The Ancient World (Greece, Rome, Middle East, India, China) | World History Full Documentary

[Music] thank you [Music] from Mesopotamia and Egypt to India to China to ancient Greece and Rome great civilizations await this is our journey through the ancient world [Music] [Applause] [Music] Millennia ago before the Advent of writing humans roamed the Earth and at first there was nothing to separate them from the animal world that is until they began to create tools these early tools were made out of stone giving rise to the Paleolithic Age meaning old stone age in Greek during this period early humans were hunter-gatherers with repetition they became better hunters and better foragers there was no Agriculture and no domestication of animals this simple life was dangerous but it met their needs they would forage for nuts berries and other plant life while Hunters stalked mammoths bison fish and other sources of meat this led to small societies of 20 to 30 people and led to a nomadic lifestyle migrating with the animals and following seasonal plant growths hunting became a group effort and those who worked together were more likely to survive the tools they used were mainly for this activity Spears and harpoons were widely used generally men went on the hunt leading to Greater camaraderie in the face of a challenge while women stayed near Camp foraging and taking care of the children neither role was viewed as inherently better apart from tools the other factor that set humans apart was fire after discovering fire early humans could cook their food making it easier to digest fire allowed them to brighten caves as well and these became their shelters they would also Adorn some of these caves with art around 10 to 12 000 years ago the last glacial period ended allowing more of the globe to be inhabited it was around this time that humans began to shift from food Gathering and food hunting to food production that transitioned into the Mesolithic age and Then followed by the Neolithic age or new stone age stone tools became more polished during this period but more importantly the Neolithic became an Agricultural Revolution humans began planting seeds tilling the land and producing their own Foods they domesticated sheep pigs and cattle and increased their food stores by around 5000 BCE many areas of the old world had been practicing agriculture to some extent but the majority still hunted and gathered those living in the Middle East had begun agriculture around 8000 BCE and from there farming techniques spread into Southern and Central Europe by 4000 BCE the farming of Wheat and barley also moved West to Egypt and East to India West Africa would use different agricultural techniques to yield yams in southern China the early Chinese produced rice and in the north millet in the West in mesoamerica the natives of the region farmed beans squash and Maize what truly made this a Revolution was that farming allowed humans to remain sedentary through generations this is what created the first Neolithic farming villages the oldest were found in the Middle East [Music] Jericho near the Dead Sea in Palestine was built by at least 8000 BCE over ten thousand years ago chattel hoyak in Turkey wasn't as old but was larger at around 32 acres and could have housed up to 6 000 inhabitants houses were mud brick and fairly crammed together residents domesticated many different kinds of foods from fruit to different kinds of Wheat and were able to store it in special areas of their houses the food surpluses led to a division of labor more people could tend to other crafts than food production some produce jewelry and other crafts some produced weapons religious statues have been found at this settlement seemingly representing mothers or fertility the sedentary lifestyle had long lasting consequences for humans the surplus of food and ability to store it led to exchange between different settlements sometimes food could be traded for crafts created by the new Artisan class Pottery was important as it could be used to cook or store grain other tools were made to make Gathering food easier like blades to create sickles for use on the farms obsidian a kind of volcanic glass was used to make sharp blades flax and cotton were grown and used to create types of cloth used for clothing men's relationship with women also shifted during the Neolithic as men became the main food producers working the farms and domesticating animals they became more valued in society women did play their part as well though grinding flour and making cheese from milk as well as raising the children our sedentary existence is today and our stockpiling of food is a direct result of the Neolithic Revolution prior to 4000 BCE it's thought people of the near East figured out a way to improve on their stone tools and learn to liquefy and then call certain ozone elements to create more durable metals this gave way to a transitory stage called The Copper age and by around 3000 BCE the beginning of the Bronze Age bronze was an alloy mixture of copper and Tin making it more durable the start of the Bronze Age is generally where pre-history ends and history begins with more settlement being built more stockpiling and more Artisans wealth became kept within cities making them targets for protection walls needed to be built and communities banded together these would eventually turn into the first civilizations what makes a civilization there is no set definition but historians often take these next characteristics into consideration a civilization should have cities or Urban centers these are larger more populated areas used for political religious and economic Affairs larger than the Villages of the Neolithic farmers in rural areas provided the food for the centralized governments located in these cities civilizations should also have an organized political structure or military there was often a division of class Kings priests or warriors were generally at the top while Artisans formed a middle class often with farmers the lowest class was usually the slaves religion was also a staple of civilization the use of writing especially to keep records was also taken into account using these guidelines Scholars have identified six main areas of the world where civilization developed independently all around rivers or major water sources located in the old world the oldest of these early civilizations are in Mesopotamia and Egypt this land between the Tigris and Euphrates was called Mesopotamia by the later Greeks meaning land between the rivers in late spring the river's overflow depositing silt on the soil making it fertile but the flooding is often chaotic and unpredictable early Mesopotamians grasped how to control the flooding with irrigation making this land abundant in food the first civilization to emerge here were the Sumerians we know little of their Origins but by 3000 BCE they were living in major Urban centers in southern Mesopotamia like Iraq ER Amma and lagash have named this the early dynastic period these cities were built with walls as a defense with little stone or wood in the region their structures were built with mud bricks dried in the Sun some of the most impressive buildings would be temples dedicated to their City's respective god or goddess these temples were called ziggurats the priests that ran these buildings often played a large role in governing it was the king though who truly had the power this is because kingship was seen as Divine in origin kings were used as the centralized power that oversaw the military and organized food production including taming the rivers high-ranked Army generals and Priests helped the king govern though the Sumerian economy was agricultural it eventually began to rely on trade as well they produced Pottery textiles and Metal Works for export and imported copper and Tin to make bronze and Timber The increased usage of the wheel made trade with the nomads to the north easier Society was separated into four distinct classes Elites were at the top and included the king priest class and their families under them were the dependent commoners usually those employed to work in the Palaces or ziggurats under those free commoners were the farmers Artisans merchants and scribes at the bottom were the slaves these slaves worked for the palace the temples and for rich landowners male slaves were used for building projects and farming while females were used to make clothing as the Sumerian city-states grew there would eventually be conflict between them often over water sources though the Sumerians fought amongst each other in southern Mesopotamia just to the north with the acadians they were a Semitic people different from the Sumerians but often mixed around 2340 BCE one of these acadians Sargon LED an army of over 5000 down into Suma and overran the city-states this ended suma's early dynastic period and was the start of the Acadian empire under Sargon of akkad he and his descendants would rule until around 2200 BCE when attacks by Mountain barbarians dissolved the Acadian Empire this made it possible for the Sumerians to regain control of their region and by 2112 under ernamu a new Sumerian Empire called the neo-sumerian Empire was founded and extended to the north once the capital city of er fell to Outsiders in 2004 BCE the city-states entered another state of conflict and instability this would be the last time the Sumerians would hold power in Mesopotamia by the 1800s BCE a new Empire would rise ruled by another Semitic people the semi-nomadic amorites ruling from Babylon hamirabi conquered both the Sumerian and Acadian regions establishing what would be known as the Babylonian Empire taking a major role in governance hamirabi saw himself as a shepherd of his people not their subjugator he had defensive walls built for them along with temples and irrigation Networks increased trade also brought in wealth to his Empire the code of hamirabi was used as a law code and as a means to portray himself as righteous and just comprising just under 300 laws the code gives us insight into the Empire's views on Justice social classes were highly respected and crimes done by the lower classes against Elites were punished more severely than vice versa an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth wasn't exactly literal it simply meant that punishment should be equal to the crime committed classes being equal of course these retributive elements could have influenced law codes all over the near East for centuries afterwards divorce was prohibited but a man could divorce his wife if she was not able to Bear children if a man's wife was acting in a humiliating fashion she could be prosecuted as well women were entitled to their husband's property once he died and if a man divorced her without good reason her family could be entitled to the return of their dowry while husbands were allowed to pursue sexual relations outside of their marriage a woman was not allowed to do so and if she did would be thrown into the nearest river to drown along with the other adulterer in cases of incest a father could be banished if he was caught having relations with his daughter while relations between a mother and son would see them both burned alive as is evident hierarchies were well respected and a major part of life in Mesopotamia the priest class was revered because religion was such an important aspect of Mesopotamian life the chaotic flooding of their Rivers along with the humidity and otherwise harsh climate forced Mesopotamians to turn to the supernatural they were polytheistic believing in many different gods the most important force in the world god of the sky in Lil god of the wind enki god of the earth and rivers and in her sag the mother goddess of the mountains and fertility Mesopotamians believe these Gods created them to do their manual labor for them so viewed themselves as their servants to figure out a God's desires or plans priests would practice divination the most common form was sacrificing a goat or sheep and then examining their organs priests and Kings would attempt to predict military campaigns or the weather using divination by far mesopotamia's greatest Legacy though was their writing system dating back to at least 3000 BCE the Sumerians began using wedge-shaped Impressions on clay tablets which were then hardened in the Sun this writing system was called cuneiform this system evolved from earlier pictograms cuneiform was used mainly for governmental records and would be usually taught to males of the upper classes writing was important as it created new ways for people to communicate the most famous piece of literature from Mesopotamia was the Epic of Gilgamesh a story we only know of because it was written down Gilgamesh was a semi-legendary king of the Sumerian city of Uruk along with his friend enkidu the pair go on an adventure together spoiler warning for the oldest story ever but after enkidu dies Gilgamesh is overcome with the pain of loss and searches for the secret to immortality he meets up in the Piston a man the gods let live after the great flood and then granted immortality after trying to help Gilgamesh in his quest the mighty king fails and returns to Europe disheartened immortality was to be a gift only for the Gods apart from the Arts Mesopotamian scientists were also revolutionary the Sumerians developed a number system based on 60 and used this to chart the Stars the lunar calendar was used to calculate dates the Mesopotamians weren't the only ones in the near East with civilization though slightly to the West were the Egyptians just as Mesopotamia had its Tigris and Euphrates Egypt had the Nile the river began in deep Africa and flowed North into the Mediterranean each year the Nile would flood leaving silt deposits and enriching the soil Egyptians would call this the black land because of the Fertile ground in contrast with the Red Land the barren Egyptian deserts the river splits before emptying into the Mediterranean forming more fertile areas called the Nile Delta corresponding to the way the Nile flows this region was called Lower Egypt while more upstream and further south was Upper Egypt the miracle of the Nile was that it flooded regularly and calmly unlike the Savage Mesopotamian Rivers because of this less Administration was needed for these floods meaning smaller rural cities than their counterparts to the east another major difference was Terrain a major theme in Mesopotamia was constant Invasion resulting in instability and a constant changing of power Egypt on the other hand was well protected by natural boundaries deserts later the East and West the Mediterranean to the North and the Niles cataphract could be guarded to the South this stability mixed with the predictability of the Nile is what caused Egyptian civilization to last for thousands of years historians lay out Egypt's history in three distinct periods the old middle and new kingdoms times of prosperity and strength before the Old Kingdom though Egypt was ruled by different tribal Chieftains by around 3100 BCE a king named Nama would unify Upper and Lower Egypt into a single Kingdom gaining both the white and red crowns and beginning Egypt's dynastic period the Old Kingdom began around 2700 to 2575 BCE with the third or fourth Dynasty with its capital at Memphis Egypt during the Old Kingdom Period was a time of prosperity constructing Egypt's longest lasting Legacy the pyramids Egyptian kings would eventually take the name of pharaoh in a later period and were considered divine Pharaohs were to rule by the principle of Mart a universal Harmony and Order of the universe the Egyptian bureaucracy eventually grew and was governed by the king's vizier to better administer Egypt the land was divided up into provinces later called gnomes by the Greeks each gnome was appointed a governor called a no mark over time these no marks gained too much power leading to the end of the Old Kingdom and a decentralized intermediate period by 2150. by 2055 a new Dynasty managed to take back power ushering in the Middle Kingdom Period Egypt's second golden age this period had a more centralized government with no marks having to provide more duties for the king the title of pharaoh went from a title of divinity to that of a Shepherd leading its people the Pharaoh was still at the very top of all the social classes in both the Old and middle kingdoms below the Pharaoh was the upper class of Nobles and Priests they were responsible for rituals involving the king and with managing the wealth below them were Artisans and Merchants they would trade with other cultures including Mesopotamia and travel down the Nile to other villages trade was opened between Crete Nubia and the Land of Punt Egyptian Artisans were some of the best in the world and offered a wide variety of goods below them were the farmers the majority of workers as the Pharaoh and his Nobles owned the land those who worked the fields were serfs and had to pay a portion of their yields to the king they also could be called for military service or as workers for building projects as religion was inextricably linked with Egyptian life rituals were performed daily by the priest class supervised by the pharaoh the most prominent natural wonder in ancient Egypt was the Sun so the Sun God Ra became the most powerful of all gods other prominent gods were Osiris Isis and their son Horus an Egyptian myth tells of Osiris being killed by his brother Seth and his body cut up into pieces and thrown across the Earth but Isis found his pieces and restored him to life he became a god of the underworld and of Resurrection pharaohs with the process of embalming and mummification in tombs could hope to become reborn just like Osiris the tombs those symbols of death survived for centuries built during the Old Kingdom the pyramid stood at the center of other tombs and Masters reserved for family and servants Pharaoh's tombs were adorned like a regular room with chairs weapons games and food this is because they believe that if they preserve the physical body properly through embalming and mummification a Pharaoh's car or spiritual body would still go on living and be able to enjoy these pleasures the mummification process itself preserved the body by drying it out the brain was pulled out by the nose an internal organs extracted with small incisions next the corpse was covered in salt to absorb the moisture later the body was filled with spices and wrapped up with linen soaked in resin a mask was then placed on this mummy which was then sealed in a case this process took around 70 days to complete it was then placed in its tomb or pyramid the largest of these was the Great Pyramid or the Pyramid of Giza built by Khufu near the beginning of the Old Kingdom Period this pyramid was the largest ever built with a 756 foot base and height of 481 meters for Millennia the Great Pyramid could be seen from miles away leaving its Mark as an ancient Egyptian icon and the only surviving of the Seven Wonders of the World Egyptians had other artistic talents as well pharaohs and their nobles would commission art like statues and paintings for their palaces and temples writing also developed independently of the Sumerians although slightly later the Greeks would later call this writing system hieroglyphics meaning priest writings or sacred writings these weren't a true alphabet but signs which depicted objects originally carved into stone different scripts were developed from these and would be written on Papyrus a paper made from Egyptian reeds spoken Egyptian was related to the Semitic language both a branch of the afro-asiatic language family the Middle Kingdom would last until around 1650 BCE when Egypt was invaded by a West Asian Semitic people they would call the hixos using bronze weapons and two-wheeled chariots the hiksos were able to successfully invade Lower Egypt fragmenting Authority and bringing in the second intermediate period this would only last for around 100 years the Egyptians learned to make these same bronze weapons and chariots during the occupation and used these same devices to expel the hixsons by 1550 BCE and established the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom of Egypt a third golden age with their military advancements Egypt became more aggressive and less insular forging an Empire that became the most powerful in the near East they were a wealthy Empire and had extravagant palaces built like under Hatshepsut this was one of the first female pharaohs and was often referred to as king and depicted with a beard her nephew tutmosis III LED several campaigns up into the Levant and Syria and expanded West into Libya the 18th Dynasty continued on and ran into some self-inflicted trouble with Pharaoh amanhope IV he changed his name to Akhenaten meaning servant of arten the supreme god temples were closed and the priests of our menrah lost their power religious power was centered in Thebes but Akhenaten then created another Capital at Amana akanatan's attempts at monotheism weren't taken very well by the traditional polytheistic Egyptians they saw it not only as disrespectful but dangerous the pharaoh's obsession with these changes also caused the Empire to lose its Holdings in Syria and the Levant akhenat and successor the boy to tankerton changed his name to two tankerman rejecting artan and restored the old gods under the 19th Dynasty Egypt went on to reclaim its status as an imperial power Ramses is often regarded as the new Kingdom's greatest Pharaoh during the late Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE Egypt was invaded by the mysterious sea peoples and were a weakened shell of their once great power much of the East Mediterranean and Middle East was affected Egypt would then enter a period of Decline and by 1069 BCE would fragment once again into a third intermediate period falling into the hands of the libyans Nubians Assyrians Persians Greeks and Romans and seldom to be ruled by native Egyptians daily life in Egypt was quite traditional marrying young and starting a family was promoted although men could marry additional wives if the original couldn't have children or refused to the father was usually head of the household but wives were respected as wise women and trusted to educate the youngsters the Pharaoh himself had a queen known as the great wife but could have his pick of other women as he pleased generally women were barred from public office and other high-ranking career paths but they had property and inheritance rights poorer women often had to work the fields rich ones often became priestesses adultery as in Mesopotamia was forbidden with harsh penalties mainly for women like being burned at the stake or having her nose removed divorces were allowed though and often dealt with fairly there is evidence that Egyptian influence spread all over the Mediterranean but it also reached further south this is Nubia present-day Sudan this civilization could have emerged around the same time as Old Kingdom Egypt or even earlier the Nubians and Egyptians shared their culture through trade for centuries by the time New Kingdom Egypt began to decline Nubia was gaining power and established the kingdom of kush by the 8th Century BCE Kush had expanded and taken control of Egypt establishing the 25th Dynasty they ruled for almost 100 years but were eventually expelled by the Assyrians after the discovery of iron further to the South the Nubians moved their Capital to marowee they truly flourished here through trade and built magnificent areas filled with pyramids more than Egypt ever built while Mesopotamia and Egypt were the foremost civilizations of the Bronze Age Europe was making strides as well they too developed agriculture by at least 6500 BCE and domesticated animals even longer early Europeans would build large stone structures what the later Greeks called megaliths these were thought to be used for astronomical observations like the solstices but also tracking Moon movements and phases apart from the dominance of the afro-asiatic language family in the near East with Semitic and Egyptian another language group developed this time around the pontic step these were the indo-europeans their language would spread as they migrated all across Europe branching into Greek italic and eventually Latin Germanic Slavic and into Asia branching into Persian and Sanskrit they use of the horse and wheel allowed them a rapid expansion all across Eurasia King with the near East one of the most prominent groups were the Hittites by 1750 BCE they emerged in Turkey absorbing the natives and establishing their hittite Kingdom with their Capital at hertusa by 1600 they had their own Empire becoming Rivals with New Kingdom Egypt they got their hands on iron weapons early still during the Bronze Age which was a better alternative to bronze which needed both copper and Tin to create the Hittites adopted much of the Mesopotamian culture and might have been responsible for introducing it to neighboring regions in Europe internal struggles plagued the Hittites and they became weak enough that they couldn't survive the invasion to the late Bronze Age Egypt was weakened and went into slow decline but the hittite Empire crumbled in between both Egypt and the Hittites was the Levant now that neither was a present in the area new city-states and kingdoms were able to emerge in the power vacuum in present-day Lebanon were the Phoenicians they were another Semitic people residing in their three main cities of biblos seiden and Tire because of their geography the Phoenicians always looked outwards towards the sea and became a maritime trading power their most famous exports were the Timber from their cedar trees and their famous purple dyes called murex the name Phoenician was given to them by the Greeks as it derives from the color purple or red they became expert seafarers traveling west past the Mediterranean reaching western Africa and North to Britain the Phoenicians established colonies in the west Mediterranean like on the island of Sicily and Spain their most famous would be their North African colony of Carthage unlike the Egyptians or Mesopotamians the Phoenicians developed a phonetic alphabet consisting of 22 letters they could be used interchangeably to write out different words in their language this alphabet would later be passed down to the Greeks and then eventually the Romans which we derived and still use today phenicia was never a kingdom but a group of independent cities they would remain independent for a few