Important dates in the history of the Ancient East

3000 BC NS. - unification of Southern and Northern Egypt

2600 BC NS. - construction of the pyramid of Cheops

585 BC NS. - battle between Media and Lydia

3rd century BC NS. - the unification of India by the kings from the Mauryan dynasty

221 BC NS. - unification of China by Qin Shihuang

3rd century BC NS. - the beginning of the construction of the Great Wall of China

550 BC NS. - Persian king Cyrus the Great captured Media

539 BC NS. - Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon

525 BC NS. - the Persian king Cambyses conquered Egypt

State and their rulers

States

Cheops, Thutmose, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten

Mesopotamia

Babylonian kingdom

Hammurabi

Palestine

David, Solomon

Sinacherib, Ashurbanipal

New Babylonian kingdom

Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar

Medes kingdom

Maurya Power (India)

Qin State (China)

Qin Shihuang

Persian Power

Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius I

Ancient names

1. "Lair of lions and city of blood" - Nineveh

2. "Black earth" - Egypt

3. "King of Kings" - Darius I

4. "Gift of the Nile" - Egypt

5. "Red land" - desert

6. "Sacred letter" - hieroglyphs

7. "Pandemonium of nations" - the division of people into peoples speaking different languages, a lot of warring rulers in Mesopotamia

8. "King of four countries" - Hammurabi

9. "Scourge of China" - Yellow River

10. "Son of the sun god Ra" - Pharaoh

11. "River flowing in the opposite direction" - Euphrates

12. "Living slain" - slaves

13. "Pleasing to Aton" - Akhenaten

14. "A beautiful woman has come" - Nefertiti

15. "Skyslon of Aton" - Akhetaton (city)

16. Sea "Among the Lands" - Mediterranean Sea

17. "Country of the Aryans" - Iran

18. "The desire to get cows" - war

20. "The eyes and ears of the king" - confidants of the king, messengers in Persia

Concepts

Papyrus - reed

Silt - fertile soil in Egypt

Dams - shafts made of clay

Delta - the branching of the Nile into branches and streams at the confluence with the Mediterranean Sea

Sumerians - people in the interfluve

Relief - a raised image carved in stone

Hieroglyphs - Egyptian writing

Pharaoh - Egyptian ruler

Ziggurat - a temple in the form of a stepped pyramid

Cuneiform - writing of the Sumerians on clay tablets

Pyramid - the tomb of the pharaohs

Sarcophagus - stone coffin

Mummy - the body of the deceased, wrapped in linen bandages and treated with special substances

Nobles - rich and noble Egyptians

Obligations - compulsory work in favor of the state

Shaduf - a special device for lifting water in leather buckets

Darts - short spears

Tribute, taxes - taxes

The Sphinx is a monster with the body of a lion and the head of a man

Purple - dark red dye

Colony - a settlement outside its own country

Covenant - a contract between God and people

Battering rams - heavy, iron-bound, logs hung on belts, battering tool

Tiles - fired clay tiles covered with blue glittering glaze

Jungle - impenetrable rainforest

Varna - closed groups of people in India

Paganism - belief in numerous gods who personified the forces of nature

Buddhism is a world religion

Crossbows - crossbows

The Great Silk Road - the main trade route in the east

Winged expression

Jericho Trumpets- deafeningly loud, trumpet voice.
The expression is associated with the biblical myth about how the Jews, on their way from Egyptian captivity to Palestine, laid siege to the city of Jericho, which was surrounded by very strong walls. For six days in the morning and in the evening, going around the city, the priests blew the sacred trumpets. On the seventh day, the walls broke down and collapsed. Jericho was taken by the Jews.

Belshazzar's Feast- from the Bible. The Old Testament (Book of the Prophet Daniel, ch. 5) tells about the feast of the last Babylonian king Belshazzar, who decided on blasphemy: he ordered to bring gold and silver sacred vessels from the temple of Jerusalem to drink wine from them. When the feast was in full swing, an invisible hand on the wall of the hall inscribed the letters: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uparsin" (v. 26-28), which, as the prophet Daniel interpreted them to the king, foreshadowed the imminent destruction of the kingdom of Babylon, and to the king himself. Belshazzar was killed that same night. Meaning: A fun, luxurious life, inappropriate fun on the eve of imminent disaster.

Rich as Croesus- Croesus is the king of Lydia, a slave-owning trading state, and, as the ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes in his History, he was the owner of countless treasures and considered himself a happy man. Croesus's reign ended with his huge army in 547 BC. NS. defeated by the Persian king Cyrus, who annexed the conquered possessions to his own, took the treasures of the Lydian king into his treasury, and sentenced Croesus himself to be burned at the stake.

1.The Middle East as a geographical concept for ancient history is

a) Southwest Asia and North Africa

b) Front Asia

c) Eastern Mediterranean

d) North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean

2. The oldest cities arose

A) in North Africa c) in ancient China

B) in Ancient India d) in Mesopotamia

3. Founders of the first city-states

A) Akkadians b) Hittites c) Sumerians d) Amorites

4.The state of Ancient Egypt in terms of its political structure was

A) oligarchy c) monarchy

B) dictatorship d) despotism

5. The source of many religious images is religious beliefs

A) Egyptians c) Babylonians

B) Sumerians d) Hittites

6. The sacred temples of the Sumerians were called

A) ziggurats c) obelisks

B) pyramids d) colossi

7. Notice what is unnecessary in the group of the great empires of antiquity

A) the Hittite empire c) the Akkadian state

B) New Babylonian kingdom d) Assyrian state

8. The first of the peoples of the Ancient East learned to work with iron

A) Egyptians b) Hittites c) Persians d) Assyrians

9. Historical fact, which is reflected in the Bible in the story of the feast

Belshazzar is

A) the conquest of Palestine by Assyria

B) the heyday of the Babylonian kingdom under Hammurabi

C) the introduction of the cult of the single god Aton

D) the capture of Babylon by the Persians

10. Relate the ruler (or hero) and the country

1) Gilgamesh a) Babylonian kingdom

2) Thutmose III b) Ancient Egypt

3) Confucius c) Sumer

4) Hammurabi d) New Babylonian kingdom

5) Nebuchadnezzar e) Assyria

6) Ashoka f) Ancient China

7) Belshazzar g) Ancient India

11. Indo-Aryans spoke the language

A) Hebrew b) Sanskrit c) Esperanso d) Ariana

12. Under the Indo-Aryans, a rigid hierarchical system was formed. Society was divided

On special layers. They included

A) brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaisyas, sudras

B) castes, varnas, groups, strata

C) priests, warriors, merchants, servants

D) Mauryas, Mughals, Brahmins, Han people

13. Relate the architectural structure and the country

1) ziggurats a) Egypt

2) Great Wall of China b) Sumer

3) pyramids c) Babylon

4) Hanging Gardens of Babylon d) China

14. The oldest collection of hymns of the gods among the ancient Aryans

A) Torah b) Charter c) Lunyu d) Rig Veda

15. Indicate a feature not typical for the states of the Ancient East

A) the first states arose in river valleys

B) man obeyed the laws of nature

C) the supreme ownership of land is concentrated in the hands of the ruler

D) everything produced was distributed by the center in accordance with the strictest

System of measures

16. The consolidation of the ancient Chinese people took place in the era

A) the Qin empire c) the Zhanguo era

B) the Han empire d) the Zhou state

17. The ethical and legal framework of Chinese society was formed by the doctrine

A) Lao Tzu c) Bo Xing

B) Kong Tzu d) Li Bo

18. The founder of Buddhism is

A) Prince Belshazzar c) Prince Gautama

B) King Ashoka d) King Liu Bang

19. The construction of the Great Wall of China is associated with the name of the emperor

A) Ashoka c) Hammurabi

B) Kun Tzu d) Qin Shi-huang

20. Match country and religion

1) Zoroastrianism a) Ancient India

2) Vedism b) Persia

3) Taoism c) Ancient China

4) brahmanism d) Palestine

5) Confucianism e) Ancient Egypt

6) hinduism

7) Judaism

The manual has been developed in accordance with the requirements of state educational standards for higher professional education. In the textbook, the author examines the most important issues of all sections of the course of the history of the Ancient East, draws the attention of students to discussion problems, sets out various points of view on them. The manual is intended for students of all specialties studying the discipline "World History" at the Humanitarian-Economic and Information-Technological Institute.

* * *

The given introductory fragment of the book Lectures on the history of the Ancient East (O. U. Devletov, 2015) provided by our book partner - the company Liters.

Lecture 1. Prehistory of the Ancient East

Basic concepts of the lecture:

✓ Neolithic revolution.

✓ Proto state formations.

✓ Despotism.

✓ The phenomenon of power-property.

✓ Hierarchical structure of society.

✓ Command and control system.

Question 1. Background of the region

Let us turn to the beginnings of the history of mankind and the prehistory of the Ancient East.

The genus "Man" (Homo) emerged from the animal kingdom over two million years ago. The Middle Eastern-Mediterranean lands, connecting Africa with Eurasia with a narrow isthmus, for many hundreds of millennia were that natural bridge-crossroads along which the most ancient populations of hominids (prehumans), archanthropus and paleoanthropus moved, meeting and mixing with each other. Not all of them were able to continue their development in subsequent generations. Scientists note the presence of dead-end branches in the evolutionary process. For example, Sinanthropus. His remains were found in China.

The mixing of populations and the related cross-breeding sharply accelerated the process of transformation of hominids, playing a significant role in the preparation of those favorable mutations that ultimately led to the emergence of Homo sapiens in this particular region of the world - Homo sapiens.

And although experts disagree on whether the Middle Eastern sapienation zone was the only one, there is good reason to believe that it was here, at the end of the Ancient Stone Age, the Paleolithic, that the last representative of the evolutionary process, Homo sapiens sapiens (Homo sapiens sapiens ). Its migration to various regions of the Earth with the displacement of the former hominids who lived there and with crossbreeding with these latter served as the basis for the appearance in various regions the globe numerous racial types.

From ancestors belonging to more ancient human species, Homo sapiens inherited the ability to work and produce the simplest tools for this. But from the end of the ancient Stone Age, he still for a very long time - thirty thousand years of his history - still, like these of his ancestors, only extracted the gifts of nature for himself with the help of the tools he produced, but did not reproduce its fruits again.

His methods of obtaining food - gathering wild plants, hunting and fishing - were, of course, labor. Moreover, in order to maintain his existence, man even then already needed not only production, but also the reproduction of instruments of labor; but he did not know how to reproduce the products of nature he obtained. In accordance with the material used for the manufacture of tools, it is customary to subdivide the history of mankind into three periods: the stone, bronze, and iron ages.

The Stone Age is the longest of them. Scientists distinguish: the ancient Stone Age, or Paleolithic; Middle Stone Age, go Mesolithic, and New Stone Age, or Neolithic. At this time, man made the main tools and weapons from wood, stone, horn and bone without grinding and drilling, using the upholstery method.

The life of human collectives (communities, usually united by kinship) depended to a great extent on external natural, even climatic conditions, on the abundance or scarcity of prey, on random luck. Luck gave way to periods of hunger, mortality was very high, especially among children and the elderly. On the vast expanses of the globe, there were very few people, and their number almost did not increase, at times, perhaps, even fell. The main occupations of man were hunting and gathering, the use of stone choppers and scrapers as the main tools of labor.

The Mesolithic brought innovation. Along with hunting and gathering, fishing began to develop, including sea fishing, hunting for marine mammals, and collecting sea mollusks. Man learned to use stone tools of work reduced in size - microliths.

However, the main event in the development of the human community takes place in the Neolithic era. It is then that the appropriating type of economy is replaced by a producing one. Hunting, gathering and fishing are being replaced by agriculture and cattle breeding. This most important milestone is called the Neolithic revolution, as it lays the foundation for the emergence of a new stage in the development of human society - the stage of civilization.

At the very end of the Stone Age, the ancient people first got acquainted with copper, but they used it mainly for making jewelry. Scientists distinguish the so-called Copperstone Age (Eneolithic, Chalcolithic).

The Bronze Age in the history of mankind is characterized by a number of features. The appearance of bronze in antiquity usually went hand in hand with the emergence of urban civilization, that is, with the construction of urban centers with their temples and palaces. In the development of advanced ancient societies, this was a fundamental qualitative milestone, marking the formation of supra-communal (proto-state) political formations. For the emergence of proto-state structures, some essential prerequisites were needed, important conditions, the optimal combination of which was not born everywhere. It is no coincidence that science has only a very few so-called primary centers of urban civilization, and they, these primary centers, were usually somehow connected with each other.

Finally, at the turn of the 2nd-1st millennia, people get to know iron, and the Iron Age begins in the history of mankind, which continues to the present day.

How did the transition to civilization come about? What contributed to this process?

10-12 thousand years ago, in ecologically favorable regions, some of the human communities learned to sow bread, which provided them with food all year round, and to raise livestock, which allowed them to regularly eat meat, as well as milk and cheese (cottage cheese). Livestock provided them with hides and skins better than hunting prey, and, in addition, they also provided wool, which people learned to spin and weave. Soon after that, people were able to change cave dwellings, huts made of branches and dugouts for permanent houses made of clay or stone coated with clay, and then from mud bricks. The life of the communities has become more prosperous, and the mortality rate has slightly decreased.

The first cereal that people first began to harvest in the wild (using wooden or bone sickles with inserted flint teeth), and then sow, was barley that grew in the highlands of Asia Minor, Palestine, Iran and southern Turkmenistan, as well as in North Africa. ... Other cereals were later domesticated. It is difficult to say where this happened first. In any case, in Palestine, Asia Minor and in western slopes Bread was sown in the Iranian highlands between the 10th and 8th millennia BC. e., and in southern Turkmenistan they began to sow it no later than the VI millennium BC. NS. Around the same era and in the same places, a goat, a sheep, and a donkey were tamed. The dog was tamed much earlier by the hunters of the Ancient Stone Age. Later, cattle and pigs were domesticated.

From the VIII-VI millennia BC. NS. people learned how to make more advanced polished stone tools, wicker baskets, fabrics, and then pottery burnt in a fire, which made it possible to better prepare and store food. The people's standard of living has improved a little more. The tribal organization of the life of the human collective appears. This happened in the Neolithic era.

