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INSTITUTE OF HISTORY,
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR

[1] __TITLE__ A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in Two Volumes __TEXTFILE_BORN__ 2007-02-16T01:28:26-0800 __TRANSMARKUP__ "Y. Sverdlov" 099-1.jpg [2] A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD __SUBTITLE__ Volume~I __EDITOR__ Edited by Prof. A. Z. MANFRED

Progress Publishers

Moscow

[3]

Translated from the Russian by KATHARINE JUDELSON

Designed by V KUZYAKOV

CONTRIBUTORS
ACADEMICIAN M V AECHKINA ACADEMICIAN S D SKAZKIN ACADEMICIAN A A GUBER DR M A ALPEROVICH, DR L N KUTAKOV, DR A Z MANFRED, DR S L VTCHENKO, DR A V rADEYEV, D V DEOP1K CAND. SC. (HIST)

KPATKAH BCEMHPHAH HCTOPHH KHHTA TIEPBAH

Ha 3HIVIHHCKOM H3bIK6

__COPYRIGHT__ FIRST PRINTING 1974
© Translation into English Progress Publishers 1974
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [4] CONTENTS Preface 7 PART ONE THE ANCIENT WORLD Chapter One PRIMITIVE SOCIETY 11 Chapter Two THE MIDDLE EAST 17 Chapter Three THE ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS OF INDIA AND CHINA 41 Chapter Four PRE-CLASSICAL GREECE 51 Chapter Five GREECE IN THE FIFTH AND FOURTH CENTURIES BC THE CRISIS IN GREEK SOCIETY 60 Chapte? Six THE RISE OF MACEDONIA AND THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 81 Chapter Seven THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 87 Chapter Light IMPERIAL ROME 112 PART TWO THE MIDDLE AGES Chapter One THE TRANSITION TO FEUDALISM AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE EARLY FEUDAL STATES IN EUROPE 131 Chapter Two THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF FEUDAL RELATIONS IN EASTERN, SOUTH-EASTERN AND SOUTHERN ASIA . 151 Chapter Three KIEV RUS 168 Chapter Four THE TRANSITION TO FEUDALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA 181 Chapter live WESTERN EUROPE IN THE ELEVENTH-FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 194 Chapter Six THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLES OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE, CHINA, CENTRAL ASIA AND TRANSCAUCASIA AGAINST FOREIGN INVASION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 217 Chapter Seven THE EMERGENCE OF A UNITED RUSSIAN STATE 224 Chapter Eight THE EMERGENCE OF EARLY CAPITALISM IN WESTERN EUROPE 232 5 Chapter Nine. AMERICA ON THE EVE OF THE EUROPEAN CONQUEST ......................246 Chapter Ten. THE CENTRALISED RUSSIAN STATE FROM THE LATE FIFTEENTH TO THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. THE PEASANT WAR................253 Chapter Eleven. ASIA IN THE SIXTEENTH-SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES ......................265 PART THREE
THE MODERN PERIOD Chapter One. THE ENGLISH BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION. FEUDAL ABSOLUTISM IN SEVENTEENTH- AND EIGHTEENTH-- CENTURY EUROPE...................281 Chapter Two. ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA...........294 Chapter Three. ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. THE NORTH AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.................313 Chapter Four. THE PEOPLES OF ASIA IN THE SEVENTEENTHEIGHTEENTH CENTURIES..............324 Chapter Five. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION..........351 Chapter Six. EUROPE DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WARS .... 372 Chapter Seven. REACTION IN EUROPE AND THE REVOLUTIONARY LIBERATION MOVEMENTS OF THE 1820s AND 1830s 388 Chapter Eight. THE DEVELOPMENT OT CAPITALISM IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. THE GROWTH OF THE WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT AND THE BIRTH OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM 401 Chapter Nine. REVOLUTIONARY FERMENT IN 1848--1849 .... 413 Chapter Ten. RUSSIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (1800--1860) 428 Chapter Eleven. POPULAR REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN ASIA.......................438 Chapter Twelve. NATIONAL BOURGEOIS MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA..................471 Chapter Thirteen. THE PARIS COMMUNE---1871........488 Chapter Fourteen. THE CAPITALIST WORLD AT THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY...............500 Chapter Fifteen. RUSSIA AFTER THE ABOLITION OF SERFDOM--- FROM REFORM TO REVOLUTION...........517 Chapter Sixteen. IMPERIALISM, THE HIGHEST AND LAST STAGE OF CAPITALISM..................532 Chapter Seventeen. RUSSIA BECOMES THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT. THE AWAKENING OF ASIA.....................541 Chapter Eighteen. THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE OVERTHROW OF TSARISM IN RUSSIA...........570 CHRONICLE OF EVENTS................588 [6] __ALPHA_LVL1__ PREFACE

A Short History of the World attempts to trace the long and complex path traversed by the human race from the era of primitive society right up to the present day.

Inevitably the size of the present edition makes it impossible to give an equally full and detailed account of all the events which took place during these centuries---the development of human society, ancient civilisation, the military campaigns and conquests of the Middle Ages, the enormous strides in social progress made in modern times---revolutions, the most decisive of which was the Great October Socialist Revolution, ushering in as it did a new era of world history. The reader will have the opportunity to acquaint himself with the most outstanding events which played an influential part in the march of human progress. This we trust will be sufficient to convey a clear picture of the motive forces and main trends of the whole course of history.

What are the main laws underlying the development of human society? Wherein lies the essence of historical progress? What are the reasons for the sudden rise and fall of so many states in the past? Why is the final victory of communism inevitable, a victory which will bring to fruition age-old ideals cherished by hundreds of millions of people who have waged an unceasing struggle against social and national oppression?

The authors of this work set out their answers to these questions basing themselves on concrete historical material and the Marxist-Leninist theory on the laws governing the development of human society. While devoting much of their attention to the history of the Soviet Union, they have at the same time attempted to pinpoint the main features of economic, social, political and cultural development on all five continents, again within the limits dictated by the size of this work.

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The first volume covers the vast period from primitive society right up to the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia. The gradual development of the productive forces of human society was accompanied by a marked acceleration of the historical process which at the same time started to acquire an increasingly universal aspect. Underlying all the manifold political events---during the era of slave-owning society and that of feudal and, in particular, capitalist society---is the class struggle, the struggle of the oppressed masses of working people against their exploiters in the name of social and national liberation. The decisive victory in this struggle was that of the October Revolution in Russia.

The second volume is devoted to the events of the new era ushered in by the October Revolution. The reason for this is the tremendous historical importance of the events of the modern epoch, in which the creative energy of the masses has come into its own and has started to play a truly decisive role in history, an epoch in which we are witnessing the revolutionary replacement of capitalism, the last type of society based on exploitation, by communism.

Leading Soviet historians have collaborated to compile the present work. Making use of the latest Soviet and foreign sources the contributors have also tried to ensure that this work should be accessible and of interest to the reader at large.

[8] __NUMERIC_LVL1__ Part One __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE ANCIENT
WORLD __NUMERIC_LVL2__ Chapter One __ALPHA_LVL2__ PRIMITIVE SOCIETY

The History of Primitive Society

__NOTE__ Page 9 has just "Part" LVL (other two LVLs on page 11 in original). [9] ~ [10]

The history of the human race covers the whole period since man first appeared on the earth, roughly estimated at a million years. In the earliest period of human history there existed neither separate peoples nor states and men lived in small groups, clans or tribes. This period is known as the epoch of primitive society.

Archaeologists divided the history of mankind into three ages according to the material from which human implements were made: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

However, these divisions proved inadequate, particularly with regard to the earliest periods of primitive society, some of which lasted for many thousands of years. For this reason new subdivisions were added. The Stone Age was divided into Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (New Stone Age). In addition, the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods were divided into Lower, Middle and Upper.

Primitive Man

If we turn now not to archaeological but geological classifications, we find that man first appeared on this planet at the beginning of the so-called Quaternary period, when the ice-sheets then covering the whole of northern Asia, Europe and America started to recede and a warm climate emerged in those areas.

The type of man who appeared at that period possessed few characteristics distinguishing him from the animal kingdom. For example, at that time people, like monkeys, lived in trees, had no fixed dwelling place, and did not wear any form of clothes. However, the decisive difference was already there, namely, that man, unlike animals, had already learnt to make tools. Initially 11 these tools were of an exceedingly primitive kind. The most primitive type of stone implement made by man was known as the pebble tool; it consisted of a piece of stone, crudely fashioned with a slightly sharpened edge usually weighing approximately five pounds. Man used this primitive tool both as a means of defence or attack and as a work implement.

During that distant epoch man found his sustenance mainly by gathering whatever food nature happened to provide, such as fruits and berries, and by hunting small animals. Since people at that time were to a large extent helpless before the forces of nature, they were obliged to live, work and defend themselves in groups.

As a result there came into being groupings of primitive men, the level of whose communal development was so low that they were classified as "primitive human herds''. These primitive herds were completely lacking in any concept of hierarchy or inequality. Neither did there exist any idea of property or family ties.

Anyone who held aloof from the herd was looked upon as a stranger, which at that time was the equivalent of an enemy. This was the main reason why people strove to stay together: life outside the herd was fraught with danger and beyond the powers of any separate individual.

At the end of the Lower Palaeolithic there occurred a new (third) glaciation. Tundra-type climatic conditions developed over wide areas of Asia and Europe. Many animals were unable to survive such a sharp change of climate and became extinct. Meanwhile man succeeded in adapting himself to the new conditions. During the Lower Palaeolithic he had learnt to make fire, which he had already known how to use and preserve. The use of fire enabled him to protect himself from the cold and from wild animals and to cook his food (hitherto he had known only raw food). The art of making fire represented man's first major victory over nature.