hundred years before they were taken over by the Assyrians which we will see later in this video just to the south of where the Phoenicians lived were the Hebrews they were another Semitic people but were more nomadic in truth they were a minor group of tribes and there would have been nothing truly remarkable about them if not for their religious Legacy the Hebrews viewed themselves as descendants of Abraham a man who fled the city of UR During the neo-sumerian period and settled with his family and people in the land of Canaan according to the Hebrew tradition a drought caused Abraham's descendants to migrate further south living in peace until they were enslaved by the Egyptians used in numerous building projects the Hebrews wouldn't be saved until Moses LED his people out of Egypt and the tribe spent 40 years returning to Canaan back in the Levant they would become Locked In conflict with the Philistines a people who had migrated over perhaps from Europe as part of the invasions of the Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE they could have been related to the Sea peoples who weakened Egypt just like the Phoenicians the Hebrews would now be able to truly flourish as the near East was still reeling again evidence is sparse but according to the Hebrew tradition Saul established a Kingdom of Israel around 1050 BCE whose Unity helped in the struggle with the Philistines after his death David one of Saul's men became king under David the Israelites conquered the Philistines establishing themselves as rulers of Canaan making the capital of his kingdom at Jerusalem after King David Solomon became king Israel reached a high point under his reign he opened up trade and tradition holds him responsible for the building of the first temple of Jerusalem tensions began to rise between the Hebrew tribes of the north and south and after Solomon's death the United Kingdom would split into two different kingdoms the Kingdom of Israel consisted of the ten Northern tribes and had a capital at Samaya the kingdom of Judah in the South consisted of two Hebrew tribes keeping the capital of Jerusalem during the late 700s BCE the Assyrians continued their expansion of the near East and invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel Samaya was ransacked and the ten tribes were dispersed and sent to other parts of the Assyrian Empire there they would assimilate and eventually lose their identities today they are known as the 10 lost tribes of Israel the southern Kingdom of Judah was able to keep its independence but became a tributary state to the Assyrians all this changed though once the new Babylonian Empire defeated the Assyrians and inherited their territory after a Revolt the Babylonians invaded Judah and destroyed most of Jerusalem by 586 BCE they then deported the Hebrews living there sending them to Babylon as captives this Babylonian Empire didn't last for long and by the mid-500s BCE the Persians under Cyrus defeated the Babylonians and released the Hebrews ending the Babylonian captivity they returned to Judah and rebuilt their city and Temple they would eventually be called Jews after their land of Judah it is thought that before the Exile the Hebrews worshiped a supreme god but also believed other gods existed like that of the moon or trees it was only during the Babylonian captivity that their monotheism became more firmly established in Jewish Minds this is where they wrote down a lot of their beliefs the most Central of these beliefs was the Covenant this was an agreement made between the Hebrews and their God that the Lord would protect his people if they followed his laws the laws were set of moral and ethical rules the most famous being the Ten Commandments these laws were often taught and encouraged by the prophets these prophets were religious teachers said to be the voice of God they would warn of great danger if people broke the sacred Covenant the Jewish experience in ancient times strengthened their faith and over the next centuries would often put them at odds with their rulers the Phoenicians and Hebrews were only two small regions on the Levant back in Mesopotamia larger Empires would emerge the Assyrians had resided in northern Mesopotamia for centuries while Babylonia was in the South but with the use of iron weapons the Assyrians went on a campaign of expansion and by 700 BCE conquered Mesopotamia the Levant and parts of Egypt Anatolia and the Iranian plateau this neo-assyrian Empire would be the biggest ever assembled so far in history but this could have left it overextended revolts were quite common and once their great king Asha banapal died Babylon revolted and forged an alliance with the meat a conquered Iranian people both Babylon and the Meads then marched on the Assyrian capital and Nineveh fell in 612 BCE with the Empire crumbling soon after at its height the Assyrian Empire was large but built an impressive communication system using horses and donkeys to send messages all over the Empire with only a weak delay the Assyrian army was responsible for most of its success they were mainly a militaristic Empire with a fearsome standing army consisting mainly of Infantry a syrians practiced using War chariots and constructed some of the best Siege equipment in the near East their most potent weapon though was their ruthlessness they were known for cutting down fruit trees and setting Farms on fire and destroying landscapes who revolted were treated even worse and either mutilated or set a flame they had a policy of deportation which created a multicultural Empire Assyrian kings were viewed as their God asha's representative on Earth Assyria itself was named after this God it became wealthy as the crossroads of trade in the near East but as they excelled being a military and economically powerful Empire Assyria wasn't the Bedrock of culture or civilization like Babylonia to itself most of Assyrian culture was taken from the Babylonians and Sumerians that preceded them Assyrian Kings would see themselves as preservers of those Mesopotamian traditions the Royal Library of Asha banapal was a collection of over 30 000 clay tablets an assemblage of texts from all over Mesopotamia and Beyond included among its tablets was the story of the Epic of Gilgamesh Assyria was known for its art reliefs as well realistic scenes of War were portrayed in stone and the king would be portrayed as a strong figure after the Assyrian Empire fell to Babylon Mesopotamian dominance fell back towards the South this neo-babylonian Empire was ruled by a Chaldean Dynasty another Semitic people either from Arabia or the Persian Gulf the most famous of these Babylonian Kings was Nebuchadnezzar II who made Babylon the leading City in all of the near East once again this new Empire would last less than 100 years and in 539 BCE was conquered by the Persians the Persians like the Hittites were an Indo-European people and lived on the Iranian plateau they were groups of nomadic tribes but were unified by the akameni dynasty this dynasty managed to conquer the meat in Iran and under Cyrus the Great expand West Conquering the kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia and marched further to seize the Greek city-states that had been on the coast in Ionia after campaigns in the east of Iran and a bit of the Indian subcontinent he marched on Babylon and captured it in 539 BCE seizing the neo-babylonian territories as well he made these regions into different provinces which were called satrapies and run by Governors or satraps Cyrus portrayed himself as part of the Babylonian lineage and was greeted as a liberator he ended the Babylonian captivity freeing the Jews to return to Jerusalem where they rebuilt their Temple leading him to be viewed as the anointed king or Messiah unlike the Assyrians Cyrus was a kind and tolerant ruler and his subjects from the medes to Babylonians to the Jews viewed him as legitimate after Cyrus died his son canvases invaded Egypt and added the land of the Pharaohs to the Empire next king Darius expanded further into India to the Indus and his generals conquered Thrace and made Macedon a tribute state in 499 BCE with eight from Athens the Greek cities on the ionian coast revolted and ended up burning the Persian city of Sardis in Lydia after subduing the cities Darius then sent an army to invade Greece itself as punishment but the Persian army was defeated by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE by this time though the Persian Empire was the biggest the world had ever seen it's banned from Thrace down past the Levant to Egypt across Anatolia Mesopotamia Iran and Western India and divided into around 20 satrapies for communication across this massive Empire the Persians built a series of Roads the main one was called The Royal Road the king himself was never considered Divine but as the chosen of the Persian God ahura master unlike the Pharaohs the academic Kings kept to themselves spending their time at remote palaces after Cyrus Persian kings became less benevolent spiking taxes and amassing wealth for themselves apart from their palatial splendors they spent this money on an elite military the Persian army called upon Warriors from all parts of its Empire from Egypt to India but their most iconic units were iranian-born Infantry always numbering 10 000 they would be called The Immortals as when one was killed he was immediately replaced the Persian religion was also quite unique it was called Zoroastrianism after its founder zoroaster according to the Persians zoroaster was born in the 7th Century BCE an experienced visions and Revelations that led him to the one true religion his teachings were eventually written down in this end of Esther in the 200s BCE most likely predating the Jewish shift to monotheism in Babylon Zoro asked to believe there to be only one supreme god ahura Master which means wise Lord he was the creator of all things and the embodiment of justice and goodness but just as he was righteous ahura master was opposed by his counter an evil spirit named araman Lord of chaos and darkness Zorro asked to preach that humans had Free Will and needed to perform Good Deeds because at the last judgment human Souls that were good would be separated from those that were bad and sent either to Paradise or the abyss this is where a lot of the dualistic nature of good versus evil Heaven and Hell and a final judgment comes from this would later influence Christianity Egypt and Mesopotamia thrived in the near East because of their respective Rivers in the East was the Indian subcontinent much larger in area the subcontinent had a more diverse geography and potential for larger populations to the north of the mountain ranges of the Himalayas including Mount Everest the highest peak in the world and the karakoram with K2 the second highest peak to the south of the Himalayas is the Ganges River the most important in Indian culture south of the Ganges Valley and its fertile Plains occupying the middle of India to itself is the Deccan Plateau it is flanked by the Western and Eastern guards discontinuous mountain ranges off the southern coast lie Sri Lanka another region culturally linked to India but further to the north and to the west of the Ganges was the Punjab and another River Valley the Indus a cradle of civilization situated mainly in present-day Pakistan and Northwest India this is where we begin India's ancient period about 100 years ago archaeologists discovered settlements here dating back to over 6 000 years ago nowadays the area is quite dry and arid but in the 3000 BCE rainfall was more abundant there and the Indus River itself was able to support an enormous Indus Valley Civilization which historians call the harapan this name comes from one of the first of two major cities discovered harappa and Mohenjo-daro but many other sites have since been uncovered it most likely began as other cradles of civilization from Neolithic agricultural settlements like at Mega by around 3 300 BCE Farmers from the mountains gradually began populating the river valleys and the beginning of the early harapan phase by 2600 BCE the civilization had built large Urban centers beginning the mature harapan phase a rapper was protected by a large brick wall almost four miles long over six kilometers cities were planned on a rectangular grid with streets up to 30 feet wide houses and other buildings were made with mud brick dried in the Sun or in an oven population could have been as high as 35 000 although some sources claimed double this number Mohenjo-daro could have had a population of up to 41 000. by the mature phase the entire Indus Valley population could have been over 5 million total compared to just 300 000 in Mesopotamia these were major Urban centers from the Bronze Age with ingenious planning to support such a large number of people one of the most impressive traits of the Indus Valley Civilization was their Advanced Drainage system Wastewater was carried out of bathrooms by drains under the streets and deposited in sewage pits outside the city we still cannot decipher the harapan script so we have no names or stories of which to tell historians do suspect that unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia the harapan weren't bounded into one state but simply a loose collection of cities each controlled by a small ruler despite this life seemed to be fairly egalitarian there is no evidence of Kings slaves or even a state military there is evidence of a priesthood though and a religion that might have worshiped a fertility god or goddess the economy as most at this time was based on agriculture the Indus River inhabitants mainly grew wheat but also barley rice and peas there is also evidence that they traded with the ancient civilization of Suma importing copper and stones and exporting food textiles and Lapis Lazuli to Mesopotamia a stone in high demand by the Egyptians while the harapan were more utilitarian in their building patterns they expressed their artistic side in smaller works they created sculptures of humans and animals figurines made of copper and terracotta some of the best work from the Bronze Age we still don't know much about the harapan writing system as the only evidence we found are pictographs on Clay seals there are no links to any kind of Mesopotamian script so this may always remain a mystery the greatest mystery of all is why the harapan disappeared around 1900 BCE a gradual decline occurred starting the late harapan phase and by 1700 the cities had been abandoned it was once believed that it was the Aryans who invaded the old cities like Mohenjo-daro a name that means City of the Dead but we now know the Aryans migrated to the subcontinent hundreds of years later some other theories are that a change in climate could have made food production impossible for such a large population leading to social problems and violence it's also possible widespread disease like tuberculosis or leprosy swept through the cramped and overcrowded cities leading people to flee Eastward but what seems certain is that the Aryans arrived in the valley after the harapan civilization collapsed but who were these Aryans they were a part of the Indo-European family that originated in the Eurasian step we briefly mentioned them last episode as being related to those who migrated into Europe and the hittite who settled in Anatolia the indo-europeans were nomadic pastoralists and were more suited for war than civilization and culture they are credited with inventing the two-wheeled war Chariot a piece of War technology that became widely adopted in both Europe and Asia these specific indo-europeans the Aryans split with the indo-iranians and traveled across the Hindu Kush mountains into the northern Indian Plains these migrations didn't happen all at once but gradually by around 1500 BCE by 1000 BCE they had spread East into the Ganges plain and South onto the Deccan Plateau mixing with the dravidians who already inhabited the region it is important to note that many Indian Scholars reject the migration Theory and urge that these people did not migrate to India as indo-europeans but were native to the region and are directly descended from the Indus Valley Civilization the Aryans also called The Vedic culture thrived on the North Indian Plains they gradually lost their nomadic pastoralist Tendencies and settled into a sedentary agricultural lifestyle most likely adopted from the Hittites they used iron plows and irrigation techniques to farm on the fertile Ganges plain as with other Indo-European tribes each was led by a warlord or Chieftain the vedics would call these rajes and they would rule with the Council of Elders the rajas were usually part of the kshetria or warrior class once their societies became larger these Chieftains became more like kings and took the name Maharaja meaning great Raja they still never ruled as conventional Kings and had to respect the Dharma laws of behavior that everyone in society had to follow by the five or six hundreds BCE they had built their own Urban centers and coalesced into different kingdoms called the mahajanapadas most were ruled by a king although two were oligarchic republics the westernmost kingdoms came under the influence of the akamanid Empire and then later Alexander the greats Alexander left by 326 BCE but his administrators stayed not long after Alexander's death by 322 BCE an empire was founded in India under chandragupta Moya he drove out Alexander's satraps in the west and then gained territory past the Indus River after a war with the seleucid Empire one of Alexander's success Estates ruling from his Capital at pataliputra chandragupta had a mentor named chanakia or more commonly catilia cortilia helped Chandra group to forward his Empire and was a genius strategist philosopher Economist teacher and author he is credited with writing the Arthur sastra a Sanskrit text on political science economic principles and Military strategy it was later expanded upon and revised the text states that the king is to follow Dharma and that making happy people will in turn make a happy King but if there are any situations between following Dharma or a more rational path the king should see rationality as the more favorable solution the text also controversially stresses that the means to a positive end of Justified this was how chandragupta governed his government was highly centralized and Greek ambassadors State he was quite fearful of assassination and employed a secret police the king never slept twice in the same room of his Palace and all food had to be tasted in front of him to avoid poisoning The Vedic culture that came to dominate India had already come with their own social systems at the heart of this was a class system these classes were called Varna meaning color in the ridveda the Varna were meant to be once human calling and a rigid social classification that dictated your place in the world including your profession though there were five classes only four were considered Varna the topmost Varna were the brahmanas the Brahmin were the Priestly class and descended from the seers and priests in the indo-aryan tribal societies the name Brahmin was derived from Brahmin the Supreme Creator God in Vedic religion the basis for Hinduism under the Brahmin with akshatrias whom we recently mentioned they were the warrior class most likely to send it from the Raja Chieftains during the migrations as is evident their occupation was fighting these two varnas were considered the aristocratic classes under them was the vicia the vicia were commoners but often had regular jobs like merchants they could work for the Kings performing special agricultural projects and were compensated well these three classes were able to participate in a ritual at puberty to become twice born called the upanayana after the ceremony males entered adulthood and were allowed to wear the sacred thread at the bottom were the sudras the majority of the population they were mostly non-indo-aryan and made up of the indigenous population they were often peasants and did the manual labor these were the four Varna but even beneath these four there was the lowest of all classes they were the dalits also called Untouchables dalits could have originated as a slave or criminal class or just ethnic minorities they were given jobs no other Indian would want to do like cleaning and removing trash and handling dead bodies they were to live separately from the rest of society and were to not be seen nor touched social Mobility could happen but these classes were generally very strict marriage was to remain within one's class and no food was to be eaten if it were touched by a dalit the jaati or cast is a clan or Community within a certain class and each jati was made up of thousands of different families the family was the nucleus of Indian life most families were patriarchal and were composed of three or more Generations living together these were Bound by their reverence to their common ancestors fathers would conduct ceremonies and funeral rights but when the father died the responsibility went to his oldest son women weren't allowed to study The Vedas the religious texts of The Vedic period because they were not taught to read for those privileged classes who became twice born the male would be given a Vedic teacher or Guru the highest classes went on to higher education and became priests after 12 years of schooling they were then able to marry divorce was prohibited but could still occur as in Egypt and Mesopotamia ancient India also valued males above females because Sons were able to work in agriculture more efficiently having a daughter also meant a family would have to provide a dowry for their daughters when they got married once women became married though they were valued as wives and mothers from Varna to jati to family ancient India was based on performing certain roles and duties and this was just another part of that though the indo-aryans were originally pastoralists they spread agricultural advancements all over the subcontinent this didn't mean life was easy for farmers most were landless workers so ended up paying high rates to a landlord those who owned their own land had to pay taxes directly to the king they were also at the mercy of the climate monsoon season brought heavy rains from the Indian Ocean but if these rains were late during the summer crops would fail and there would be widespread famine apart from the Moya Empire there weren't any strong centralized entities to control irrigation systems or food storage as India continued to develop it emerged as a trading Hub during the end of the ancient period under chandragupta he centralized Empire played an active part in mining manufacturing and commerce trade was conducted with the near East and as far as the Mediterranean it could be conducted over land by camel or across the Indian Ocean Egypt enjoyed India spices perfumes and exotic animals India imported gold tin and wines within India they used cowrie shells as a means of exchange but near the end of the Moya Empire in the 2nd Century BCE they adopted copper and gold coins similar to those in the near East this led to a banking system and money economy the origins of Hinduism are based in The Vedic religion brought into India during The Vedic period the period gets its name from The Vedas which are the oldest text in Hinduism the word Vader means knowledge and the four Vaders are meant to be the knowledge which grants one a universal truth or order and one's place in it all the texts themselves were regarded as being the words of the universe spoken in vibrations and only heard by wise men and sages while they meditated these wise men retained the messages in an oral tradition until The Vedic period when they were written down [Music] this led to the rise of brahmanism which emphasized that the world had order and if there is order the belief was there must be someone to maintain this order that someone was Brahmin a being so powerful it both created the universe and was itself the universe [Music] though human beings couldn't possibly fathom the power of Brahmin it was thought that each person held a bit of his spark called artman and the goal of life was to unify your artman with Brahmin to accomplish this one must perform Dharma or one's lifelong duties with Karma or day-to-day actions this frees you from the circle of life and death known as samsara and liberates you known as Moksha either seek out and accept this Union or suffer in life after life until you finally do accept it these more spiritual beliefs emerged during the late Vedic period with a series of texts written to expand on The Vedas they dealt more with philosophy and spirituality and would eventually become the basis for Hinduism the idea of reincarnation helped reinforce the Varna system in Hindu society as it Justified everyone's place on the social ladder the lowest classes were satisfied with their daily life as they had a better life to look forward to if they acted properly the brahmins the highest class were thought to have achieved good karma in past lives and were now close to their release from The Reincarnation cycle they would have to follow their Dharma more strictly though than the lower classes it was believed even animals were included in The Reincarnation cycle but if a human was reborn as an animal that was seen negatively The Only Exception was the bull we don't exactly know why Hindu Society began to view the ball as a sacred animal but some scholars believe it was because it was a valuable animal from their pastoral days others believe it could have been a remnant of the harapan civilization as they had also revered the bull we also see this with contemporary civilizations like the Sumerians and Minoans by around 500 BCE the early indo-aryan beliefs were being synthesized into more modern rituals and practices and Hinduism would come out of this although Hinduism is seen as a continuation of brahmanism not a different religion while Hinduism is polytheistic on the surface there is clearly reverence for one true omnipotent power Brahmin to become more perceivable to humans Brahmin is often represented in three forms of the cosmic function Brahma is the creator Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva is the Transformer or Destroyer together they form the Hindu Trinity ultramorti not long after in either the mid or late 500s a boy was born to akshatria family near the Himalaya Mountains his name was Siddhartha Gautama being part of the aristocracy he