The increasing population settled outside the borders of their native village, quickly mastered new territories suitable for agriculture - first in the region of fertile river valleys of the Middle East, then in other lands, for example, in Iran and Central Asia, India and China. At the same time, the new subsidiary settlements, as a rule, retained the general stereotype of existence developed by the early farmers, including the social-family and communal-clan organization, mythology, rituals, production skills and technology, etc. Over time and depending on the circumstances, on new habitats all this underwent a certain transformation and was enriched with new elements of culture.

In Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine already in the VIII-VI millennia BC. NS. During the Neolithic Revolution, developed and wealthy villages arose, sometimes even surrounded by a wall. However, very few settlements reached this level of development: Jericho in Palestine, Chatal Huyuk in Asia Minor, etc.

The settlement of Chatal-Huyuk in present-day Turkey existed in the years 7500-5700. D.Sc. NS. Farmers lived here, they were engaged in cattle breeding. Perhaps it was here that copper smelting from ore was first carried out. There are still many unclear aspects of the way of life of this settlement, the study of which continues to this day. An interesting feature is the settler houses. They stuck together like a honeycomb. There were no doors in them. Residents entered the house using ladders. In good weather, they were located on their roofs. Religious practices are largely unclear. Apparently, the ancient settlers worshiped the Great Mother Goddess. It seems that the bull played a sacred role. In the buildings, archaeologists have discovered ancient drawings, sculptures of gods, ceramic dishes.

Rice. 1

Rice. 2. Ceramics

Rice. 3. Perhaps this is what the settlement looked like

Rice. 4. Reconstruction of the sanctuary

With the growth of the agricultural population in the foothills, part of it began to go further and further into the depths of the steppes. As such community groups moved away from areas with more or less well-provided rain or stream irrigation, cattle grazing became more and more important in their economy, and sowing of barley and spelled, as economically less reliable, played an increasingly auxiliary role. However, without having domesticated either a horse or a camel, the herders could not make the distant seasonal migrations necessary to restore the grass cover on the pastures, and in general they could not move too far from the water. And they usually did not completely abandon agriculture. When, as a result of the predatory feeding of sheep on the meager southern steppe pastures, or after some period of catastrophic droughts, grazing in this area became impossible, pastoralists moved en masse to other places.

So during the VIII-VI millennia BC. NS. The settlement of Afrasian tribes (apparently, the descendants of the Mesolithic population of Western Asia) in North Africa, as well as in the steppe regions of the Middle East (Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, where the tribes of the Semitic language family of the Afrasian language superfamily survived - or where they moved).

Since the V-III millennia BC. NS. settled in different sides tribes who spoke dialects of the Indo-European language family. Already by the II millennium BC. NS. these tribes, transmitting the language to the local population and involving it in further migration, spread from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

Such relocations were, of course, not accidental. On the one hand, they were associated with secular climate fluctuations: for example, in the VI and II millennia BC. NS. drought conditions prevailed, and this could stimulate the departure of the tribes in search of more favorable conditions for life. On the other hand, in the V-IV millennia, the climatic conditions were favorable, among the tribes who lived by cattle breeding and agriculture, mortality fell, and a relative surplus of the population appeared, which began to spread in different directions, but mainly within the climatic zone that favored the type of economy of these tribes ...

The population of the Earth was then very rare, and the movement of tribes led, according to historical linguistics, not so much to the destruction or displacement of the indigenous people, but to the assimilation of the new population with the indigenous, so that in the ethnic (but not linguistic) relation, the wave of further movement could completely differ from the original.

People who brought in the VI-V millennia BC. NS. Afrasian (Semitic-Hamitic) languages ​​into the depths of Africa, and people with whom in the II-I millennia BC. NS. Indo-European languages ​​came to the shores of the Bay of Bengal (modern Bangladesh), did not resemble at all in appearance and did not resemble in culture those that gave the first impetus to the spread of agricultural and pastoral tribes.

Although these relatively mobile pastoralist-agricultural tribes were not yet true nomads, one can nevertheless speak of the separation of the farmers sitting on irrigated lands from the semi-agricultural pastoralists of the steppes as the first great division of labor. An exchange was already established between farmers and pastoralists; however, it was necessary even earlier - after all, already in the late Stone Age, not a single group of people could provide themselves with everything they needed without exchange, the subject of which was, for example, a stone suitable for making tools (flint, obsidian). Such a stone is relatively rare on earth. With the discovery of the first metals (gold, copper, silver), the exchange of metals for various handicrafts, for example, fabrics, also began, and the exchange went from hand to hand over considerable distances.

The emergence of a productive type of economy, agriculture and cattle breeding, will create the preconditions for the emergence of the first cities, writing, stratification of society (stratification), and finally states.

Certain conditions were necessary for the emergence of proto-state formations from the communities.

In the agricultural community, which provided the basis for the new political structure, relations were built on the basis of the most important principles: first, the exchange-gift for prestige (that is, for the emphasized respect of the collective in relation to those who are more capable than others and often bring them their rich prey or generously shares with everyone that he has). Dependent (patronage and client) ties were formed, since the recipients of gifts and consumers of the products given to everyone turned out to be dependent on those who generously gave and gave to others what they possessed.

The second most important principle was the practice of centralized redistribution. Each household usually belonged to a large family-clan group (a patriarch father with his wives, younger brothers and grown-up sons; wives and children of brothers and sons; sometimes lone outsiders who also joined the group and lost family ties). The head of the group had the right, on behalf of the collective, to dispose of all its aggregate property.

The right of redistribution helped the head of the family-clan group through generous distribution of the group's property to increase his prestige, acquire clients and, thanks to this, qualify for the elected positions of community elder or his assistants.

It is these two principles that created the conditions for the emergence of a complicated structure of society in the form of an agricultural community with its elected leadership.

However, a number of favorable circumstances were also needed: the climatic and ecological optimum for agriculture, the necessary demographic saturation the region, especially the fertile river valley, as well as a high level of production potential, achieved only in the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

For example, it is located in the valleys of great rivers, located in a warm and mild climate, with fertile soils and regular or occasional fertilizing spills. In addition, a certain level of production activity of people, including rational use resources, regular exchange with neighbors, cooperation and coordination of labor and, as a consequence of all this, a stable and tending to increase surplus product.

All these conditions, objectively sufficient for the regular production of such a quantity of products, first of all, food, which allows the collective to maintain the layers necessary for the functioning of the administration apparatus and the layers freed from compulsory physical labor in agricultural farming (meaning the ruler and his relatives, officials, priests , warriors, artisans, servants and slaves who served their needs).

The emergence of the first proto-state formations was a great step forward in the development of human society. Gradually, the power of the leader, the supreme person acquired divine significance. The legitimization of the divine right to power is being formed. Power became a lifelong right, and the election of a new leader became a rarer phenomenon. The order of inheritance is also established. It was believed that the most suitable are relatives or assistants of the leader.

The leader acts as a bearer of divine grace, as a powerful mediator between the world of the living and supernatural forces, including all deceased leaders. All the sorcerers and other clergymen who existed before are involved in the service of the more complex religious and mythological system arising in this connection. This is how the priesthood acquired its special status in early societies.

Over time, the power of the leader became hereditary in his family, which played a huge role in stabilizing the entire structure. At the same time, the personality of the leader became sacred, regardless of his individual qualities and abilities, the lack of which had to be made up for by the experience and knowledge of his assistants. The privileges and prerogatives assigned to the leader's family were now perceived by the entire collective as a manifestation of the highest divine status of his person and his unconditional right to dispose of all the property of the proto-state.

Protostate Is a political structure based on the norms of genealogical kinship, familiar with social and property inequality, division of labor and the exchange of activities, headed by a sacralized ruler with hereditary power. Among the functions of the structure are administrative and economic, military, judicial mediation and a number of others.

It is within the framework of this transitional political structure that its leader, from yesterday's servant of society, who tried to gain public authority and with its help to work for the good of the collective, begins to rise above society, seeks to subjugate society to himself and become its master.

Question 2. Features of the ancient societies of the East

The emergence of the state is a long process. In the societies of the Asian region, it proceeded in different chronological periods... However, these societies themselves had common features.

First of all, it must be said about power and property. The hereditary power of the sacralized leader-king in the proto-states of the East quickly enough - in contrast to ancient Greece - transformed into despotic, although not everywhere equally pronounced. The main reason for this was the absence of a developed market-private property economy here, which played a decisive role in the social mutation that ancient Greece experienced. Despotism as a form of power, and if you look deeper, then as the general structure of society, arises where there is no private property. In the East, including Asia, power and property are inseparable, indivisible. This is a power-property phenomenon.

The emergence of the phenomenon of power-property was an important moment on the path of establishing society and the state in the non-European world. In practice, this meant that the former free community was losing its exclusive rights to own its lands and products. Now she was forced to share these rights with those who, due to their involvement in power, could claim a share of her property, starting from the regional leader-administrator, the future sovereign aristocrat, to whom the supreme leader transferred part of his highest prerogatives, and ending with the communal head, more and more turning into an official of the administration apparatus.

In other words, the phenomenon of overlapping ownership rights arose and was consolidated for a long time: the same land (or rather, the right to the product from it) belongs to the peasant who cultivates it, and to the community as a whole, on whose behalf the elder who distributes the land, and the regional the administrator, and the supreme owner.

The second important feature of ancient societies is hierarchy.

Hierarchy- the sequential arrangement of social strata or official ranks from lower to higher, in the order of their subordination.

In a society that was previously focused mainly on merit and prestige, new criteria appeared for dividing into the upper and lower classes. The elite began to be staffed from the number of hereditary aristocrats and officials involved in power, and both, closely linked by clan ties, formed a kind of hereditary stratum of people employed in the sphere of government and included in the system of social and property privileges. The bottom layer was made up of producers, primarily communal peasants. Between the top and bottom, there was also a layer of personnel serving the top - slaves, servants, artisans, etc.

Expanding, the early states included a large population, completely different in ethnic composition. The early state usually faced the need to complicate the administration, which resulted in a further increase in the hierarchy of the structure as a whole: everyone who stood above the community, in turn, lined up in a complex hierarchical ladder of officials, rights, statuses, privileges.

The hierarchical ladder of management turned out to be three-stage. Three levels arose - the highest national, medium regional, and local. At the same time, at the highest level, a noticeable specialization of administrative activity is recorded - military leaders, priests, heads of chanceries or craft services, general administrators, treasurers and keepers of state granaries, stewards of palace or temple services, the ruler's home quarters, etc., up to the emergence of something - where is the control and auditing service.

At the regional level, the administration was usually much simpler and most often had dual subordination - to the head of the regional unit and the corresponding services and departments of the center. Here specialization was much weaker and functions were often combined. Moreover, all this was typical of the local level, where, according to tradition, the head of the community was charged with the lion's share of all administrative concerns about the welfare of the community collective, as well as the timely payment of rent-tax to the treasury and the organization of public works necessary for the collective and for the state.

Rent- part of the surplus product that the peasants produced, appropriated by the landowner.

Speaking about public works, the following should be said. For the early states, urbanization was an indispensable condition for existence, in which they fundamentally differed from proto-states. All the monumental city and other structures (dams, canals, roads) were built at the expense of the labor of peasants, who were involved in public works in their free time from agricultural concerns, moreover, one by one. It was as a public duty that the peasants participated in the creation of prestigious buildings, being in these days on full state support and even receiving government tools and means of labor for work. It should be specially emphasized that this kind of public work was never considered forced labor, but on the contrary, was always considered by everyone, including the masses of workers, as structures of important ritual meaning and social significance.

Another feature of the early states of antiquity was the deification of the ruler. The sovereign was proclaimed the son of a god or even a living deity, and the entire system of gods, who now had impressive monumental temples that elevated their status in their honor, helped to strengthen in the minds of the population ideas about the power of divine forces. This provided the necessary spiritual and ideological comfort.

Finally, a feature indicating the transition to a developed ancient state was the emergence of a commodity market and money. Labor power turns into a commodity, which results in the institution of private slavery (before that, slaves, being most often war booty, were considered a collective property and on behalf of the collective were used in temple and palace farms, in the service of those in power).

Thus, the early state is a multi-level hierarchical political structure based on clan and extra-clan ties, familiar with the specialization of production and administrative activities. The main functions of such a state are the centralized management of a large territorial-administrative complex with an ethnically heterogeneous population, the expansion of its territory through military conquests, as well as ensuring the welfare of society and the prestigious consumption of the privileged leaders at the expense of rent-tax from producers, tribute from dependent neighbors.

The early state is well acquainted with urbanization and monumental structures carried out by the population at the expense of public works, and these works are seen as a natural exchange of activities and are legitimized by the generally recognized religious and ideological doctrine. It was at the stage of the early state that the foundations of a new form of socio-economic relations were laid - private property relations associated with the commodity-money economy and the labor market.

For developed ancient states, a characteristic feature will be a command-administrative system, the creation of a most favored nation regime for the ruling elites and complete control of private property and the market by the state.

In the East, the market and the owner are dependent on the state and serve the needs, first of all, of the ruling stratum. The state here stands firmly above society and, accordingly, above the economy of society, and its ruling strata live off the wealth of society and perform the functions of the ruling class in this society.

And, what is especially important to emphasize, these functions are traditionally performed by the ruling elites not because they usurped power and imposed their will on artificially weakened owners, but precisely because they govern a society that is fundamentally different from the European one. The command and control structure is based on the principle of power-ownership. It strictly controls and severely limits the private property element, otherwise disintegration would threaten the normal functioning of the system.

The owners were suppressed and made dependent on the bearer of power, on the arbitrariness of the administration, and the most successful of them often paid for this with the confiscation of property, or even with their lives, since it was not difficult to find a formal excuse for this. The history of Asia, as a part of the history of the East, testifies to the fact that the private property economy flourished only in conditions of stability and strong power of the center with all its controlling functions, including strict administrative control over the economy of the entire country.

Thus, in Asia, in the East, private property here, even having appeared and strengthened, has always been secondary and has never been protected from the arbitrary power of any privileges or guarantees, freedoms or rights.

The alternative to the domination of private property, as in Europe, here was power-property. The functions of the ruling class were performed by the upper classes of society organized into the apparatus of power.

The state in Asia, in the East, absolutely dominated society. This is the key to understanding the structure of traditional non-European societies, understanding the essence of the East, both ancient and modern.