It was during this epoch that the gradual transformation of the primitive human herd into a community of a more advanced type took place. The whole structure and pattern of life was changing. Man came down to earth from the trees. However he still did not build dwellings and made use of natural shelters, mainly caves. Techniques used for fashioning stone implements also changed. It was during this period that smaller and finer tools---the socalled core and flake tools---made their appearance.

The main occupation of man at this period of his development was hunting for large animals, such as deer or mammoths. This did not mean, however, that man had ceased to be a gatherer, but merely that hunting had replaced gathering as the most important method of obtaining food.

12

It was between the fortieth and twelfth millennia B.C. (the Upper Palaeolithic) that modern man evolved. It was also during this period that the first racial differences appeared.

There are theories which maintain that races have always existed, that is ever since man evolved as a species distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom. The supporters of such theories consider that certain races are naturally superior, whereas others 099-2.jpg
Tools of the Sinanthropus
possess specific deficiencies and are therefore inferior. However such an argument is completely spurious. In the first place racial distinctions did not evolve at the very beginning of the existence of the human race but only at a given stage of human development. Secondly, the most painstaking and impartial analysis will reveal that there are no fundamental differences between the various races and that the only distinctions are purely external, physical ones (such as skin colour, type of hair, etc.).

These were the main changes which took place in human society during the Palaeolithic period. The primitive herd ceased to exist and a new form of social life---the clan community--- came into being.

13

The Era of the Clan

The original principle underlying this type of social structure was female kinship. This is explained by the fact that group marriages were the common practice, as a result of which children never knew who their fathers were, only their mothers. Thus kinship was exclusively matrilineal.

Society based on this matriarchal pattern lasted for several thousand years. This type of society coincided roughly with the Mesolithic and the Lower Neolithic periods and represented an important stage in the development of mankind. It was during this period that man exchanged his crude stone weapons for vastly superior ones, such as the bow and arrow, and started to tame animals. The first animal to be tamed appears to have been the dog. People also learnt at this period to make clay vessels, an indication of the fact that they had begun to cook their food systematically. During the Upper Neolithic period new techniques for working stone evolved: boring, filing and polishing. Last but by no means least, it was during this period that primitive forms of land cultivation and animal husbandry made their appearance.

The Development of Agriculture and Stockbreeding

Cultivation of the land was a logical continuation of earlier food gathering. As they gathered nuts, fruits, acorns and grain men gradually noticed that the grain started to grow after it had fallen on the ground. However, many centuries were to elapse before man concluded from these observations that he could plant grain himself and grow plants from it. It was in this way that primitive agriculture began.

The tools first used for agriculture were extremely primitive, such as digging sticks and later hoes. The crops produced were barley, wheat, millet, peas, and vegetables such as carrots.

The domestication of food animals developed from hunting practices. By this period men had learnt to hunt by ``rounding up" their prey. Large groups of men would ``round up" wild boar or oxen, and hunting became a collective activity on a mass scale. Gradually man realised that it was possible to make use of animals, to tame and breed them. Such were the primitive beginnings of Stockbreeding.

The subsequent development of agriculture and Stockbreeding is closely linked with the transition from matrilineal to patrilineal kinship. Agriculture and Stockbreeding became spheres in which the man gradually ousted the woman. This step in its turn was bound up with the invention of the plough and the transition from agriculture based on hoeing, to that based on ploughing. Ploughing being a more strenuous activity, was done by men with 14 the aid of draught beasts. Woman was then allotted the new role of managing the domestic tasks.

The establishment of patrilineal kinship, or patriarchy, marked a new stage in the development of human society. It was in this period that the important transition from stone tools to metal ones took place. First of all men learnt to smelt copper, but since copper is a very soft metal they soon began to fuse it with tin thus making bronze. Bronze is much harder than copper, melts at a lower temperature and is more malleable. Thus it proved highly suitable for tools and weapons.

The development of agriculture and animal husbandry and the transition to metal tools led to tribes gradually specialising in either tillage or herding. The cultivators spread to various parts of the Western hemisphere and in the Eastern hemisphere they were mostly to be found in the valleys of large rivers such as the Nile in Egypt, the Tigris and the Euphrates in Mesopotamia, the Indus in India, the Hwang Ho in China and also in parts of Asia Minor and the Balkan peninsula. The pastoralists settled mainly in Southern Siberia, the basin of the Aral Sea, the Iranian plateau and the southern steppes bordering on the Black Sea.

A regular exchange of produce grew up between the cultivators and the pastoralists. Whereas in earlier times people had tried to produce enough to support their particular family or clan, they now started trying to produce a surplus because of the possibility of barter. There now existed an incentive to accumulate surplus produce within a given tribe, clan or family.

The urge to accumulate surplus produce for barter engendered a new attitude to prisoners captured in inter-tribal warfare. Whereas earlier these prisoners had usually been killed or absorbed into the ranks of the winning tribe, a new custom now grew up, that of taking prisoners and forcing them to work for their conquerors, thus turning them into slaves. In this way during the patriarchal era primitive or patriarchal slavery came into being. The appearance of slavery was one of the first signs of the disintegration of the primitive community.

The Disintegration of the Clan Structure

It was in the fourteenth century B.C. that the transition to iron tools began, first of all in Asia Minor. Iron ploughs, axes and spades make their appearance. The use of iron brought about a fundamental revolution in agricultural techniques and craftsmanship. Ironsmiths appeared, followed by the invention of the potter's wheel and the weaving loom. A further division of labour took place when craftsmen ceased to work on the land and cultivators no longer spent part of their time fashioning metal and clay.

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One of the most important events of this epoch was the introduction of private property. The first private possessions were cattle and slaves, i.e., enslaved prisoners. Gradually land became an additional form of private property, one of the most important since it represented the source of all means of subsistence, and then tools for cultivating it as well. Inequality based on property relations also resulted from this and side by side with the categories of free men and slaves there emerged the new categories of rich and poor. Soon certain families or persons owned the best plots of land or the largest herds of cattle, while other families grew poorer and were ruined. Within the various clans a type of nobility became discernible, namely those who possessed riches and power. From among this nobility tribal leaders emerged and members of the council of elders.

Family ties started to play a less important part at this stage in the development of human society, being gradually replaced by links based on spatial proximity, i.e., links between people inhabiting the same area. Territorial communities sprang up at the time when the clan-based community was in the process of disintegration. They continued to exist for many centuries and were still to be found in some places right up to the beginning of the twentieth century, as in India and pre-revolutionary Russia.

The Origin of Classes and States

The development of man's technical equipment, the appearance of private property and finally the spread of slavery gradually led to the division of society into large groups occupying different social positions. There were those who owned land^ tools and slaves but did no work themselves, and those who supported themselves by their own labour---either those who owned their implements of labour (peasants and craftsmen) or those who did not own anything and were obliged to work for their masters as slaves. These large groups occupying such widely divergent social positions came to be known as classes.

The class which owned riches and compelled others (slaves, peasants and craftsmen) to work for it started striving to hold them in subjection. To this end a new institution evolved, which was quite unknown in social communities based on principles of kinship, and which we refer to as the state. Various organs of power such as prisons, army and courts of justice were all component parts of the state apparatus.

From the moment of the division of society into classes and the emergence of the state a new era began in the history of mankind. So let us now turn from a general outline of the history of ancient man to a more detailed exposition of the history of individual states and peoples.

[16] __NUMERIC_LVL2__ Chapter Two __ALPHA_LVL2__ THE MIDDLE EAST __ALPHA_LVL3__ EGYPT

[introduction.]

Egypt is situated in the north-east corner of the African continent and consists of a narrow valley (ranging from 3 to 20 miles in width) in the lower reaches of the River Nile, with desert stretching on either side.

__FIX__ For LVLs greater than 3, delete __ tag and wrap with heading like H3.

Natural Conditions

The River Nile plays an enormously important role in the life of the country. It is significant that in ancient times Egypt was referred to as the "gift of the Nile''. The territory of NorthEast Africa with the exception of the Nile valley had long since turned into an arid desert. The Nile valley thanks to annual floods (between July and November) contains fertile land which is extremely easy to cultivate. For this reason conditions in this area favoured the development of primitive agriculture.

The Nile valley in ancient times was already rich in valuable species of fruit-bearing trees, such as date palms and the sycamore, which could also be used as sources of building materials. The mountains bordering the valley were rich in building stone such as granite and limestone and there was gold in the mountains of nearby Nubia. Thus it can be seen that apart from its fertile soil, the Nile valley was also rich in natural resources.

The Formation of a Class Society
and State in Egypt

The people of ancient Egypt consisted of various tribes which had settled in the Nile valley from time immemorial. The population was chiefly engaged in land cultivation, although hunting __PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---126 17 099-3.jpg __CAPTION__ ANCIENT EGYPT [18] and fishing were also important. Cultivation in this area required the construction of irrigation systems. Since this task was too great for isolated families and clans and since it was also far from expedient to dig canals for the irrigation of small plots of land, increasingly large groups made up of a number of clan communities came into being. These groups were called nomes. Each nome had its own name, its own particular customs and sometimes its own dialect. Nomarchs or rulers emerged, each family within the nome had its elder, and slavery became an increasingly widespread practice. Gradually these nomes started to unite among themselves and two kingdoms emerged in Egypt--- the Southern and the Northern kingdom.

