates and Xenophon. In the role of unifiers of Hellas, these thinkers saw mainly the leaders of peripheral states - Agesilaus, Hieron, Alexander of Thera, Philip. This was no accident. As noted, the periphery of civilization is more capable of mutation, that is, the creation of something new, than the center with an increased density of population characteristics. In the case of the Hellenic civilization, the homogeneity of its social field did not allow a leader to emerge from the polis itself. At the same time, this homogeneity created a much denser zone of cultural influence on the periphery than in other civilizations, where the social field evenly thins from the center to the periphery. Therefore, the rise of Macedonia should not be considered in isolation from the evolution of the polis world, as a process of exclusively Macedonian self-development. It was that part of the buffer zone between civilization and the primitive world, which gives rise to a barbaric tribal system, which over time becomes the basis of its own statehood. Many historical examples (the policy of Archelaus, the life of Euripides in Pella, Philip in Thebes, the education of Alexander by Aristotle) indicate the close connection of Macedonia with Greece, which stimulated the ruling dynasty to encourage the tradition of the ethno-linguistic kinship of the Greeks and Macedonians.
The autonomy of the policies for a long time prevented the development of a political instrument to solve two main problems of the development of civilization - expansion problems beyond the boundaries of naturally formed boundaries and problems of unification of the population field. Conflicts and wars between poleis were a natural form of developing such an instrument, which became the Panhellenic Union that arose under the auspices of Macedonia. The social peace and order established by Philip of Macedon in Greece was to become a prerequisite for a new stage in the unification of polis orders. Another task - the task of expansion - was outlined in the campaign against the Persians prepared by Philip. However, despite the brilliant political and military successes of Philip and his son, the rise of Macedonia turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to solve the stated problems.
The aggressive activity of Macedonia turned out to be one-sidedly programmed by the too long struggle of the Hellenes with the Middle Eastern civilization for independence. The challenge of Asia turned out to be so strong that the response of the Macedonians went far beyond the interests of ancient civilization. The need for political unification of the entire Hellenic world, apparently, was latently realized, which was reflected in the tradition of the plans for Alexander’s western campaign (as well as the unsuccessful campaign of Zopyrion in the Black Sea region and later of Alexander of Molossus and Pyrrhus in Southern Italy and Sicily). The eastern campaign was also originally conceived only with the goal of conquering (Minor) Asia in order to liberate the Greek cities located there. At the same time, the problem of economic ties was being resolved in the Eastern Mediterranean region, in which the zones of interests of the Greeks associated with Macedonia and the Phoenicians associated with Persia intersected. Therefore, Parmenion’s advice to accept Darius’ proposals received after the Battle of Issus reflected the realistic objectives of the eastern campaign. Egypt, which economically and culturally gravitated more towards the Eastern Mediterranean world than towards the Middle Eastern Mesopotamian one, ended up in the hands of the Macedonians almost without a fight. However, Alexander's campaign overcame the limits of a purely functional solution to the problem of population expansion. The orbit of the Greco-Macedonian expansion included territories that were culturally alien to ancient civilization, the development of which was determined by other socio-normative principles. The power of Alexander the Great, despite the greatness of his historical adventure, was obviously unviable.
Preoccupied with the desire to get rid of the tutelage of the Parmenion clan that made him king, Alexander was unable to solve his main personal problem - to equal his father in political genius. The awareness of his inferiority even in front of the shadow of the murdered Philip pushed Alexander to extravagant, bright, but completely unpromising actions. To some extent, his personality expressed the needs of extreme individualism that responded to the spiritual quest of the time, which is why it became the focus of attention of writers and historians, acquiring, so to speak, “historiographical value.”