grew up in wealth and Splendor marrying and raising a family by the time he was almost 30 he came to see all the pain illness and death in the world so he set out to find the cause and solution to human suffering he first emulated the ascetics becoming a monk and depriving himself of any Pleasures but found himself no closer to the answers he began meditating under a tree and was tempted by Mara the devil who promised him women and Power Siddhartha overcame these Temptations and was said to have achieved Enlightenment or Nirvana and spent the rest of his life teaching what he discovered we aren't exactly certain what sidharta knew as the written text about his teachings were composed much later but tradition holds that his Enlightenment showed him a world that transcended our own he came to believe that our material world was simply an illusion and the cause for human suffering was our attachment to this world the tree he meditated under was then known as the Bodhi Tree or tree of wisdom and Siddhartha Gautama took the name Gautama the wise or Gautama Buddha the founder of Buddhism the Buddha taught his followers through a sermon which stressed the Four Noble Truths life is suffering suffering is caused by desire to stop suffering is to stop desire and to stop desire one must follow the noble Eightfold Path it's fairly certain that Buddhism came about as a response to Hinduism as a more reformed version that wasn't as concerned with Priestly rituals and more concerned with the individual Buddhism rejected the strict hierarchical systems in place and promoted an egalitarian society though the Buddha did believe in reincarnation and Good and Bad Karma he still believed that anyone could achieve Nirvana even animals this made Buddhism very popular with the lower classes it also didn't have the over 30 000 gods associated with brahmanism so was more grounded for the average person once the Buddha died in the early 400s BCE monasteries temples and stupas were constructed all over followers could join the monasteries including women although they could not attain as high positions as men one of Buddha's contemporaries was mahavira he also preached rejection of material vices and a life of simplicity the teachings became known as Jainism and rested on the three pillars of non-violence non-absolutism and asceticism unable to hurt a living creature devout Giants became vegan or vegetarian their extreme Lifestyles made Jainism less popular than Hinduism and Buddhism though chandragupta Moya is said to have adopted jainism's principles after leaving his throne becoming a monk and Performing salakana or fasting to death his grandson Ashoka LED quite a different life as Third King of the Empire he began his Reign around 270 BCE conquering killing and expanding the Moya territories but after the Bloodshed from the Kalinga War he turned towards Buddhism he ordered Stone pillars built called Ashoka pillars and sent missionaries all over the subcontinent and Central Asia his Reign was the high point of the Empire as there was a steep decline after his death in 232 BCE the Empire finally dissolved in 185 BCE after an assassination and it would be centuries before it had any semblance of a unification in the Northwest present-day Afghanistan Pakistan and Northwest India a group of indo-europeans took power in around year 30. they were the cushions likely part of a larger Confederation of tribes who fled the nomadic tribes of western China the cushions established the kushin Empire and became the most prominent entity on the subcontinent for centuries they were at the crossroads of India China Persia and even Rome but never held More Than A small area of India proper one of the main reasons why India had such trouble remaining unified was because it's likely the maurians never held as much power as we thought and its possible India was always fairly decentralized India was a major cultural hotbed even from the beginnings of The Vedic period in 1500 BCE we touched on their literature briefly with The Vedas and upanishads they were both written in Sanskrit part of the Indo-European language family but this would eventually decline as a spoken language and replaced with prakrit by the 200s BCE are less formal everyday use of language ancient India might even be where the first scholar of linguistics emerged living somewhere between 500 and 300 BCE Panini was a grammarian who codified Sanskrit so that future Scholars would be able to read the vaders he composed over four thousand grammatical rules for the language and became known to many as the father of linguistics influencing European linguists almost 2 000 years later as well as later Indian Scholars two major epics were also being composed the Mahabharata sometimes called the fifth Vader describes the events of the kurukshetra war and the aftermath within the story are various depictions of gods and allusions to Dharma and morality one section is the bhagavad-gita a Holy scripture in Hinduism it was around two hundred thousand verses long and about ten times the length of both The Iliad and odyssey combined the other major epic was the ramayana it is quite a bit shorter but is an older story it tells of a king Rama who is banished from his kingdom and lives like a hermit his wife is captured by a demon king and he goes on an adventure to save her encountering friends along the way both Rama and Sita are depicted in ideal roles of society Rama is a kind ruler and brave husband while Sita remains loyal to Rama both texts hold religious and moral significance but are Great narrative stories as well ancient India wasn't just a source of stunning literature they also excelled at architecture though most buildings in India were wooden during The Vedic Age a shift occurred during the maorian empire after the breakup of Alexander the Great Empire many Stone Artisans came to the more years and offered their services leading to intricate Stone architecture most buildings were religious in nature the pillars of Ashoka were made of sandstone and placed at the sides of roads to honor the Buddha's Journey they could weigh up to 50 tons each and go up to 50 feet tall or around 15 meters and had a distinctive Maori and polish animal sculptures were placed on top perhaps inspired from the Greeks or Persians edicts would be inscribed later called the edicts of Ashoka on many of these pillars a stupor was a building to hold a Buddhist artifact like the cremated remains of the Buddha or other sacred Relic after the Buddha died there was said to be between just 8 and 10 Buddhist stupas built but during ashoka's Reign Legend says the great king had constructed over 84 000. the most impressive form of ancient Indian construction was their Rock Cut architecture Ashoka began building these in mountainsides or other natural rock formations the earliest of these were the Baja Khali Betsy and ajanta caves they weren't just built as pieces of art though Buddhist monks were able to stay in different areas of the caves and conduct religious ceremonies The Artisans displayed an unimaginable degree of technical proficiency and the caves are even today still a significant achievement in engineering ashoka's pillars stupas and this Rock Cut architecture were all motivated by religious ideals so they all depicted religious themes we still don't know much about the ancient Indian Sciences but it appears they were much more advanced than Europe at the time Indian mathematicians created the indo-arabic numeral system we still use today almost 2 000 years ago astronomers were well aware the Earth was spherical and also used instruments to chart the Stars an old tale tells of the creation of the Chinese civilization over 5000 years ago according to Chinese historian SEMA chin the period of the three sovereigns and five Emperors laid the foundation for Chinese Society though we have different variations of the sovereignt and Emperors the first of these rulers was fushi he and his sister knewer the second Sovereign are credited with creating Humanity domestication of animals and family life the third Sovereign was shinong the Divine farmer who gave the Chinese people agricultural inventions and practices and introduced them to Medicinal herbal drugs another variation lists the Heavenly Sovereign Earthly Sovereign and Sovereign of man as these three legendary rulers of the five Emperors that came next the yellow Emperor or huangdi was the first credited with inventing writing the Bowen arrow and slew of other ingenious inventions most modern Western Scholars dispute the accuracy of these stories but they are viewed as explanations of the Chinese view of family the shift from thematic to agricultural life and the origins of their writing systems prior to this Neolithic China was home to numerous smaller cultures many based around the Yellow River in the North the two best known to archaeologists were the Yang Xiao dating from 5000 to 3000 BCE which then transitioned to the lungshan from 3000 to around 2000. smaller agricultural societies emerged to the South around another of China's major rivers the Yangtze the southern regions of China were much more wet so rice was able to be cultivated while the drier North relied on Millet and wheat it was from these two river valleys that Chinese civilization emerged these regions would remain important as most of China is not suitable for agriculture with its wide range of geographical features like deserts and mountains not much of China is arable just a mere 12 percent in the west China's borders were the geographic barriers of the Gobi desert Tibetan plateau and the central Asia steps these areas were inhabited by nomadic or pastoralist tribes of early Mongol and turkic peoples and tribes of indo-europeans though trade with these folk could be beneficial for both sides they were generally more aggressive and militaristic a recurring theme in Chinese history would be the invasions of different nomadic people strong Chinese governments often either repelled them or attempted to synthesize them making them part of Chinese Society under weak governments though these Intruders could fragment China or even take over complete governmental Administration from the south and east though China remained quite safe from any kind of invasion until well into the modern era Chinese historians usually date the start of Chinese civilization to around 2000 BCE the period after the three sovereigns and five Emperors and the founding of the Shia Dynasty by you the great famous for his reported irrigation and control of flood waters many Western Scholars consider this dynasty legendary or conflated with the early to culture which existed in the same region after around 400 years the Shia was replaced with the Sean Dynasty historians agree on this Dynasty's existence because archaeologists have uncovered the Sean Capital at anyong one of their fines were Oracle bones these were bones of turtles chickens or oxen that were used as a communication tool with the Gods the inscriptions on these bones were pictographs and other direct ancestors of many East Asian writing systems still in use today the show was a monarchy and ruled through the king's Rich Aristocrats who controlled Northern China's valuable resources of salts and metals they also excelled at War the song used the newly introduced two-horse Chariot similar to the Indo-European invention suggesting contact between them and the early Chinese and could even have been used by the song in their quest for power also found were burial mounds of the same style as the lungshan suggesting lineage to the Neolithic culture the king divided his kingdom between the aristocratic ruling class leading to a decentralized kingdom but the King was able to depose any of these Chieftains when he pleased defense of the Kingdom also fell on the King's shoulders so he was required to assemble a large army once the king died ritual sacrifices were done at his funeral including hundreds of his assistants buried alongside him in the Royal tombs as a way to gain the gods favor sometimes family members were also sacrificed but more as a means of following the king and continuing to live on with him in the afterlife from this the concept of veneration of ancestors emerged although later it was modified to burning replicas of objects which would join the dead on their post-life Journey from What We Gather from the Oracle bone scripts the Sean believed they could not only communicate with the gods but ask for divine intervention their most supreme god was Shandi a Heavenly Sky deity an early Sean character seen here represents their word for King the horizontal lines on the top and bottom represent the Divine world and Human Society respectively the middle horizontal line represents the king signifying his place's intermediary between his people and the Gods during Neolithic China the social unit was the clan a grouping made up of many single families it's likely all residents of a clan adopted the same family name houses were generally single-family units but divisions like ditches are seen in villages with multiple Clans this could help explain why today over 40 percent of the Chinese population share just 10 surnames and only 19 surnames are used by around half of the whole harm population the dominant ethnicity in China the majority of Sean Society were farmers many of which were peasants who had to work the land owned by the aristocracy below them there was likely a small slave or criminal class the middle class was small but included merchants and artisans some of these Artisans most iconic metalwork was their bronze casting they created sophisticated religious objects and weapons out of bronze many of these were found in Royal tombs historians have long believed that the song represented the beginnings of Chinese culture and that from this nucleus it spread into all neighboring areas but recent excavations prove that many areas of China already had thriving agricultural communities and bronze works of Their Own many rested in the south in the Yangtze but some were in the West one of these was the Joe by 1046 BCE the Joe state which resided to the west of the Sean Capital invaded and overthrew the dynasty this new Joe dynasty was the longest in Chinese history lasting just under 800 years it is thought the last Sean rulers grew decadent and immoral losing their people's support so the Takeover by the Joe was seen as legitimate the Joe Capital was established in their original territory near present-day Xi'an a new capital was later established at present-day luyang to take care of Affairs further east Joe rulers mimicked the song in that the king ruled but divided his territory between an aristocratic class over time the king's bureaucracy grew and included Ministries for law education Public Works and religious ceremonies sources suggest that since the Sean rulers had become unjust they had lost the Mandate of Heaven the concept is that the king is the medium between his people and Heaven it was his duty to act morally and with compassion not only that he was to rule efficiently guarding against droughts floods and other natural disasters should he fail in this he was deemed to have lost the Mandate of Heaven and could be overthrown as we saw with the Joe who used this to justify their Conquest it would then become part of Chinese politics for the next dynasties who all took power claiming the mandate according to Joe documents the first part of their reign was a golden age for China but then they declined the aristocratic classes had gained too much power creating and controlling their own economies expanding their own militaries and fighting one another by 771 BCE the central government of the Joe was still recognized but it was only ceremonial China entered a time of decentralization known as the spring and Autumn and then warring State periods though the political and ruling Elite was different peasants under the Joe LED very similar lives than under the Sean they worked the fields for their landlords but were also given fields of Their Own this was known as the wellfield system the Chinese character well is this symbol which is divided into nine segments this is what the field looked like the outer plots of land were private and worked by individual serfs who were able to keep the food the central or public plot was communally worked by the other eight Pharma families and all food produced here was sent to the Aristocrat or landlord who owned the entire field from this food the landlord would send a portion to the King as a tax or tribute manufacturing and trade was performed by The Artisans and Merchants but they were considered to be owned by the aristocratic class the actual slaves were most likely prisoners from neighboring regions they worked labor-intensive jobs but were probably a very small part of society despite the decentralization of the later Joe period China experienced High economic growth for centuries during the final days of the Joe in the 200 BCE the state of Qin undertook a massive project on the Min River creating a massive irrigation system that watered a large area which could have supported 5 million inhabitants impressively the system is still in use today the late Joe was also a time of technological advancement with the introduction of iron plows were able to go deeper and they have since developed other farming techniques in the wetter South rice became the food of choice despite how long it can take to produce rice came to replace the other grains because of its taste and nutritional value all these advances LED China's population to Skyrocket to around 20 million during this era the middle class grew and along with it the economy it soon came to be that the merchants and Traders held more power than the aristocratic classes the most important trade item was silk there is evidence of silkworms being domesticated since the Neolithic age and silk material on Sean bronze works and Joe era tombs used to wrap the deceased body these silks exclusively produced in China became the basis for a series of silk roots or the Silk Road a trade Network linking the East to the West Jade was also an important commodity having been mined in the mountains of Tibet for centuries the precious stone was seen as a symbol of Purity and virtue the Chinese like many other cultures traded in shells early on but they transitioned into a money economy using coins with holes that could be carried on a string but this was mainly used by the merchant class and those above the poorer Chinese still Bartered and paid their taxes and rent in Grain During the decentralized period of the Eastern Joe many debates and schools of thought emerged trying to make sense of the world though the period had many ferocious battles and bloodshed it was a golden period for Chinese philosophy these philosophies were called The Hundred schools of thought we know Chinese beliefs originated much earlier with evidence of Neolithic animism in which Spirits existed in natural forms by the time of the Shang Dynasty there was reverent for a supreme god called shangdi as time went on chongdi came to be replaced with a less corporeal and more symbolic God known as Tien or Heaven some other early Concepts were of the young the Sun and Yin the Moon these were two primary Universal forces for good and evil light and darkness Chinese civilization didn't believe one to be more powerful and that each was to have its own time just like the day and night the song used Oracle bones and divination techniques to try to predict these laws of nature while philosophers tried to understand it one of these was Confucius or Master Kung born in 551 BCE in the state of Liu during the Spring and Autumn period he set out to become a political adviser when he became a young man and ended up picking up followers on his journeys his ideas were based in the real world and he spoke little of the metaphysical like many other schools of thought this made most of his teachings which are compiled in the analects focused on politics ethics and individual human behavior he believed the proper way to act was according to the Dao all the way each person's individual goals and duties it is similar to the Dharma in India a concept we touched on last episode it was a conservative ideology as it stressed a hierarchy but everyone in society was to act according to his or her Dao including the king who had the greatest responsibility of all while his ideas weren't popular during his life many of his followers spread his message throughout all of China he never liked the Society of his time wishing to go back to the Golden Age of the earlier Joe this didn't mean all his ideas were old-fashioned he advocated to open up governmental positions to all men who are capable instead of only those from Noble birth he still believed the aristocratic class should rule the political sphere though a revised bureaucracy would develop from the teachings of Confucius leading to the Civil Service examination system a test of Merit not heritage his philosophy would become the basis for not only much of Chinese Society but East Asian Society for centuries still remaining relevant today another school of thought that became popular during this time was legalism mencius who lived later expanded on confusion ideals and interpreted the philosophy to emphasize the humanistic and compassionate side stressing that humans were inherently good and would follow the correct path because of this legalists rejected this premise stressing that humans were inherently evil and needed to be forced or coerced into doing their Duty they argued that only a strong central government with strict laws could bring social order as there was nothing in the universe to make humans choose good on their own another alternative to Confucianism and somewhat more popular was Taoism it was founded by a contemporary of Confucius Laro TSU or old master some Scholars claim he was born a century later than Confucius while some regard him as completely legendary he is credited with authoring the way of the Tao a confounding text full of paradoxes and mystery contrary to Confucianism which preaches obeying hierarchy and working to fulfill one's duties in your place in society taoism stressed the way or inaction Wu way was even considered to be the best form of government as it was a state of Perfect Harmony act spontaneously and let the natural order take its course taoism became a popular ideology for those who felt displeased with the rigid hierarchy and work ethic of the Confucian School Scholars also became more open to taoism especially in the Warring States period when their world was more chaotic as if offered a way to cope or accept their place in the chaos the metaphysical aspects of taoism dealt with the human spirit and was more of a religion than a philosophy rights and rituals were performed to achieve salvation and immortality by becoming one with nature some practitioners trained their bodies and mind vigorously though neither taoism nor Confucianism stressed the importance of gods the majority of the Chinese population believed in them and their divine intervention they also believed that the souls of the Dead remained on Earth before their afterlife during this time family was to perform the specific rituals to care for the spirit otherwise it would be lost to remain on Earth unlike other regions of the world the era of the hundred schools of thought made China a diverse and syncretic Society both Confucianism and taoism complemented each other and both became ingrained in Chinese Society the spring and Autumn period was followed by the warring State period in which seven major Chinese States fought for power while the jokings were largely ignored armies grew and became more powerful with iron weapons becoming the norm foot soldiers crossbows and Cavalry were widely used to counter cities building larger fortifications Siege engines were built one of these states residing in the original Joe Homeland in the West Was the chin it quickly grew into one of China's major Powers through a series of Ruthless and unrelenting reforms to their military Agricultural and economic systems these were put into place by the Statesman Shong yang the Chin's position in the mountains to the West gave them a defensive Advantage as well as access to the fertile Sichuan planes with Supreme efficiency the chin used disadvantage to slowly absorb their rivals by 221 BCE the king of the chin proclaimed himself Emperor the start of a new Dynasty and the beginning of the first unified Chinese Empire in history the chin solidified its rule under this new emperor chincha Juan he had risen to power in the state of chin back in 247 BCE having just become a teenager adopting the legalist ideology he swept away his Rivals and became the first emperor of China a title that would continue on for the next 2000 years China under the chin was quite different from the decentralized Joe the state made legalism the official ideology and banned all the problematic philosophies and free thinking schools of thought from the last era any texts that went against the state or were seen as promoting dissent were burned many of those Scholars against the new state were put to death the government needed to be strong and was divided into three Ministries the Civil Authority the military Authority and the center eight inspectors who acted as the emperor's eyes and ears checking government employees for corruption any official found guilty of an offense was executed the emperor also standardized weight and measures the written Chinese language and commissioned a road system throughout China to take power from the aristocratic classes he divided their land Among The Peasants who now paid taxes directly to the emperor this not only increased Revenue but prevented the elite classes from gaining enough power to fragment China like under the Joe the elites were also forced to live at chanyang so that their activities could be monitored the Qing government also looked at the merchant class unfavorably goods were heavily taxed and much of the commercial and Manufacturing activities were placed under government control under chinche Huang the chin Army also marched South expanding the Empire to the borders of the Red River in present-day Vietnam China was never much concerned with their Eastern or Southern borders though it was the north that was the Empire's weak point just beyond China around the Gobi desert a confederation of tribes would start to become more active they