So, the distinctive features of the ancient societies that arose in Asia, in the East, were:

✓ the phenomenon of power-property;

✓ Eastern despotism as a type of political power;

✓ hierarchical structure of society;

✓ deification of the ruler;

✓ command and control system;

✓ absolute predominance of state property;

✓ subordinate to the state and dependent on it the position of private property and the market;

✓ absolute priority of the state over society.

In Asia, there are three major centers where amazing cultures were created, the earliest in time from the 4th millennium to the 1st millennium BC. BC: Mesopotamia, India and China. It was here that proto-state and state formations first appeared, world empires were formed. The history of the Ancient East itself begins with their consideration.

Main conclusions

1. The history of the societies of the Ancient East is part of the general history of the East. It was here that the Neolithic revolution took place for the first time, creating conditions for the formation of proto-state formations and states. In addition, a division arose here between farmers and pastoralists, who entered into a relationship of exchange with each other.

2. The resettlement of people took place in different regions of the Ancient East, and by mixing with the local population. For several millennia, the bearers of the Semitic branch of the Afrasian language family, and then the Indo-Europeans, spread throughout the East.

3. The difference between the East and Europe is the prevailing power of the state, the absence of conditions for the realization of the full potential of private property and the market, which it tightly controls.

4. The conditions for the emergence of proto-state formations were the presence of favorable environmental factors, the production level of society, and a significant concentration of the population.

5. Proto-state formations were headed by a ruler, whose power gradually became hereditary, and he himself was recognized as the son of God or equated to God. The priesthood was a privileged stratum that served power. The society was built on the principles of hierarchy, where the upper classes, which include the ruler and his entourage, the priesthood and bureaucracy of various ranks, were maintained at the expense of the lower classes - the communal peasants. There was an intermediate layer of servants, artisans, slaves and others.

6. For the societies of Asia, as well as of the whole East, the phenomenon of power-property is characteristic. This leads to the establishment of state ownership and does not allow the full potential of private property and the market to develop. Power itself takes on the character of despotism.

7. The presence of privileges, the seizure of foreign territories, the payment of tribute and other sources gradually led to the emergence of surpluses, which stimulated the emergence of a commodity market, money. Slave power has also become a commodity. This was an indicator of the emergence of state structures. Unlike proto-state formations, it is characterized by the process of urbanization, the organization of public works throughout the country.

Control questions

1. What are the features of the Neolithic era?

2. What are the consequences of the Neolithic revolution?

3. What conditions are necessary for the transition to a new organization of the human community in the Neolithic?

4. How did the role of the first person change in the ancient community of people?

5. What are the conditions for the emergence of proto-state formations?

6. What is the structure of society in proto-state formations?

7. What was the difference between public education at an early stage?

8. What are the features of the Asian Oriental society?

9. Representatives of which language families settled in Asia?

10. What is the relationship between the dominant form of property in Asia and the form of political structure?

Current page: 2 (total of the book has 15 pages) [available passage for reading: 10 pages]

Font:

100% +

Camel rider. China

At the end of the III century. BC NS. there is a single centralized state, which was founded by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC). During the next Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) ("Han" became the self-name of the Chinese), Confucianism was established in China as a state ideology. Under his influence, a special privileged class of officials appeared - shenypi (Chinese - learned men), which included persons who passed a rigorous examination for an academic degree and then received the right to hold public office. With the consolidation of the shenipi position in China, a centralized bureaucratic empire was formed, ideologically based on Confucian foundations and Buddhism.

Cultural heritage of the Ancient East

Each ancient Eastern civilization has made a significant contribution to the development of world culture. The cultural heritage of the Ancient East includes the invention of writing and numerical designations (digital symbols), the calendar, the rudiments of scientific knowledge, architectural monuments, works of fiction, the first laws regulating public life.

Thanks to writing, the transfer of accumulated knowledge from generation to generation has become stable, and the education system has developed. The spread of writing, its use in office work and when concluding commercial transactions led to the transition from complex forms (hieroglyphic and cuneiform) to a simpler and more accessible (alphabetic). The first phonetic alphabet that arose in the Middle East, in Phenicia, formed the basis of modern alphabets - Greek, Latin, Cyrillic, etc.

The first literary works also appeared in the East. This is the heroic Sumerian epic about Gilgamesh, and works of different genres, created by the Egyptians. Around the 900s BC NS. in Palestine, the compilation of the texts of the Pentateuch (Torah) began, which tells about the history of the Jewish people. At the turn of the II-I centuries. BC NS. Sima Qian's "Historical Notes" were created, which described the past of China.

The ancient oriental achievements in medicine were considerable. Mummifying the dead, the Egyptians got acquainted with the structure of the human body, made descriptions of diseases and pharmacological prescriptions. The papyrus, which is a textbook on anatomy and surgery, has survived to this day. The acupuncture technique, which originated in China, is successfully used in medicine today.

Astronomical observations, which allowed the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Chinese to predict river floods, determine the time of solar and lunar eclipses, stimulated the development of mathematical knowledge. In Mesopotamia, the sixtieth number system was used, and the year was divided, as it was in the ancient Egyptian calendar, into 12 months. In the countries of the Ancient East, with the use of mathematical calculations and technical skills, monumental architectural structures were created, the fine arts developed - painting, bas-reliefs, sculpture.

Monuments of ancient Eastern civilizations - pyramids, temples, statues, paintings, ornaments - amaze the imagination: some - with their grandeur, others - with their vivid artistic depiction.

The ancient East became the cradle of civilizations that arose in Egypt, Anterior, South and East Asia. European civilization, through Antiquity, adopted the cultural achievements of the peoples of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The cultural achievements of the Indian and Chinese civilizations became known to the European world much later, already in the period of modern times.

Questions and tasks

1. Where and when did the most ancient civilizations originate?

2. What is common in the civilizations of the Ancient East and what are their main differences from each other?

3. What is despotism? What are its main features?

4. Consider one of the religious and philosophical teachings of the Ancient East. What are its features?

5. What contribution have ancient Eastern civilizations made to world culture?

§ 3. Ancient Mediterranean

Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, located in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands and the Asia Minor coast of the Aegean Sea, unlike Egypt, Babylon and China, there was no single state. The ancient Greeks, who called themselves Hellenes, were united by language, religion, culture, but not state power. The origins of the ancient Greek civilization go back to the Crete-Mycenaean (III-II millennium BC) and Homeric (XI-IX centuries BC) periods. In the Homeric period, the main source of knowledge about which are the poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", there was a tribal system in Greece. The tribes were headed by military leaders - Basileia (later they began to call the kings with the ideas).

Palace at Knossos. Minoan civilization. Crete, Greece

In the VIII-VI centuries. BC NS. in Ancient Greece (Hellas), a system of city-states was formed - policies. Their formation took place on the basis of territorial communities, which included the city itself and its rural districts. The polis took shape at the same time both as a state and as a civic collective of land owners. Full citizens decided state affairs at popular assemblies, where laws were passed and officials were elected, who were entrusted with governing the state and organizing legal proceedings, and also resolved issues of external relations, including the conduct of war and the conclusion of peace. The citizens of the policy were tied into a single community by economic and political interests and collective concerns; in the event of war, they formed the people's militia. All citizens had strictly observed rights and were endowed with duties, according to which a citizen was distinguished from a non-citizen, a free Hellene from a slave.

Gravestone stele of Aristocles. Marble. VI century BC NS. Athens, Greece

By their structure, the policies were democratic and oligarchic. In oligarchic (predominantly aristocratic) polises, economic and political power actually belonged to a narrow circle of the richest and most noble members of the community. The landowning nobility was not the only owner of the material resources of the polis and therefore could not concentrate in their hands the entirety of political power. Craftsmen and merchants played an important role in the economic life of many policies. Polis was the most perfect form of political organization in this historical period.

The most powerful states of ancient Greece were Athens and Sparta. Athens was predominantly a trade and craft city-state with a democratic government, the supreme power in which belonged to the popular assembly. At the national assembly, the most important issues of the life of the policy were decided, officials were elected, citizens who were recognized as dangerous for the state were expelled from Athens by secret ballot. In Sparta, which subdued the entire Peloponnesian Peninsula, all the land was divided into equal plots, which were in the hereditary property of the families of full citizens of the state. Sparta was headed by two kings who belonged to two ruling dynasties. Their power was limited to a council of elders, consisting of representatives of noble families. The National Assembly did not play a significant role in the administration of Sparta.

In the first half of the 5th century. BC e., after the victory of the Hellenes in the Greco-Persian wars, Athens became the most economically developed and powerful city in Ancient Greece. Military successes have demonstrated the superiority of the free civil society over the powerful eastern despotism, strengthened the influence of democratic forces in the poleis, strengthened the hegemony of the Greek states in the Mediterranean basin. During the Greco-Persian wars, the Athens Maritime Union was created - the unification of most of the city-states. The domination of the Athenians at sea secured the use of trade routes, established closer economic ties between various parts Hellas and Greek colonies. Increasingly important in the economy of Ancient Greece was acquired by sea trade.

The economic and cultural flourishing of Athens came during the reign of the prominent politician, strategist (commander-in-chief) Pericles (443-429 BC). His name is associated with the complete democratization of the Athenian state system, as well as the construction of an architectural ensemble crowned with the temple of the goddess Athena - the Parthenon, and the so-called Long Walls, which connected the city fortifications of Athens with the port of Piraeus.

Hellenism. Historical meaning ancient greek culture

Ancient Greek culture had a huge impact on the culture of neighboring countries and peoples. The expansion of this influence was facilitated by the conquests of Alexander the Great (356–323 BC). Weakened by the long-term war between the two strongest policies - democratic Athens and aristocratic Sparta - Greece has become an easy prey for its northern neighbor, Macedonia. Thanks to the pooling of economic resources and military forces of the Greek poleis and Macedonia, Alexander managed to defeat the Persian state and annex vast lands in Asia and Egypt to his kingdom.

After the death of Alexander the Great, the power he created disintegrated, laying the foundation for the emergence of the so-called Hellenistic states and the spread of Greek culture all the way to Central Asia. The centers of Hellenistic culture, representing the synthesis of ancient Greek and Eastern civilizational elements, were the states of the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in the Middle East, the Pergamon and Pontic kingdoms in Asia Minor. Hellenistic culture was not uniform in all states that emerged after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great. But its common feature in religion, customs, architecture, art was the combination and interweaving of Greek and local features. So, for example, the cult of Zeus in Egypt was identified with Amun, in Phenicia - with Baal, in Babylon - with Bel. The cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis spread throughout almost the entire Hellenistic territory. There was also a wide exchange of experience in all types of material production. Period Hellenism lasted until the conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt by the Romans (1st century BC).

It is difficult to find at least one sphere of culture that did not receive development in Ancient Greece. The concepts of "democracy", "aristocracy", "oligarchy", "despotism", "tyranny" and many others came into international political vocabulary from the ancient Greek language. Whatever science we talk about, its roots go back to Ancient Greece. We call Herodotus (490/480-425 BC) "the father of history", Strabo (64/63 BC - 23/24 AD) - the "father of geography" ... The history of philosophy begins with the names of Heraclitus (end of the 6th – 5th centuries BC), Plato (428 / 427-348 / 347 BC), Socrates (470–399 BC). ), etc. Let us recall the names of the works of Aristotle (384–322 BC) - "Politics", "Metaphysics", "Physics", "Ethics", "Rhetoric", "Poetics". Physicists, mathematicians, engineers trace their ancestry from Archimedes (287–212 BC), doctors - from Hippocrates (460–370 BC).

L. von Klenze. Acropolis. XIX century.

Ancient Greece made no less contribution than to science in all types of artistic culture. From childhood we are introduced into the world of ancient Greek mythology, into the world of gods (Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, etc.) and heroes (Hercules, Theseus, Achilles, etc.); epic poems are commonly associated with Homer's name. We say - "theater", "stage", "tragedy", "comedy" and remember the ancient Greek playwrights Aeschylus (525–456 BC), Sophocles (496–406 BC), Euripides (480–406 BC), Aristophanes (445–385 BC). In museums around the world, we never stop admiring the proportions and grace of ancient Greek sculptures.

Roman world of the Mediterranean

In the III century. BC NS. in the Western Mediterranean, a formidable military-political force appeared - the Roman state, which by that time had extended its influence over most of Apennine Peninsula... Emerged as a city-state, Rome was originally ruled by elected kings, but already at the end of the 6th century. BC NS. tsarist power was abolished, and the administration of the policy was declared a "public matter" (lat. -republic). In the state structure of the Roman Republic, you can find features of different forms of government - monarchical (elected consuls, who possessed full civil and military power), aristocratic (the Senate is the supreme body of power) and democratic (popular assembly). For a long time, the republic was ruled by aristocrats (patricians), but over time, the struggle between patricians and plebeians - unequal citizens who stood outside the tribal community and did not have the right to own communal land - led to the establishment of civil equality.

After three wars(264–146 BC) with Carthage - a city-state founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa - Rome, having won a victory over a rival, became the undisputed ruler of the Western Mediterranean. Even the genius Carthaginian general Hannibal (246-183 BC), who managed to transfer military operations to the territory of Italy, failed to crush Rome. The Romans owed their victories in numerous wars primarily to the organization of military affairs. The Roman army consisted of the people's militia, but, despite this, it was distinguished by high professionalism. Every Roman citizen had to go through military service, and avoiding it could lead to disenfranchisement. Military service was a prerequisite for holding public office. The courage of the legionnaires (soldiers), flexible military tactics and exceptional discipline were the key to the success of the Roman army. The commanders who won major victories, when entering Rome, at the head of the legions, were supposed to be solemnly honored - a triumph, they were treated with respect - "the emperor".

Roman forum. Modern look

Thanks to the conduct of victorious wars, Rome constantly expanded its territory and expanded the scope of the use of slave labor. No other power in the era of the Ancient World had so many slaves. On the territories of the conquered countries, turned into provinces, a common economic and socio-cultural space was formed: uniform orders were established, new cities were erected according to a certain model, temples and theaters were built, the Latin language spread and the Roman way of life was established.

During the III-I centuries. BC NS. as a result of almost continuous wars, one of the greatest empires, stretching from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to Armenia and Palestine and from the Rhine and Danube to the Sahara. During the heyday of the empire (30 BC - III century AD), about 25 million people lived on its territory - representatives of almost 400 nationalities.