Without solving the problems of ancient civilization, Alexander's campaign was of considerable importance for Middle Eastern civilization. The political form of the Persian state turned out to be inadequate not at all because of the weakness and amorphousness of the latter. The military-administrative system of the Persian state was by no means primitive and undeveloped. The state organization created by the Achaemenids was regenerated over many centuries by subsequent regimes, going beyond the limits of Islamic civilization ancient world. But at that historical moment, the Persian state united at least two cultural complexes, which over the course of several centuries gradually diverged from each other. It was noted above that the Persians initially included two mother civilizations - Mesopotamian and Egyptian - into one political whole. The military defeat of the Persians freed the central core of the Middle Eastern civilization from the too much mutated Western periphery. Within the framework of the new political systems (Parthian, New Persian kingdoms, etc.), the sociocultural norms of civilization acquired greater homogeneity and stability.
Egypt always remained an alien body within the Persian state, weakening and shaking its unity. It was not without his influence that ancient civilization grew and took shape in the immediate vicinity of the Persian Empire. Its impact during the V-IV centuries. BC. formed a kind of cultural zone bordering on Mesopotamian influence, which included Asia Minor, Syria, and to a certain extent Phenicia and Egypt. It was this cultural zone that became the territory on which the most typical Hellenistic states developed. Thus, despite the fact that Alexander the Great was unable to understand the historical task facing him, history itself solved the problem of separating these territories from the Middle Eastern world in a different way, spending a little more time on it.
Ancient civilization in a Roman shell.
Over time, the Western Hellenic world, freer from the all-consuming focus on resisting Middle Eastern influence, found a political tool for solving the problems of ancient civilization. The life of Magna Graecia was, of course, burdened with its problems. Therefore, initially the search for solutions to general civilizational problems looked like a desire to solve their own Western Mediterranean problems. The Greeks of the Western Mediterranean fought hard to expand their sphere of influence with Carthage and Etruria. The unstable balance of forces required constant tension from each side. In their struggle, the Western Greeks actively used the support of their eastern relatives, inviting commanders and mercenaries from the Peloponnese or Epirus. But at the same time, Hellenic civilization had a fertilizing cultural impact on the surrounding barbarian periphery of Italy.
The “taming” of barbarian Rome occurred gradually. It is no coincidence that the reliability of early Roman history raises doubts among researchers. It is likely that before the 5th or even 4th century. BC. Roman society did not develop along the polis path. Perhaps the system of the civil community, established in Rome during the conquest of Italy in the 4th-3rd centuries. BC, was perceived by him under the influence of contacts with the Italic Greeks. The structure of the civil collective turned out to be a suitable form that made it possible to extinguish the ethno-social conflicts that had undermined military force originally an amorphous Roman chiefdom. A set of measures that marked an important milestone in the formation of the Roman civil collective is associated in the ancient tradition with the name of the famous censor of 312 BC. Appius Claudius Caecus, who also became famous for strengthening ties with the Greek Campania ( Appian Way) and intransigence towards Pyrrhus. In the IV-III centuries. BC. the Romans focused on the Campanian and southern Italian Greeks, while the Balkans were viewed as strangers with alien interests. Focus on Greek support allowed Rome to withstand the onslaught of the Etruscans and Gauls. For this, they, in turn, supported the Campanian Greeks in the fight against the Samnites. The relationships thus established contributed to the spread of Greek influence in Rome. The completion of the formation of the Roman civil community probably took place already in contact with the southern Italian Hellenes. Thus, Rome was included in the orbit of ancient civilization. Despite the patriotic emphasis of the Roman traditional version of events, the conflict between Rome and Pyrrhus in a certain sense can be seen as a struggle for the right to play the role of a military-political instrument of Greek civilization.
After Rome subjugated Etruria, the natural balance of power in the Western Mediterranean, determined by the spheres of influence of the Carthaginians, Etruscans and Greeks, was disrupted. A new round of conflicts began between Carthage and Magna Graecia to restore the disturbed balance. Each side sought to enlist the support of Rome, which was not yet able to extend its own commercial and cultural influence, but had military strength. Treaty with Carthage 279 BC stimulated the war with Pyrrhus. But, having won, the Romans figured out the strategic position of the parties and refocused on the Greek world. In fact, in the first Punic War, Rome fought not for its own interests, but for the interests of the Greek cities of southern Italy and Sicily. But, having taken this path, the Romans could no longer leave it: the Western Mediterranean world was divided into zones of influence of two worlds - Greek and Carthaginian. However, the Greeks acquired a strong rear in time in the form of the Roman-Italian Confederation. Therefore, the Barkids tried to create for Carthage exactly the same striking force from the barbarians in Spain. When fighting Roman troops in Italy, Hannibal, however, sought to control not Rome at all, but the Greek cities of Sicily, southern Italy and Campania. As you know, the decisive battle ended in victory for Rome.