A conflict then started between the two kingdoms, from which the Southern kingdom emerged victorious. In approximately the year 3200 B.C. the Pharaoh Menes first united the whole land of Egypt under his rule. State power was established in the country from then on. This power was in the hands of the nobility, the large landowners. The history of Egypt is generally divided into three main periods: those of the Old, Middle and New kingdoms.

The Old and the Middle Kingdoms

In the Old Kingdom the main activity of the people was still agriculture. The land was cultivated by peasant communes and each commune was administrated by its council of elders. These councils organised the collection and payment of taxes and also the recruitment of labour for the "royal projects''. This was the name used in Egypt for labour conscription compulsory for all working in the peasant communes. Slaves in Egypt as a rule were used on the large estates belonging to the king's courtiers or on land belonging to the temples.

Egyptian Pharaohs of that time wielded enormous power. They were given the title of kings of Upper and Lower ( Southern and Northern) Egypt and they wore two crowns, a white one and a red one. The Pharaoh's chief advisor was called a vizier who in his turn supervised those who directed the various spheres of the administration. The vizier's duties included supervision of the various storehouses for grain, gold, vineyards, the round-up of oxen, military affairs and sacrifices to be managed. In addition the vizier also supervised all the work for the Pharaoh, the exchequer and the high court. The vizier himself and the various storehouses all had large staffs of scribes.

The Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom conducted military campaigns against the peoples of the Sinai peninsula and Nubia. 19 099-4.jpg __CAPTION__ The pyramid of Chephren (IV dynasty) These campaigns brought Egypt rich booty, including malachite, copper ore, gold, ivory, ebony and also a large number of prisoners who were not killed but enslaved. It was with good reason that these Egyptian prisoners were called the ``living dead".

It was in the Old Kingdom that the remarkable custom existed of building pyramids, the enormous stone tombs which the Pharaohs and their courtiers had built for themselves during their lifetime. In Egypt approximately seventy of these pyramids have survived right down to the present day. The largest and most famous of them is the pyramid of Cheops or Khufu which is 475 feet high and approximately 2,400 feet square at its base; its construction required 2,300 thousand stone blocks each weighing two tons. The pyramid took twenty years to build despite the fact that the whole of the rural population of Egypt was conscripted for this work, at the rate of 100,000 every three months. Such were the conditions of work in the royal household in the Old Kingdom.

The construction of the pyramids was bound up with the Egyptian religion and in particular with the belief in an after-life, provided the body was specially preserved and regularly supplied with food and drink. This belief lies at the root of the custom of embalming, that is of mummifying the deceased, an art in which the Egyptians came to excel.

20

At the end of the Old Kingdom the central power of the kings began to weaken and Egypt was once again divided up into a series of nomes, not infrequently warring against each other. Reunification of the country was achieved shortly before the beginning of the twentieth century B.C. This period is known as the Middle Kingdom.

During the Middle Kingdom large-scale works were undertaken to extend and improve the irrigation system at the Fayum oasis. Trade and a wide variety of crafts flourished. A feature of this period was the stratification of the peasant communes, large sections of the peasantry becoming impoverished and ruined.

In the middle of the eighteenth century B.C. a large-scale revolt of peasants, artisans and slaves took place in Egypt. The whole country was engulfed in this uprising, the Pharaoh was obliged to abdicate and the rich landowners were driven from their palaces. Mummies of former kings were looted and cast out of their tombs and pyramids. The royal granaries and treasure-houses and the temples were captured and the stores of food and valuables distributed among the people. All tax and tribute documents were destroyed. As is written in one of the ancient Egyptian chronicles, "the earth whirled round like a potter's wheel'', because the poor took up residence in the houses of the rich lords, donned their garments and forced the lords to work for them.

At the end of the eighteenth century B.C. Egypt was laid waste by an invasion of a nomadic Asian tribe, the Hyksos. This people conquered the country and for nearly a century and a half the Egyptians lived under the yoke of these foreign oppressors until finally a liberation movement gathered sufficient momentum to drive out the invaders and reunite the country. This event marked the beginning of the New Kingdom.

The New Kingdom

During this period Egypt became a strong military power. Pharaoh Ahmose I who freed Egypt from the Hyksos conquerors pursued them deep into Hither Asia and then embarked on an expedition against Nubia. However, the true founder of this new Egyptian military power was Tuthmosis III (1525--1491 B.C.) who led seventeen expeditions into Asia, conquering Syria, Palestine, Libya and Nubia. He had large forces at his disposal, made up of infantry, armed with bows and arrows and spears, and cavalry, equipped with chariots. Apart from his land troops Tuthmosis also possessed a war fleet including both rowing galleys and sailing ships.

21 099-5.jpg __CAPTION__ Courtyard of the temple of Karnak at Thebes

These campaigns brought home great quantities of booty which went mainly to fill the king's coffers and granaries; thousands of slaves and cattle were also brought back to the king's estates. The Pharaohs also bestowed rich gifts and privileges on the temples and those who served in them. For example, the temple of Amon Ra---the god who was most popular in Thebes, the capital---was granted complete authority over a whole region in the Lebanon with three large towns after one of these campaigns.

All this led to an extremely rapid growth of the power of the priesthood in the political life of the country. Of particular importance was the temple of Amon Ra in Thebes: this temple owned more land, slaves and peasants than all the rest of the temples put together. Hence the enormous political influence exerted by the Theban priests, who even tried to wrest certain powers from the Pharaohs themselves.

Pharaoh Ikhnaton (Amenhotep IV, 1424--1388 B.C.) took measures to put an end to this state of affairs and decided to introduce a religious reform. Polytheism was abandoned and replaced by the worship of one god, the Sun-god Aton. Temples were built to Aton all over the country, and the Pharaoh assumed the name Ikhnaton---"Beloved of Aton" in preference to his original title Amenhotep.

22

However Ikhnaton's reforms were short-lived. The struggle against his reforms even led to an uprising and, although Ikhnaton succeeded in quelling it, after his death the reforms were soon abandoned and the priesthood became even more powerful than before. For instance, during the reign of Ramses II (1317-- 1251 B.C.) the area of temple lands doubled and the leading members of the priesthood felt themselves quite independent of the king. Meanwhile the office of high priest became hereditary.

During the reign of Ramses II the last large-scale military campaigns were undertaken. On Syrian territory the Egyptians had to match their strength for the first time with that of a new and mighty power---the Hittites, who by that time had conquered almost the whole of Syria. The fighting lasted for a long time, and the outcome was not decisive, Syria being divided between the Hittites and the Egyptians.

The end of the New Kingdom saw a marked weakening of Egypt's military might. A number of her vassal states reasserted their independence and separatism among the various nomes came into play again. Soon Egypt was herself to fall prey to foreign conquerors.

The Religion and Culture of Ancient Egypt

Religion was a central feature in the life of the ancient Egyptians. A typical feature of Egyptian religious belief was the deification of animals and birds. The town of Memphis had its cult of the bull-god Apis, the hawk-headed sky-god Horus was worshipped in the towns of Tanis and Buto and several nomes were named after animals: the Antelope nome, the Crocodile nome, etc. Gradually the gods worshipped by the most powerful nomes came to be worshipped on a national scale, for example the Sun-god Ra, the creator of the world Amon, and the god and goddess of fertility Osiris and Isis. The cult of Osiris and Isis was closely bound up with agricultural traditions. The legend of the death of Osiris and his subsequent resurrection was an allegory of the planting and sprouting of corn. At sowing and harvest time magnificent dramatic pageants were organised in the honour of Osiris and his consort.

A major achievement of ancient Egyptian culture was the development of writing. For writing on stone the Egyptians used special signs or hieroglyphs, from which a simplified script was developed for writing on papyrus. Important advances were also made in literature (songs, legends, travel annals, etc.), architecture and the fine arts. Quite apart from the pyramids the ruins of 23 splendid temples, such as that at Karnak for example, are still to be seen today.

The ancient Egyptians were also familiar with the basic principles of a number of sciences such as mathematics, astronomy and medicine. They used a decimal counting system and were able to calculate the surface area of the triangle, trapezium and even that of the circle, using n =3.16. On the basis of observations of the movements of the heavenly bodies a calendar dividing the year into twelve months and 365 days was worked out. The widespread practice of embalming led to increasing familiarity with human anatomy and to the development of such fields of medicine as surgery.

__ALPHA_LVL3__ BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

[introduction.]

In the same way that the Nile valley was the centre of ancient civilisation in North-East Africa so the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East were to grow up in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates, that is in the "land between the rivers" or Mesopotamia.

Natural Conditions

Natural conditions in Mesopotamia are far from uniform. The northern part consists of hilly territory watered by small mountain streams and an abundant rainfall. The southern part of Mesopotamia is a marshy depression, the soil consisting of alluvial deposits. The rivers overflowed their banks from March to July, and the water in the fields then dried up. As a result of the uneven extent to which the soil dried up in different places even in ancient times it was essential to construct an artificial means of regulating the water supply.

The natural riches of Mesopotamia were less spectacular than those of the Nile valley. However, limestone and clay were to be found in some places; important types of vegetation were date palms and various kinds of reeds; in the mountains which lined the valley wild cattle, goats, boars and lions roamed and the rivers were teeming with fish.