The need for strict centralization of management led to fundamental changes in the state structure. Roman Republic at the end of the 1st century BC NS. was reorganized into an empire founded by Octavian Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD), great-nephew and adopted son of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar (49-44 BC) ... Formally, the republican order was retained, but the functions of the Senate, especially in the financial sphere, in the field of foreign policy and provincial administration, were increasingly limited to the head of the empire. The emperor - the princeps (the first person in the state) - concentrated in his hands the highest civil (lifelong tribune of the people) and military power and ruled with the help of the bureaucratic apparatus subordinate to him. This state structure was called the principate.

The first two centuries of the Roman Empire were a period of further territorial expansion and economic recovery. But even at this time, she hardly managed to restrain the onslaught of the Germanic tribes on her borders in Europe, and the Parthians (Persians) in Asia. The Roman state was shaken by uprisings in the provinces, and military coups, which elevated new emperors to the throne. The need for social support forced the authorities in 212 to grant the inhabitants of the provinces the rights of Roman citizens.

Statue of Emperor Augustus from Prima Port. 1st century Rome, Italy

Since the III century. the empire entered a period of political, economic and social crisis. Political, since the emperors were no longer able to govern the country torn by social contradictions and they became increasingly dependent on the army. Economic, since the slaves were not interested in the quality and results of their labor, and defense costs were not covered by income. The taxes were now partially paid by agricultural and handicraft products. The economy (agriculture, handicrafts, trade) fell into decay, money depreciated and inflation grew. During the crisis, the colonate developed - a new form of agricultural production. The columns received a land allotment from the latifundist on a lease basis. On it they ran their own farm, the rent was calculated from the share of the harvest. Economic ties between provinces, cities, and local markets were severed, economic life was naturalized, the center of which was shifted to large agricultural estates - latifundia and villages with a predominance of non-market orientation. The social crisis manifested itself in the growth of contradictions between different social groups as well as between Rome and the provinces. The constant invasions of Germanic tribes worsened the position of both the power and the population. The emperors were forced to hire some barbarians to defend themselves against others, giving them the right to settle in the border provinces.

Roman cultural heritage

Roman culture was heavily influenced by the Greek. For example, Roman philosophy developed the ideas of the main directions of Hellenistic philosophy; the formation of Roman literature and theater was also influenced by Greek models. In a sense, this is why we can talk about unity antique culture, especially since the creators of science, literature and art in Ancient Rome were not only Romans by origin, but also representatives of other peoples of the Mediterranean. Among them were the Egyptian Greeks Ptolemy (90-160) - an astronomer and geographer, Euclid (III century) - mathematician and astronomer (classical geometry is called Euclidean), Heron of Alexandria (c. I century) - the inventor of many complex mechanisms.

At the same time, the culture of Rome also had certain features. So, in Roman science, applied knowledge played a leading role: military and construction, agronomy, medicine, jurisprudence. Not a single army of the Ancient World had such a set of combat vehicles (throwing, etc.) and sapper equipment (for building temporary bridges, etc.) as the Roman army. Civil engineering has reached a high level. 80,000 km of cobblestone roads with stone bridges and tunnels connected the provinces with each other and with Rome. Some of these roads, bridges and viaducts (ground stone water pipes) have survived to our time. The architectural masterpieces are the Roman Forum, the Arc de Triomphe, the Colosseum and the Pantheon. The collection of encyclopedic knowledge was "Natural history" by Pliny the Elder (23 / 24-79). The essays on agriculture contain information and advice both on its rational economic organization and on agricultural technology.

The treatment of wounded legionnaires contributed to the accumulation of medical knowledge. Roman surgical instruments do not differ much from modern ones in their purpose and shape. The first integral anatomical and physiological description of the human body belongs to the physician and naturalist Galen (130-200). His teaching, which generalized the knowledge of ancient medicine, was a guide for doctors up to modern times.

In Rome, as in Greece, great importance was attached to oratory... The most famous rhetorician was Cicero (106–43 BC), known not only for his political but also for his judicial speeches. Rome became the first state in history in which a special law approved the practice of interpreting legal provisions in the opinions and writings of lawyers, which marked the beginning of jurisprudence as a science. Roman law served as a model for the formation of European law.

Initiation into the Dionysian Mysteries. Detail of the fresco. II century BC NS. Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy

The time of the greatest flowering of ancient Roman poetry was the reign of Octavian Augustus, when Virgil (70-19 BC), Horace (65-8 BC) and Ovid (43 BC) worked. - A.D. 18). The biographical genre is represented by the famous Comparative Biographies of the Greek Plutarch (45-127). In the visual arts of Rome, the dominant role was played by monumental painting and sculpture. The Roman sculptural portrait is more individualized and dynamic than the ancient Greek one.

The first highly developed civilization on the territory of Europe was the ancient Greek civilization, which extended its influence over the entire Mediterranean, and during the Hellenistic period also into the Near and Central Asia. The Roman Empire became the largest world power in antiquity. The cultural heritage of Rome and Greece influenced not only the formation of European medieval culture, but also the culture of the Renaissance.

Questions and tasks

1. How did the structure of the ancient polis differ from the structure of the states of the Ancient East?

2. What is the difference between aristocratic and democratic forms of government?

3. Compare the relationship between the state and the person in ancient Eastern societies and the policies of the ancient world.

4. List the main achievements of ancient science and technology. Name the most prominent scientists and inventors.

5. What is the contribution of ancient civilization to world culture?

6. What would you highlight in the heritage of ancient art culture?

§ 7. The most ancient states

Ancient Egypt.

The inhabitants of Egypt created one of the first civilizations, the Egyptian state was located in the Nile Valley - a narrow strip of land on both banks of the river with a width of 1 to 20 km,
expanding in the delta.
Once a year, the Nile overflowed its banks, and the stream of water, crushing everything in its path, filled the valley. The spills were a disaster for the inhabitants of the valley, but they brought in particles of fertile silt. The land here yielded unprecedented yields, but for this it was necessary to create complex irrigation structures.
The first states in Egypt are called nomes. In the IV millennium, about 40 nomes were formed in Egypt. The needs for the development of agriculture led to the unification of the entire Nile Valley. Gradually, only two large states remained - Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt (southern kingdom) was in the upper course of the Nile, Lower Egypt (northern kingdom) - in the lower course of the Nile. Around 3000 BC. ruler of Upper Egypt Mine managed to unite the country. The rulers of Egypt are called pharaohs.
The history of Ancient Egypt is divided into Early (3000 - 2800 BC), Ancient(2800 - 2250 BC), The average(2050-1750 BC), New(1580-1085 BC) and Later(1085 - 525 BC) kingdoms, ruled by pharaohs about 30 dynasties.
The main occupation of the Egyptians was agriculture. Soft Nile silt was loosened with a hoe or light plow. The Egyptians used a wooden sickle with microliths for a long time. Later, tools made of copper and bronze appeared.
The Egyptian documents speak of artisans of many dozen professions. Their work was considered more difficult than work
farmers.
Even in ancient times, communities in Egypt disappeared, and the entire population was united under the rule of the pharaoh. Every year, officials inspected children who had reached working age. They selected strong youths into the army, the most intelligent they appointed as junior priests. The rest were assigned to various specialties. Someone became a farmer, someone a builder, someone a craftsman.
Initially, farmers worked on the farms of the pharaoh, nobility and temples as part of workers' detachments. Later they began to allocate a plot of arable land. The work of artisans was also organized.
In the farms of the pharaoh, nobility and temples, there were also slaves, as a rule, foreigners. For a long time there were few of them. Only during the New Kingdom did the number of slaves increase, they began to work in craft workshops and in the fields.
State power in Egypt had the character despotism. Pharaoh was in charge of the construction of irrigation facilities, work on the construction of cities, fortresses, temples, established laws, was the high priest. He commanded the army and at the head of it fought against the enemies. Pharaoh was revered as a living god.
The period of the Old Kingdom was the time of the greatest power of the pharaohs. However, over time, the central government weakened, and the state disintegrated into nomes. After 200 years, Egypt was united under the rule of the ruler of one of the southern nomes with the capital at Thebes. The period of the Middle Kingdom has come. The central government strengthened significantly under the pharaohs of the 12th dynasty. The conquest campaigns to the south began To gold-rich Nubia. Around 1680 BC hordes of Hyksos nomads descended on Egypt from Asia. The Middle Kingdom split into separate nomes that paid tribute to the Hyksos. Only Thebes did not submit.
In the fight against the Hyksos, the Theban pharaohs relied on simple warriors who were provided with small plots of land. Pharaoh Ahmose managed to expel the nomads from Egypt. Ahmose became the founder of the 18th dynasty. The period of the New Kingdom begins with this dynasty. The pharaohs of the New Kingdom waged constant wars. As a result of the campaigns, almost all of Nubia was annexed. In Asia, the troops of the pharaohs reached the Euphrates. A huge tribute came to Egypt, slaves. The state reached its greatest power under the pharaoh of the 18th dynasty AmenhotepeIII. However, over time, powerful powers appeared in Western Asia, which began a struggle with Egypt. With varying degrees of success, this struggle continued for about two centuries. In the end, Egypt's strength was depleted. In the country itself, there was a struggle between the pharaohs, nobles and priests. As a result, by the VIII century. BC. Egypt fell apart again into nomes. In the VI century. BC. it was conquered by Persia.
City-states Sumer.
At the same time, or even a little earlier than in Egypt, a civilization developed in southern Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) - in the lower reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. This land was extremely fertile. The origin of civilization here was associated with the need to build and use irrigation facilities.
Different peoples lived in Mesopotamia. Semitic tribes lived in the north. In the south, the first tribes appeared, the language of which scientists cannot establish, since they did not leave writing. These tribes began the agricultural development of the south of Mesopotamia. In the V-IV millennia BC. came here Sumerians- people are also of unknown origin. They built cities, created the world's oldest writing system - cuneiform. Sumerians are considered the inventors of the wheel.
In the IV millennium BC. Sumerian cities became the centers of small states like the Egyptian nomes. Sometimes they are called city-states. Among them, the largest were Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Umma, Ur. Sumer's history is divided into three periods: early dynastic, Akkadian and late Sumerian.
In the early dynastic period, the center of power in each city was the temple of the main god. The high priest (ensi) was the ruler of the city. The popular assembly continued to play a significant role. During the wars, a leader (lugal) was elected. The role of the lugals increased, which was facilitated by the frequent wars between the city-states.
Sometimes the Lugals managed to subjugate neighboring states, but unlike Egypt, the unity of Sumer was fragile. The first serious attempt to create a unified state was made in the XIV century. BC. Garfish. He came from the lower strata of society, was a Semitic who settled more and more in Sumer, Sargon became the founder and ruler of the city of Akkad. He relied on the inhabitants of the Sumerian city-states, dissatisfied with the omnipotence of the priests and nobility. The Akkadian king united all these cities under his rule, and then conquered vast lands up to the Mediterranean coast. Sargon introduced uniform measures of length, area and weight for all cities. Canals and dams were built throughout the country. The kingdom of Sargon and his descendants lasted for about 150 years. Then Sumer was conquered by the mountain tribes who lived east of Mesopotamia.
In the XXI century. BC. the inhabitants of Mesopotamia managed to throw off the heavy yoke of the mountaineers for them. The kingdom of Sumer and Akkad (the so-called 111 dynasty of Ur) arose. This kingdom is known for its centralized organization of power and economic life. All workers in the state were united in detachments by profession. They worked on state land under the control of officials. Kingdom of Sumer and Akkad around 2000 BC NS. was captured by the nomadic Semitic tribes of the Amorites.
Soon the Sumerians merged with the Semites and other peoples of Mesopotamia. The Sumerian language remained the language of writing, science, culture for many centuries to come.
Babylonian kingdom.
The laws of Hammurabi. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. the city of Babylon on the Euphrates is strengthened, where the kings of one of the Amorite dynasties ruled. Under the king Hammurabi(1992 - 1750 BC) the Babylonians conquered most of Mesopotamia. Babylon has become a huge city with magnificent palaces and temples, high-rise buildings and wide streets.
We have detailed information about the life of the Babylonian kingdom thanks to the famous laws of Hammurabi. This is an extensive and thoughtful set of laws that served as a model for the subsequent legislation of many countries of Western Asia. The law was based on talion principle - the punishment is equal to the crime ("an eye for an eye").
According to the laws of Hammurabi, all the land in the country belonged to the king. Communities and nobles were considered users of the land. Quite a large role in economic life was played by completely disenfranchised slaves from among the prisoners. There was another source of slavery: they sold their children for debts, and sometimes themselves into slavery. However, the law limited debt slavery. Free people were divided into two categories - full-fledged and dependent people. It is assumed that the full-fledged were members of the communities, and the dependent people worked on the allotments received from the king. In 1518 BC. Babylonia was conquered by the Kassite nomads.
Eastern Mediterranean in antiquities.
The ancient Eastern civilization in the regions adjacent to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea had a peculiar form. Here lay the most important trade routes- from Egypt to Mesopotamia, from Asia and Africa to Europe.
A narrow strip of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the territory of modern Lebanon and part of Syria was called Phenicia. Here was one of the oldest centers of agriculture. Thanks to the presence of many minerals, the craft flourished. But over time, the main occupation of the inhabitants of Phenicia became international trade. The Phoenicians sold their goods - timber, resin, purple fabrics, glass, metals. Intermediary trade was even more important to them.
Several city-states arose in Phenicia, led by kings. Originally prevailed by the city Byblos, had ancient connections with Egypt. Later the city rose Shooting gallery. His king extended his influence to other cities, although a single state did not arise among the Phoenicians. Phoenician cities for a significant part of their history were dependent on Egypt, and later on the states of Western Asia, but retained internal autonomy.
The Phoenicians became famous as brave sailors. Even in the II millennium BC. they reached the Iberian Peninsula, where the city of Hades arose, which became the center of the mining and trade of silver and tin. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. NS. Phoenician colonies spread throughout the Mediterranean coast. The colonies were mainly settled by the inhabitants of Tire, but they became independent states, although they retained ties with Tire. The largest of these states was Carthage.
The Phoenicians are the creators of the world's first alphabet. The letters of the Phoenician alphabet meant only consonants. The Phoenician alphabet was borrowed and improved by the ancient Greeks. Through them, the alphabet came to the Romans, becoming the basis of the majority modern systems letters. Slavic and later Russian alphabets were created on the basis of the Greek alphabet.
The Phoenicians had comprehensive ties with other people of the Eastern Mediterranean - ancient Jews. In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. part of the Amorite tribes of Mesopotamia moved west. The settlers formed a new people who called themselves "Ibrim" (Jews), which meant "who crossed the river." Farmers of the Eastern Mediterranean fought these nomadic aliens, partly mixed with them. Later, the Jews faced here with Philistines - aliens from Europe. From the name "Philistines" comes the word Palestine.
From about the XIII century. BC. Jewish (Israeli) tribes became the dominant power in Palestine. In addition to cattle breeding, they began to engage in agriculture. At the end of the XI century. is taking shape Kingdom of Israel and Judah led by the king Saul. It flourished in the 10th century. BC NS. under the kings Davide and his son Solomon. Then it broke up into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Later, powerful neighbors dealt severe blows to these states. In the VIII century. BC. the kingdom of Israel perished. In 587 BC. capital of Judea Jerusalem was captured by the king of Babylon, and many Jews were taken to Babylonian member. Later, the Kingdom of Judah was revived as a dependent state.
During the existence of the Kingdom of Israel, the legends of the ancient Jews began to be recorded in special books. The collection of these books was later called the Bible.