After the Hannibal War, Rome was able to claim the role of political leader of the entire Mediterranean. But representing only itself or the allied Italian communities, Rome until the middle of the 2nd century. BC. had no sustained interest in claims of this kind. However, the situation looks different if we consider it in the context of the development of the civilization of Greek city-states. By joining Eastern Mediterranean politics on the side of the Greeks, Rome thereby laid claim to the role of a population center in the world of ancient civil communities. The proclamation of “Greek freedom” by Titus Flamininus meant something more than a calculated move in a political game (although it may not have been fully realized by the authors themselves). However, Rome's claims as a center of civilization were fueled only by its military and political successes. Hasty creation of the Roman historical tradition with the hands of Fabius Pictor and other annalists under the control of the Senate, it was necessary to ideologically substantiate the no less antiquity of Roman society and its culture than that of the Greeks of the Balkans and Asia Minor. It is likely that early Roman history, whose main stages are suspiciously reminiscent of those of Athens, was modeled on the history of the “cultural capital” of the Hellenic world.
The portrayal of archaic Rome as a “typical polis” among the communities of Latium was the basis for claims to be the second, if not the first, of the two centers of ancient civilization. Unlike Macedonia, whose young king recklessly rushed to the banks of the Indus, Rome's extra-Italian conquests united them into a single sociopolitical system ( empire) above all the entire ancient world. Suppressing the economic potential of Carthage, Corinth, Rhodes and other trading centers within ancient world(Alexandria and Tire were not touched) in the middle of the 2nd century. BC. reoriented the tool for maintaining the population field from navigation and trade to political and ideological institutions.
Ancient civilization began to develop as a population with a displaced or, perhaps more precisely, with two centers - Italic and Balkan-Asia Minor. The first had political and military dominance, gradually developing forms of socio-normative control over the social life of civilization. The second had a greater density and traditions of the original ancient (polis) socionormative principles and a more developed culture at the civilizational taxonomic level. Italy was the military-political, and Greece - the sociocultural center of ancient civilization.
The Roman state can be represented as a population of ancient urban civil communities of the Roman-Hellenic type with different densities of social and cultural characteristics. The civilization that took the form of an empire differed from the original Hellenic one in that it included many peoples with different sociocultural traditions. To organize these culturally alien peoples, the form of provinces was developed. The leveling of the social field was expressed in the Romanization of the provinces, which represented the spread there of ancient urban civil communities in the form of municipalities and colonies of Roman and Latin citizens. Along with them, ancient social culture and Roman forms of organizing social life spread from the Roman center. In the 3rd century, the process of Romanization reached such a qualitative milestone when it became possible to equalize all inhabitants of the Empire as Roman citizens.
Thus, the main content of Roman history as the history of civilization is the spread of Roman civil social norms to ever wider circles of Roman subjects. In contrast to the polis citizenship of the Greeks, which was closely related to the ethnic homogeneity of the environment organized in the polis, Roman citizenship acted as a socio-legal form that could equally well spread both in the Italian and non-Italian environments. It was the Roman concept of citizenship (civilis - civil) that gave rise to the idea of civilization as a cultural urban society that opposed barbarism associated with tribal, rural life. So general meaning Citizenship based on such an opposition was impossible in Greek society, which was opposed primarily by the inhabitants of the Middle Eastern cities as barbarians. Roman citizenship, having parted with the ethnic definition of its essence, acquired the status of a stable taxonomic indicator (determinant) of belonging to civilization in general. Even when Byzantium became an independent civilization, the previous designation of its inhabitants was preserved - Romans (Romans).