The Ancient Kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad

In the southern part of Mesopotamia and along the shores of the Persian Gulf tribes called the Sumerians had settled very early. It was they who first built irrigation works consisting of 24 099-6.jpg __CAPTION__ A reconstruction of the ``round temple'' and living quarters of a Sumer town 3000--2500 B.C. canals, reservoirs and dykes. The main occupation of the Sumerians was agriculture. The land in that region as in Egypt was divided up among peasant communes and the most common crops were barley, wheat, flax and sesame. The peasant communes were obliged to pay taxes in kind, generally constituting a tenth of the crop, which went to the royal granaries. In the royal and temple estates, where slave labour predominated, the land was mostly planted with orchards and stockbreeding flourished.

Towards the end of the 4th millennium B.C. in southern Mesopotamia there existed more than twenty small estates. We do not know their names, but we do know that their rulers were princepriests called ``patesi'' and these kingdoms have accordingly been referred to as ``patesiats''. At the very end of the 4th millenn.ium, B>C- a struggle began between the larger of these " patesiats'', such as Lagash and Umma, each striving to unite southern Mesopotamia under their own hegemony.

The central and north-western parts of Mesopotamia were inhabited by Semitic tribes, who appear to have originally come from Arabia, and took their name from that of their chief town, Akkad. In approximately the year 2500 B.C. the ruler of the Akkadians was the talented administrator and military leader Sargon I. He was the first man in history to recruit regular troops from among peasants in the poor village communes, who were later to receive plots of land by way of payment for their military 25 service. Relying on these troops Sargon carried out a successful series of military campaigns. With his conquest of Sumer towns he succeeded in uniting the whole of Mesopotamia under his rule. He appears also to have conquered Elam, a state situated in the mountains to the east of Mesopotamia and also led an expedition into Syria and Asia Minor. It was with good reason that at the end of his reign Sargon I conferred on himself the proud title of "king of the lands".

099-7.jpg

The Ancient Kingdom of Babylon

Shortly before 2000 B.C. Akkad was invaded from Arabia by tribes known as the Amorites, and Sumer by the Elamites. Soon these invaders succeeded in capturing the whole valley of Mesopotamia. Then war broke out between the Amorites and the Elamites. The war ended with a decisive victory for the Amorite kings, and the rise of the town of Babylon which was soon to become an extremely important economic, political and cultural centre. The flowering of the ancient Babylonian Kingdom and its eventual unification round this new centre took place during the reign of the famous King Hammurabi (1792--1750 B.C.).

Hammurabi succeeded in defeating the Elamites and then conquered the kingdom of Mari to the north of Babylon, and finally the town of Assur, the centre of what was later to be the extremely powerful state of Assyria. However, Hammurabi was famous not only as a conqueror but also for his famous code of laws. This code, carved into a basalt pillar and consisting of 282 statutes, has been preserved intact up till the present day. This code provides us with an interesting insight into the economic and political structure of the ancient Babylonian society. Hammurabi's code clearly appertains to a society with a rigid class structure. The property rights of the landowners, priests and merchants are guaranteed and the interests of these groups are carefully protected. We learn that in the kingdom of Babylon not only agriculture was highly developed but various crafts and trading as well. The code lists the following crafts: pottery, stone-masonry, leather tanning, dress making and ironwork. As far as trading is concerned it is interesting to note that largescale transactions were negotiated by the temples or even the kings themselves. Their orders were carried out by merchants, who in their turn employed agents and assistants. The main wares traded with the neighbouring states were grain, cattle, silver and copper.

The Code of Hammurabi also sheds light on the status of slaves in ancient Babylon. A particularly widespread practice 26
~
O Important towns
o Other settlements (some names are not given)
o Approximate location ot towns KASSIIES -Tribes
N B The course of the rivers in the southern part of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates is indicated approximately due to changes in the river beds __CAPTION__ MESOPOTAMIA IN THE 4th-3rd MILLENNIUM B C [27] appears to be what is called debt slavery. If a debtor was unable to pay back his debt within the appointed term he was obliged to pay it off by means of his own or his children's labour. Such servitude could be made to last a whole lifetime, but Hammurabi limited debt slavery to a period of three years.

Babylonian society during the reign of Hammurabi reached a high level of development. However, this Golden Age was to be of short duration since the country was to suffer a number of crushing invasions, resulting in the collapse of the ancient kingdom of Babylon.

Assyria

The Assyrian kingdom grew up out of a small commune in nothern Mesopotamia centred round the town of Assur. The most illustrious chapter in the history of the military state of Assyria was in the eighth century B.C. The Assyrian King, Tiglath-- Pileser III (745--727 B.C.), waged a number of victorious campaigns. He conquered Syria and Phoenicia. The kings of Tyre and Israel paid him tribute. His expedition against the state of Urartu ended in a crushing defeat for the latter. Finally Tiglath-Pileser conquered Babylonia and made himself King of Babylon.

His military feats were continued by other Assyrian kings--- Sargon II (722--705 B.C.) and Esarhaddon (680--669 B.C.). As a result of their conquests and campaigns Assyria became a tremendous power, incorporating all central and eastern Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and part of Egypt. Measured by the standards of those times Assyria was undoubtedly a world power.

Assyria was a state of warlords and slave-owners. Slavery was more developed there than it had been in either Egypt or Babylon. In the king's employ there were thousands of slaves who were often used for the construction of roads, canals and even whole towns. The slave trade was also developed on a fairly wide scale.

Assyria was famous for its high level of military organisation. The Assyrian army was divided into various arms: 1) two-horse chariots, 2) mounted cavalry (which made its first appearance in the Assyrian army), 3) infantry equipped with either heavy or light weapons, 4) engineers, and 5) siege troops (equipped with stone-throwers and battering rams). The army provided the backbone of the king's power and it was customary for kings to present themselves to the army on acceding to the throne.

However, the Assyrian military power was a clay-legged colossus. The various parts of this enormous state were not sufficiently close-knit and the subject nations and peoples were exposed to 28 cruel oppression. Insurgent Babylon together with the Medes (the people of a large state situated on the Iranian plateau) dealt a crushing blow to the kingdom of Assyria.

The Religion and Culture of Babylonia
and Assyria

The role of religion in Babylonian society was no less important than in ancient Egypt. All spheres of cultural life---from literature to science---were subject to powerful religious influence. The most important gods were Marduk, Shamash and the vegetation deities Tammuz and Ishtar

(roughly equivalents of Osiris and Isis). In addition there were also various popular beliefs connected with spirits of the local rivers and canals, and the spirits of the dead were also worshipped.

In Mesopotamia the written language, unlike that of the ancient Egyptians, was cuneiform. Wedgeshaped signs were imprinted on clay tablets which once they had been fired could be preserved indefinitely.

A large number of works of ancient Babylonian literature have survived to the present day, including the famous epic of Gilgamesh, in which the legend of the Flood first figured.

The rudiments of science in ancient Babylonia were closely bound up with agriculture. As far back as the Sumerian era there had existed a sexagesimal system of counting, to which the present division of the circle into 360 degrees can be traced back. The Babylonians mastered the four arithmetical principles, simple fractions, squaring, cubing and square roots. They were also quite advanced in astronomy and succeeded in picking out five of the 099-8.jpg __CAPTION__ The Goddess Ishtar. Statue
found in Mari (c.~1800 B.C.) 29 planets and calculating their orbits. Their study of the lunar phases enabled them to draw up a calendar divided into years, months and days (each day contained 12 hours and each hour was divided up into thirty minutes).

Assyrian culture cannot be regarded as indigenous. On the whole, the Assyrians, thanks to their conquests and trade links, acted as the disseminators of Babylonian culture throughout the other countries of the ancient East. For example the famous library belonging to the Assyrian King Assurbanipal contained a collection of literary and religious texts, scientific treatises, reference books and dictionaries written in various languages, and represented a real treasure-house of the cultural achievements of the ancient East.

__ALPHA_LVL3__ THE HITTITE KINGDOM

The Formation and Ascendance
of the Hittite Kingdom

The Hittite Kingdom came into being soon after 2000 B.C. on the banks of the Kizil Irmak river (the classical Halys) in Asia Minor. The indigenous population of the area, commonly known as the proto-Hittites, were invaded early in the 2nd millennium B.C. by Nesite tribes. The Hittite nation was the result of the fusion of these peoples.

The Hittite Kingdom is traditionally purported to have been founded by the semi-legendary King Labarnash (seventeenth century B.C.), whose name was later used as a royal title. Another famous ruler was King Murshilish I (sixteenth century B.C.) who captured and plundered Babylon, carrying off large numbers of prisoners.

The Hittite Empire was at its height in the fifteenth century B.C. during the reign of King Shuppiluliumash. Under his leadership the Hittites conquered all the territory of Asia Minor between their kingdom and Syria and subjugated the kingdom of Mitanni (situated in the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates). Shuppiluliumash's successors took advantage of Egypt's temporary setbacks to make their way into Syria and even Palestine. At the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the thirteenth century B.C. there were large-scale confrontations between the Hittites and the Egyptians which eventually ended in a treaty with Ramses II, which laid down that the whole of northern Syria should remain in the hands of the Hittites.

This was a period of outstanding military prowess but soon afterwards Hittite power began to wane. Around 1200 B.C. Asia 30 Minor, Syria and Palestine were invaded by the Peoples of the Sea (from islands in the Aegean Sea) who were later to lay waste the Hittite Kingdom. It was broken up into a series of small princedoms, and finally became an Assyrian province.

The Social Structure and Culture of the Hittite Kingdom

Hittite society during the reign of Shuppiluliumash was a typical example of a slave-holding society. In the Hittite code of laws (fifteenth-thirteenth centuries B.C.) more than 20 articles were concerned with slaves, and the number of slaves brought to the country as prisoners of war was very large. Slave labour was also accepted as a form of debt payment.