were the shanu a Chinese pejorative term meaning Fierce slave historians and linguists still don't know much about their identity but theories suggest they could be related to either the Huns Mongols Turks indo-iranians or none at all the region was originally not as dry and might have been forested giving early inhabitants plenty to hunt and fish once the area became drier people had to change their subsistence practices and adopted animal husbandry and a more nomadic lifestyle they mastered horseback riding and traveled seasonally in search of better pastures carrying with them their belongings including their homes called yets portable round tents covered in felt or skins some of the warring states began building small walls as a deterrent as their armies weren't equipped to deal with these faster mobile armies once Jin Shah Huang became emperor he added Horsemen of his own to his military mounted archers who could counter the northern tribes he also extended the walls which had been previously built using the mountains as natural barriers built of granite blocks the wall which would become known as The Great Wall began in Central Asia and ran to the sea in the east the top was left wide enough for chariots to use as a pathway though this Great Wall isn't the one we are familiar with which was built later by the Ming this was still a massive undertaking and a project that cost thousands of laborers their lives and despite the rumors there is no evidence human bodies are buried within the wall though the Empire fulfilled some major historical accomplishments the brutal legalist system couldn't last attempts were made to assassinate the emperor leading chincha Juan to become quite fearful for his life he sought out an elixir of immortality but died in 210 BCE at age 49 possibly poisoned from an elixir of another sort Justified paranoia often hits deeper than delusions the emperor's successor couldn't hold the empire together and by 206 BCE the Qin empire was dissolved after just 15 years China declined into another period of War called the chuhan contention but after just a few years the Han Dynasty was established in 202 BCE this dynasty would become one of the most successful in Chinese history this would become a golden age and the Chinese people would even derive their ethnicity from harm the empire was founded by Liu bong who was from the peasant class and became emperor gausu he kept a lot of the centralized institutions from the Qin empire but dropped the legalist Doctrine instead adopting Confucianism as the way to govern merging it with the remaining legalist governmental institutions he governed with a system known as state Confucianism positioned in the bureaucracy were also based on Merit as opposed to inheritance in 165 BCE under Emperor Wen the first Civil Service examination was given for positions in public service a school was later open to train students for these examinations while many of these students were from the aristocratic class the examination still acted as a means to prevent those who could not pass from Gaining a position as an official tax incentives in the Han Empire promoted larger families so the population Rose to what is estimated to be three times higher at just under 60 million around the turn of the millennium over time wealthy Aristocrats and eunuchs castrated Servants of the Royal Court would start to undermine the central government and eventually play a large role in the Empire's eventual collapse though the government was still leery of the merchant class restricting many of their rights the Han themselves controlled much of the trade and Manufacturing they operated the mines built and maintained the granaries and expanded infrastructure like the road system and bridges more canals were created to ease transport over the water all over the empire foreign trade was expanded with India and as far as Rome in the Mediterranean by Overland Caravans on the trading Network called The Silk Road or silk route silk itself was exclusively produced in China though the harm were proficient at iron working they were eventually able to produce Steel paper was also invented under this dynasty as well as shipyards and shipbuilding innovations that allowed heavy Merchant ships to sail Against the Wind in the late 100s BCE China undertook a series of military campaigns to expand the empire under Emperor Wu the harm continued the qin's expansion to the South and successfully conquered the UA tribes of Northern Vietnam annexing multiple kingdoms campaigns were also launched to the north and west stretching the Hans border deep into Central Asia to subdue the shown you first the emperor sent one of his diplomats Zhong chin to gather reconnaissance from the region he returned with valuable information not only about the economic and political situation of the central Asians but also with information about the declining greco-bacterian Kingdom and parthian Empire he also forged an alliance with the UE a group of tribes who also saw the xionu as their enemy the emperor then knew enough about the region to round up and send a military who secured the area this region would later become part of the province of xinjiang and is today the largest Province in China being a major present in Central Asia the harm were able to trade more with the nomadic tribes and Persia silk was of course their main export and they imported grapes and Metalworks but their most coveted import was the fergana horse these horses were native to Iran but were used by other Central Asian tribes depicted as large and sturdy the horses were called Heavenly horses by the Han an emperor Wu imported and used them as cavalry the silk that the Chinese exported for all of this was made from threads in silkworm cocoons as early as the 3000 BCE by the time of the Han silk had reached a Mediterranean World via the Silk Road sparking contact between China and the Roman Republic during the Roman Empire silk became quite popular among the upper classes and they paid for it handsomely much to the dismay of the Roman emperors though State Confucianism was the official religion at the local level people either still believed in the old gods or the spirits associated with nature in Taoism it was the increase in trade that would introduce an alternative with the influx of foreign merchants and Traders Buddhism was brought into China for the first time it didn't take off immediately as there were no translated Buddhist texts until centuries later but the spread by word of mouth was the foundation of its expansion Chinese monks would later travel to India to learn more about Buddhism though China's wealth increased The Peasant population was still exploited leading one Han official to take action in year 9 of the Common Era wangmang usurped the Han throne and declared the beginning of the shin Dynasty wangmang abolished slavery and brought back the wellfield system he also launched land redistribution projects though his government was more centralized The Peasants and lower classes fared better during the shin Dynasty but this alienated the elites after natural disasters plagued the Empire there was unrest among the peasantry in 23 CE he was killed in a rebellion and the Han regained power historians often refer to this period as the Eastern or later harm back in control the Han started off by lowering taxes and food production increased over time though corruption crept back in with Unix dominating certain rulers and the aristocracy eventually regaining more land leading to Peasant unrest this wasn't the only problem as the xionu again became a threat after negotiations and diplomacy failed the harm continued their military campaigns and by the end of the first century the xionu state was dissolved and the tribes lost all their power in the steps during the 100s the Han was plagued by many problems leading to a sharp decline by 220 the Empire finally fell to General sausau from the Chinese epic written later the Romance of the Three Kingdoms the Three Kingdoms period saw China divided in a state of chaos massive population decline an internal and external rivalries China would remain divided or under threat for centuries until reunified during the late 500s to begin its medieval or mid-imperial period daily life in China was always based on the family during the Neolithic this family structure was called a clan in reality it was a grouping of various different families during the Joe individual families became more important as they needed to cooperate during agriculture especially the labor-intensive cultivation of rice around the Yangtze this made children valuable members of the family as they were expected to provide their labor in farming and to take care of their own parents once they grew older over time individual families became the basic social unit the belief of reverence for one's elders and ancestors was known as filial piety an idea emphasized by Confucius at the center of this was the hierarchical system known as the five Cardinal relationships the social order was that a son was subordinate to his father a younger brother to his older brother a wife to her husband and all of the family subordinate to the king the fifth relationship was that a friend was to treat a friend properly if Society respects the filial order then Society should run efficiently loyalty to the family or Clan above the state was a problem for the highly centralized legalist chin government they impose taxes on families with more than two adult sons and tried to break down the clan system so that loyalty would be foremost to the state after the chin the family had a Resurgence under the harm it was inevitable as the economy religious ceremonies and education were all based on the family unit houses were most likely originally built with wood but eventually brick and tile were used especially for public spaces and houses for Elites the wealthy also had houses with numerous Wings centered around a courtyard and was meant to be home to several Generations at once by the time of the harm most houses were either built with wood mud or brick in the northern regions caves were used as dwellings as well and would be used continuously for centuries in most houses floors were generally mud and there is no evidence of chairs until the later sway or Tang Dynasty clothes weren't anything special and consisted of wool and burlap in the winter and lighter clothing in the summer as for food rice was the staple for the southern regions as they were more wet Millet was the main food in the North meat or fish would be added on rare occasions for a finer dining experience the upper class is drank ale but the Emperors often looked at excessive alcohol consumption as a concern tea was another popular drink Legend states that the emperor Shannon discovered tea during the three sovereigns and five Emperors period after tea leaves from a wild tree blew into his water in reality tea only became popular much later in China's imperial period once the chin came to power Urban centers grew and became more important for easier control the chin divided cities into different districts when the chin forced the elites to move to shinyang for easier surveillance they lived in large villas and had access to beautiful gardens Urban centers eventually became the cultural hubs of Chinese Society much like they did in other regions of the world here you could find Elites Merchants manual laborers even criminals it wasn't just Confucianism that caused men to be at the top of the family hierarchy since the Advent of Agriculture men had become more valuable as food producers in China women raised the children while men worked the fields while the hierarchy was strict women were still able to attain certain kinds of power but usually only through their husbands the Chinese written language also gives us some insight on how they view gender roles man is composed of the symbols for rice field and Power woman is from the image of a person with crossed legs men were seen as those with the burden of running Society from being Governors Scholars ministers and warriors as such they were allowed to have more than one wife and could divorce if his wife could not provide a male heir with no Dowry a woman could become destitute If This Were to occur unlike the drier climate of Egypt and Mesopotamia which helped to preserve many of their artifacts and Relics the East Asian humidity had the opposite effect but archaeologists have found enough to know China had a high level of cultural development Pottery was found at the Neolithic sites of Yang Xiao and longshan it was during the song though that bronze Works began to appear many of these were used during ancestral ceremonies to serve food or drink eventually some would become decorative their crafts were more unique than most other contemporary civilizations as they used a different technique instead of using the Lost wax method China used piece mold casting which involved different sections of clay placed around a model then the model removed and the liquid bronze poured in this allowed them to apply their designs directly to the mold making it sharper and much more clear eventually the Chinese would use the Lost wax method as well but this brought with it a stark decline in the quality of their bronze works the work from the Shong is still regarded as the best in ancient China another reason for the decline was that China had entered its Iron Age during the late Joe period and took up iron making though they began the process much later than their contemporaries in the Middle East they quickly became Masters at it by the time of the harm the Chinese had invented the blast furnace a technique that allowed them to reach high enough temperatures to make cast iron back West they were only able to produce wrought iron without this technology while cast iron was weaker it allowed for mass production of iron tools for peasants bronze casting also suffered because it became less economical Ceramics and lacquer a hard coating added to Wood and other surfaces became more popular these including iron were all less expensive to produce than bronze Wares other art included wall frescoes much of which has been lost to history one discovery that has been Unearthed was found underground near the burial mound of Emperor chincha Huang the first emperor of the Qin dynasty inside was a number of stunning terracotta figures representing the emperor's Imperial Guard meant to Journey with and protect him in the afterlife thousands of figures were found in these pits including Warriors chariots and horses the work that went into the figures must have been painstakingly long each figure was given different facial features and expressions and made to represent the different ethnicities that the emperor commanded the use of these terracotta figures also reveals the Chinese had stopped performing Human Sacrifice after the death of a ruler like during the Shang Dynasty and created replicas instead though the human toll was cheaper the preparations for the emperor's afterlife ended up costing a huge Fortune the mausoleum and Tomb of the emperor have still not fully been excavated we don't know exactly when China developed its writing system but the earliest evidence we have is from the Sean Oracle bones these were mainly pictographs or ideographs the symbols or characters could look like what they represented like the character for mountain or water but they could also represent ideas such as the character for big which is a man with arms outstretched or the character for East which represents the sun rising behind the trees the characters would be given a phonetic sound and while most other civilizations eventually replaced their pictographs for a phonetic alphabet China kept a pictographic writing system this was because of the wide range of cyanitic languages in China starting with the chin a standardized system was implemented with all characters having the same meaning but sounding different phonetically this made written Chinese accessible to all of China and is why both Mandarin and Cantonese are different languages but use the same writing system in terms of literature itself the earliest we've discovered is from the Western Joe period philosophical texts and poetry were mainly written in this time during the harm when Confucianism became the state ideology a set of older texts were integrated into the five Classics texts which became part of the state-sponsored curriculum these five texts were the classic of poetry a collection of poems songs and eulogies the book of documents a collection of speeches written by early Joe rulers the book of rights which describes ancient rituals the I Ching or book of changes a fortune telling and divination text and the spring and Autumn annals a Chronicle of the state of Lou during the Spring and Autumn period [Music] it is thought that music was originally invented not as a means of song and dance but to purify the Heart during ancient rituals over time music became more accepted outside the religious Realm Bells were some of the first instruments during the Shang Dynasty made from their bronze making techniques and struck with wooden mallets by the Joe period these bells were some of the best bronze work in the east they could be over two tons in weight and produce different notes they were unique and would not appear in the West for centuries and even then would only be a few inches high by the late Joe Bells began to lose favor and became replaced with string and wind instruments intensifying the shift from religious music to entertainment from there a Divergent began from Court music and the pleasurable music of the masses a distinction which still continues [Music] environment always influenced the development of ancient societies for the Greeks it was everything Greece's unique position left them with a very small territory compared to the civilizations of Asia furthermore Greece was made up of small planes surrounded by high mountains and Hills throughout leaving Greeks isolated from one another instead of a unified Consciousness Greek communities learn to become independent and formed rivalries even more important than the mainland was the sea the Mediterranean was less of an obstacle and more of a means of expansion for the Greeks they inhabited the neighboring Island and became expert seafarers eventually expanding and setting up colonies all across the sea Greece itself looked like this south of the Gulf of Corinth was the peloponnese attached to the rest of the Mainland by a tiny Isthmus called the Isthmus of Corinth there were fertile Plains Hills and Valleys in the peloponnese but more famously this was the location of Sparta the site of the ancient Olympic Games Olympia was also located here to the Northeast on the Greek mainland was Attica this was home to Athens Northwest of Attica was biosha home to Thebes above that was thessaly originally known as eolia known for its large fertile Plains for cultivating grain and raising horses north of thessaly was Macedonia a region that took a different route from the other Greek city-states and wouldn't become important until the late 300s BCE but before the Greeks the first civilization in the Aegean region that we know of are the Minoans they emerged on the island of Crete around 3 500 BCE but became more established in bronzeworks by around three thousand though often included in any history of Greece the Minoans were not at all Greek although they did influence tribes on the mainland this civilization was uncovered by Arthur Evans an English archaeologist who dubbed it minoan after King Minos the legendary king of Crete his workers excavated a large Palace complex at Nassau's most likely the center of the minoan civilization which reached far beyond the island experts at Maritime travel the Minoans had contact with Egypt to the South and influenced the Hellenic tribes on the mainland by 2000 BCE the Minoans developed complex Urban centers and entered a period of prosperity the palace was a beautiful structure and included rooms to produce decorated pottery vases and other works of art they even had bathrooms with elaborate Drainage Systems reminiscent of the Indus Valley and not yet seen again in Europe for almost a millennium large frescoes also adorned the palace depicting Sports and sea life by around 1450 BCE the Palace of nosos was destroyed and the minoan civilization went into decline historians believe a volcanic eruption or earthquake signaled the downfall of Europe's first civilization weakened the Minoans were no match for an invasion from the mainland and by 1100 BCE the Minoans became history in their place were the Greek Invaders known as the Mycenaeans their name was derived from the site of mycenae excavated by German archaeologist Heinrich schliemann during the mid-1800s the Mycenaeans were part of the Indo-European language family whose migrations included those of the indo-iranians to Persia and India the Middle East like the Hittites and those into Western Europe this group migrated from the north around 1900 BCE and eventually made contact with the Minoans by the 1700s BCE they had developed their own Advanced culture and prospered on the mainland by around 1400 BCE they had reached a high point with small cities based around their palatial structures for defensive purposes they were built high up on hills and protected by large Limestone walls built by a technique called cyclopian Masonry though each of these small Urban centers was independent they were linked together by a shared culture and shared alliances mycini dominated much of Southern Greece Crete and even further Islands unlike the Minoans the Mycenaeans like their Indo-European counterparts were bred for war they are thought to have provided the final dagger to shatter the weakened Minoans and spread throughout the Aegean with a series of military campaigns the best documented of these was by a famous Greek poet according to Homer the Mycenaeans led by King Agamemnon invaded the Anatolian Coast in the mid-1200s and evidence seems to partially confirm this during the late Bronze Age collapse mycenae was burned and the other palatial centers in Greece were destroyed Invaders had entered from the north and by 1100 BCE the once flourishing Mycenaean civilization collapsed as Greece entered a Dark Age these dark ages lasting around three centuries saw Greece in a period of severe population Decline and severe lack of food Urban centers were abandoned while Rural Life became normal information from this period is quite scarce so it is still clouded in mystery near the end of the Dark Ages agriculture seems to have started up again and populations seem to have increased tradition holds that the Greeks divided themselves into four main tribes the ionians started to migrate to other areas of the Aegean settling on the many habitable islands and more importantly on the Anatolian Coast a region that would later be called Ionia the achaeans resided in the northern peloponnese the aeolians originating in thessaly migrated across the sea to settle on Lesbos fleeing the dorians who had migrated from the north the dorians themselves the last of the four tribes mainly settled in the peloponnese but also on a few Aegean Islands an encrete the economy picked up and trade had a resurgence iron began replacing bronze especially in weapons crafting making them more plentiful also at the end of the Dark Ages Greece adopted The Phoenician alphabet which we mentioned in our first episode a system used by an author who was to be known as the greatest of poets this author Omar is credited for composing both The Iliad and the Odyssey epic poems which served as the basis for Western literature the stories were derived from earlier oral Traditions The Iliad was the story of the Trojan War focusing on the Greek hero Achilles The War Began when Paris a prince of Troy in Anatolia kidnapped Helen the wife of Menelaus King of Sparta a Greek Coalition then attacked Troy to reclaim Helen resulting in the 10-year Trojan War The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus one of the Greek leaders and his Adventure back to his wife Penelope back in Greece both these stories merged the glory of the Mycenaean age with the Dismal economic and societal conditions of the Dark Ages Homer isn't referred to as a historian today merely a skilled author or at best a proto-historian but at the time Greeks regarded his work as genuine historical accounts correct or not it was still useful as it helped give them a unified past and literature to study and use in education talk to Greek males the values in the text included striving for excellent and willing to fight for moral virtue this concept was known as arate where a hero fully realizes their potential often after overcoming a struggle a theme from The Iliad women were also meant to pursue Excellence but by different means in The Odyssey Penelope stays loyal to Odysseus despite being separated for over a decade she also maintains their household and prevents other men from disrupting their family the aristocratic classes took these virtues to heart and Homer became quite popular instilling in the Greeks a sense of morals and virtue from around 800 BCE Greece experienced a structural Revolution with smaller Villages becoming small independent city-states and with it a new era known as archaic Greece Greek civilization truly took shape around the polis citizens of Apollos would gather around a central area sometimes up on a hill like the Acropolis at Athens for political or religious assemblies but much of daily life could take place at the Agra an open market that also served as a place for citizens to socialize all police were of different shapes and sizes there were over 1 000 in total but the main cities were generally larger like Athens which had a population of around 250 to 370 000 by the end of the Archaic Period at the basis of the polis not surprisingly was politics but people weren't politically equal adult males were considered citizens with full political rights women and children were also considered citizens but with less rights slaves and foreigners weren't considered citizens at all the rights that came with being a citizen also brought with it responsibility they were to act in the best interests of the police and the city-state came before the individual this led to more rivalries between different Greek cities bringing with it a new military system with more access to more resources Greeks all over the