Over time, the Romans increasingly distributed the rights of their citizenship to representatives of other ethnic groups. With the help of citizenship, the social field of the empire increasingly acquired an ancient Roman character, and Rome was promoted to the role of not only a military-political, but also a sociocultural leader, taking away this significance from Greece. At the same time, its influence spread especially firmly in the West, as if naturally taking root in an environment where Rome acted as the original bearer of the principles of ancient civilization. Whereas in the East, which had already adopted ancient socionormatics in a polis-Hellenistic form, Roman influence caused quite pronounced rejection, bordering on rejection. Having the same original structure, but deeper roots (including ethnic ones), the Greek ancient system had, in a certain sense, immunity to the rights of Roman citizenship.
Rome's desire to usurp a function that was initially alien to it objectively should have caused opposition and struggle between both centers of civilization. Deprived of political power and oppressed from the middle of the 2nd century. BC. in the field of commodity-money relations, the eastern population center had to embark on the path of developing an oppositional ideological doctrine. This was the only way to have a weapon in the fight against the political dominance of the Romans. After a period of searching and testing for the role of opposition ideology, Christianity was adopted. Reformed by Paul, it turned out, on the one hand, closer to life than traditional philosophical teachings, and on the other, more abstract than traditional religions, that is, more capable of ancient rationalized civilizational norms. Christianity became a kind of competitor to the rights of Roman citizenship in terms of uniting and subordinating the population of the empire to its socionormative principles. It should be taken into account that, being formed as a teaching in opposition to the ideology of ancient civil society, Christianity was based on the same sociocultural values, giving them only a different form. Therefore, Christianity was a natural product of ancient civilization and could not have arisen outside its social context.
Stages of development of ancient civilization within the framework of the Roman Empire.
In Roman history, two important milestones can be identified related to the evolution of Roman citizenship and the ancient civil collective.
The first turning point is associated with events I century BC, the content of which was determined by the Italian struggle for Roman civil rights. The allied war did not solve this problem, but only made it an internal problem from an external problem in relation to the collective of Roman citizens. All the main events of the era of crisis of the republican system - from the dictatorship of Sulla and the uprising of Spartacus to the "conspiracy" of Catiline and the dictatorship of Caesar - were determined by this problem. The emergence of the Principate was only a political form that was able to provide the most complete solution to this social problem.
The result of granting Italians the rights of Roman citizenship was the consolidation of the ancient social field in Italy. Caesar's municipal law was intended to unify the civil structure of Italian urban communities. As a result, this process resonated in the western provinces. This prompted Caesar's seemingly unmotivated conquests in Gaul. A little later, the process of municipalization began to develop in Southern Gaul and especially in Spain. The Western center of civilization strengthened its social potential in the face of the leading eastern one in sociocultural terms.
At the same time, the eastern center demanded attention from the political system that was adequate to its potential. Figure princeps turned out to be convenient at the head of the republic because how leader (chieftain) of Roman citizens it met the interests of the Italian center, but how ruler (emperor) of subjects he was obliged to take care of the interests of the eastern center of civilization. The duality of the social structure gave rise to the dual nature of its instruments. The Eastern question, as we know, occupied the most famous persons of the early imperial era: Pompey, Caesar, Mark Antony, Germanicus, perhaps Caligula, Nero. Although each of them left his mark in historiography, they are all united by a sad personal fate, which does not seem at all an accident. The Italian nobility closely followed Eastern politics. Only Vespasian managed to find the right form of dealing with eastern problems while remaining faithful to the Roman community. But by this time the balance of power between civilizational centers had shifted towards a more or less stable balance.
The Romanization of the western provinces, carried out purposefully over the course of a century, yielded results. The Roman municipal system turned out to be no less widespread than the Greek polis. The West, introduced to civilization by the Romans, obviously followed in the wake of their social and cultural policies. In the II century. The Roman nobility was no longer afraid to send their emperors to the East. Secret Elenophobia gave way to a calmer and more balanced attitude. By this time, the East itself had come to terms with political dependence on Rome, realizing for generations that its social life was secondary in comparison to Rome. The established division of the empire's population into Roman citizens and peregrines gave rise to two trends. Conformists sought to obtain Roman citizenship and thus feel like first-class citizens. This required not only merit to the Roman state, but also familiarization with the standards of Roman life. Those to whom this was inaccessible or disgusted took the path of passive confrontation. The unifying principle of such a naturally developing ideology of non-conformity to Roman rule and the spread of Italian traditions in the East was Christianity. As a kind of state within a state, it united around its ideas everyone who found themselves on the margins of official public life.