The chief occupation of the Hittite people was stockbreeding, followed by agriculture, fruit and vine growing. The kingdom was ruled over by a king who was regarded as a divinity of equal status with the Sun-god. The court officials, priests, warriors, money-lenders and merchant-traders also played an important role in state affairs. The Hittites carried on brisk trade with Egypt and various other countries.

Excavations in Boghazkeui (150 miles from Ankara) on the site of the former Hittite capital have brought us important information with regard to Hittite culture. A large archive of the Hittite kings was unearthed. The Hittite language was originally written in a hieroglyphic script which was later replaced under the influence of Assyria by a cuneiform script. Hittite inscriptions were first deciphered by the Czech scholar Hrozny. Extant monuments of Hittite art were found in the form of monumental sculptures and reliefs which in their turn also showed strong Assyrian influence.

__ALPHA_LVL3__ URARTU

[introduction.]

The state of Urartu covered a wide upland area between Asia Minor, Iran and northern Mesopotamia, surrounded by high mountains. The country was rich in forests, stone and metal deposits.

The Formation and Development
of the State of Urartu

The early inhabitants of this area were related to the protoHittites. In ancient Assyrian inscriptions references are made to two states, Urartu (on the territory of present-day Armenia) and 31 Nairi (on the shores of Lake Van) which later, in approximately the ninth century B.C., were to be united under King Sardur I.

The power of Urartu rose at the beginning of the eighth century B.C. In the conflict with Assyria at this time the Urartians scored a number of outstanding successes. During the reign of Argistis I (781--760 B.C.) Assyrian troops suffered a crushing defeat and Urartu was able to annex parts of Transcaucasia. Sardur II (760--730) continued this policy of annexation started by his predecessor. During his reign more territory in Transcaucasia was won (in the area around Lake Sevan), and even Northern Syria was conquered. However this success was short-lived for in the middle of the eighth century B.C. the Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III led two expeditions against Urartu and laid the land waste. The final blow to Urartian power was the invasion of Sargon II in 714 B.C. when the rich capital of Musasir was captured and plundered. The now seriously weakened state of Urartu continued to exist until the sixth century B.C. when it was finally conquered by the Medes and Scythians.

The Social Structure and Culture of Urartu

Like other ancient kingdoms of the East, Urartu was a slaveholding society. The large number of prisoners taken during the military campaigns of Argistis and Sardur II were put to work as slaves. Slave labour was used in the Urartian copper and iron mines, for construction and irrigation work and also in stockbreeding. The ruling class was made up of the slave-owning aristocracy, the military leaders and the priests, with a king at the helm of state.

The basic occupation of the people of Urartu was stockbreeding but agriculture was also well developed, notably the cultivation of wheat, millet and barley, and there were many orchards and vineyards. Agriculture was greatly promoted by the existence of a well-developed artificial irrigation system. Archaeological excavations have testified to the high level of Urartian craftsmanship in various technical and metallurgical skills. Large workshops were to be found attached to the palaces and temples.

Urartian culture was fairly closely linked with that of Babylon and Assyria. For example, the cuneiform script was adopted from the Assyrians (and later simplified to a certain extent). The most original achievement was in architecture: the temple at Musasir with its pedimented columns is almost a prototype of the Greek temples. Excavation work also brought to light a large number of bronze artifacts such as statues of winged bulls, the 32 099-9.jpg __CAPTION__ Tomb of the Urartu King Argistis I, cut into the rock at Van. 8th century B.C. [33] lavish thrones of the Urartian kings and shields decorated with work of a rare intricacy. Fragments of murals have been found in the ruins of various palaces and temples.

__ALPHA_LVL3__ PHOENICIA

Phoenicia was situated in a narrow strip of land along the coast of Syria inhabited by numerous western Semitic tribes. The common name applied to them all was Phoenicians, a name given them by the Greeks. Phoenicia was never a single united kingdom, but was made up of a collection of independent townships each with its adjacent agricultural land. The largest of these towns were Ugarit, Byblus, Tyre and Sidon.

From approximately 1500 B.C. onwards the Phoenician towns were under Egyptian or Hittite rule, until in the twelfth century B.C. they regained their independence and Tyre began to occupy a predominant position among them. King Hiram I of Tyre (969--936) undertook large-scale military campaigns, leading an expedition to Cyprus and several to Africa. During that period Tyre extended her hegemony over the towns of Byblus and Sidon, and became an important political and trade centre. On its advantageous island site Tyre was for a long time considered an impregnable fortress. However, the Phoenicians' independence was short-lived, for they were conquered by Assyria at the end of the eighth century B.C.

Grain and grapes were the main crops in Phoenicia. Small use was made of slave labour in agriculture (indeed slavery was never developed on a wide scale) and the main labour force was made up of peasants living in communes. The townspeople were engaged mainly in crafts and trade. Even in ancient times the Phoenicians were famed as traders and skilled seamen. The Phoenicians exported their own wine, timber and the work of their craftsmen, but the merchants did not limit themselves to these items: they also acted as middlemen, buying goods from other countries and reselling them. The Phoenicians conducted trade with Egypt, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and so on.

For trade purposes Phoenician seamen undertook long voyages to the countries of the Aegean and Mediterranean and they were the first to reach by sea the "pillars of Hercules'', or Gibraltar. Wherever it was possible to be assured of a more or less regular supply of valuable goods the Phoenicians founded settlements or colonies. Colonies of this type were set up on various islands in the Aegean (such as Thasos and Rhodes) and in the Mediterranean (such as Cyprus, Malta and Sicily). On the north coast of Africa the Phoenicians founded the town of Carthage which was 34 099-10.jpg __CAPTION__ Phoenician war and trading vessels. Assyrian relief from the temple of Sennacherib at Nineveh. Eight-seventh centuries B.C. __PRINTERS_P_35_COMMENT__ 3* [35] later to develop into an important state and set up a large number of colonies of its own.

The most important achievement of Phoenician culture was the development and diffusion of an alphabet (dating from the 'thirteenth century B.C.) which was doubtlessly a direct result of the rapid development of trade and the growing need for the frequent and rapid compilation of commercial documents. On the basis of Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Babylonian cuneiform script the Phoenicians produced an alphabet consisting of 22 letters. This alphabet was later to serve as a model for the Greek alphabet and hence many subsequent forms of writing.

__ALPHA_LVL3__ PALESTINE

Ancient Palestine stretched from the southern foothills of Lebanon to the Arabian desert, and was bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea. Plateaux and arid desert land alternated with fertile valleys. In earliest times the coastal regions of Palestine were inhabited by one of the Aegean tribes of the Peoples of the Sea, the Philistines, and the remainder of the land by north-western Semites or Canaanites. In the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries B.C., Apiru or Hebrew tribes first began to appear in the region. In the course of the conflict between the Hebrew tribes and the Canaanites and Philistines in the northern part of Palestine the Kingdom of Israel (founded by Saul in the eleventh century B.C.) gradually took shape. About a century iater the Kingdom of Judaea was formed in the southern part of Palestine. King David of Judaea was to unite the two kingdoms Under his rule, drive out the Philistines and declare the ancient Canaanite city of Jerusalem his capital and religious centre.

The united Kingdom of Judaea and Israel rose to new ascendancy during the reign of King Solomon (tenth century B.C.). During that relatively peaceful period a friendly pact was concluded with Hiram, King of Tyre, foreign trade developed at a rapid rate and impressive architectural work was carried out in Jerusalem (the building of the famous temple of Solomon inter alia).

However, soon after the death of Solomon the united kingdom 'was to be divided into two parts. At the end of the eighth "century B.C. Israel was conquered by the Assyrian King Sargon II, while Judaea bought her independence at the price of enormous tribute. The Kingdom of Judaea continued to exist for another 150 years, after which it fell to the Babylonian King Nebuchadrezzar, who took Jerusalem by storm and razed it (586 B.C.) leading masses of people into captivity in Babylon (``Babylonian captivity'').

In the northern part of Palestine land-cultivation was the 36 main occupation, while in the South it was stockbreeding. The peasants lived in communes and in Palestine slave labour was more widespread than in Phoenicia. Large armies of slaves worked on the royal and temple lands. The original inhabitants of the country, the Canaanites, were also enslaved.

Religion played an important role in the life of the ancient Hebrews. The Hebrew religion had many features in common with the religion of the Phoenicians. Particularly widespread was the worship of Yahweh, or Jehovah. Originally Yahweh was the god of the tribe of Judaea but later worship of Yahweh was to be adopted on a national scale. The Jewish religion took on its definitive form relatively late, that is after the "Babylonian captivity".

An important historical and cultural achievement of ancient Palestine are the sacred writings of the Hebrew and Judaean peoples, in particular the various works later to be collected in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, which include historical books, myths and legends, religious teaching and poetic writings and which are now revered as "holy writ" by adherents both of the Jewish and the Christian religions.

__ALPHA_LVL3__ PERSIA

[introduction.]

The core of the ancient Kingdom of Persia was the vast Iranian plateau situated to the east of Mesopotamia. While the central part of this plateau was made up of rather dry soil with sparse vegetation, the foothills were rich in forests, metals (gold, silver, copper, iron and lead) and marble. Taken all in all, natural conditions made possible the cultivation of cereals (rye, wheat and barley) and stockbreeding (nomadic in the east and settled in the west).

Media and Persia

During the 3rd millennium B.C. Iranian tribes from Asia penetrated the Iranian plateau, and it was after these tribes that the area was subsequently named. In some areas they conquered the local inhabitants and in others they settled peaceably alongside them, later to fuse with them.