Mediterranean were able to have lucrative trading routes this made certain men quite rich and able to spark a military Revolution battles in the Greek Dark Ages had mostly been a leader on Horseback engaging with an opposing leader with soldiers simply brawling on foot with New Wealth these rich men often Artisans could equip themselves better forging better armor they would also take up long Spears up to 14 feet long as weapons it was called a Dory or doru if this broke they could use a short sword called a zephos as defense they would make Shields composed of thick wood bronze and leather these were called hoplands taking the name of this Shield these soldiers came to be known as hoplites hoplite would fight in a group with other hoplites known as the phalanx acting as a unit every Hop light stood shoulder to shoulder and was required to use his shield to protect the Hop light to his left those in front also raised their Spears over the shield wall to engage the enemy those at the back would push forward their tight formation and long Spears made the Phalanx perfect for fighting on flat fields which was often the case as Farmland was often the prize The Hop light would remain the Staple in the Greek army for centuries [Music] one circumstance of this change was that Cavalry was pushed to the side in favor of foot soldiers this opened up access to more citizens Farmers could now also become hoplites if they acquired their own armor this led to Aristocrats fighting in the Phalanx side by side with the lower classes in a way democratizing the army war was Central to the Greek way of life and armies trained regularly we will see later in this video that this gave them an advantage over foreign mercenary armies that far outnumbered the Greeks apart from the emergence of the police the other main theme of this period was Greek colonization during the 700s to the 500 BCE Greeks emigrated from the mainland because of overpopulation and economic reasons they settled across the Mediterranean establishing cities independent from the colonizer's home police which was known as the mother state or Metropolis traveling west they established colonies in southern Italy what the later Romans would call Magna Grisha southern France Spain and in North Africa they also set up colonies to the Northeast in Thrace around the Black Sea and the most important of all on the Bosphorus the colony of Byzantium which would become Constantinople the expansion of the Greeks not only brought Greek culture to foreign lands it also gave the Greeks a better sense of identity the independent Greek cities found they had so much more in common with their neighbors than those they met overseas the main material benefit was through trade colonies would have access to different kinds of resources and traded with the mainland Metropolis the Western colonies would send back metals and Grains while the Black Sea colonies provided these as well plus Timber and slaves in return the colonies imported Greek Goods like wine olive oil an intricate pottery with the increased trade a new Merchant middle class grew and soon came to clash with the upper classes who had ruled by aristocracy a small handful of Elites this led to the rise of what the Greeks call tyrants rulers who weren't necessarily tyrannical as we know the word today but just attained power through unconventional means many of these tyrants were supported by both the new Merchant classes and the peasant classes who were indebted to land owning aristocrats when Tyrant came to power the aristocrats suffered but the lower classes generally prospered new marketplaces were built along with temples and other infrastructure that would benefit the merchants and peasants despite often being popular tyrants eventually fell out of favor as the Greek people still respected legitimacy and Tyrant were too dangerous to have as rulers in some cities tyrants helped the Greeks get past the rule of aristocracy and led them down the path to rule by the people or democracy other cities kept some form of oligarchy or other kind of non-democratic rule the two most important of these cities were Sparta and Athens Sparta in the south peloponnese in Laconia was considered the most dominant military land power in all ancient Greece but this wasn't always the case apart from Tara's a colony that would become to rent him the Spartans expanded more over land than oversea they first took over territory from the closest laconians and in the late 700s BCE the Spartans expanded West conquering messinia a region of vast fertile Plains the messinians were made to be hellert a word derived from an old laconian town that was captured they were tied to the land as surfs and forced to work the land for the Spartans the threat of Revolt was always present though as the messinian significantly outnumbered their masters this fear could be what forced the Spartans to become a strict military state anywhere from the early to mid-archaic the Spartans adopted legal reforms handed down by the legendary lawmaker like ergus Society became strict and repressive as the state Consolidated the power and controlled the citizens boys were taken from their families at age seven to undergo the agoga the rigorous State training regiment the boys spent their days together sleeping in military Barracks under harsh conditions and given an education that stressed obedience and physical training by age 20 they were transferred to full-time military service even though they married they lived separately from their wives eating in mess halls and bonding with their fellow soldiers the food in these Halls was reportedly so bad that after tasting it a visitor then realized why the Spartans were not afraid to die by age 30 the Spartans were given the right to vote in assembly and considered mature enough to live at home with their wife but their military service continued for another 30 years inadvertently the strict training Regiment of the Spartan men gave Spartan women more rights than in other cities because they lived without their husbands until age 30 they were allowed to supervise large territories own and inherit land and could come and go as they pleased at one point women owned almost 40 percent of the land in Sparta in return they needed to take care of the children and also remain healthy which they did by exercising in the nude women also adopted much of the Spartan values of Bravery in war feeling no sorrow if a husband or son perished in battle because after all they were born to die for the state the reforms also changed the Spartan governmental system it was an oligarchy but was headed by two kings from two different families meant to keep the other in check they would be personally responsible for leading the Spartan troops into battle the f4s were a group of five men who would oversee education and civil and criminal cases along with them was a Council of Elders the jerusia composed of 28 members all over age 60 and the two kings both the efforts and jerusia were elected by the assembly of citizens or Ecclesia they could not debate but voted on proposals issued by the jerusia the government discouraged the learning of philosophy literature or any other kind of art only the education of war was tolerated Spartans were not even able to travel out of Sparta unless it was for the military by the same token Sparta looked down on visiting foreigners Leary that they might bring in new ideas with them by around 550 BCE Sparta had used its military to create an alliance on the peloponnese an alliance called the Peloponnesian League Sparta as the most powerful member was the leader of this Alliance over time this Alliance grew and extended Beyond just the peloponnese and into the realm of Greece's other major city-state Athens Athens resided on the peninsula of Attica also in southern Greece with the sea always in their sights they would eventually come to dominate it this polis was established early on in the Archaic Period but was first ruled as a monarchy and then an oligarchy it was headed by high-ranked Aristocrats who controlled the land as well as the religious and political Affairs of the citizens they were aided by a group of nine called the arkans an assembly of citizens existed but had very few powers by around 600 BCE the economic system in Athens all but collapsed farmers who had taken out loans to pay off their landowners were unable to repay them and instead became their slaves with a growing number of farmers becoming slaves there was an outcry to forgive the loan repayment and redistribute the land to the poorer farmers who worked it fearing and Uprising the aristocrats picked so long a wise Noble to be the only arkhan in 594 BCE he was given exclusive control over the government in order to fix the economic issues under so lawn all land debts were canceled and he freed those farmers who had become slaves because of debt and banned issuing loans with a human as collateral other than that the land reforms were tepid and many of the underlying issues remained so lawn's reforms ended up pleasing neither side but helped mitigate the poverty levels for at least a century thereafter he also reformed the government but this too was a half measure over time it was business as usual for the aristocrats while the peasants became more desperate this led to the rise of another Tyrant Pisa Stratus taking power in 560 BCE he was popular both with the lower classes and the middle class of merchants because of his trade policies his son wasn't popular however and in 510 BCE the Athenians overthrew the tyranny while the aristocrats attempted to rule once again another reformer pleistanis had other ideas this led to the Athenian revolution in 508 BCE the death knell for the oligarchy under kleistthenes the Council of 500 was created the council was made up of Representatives of the various Demis or districts in Athens their main job was Financial Administration and preparing issues to hand to the assembly this assembly made up of all the male citizens was to debate the issues and then vote on the new law this centered power on the people and became the basis for Western democracy in fact the word democracy is from these two same words demos and crutier by the end of the Archaic Period Athens became one of greasy's major city-states during the archaic we believe the Greeks through contact with Egypt learned to create large Stone sculptures called kuros Greeks came into contact with older more advanced civilizations from sailing the Aegean during the Dark Ages often adapting their stories and art these kuros became prominent in Attica and biosha they depicted nude male use often standing rigidly with one foot in front of the other it was used as a dedication to the gods representing the idea of Youth Corey was a similar sculpture but depicted a fully clothed girl as the Greeks expanded in the Mediterranean they came into contact with a culture that seemed the antithesis of Their Own this was the Persian Empire we discussed this Empire in our overview of the ancient Middle East if you want more context the Greeks noticed early on that the Persians didn't have the same rights as in Greece and that they were more subjects than citizens during the 500 BCE the Greek city-state in Ionia were the first to come under Persian rule in 499 BCE the ionian cities with help from the Athenians revolted burning the capital of Sardis though the Revolt was suppressed the Persian Emperor Darius vowed Vengeance on Athens for their role in the uprising in 490 BCE the Persians invaded the Greek mainland landing on the plains just outside the town of Marathon though outnumbered the Athenians under militarys were better trained and had better strategy charging the Persian troops and saving Greece from The Invasion by 486 BCE Darius died and Xerxes Rose to power he was more ruthless than his predecessors and formulated his own invasion of Greece fueled by Revenge in Greece the mysticles convinced Athens to build a Navy this Navy was to become the backbone of the Athenian military once the Persians invaded again in 480 BCE the Athenians had a fleet of over 200 trialines ships with three rows of oarsmen Xerxes LED an army of anywhere from 70 to 360 000 troops accompanied by over six to eight hundred warships this time they invaded from the north marching down through the mountains to delay the Persians the Spartans under their leader Leonidas blocked them at the narrow pass at thermoplay the terrain served to nullify the persian's extreme numbers but the Greeks were betrayed and ended up surrounded by the full Persian army Leonidas and his 300 best warriors fought to the last man but the cause was hopeless a few thousand other Greek Fighters also stayed and most were killed but some surrendered with nothing between Athens and the Persian forces the Athenians abandoned their city and watched it burn the Greek navy had been off the coast of the island of Salamis to the South and tricked the Persian Fleet into a hasty battle like thermoplay the cramped space negated a lot of the Persian numbers and the Athenian triarines excelled at ramming in close combat the Persian fleet was defeated and Xerxes himself had to retreat in 479 BCE just a few months later the Greeks amassed their largest army ever and decided to go on the offensive to reclaim their lands to the north they met the Persians at the Battle of platia and it was a decisive victory for the Greeks Greece had fended off the Persians for a second time using the threat of another Persian Invasion Athens created an alliance in 478 BCE called the Delian League while it was centered on the island of delos the leadership was all Athenian they swept the Aegean and reclaimed the islands that the Persians had captured by 454 BCE the Athenians had moved the treasury from delos to Athens using the funds themselves and acknowledging that they were indeed foremost in an alliance of supposed equals it looked less like a Delian League and more like an Athenian Empire back in Athens a series of new policies ushered in a golden era the years 461-429 BCE was known as The Age of Pericles named after the leading figure who expanded democracy and led Athens through the high point of its classical age the assembly became the backbone of politics and was open to all men over 18. they debated issues and passed all laws while having the final say in foreign policy and military action they were to meet every 10 days east of the Acropolis while only about one out of eight citizens participated in the assemblies this was still the most direct democracy put in place by a state daily Affairs were run by the Council of 500 called the boulay they were chosen at random and served one-year terms these short terms meant that most males held office at some point during their lives the strategory meaning Army leaders were a group of 10 Generals they were elected officials and ran the Affairs of the state these men often sought glory in order to be re-elected Heracles were so charismatic he was re-elected as part of the strategory for 29 years he opened public offices for the lower classes and offered state pay to hold office this meant poorer citizens could afford to run and work for the state though most aspects of government were Democratic in theory no system functioned perfectly in practice the aristocratic class still held most important positions in government and more importantly women slaves and foreign residents did not have equal rights despite this Athens thrived during its classical era Heracles used the Delian treasury money to rebuild Athens bigger and better than ever art flourished and philosophy blossomed new temples and statues were built and Athens became The Guiding Light for Greek culture but this Golden Age threatened other Greek city-states during this time Greece had coalesced into two very different camps the Peloponnesian League headed by Sparta the greatest land Army in Greece and the Delian League headed by Athens Greece's foremost Naval power small disputes led to small Wars and eventually the great Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE the Spartans marched on Athens hoping to fight them on open land the Athenians under Pericles decided to stay within the defensive walls of Athens their Navy would Supply them with food by the Sea so they would never become starved outside the Spartans ravaged the countryside burning the farms and Fields still the Athenians didn't March out to meet them by 4 30 BCE though just one year after the start of the war a deadly plague came down on Athens via one of its ports the densely populated city suffered terrible loss of life with 75 to 100 000 residents meeting their deaths anywhere from a quarter to a third of the population Pericles himself was infected and perished in 429 BCE the plague severely weakened Athens but the war continued for almost 30 years the end of Athens came in 405 BCE at the Battle of egospotomy when their Navy was outmatched by a new Spartan Admiral by 404 BCE the Peloponnesian War was over the Athenian surrendered and their walls were stripped down their empire had finally come to an end in reality the Peloponnesian War had no true winners Greece as a whole was severely weakened and alliances were now impossible the next few Decades of the early 300 saw hegemony shift between Sparta and Athens but also Thebes an old city that Rose to dominant in the power vacuum concerned with each other they failed to spot the growing menace to the North in Macedonia but before those events let's take a look at what made classical Greek culture so special first was the study of history itself history of the Persian Wars by raditus is regarded as the first true historical text ever written in the West wasn't without his biases though the history is written as a struggle of Freedom against authoritarianism to write his Works he traveled long distances interviewing eyewitnesses he has since been dubbed the father of History despite his inaccuracies far more accurate was thucydides he was regarded as the father of scientific history and fought in the Peloponnesian War on the side of Athens he was elected as a strategory but was seen as becoming too arrogant so was exiled it was in Exile that he wrote his main work history of the Peloponnesian War it was a more critical history than that of rabbitus as he verified eyewitness accounts and remained objective quite like this channel made in history he viewed history as an important subject because the human condition causes similar political situations to keep appearing over and over again throughout Generations Greek drama was a type of theater that would be presented Outdoors at religious events these plays all followed a similar Style with three actors in masks acting out all the parts A Chorus was another actor who narrated what was happening tragedies were a type of Greek drama which involved a protagonist battling a hardship often with negative outcomes we have lost much of the ancient place but the oldest writer we know is escalis the father of tragedy the only surviving Trilogy we have found is the aristia by this same author the tragedy is about the murder of King Agamemnon killed by his wife after returning from the Trojan War she is then in turn murdered by their son Oris days who avenges his father he is then tormented by the furies and is eventually put on trial by Athena one of the main themes is the circle of suffering that can come from evil born during the early 400s BCE the most famous playwright was Sophocles one of his masterpieces was Oedipus the King a story in which the Oracle foresees Oedipus killing his own father and marrying his mother though he tries to prevent this the outcome was inevitable and the prophecy came true a main theme is about Free Will as Oedipus considers himself a free man yet fell in line with the prophecy despite his efforts not to Antigone was another one of Sophocles famous works in this play Antigone the daughter of Oedipus is caught between the wishes of the Gods to mourn and bury her traitorous brother or to listen to Korean king of Thebes and deny the body of final resting place The Dilemma itself of course ends in tragedy later another tragedian euripides made plays more complex he gave Heroes a more grounded side and dealt with questions of morality often going against the grain and euripides are the three ancient tragedians we have found works from their place dealt with topics we still see in the media today from basic ideas of Good and Evil to complex subjects like the nature of humans comedy developed after tragedy during the late 400s BCE Aristophanes known as the father of Comedy was part of the old comedy period his place were filled with sexual obscenities but also used his comedy as a means to make political statements like his opposition to the Peloponnesian War classical art changed significantly from early agree card it came to focus on Symmetry and balance and emphasized the human form and human accomplishments architectural achievements were mainly seen in temples each dedicated to one of the Greek gods in the center of the temples would be a statue along with a guarded Treasury this was all surrounded by the ancient Greek columns pillars made of marble the most well known of these temples was located in Athens built in the mid-400s during the Age of Pericles the Parthenon became the leading example in Classical Greece not only for temples but for Greek art it was dedicated to the goddess Athena Patron God of Athens and served as a symbol of victory over the Persian army classical Greek sculpture was quite different than during the archaic they distanced themselves from the rigidity and stiffness of their Egyptian influences and celebrated the male form through more relaxed and fluid sculptures sculptors wanted to achieve a more realistic motion but with very idealized bodies the figures tended to be lean and muscular and with a Greek archetype of beauty polyglitis a classical sculptor believed that the perfect proportions were based on mathematical ratios found in nature and from these we can discover the perfect human form apart from theater and art classical Greek philosophy was the third major section of Greek culture this love of wisdom was concerned with rational thought and critical thinking it attempted to discuss the nature of not just humans but the entire world and the role of the Divine the sophists were a group of teachers who rejected the need for the understanding of the universe preferring to study human nature and human behavior they traveled around Greece mostly Athens and became private teachers for young men they valued rhetoric above everything even truth rhetoric was the art of debate and of swaying an audience to your side a very important skill to gain popularity and votes many sophists were looked on unfavorably as they tended to question tradition and had no fundamental value system Athens became the center of philosophy because of its three most famous philosophers Socrates Plato and Aristotle Socrates came first and Rose to prominent while the Athenians were a captive audience during the Peloponnesian War originally a stonemason he valued individual growth much more often teaching his philosophy students for free the Socratic method was his technique of questioning his students until they found the answers within themselves he believed that knowledge existed in everyone it just needed to be born while he acted as the midwife Socrates came under scrutiny because of his questioning of authority and tradition once Athens had lost the Peloponnesian War it was no climate for free thinkers and open debates Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth and found guilty he was then executed by very painful means in 399 BCE as Socrates never wrote anything down one of our few sources for him was Plato Plato unlike Socrates wrote down much more and is the author of several works he was one of Socrates pupils and continued the classical Greek tradition his main idea was that of the forms which he believed to be a true unchanging reality which was only viewed by training one's mind he uses the allegory of the cave to explain this in his dialogue The Republic Plato outlines his ideal form of government and it wasn't a democracy he viewed his ideal society as having three classes the upper classes would be the ruling Elite who he called philosopher Kings under them would be the soldiers who protected Society below the soldiers were the masses these were the middle class Artisans and manufacturers and the lower class peasants Plato did believe however that women should be allowed to access the same education as men for the good of all Society in 387 BCE he opened up his Academy in Athens a school of philosophy attended by one special student his name was Aristotle and would later become the teacher of Alexander the Great he was more of an empiricist than Plato and believed a human also needed his senses to seek knowledge as in the allegory of the cave Aristotle would need to exit the cave and sense this real world in order to attain that knowledge Aristotle was less thought driven than Plato and conducted research and Analysis in the real world this led him to write texts on a various number of subjects Aristotle also wrote about his ideal form of government unlike Plato who tried to mirror what he thought was the embodiment of Justice in True Form Aristotle examined government in the real world to see what was effective in his work politics Aristotle went over nearly 160 different constitutions from several States in order to gate the best through his research he discovered that government must be either a monarchy an aristocracy or a constitutional government a mix of oligarchy and democracy Aristotle warned that each could easily devolve monarchy can easily become tyranny aristocracy could become oligarchy and a constitutional government could become democracy or Anarchy despite this he claimed that constitutional government was the best model for the most people unlike Plato Aristotle viewed women more unfavorably he claimed they were biologically inferior and should remain subordinate to men both in their marriage and in society at Large this was a notion that carried on well into the Middle Ages religion was quite important in Classical Greece like in most other contemporary civilizations it was inextricably linked to daily life and was based on human dedication to the gods festivals were common and were used to prepare the youth for their future duties their religion was the strongest Link