Two forces slowly but surely spread their influence towards each other - Roman citizenship, the unifying principle of which was the state, and Christian ideology, represented as the unifying principle by the church. The presence of adherents of the Christian religion among Roman citizens and those eager to become Roman citizens among the peregrines, including Christians, sometimes obscures the essence of the processes taking place. But theoretically, their initial fundamental confrontation is obvious. Both forces objectively strived for the same goal - to unite the entire population of the empire in their ranks. Each of them was formed in opposition to another environment: Roman citizenship in politically dominant Italy, Christianity in the Peregrine-inhabited subject areas of the once Hellenistic world. The two centers of ancient civilization fought each other for leadership, using different weapons. Therefore, this struggle seems invisible to modern researchers.
The second turning point in the development of Roman civilization falls on III century, the beginning of which was marked by a new expansion of the circle of Roman citizens. With the transformation of provincials into Roman citizens, the buffer layer separating the civil collective from the barbarian periphery almost disappeared. The public life of citizens came into direct contact with the barbarian. The social field generated by ancient citizenship, which had previously wasted its potential on the provincials, now began to exert a more powerful influence on the barbarians. Therefore, the tribal system of the barbarians became especially noticeable in Roman politics and in sources from the second half of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd centuries. His pressure was also felt on the empire itself, stimulating in it the processes of consolidation of subjects with citizens. This shift in emphasis in relations with the barbarian periphery, usually expressed by the formula “transition of the empire to defense,” was already evident during the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
During the 3rd century. There was a leveling of the social field in the empire, expressed in the spread of Roman forms of social life and Roman law to provincials who received citizenship. This process actively unfolded in the territories where Rome acted as the bearer of civilization, that is, mainly in the western provinces. The social forms of the Hellenistic East, developed by previous centuries, did not allow Roman influence to penetrate deeply into the social life of this part of the empire. Therefore, the opposition of both centers of the empire continued to persist. In the 3rd century. their fields of socio-cultural influence came into direct contact, and thus the preconditions were created for a decisive battle for leadership in the population (empire). During the 3rd century. The confrontation between two ideological systems actively developed: the official imperial cult and the increasingly persecuted Christianity. Both main forces of the empire gradually managed to transfer their struggle to a single field suitable for battle. Ideology became such a field. The imperial cult, which gradually took the form of the Hellenistic cult of the monarch from the Roman civil cult of the genius of the emperor, was called upon to unite the citizens and subjects of the empire on the basis of official ideology. Its perception by the masses filled it with features close to archaic ideas about sacred royal power, according to which kings were considered as intermediaries between the worlds of gods and people and providers of cosmic benefits for the latter. In the 3rd century. The imperial cult began to actively merge with the cult of the Sun, which accumulated the veneration of the heavenly body in various local forms from Spain and Italy to Egypt and Syria. The sun in imperial ideology symbolized power over space, and the emperor was seen as its representative (messenger) in the world of people. Christianity, with its One God and the God-man Christ born by it, also developed similar attitudes, but in other forms.
The outcome of the struggle between the two centers of ancient civilization for leadership was predetermined initially by the greater strength of the Hellenic ancient sociocultural forms. The organic nature of the ancient society of the Eastern Mediterranean was determined by the unity of both taxonomic levels of its culture (ethnic and civilizational). The long-term dominance of Italy was determined by the military-political dominance of Rome, which made it possible to consider only Roman civil norms as socially significant. After the equalization of civil rights for the entire population of the empire in 212 and the restoration on this basis of ancient social forms by Diocletian, the social field of the empire acquired formal homogeneity. As soon as this happened, both centers of civilization found themselves on equal terms, and the eastern center began to quickly increase its advantage, putting it in political and ideological form. Historically, as is known, this process was expressed in the policies of Emperor Constantine and his successors. The capital of the empire, that is, the formal center of the population, was moved.