§ 8. Great powers of the Ancient East

Prerequisitesthe emergence of the first powers.
From the middle of the 11th millennium BC. the first large and strong states emerged, uniting many peoples under a single power. They appeared as a result of the conquest of others by one people. The rulers of such states dreamed of conquering the whole world. Large and powerful states are usually called great powers. Their inner life was largely subordinated to the task of waging wars of conquest.
In the course of wars, the victors ended up with enormous riches, thousands of prisoners who were turned into slaves, vast lands, conquered lands were levied with tribute. The main booty went to the kings and their entourage, the nobility. However, even ordinary soldiers got a lot. Thousands of scribes and architects worked at the courts of the tsars. Culture flourished in the great powers, books were copied, libraries were created, and outstanding works of art appeared. To retain power over vast lands, the rulers had to improve the old and look for new forms of government, create new laws, build roads, fortresses, cities. Different peoples got to know each other better, adopted achievements. The economy developed successfully within the framework of a single state.
Thus, the consequences of the emergence of great powers are contradictory. On the one hand, war, violence, destruction, on the other - the development of the economy, statehood, culture.
Two innovations that appeared in the Middle East in the second half of the second millennium BC made the birth of great powers possible. Firstly, the tribes of Indo-Europeans who came from the north brought a domestic horse with them. Now huge armies could move quickly over long distances. Horse-drawn chariots have become an effective means of fighting. Secondly, people have learned how to make iron products. Armed with affordable and powerful iron weapons, the armies turned into a formidable force.
Hittite kingdom.
The creators of the first military power were Hittites. This Indo-European people came from the north to the eastern regions of Asia Minor (perhaps, the ancestors of the Hittites once left there to the north). They created several states, which in the XVIII century. BC. united into a single kingdom with the capital in the city Hattusa.
The Hittite economy was based on agriculture and cattle breeding. In the mountains, they mined and processed metals. It is believed that it was in the Hittite kingdom that people the first in the world to learn how to smelt iron.
In the XVII century. BC NS. the Hittites invaded North Syria. In 1595 BC. they took Babylon. The power of the Hittites over the conquered peoples was rather soft. The Hittite king set, but the head of the captured cities and regions of his relatives. The new rulers kept the old order and only paid tribute to the king.
Ancient Egypt put up a powerful resistance to the Hittites. Success tended to one side, then to the other. Finally, peace was made between them. The Hittites began to receive bread from Egypt, and the Egyptians exported iron, silver and timber from Asia Minor. One of the reasons for the rapprochement between the Hittons and the Egyptians was the strengthening of Assyria - another power, the center of which was in the north of Mesopotamia. The Assyrians went to the borders of the Hittite kingdom. However, the Hittite rulers managed to stop their onslaught.
It is still not known exactly how the Hittite Empire perished. No documents about this have been preserved. It is believed that this death is associated with the invasion of the "peoples of the sea." Most likely, the peoples of the sea are the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula, the western part of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands, which in the XIII-XII centuries. BC. on ships raided the countries of the Middle East. Perhaps the sea warriors reached Hattusa and wiped out the city from the face of the earth. The Hittite empire itself quickly disintegrated afterwards.
Assyria and Urartu.
Assyria originally occupied a small territory. Its center was the city of Ashur on the Tigris. The Assyrians were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, trade. Assyria either expanded its influence or fell under the suit of its neighbors. In the XIV century. BC. Assyria has taken over Babylon. But at the turn of the XI - X centuries. BC. Assyria was defeated by the nomads. In the area of ​​Lake Van in Transcaucasia lived tribes, which the Assyrians called the Urarts. Existing from the XIV century. BC. union of the Urartian tribes in the 10th century. BC NS. turned into the kingdom of Urartu. Assyria constantly attacked these areas, which accelerated the unification of the Urarts. They themselves began to go on campaigns of conquest. Urartu flourished in the 8th century. BC.
During the period of power of Urartu, the Assyrian kings more than once suffered defeats from it in wars. These failures caused discontent among all segments of the population. In 746 BC. tsar Tiglat-palasar III came to power and took decisive measures to strengthen the state and troops. The king provided the warriors with weapons and armor, and the spoils of war became their source of livelihood. All weapons were made of iron. With this army, Tiglathpalasar and his heirs made many campaigns and captured
vast lands.
In 714 BC. the Assyrian army defeated the Urarts. The Assyrians also conquered all the states of Syria, Palestine, Babylon, and part of Egypt. The conquerors resettled entire nations, trying to mix them up, make them forget their roots and break the hope for freedom. The Assyrians became famous for their incredible cruelty. They exterminated the inhabitants of entire cities, cut off the hands, feet, ears, tongues of thousands of prisoners, and gouged out their eyes. However, neither resettlement nor torture could prevent constant uprisings.
The plundered wealth, income from the conquered lands allowed the Assyrian kings to develop extensive construction, to maintain at their court many scribes, artists, scientists. A new capital was built - Nineveh. Assyrian scribes studied and copied Sumerian and Babylonian clay books. It is thanks to the Assyrians that many of the ancient texts of Mesopotamia have come down to us. In Nineveh, under King Ashurshapal, the largest library of clay tablets.
By the end of the VII century. BC. Assyria's military achievements were borrowed by its opponents. The collapse of the Assyrian empire was "swift. In 626 BC the Assyrian governor of Babylon proclaimed himself king. He formed an alliance with Media, a state in northern Iran. The allies stormed and destroyed Ashur and Nineveh. The last Assyrian troops were exterminated and 609 BC
Persian kingdom.
After the defeat of Assyria in Western Asia (two huge powers got along - Median and New Babylonian kingdom. The founder of the New Babylonian state was the Chaldean Nabopalasar, who led the uprising against Assyria. The Babylonians under him and his son Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Assyria, Syria and Palestine. Babylon was decorated with magnificent palaces, walls, gates. Then the famous hanging gardens, which the Greeks mistakenly attributed to Queen Semiramis.
To the east of Babylonia was Iran, the "land of the Aryans." This name appeared after the arrival of the Aryan-Indo-European tribes there. The Aryans in Iran mingled with the locals and formed several peoples. The main ones were called Medes and Persians. The Persians were part of the Median kingdom, although they were the gels of their king.
Persian king CyrusII freed his country from the power of the Medes, and then conquered Media itself. The Persian kingdom arose. In the east, the Persians reached India and Central Asia. In the west, they captured Syria and Palestine. Phenicia, the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor, famous for its gold mines. On the western coast of Asia Minor there were Greek cities, which also recognized the rule of the Persians. In 539 BC. NS. Cyrus's troops marched against Babylon and captured it.
Cyrus died during a campaign against the nomadic tribes of Central Asia. His son Cambyses conquered Egypt. Then, turmoil broke out in the Persian state, Cambyses died. A distant relative of Cyrus came to power DariusI. He restored the unity of the state, conquered the Central Asian tribes, part of India. Only the campaign of Darius against the Scythians who roamed in the Northern Black Sea region and the raid on Greece ended in failure.
The power of Darius I was much larger in size than all previously existing states. The king divided it into regions - satrapies, but led by satraps, who judged the population, collected taxes, watched over the economy. In the Persian kingdom, roads were laid to the most remote regions, state mail, updated monetary system, which contributed to the flourishing of trade.

§ 9. India and China in antiquity

The most ancient civilizations of the Indus river valley.
The first settlements of farmers and pastoralists in India appeared in the 4th millennium BC. in the valley of the Indus river. By the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. here civilization takes shape (Harap civilization). The oldest Indian cities are striking in their size. Some of them were home to 100 thousand people. Obviously, these cities were the centers of states, such as the Egyptian nomes. The buildings had a bottom or three floors. From the crowbars, dirty water was diverted from the city through brick canals. In addition to wheat, barley, peas, melons, and then cotton were grown in the Indus Valley.
Residents of cities invented writing, but they have not yet been able to decipher it. Most scientists associate this civilization with Dravidians. Some researchers believe that the Dravidians appeared in India after the construction of cities that were founded by unknown peoples, perhaps akin to the Sumerians.
The decline of the oldest civilization in India began about 600 years after its inception. At the beginning of the II millennium BC. the first holy fools perish. The last of them disappeared after 1500 BC. The cause of the death of civilization is unknown. Some scientists suggest that the climate was gradually deteriorating, others that the Indus changed its course and stopped irrigating the fields of the townspeople, and still others that the jungle began to attack the cities.
"Aryan Conquest".
In the 2nd millennium BC. part of the Aryan tribes came to Iran, the other (Indo-Aryans) moved to India. Previously, it was believed that it was the Aryans who destroyed the Harap civilization. Now it has proven that the first cities perished 500 years before the arrival of the Aryans. Nevertheless, the Aryans waged fierce wars with the Dravidians, exterminated and enslaved them. These wars are described in the sacred books of the Aryans - Vedah - anthem books in honor of the gods. Over time, there was a merger of the Aryans with the local peoples. The conquerors adopted the techniques of agriculture from them, and they began to say
in the language of the Aryans.
Varna and caste.
After the arrival of the Aryans in the north of India, numerous states were formed headed by the leaders of the Aryans - the Rajs. A feature of the Aryan society was its division into varna, but the main occupations and responsibilities - priests (brahmanas), warriors and rulers (kshatriyas) and pastoralists (vaisyas). After coming to India, the partitions between the "brews" became impassable. The members of the third varna, in addition to cattle breeding, began to engage in agriculture and handicrafts. The fourth, lower varna of sudras - servants - also appeared. It included local residents who recognized the power of the Aryans.
Later, the inhabitants of India were divided into even smaller groups by occupation. These groups were called castes, they existed along with the varnas. There were castes of blacksmiths, weavers, fishermen, merchants, etc. Some people were in such a low position that they did not belong to any castes (cleaners of corpses and V sewage, executioners). They lived outside the villages so as not to desecrate the rest of the inhabitants.
Later, the rights and obligations of each varna were recorded in Manu. Manu is the progenitor of all people, who established order on earth. The laws of Manu were not laws of punishment for crimes like the laws of Hammurabi. It is a collection that lays down the rules of command. The laws determined the relationship of members of various varnas. In the first place were the brahmanas. In fact, however, the kshatriyas were often much more powerful than the brahmanas. There were also rich people among artisans or farmers, and even in the sudras varna. On the contrary, over time, many impoverished brahmanas appeared, leading a beggarly lifestyle.
Indian society.
The Ganges Valley grew barley, wheat, and cotton. Here for the first time they learned to grow sugar cane. Indian cotton fabrics were famous everywhere. The community played a huge role in the life of India. The Indians had to do a lot of work together: clear fields of tropical trees, build irrigation facilities, fight predators, etc. Fields, canals, dams remained in the joint ownership of the entire community. Often Indians worked as a whole "community."
Indian states.
In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. the western regions of North India were conquered by the Persian king Darius I. In India, efforts to create a strong state intensified. After a long struggle, the ruler of the state Magadha captured some neighboring kingdoms. This is how the first Power arose in India. The development of the economy in a large state has accelerated significantly. In the IV century. BC NS. as a result of a coup to power To Kshatriya Chandragupta came to Magadeki, who founded the state and dynasty Mauryev.
The state of Maurya reached its highest prosperity during the time of the grandson of the founder of the new dynasty, the king Ashoka (268 - 231 BC). He managed to conquer almost all of India, with the exception of the extreme ego. Ashoka is known not only as a conqueror, but also as a wise, just ruler. Taxes were reduced, laws that were too harsh were abolished, and measures were taken against the abuse of officials. Hospitals and shelters for the poor were opened. After the death of Ashoka, the weakening of the Mauryan power and its disintegration began, which accelerated the attack of the neighbors. In the 1st century. AD in the area where India, Afghanistan and Central Asia meet, the Kushan state arose. Its rulers managed to conquer a significant part of North India. Later, the Indians managed to free themselves from their power. By the beginning of the IV century. AD in India there were many small states, which were then reunited under the rule of the state of Magalha.
The origin of ancient Chinese civilization.
Ancient Chinese civilization arose in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. At first, the ancestors of the Chinese inhabited only the valley of this river. Later they settled in the Yangtze River Valley, where the ancestors of the modern Vietnamese lived in antiquity, and then more southerly lands.
The soil in the Yellow River Valley and its tributaries was very soft and fertile, but the river often changed its course, destroyed fields and washed away entire settlements along with the inhabitants. The construction of dams, dams and canals was necessary not only for the development of agriculture - the possibility of living in those places depended on this.
Shang and Zhou states.
In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. In the Yellow River Valley, the Shang tribe lived, which was one of the first to master agriculture. The Shang united several tribes into an alliance. This alliance became the Shang (Yin) state, headed by a king (wang). The Shang state waged fierce wars with its neighbors. Their main goal was to capture prisoners for sacrifices. Archaeologists find burials with tens of thousands of decapitated people.
Gradually, the rudiments of the state also began to emerge among the neighboring tribes. Particularly strong resistance to the Shang state was shown by the Zhou tribe. Its ruler united other tribes to fight the bloody Shang state. Shang was destroyed. In the new state of Zhou, human sacrifice was stopped. However, many of the useful achievements of the Chants in Zhou survived. Wang Zhou began to call their country Celestial or The middle kingdom. At the beginning of VIII l. BC NS. Zhou fell into decay. The governors of the regions declared themselves Vans. only formally recognizing the supreme power of the Zhou ruler (the period of "many kingdoms").
Unification of China.
At the end of the 5th century. BC NS. The vans of the seven kingdoms declared themselves “sons of heaven” and rulers of the Celestial Empire. A fierce struggle began between them (the period of the "warring kingdoms"). In the end, the state became stronger Pat, in the west of China. In 230 - 221 BC. his ruler defeated six states and completed the unification of the country. He took the name Qin Shi Huang - the first emperor of Qin.
The territory of the Qin state already occupied not only the Yellow He Valley, but also the Yangtze Valley, the southern lands were conquered, during the reign of Qin Shi Huang, taxes from the population were increased; the slightest crime turned into slavery not only the criminal, but his entire family. Slaves worked on the ruler's households and in government jobs.
In the north, the tribes of the Sünnu nomads lived
devastating forays into China. Xin Shihuangdi began to build The great wall to protect against them. the great Wall of China became one of the greatest buildings in the world. It stretches for 4 thousand km. But the wall did not provide complete protection from nomads.
State of Han.
The uprising of the people began almost immediately after the death of the brutal Qin Shi Huang in 210 BC. In 207. BC. (An army under the command of the head of the peasant community, Liu Bang, captured the capital of the state. The Qin rulers were destroyed. A new unified power, headed by the descendants of Liu Bang, arose - the state of Han.
Many laws have been relaxed and taxes have been reduced. The first (the period of the existence of the Han state became a time of prosperity (economy and culture of Ancient China. New lands were mastered, (dams and canals were built, cities grew, trade. The great silk road, connected China with distant countries in the (west. One of the main tasks of the state was the struggle against the Xiongnu tribes. The conquest of the southern lands continued.
The wars led to higher taxes and stricter laws. It grew (the rebelliousness of the nobility. Uprising of the poor broke out (the uprising ("red-browed". "Yellow bands") and protests of the nobility. In the end (in the end, the Han state perished, in the III century AD three new kingdoms arose in China.
Society and Government in Ancient China.
The main occupation of the Chinese was agriculture. Rice has become one of the main plants. Sericulture was mastered. Tea was grown in China. At first, it was considered a medicine, and then became widespread as a food product.
The family was considered the foundation of society in the Zhoui Han states. Family interests prevailed over personal ones. The sons were obliged to continue the paternal lineage, and often the paternal occupation. Ancestors were revered in the family.
In the ancient Chinese states, there was a complex and rather perfect order of government. Its foundations were laid during the transformations carried out by the thinker Shang Yanshi in the Qin state during the "warring kingdoms". Howl (the rights of the nobility are limited, 12 ranks of nobility are introduced. Shang Yang opened the way for any person to the highest posts. Officials were completely subordinate to the ruler. To strengthen the power of Wang, Shang Yan fought against reverence for parents. He announced: an official who honors his parents is betraying his sovereign.
In the Han state, the order of government I created by Shang Yang was preserved in many ways, but the punishments for respectfulness to parents were abolished. The rulers strove for the officials to treat them like their fathers, and the inhabitants of the country treated the officials in the same way.