in their society so temples became the largest and most magnificent of their buildings the Greeks worshiped Gods dating back centuries but it was Homer who solidified the gods and gave organization to Greek religion as a whole this structure was polytheistic with 12 gods above all others they were thought to live at the top of Mount Olympus the highest mountain in Greece they were led by Zeus and consisted of his brother Poseidon god of the sea and earthquakes Athena goddess of wisdom and reason Apollo god of the sun music and poetry Aphrodite goddess of love and beauty along with Artemis demita hephistus and Hermes and either Dionysus or Hestia life in Greece was centered around honoring your Region's Patron God sacrifices were made by burning animals on an altar usually at the temple or in front of one's residence crops could also be burned as a sacrifice the ancient Greeks believed they could tell the future through oracles the most famous was the Oracle of Apollo ad Delphi the Priestess or pythia listened to different questions often in a Transcendent mental state she would then give a cryptic answer which would then be deciphered and interpreted by the priest who relayed the answers in a form of verse these answers were often biased with political motivations behind them not divinity members of government heads of state and other people traveled to see the Oracle to ask about military campaigns family Affairs and other general questions the wealthy king of Lydia in Anatolia got word from the Oracle that if he attacked the Persians he would destroy an Empire little did he know it was his own Empire that ended up destroyed as a further means to please the gods panhellenic festivals would occur there would be religious events and athletic competitions the most famous would be at Olympia honoring Zeus and Greeks from all over would travel to participate we consider 776 BCE as the first time these games were held and they would be held henceforth every four years they would be named the Olympics after their location the stadium a foot race was the first Olympic event ever the years Wrestling Boxing Javelin and other events were added notably there weren't any team sports only individual events athletes who won the events were treated like Heroes often celebrated for the rest of their lives the Olympics of old were much more dangerous than today's the rule book wasn't as refined so all kinds of dirty Maneuvers were allowed during Combat Sports boxers wrap their hands with materials to inflict more damage leading to some deaths not always accidental the Olympic Games would continue for 1 000 years until 393 when Christian Emperor theodosius banned them as Pagan rituals just over 1 500 years later the gains were revived in 1896 and continue on in the present day the first revived games were fittingly held in Greece daily life In classical Athens was very much male driven this is because only male citizens could participate in public affairs though it was a direct democracy for these males they represented only around 15 of the entire population and not all of them chose to vote the other 85 percent was made up of women foreign residents and slaves slaves mainly worked as cooks or in residences as Maids or field workers the state also owned a number of slaves for public projects Athens relied on agriculture and trade to maintain their economy they grew grapes and made olive oil which were their most popular exports and also enjoyed by the locals with such a large population though the hilly non-fertile peninsula of Attica wasn't sufficient to provide all the essential grain needed so they had to rely on Imports Athenians lived simple lives they adorned their houses with pieces of furniture like wooden tables and stools while the wives and slaves made clothing diet was quite simple with a staple being wheat barley bread along with figs cheese and olives olive oil was used not only in cooking but to burn in lamps and to rub on the body those houses outside the city often kept animals for what they could produce like sheep for wool and goats for milk and cheese Greek families usually consisted of just a husband wife and children but older relatives and even their slaves could be considered part of the family unit the state encouraged these families to produce more offspring and produce more citizens apart from Sparta female adult citizens were generally kept out of public life but could participate in some festivals they had no property rights and needed a male Guardian to accompany her in public her main duty in life was to be a good wife to her husband and produce Offspring preferably male While most wives kept their houses in order others left that to the slaves and merely watched over them marriage came quite early for girls at around 14 or 15 years old so they were immediately taught and trained in their responsibilities to the family they were given no formal education but were allowed to learn to read and play certain instruments the aristocracy In classical Athens were also usually married but many partook in extramarital homosexual relationships there was no Stigma behind it even though they sought much younger men the older male was seen as the lover and teacher while the young man was his beloved student while physical they would also be very much in love and the Beloved would learn a lot of lessons from his teacher with Greece devastated after the Peloponnesian War a new power Rose to the north this was the kingdom of Macedonia though they were a Hellenic people and embraced the Greek culture we still have no conclusive evidence they were related to the Greeks themselves who viewed them as Outsiders and Mountain barbarians they lived on rugged land and had no city-state structure just a unified Kingdom Under a monarch one of these was Philip II he took power in 359 BCE and overhauled the Macedonian army turning it into the best Army in the Hellenic world Philip had visions of grandeur and invaded the Greek mainland when it was at its weakest Athens and many other police took a Last Stand at the Battle of caironia in 338 BCE but were no match for Philips forces he unified most of Greece into an alliance later to be known as the league of Corinth with a unified Army he meant to achieve his larger goal subjugation of an old enemy but before he could set his plan in motion he was assassinated by one of his own men and the burden and opportunity fell to his son at just 20 years of age the new King Alexander III was fairly inexperienced but Philip had given him exposure to military campaigns before and even gave him lead of the Cavalry in the battle of caironia after his father's death Alexander subdued the Greek rebellions and the unrest near Macedon before looking East the Persian Empire was still strong but not the Supreme Empire it had once been even so it was still the biggest polity on Earth and a full-scale Invasion seemed unthinkable in 334 BCE Alexander and just under 40 000 men marched into Anatolia and crossed into Asia trucks of the army was the Macedonian Phalanx but the Cavalry would also become one of his most potent weapons the first clash between Alexander's Army and the Persians occurred at the Battle of the granicus though Alexander almost died the Macedonian and Greek armies won their first great Victory claiming the Western half of Anatolia the Persian king Darius III then amassed his troops and went to meet up with Alexander's Army himself at the Battle of Isis the narrow terrain negated the persian's numerical Advantage an army almost twice the size of Alexander's after another major victory Alexander then turned South with stunning victories in the Levant and down to Egypt all of which were claimed by 332 BCE at Egypt he declared himself Pharaoh the traditional title of King and founded a city the first that would be named after himself Alexandria the urban center remained an important city since its founding and remained significant even today by 331 BCE Alexander was on the move again he headed east into Mesopotamia and beat the Persians at the Battle of gorgamela just Northwest of Babylon in the third and final major engagement of the invasion Alexander then claimed Babylon then continued East to capture Souza and persepolis the major Persian Capitals full of treasure silver and gold after a brief rest Alexander continued East in 330 BCE searching for King Darius who escaped his last battle by the time Alexander caught up to Darius he had already been killed by one of his own with him died the acumenid Empire but the Macedonian Empire became its successor and the new King Alexander tried to carry on the Legacy he wasn't satisfied though and continued his March East up into present-day Pakistan and by 327 BCE had entered India a year later Alexander annexed the Punjab after winning at the Battle of the hidespis river after revealing he wanted to March even deeper into India his men refused weary from the years-long campaign a saddened Alexander eventually agreed to turn back and they March west across the southern coast of Persia so they could be supplied by the sea this marched through the desert was a rough Affair and thousands died before they reached sanctuary in Babylon once there it was clear Alexander had no intention to administer an Empire as he was planning more campaigns this time to Western Europe he developed a fever and in 323 BCE Alexander died at the age of 32. like most other ancient figures Alexander was a mixed bag but historians have dubbed him Alexander the Great as he was arguably the greatest military leader of the ancient world but though he was a great conqueror he wasn't a great ruler he would get into drunken stupors and had a terrible temper leading to him killing one of his own generals over a minor issue it's clear he had no interest in rulership as when the Persian Empire was defeated he began planning further military campaigns he considered himself descended from Heracles the Greek demigod and was influenced by Achilles the hero of the Trojan War even keeping a copy of The Iliad and a dagger under his pillow while he slept Heracles and achilles were known for their strength military strategy and bravery not administrative abilities despite this Alexander attempted to synthesize the Macedonian Greek and Persian cultures into a harmonious civilization with his death began the Hellenistic era where Greek culture flowed all over his Empire more Greek intellectuals Artisans and administrators flopped to the Middle East and Beyond bringing their culture with them though the Hellenic culture flourished the idea of the polis was not common as Alexander's empire was divided up becoming a series of monarchies those Greeks who ventured further east from Persia ended up on the Eastern Frontiers and were influenced even more by the foreign cultures and religions this made the Hellenistic era a truly remarkable Fusion of the western East Alexander's Macedonian Empire dissolved soon after his death and was inherited by his bickering generals the ensuing Wars of the diadoki began in 322 BCE and would continue for decades the last major phase of the Wars ended in 301 BCE but smaller struggles continued until 275. when the sand and dust settled four major Hellenistic inheritor States would emerge Macedonia and Greece would be controlled by antigonus ganatus the grandson of one of Alexander's generals in Egypt Ptolemy the first established the ptolemaic Dynasty in 305 continuing the pharonic tradition a rump state grew and coalesced into the kingdom of pergamon in Anatolia ruled by Atlas the first the largest in terms of area was the seleucid dynasty founded by seleucus it controlled most of the old Persian Empire from the Middle East to India with such a vast territory it became difficult to administer especially the Eastern Frontier if you recall from our episode on Ancient India India founded its first major Empire in 322 BCE under chandragupta Moya the Indian king successfully recaptured the land from the seleucids and under his grandson Ashoka they extended their empire even further as he became a Buddhist later in life the Buddhist culture mixed in with the Greek communities living in these areas once the wars between the seleucids and maurians ended trait flourished spices and jewels flowed into the seleucid empire seleucus himself sent diplomats to the maorian court one of them would become one of the Best Western sources for the maorian empire for centuries by the early 200s BCE there was relative stability in the Hellenistic kingdoms despite smaller Wars within each state though was a different kind of tension the Hellenistic rulers propped up the Greek and Macedonian immigrants as an upper class while the native populations were often relegated to the lower classes Alexander's plan had been to mix not only Greek and Eastern culture but also the people he practiced this himself by taking Eastern wives but his successes opted to instead form a new ruling class of Their Own though administrative positions were open to natives they needed to be thoroughly hellenized first adopting the Greek language and customs during Alexander's conquests he founded New cities and small settlements along the way and his successors continued this trend some of these Hellenistic cities would grow and become important locations during this age Alexandria became the largest urban center in the Mediterranean for centuries seleucus was Notorious for building and founding new cities trade became more widespread as the Hellenistic kingdoms became more stable Traders were free to venture where they wished further syncretizing the eastern and western cultures the most important trading route was by the sea from India towards the Persian Gulf and North to seleucha on the Tigris one of seleucus's cities from there Goods could proceed Overland to other parts of his kingdom another Maritime route also began in India but went around Arabia and up the Red Sea from there Caravans would bring Goods to ptolemaic Egypt a wide variety of goods were brought in from all over from Spain to India truly creating a unified old world the Hellenistic world had a different social structure for women than under the police women were allowed more freedom of movement and the more wealthy ones bought or sold slaves made loans and managed properties this wasn't the case in Athens women were still severely restricted in daily activities and had to rely on their male Guardians this was justified as the more intellectual position by many philosophers despite this upper-class women were allowed in education in different subjects like literature and Athletics this led to the rise of some female writers and Poets and opened the door for other female achievements the foremost female in the Hellenistic States was the king's wife or the queen in Macedonia alliances between mothers and sons led to women holding prominent political positions and holding influence this was the case even earlier like with Alexander and his own mother in Egypt women in the royal family retained power through marriage often the ptolemaic Pharaohs would follow the tradition of marrying one sister to lemi II married his own sister our sin away and both were worshiped as gods she was quite influential in the Royal courts and governmental Affairs expanding the Egyptian Navy and earning her place on Egyptian coins the first queen to do so the Hellenistic culture was mainly spread through Urban centers like Alexandria but what exactly was this new culture that emerged we'll begin with literature the Hellenistic Kings adored literary works and would give preferential treatment to writers in Egypt many writers Scholars and Poets ended up in Alexandria attracted by the Monumental Library of Alexandria this Library contained anywhere from forty thousand to four hundred thousand Scrolls making it a Wellspring of knowledge theocratus a native of Sicily known for creating pastoral poetry and appreciation of Nature's Beauty and writing in Idols meaning little poems often with erotic content was part of a circle of poets who operated in Alexandria though Greece lost importance during the Hellenistic era Athens still remained the center for theater tragedy wasn't as popular as in the classical era an old comedy took a backseat to a new style this new comedy was less political and more like a situation comedy mananda was one of the most famous of these new comedians but only one of his place was discovered fully intact monarchs would also commission new buildings to be erected in the classical Greek style this gave way to gymnasiums theaters and temples being built all over the near East cities and Beyond the Kings and upper classes also commissioned statues and sculptures to be built they were all of the classical Greek style but instead of the idealized aesthetic of the male form other types of statues would be built the Hellenistic age also brought a Divergence of disciplines in the classical era Life Sciences had been considered part of philosophy as we saw with Aristotle who is considered the first true scientist during the Hellenistic period The Sciences were studied separately from philosophy Greek science was known for its advancement in astronomy under its two famous alexandrian Scholars aristarchus is credited for building the first heliocentric model of the universe suggesting the sun and stars remain stationary in the sky and that it was the earth that rotated around the Sun contrary to the geocentric model which was more widely accepted eratosthenes became the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria and is credited for figuring out the Earth was round and calculating its circumference to within 200 miles or just over 320 kilometers he is considered the father of geography Euclid another alexandrian scholar wasn't an astronomer but a mathematician regarded as the father of geometry his work elements was his most famous and would be used for centuries including the modern day the most famous Hellenistic era scientist was based in Syracuse in Magna Grisha his name was Archimedes it speculated he spent his youth in Alexandria but there's no definite answer excelling at much of the Sciences Archimedes is most well known for his work in Geometry deriving an approximation of Pi he was also an Adept inventor creating the Archimedes screw used to pump water out of mines a tool still used today when the Romans besieged Syracuse Archimedes built a variety of defensive weapons to fend them off claws would lift and break apart ships and there were reports of a legendary heat ray used to focus sunlight onto incoming ships setting them Ablaze earlier in his life he helped formulate Archimedes principle which he discovered as he was taking a bath and displaced the water he also devised systems involving levers because of his great wealth of contributions to the Sciences Archimedes has been regarded as one of the greatest Minds to ever exist with great libraries Alexandria and pergamon became the foremost Hellenistic centers for intellectuals during this era but athent was still regarded as the foremost Center for philosophy in the footsteps of Socrates Plato and Aristotle new schools of philosophy opened up in Athens fortifying its position as the home of the love of wisdom epicureanism was one of these schools founded by epicurus epicureanism taught that humans should pursue self-interest in order to be happy and that happiness was the main goal of life the pursuit of pleasure was emphasized but over time this became corrupted to mean the pursuit of physical pleasure and hedonism it originally meant freedom from life's problems especially emotional to help put your mind at peace to achieve this you must rid yourself of the Affairs of the public and of politics instead base your life around closer community and form friendships epicurus practiced what he preached and formed a private community of Epicurean followers living out their lives in their version of happiness the most important and widespread philosophy of the Hellenistic era which continued into the coming Roman period was stoicism it stemmed from Zeno of kittium a teacher who started his school in Athens by teaching in a public space called The Painted porch located near the Agra the main goal of stoicism was achieving happiness the same as epicureanism where they differed was their path to that goal stoicism was less about the physical and more of a mental state despite the troubles around you if you live within a peace you should not be affected by them our current Day meaning of a stoic is a person who can sustain hardship or pain without a show of emotion stoics didn't separate themselves from society like the epicureans and participated in politics and the rest of society this flexibility helped stoicism become much more popular than epicureanism before the Hellenistic era Greek citizens would find happiness through the happiness of the collective police during the Hellenistic period citizens sought out personal happiness instead and with a mix of so many cultures classical Greek religion began to decline as it became syncretized with different beliefs this was especially true in the East and the rise of mystery religions these were cult-like religions who often performed secret initiation rituals and special ceremonies Greece already had some of these like the ellucinian Mysteries honoring the goddesses to meet her and her daughter Persephone for these initiate would Trek to eluses on a pilgrimage and partake in the enigmatic rituals before coming out the next day as a changed person in the East these rituals were more common and accessible and people could come from all over to pursue salvation and attempt eternal life one of the most popular of these Hellenistic Cults was the mysteries of Isis located in Egypt Isis the goddess of women healing and Magic was also seen as a giver of civilization and one of the most important gods in the pantheon through the rituals initiates to the cult would seek to guarantee themselves a Heavenly afterlife mystery Cults would continue in the Roman era and with its themes of death and rebirth possibly influenced a later religion all across Europe and the Mediterranean from Spain to Greece to North Africa you'll find the ruins of once Majestic buildings evidence of a civilization that thrived for over one thousand years and still found a way to continue even after its fall this was Rome an expansionist power that has been recognized and studied more than any other in history but before it was a continent-spanning militaristic Empire it was far less and nobody knew what it was destined to become according to the famous Foundation myth of Rome the story starts here on the Italian peninsula the city of albelonga part of the small community of Latin cities resting south of the Tiber River was ruled by King numita the Latins claimed descent from the legendary enias a hero from the Trojan War who left the devastated City and traveled West settling in Italy King numita had an envious brother amulius younger than numita he would never see the throne as numita had many sons who were next in line so emulius did the only thing he could do he had the king's Sons murdered and ran Yuma to himself out of the city numita's daughter Ria Sylvia was also made to become a priestess of the Goddess Vesta which would become known as a Vestal Virgin she was to remain chased under penalty of death effectively killing off any chance for newmitter to have another successor amulius was unaware though that Ria Sylvia was already pregnant with twins from the godmars once they were born amulius ordered both to be drowned in the Tiber River his servant brought them to the river but it was in flood so the babies named Remus and Romulus were left on the riverbank to die of exposure it all could have ended here if not for a she-wolf named Lupa she found the Twins and nursed them back to health soon after a Shepherd found the infants and took them in raising them once the boys became adults they got their revenge on emulius deposing him and restoring numita to the throne the Twins then set out to found a city for themselves near the Tiber River where they were found as infants but newmitter and Amelia's familial patterns manifested in Remus and Romulus and they began to bicker over who should be king of this new city to solve this problem they asked the gods for a sign Remus went to wait on the Aventine Hill the hill he preferred to build the city while Romulus waited on the Palatine Hill Remus was the first to see a sign six Birds which flew by ancient Roman religion interpreted Omens from the behavior of birds later on Romulus saw 12 Birds both believed they won as Rima saw his sign first but Romulus saw double the amount deciding to settle the dispute in a more conventional method they came to physical blows and during the fight Remus was killed by his brother Romulus then founded the city of Rome around the Palatine Hill naming it after himself the legendary date for this was April 21st 753 BCE the story of Rome started here in Italy Italy is a peninsula extending some 600 miles or 960 kilometers in length but is only 150 miles wide giving it the appearance of a boot a range of mountains called the aponines cuts through the middle dividing Italy despite these mountains Italy was blessed with many fertile planes the largest was in the north the po valley to the South were the plains of lasham this is where Rome began along with other Latin tribal villages south of that were the plaintiff Campania Italy was bounded in the east by the Adriatic Sea just a bit further would be the Greeks which we recently looked at in the West Was the terenium sea where lay the island of Corsica and Sardinia just off the southern coast of the peninsula was Sicily a large island that would become very important in Rome's history tradition holds that Rome began as a monarchy under Romulus and was under the control of seven Kings for over two centuries two of these Kings weren't Roman at all but Etruscan a people predating the Indo-European people who lived north of Rome in etruria while we can't confirm the identities of any of these Kings historians agree that Rome came under the influence of the Etruscans for around a century it's most likely that Rome developed into a city under Etruscan rule they built roads temples marketplaces and housing units by the late 500s BCE Rome became a true mix of Latin and Etruscan culture in 509 BCE roam overthrew their monarchy and transitioned to a republic though the Romans resided in a geographically beneficial