Civilization of Ancient Egypt
1. Features of the ecological and geographical environment of Ancient Egypt and its influence on the specifics of ancient Egyptian culture.
2. Features of the mythology of the ancient Egyptians. Myth, religion and art.
3. Mythological model of the world in Ancient Egypt.
4. The main groups of myths: about the creation of the world, about solar deities, about Osiris and Isis. The idea of an afterlife judgment over the souls of the dead.
Spiritual content aspect
Ancient Chinese culture
Literature
1. Albedil M.F. A forgotten civilization in the Indus Valley. – St. Petersburg, 1991.
2. Afanasyeva V., Lukonin V., Pomerantseva N. The Art of the Ancient East. - M., 1976 (Series “Small History of Art”).
3. Belitsky M. The Forgotten World of the Sumerians. - M., 1980.
4. Bibby J. In Search of Dilmun. - M., 1984.
5. Brentjes B. From Shanidar to Akkad. - M., 1976.
6. Vaiman A.A. Sumerian-Babylonian mathematics. - M., 1961.
7. Woolley L. Ur of the Chaldeans. - M., 1961.
8. Gumilyov L.N. Ethnogenesis and biosphere of the Earth. 3rd ed. - L., 1990.
9. Dmitrieva N.A. A Brief History of Art. T.1. - M., 1996.
10.Ancient civilizations. - M., 1989.
11.Dyakonov I.M. Scientific ideas in the Ancient East (Sumer, Babylonia, Western Asia) // Essays on the history of natural science knowledge in antiquity. - M., 1982.
12. Dyakonov I.M. Public and political system ancient Mesopotamia. - M., 1959.
13. Zamarovsky V. Their Majesties Pyramids. - M., 1981.
14. Jacques K. Egypt of the great pharaohs. History and legend. - M., 1992.
15. History of the Ancient World. T.I-III. - M., 1982.
16. History of art of foreign countries. Primitive society. The Ancient East. Antiquity. - M., 1981.
17. History of aesthetic thought: In 6 volumes. T.1. Ancient world. Middle Ages in Europe. - M., 1982.
18. Carter G. Tomb of Tutankhamun. - M., 1959.
19. Keram K. Gods, tombs, scientists. A novel of archeology. - M., 1994.
20. Klengel-Brandt E. Journey to ancient Babylon. - M., 1979.
21. Klima I. Society and culture of ancient Mesopotamia. - Prague, 1967.
22. Klochkov I.S. Spiritual culture of Babylonia: Man, fate, time. - M,: Nauka, 1983. - 624 p.
23. Kovtunovich O.V. Eternal Egypt. - M., 1989.
24.Kramer Samuel N. History begins in Sumer. 2nd ed. - M., 1991.
25. Lyrics of Ancient Egypt. - M., 1965.
26.Lyrical poetry of the ancient Near East. - M., 1983.
27. Lloyd S. Twin Rivers. - M., 1972.
28. Lukonin V.G. Art of Ancient Iran. - M., 1977.
29.McKay E. Ancient culture Indus Valley. M., 1951.
30.Mason V.M. The first civilizations. – L., 1989.
31.Mathieu M.E. Ancient Egyptian myths. - L., 1956.
32. Mathieu M.E. Selected works on the mythology of Ancient Egypt. - M., 1996.
33. Mathieu M.E. Art of Ancient Egypt. - L.-M., 1961.
34. Mathieu M.E., Pavlov V.V. Monuments of art of Ancient Egypt in museums of the Soviet Union. - M., 1958.
35. Mythology of the ancient world. - M., 1977.
36. Mikhalovsky K. Karnak. - Warsaw, 1970.
37. Mikhalovsky K. Luxor. - Warsaw, 1972.
38. Mikhalovsky K. Thebes. - Warsaw, 1974.
39.Mode Heinz. Art of South and Southeast Asia. – M., 1979.