§ 10 Ancient Greece

Greece, the birthplace of the first European civilization, is located in the south of the Balkan Peninsula. Greece is cut by mountain ranges. People here lived in small areas surrounded by mountains, but usually with access to the sea. All adjacent islands, as well as the western coast of Asia Minor, belonged to Greece.
Greece is rich in minerals, which contributed to the development of crafts and trade. The land here was not fertile. True, grapes and olive trees grow well. The abundance of islands, harbors and bays contributed to the development of navigation.
The legendary ancestor of the Greeks was the king Hellene. Therefore, they called themselves Hellenes, and their country - Hellas. The Hellenes were not the first inhabitants of the southern Balkans. In ancient times lived here peyavzgi, who were the first in Europe to master agriculture. Greek tribes then lived in the north, off the banks of the Danube. From about 2000 BC. some of them began to move south. Since the XII century. don L. all Greece was inhabited only by Greeks.
Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.
The first traces of a manufacturing economy in Europe were found by archaeologists on the island of Crete, which had v, antiquity ties with the countries of Asia Minor. The most ancient civilization in Europe also developed in Crete. By the name of the mythical ruler Minos, it is called Minoan. Initially, four small states arose on the island, the center of which was the ruler's palace.
In the town Knossos excavated the largest of the palaces, it is considered the palace of Minos. The palace had about three hundred rooms, its walls are decorated with frescoes. The most famous depiction of a game with bulls: a young man makes intricate movements on the horns of a bull and on its back. Obviously, this was a ritual associated with the worship of the bull - the main assistant of ancient farmers.
In the palaces lived kings, their entourage, servants. Farmers' settlements were located around the palaces. Cretan palaces were not surrounded by walls. The island was protected from invasions by a strong fleet. According to myths, Minos created a huge fleet that dominated the east of the Mediterranean.
Myths and archaeological evidence say that the kings of Crete conquered the population of the neighboring islands and mainland Greece (the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur). Since 1500 BC in the south of Greece, freed from the rule of Crete, its own civilization is taking shape. By city name Mycenae it is called Mycenaean. The creators of the Mycenaean civilization - Greeks-Achaeans - borrowed from Crete many of his achievements.
The centers of the Mycenaean states, as in Crete, were palaces. But they, unlike the Cretan ones, were heavily fortified. The Achaeans waged long wars among themselves. However, sometimes they formed large associations. It was this association that led the famous Trojan War culminating in the capture of the rich city of Troy (Ilion) in Asia Minor around 1180 BC, at the very end of Mycenaean time. These events are reflected in the poem Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey".
Dorian conquest.
In the XII century. BC. tribes living in the north of the Balkan Peninsula Dorian Greeks rushed south and destroyed the Archean states. Most of the Dorians returned back, some settled in the Peloponnese. Greece then I again returned to the days of the birth of civilization. This developmental zigzag had serious consequences.
In most Greek states, naming power eventually disappeared, and there. where it survived, was severely limited. The country consisted of self-governing communities. The rulers were elected by full members of the community. A special type of city-state that has developed in Greece is called policies. TO Polis preserved many features of communal self-government.
Ancient greek polis.
The largest city-states in Greece were Athens and Sparta(from 200 to 350 thousand inhabitants). There were also very small policies, in which only a few hundred people lived. The most widespread were policies with a population of 5-10 thousand people, including women, children, slaves and foreigners. There could be from 1 to 2 thousand full-fledged citizens (male soldiers). The main part of the population lived in the city, which was the center of the policy.
Its citizens lived in the policy - members of the community and immigrants from other places (meteki). A small group of citizens consisted of aristocrats (nobles) - the owners of large plots of land, large workshops, ships. They had many slaves. The main population of the polis was the demos (parod) - small farmers, artisans and merchants.
The National Assembly of full citizens passed laws and possessed supreme power in the polis. The officials were elected by the People's Assembly for a fixed term.
Great Greek colonization.
By the VIII century. BC NS. the population of Greece has increased greatly. The infertile land of Hellas could not feed all the inhabitants. Because of this, a struggle flared up within the policies for land. From the VIII century. BC. The "extra" population began to move to the colonies.
The Greeks either negotiated with local tribes, which they called barbarians, or they conquered their lands. Barbarians, as a rule, traded profitably with aliens. Mass migrations and the creation of colonies continued until the 6th century. BC. This time was called the period of the great Greek colonization. There was three directions of colonization: western(Sicily, Southern Italy, Southern France), northern(northern coast of the Aegean, Marmara and Black seas), southern(Africa).
Many colonies grew rapidly and became rich. They brought grain, metals, slaves to Hellas. Wine, olive oil, and handicrafts were exported to the colony. The exchange of goods contributed to the flourishing of handicrafts and agriculture in Greece. Acquaintance with other peoples enriched Greek culture. The main significance of colonization was to relieve social tension within the polis. But the Greeks did not manage to avoid an internal struggle.
Tyranny.
Starting from VII a. BC. in many Greek city-states, the struggle between the demos and the aristocracy is intensifying. In a number of policies, power was in the hands of the leaders of the demos, who became the head of state. They were called tyrants (rulers). The tyrants contributed to the development of crafts and trade. On their orders, new ships were built and colonies were founded. However, the rule of tyrants remained in the memories as a dark time. Many tyrants have become famous for their cruelty. But tyrants undermined the influence of the aristocrats.
Athens.
Athens was the center of the Attica Peninsula, united into a single state by the legendary King Theseus. Kings and Athens did not have a halo in ancient times. In the VIII-VII centuries. BC. power in the polis belonged to aristocrats who owned vast lands and turned impoverished fellow citizens into slavery for debts. As the demos strengthened, its struggle for land flared up and for the abolition of long-term slavery. This struggle weakened the Athenian state and its army.
In 594. BC. FOR reconciliation of the parties archon was elected ruler Solon, which was respected by both aristocrats and demos. He banned debt slavery, freed the Athenian slaves. The land plots were returned to the debtors. Solon divided citizens into four digits by the size of the property. The place of a person and the army and his political rights depended on the category.
The next cabbage soup and the stage of the struggle between the demos and aristocrats is associated with tyrannyPisistratus, who carried out transformations for the development of economic in the interests of the demos. In 510. BC. the tyrant Hypius was overthrown - the son of Peisistratus, who, unlike his father, oppressed the people. Soon the leader of the demos became the ruler of Athens Cleisthenes. He divided the entire territory of Attica into 10 regions, each and; which consisted of three districts located in different parts of the Cleisthenes peninsula created Council of five hundred. It included representatives of all 10 regions equally, regardless of their property status. The Council was annually replenished by lot by citizens who have reached the age of 30. The Council of Five Hundred took care of current affairs and prepared them for discussion at the people's assembly. At the national assembly, all officials were elected, including
strategists who were the commanders of the army and navy, and
also were the actual rulers of the polis.
The flourishing of democracy in Athens, and with it the rise of their economy and power are associated with the name of the first strategist Pirakla(444 - 429 BC). Under him, payment for the service of officials was introduced, which gave low-income citizens the opportunity to engage in politics. After Pericles, a fee was even introduced for attending a popular meeting.
Sparta.
The region in the southeast of the Peloponnese Laconica (Lake-demon) was conquered by the Dorians, who built their city of Sparta here. Part of the local population was enslaved and began to be called helots. The Spartan conquerors were forbidden to lock themselves in by any grandfather, except for a military man. The land plot of the Spartan was processed by several and gothic families. They delivered to their master a strictly defined amount of food. The Spartans turned the demolition of the state into a military camp. They later conquered the neighboring province of Messenia. Approximately in the VIII-VII centuries. BC. and Sparta were introduced
(to called -the laws of Lycurgus. According to them, the dog (including couples; elders) and go alike, wore the same rough clothes, had the same veins. and that. Gathering at a common table, the men ate simple food. Gold and silver coins were banned.
The highest organ of power was the People's Assembly - apella. Apella laws were not discussed, but only adopted not and or get out. The main role and management played adviceGerontov(old people) - gerusia. 28 people over 60 years old were recruited to the positions of gerons two kings received power by inheritance. The kings were leaving the army. Sparta was the most powerful military post in Hellas. The education of warriors was the main task of the state. Sparta - an example oligarchic polis, in which the power belonged to the aristocracy.
From the second half of the VI century. BC. Sparta became the center Peloponnesian Union. By the middle of the 5th century. BC. almost all the policies of the Peloponnese and a number of policies of Central Greece.
Greco-Persian Wars.
In the VI century. BC. the Persians conquered the Greek city-states of Asia Minor. In 50 (1 BC an uprising of these cities broke out, but Tsar Darius I suppressed it. Athens sent armed aid to the rebels. For this, in 490 BC Daril's search landed in Attica near the town of Marathon. the fierce battle of the Athenians led by Miltiades managed to defeat the superior forces of the enemy.
10 years later, Xerxes, son of Darius I, moved a huge army and fleet (Phoenician) to Greece. Most of the city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, united against a common danger. V Thermopylae gorge in northern Greece, small forces of the Hellenes, led by the Spartan king Leonidas, held back Xerxes' advance for several days. After the death of Leonidas, the Persians occupied Central Greece.
The Greek fleet, in which half of the ships were Athenian, stood at the island Solomin. September 28, 480 BC here a decisive naval battle took place. In the narrow strait, most of Xerxes' ships died not in battle, but in collisions with each other. The remnants of the fleet and most of the troops, led by Xerxes, left Greece. The decisive land battle took place near a small town Shatei in 479 BC The allied Greek militia trapped the Persians and destroyed them. On the same day, the Greeks defeated the Persian fleet at Cape Mikale. The Greco-Persian wars continued until 449 BC. The Persians recognized the independence of all the Asia Minor policies.
As a result of the victory in the Greco-Persian wars, Athens was especially strengthened, which stood at the head Athens Maritime Union, which united mainly democratic policies. Over time, the Athenians began to interfere in inner life allies. Monetary contributions of policies to the treasury of the union turned into a tribute to Athens.
After the war, the number of slaves in Greece increased significantly. Slave labor was widely used in handicrafts and mining.
Policy crisis.
The unity of Hellas was short-lived. In 431 BC. NS. broke out Peloponnesian War between the Peloponnesian and Athens maritime unions. Fierce hostilities ended in 404 BC. victory for Sparta. The Athenian Maritime Union was dissolved. In Greece, the rule of Sparta was established. The Spartans interfered in the affairs of other policies, and oligarchic rule was found everywhere. In response, a coup took place in Thebes against the Spartans and their local henchmen, the oligarchs. Epamnnond was at the head of the uprising. In 371 BC. in the battle of Leuctra, he defeated the previously invincible army of Sparta. In the course of wars, the policies mutually weakened each other.
At the same time in the IV century. BC. within the city-states themselves, there are estates that have received the name crisis of the policy. As the economy develops, inequality among citizens increases. Many lost their livelihoods, went bankrupt. It has become commonplace mercenary: the citizens' militias are replaced by soldiers hired for money.
Macedonian conquest Greece.
To the north of Greece was Macedonia, where a population related to the Greeks lived. In the middle of the IV century. BC NS. the king came to the Macedonian throne PhilipII,
admirer of Hellenic learning, an outstanding diplomat and military leader. Philip created the famous Macedonian phalanx, turning your army into a formidable force.
Many in Greece hoped that Philip would also put things in order in their country and end the strife. Other Greeks, led by the Athenian Orator Demosthenes, called for the unification of forces to fight Macedonia. The decisive battle between the Greeks and the Macedonians took place in 338 BC. near the town of Chaeronea. The Greeks were defeated, Hellas fell under the rule of Philip. The king began preparations for a war with Persia, but was killed in 336 BC.
HikingAlexander the Great.
Philip's son becomes king of Macedonia Alexander - the great military leader of antiquity. He suppressed the anti-Macedonian uprising that broke out in Greece and continued preparations for a war with Persia. His expedition to Asia began at the end of March 334 BC. The first battle took place on the river Granik. The Persian army did not resist for long. Alexander marched through Asia Minor, capturing one city after another. The Persian king Darius III fought on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea near the town of Iss. In the midst of the battle, Alexander, seeing that the Persian king was left almost without protection, ordered an attack on him. Darius barely escaped.
Almost all Phoenician cities submitted to Alexander without resistance. Only Tire was taken after a long siege. Soon the army moved to Egypt. Here Alexander was greeted as a liberator from the Persian yoke, the priests proclaimed him pharaoh. The decisive battle of the Macedonian-Persian War took place on October 1, 331 BC. by the village Gaugamela in Mesopotamia. Darius had twenty times more strength than Alexander. The Persians almost won, but Alexander again dealt his main blow to where Darius was, who again fled. The victory was for the soldiers of Alexander. In the capital of Persia, they captured untold treasures. Darius soon died.
However, not all lands of the Persian state recognized the power of the new conqueror. With great difficulty, they managed to conquer Central Asia. In 327 BC. Alexander led his army into the territory of India, which was not part of Persia. On the eastern bank of the Indus River, the conquerors defeated the army of King Porus. However, when it became clear to the Macedonians that a war with the state of Magadha lay ahead of them, they rebelled. Alexander was forced in 325 BC. NS. to turn back.
In 324 BC. Alexander made Babylon his capital. He planned new campaigns, but in June 323 BC. The 32-year-old conqueror suddenly fell ill and died.
Hellenisticthe state.
After the death of Alexander, a struggle for his legacy began between the generals and relatives of the king. The disintegration of the state was inevitable. The conquered lands were too large. Alexander did not even restore the order of government that existed under the Persians.
The states created by Alexander's generals were not strong either. Nevertheless, some of them have existed for quite a long time. They are called Hellenistic kingdoms. In these kingdoms lived both the Greeks and the Macedonians, and numerous local peoples. 15 Hellenistic states a very interesting culture arose, combining Greek and Oriental features.
Egypt was one of the first isolated possessions of Alexander the Great. His satrap from 323 BC. became the Macedonian commander Ptolemy Lag. In 305 BC. he proclaimed himself king. All subsequent Egyptian bets also bore the name Ptolemy. Ptolemy I also captured Palestine and part of Syria, his son Ptolemy II continued his conquests and annexed vast territories in Asia Minor. Ptolemy I expanded and decorated the city of Alexandria founded by Alexander the Great, which became the capital of the Ptolemaic kingdom. The highest state positions were occupied by the Greeks, but the Egyptians were also involved in the service.
The largest Hellenistic kingdom was founded by the commander of Alexander the Great, Seleucus. Seleucid State included Iran. Mesopotamia. Syria, part of Asia Minor and India. True, the Indian possessions were quickly lost. The Selenknel kingdom was very militant.