In approximately the ninth century B.C. two large groups of Iranian tribes emerge: the Medes and the Persians. The Medes were to come to the fore earlier than the Persians, but little of their history is known to us and what there is is of a semi-- legendary character. However, it is certain that at the end of the seventh 37 century B.C. Media became a powerful state and together with Babylon succeeded in dealing Assyria a crushing blow. Yet by the middle of the sixth century B.C. the Medes were compelled to submit to their neighbours, the Persians.

The founder of the Persian state was the famous military commander and statesman Cyrus (559--529 B.C.). His origins are obscured in the mists of legend, according to which, although a king's son, he was brought up as a foundling by a shepherd. During the expedition of the last Median king against Mesopotamia the Persians under Cyrus invaded Media, and after fighting which lasted for three years the country was conquered and annexed to the Persian kingdom.

Having made himself master of Media, Cyrus undertook a number of military operations. He reorganised the Persian army, making the cavalry its main striking force. In 547 B.C. Cyrus conquered Armenia and Cappadocia and then the Kingdom of Lydia in 546, seizing the tremendous riches belonging to King Croesus, whose name had already become a by-word, synonymous with a wealthy potentate. Cyrus gained control over the whole of Asia Minor including the numerous rich Greek towns situated along the littoral.

After these victories, almost the whole of Mesopotamia (apart from the south) was surrounded by countries conquered by Cyrus, which greatly strengthened his hand in the war against Babylon and in 538 B.C. the city fell to him. Cyrus then issued a manifesto in which he promised not to alter Babylonian patterns of administration, to respect the local deities and further the prosperity of the city of Babylon. This manifesto shows Cyrus to have been not merely an outstanding military commander but also a skilled statesman and diplomat.

Cyrus conducted his campaign against Palestine and Phoenicia in a similar way. Throughout he stressed the peaceful aims of this expedition: the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem, which had been laid waste by the Babylonian conquerors, and assistance for a number of Phoenician towns. In actual fact the conquest of Palestine and Phoenicia provided Cyrus with a bridgehead, vital for the imminent war against the last remaining large power in the East at that period---Egypt. However, Cyrus himself was unable to carry out this plan since he was killed in a battle against the Massagetae on the north-eastern border of his empire.

The Formation of the Persian Power

Cyrus's military policy was continued by his son Cambyses (529--522 B.C.) who made careful preparations for war against Egypt with the aid of the Phoenician fleet. In contrast to Cyrus's 38 099-11.jpg __CAPTION__ Tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae. Late sixth century B.C. ``soft" diplomacy, Cambyses initiated a reign of terror in Egypt after he had conquered it. Nevertheless, the last major power in the East had been conquered and Persia---following in Assyria's footsteps---had now become a world power, by the standards of those times.

Details as to the organisation of this enormous empire can be gleaned from the famous inscription of King Darius I (522--486 B.C.) on a rockface in the mountains. The whole of the Persian state was divided up into a series of satrapies and as a rule each of the countries conquered by the Persians constituted a separate satrapy (Egypt, Babylonia, Lydia, etc.). The rulers of these satrapies, the satraps, were appointed by the king himself; they were directly responsible to him and held full juridical and administrative powers.

All satrapies were obliged to pay taxes in money and in kind. For example, Egypt had to supply wheat sufficient to feed 120,000 garrison troops. As a result of these taxes Darius's treasury was able to gather in a colossal revenue.

Darius also introduced a monetary reform. For the first time in history an enormous empire consisting of many different countries came to use a uniform coinage---gold coins or ``darics'' which only the king had the right to mint (though the satraps were allowed to mint silver and copper coins). The introduction of the daric furthered the expansion of trade, in the interests of 39 which Darius's government also organised the building of roads and their effective guarding. Persia during that period had a fine system of roads, with inns and post-stations at intervals of 15 miles. Apart from their importance for trade these roads naturally also had a great strategic significance.

Darius also introduced military reforms. Permanent military garrisons were set up in the various satrapies and the whole state was divided up into five military zones which did not coincide with the satrapy borders. The commanders of the military zones were directly responsible to the king.

Such was the structure of the state during the reign of King Darius. The Persians themselves occupied a dominant position in the country. They both served in the army and worked as tillers of the land and stockbreeders. They were free from all taxes and labour conscription, to which all the conquered peoples were subject. Yet in the long run the Persian state also proved to be a clay-legged colossus like Assyria before it: it was able to survive as a result of its military strength alone, while firm economic and political ties between the various component states were fatally lacking. This lack of inner cohesion was to make itself felt much more when the Persians came up against a more serious enemy---the Greeks.

The Religion and Culture of Persia

As in all other countries of the East at that period religion also played an important part in the life of Iranian society. The ancient Iranian religion involved nature (for example the mountains) and animal worship. Later worship of the Persian tribal god Ahura Mazda and the Sun-god Mithras became widespread. It is commonly held that Zoroastrianism (which takes its name from the legendary prophet Zoroaster) made its appearance during the reign of Darius; an essential feature of this religion was the concept of a universal struggle between the principles of good and evil, light and darkness.

There was little that was genuinely original about Iranian culture, and virtually no literature has survived. Egypt and Assyria both exerted a strong influence on Iranian architecture. The Persians had taken their writing from Babylonia, although later they were to evolve an alphabet on the basis of this cuneiform script. This absence of important original cultural achievements can be explained by the military nature of the state itself and its lack of homogeneity.

[40] __NUMERIC_LVL2__ Chapter Three __ALPHA_LVL2__ THE ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS
OF INDIA AND CHINA __ALPHA_LVL3__ INDIA

Natural Conditions

Natural conditions in ancient India were extremely varied due to the enormous size of the country. It is therefore best to divide the country into two parts---the northern (or the basin of the Ganges and Indus rivers) and the southern. Natural conditions in northern India were more or less uniform and similar to those of Egypt or Babylonia, in that the fertility of the soil depended to a large extent on the flooding of the Indus and the Ganges. The soil of southern India was less fertile, but this part of the country was well forested, and rich in precious metals and stones (gold, diamonds, etc.). An important feature of India was her geographic isolation: the country was cut off from the surrounding world by the high Himalaya mountains, and by the sea. The original tribes inhabiting the country are generally referred to as the Dravidians and the earliest period of Indian history is usually known as the Dravidian period.

Early Indian History

The culture and level of development of the Dravidian tribes corresponds roughly to that of Sumero-Akkadian society. The population engaged in cultivation on irrigated lands and stockbreeding. The most common grain crops were wheat and barley, and domesticated animals included sheep, pigs and buffalo. Camels and elephants were also tamed from early on.

During the Dravidian period there already existed important towns with broad straight streets and two-storied houses such as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, discovered through excavation. The houses were built of burnt red brick. In Mohenjo-Daro remains 41 of water-supply and drainage systems were found and much evidence of it having been a major trading and craft centre.

The ruins of the large palaces in Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, which were obviously kings' palaces, testify to the existence of state power in Dravidian society. However, at that time India was not a united kingdom but divided up into a series of small kingdoms and principalities. Judging by the quarters inhabited by the nobility and the poor quarters, social differences based on property and an embryonic form of class society had already emerged. The existence of writing also testifies to a fairly advanced level of development.

The Aryan Conquest

During the first half of the 2nd millennium Aryan tribes invaded northern India from the Central Asian steppes.

The Aryans were far less advanced economically and culturally than the Dravidians. There were nine Aryan tribes the most important of which was the Bharata tribe. The leader of each tribe was called a Rajah and a group of tribes was ruled over by a Maharajah.

The Aryans were nomadic pastoralists. Their main source of wealth was their cattle, and cows were used as a means of exchange since money did not yet exist. However, the Aryans who invaded India soon assimilated the superior Dravidian culture and started to engage in settled agriculture. Some of the Dravidian population were wiped out and others were reduced to slavery or servitude and were treated with extreme cruelty and contempt.

During the 1st millennium the Aryans penetrated as far as the southern regions of India, conquering the local population as they went. The strange relations existing between the native population and the conquering Aryans lie at the root of the caste system which then began to develop. The whole of the population of India was divided up into four castes. The highest caste was that of the priests, the Brahmins, then came the Kshatriya or warrior caste, the Vaisya---commune peasants, craftsmen and traders and lastly the Sudra---hired workmen, peasants and slaves. The barriers between the various castes were quite unsurmountable, for example, inter-caste marriage was forbidden or at least not regarded as legal: children from inter-caste marriages were regarded as unclean and relegated to the lower castes.

The most privileged caste was that of the priests---Brahmins--- who were freed from all types of taxation, conscription and corporal punishment. According to the laws of ancient India a nine-- 42 099-12.jpg __CAPTION__ Bronze and stone sculptures from Harappa year-old member of the Brahmin caste was considered as a father in relation to a ninety-year-old member of the Kshatriya. In peace-time the Kshatriya caste led a relatively undisturbed existence and received rich gifts and favours from the kings, but in time of war they were the only section of the population required to fight. The Vaisya caste had to pay taxes into the state treasury: commune peasants up to one-sixth of their harvest and merchants up to a fifth of their income. However, they were exempt from military service. Most wretched of all was the position of the Sudra caste. Members of this caste had no rights whatever, but merely obligations. Members of higher castes only had to pay a fine for the murder of a Sudra, the same as for killing a dog. The Sudra caste, however, was divided into various groups. The most unfortunate sub-group of all were the so-called pariahs, the descendants of the Dravidians, who were considered untouchable.