location they were still surrounded by their enemies the other Latin cities in lashem were their closest foes and battle between them would last for more than a century our main historical source for this time was Livy writing much later during the early days of the Empire he emphasized the Romans willpower determination and discipline by 338 BCE the Romans succeeded in their conquest of leisham and engaged in further war with the samnites for the next few decades after the conquest of central Italy the Romans came into contact with the Greek colonies of Magna Grisha to the South these Greeks had settled in southern Italy during Greece's archaic age eventually they had colonies all over the South and on the island of Sicily a much older culture Greece always had an influence on Rome either directly or through the Etruscans who themselves adopted much of Greek culture Rome came to favor the Mediterranean diet of grapes and olives and adopted the Greek alphabet over time they would adopt their architecture and other forms of Art they were no friends of Greece though and were invaded by a general from the East Puris of papyrus though he caused the Romans trouble they rallied and he was forced to return to the Greek mainland leaving the southern peninsula in Roman hands by the 260s BCE Rome had conquered the Etruscans to the north and was in firm control of the majority of Italy phase one of Roman domination was complete during Roman expansion they formed a confederation dividing Roman rights into three categories the chieves had full Roman citizenship and given all the rights of free individuals the socii were Roman allies and did not have citizenship rights but had to supply soldiers for Roman campaigns they were able to run their own territories independently the latini were members of The Original Latin league and regarded as half-socii and half-citizens as an incentive Rome gave their allies a pathway to full citizenship if they acted accordingly making the conquered people feel like a part of Rome and willing to protect it arguably just as effective as their diplomacy was their military Roman expansion came with inevitable rebellions which were subdued fairly quickly while they expanded they also built new colonies in New Territory and sent garrisons to strategic locations they used roads to connect Rome to these garrisons and created a network of quick communication and troop transport as Rome grew throughout Italy their policies gave them access to more and more soldiers and they became stronger at the head of the Republic were the consuls considered the executive branch and prietas which were judicial each year two consoles were chosen to administer the government and lead the Army into battle according to Livy the office of Prater was created in 367 BCE and was in charge of civil law but was also in charge when the consuls were unavailable though originally only dealing with Roman citizens another Prater was eventually added who dealt with non-citizens the government was also filled with other officials who handled other matters like finances apart from these was the Roman senate which grew to be the most important and dominant part of the Republic it originally consisted of 300 elderly men or senis who served for life their Duty was as an advisory Council though they existed since the founding of Rome they truly reached their Apex during the middle of the Republic but would become less important with time the Republic was also run by assemblies who acted as the legislative branch one of these was the centuriate assembly who dealt with military affairs it was based on wealth and was deliberately organized in such a way as to maintain the status quo and keep the powerful in place they elected magistrates and passed laws the tribal assembly was a non-military assembly and elected different magistrates it was more democratic and fairer to the lower classes than the centuriate assembly the Roman Republic was run by these three main bodies the executive magistrates which included the consuls and pritas the assemblies like the centuriate and tribal who elected the magistrates and the Senate wealthy landowners who acted as advisors these wealthy Romans represented the patricians one of the two main social divisions in Rome the patricians were descended from the original Senators who made up the aristocratic class during the preceding Roman Kingdom Period only the patricians were allowed to be magistrates and senators they were also mostly represented in the centuriate assembly the plebeians were a much larger group and also included less wealthy landowners farmers and other members of the middle and lower classes like Artisans and Merchants though citizens the plebs would not share the same rights as the patricians intermarriage between the classes was forbidden and plebeians could not be elected as government officials from around 500 BCE soon after the start of the Republic the plebeians began to fight for equal rights after the plebeian soldiers went on strike they won an important political fight and a new popular assembly was created in 471 BCE the Council of the plebs this assembly was open only to the plebeian class and they were given new officials called plebeian tribunes who were given significant powers in checking both the magistrate and Senate the struggle between plebeian and Patrician known as the conflict of the orders would continue on with the plebs gaining more right along the way like intermarriage with an upper class and being able to be elected consul in 287 BCE the Council of the plebs won the right to pass laws this marked the end of the conflict of the orders though the struggle lasted centuries the plebeians eventually gained equal rights to the patricians but in practice Rome was never a true democracy nor was it meant to be around this time Rome had completed their consolidation of Italy and now faced a new challenge the masters of the Western Mediterranean the city of carthat was founded in North Africa around 814 BCE by the Phoenicians a civilization we've mentioned at the start of this series over the years Carthage grew and created an Empire of their own in the west Mediterranean by the mid-200s they had expanded to include territory on the coast of North Africa southern Spain the island of Corsica and Sardinia and most importantly the western part of Sicily so close to the Italian Peninsula Rome was wary of the carthaginian presence and the first of a series of Wars would begin in 264 BCE this first Punic War was Rome's attempt to conquer Sicily this was almost impossible without a navy and while the Romans were adept land Fighters they had no Fleet using the remains of a carthaginian shipwreck as a blueprint the Romans created their own Navy the Romans eventually beat the carthaginians and in 241 BCE Carthage gave up its Holdings on Sicily and had to pay an indemnity Sicily then became Cecilia the first of Rome's provinces Corsica and Sardinia became provinces soon after Rome was still considered a mere annoyance in a Mediterranean dominated by Carthage in the west and the Greek world in the East but the carthaginians slowly planned Revenge under their greatest General Hannibal Barker The carthaginian Struck at the pro-roman city of seguntam in Spain triggering the Second Punic War in 218 BCE his strategy was to attack Rome itself and end a republic for good instead of attacking them by sea Hannibal came from the West marching across the Alps to attack Rome from the north his army was most likely just under 50 000 and had success against the Roman armies on his way the most famous was at Kanai where the Romans lost almost 50 000 men and had almost 20 000 captured the Romans were known for their fighting spirit and would often fight their best when all seemed lost so they regrouped and slowly pushed back the advance by 206 the Romans successfully expelled the carthaginian armies from Italy they then went on the offensive and attacked Carthage directly in 202 BCE the Romans decisively defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama effectively ending the war a year later with the peace treaty Spain became another Roman province and Rome earned its place as the new Master of the Western Mediterranean a half century later in 149 BCE Rome put the final nail in the coffin after catching Carthage in a technical breach of their treaty Rome attacked a move pushed by their more aggressive politicians like Cato this third Punic War lasted only three years and by 146 BCE Carthage was destroyed buildings were raised and over 50 000 were sold into slavery the carthaginian territory was then made into the Roman province of Africa while the Romans finally got rid of the nuisance of Carthage they would then turn East to the Greek world of the East Mediterranean they had been Wars with these States since 214 BCE what were known as the Macedonian Wars but it wasn't until 148 that the Romans finally conquered Macedonia making it another province the Greek city-states to the South fell in 146 at the Battle of Corinth and became part of Macedon they continued East and in 133 BCE Rome conquered pergamon which became the province of Asia the Romans first Province on this continent with their two main enemies out of the way Rome became the Mediterranean hegemonic power to win these decisive fights they relied on an experienced Army the largest military unit in Rome was the legion the four main Legions each consisted of around 4 200 to 5200 infantry and 300 equitas or cavalry early on in the Republic soldiers were citizens between 18 and 46 who could provide their own equipment as most were farmers they were able to harvest part-time and be free to March the rest of the year during the Punic Wars the Romans needed to recruit larger armies and the number of Legions grew to 23. over time this number would continue to grow wildly by the mid 100s BCE Rome had quelled all external threats but it failed to take control of its internal tensions by this time the Senator's power was at its apex and these 300 Aristocrats accrued power of foreign domestic and financial policy over time the small minority of wealthy landowners bought both the state-owned lands and lands from the smaller Farmers creating large Estates for themselves run by slave labor called latifundia with the rise of these Estates the farmers declined leading to less people able to provide military service these smaller Farmers often had to then migrate to the larger Urban centers becoming part of a growing landless poor this led two men the grackus brothers to attempt to fix the growing economic problems and social unrest they focused on a solution from the ground up recognizing that helping those less fortunate would help the entirety of Rome they used the Council of the plebs to bypass the wealthy Senate and called for land reforms shifting aristocratic land back into the hands of the government and then redistributed to the poor this was to revitalize the number of small farmers the backbone of Roman society The Agrarian reform laws didn't go well with the Senators many of which were landowners themselves and in 133 BCE they murdered Tiberius crackers one of the brothers in 121 BCE Gaius Gracchus his younger brother was also assassinated a grim foreshadowing for any who wish to change the status quo during the late Republic Marius who held the consulship from 104 to 100 BCE reformed the military structure as mentioned earlier the Roman army had always consisted of smaller farmers who owned land and were able to go on campaign part-time through the year Marius instead recruited landless volunteers from both the urban and rural areas he supplied his army directly and promised them land in return over time armies would not only become more professional but would instill their loyalty to their General as opposed to the state because of this military generals backed by their armies would soon come to hold much more power in Rome and eventually become a destabilizing Force for the Republic was the first general to take advantage of the Marian reforms with immediate destabilizing results he had been fighting a war in Anatolia but when the Council of the plebs transferred to war command to Marius Sullen marched on Rome he represented the Optum artists those who wanted to keep senatorial power over the populist reforms of the popular s headed by Marius this sparked the first widespread Civil War and by 82 BCE sulla came out as the victor he became dictator and purged all his enemies and opposition he gave back power to the Senate and limited the powers of the assemblies including the Council of the plebs and their tribunes though sulla believed he was protecting a future for a traditional Rome his actions marked the start of the fall of the Republic the next decade in Rome would be plagued by Civil Wars as numerous powerful men sought after Glory the beginning of the end came around 60 BCE under a coalition of three men which we call the first triumvirate a rule by three individuals Crassus was often cited as the richest man in Rome and gained more political prominence after victory over a slave revolt which we will discuss later Crassus also created Rome's first fire brigade at the first sign of fire his men would rush to the scene but refused to put it out unless the owner of the property sold it to Crassus first if they refused Crassus would let the building burn if they accepted Crassus fixed up the property and then leased it back to the original owner this is how he came to accumulate most of the property in Rome pompe the great an epithet taken after his hero Alexander the Great had served under sulla and was a ruthless military General serving as commander in wars in Spain along with many other campaigns the third of the triumvirate was a man named Gaius Julius Caesar born to a patrician family Caesar lived out his teenage years in hiding after sulla won the Civil War as a Young Man Caesar was kidnapped by Pirates Who demanded a ransom of 20 talents but Caesar knowing his worth insisted they ask for 50 instead he was quite relaxed with his captors even jesting that once he was free he would raise a navy and come back to crucify them all when his Ransom was paid he made good on his joke but when he caught up with the Pirates he took Mercy on them and had their throat cut instead by the 60s BCE Caesar had a military command in Spain as well over time these three men accrued more power pompe continued his command in Spain while Crassus was given a command in the east in the wealthy Syrian region and Caesar was given a command in Gaul and pursued his own campaigns there Crassus was killed in 53 BCE while attempting to fight the parthians an Iranian Empire that had annexed most of the former seleucid territories this left Pompeii and Caesar in direct competition with each other Caesar had managed to conquer and Annex all of France from the Gauls and was hailed as a hero the Gauls were part of the Celtic peoples which originated in Central Europe and spread to live mainly in the region of present-day France and Belgium they were spread out in different tribes and often lived in large fortified settlements known as operator Rome was already familiar with the Gauls as they had been at war with them for centuries ever since they sacked and occupied the city for months back in 390 BCE made sure to utterly humiliate the Romans over three centuries later Julius Caesar returned the favor defeating verse in jetrics leader of the gaulish Confederation and winning the gallic wars not only did he become wealthy and famous his army gained valuable experience and was more loyal than ever Pompeo lined himself with the Optum artist and the Senate voted that Caesar will leave his post and returned to Rome as a regular citizen Caesar refused and in 49 BCE returned with his army Crossing the Rubicon an outer River boundary of Rome that no Army was allowed to pass and seized control of the city this began a four-year political and Military conflict known as Caesar's civil war between those loyal to Caesar and those loyal to Pompeii pompe himself was an Adept General but after fleeing to Egypt he was assassinated by the ptolemaic king just a year into the conflict Caesar defeated Pompeii's allies by 45 BCE and a year later became dictator for Life a move that directly threatened the upper classes he continued estranging the Optum artists by enacting reforms giving land to the poor and increasing the number of Senate members to 900 he also reformed the old Roman Calendar to create the Julian calendar which remained predominant in the western world for over 1600 years in a way mirroring Alexander the Great Caesar had much success in the west and planned campaigns to the east but was assassinated by a group of senators and his Ambitions ended there a second triumvirate was then formed between three new men composed of Octavian Caesar's adopted son and Mark Anthony and Marcus lepidus Caesar's two biggest supporters they defeated Caesar's assassins at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE and then divided the Roman World between them this wouldn't last though and lepidus was exiled in 36 BCE leaving Octavian with his territories and the west and Anthony with the East Anthony's hatred and jealousy of Caesar's relative said the two men on the course for another civil war Mark Anthony Allied himself with the tolemis marrying Caesar's former lover Cleopatra VII wishing to use Egypt as a base to capture Rome in 31 BCE octavian's forces decisively defeated the combined navies of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra a year later he followed them to Egypt and at the Battle of Alexandria both Mark Anthony and Cleopatra committed suicide Egypt was annexed as the province of Rome and Egypt this marked the end of the ptolemaic Dynasty and the end of the only surviving of the Hellenistic kingdoms standing above all was Octavian Grand nephew of Julius Caesar The Man Who Would finally restore the Republic also it seemed in 27 BCE Octavian appealed for normalcy announcing a return to the Republic but his popularity and control over the Army made him sole ruler of Rome the Senate themselves gave him the title of Augustus meaning Majestic or revered a title only fit for a god he was also given the title of imperator where we get the word Emperor from we consider the birth of the Roman Empire to have begun here with a period called the principate a time where the empress maintained the illusion of stability and the maintenance of ideals from the Republic Octavian now known as Caesar Augustus disbanded many of the legions from the Civil Wars but kept 28 of them as a standing army around 150 000 men these citizen soldiers were accompanied by a similar number of auxiliary troops taken from the non-citizen population in addition to the Roman army he kept a private Army of around 6 000 men as bodyguards they were called the praetorian guard and they would eventually become quite influential in propping up or tearing down future emperors Augustus first expanded the Empire North taking the small territory of rayshaw in present-day Austria and Switzerland and to the east into a lyricum which are a group of Balkan countries today he then tried to conquer Germania and the Germanic tribes that lay across the Rhine this task fell to General varus who was given a force of three Legions but in year 9C the Roman army was ambushed and of their reported 22 000 troops 14 to 20 000 of them were slaughtered the leader of the Germanic Confederation arminius was a Roman citizen with a Roman education and was sent to Aid varus in his conquest of Germania arminius and other auxiliary troops were able to secretly counter the offensive and stay one step ahead of the Romans this battle of the tutoburg forest devastated Augustus and halted his expansion campaigns Rome wouldn't interfere with the Germanic people again for almost 200 years the tribes remained independent and were always the closest threat to Rome on the continent Augustus died just five years later in year 14. his long reign of 45 years cemented the continuance of the empire though the facade of the Republic remained Augustus was by all means an autocrat but his successful propaganda and appeals to tradition satisfied a Roman people who had just been through the destabilizing era of Civil Wars from the late Republic after his death Augustus was replaced with his stepson tiberias second emperor of Rome Augustus Tiberius and their three successors would form the first dynasty of the Roman Empire the Julio claudians the dynasty would hold power until year 68. under this dynasty the amount of power Augustus had given to the Senate slowly drifted away and into the emperor's hands they expanded their own government and bureaucracy hiring whomever they wished corruption steadily increased and by the end of this dynasty Nero was depicted by historians like tacitus as greedy and corrupt and even blamed for starting the great fire of Rome in year 64. Nero also persecuted much of the population and is even suspected of having his own mother murdered though the Senators had little power Regional Governors rebelled and the praetorian guard abandoned him with nowhere to turn he either committed suicide or had an eight kill him with his death came the end of the Julio claudian Dynasty and the beginning of a period of civil war known as the year of the four emperors out of this came the next Dynasty the flavians the flavian dynasty were short-lived ruling from 69 to 96 and consisted of just three Emperors Vespasian and his two sons massive construction projects were commissioned under the flavians the most noteworthy being the flavian amphitheater once the mission was assassinated in 96 the nerva antinine dynasty took power the first handful of these seven Emperors were known as the five good Emperors because of their tolerance and diplomatic skills though Rome had entered a golden age under Augustus called the Pax Romana or Roman peace it truly reached its height under the five good emperors Rome expanded regularly and internally it was prosperous and stable though the Emperors of this dynasty failed to produce male heirs they instead adopted men able to lead and keep the Empire stable the emperor's power grew even more during this time while the Senate suffered under trajian the second of the five good Emperors social welfare programs were expanded and he oversaw Rome at its greatest territorial extent by the time of his death in 117. it covered 5 million square kilometers almost as large as Alexander's gigantic Macedonian Empire a few centuries earlier both trajian and his successor Hadrian were praised for their extensive building projects as well trajan's most known landmarks are trajan's Forum trajent market and trajins column Hadrian built the temple of Venus and roma thought to be the largest temple in Rome and rebuilt the pantheon a temple that was dedicated to all the gods this building still stands today after trajan's death Hadrian realized the empire was overextended and took a more defensive approach he withdrew from the Eastern territories like Mesopotamia and parts of Arabia and focused on building defenses in Europe he fortified borders on the Rhine and Danube and built a wall in Roman Britain Hadrian's Wall to separate the Romans from Caledonia and the pits and Gales which lived to the north the Roman armies lived in permanent fortifications and outposts behind their borders and had an efficient system to transport reinforcements to other outposts with haste when the stoic Emperor Marcus Aurelius died in 180 the period of the five good Emperors ended and the Pax Romana along with it with the murder of Commodus 12 years later in 192 the nerva antanine dynasty was also over leading to another short period of instability this time called the year of the five Emperors the Roman Empire experienced its height around the same time as Han China in the second century which we covered in our overview of ancient China the Empire had reached a population of 60 to 75 million though only a fraction of these were full citizens it wasn't until 212 under karakala that citizenship was given to all three inhabitants of the Empire a move that made residents everywhere feel more connected to Rome and as a consequence also raise tax revenues Roman culture spread all through the Mediterranean mixing with the existing Hellenistic culture already in place since Alexander creating a new Greco-Roman culture Latin was mainly used in the Western Empire and Greek in the east because the empire was highly centralized the provincial Governors had very little Manpower and needed to rely on the smaller City officials to carry out the routine Affairs especially tax collection despite the East having more urban centers creating a denser population the West always had a higher total population with inhabitants living in smaller cities and settlements during the Pax Romana trade also blossomed and is the main reason for Rome's Prosperity during its first two centuries of existence Traders from around the Empire would sail to Italy to Ports at the Bay of Naples and on the Tiber more importantly Traders would come from Beyond the Empire's borders like from China both Empires were similar in that they had originally built their Road systems to mobilize their military a fortunate consequence of this was that it facilitated trade Traders would have routes they could follow which would be safe from Raiders and thieves the most important of these was called The Silk Road in reality the Silk Road wasn't just a singular road but a series of silk routes creating a web of passages over the land and sea that connected China to India to Central Asia the Middle East East Africa and Europe China had been extracting silk from silkworm cocoons for thousands of years already but it wasn't until the Roman Republic that Silk exports reached the Mediterranean by the time of the Empire and the Pax Romana silk was flowing into Rome and became a luxury item it was very popular with the elites but a silk flowed in silver flowed out it was reported that the treasuries were running low because of the amount of silk Roman women would purchase though Rome and China had commercial contact there hasn't been any reported political contact between the Roman Empire and the harm this could be because of the two Central Asian Empires separating them the parthians and kushan as Rome dismantled the Hellenistic Kingdoms in the west the parthians and kushan dismantled them in the East and both Empires were successful