40. Monte P. Egypt of Ramesses. - M., 1989.
41. Neugebauer O. Exact sciences in antiquity. - M., 1968.
42. Oppenheim A.L. Ancient Mesopotamia. - M., 1980.
43. Discovery of India / Transl. from English, Beng. and Urdu / Editorial team: E. Komarov, V. Lamshukov, L. Polonskaya and others - M., 1987.
44. Pavlov V.V. Sculptural portrait of Ancient Egypt. - M., 1957.
45. Poetry and prose of the Ancient East. - M., 1973 (BVL, vol. 1).
46. Reder D.G. Myths and legends of the ancient East. - M., 1965.
47.Semenenko I.I. Aphorisms of Confucius. – M., 1987.
48. Simonov P.V., Ershov P.M., Vyazemsky Yu.P. The origin of spirituality. - M., 1989.
49.Secrets of ancient writings. - M., 1976.
50. Flittner N.D. Culture and art of Mesopotamia and neighboring countries. L.-M., 1958.
51.Frankfort G., Frankfort G.A., Wilson J., Jacobson T. On the threshold of philosophy. Spiritual quests of ancient man. - M., 1984.
52. The Epic of Gilgamesh (“About Seen Everything”). - M.-L., 1961.
53. Jacobsen T. Treasures of Darkness: The History of Mesopotamian Religion. - M., 1995.
Features of Ancient Civilization
1. The place of a person in the polis organization of society.
2. Myth as an explanation of reality in Ancient Greece.
3. The main features of antiquity (literature, art, architecture and plastic arts).
4. The value system of Greek civilization.
Culture of Ancient Greece. The birth of European civilization. "Greek miracle" “Anomaly” of antiquity. The nature of the worldview. Birth of personality. Polis and its role in ancient culture. Ancient Greek philosophy and science. Plato and world culture. Aristotle. Antiquity and the Christian worldview. Hellenistic era.
5. Culture Ancient Rome. Elinistic-Roman type of culture. Culture of word and spirit. Culture and cult of the Caesars. Total ideologization and regulation. The role of material culture. Individualism and cosmopolitanism. Spread of Christianity.
Europe in the Middle Ages.
1. “Middle Ages”: concept, signs.
2. Social and economic development of Europe in the Middle Ages.
2.1. Feudalism;
2.2. Estates in medieval Europe;
3. Relationships between church and state in the Middle Ages.
4. Specifics of medieval mentality.
Sources and literature:
Topic 6
Totalitarianism.
1.Totalitarianism: concept, signs of a totalitarian state and society.
2. Prerequisites and reasons for the establishment of totalitarian political regimes in various countries.
3. Conditions for the emergence and establishment of totalitarian regimes.
Sources and literature:
1 Ponomarev M.V., Smirnova S.Yu. New and recent history countries of Europe and America: Practical guide. – Ch. No. – M., 2000. (from the contents: Legislation of the Third Reich. A. Hitler. Mein Kampf. E. Rehm National Socialist Revolution and Assault Troops. Reader for German youth.)
2 Gadzhiev K.S. Totalitarianism as a phenomenon of the 20th century // Questions of Philosophy. –1992. No. 2.
3 Galkin A.A. German fascism. – M., 1989.
4 Makarevich E. Germany: human programming // Dialogue. 1993. No. 4.
5 Totalitarianism in Europe of the twentieth century. From the history of ideologies, movements, regimes and their overcoming. - M., 1996 Issue 2. Ser. Russia - Germany - Europe.
6 Orlov B. Political culture of Russia and Germany: an attempt comparative analysis. – M., 1995.
7 Semennikova L.I. Russia in the world community of civilizations. – Bryansk, 1996.
8 Sumbatyan Yu. Totalitarian-political phenomenon of the 20th century // Social and humanitarian knowledge. –1999. No. 1.
9 Pyzhikov A. Model of a “national state”. Ideology and practice // Free Thought. –1999. No. 12
10 Shlapentokh V.E. Soviet Union- a normal totalitarian society. Experience of objective analysis // SotsIs. – 2000. No. 2
Topic 7.
Related information.