Another distinctive feature of the ancient civilisation of India apart from the caste system was the unchanging nature of the village communes over many centuries. Although there existed family plots within the communes and therefore private landownership, in the main the communes were run as a natural economy. The structure of the communes and their self-- government always followed one and the same pattern: each commune had its elder, clerks, who took charge of the farming, a 43 blacksmith, a carpenter, a potter, a barber and the indispensable Brahmin priest.

Slavery, although fairly widespread in India, was as a rule of a domestic, patriarchal variety. Aryans who fell into debt slavery were only bound temporarily and therefore even marriages were permitted between Aryan slaves and free men or women, provided of course that they were members of the same caste.

India in the Sixth-Third Centuries B.C.

In the sixth century India was made up of several states, the largest of which were Magadha, situated on the central reaches of the Ganges, and Kosala to the north-west. The struggle between these two states came to an end in the fifth century with a decisive victory for the king of Magadha, making Magadha the most powerful state in India.

In the fourth century B.C. the north-western part of the country was conquered by Alexander the Great (more details of this famous campaign will follow in a subsequent chapter) after which Greek and Macedonian garrisons were set up in a number of towns. Contact between the conquerors and the local population led to mutual influences in Greek and Indian culture.

After Alexander's withdrawal from India a liberation movement grew up under the leadership of Chandragupta Maurya (322--297), whose origins are veiled in legend. According to one version he belonged to the Kshatriya caste and according to another to the Sudra caste. Most probably he succeeded in gaining power as a result of a large-scale revolt or uprising.

Chandragupta founded a powerful state, after waging war against one of Alexander's military commanders and successors Seleucus Nicator, whom he compelled to surrender to him a large part of his territory (Aria, Arachosia, etc.). However, the state founded by Chandragupta was to become even greater during the reign of his grandson, Asoka (273--232 B.C.). After conquering the Kingdom of Kalinga he succeeded in uniting almost the whole of India under his rule. Asoka was also renowned for the extensive architectural projects he commissioned and his patronage of trade. He sought his main source of support among the Vaisya caste and opposed the Brahmins, dealing a severe blow to their domination and authority by making Buddhism the state religion.

Soon after the death of Asoka the Indian state again broke up and then in approximately 100 B.C. the Scythians or Sacae invaded India from the north and set up an Indo-Scythian state.

44

Ancient Religion and Culture in India

The basic dogma lying at the foundation of Brahmanism was the belief in the three gods---Brahma, the creator of the world, Vishnu, the God of Good, and Shiva, the God of Evil, who together made up the great triad (trimurti). The development of this religion was closely linked up with the consolidation of the caste of Brahmin priests, who alone were entitled to interpret the holy books or Vedas. The ritual practices of the religion were very complicated and laid down such minute details as the required gait and length of hair for the faithful.

In the sixth century B.C. another religious trend was to make its appearance---Buddhism. The founder of this school was Gautama Buddha or Shakya Muni who was opposed to the religious monopoly of the Brahmins and sought to abolish inequality based on caste, at least in so far as the individual's spiritual life was concerned. Buddha also preached non-resistance to evil, abstinence and renunciation of all selfish desires as essential for attaining Nirvana, or loss of individuality by merging with the universal life. As we have already noted, Buddhism was declared the state religion under King Asoka in the third century B.C.

India's ancient civilisation was very advanced. As early as the third century B.C. there already existed several syllabic scripts. Outstanding works of epic poetry have survived, such as the famous Mahabharata (an account of the strife between the sons of Bharata) and the Ramayana (a description of the exploits of the legendary hero Rama). Ancient Indian architecture is also quite remarkable, for example the incredible Buddhist temples cut into rockfaces, works which abound in curved lines and geometrical patterns.

The ancient Indians were also familiar with the basic principles of mathematics, astronomy and medicine. A calendar was developed which divided the year into twelve months of thirty days, and allowing for an additional month at the end of every five years. Medical treatises have been preserved to this day which bear witness to a knowledge of the principles of anatomy and of the ability to make use of various medicinal herbs.

__ALPHA_LVL3__ ANCIENT CHINA

Natural Conditions

China differs from the countries of the Middle East even more than India as regards natural conditions. China can be divided into three clearly defined regions: 1) the valley of the Yellow 45 River or the great plain of China; 2) Central China consisting of mountain regions and the Yangtze valley; 3) mountainous Southern China.

The annual flood of the Yellow River makes the Chinese plain extremely fertile. The soil of Central and particularly Southern China is much less so, but these regions are rich in mineral resources (copper, tin and lead) and valuable stone such as nephrite. The population of ancient China was extremely heterogenous.

China in Earliest Times

The earliest period of Chinese history is referred to as ShangYin period (1765--1122 B.C.). The unification of Chinese tribes in the Yellow River basin in the interests of waging a common struggle against the northern nomads, the Hsiung Nu, and developing the existing irrigation system resulted in a brilliant sedentary culture and later a whole state. The tribes who were the chief instigators of this unification were the Yin and the state which they set up was called the Shang, after the dynasty.

Excavations carried out in the nineteen thirties on the territory of the Shang-Yin state revealed the remains of an ancient town, with a royal palace, a temple, houses and workshops. More than 300 tombs were unearthed, four of them indisputably royal burials which contained an enormous quantity of gold, nephrite and mother-of-pearl ornaments.

The chief occupation in the Shang-Yin state was the cultivation of cereals (barley, millet and wheat) and later rice. It was for the rice fields that the first primitive irrigation devices were evolved. Work tools of this period were also primitive in the extreme: hoes and wooden ploughs were all that were used. However, at this early period the Chinese had started to grow mulberry trees and make silk. The technique of silk making was kept a strict secret, the betrayal of which was punishable by death. As a result the Chinese succeeded in keeping this secret to themselves for almost 2,500 years before it eventually spread to Japan and Iran. Other occupations were cattle-breeding for meat (but not for milk since the Chinese never drank it) and fishing.

Various crafts were well developed: woodwork (bows, arrows, chariots, boats), stonework and pottery. Excavations have also revealed evidence of primitive bronze-working. Trade was already practised at this time and developing steadily, but still took the form of primitive barter in kind.

The king's power still retained patriarchal features, since he was assisted by a council of clan or tribal elders, and combined the functions of military leader and high priest.

46

In Yin society a clearly defined property hierarchy existed and a hereditary nobility, in whose hands were concentrated the land and the slaves. Slavery was of a patriarchal variety. The vast mass of the population was made up of peasants living in communes. A written language was developed at this early period. The characters were evolved from primitive picture-writing and the script was extremely complicated: about 3,000 characters of this ancient script have been identified.

In the twelfth century B.C. long and bitter hostilities with the Chou tribes began and the latter eventually succeeded in capturing the Shang capital (1124) and setting up their own state.

The Chou and Ch'in Dynasties

Under the Chou dynasty (1122--771 B.C.) a centralised Chinese state grew up. The kings started to be revered as gods (the kings had titles such as son of the heavens and deputy of the heavens) and the special office of King's Grand Chancellor was inaugurated. Serving under him there were three elders in charge of the three main branches of state affairs: finance, military matters and social administration, the latter mainly involving the organisation of irrigation works. The number of administrative divisions was to grow gradually and eventually included commissions to supervise the royal house and treasury, the court of justice, and the worship of the king's ancestors.

The mass of the population was meanwhile subjected to increasingly severe exploitation. The peasants were obliged to pay a tenth of their harvest in taxes. This intolerable state of affairs led to an uprising in 842 B.C. and the king's fall from power. Soon after this the centralised Chou state was to be divided up into a number of independent princedoms.

In the seventh century B.C. five states emerged in China that were continually warring among themselves. From the fifth to the third century B.C. the fighting was so fierce that the whole period came to be known as Chan Kuo, "the contending states''. The fourth century saw the rise of the Ch'in principality. For over a hundred years the Ch'in princes were to fight for supremacy throughout China.

The apogee of the Ch'in dynasty was the reign of Shih Huang Ti, "First Ernperor of the Ch'in Dynasty" (246--210 B.C.).

This emperor succeeded in conquering the remaining Chinese principalities and also part of Manchuria and Mongolia. During his reign the country was divided into 36 commanderies and a large administrative apparatus was set up. The irrigation network was extended and a number of highroads was built. Shih 47 Huang Ti reorganised the army so that the cavalry became its main striking force. A number of economic and cultural reforms were also introduced, including a unified system of weights and measures and a standardised and somewhat simplified hieroglyphic script. Work was also begun on the building of the Great Wall of China in order to defend the empire against attacks from neighbouring nomads.

However, the despotic nature of the regime set up by Shih Huang Ti was to call forth discontent amongst a wide section of the population. This discontent was fanned by the adherents of the religious and philosophical school of Confucius who, basing themselves on various historical books and documents, stressed the positive merits of earlier dynasties in contrast to the existing one. The repressive measure taken against the followers of Confucius was cruel in the extreme: 460 Confucian scholars were buried alive and all historical writings burnt. However, soon after the death of Shih Huang Ti the Ch'in dynasty was overthrown.

The Han Dynasty

The rule of the early Hans (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) was somewhat less despotic: the death penalty was applied less generously, taxes were reduced to a thirtieth of a man's income and freedom was restored to those who had sold themselves into slavery. The rulers of the Han dynasty renounced the title Huang Ti and Confucianism was declared the state religion.

During the reign of Wu Ti (140--87 B.C.) many large estates were set up and the landowners made use of the labour of free lease-holders and slaves. A number of measures were introduced to encourage the development of trade and crafts. This can be inferred from the increased scale of the production and export of silk, china, ivory and horn work.