§ 11. Ancient Rome

Royal Rome. Legends associate the founding of Rome with fugitives from the Trails taken by the Achaean Greeks. After the fall of the city, the noble Trojan Aeneas wandered for a long time, then landed at the mouth of the Tiber and became the king of the Latins - a people in which the Trojans and local residents united. Aeneas' descendant Romulus founded in 754 - 753. BC. the city of Rome and became its first king. Under him, the population of Rome consisted of his companions - young men. By cunning they kidnapped the girls of the Sabine tribe. The abducted women reconciled their fathers and husbands. The Romans and Sabines united into a single community.
After Romulus, six more kings ruled in Rome. The Sabine Numa Pompilius reigned for 43 years and became famous for his peacefulness. But his successors Tull Gostil ni and Ankh Marcius launched an offensive on the neighboring lands. The next king Tarquinius the Ancient was Etruscan. Under him, Rome grew significantly.
To make important decisions, the tsars gathered a national assembly. It elected a tsar, passed a law endowing him with an empire (power), senate(council of elders). The descendants of the first members of the Roman community were named patricians(from lat. ratcr - "father"). This was the Roman aristocracy. Plebeians settled in Rome later than the patricians and initially did not belong to the community, did not participate in the popular assembly and did not have the right to land. The sixth king of Rome, Etruscan Servius Tullius, included the plebeians about the composition of the Roman community. They were supposed to serve in the army. But they did not learn the right to participate in the national assembly and other dispositions. The seventh king Tarquinius, famous for his cruelty, was overthrown in 510 BC.

Administration in the Roman Republic.
The struggle between patricians and plebeians. After the overthrow of the tsarist government, the Roman state finally acquired the features of polis administration. The time after the overthrow of Tarquinius and before the establishment of imperial power is called the period of the Roman Republic.
The supreme body of the state was considered the people's assembly. It
could declare war or conclude peace, accept and abolish horses, elect all senior officials. But not a single one could be adopted by the people's assembly without discussing it in the Senate. The Senate consisted of 300 people.
Officials directly ruled the state, who were elected by the people's assembly for a period of one year. As the chief of these officials, I joined consuls. Two consuls ruled over the state, commanded troops, tried citizens, and drew up lists of members of the Senate. In case of emergency, for 6 months was appointed dictator, which possessed unlimited rights, the consuls were subordinate to him.
Only patricians were elected to all government posts. They also captured most of the former royal lands. From these lands, the patricians provided plots to the plebeians for a fee. However, the plebeians fought hard for their rights. Over time, they began to make up the bulk of the Roman army. The patricians were forced to make concessions. The position was established of the people's tribune. The plebeians elected two tribunes who could suspend the decisions of the senate, the people's assembly (veto").
The plebeians also demanded that laws be written to prevent abuse by the patricians. After long discussions, the laws were engraved on 12 copper plaques (tables) and put on public display. Laws 12 tables confirmed private ownership of land and all other property of citizens.
In the middle of the IV century. BC. at the suggestion of the tribunes of the people Sextius and Licinius, laws were passed on the allocation of plebeians
plots from the lands annexed by that time to the Roman Republic as a result of the conquests. Another law determined that from now on one of the consuls must necessarily be a plebeian. Roman citizens could no longer be turned into slaves for debt. The struggle of the plebeians with the patricians was closed by the adoption at the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. the law according to which plebescites (decisions of plebeian assemblies) were obligatory for all citizens, including patricians.
Patricians and plebeians ceased to be at enmity with each other. Their elite united in the class of senators - members of the Senate. Average farmers, merchants and wealthy people in general were called horsemen. The rest of the poor townspeople were the plebs (in the new meaning of the word). All citizens of Rome, regardless of their position, were considered rapacious before the law.

Roman conquests.
In VI -V centuries. BC. Rome begins to conquer neighboring territories. The basis of the strength of Rome was the army - legions, consisted of all citizens - members of the policy. The Romans managed to repel the invasion of the Gauls (Celts), who poured in in the 4th century. BC. to Italy. They gradually conquered Italy and by the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. became its complete masters.
The hardest test for the early Roman Republic was 2nd Punic War with Carthage - Phoenician state in North Africa. Having suffered defeat in the hall of the long 1st Punic War (the Romans called the Carthaginians Punas), having lost the fleet and possessions in Sicily and Sardinia, Carthage did not accept this. The Carthaginians captured part of Iberia (modern-day Spain). In 218 BC. Carthaginian general Hannibal made an unparalleled trip to Italy, crossing the Alpine mountains. He defeated the Romans in northern Italy, and in the spring of 217 BC. on the shores of Lake Trasimene, he broke them again. However, Hannibal's forces were dwindling, and the Roman army grew stronger. In 216 BC. The 87 thousandth Roman army met with the 54,000th army of Hannibal near the town of Cannes. The Romans hit Hannibal's weak center but were sucked into a sack between his strong flanks. Trapped in the Romans tried to resist, but soon the battle turned into beating them.
It seemed. Rome cannot escape destruction. But extraordinary measures were taken, and the war continued. The Romans began to gain victories. Young talented commander of Rome Publius Cornelius Sewn won the possession of the Carthaginians in Iberia. In 204 BC. Scipio landed in Africa. Hannibal was forced to leave Italy. In 202 BC. Scipio defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. Carthage made peace with Rome, accepting all the conditions of the victors. During 3rd Punic War in the 11th century. BC. Carthage was destroyed, then Macedonia and Greece, and a number of other lands were captured.
The Romans turned the conquered lands into provinces -"The estates of the Roman people." They were headed by governors from among the officials of Rome. The local population was taxed, part of the land was taken away from it. In an effort to disunite the inhabitants of the provinces, the Romans used the "divide and conquer" method. Cities and communities loyal to them received advantages and benefits, the rest were deprived of them.
The consequence of long wars that enriched some of the Romans and ruined others was the weakening of the army: the impoverished citizens could no longer arm themselves at their own expense, and many rich people did not want to shed blood in battles. Roman general consul Guy Mari at the end of the II century. BC. first began to recruit for service in the legions of volunteers - Roman citizens and allies of Rome. The soldiers received weapons, payment for the service, and after its completion they were promised land plots. The fighting efficiency of the Roman army increased sharply again. But having lost direct contact with the Roman community, the soldiers turned into executors of the will of their commanders-generals.

Romansociety of the times of the Republic.
A strong family was considered the basis of Rome's strength. Behold, the head was the sovereign master of his household. The younger ones obeyed the elders unquestioningly, the older ones took care of the younger ones. The mother woman enjoyed great rights and respect.
After the Punic Wars (the period of the Late Roman Republic), the "corruption" of the virtuous morals of the Romans became noticeable. The thirst for enrichment was the main goal of a section of the elite of Roman society. New seizures promised them new income. On the contrary, the poor had little interest in conquests. After all, while they served in the army, their farms were ruined, their families became poorer.
The Romans of the Late Republic were more educated than their ancestors. Many of them knew the Greek language, the children were brought up by Greek teachers. The Romans took over from the Greeks a passion for luxury and feasts. The "corruption" of morals was observed even among the plebeians. The labor of slaves became more and more important.

Civil wars.
In the 1st century. BC. in Rome began civil wars. Power seized by a dictator Cornelius Sulla, staged the mass extermination of his opponents in Rome. Then he left for the war in Asia Minor. Supporters of democratic rule, led by Gaius Marius, gathered an army and in 87 BC. took Rome, having killed the followers of Sulla there. Marius restored the former republican order. But soon he died, and Ulla returned to Italy. After a two-year war, he in 82.
AD took Rome, destroying hundreds of their opponents.
An important event during the period of the Late Roman Republic was slave revolt under the leadership of Spartacus, come from
Thrace. It began with a performance in 74 BC. gladiators and soon covered all of Italy. The army of Spartacus, to which thousands of slaves fled, inflicted a number of defeats on the legions. With great difficulty the Romans under the leadership Licinia Crassus managed to break in 71 BC. insurgents.
Civil wars and uprisings of the first half of the 1st century BC. led to the weakening of the republican institutions of power. In 60 BC. an agreement was made triumvirate between the most influential politicians in Rome - Wrath Lompey, Lchcinism Kras-som and Julius Caesar. The Senate was ousted from power by the triumvirs. Soon Gaius Julius Caesar became the governor of the provinces in Gaul, where he became famous as a commander, having conquered in 58 - 51 years. BC NS. transalpine Gaul to the Rhine River. In 53 BC. NS. Krasé died in the war, and Pompeii entered into an agreement with the Senate and opposed Caesar. In 49 BC. a new civil war began. Caesar defeated Pompey and became the sole ruler of Rome. His power was approaching the royal one. However, in 44 BC. NS. he was stabbed to death in the Senate by conspirators.