lasting for centuries Egypt also became a hotbed for trade Egyptian Merchants would open up ports in India and import pearls and spices for the wealthy trade was also widely used for Roman industry though most material products were made in the Greek east's in Hellenistic times the Latin West reached a high point in manufacturing especially Italy the rural regions kept the Empire running and from there Rome's most essential industry agriculture the largest states of the latter fundia were the Crux of Rome's agricultural output and were prevalent in the south of Italy and on Sicily Pliny the Elder an author in the early Roman Empire was dismayed by the sheer amount of slave labor used on these farms and not the small farmers which were the nucleus of the army tenant Farmers would sometimes work the latter fundia with slaves and paid the landowner in either labor or crops smaller Farmers would still Prosper to the north though in etruria and the fertile Poe Valley what made Rome so unique was their ability to use certain parts of other cultures to their advantage their early land Army adopted aspects of the samnite military which almost defeated them during their expansion in Italy and their Navy was based off of carthaginian ships during the first Punic War while both civilizations were ultimately defeated that can't be said for the Greeks to paraphrase the Roman poet Horus though Greece was conquered it was the Greek culture that captured Rome this was apparent early on in the empire under Augustus during what historians call the Golden Age of Latin literature one of the most famous poets from this time was Virgil he was born in Northern Italy and was credited for composing the three most famous poems in Latin literature his most famous work was the Aeneid an epic poem written in honor of Augustus in the Aeneid a Trojan named veneers flees the sacking of Troy and travels to Italy becoming an ancestor to the Romans this created a direct link between Greek history and the Romans and legitimized Augustus and his descendants Aeneas was portrayed as having faithfulness and Duty just like Homer's Iliad was used as a model for Greek Consciousness The Aeneid gave the Romans purpose as a Divine Empire and is regarded as one of the greatest works of Latin literature just like literature the Romans also took Greek inspiration for their art and architecture they constructed statues in the Greek style and placed them all over the public and even private homes the main differences between the Greek and Roman style was that classical Greek statues were more calm and detached more idealized versions of the human body while the Romans had a more natural style depicting more realistic facial features and emotions in the more wealthy homes were frescoes of beautiful landscapes and paintings from mythology Romans did use Greek architecture in their designs like Colonnades adapted the from earlier Greek Doric Ionic and Corinthian columns into their own style taking what they needed from the Greeks they improved on it greatly when Augustus came to power he rebuilt large parts of the Imperial City so engineers and Architects flocked to Rome from all over Europe leading to a Roman architectural Revolution there was a new widespread use of innovative structures like arches vaults which acted as ceilings and domes their massive erections were able to be built because of one crucial invention which they called open cementitiam or Roman concrete this became the primary building material after the traditional stone and brick with this substance and their superb engineering skills they created some of the most magnificent structures of the classical age including public baths large amphitheaters mausoleums and temples they also improved the infrastructure building a vast network of roads in the Empire all of which led back to Rome Rome also had 11 aqueducts which successfully supplied water to the city's vast population and these were built to last some even still in operation today Roman law was a series of legal systems that spanned over a thousand years it began in the early days of the Republic in 449 BCE with the 12 tables written by the Decembers and were thought to be influenced by the laws of Solon written in Greece a century earlier the laws would evolve over time becoming more beneficial for the plebeian class by the time of the Empire the law code was updated to deal with the intricate problems in a vast Empire new civil a or Citizen Law was the body of laws that applied to Roman citizens gentium all laws of the peoples was the set of laws for foreigners and their dealings with citizens it was part of the use naturally or natural law a universal law which applied to all people and was used to explain why all people despite their location naturally follow certain laws from Roman law came the presumption of innocence until proven guilty thought to have originated during the era of the good emperors this meant judges had to more carefully examine the evidence before rendering a verdict presumption of innocent would continue on along with many other facets of Roman law to become the basis for European law and legal culture the basic unit in Roman society was the family it was headed by the part of familias or male head of the household families were close to the nuclear style where the head had a wife and children but could often include their son's wives and slaves as well like in Greece Roman women needed to rely on their male Guardians if the part of familias died his duties would pass on to his son or closest male relatives fathers arranged marriages for their daughters in The Early Republic Elite families would perform mana's marriage where the father hands off his daughter to her new husband so she would always be under some form of male power during the time of Julius Caesar and the late Republic this was changed to a free marriage in which the father retained his legal control over her this gave women more power as they lived with a husband with no Direct Control usually the father would also meet his death sooner than his daughter and her husband granting her a type of Independence leading to some very prominent and Powerful women in Rome though marriage and reproduction was promoted infant mortality was quite high up to one in three often the lower classes in the upper classes the role of the father was to make sure his children were educated while girls were taught to be Homemakers and good wives and mothers the boys would learn to read and write and learn the law and moral systems of the state they would also engage in regular physical activity and training to become soldiers once they turned 16 boys would trade in their purple striped toga the toga protects her with the toga virulis or the plain white toger of manhood originally the part of familias theoretically had the legal power of life and death over every member of the family but was expected to act as a proper citizen during the second century he began to lose most of his powers over his family and his control was finally Limited by the end of the century women were no longer required to have male Guardians upper-class women always had more Independence than the lower classes they could go where they pleased and attend the races and events at the amphitheater though those women of the higher classes couldn't participate in politics directly they exerted their influence through the males closest to them their husbands and Sons Livia was quite influential through her husband Emperor Augustus she allegedly had various members of his family killed and convinced him to adopt her son Tiberius who became the second Roman Emperor after Augustus died though it's been established that slavery was a regular part of the ancient world it had never reached the scale of Rome Rome not only had more slaves than any other civilization they were also entirely dependent on this slave labor the richest Romans usually had the most slaves and it came to be seen as a symbol of stature the most prestigious slaves would be Greek and acted as tutors musicians and artists but the main Crux of slaves were Farm laborers who worked in deplorable conditions they would also work inside the home as Cooks cleaners and gardeners slaves were also used to build Rome's infrastructure their roads and aqueducts slaves all had different kinds of relationships with their masters some came to bond with them but slaves were mostly treated poorly often beaten severely punished abused or simply made to labor far too long and far too hard there were reports of individual slaves rebelling and killing their masters reminding other owners to become wary of Their Own large slave revolts would eventually occur called the servile Wars the first two took place on Sicily the third server war from 73 to 71 BCE is the most famous and occurred on the peninsula directly threatening Rome one of the leaders of this Revolt was a thracian gladiator named Spartacus it was eventually dismantled by Crassus as we earlier alluded to and six thousand of the survivors were publicly crucified even the lower class free citizens suffered as there was a rather large disparity between rich and poor in Imperial Rome the rich lived in extravagant Villas either in the city or Countryside the poorer masses lived in cramped conditions on city blocks called insulate later this term would be used for the small apartment buildings that rested on these streets they were built with concrete but were hastily made and often collapsed wooden beams and the presence of candles stoves and lamps were a constant fire hazard because the city blocks were so compact a fire became cataclysmic The Great Fire of Rome in year 64 destroyed two-thirds of the city [Music] but even with the apartments working as intended it was still a desolate experience rent was so high that entire families had to share a single room without indoor plumbing this led people to spend a majority of their time Outdoors Augustus and later Emperors took on the responsibility of providing grain to the urban masses called The Grain Dole grain was imported from Sicily and North Africa and around 200 000 Roman citizens would receive free or subsidized grain though helpful this still didn't alleviate the Dismal conditions and high rates of children still developed conditions caused by dietary deficiencies the plebs had lost all their governmental power with the end of the Republic and the Empire appeased them just enough to avoid widespread uprising the plebeians were concerned with only two things bread and circuses the Empire provided just enough bread to survive and provided public spectacles to entertain the masses these were part of religious festivals and included theater performances and breathtaking events at the circus Maximus horse and chariot races brought in tens of thousands of spectators the biggest and most popular of the spectacles were the Gladiator shows they would take place in the amphitheaters like the Coliseum which could hold over 50 000 spectators the Gladiator games focused on trained Fighters battling to the death early on they were usually prisoners of War like the neighboring Sam Knights Gauls authorations there were many forms and classes of Gladiators using different weapons and paraphernalia there were also female Gladiators called a gladiatrix but they aren't as well documented apart from the gladiator fight the shows would also Force unarmed criminals both young and old to fight wild animals different types of animals were also pit against each other before the Gladiators took stage there would be staged hunts displaying the killing of many wild animals some of the animals fought directly with Gladiators and some would even kill their Hunters wolves were treated differently than other beasts because of their religious importance according to Emperor trajian the free grain satiated the individual while the public spectacles satiated the masses after the short disorder of the year of the five Emperors The Sovereign Dynasty restored stability in 193 with a more militaristic reign it was founded by septimius Severus the first emperor of African descent but the dynasty remained in constant political turmoil according to Cassius Dio another major historian and Senator Emperor ellica Ballas delighted in being called Queen and wanted women's genitalia and is regarded today as the first transgender emperor by the time of the death of the last severeign emperor in 235 the Empire immediately fell into chaos again the next 49 years saw the Roman Empire fraught with instability corruption and fragmentation which threatened its very existence these decades are known as the crisis of the third century and saw at least 26 different Emperors claim the throne with most of them dying from war assassination suicide or disease externally the new sassanid Empire a neo-persian Empire that supplanted the parthian invaded from the East while Germanic tribes invaded in the West by 268 the Empire had been split with the provinces of Gaul Britannia and briefly hispania breaking away as the gallic empire in the west and the provinces of Syria Palestina Arabia Egypt and parts of Anatolia as the palmarine empire because of the widespread invasions internal Wars and the plague of cyprian beginning in 249 roamed economy collapsed and the Empire nearly did as well there was a decline in manufacturing and trade and the plague caused a shortage of Manpower in the Army and agricultural sectors inflation soared and Rome wasn't able to pay more soldiers to enlist the territories were eventually reconsolidated by Emperor aurelian he first dealt with Queen Zenobia ruler of the palmarine Empire and then turned West to dismantle the gallic empire the crisis finally ended in 284 with the Ascension of the equation and his reforms under the new emperor many of Rome's problems remained but through the occlusion and one of his successes Constantine Imperial power was strengthened administrative Powers were extended and the Army expanded this was the beginning of the Dominate a more despotic autocratic phase of the Roman Empire that broke away from the principate appearances of the Republic and made clear the emperor was master or Dominus the first phase of recovery saw the equation appoint a co-empora named maximian to rule in the west while the ecclesian ruled in the east in 293 this became a tetraki with each gaining a Caesar or Junior Emperor dividing the empire into four Civil Wars would erupt between the divided Empire and by 324 was reunified under Constantine dissolving the tetraki and standing tall as the sole emperor of Rome to celebrate his victory Constantine built a new capital on the old Greek city of Byzantium on the Bosphorus the location was chosen for its strategic importance which in hindsight proved true he commissioned all the major Roman constructions like a forum circus Amphitheater and palaces he called this city New Rome but it would come to be known as Constantinople after the emperor the occlusion and Constantine's reform stopped the bleeding but the Majesty of the Empire couldn't be revived upon the death of Constantine the Empire began to divide itself once again and though Emperor theodosius held it together by the time of his death in 395 it was split once again into East and West never to be joined again while the Eastern Roman Empire which modern historians call the Byzantine Empire thrived the Western Roman Empire devolved into an administrative Abyss the process began with the Germanic migrations which had begun much earlier the earlier Romans had set up Garrison and had been able to protect their borders often dealing with the barbarians by absorbing them into the empire but a new threat was on the horizon from the East came the Huns they were a tribe of Nomads hailing from Central Asia it's thought they were related to the shionu a menace to the Han Empire in the east they charged into Europe from the East causing the Goths a Germanic tribe to flee South and settle in Roman territory as their allies they eventually revolted and met the Eastern Roman army at the Battle of Adrian opal in 378 and defeated them killing the Eastern emperor these Goths then moved West and would be known as Western Goths or Visigoths those Goths who stayed in the East under the rule of the Huns were Eastern Goths or ostrogoths the Visigoths marched on Rome and sacked the Imperial City in 410 later traveling west to Southern Gaul and settling in Spain these weren't the only Germanic tribes on the move because of the Huns the vandals an East Germanic tribe who inhabited the territory of present-day Poland also fled West Crossing into North Africa from Spain and then North to Sacramento in 455. by this point the Western Roman provinces were occupied and controlled by the Germanic tribes as their own kingdoms in a reeling Row the Western Emperor only appeared in control but real power tended to be wielded by high-ranked military men in 476 odoasa a high-ranked soldier and Statesman of Germanic origin deposed The Last Emperor this is seen by most historians as the end of the Western Roman Empire the fall of a Rome that ironically ended with the reign of Romulus augustulus a name derived from both the founder of the city and the founder of the empire since its founding Rome worshiped a Pantheon of gods derived from Etruscan and Greek the Roman Pantheon included Gods like Mars the god of war and Minerva goddess of wisdom and justice the entire Pantheon was headed by Jupiter Optimus Maximus god of the sky and thunder he became the Roman Patron God and was Central to religious life in the city Vesta was the goddess of the Hearth a sacred Eternal fire attended by her priestesses the Vestal virgins the vestals weren't Bound by the same obligations like other women and were prohibited from marriage and bearing children they also had to take a 30-year vow of Chastity to devote themselves to fulfilling their religious duties the Romans attributed their imperialist success to their appeasement of the Gods though the Romans took their own religion seriously they were also generally quite tolerant of other religions in the Empire allowing natives to worship their own deities Romans also took certain religious aspects from these cultures like the Imperial cult from ancient Egyptian religion starting with Augustus the Roman emperors would be worshiped as Gods themselves as with the Greeks the Romans practiced many mystery religions performing rights in an attempt for salvation or eternal life one of these was the cult of Sibley which the Romans called Magna Mata or great mother and who is thought to have originated in the Neolithic evolving from this very statute type though the Romans didn't participate in these rituals Priests of this cult would castrate themselves in a fit of ecstasy offering their fertility to the mother goddess another mystery religion was mithraism it might have been inspired from the zoroastrian godmithra but remade into a different deity from the beginning of the Empire this cult was quite popular among the Roman army and spread all throughout the Western Empire as far as Britain and during the late Empire Emperor aurelian established the cult of Soul Invictus as the official religion as the Romans Advanced further east during the late Republic they came into contact with another religion and culture Judaism the seleucid Empire had been declining and losing territory for Centuries by this point Pompeii before forming the first triumvirate was the final nail in the coffin dissolving the seleucid empire for good in 63 BCE fresh off this campaign he stayed in the region and went South to Judea prior to this the territory had been part of the seleucid Empire but became independent after the maccabayan revolt by 140 BCE it was led independently by the Jewish hasmonean Dynasty until the arrival of Pompeii he laid Siege to Jerusalem and made Judea a semi-autonomous client State still ruled by the hasmonean dynasty after they allied with the parthians Jerusalem was besieged once again in 37 BCE by Herod the Great Who was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman senate The Siege deposed the last Tasmanian King who was then executed by the Romans Herod then established his own kingdom by year 6 Judea became a Roman province directly administered by Rome through a governor according to Josephus a Roman Jewish historian there were four different Jewish sects living in Judea at the time of the Roman occupation the Pharisees were the largest of the groups and believed in both the oral law those laws given to Moses through their God and the laws of the Torah all written law the Sadducees the second sect was an upper class of priests and opposed the Pharisees rejecting the oral law instead only using the Torah they were also open to the Hellenistic culture the Greek culture brought in by Alexander's conquests which the Pharisees opposed the essenes were the third sect and emerged in opposition to the first two they left Jerusalem preferring to dwell in the desert living a life of asceticism there they prayed for a messiah to save them from their new conquerors the zealots were the fourth sect and were more extreme than the other groups they were militant and even punished other Jews for obeying certain Roman laws they were the leading cause of the Great Jewish Revolt in 66 CE which led to yet another Siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the holy city and its second temple this second temple ordered to be rebuilt by Cyrus the Great had been completed since 516 BCE after the Jews returned home from the Babylonian captivity but decades earlier while Augustus was living his life of opulence another had been born in a more humble setting he was From Galilee during the time of herod's dynasty his Hebrew name was Yeshua and would be known as Jesus in English Galilee was home to many of the militants that opposed Roman rule Jesus acted as a more passive Force preaching that compliance to the Roman laws was irrelevant and that it was the laws of the soul that mattered treat your neighbor as you wish to be treated and love them as you would love yourself humility and charity were at the Forefront of his teachings in the eyes of Rome Jesus was a rabble Rouser and might become a powerful revolutionary many Jews had already been awaiting Salvation And if they viewed Jesus as their Messiah it could cause severe unrest in the Empire Jesus was then persecuted by both the Jews and Romans and Pontius Pilate governor of the Judean Province ordered his crucifixion either in 30 or 33. soon there was word that Jesus had escaped death and been resurrected with Witnesses saying they saw him Ascend to heaven the resurrection became Central to the beliefs of who would later be called Christian Jesus was claimed to be the anointed savior or Messiah who was meant to one day return Christianity wasn't initially seen as a separate religion from Judaism and they were treated similarly by Rome Paul of Tarsus an early Christian preached the message of Jesus to not only other Jews but to non-jews who they called gentiles the message Incorporated earlier Jewish stories and claimed that Jesus had been sent as a savior to all people who were all Sinners because of Adam's original sin in the Garden of Eden once Jesus died it was an atonement for human sin and everyone could be saved so long as they accept Jesus as their savior early on Christianity was mainly spread orally through sermons and preaching but there were also written works texts at the foundation of Christian theology were the Epistles of Paul which have been recognized as Canon and placed in the New Testament the gospels all good news was the core of the New Testament and included the story of Jesus himself apart from the books of Matthew Mark Luke and John other gospels were written like the Gospel of Thomas which was left out of the Canon by the early church leaders as Jesus was crucified there Jerusalem became the birthplace of Christianity but once it was besieged in 70 CE many Jews and early Christian followers dispersed establishing churches mainly in major Eastern cities many of the early Christian communities were from these greek-speaking regions in the east over time they spread over across Europe and gained followers in the Latin West the belief was attractive to those living under the heel of the Romans and gave them something to look forward to with salvation and afterlife it also gave them a sense of community helping those more needy like orphans or the poor and a stronger connection against a common oppressor they never felt like Romans so took an identity as Christian it felt familiar as well as the mystery religions and Cults were also concerned with rebirth and forms of eternal life whether a rich Aristocrat or a poor slave man woman it did not matter Christianity viewed all people equally and as needing salvation because the early persecutions were sporadic Christianity only managed to strengthen during the latter half of the first and second century as they learned ways to organize and communicate away from Roman eyes starting in the mid 200s the Christian persecutions became more common and more systematic the most serious one the great persecution initiated by Emperor deacletian in 303 was also the last though severe Christianity had gained enough growth and experience to survive and a decade later in 313 emperor Constantine issued the edict of Milan which ended the persecution and gave Christianity legal status in 380 under theodosius Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire for the followers of Christianity it was a truly miraculous turn of events but it wasn't long before those in power conducted persecutions of their own suppressing or assimilating the rich Pagan traditions we had come to grow so familiar with ironically Christianity would only begin to shine brightly during the next period a Time known as the Dark Ages

Channel: Made In History

Views: 947,089

Keywords: made in history, made in history ancient world, world history, world history documentary, world history summarized, classical age documentary, classical world history, history of the world, ancient world history, ancient world documentary, history of the ancient world, ancient greece and rome documentary, ancient greece and persia, ancient egypt documentary, ancient egypt history, ancient mesopotamia, ancient rome documentary, ancient china documentary, ancient india history

Id: Xx0NzvZvAnI

Length: 244min 27sec (14667 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 19 2022