BirthRoman Empire.
After the death of Caesar, a struggle unfolded both between supporters and opponents of the republic, and between contenders for supreme power. One such contender was Caesar's great-nephew Guy Octavian. He made an agreement with Markim Antony, assistant to Julius Caesar. Together they defeated in 42 BC. NS. supporters of the republic. Octavian received the thrust of the Roman Empire under his rule, and Antony - the east. A clash between them was inevitable. Octavian strengthened his power in Rome, Antony married the queen of Egypt Cleopatra. The war between Octavian and Antony ended in 30 BC. the death of Antony and Cleopatra and the capture of Egypt by the Romans. In 29 BC. NS. Octavian received the title of Emperor from the Senate and the People's Assembly. He until the end of his life (14g. AD) headed the Roman state. Emperor who received title August(in Latin, sacred, exalted), became the head of the Senate, as the tribune of the people had the right to veto all decisions of the Senate, popular assemblies and other authorities. He commanded the army for life.
Periods of principality and dominance. With the accession of Augustus, the period of the principate began in the history of Rome (27 BC - 193 AD). The republican institutions remained formally - the senate, the people's assemblies, and other elected bodies. In fact, power belongs to the emperor and his officials. The successors of Octavian Augustus (Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Claudius) became famous for terror against all those dissatisfied with the new order. They themselves also perished at the hands of the conspirators. By the end of the 1st century. AD the election of emperors was actually in the hands of the troops. The generals, relying on their legions, fought for power. As a result, the Romans began to suffer defeat in wars with their neighbors. The situation returned to normal under the emperor Trajan(98 - 117 AD), who ruled, taking into account the opinion of the senate. Trajan fought incessant wars to restore the shaken prestige of Roman arms. The war in Dacia was also long and hard. In 113, Trajan began a war with the Parthian kingdom, which had successfully opposed Rome in the East for several centuries. The Romans occupied Armenia, Mesopotamia and reached the Persian Gulf. But also the armies of the emperor began to revolt. In 117g. Trajan was forced to withdraw his legions from Mesopotamia. He died soon after. Trajan's successor emperor Adrian abandoned the conquest of politics and sought to strengthen the internal position of the empire. The state of the state was quite stable for a long time, therefore it is called the "golden age" of the Roman Empire.
In III and. The Roman Empire again entered a period of crisis. Its provinces were often ruled by independent rulers. Germanic and other barbarian tribes invaded the territory of the state. Only by the end of the III century. the situation began to change. The last stage of the history of the Roman state came, known as the period of the dominate (284 -476). During this period, the republican authorities were transformed into ordinary state institutions, their members became officials subordinate to the emperor. The emperors themselves turned into rulers like the Eastern despots.
A powerful bureaucratic apparatus was created. The state actively intervened in the economy. By the end of the IV century. a significant part of the land suitable for agriculture turned out to be concentrated in the hands of large landowners - tycoons. Fleeing from taxes, peasants fled to them from state lands. In the land of the magnates, they became columns. The tycoon gave them a house and a plot. For this, the Colon gave him a share of the harvest. Slaves were also converted into colonies. Colon, unlike a slave, was interested in the results of his labor and worked much better.
At the beginning of the dominance period, the Roman state strengthened somewhat. The attacks of the Germans were repulsed, the fallen provinces were returned. Under the emperor Diocletians(284-305) carried out reforms that strengthened the imperial power, economy and order in the country. Diocletian's successor Konstantin continued to strengthen the empire. He moved the capital to the east of the empire, which suffered less from the raids of the barbarians and was more developed economically.
An exceptionally convenient position was occupied by a Greek city shish. where the grandiose construction began. In 330g. proclaimed new capital empire - Constantinople. Here, shortly before his death in 337, Constantine was baptized. Christianity, spreading in the empire from the 1st century., According to the Edict of Milan (313), received equality with other religions of the empire. In 394, by the edict of the Emperor Theodosius, it became the state religion.

Fall of WesternRoman empire.
V 395 The Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern. The Western Roman Empire found itself in a particularly difficult position. She was shaken by uprisings, invasions of barbarian tribes. There were not enough forces to defend the borders. In 476, the barbarian Odoacer deposed the last West Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, sending the royal regalia to the eastern emperor.

§ 12. Culture and religion of the Ancient world

Features of the culture and religious beliefs of the Ancient East.
Under culture understand the achievements of people, the fruits of their activities. These are tools of labor and the ability to work with them. This and everything created by man - fields, cities, buildings, sculptures and paintings, legends, fairy tales and literary works, songs and dances. The concept of "culture" includes the knowledge of people, their customs, habits, ideas about the structure of the world. Religion, science, art are the most important parts of culture.
Culture arose with the advent of man. However, the culture of primitive people differs from the culture of civilized peoples. One of the most important distinctions is the presence of writing, which first appeared in the Ancient East. The Sumerian and Egyptian writing systems arose at about the same time. They had a lot in common: signs of writing conveyed both individual words and syllables, sounds. Learning to read and write took many years. Writing material had a significant influence on the development of writing - papyrus in Egypt, and clay in Mesopotamia. Egyptian writing was called hieroglyphic, and Sumerian - cuneiform. Following the example of the Sumerians, cuneiform writing arose among many other peoples of Asia Minor. The original writing systems developed in India and China. Chinese hieroglyphic writing became the basis for the formation of the writing system of Japan, Koren.
Writing originally served to record sacred hymns in honor of the gods, then they began to write down legends about gods and ancient heroes. Literature was born on the basis of these legends. One of the most famous and oldest literary works was legend about Giyagamesh. Legends about this king of the Sumerian city of Uruk existed for many years in oral form. The story of the exploits of Gilgamesh for the benefit of his hometown, his friendship with Enkndu, the futile search for immortality belongs to the heights of world literature. Ancient legends of the Aryan tribes who migrated to India. formed the basis of great poems "Mahabharata" and Ramayana. Over time, works appeared, the heroes of which were ordinary people.
There are very few architectural monuments of the Ancient East left now. The first place here is undoubtedly "Egypt. Great pyramids but still amaze with their grandeur and mystery. Many palaces, temples, and tombs have also survived in Egypt. In Luxor (Thebes) there is a huge palace of Amenhotep III. There are also magnificent temples with many columns in the form of bundles of papyrus. The remains of the architectural structures of Mesopotamia are also striking in beauty. The gate of the goddess Ishtar in Babylon, 12 m high, is lined with blue glazed bricks and decorated with images of animals.
Sculptural images of gods and people have survived (also most of all in Egypt). On the walls of the tombs, murals and reliefs depicted the sienna of the afterlife.
Egyptian sculptures and reliefs were made according to certain canons. For example, a person's face, elbows and legs were depicted in profile (from the side), and the eyes and shoulders were depicted in front (in front). The figures of the gods and pharaohs were larger in size than the figures of ordinary mortals. Everyone's eyes were enlarged. In the era of Pharaoh Akhnadon, there was a departure from many canons. The characteristic features of specific people were not only not hidden, but also emphasized. The bust of Akhenaten's wife, the beautiful Nefertiti, is world famous.
In the ancient Eastern states, scientific knowledge. They are inextricably linked with economic activities. For example, farmers need to know exactly when to start sowing and when to harvest. To do this, you need to be able to count the time. Time cannot be counted without observing the heavenly bodies by the Sun. By the moon, planets and stars. So was born astronomy - the science of celestial bodies. Hundreds of cuneiform tablets with records of astronomical observations have been preserved in Mesopotamia. The priests learned to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon. Many elements of the SChS1P time that appeared in Ancient Mesopotamia have survived to this day.
Another science well known to the ancients was medicine. The Egyptians were especially successful here. Thanks to the manufacture of mummies, the human structure has been well studied. It is assumed that even medical schools existed in Egypt. The doctors of Ancient China were also famous. They discovered acupuncture techniques. diet, remedial gymnastics.
In Sumer, they developed ways to determine the fate of a person by his zodiac sign, in Egypt they predicted the future with the help of fortune-telling. These aspects of ancient Eastern culture remain almost unchanged to this day, sometimes continuing to determine the life of our contemporaries.
The art of the Ancient East is inextricably linked with religion.
in all ancient Eastern states there was a complex pantheon of gods, each of which was "responsible" for a certain natural phenomenon or sphere of human activity. Usually there was a main, supreme god. The ideas about the afterlife of man were developed. Especially great importance was attached to this in Egypt, where concern for the preservation of the body of the dead led to the emergence of the methods of mummification.
The development of ancient Eastern societies led to changes in the field of religious beliefs. The first are born monotheistic religions, caused by a radical restructuring of a person's idea of ​​the world and his place in it. One of the attempts to establish such a religion is associated with the activities of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. He ordered all his subjects to blink the sun god, who was called Aton. However, it was not possible to establish monotheism in Egypt. Only the religion of the ancient Jews - Judaism for a long time it was the only monotheistic religion. However, Judaism. like most ancient beliefs, it has remained a national religion.
The first world religion became Buddhism, originated in India in the VI-V centuries. BC. World religions have spread the kitty among different peoples. Some scholars refer to world religions and Zoroastrianism, appeared among the ancient Indo-European peoples of Central Asia and Iran.
Religious beliefs played a huge role in the history of ancient India. Here the evolution of the Vedic religion of the ancient Aryans took place into Brahmanism, and then into Hinduism.
The original religious and ethical teachings were created in ancient China. Great Chinese sage Confucius(551 - 479 BC) preached a strict hierarchical order sanctified by tradition, which forms the basis of society. Older contemporary of Confucius Lao Tzu became the creator Taoism.

Features of culture and religious beliefs Drovny Greece andAncient Rome.
The ancient Greeks left their deepest mark in all areas of culture. Suffice it to say that Greek writing forms the basis of most modern alphabets.
Ancient Greek architecture had a huge impact. The most important thing in any building, according to the Greeks, was harmony - consistency and harmony of all its parts. The architects developed construction rules, determined how different parts of the building should be related, for example, the height and thickness of a column with the size of the roof. These rules are called orders—"Order". There were two main orders - Doric and ionic. Some of the most beautiful buildings in the world are located in Athens, on the Acropolis. The main temples of the Acropolis - Erechteppn and Parthenon. According to legend, the Parthenon contains the secret of divine harmony, established by its creators - architects Iktin and Callicrates.
Greek sculpture is no less famous. By the V century. BC. the Greeks learned to perfectly depict the human body in sculpture. The great sculptor of Hellas was an Athenian Phidias. Especially glorified by his statue of Athena for the Acropolis and the statue of Zeus; the temple of the city of Olympia. The family of sculptors was also famous in Athens. Nrixitelei. One of the Praxitedeas owns a statue of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, in whom the young men fell in love like a gray girl.
In ancient Greece, from the festivities in honor of Dionysus was born. Till now on the sienna of the whole world the plow of tragedy Aeschylus, Sophocles. Euripides and comedy Aristophanes. In their works), they did not raise the eternal themes that excite people thousands of years later. Greek literature is also represented by the great poems of the legendary Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey", philosophical poems Hesiod, lyrics by Sappho, Pindar and others. Ancient Greece became the homeland philosophy. The basics of understanding general patterns the world is laid Thales, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Democritus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. The Greeks also became the ancestors of many other spiders. Huck, Herodotus is called the "father of history", because in his works the question of the laws historical development... The work of Herodotus was continued by Thucydides and other historians.
Another contribution of the Greeks to world culture was the Olympic Games - sports competitions held once a year in honor of the king of the gods Zeus in the city of Olympia.
The culture of Greece had a tremendous impact on the culture of ancient Rome. The Romans, long disciples of the Greeks, later reached great heights in this area themselves.
Among the Roman poets, a special place was occupied by Lucretius Kar, author of the philosophical poem "On the Nature of Things", and Catullus, the largest master of Roman poetry. One of the first works written in Latin prose became labor Cato " O agriculture". The most prominent writer of the 1st century. BC. was Varro. Caesar's Notes on the Gallic War and Notes on the Civil War are accounts of wars and, at the same time, a striking example of Roman fiction.
Approximate of the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus Maecenas took care of the talented posts of his time. It was then that the great Roman poets worked Virgil and Horace. At the request of Augustus, Virgil wrote the poem "Aeneid", which is considered the pinnacle of Latin poetry. Horace was the author of several collections of songs - odes. The poet lived in the same period Ovid, master of love lyrics. One of the prominent writers of the II century BC. was Apuleius. The novel "Metamorphoses, go Golden donkey" brought him fame.
The Romans achieved the greatest skill in all their knowledge of sculptural portraits. They sought not only to accurately portray a person, but also to show his inner world.
The surviving Roman architecture mainly dates back to the period of the empire. Amphitheater in Rome - Coliseum displaced about 50 thousand viewers. Triumphal arches and equestrian statues were erected on the squares. Especially magnificent was the Roman Forum of Trajan, a temple to "all gods" - The Pantheon.
The Romans made great strides in many sciences, including history. The outstanding representatives of this science were Polybipus, Titus Livia, Cornelius Tacitus. In Roman times, the Greek created his famous "Parallel Biographies" Plutarch. The religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks and Romans were similar. They worshiped many gods who personified various forces of nature, patronizing various types of human activities. The gods were inextricably linked with nature and people. The main gods, according to the Greeks, lived on Mount Olympus, therefore their religion is called Olympic. The Romans had a very practical attitude to religion, so they could worship the gods of other nations, if they brought them good luck. So, in the first centuries of our era, the cult of the eastern gods spread in Rome.
In the 1st century. AD in the east of the Roman Empire, a new creed arose - Christianity. It developed as a trend in Judaism, but its spread is associated with a deep crisis of the previous ideas about the world. Christianity recognizes only one God, who is the absolute master and creator of the world. This God is separate from the world and from man. Man himself is created in the image and likeness of God and is the crown of the rest of the world. Such a teaching testified to the final separation of man from nature and the separation of the individual from the collective. Christianity has become a world religion. Unlike Judaism, it promised salvation to all people, regardless of nationality and social origin.
Initially, Christianity was the faith of the poor, slaves. The Roman authorities persecuted Christians. However, their numbers grew. They united into communities led by bishops. The unification of all communities was called Christian Church. The same word was used to designate churches of Christians. By the second half of the 3rd century. Christianity turned into a powerful force, there were many Christians among the soldiers, and wealthy people and officials were baptized. At the end of the IV century. Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.
From the very beginning in Christianity, many currents arose, representatives of which waged a fierce struggle among themselves. Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity aroused controversy. God is presented to Christians in the form of the unity of God the Father, God the Son (Christ) and God the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are equal and one. This dogma entered into Symbol of faith - a short code of doctrine, adopted at the First Ecumenical Council in the city of Nicea in 325. However, the struggle within the Christian Church continued after the Council of Nicea.

Questionsandtasks
1. What are the current views on human anthropogenesis? How did people populate the earth?
2. Describe the main sources of our knowledge about the ancient history of mankind. What are the achievements of the Paleolithic era? What was the social organization of the Paleolithic era?
3. What is the Neolithic Revolution? What were its consequences for 1nomics, the social structure of society?
4. What changes took place in the life of primitive tribes during their transition to civilization? What are the reasons for the emergence of states?
5. What are the features of the development of the ancient states in Egypt, Mesopotamia, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea?
6. What are the reasons for the emergence of the great military powers of antiquity? What role did they play in the development of mankind?
7. What are the features of the ancient states of India and China?
8. What was the special path of development of the ancient Greek civilization?
9. What is a policy? How was the management organized in the policy?
10. Describe the main city-states of Ancient Greece
11 What are the main achievements of the ancient Greeks.
12. What are the main stages of development of the Roman state?
13. What allowed the Romans to create a huge power?
14. Why did the transition from republic to empire take place? As it was
organized government in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire?
15. What are the reasons for the death of the Western Roman Empire?
16. Describe the culture of the Ancient East. What are the famous cultural monuments of the countries of the Ancient East?
17. What is the contribution of the ancient Greeks and Romans to world culture? Name the monuments of Ancient Greece and Rome known to you.
18. What are the features of the religions of the Ancient World?
19. Describe Christianity as the world of a monotheistic religion.