Wu Ti led several military expeditions against Eastern Turkestan and Ferghana. The first trade routes to Rome were established leading across Sogdia and Parthia. From Central Asia the Chinese brought back vines, walnut trees and various vegetables which they began to cultivate at home.

By the beginning of the first century A.D. China was racked by mounting class conflict.

In the year 8 A.D., the regent Wang Mang deposed the child emperor, took over the reins of power and proceeded to introduce a series of interesting reforms. For example, he declared that all land was state property, forbade its sale and purchase and laid down a fixed limit for the landed estates of the rich and the aristocracy, confiscating all surplus land. Slaves were also declared 48 099-13.jpg __CAPTION__ Ancient Chinese sacrificial vessels dating from the late 2nd and early 1st millennia B.C. From left to right: stone vessel, bronze wine-pot, bronze meat-pot state property. In addition he introduced a state monopoly of iron, salt and wine and attempted to lay down a set market price for basic necessities. These reforms were met with violent opposition on the part of the wealthy and the aristocracy. Quite apart from anything else these plans were pure Utopia since private ownership of land had already taken firm root.

In the year 18 A.D. a wide-scale peasant uprising under the leadership of Fang Chung, known as the "uprising of the red brows" (the distinctive characteristic of the participants) began in Northern China. The peasants gained a victory over Wang Mang's troops in 25 A.D., but soon afterwards the movement was to change in character: the ranks of the peasants were swelled by detachments led by representatives of the aristocracy and used to restore the Han dynasty.

The rulers of the Later Han dynasty spared no effort to consolidate centralised power and restore the country's economy which had been severely undermined in the course of the struggle against Wang Mang's reforms. However, the contradictions existing between the big landowners and farmers on the one hand and the lease-holders and slaves on the other became more and more acute. The old society based on the principles of slaveownership suffered a major crisis and as a result the forms of labour exploitation changed: slaves were given land and allowed to cultivate their own plots, while at the same time the gradual emancipation of the free lease-holders began.

In the year 184 A.D. a peasant uprising broke out and assumed enormous proportions. "The rising of the yellow headbands'', as it was called, led by Juang Shao and his brothers, had as its __PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---126 49 main slogan a call for universal equality. The insurgent army numbered several hundred thousand and a bitter struggle lasted for twenty-five years. Although the uprising was eventually crushed, the empire broke up and China was once again divided into a number of separate kingdoms.

Religion and Culture of Ancient China

The early religion practised in China was linked with nature worship, in particular worship of the earth and mountains, but religious concepts gradually became more complex. Confucianism was to take root during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. The founder of this religion Confucius had been a high official at a prince's court. Loyalty to tradition and the ways of the ancients and mistrust of all innovation were the most characteristic features of his religious and philosophical teaching. Confucius idealised the patriarchal monarchy and the moral code of the patriarchal family. He attributed tremendous importance to moral education and called for moderation and the individual's acceptance of his lot. Typical Confucian maxims include the following: "To keep to the middle path is to uphold virtue'', "Fathers shall always be fathers, sons shall always be sons and wangs wangs'', "Insubordination of the common people is the root of all disorder".

In addition to Confucianism another religious and philosophical system also took root in China, that of Taoism, and in the first century Buddhism started to spread from India.

Science and philosophy were highly developed in ancient China. Another philosopher worthy of note is Wang Chung (first century A.D.) who upheld various materialist principles (inter alia he denied the immortality of the soul). Important advances were made in astronomy: maps of the heavens were charted and eclipses and the appearance of comets were forecast. Chinese mathematicians established the properties of the right angle triangle. Geographical and agronomical treatises of interest have also come down to us. The ancient Chinese also invented gun-powder, paper, the compass and the seismograph.

The most famous of the classical Chinese historians was Ssuma Ch'ien (writing about 100 B.C.), author of the monumental Historian's Records; literary works of these times which have come down to us include: Shih Ching (the Classic of Songs)---a collection of ritual hymns and folk songs, Shu Ching (Classic of Documents)---speeches, instructions and exhortations of the ancient emperors, and Ch'un Ch'iu (Springs and Autumns)---a work attributed to Confucius, a chronicle of his native state of Lu.

Finally, mention should be made of the remarkable achievements of ancient China in art and crafts in the medium of china, bronze, wood and ivory.

50 __NUMERIC_LVL2__ Chapter Four __ALPHA_LVL2__ PRE-CLASSICAL GREECE

Natural Conditions

Ancient Greece occupied the southern part of the Balkan peninsula, a mountainous country with scant rainfall and infertile soil, bordered by an extremely rugged coastline. Only in isolated areas such as Laconia and Messenia in the south, Boeotia in central Greece and Thessaly in the north are fertile plains to be found which are suitable for agriculture.

Rivers and their tributaries, which played such an important part in the early history of the countries of the East, are of no particular significance in Greek history since there is not a single large river in the whole of the Balkan peninsula. On the other hand, the sea was of tremendous importance in the development of Greek society. As a result of the jagged coastline, the large number of sheltered bays and harbours, the proximity of Asia Minor and the islands in the Aegean Sea providing as it were stepping stones between the Greek mainland and the coast of Asia Minor, sea-faring and trade developed in Greece very early on. Greek sailors could voyage to the Black Sea or Asia Minor without losing sight of land.

Ancient Greece was rich in minerals: iron in Laconia, silver in Attica (central Greece), gold in Thrace (on the northern shore of the Aegean). In addition there was an abundance of clay, building stone and marble.

The infertile soil, and hence a constant grain shortage on the one hand, and an abundance of minerals on the other, stimulated the development of trade and various techniques for fashioning metal and stone, and building skills.

Important Archaeological Discoveries

The early history of Greece until almost the end of the last century could be gleaned only from myths and legends and the famous epic of the Iliad, attributed to the blind poet Homer, __PRINTERS_P_51_COMMENT__ 4* 51 099-14.jpg __CAPTION__ The Lion Gate at Mycenae which tells of the war between the Greeks and the city of Troy in Asia Minor. This material was long regarded by scholars as purely fictitious.

However, the factual basis of the legends was unexpectedly confirmed in the 1870s, when Heinrich Schliemann, a self-taught German archaeologist and passionate enthusiast, started excavating the area purported to be the site of Troy. His efforts were crowned with dazzling success: he succeeded in unearthing city walls, the ruins of various buildings, numerous utensils and articles of jewelry. After his discovery of Troy Schliemann then went on to undertake excavation work on the Greek mainland at the sites of the ancient cities of Mycenae andTiryns, with equal success.

At the beginning of this century the English archaeologist Arthur Evans started excavation work on the island of Crete, also frequently mentioned in ancient Greek myths and legends. At the town of Knossos he unearthed an enormous palace, complete with throne rooms, labyrinthine corridors, a water system and bath chambers. The walls of the central hall were decorated with intricate frescoes. All these features bore witness to the highly developed engineering techniques and culture of the Cretans during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C.

Yet probably the most remarkable of all the archaeological finds at Knossos was an archive containing hundreds of clay tablets 52 covered with a mysterious unknown script. For a long time all attempts to decipher this script met with failure. Scholars came to the conclusion that the Knossos tablets bore writing in two different scripts and probably two different languages. These two scripts were referred to as linear A and B and in 1953 the young English scholar Michael Ventris announced his method for deciphering the linear B script, which at the present time is recognised by the majority of scholars. According to Ventris, the language of linear B is an early Greek dialect, thanks to archaeological discoveries and the deciphering of this script it is now possible to gain a general picture of the history of Ancient or Achaean Greece.

Achaean (Mycenaean) Greece

By approximately the seventeenth century B.C. the ancient Greek or Achaean states of the Peloponnesus had reached a high level of economic and cultural development. The largest of these city-states were Mycenae and Tiryns in Argolis, and Pylos in Messenia.

At Mycenae and Tiryns ruins of the one-time impregnable fortified palaces survive to this day. Remains of implements and utensils made of both pottery and metal, and jewelry found during excavations show highly developed craftsmanship. From documents written in linear B found during excavation work at Pylos we learn that slavery was practised in Achaean Greece.

The Achaean states on the Greek mainland were at their height between the fifteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. The Achaean Greeks held sway not only throughout the southern part of the Balkan peninsula but also on a number of islands in the Aegean, including Crete. They carried on lively trade with Cyprus, Egypt and Phoenicia. At the end of the thirteenth century and beginning of the twelfth a number of Achaean states under the leadership of the king of Mycenae (known traditionally as Agamemnon) undertook what for those times represented a formidable enterprise, a campaign against the city-state of Troy.

However the heyday of the Achaean states was destined to be of comparatively short duration. By the end of the thirteenth century B.C. Dorian tribes had begun to invade Greece from the north. This invasion appears to have been not so much a direct conquest as a lengthy process of infiltration consisting of wave after wave of increasingly fierce attacks. The centres of Achaean culture were destroyed, and the people were either killed or taken into captivity, as the invaders gradually conquered Thessaly, then the Peloponnesus and finally the subject islands. Thus 53 the highly developed Achaean civilisation perished. The devastated towns were gradually covered over and the scientific and artistic achievements of their inhabitants were condemned to oblivion.

Homeric Greece (the Dark Age)

The period of Greek history stretching from the twelfth to the eighth century is often referred to as the Homeric period, for the events and way of life of Greek society described in the famous epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which the Greeks attributed to the pen of Homer, all belong to this particular period. Homeric society developed after the Dorian conquest and the fall of the Achaean civilisation and represented a step back in many ways from the preceding age. From the works of Homer we learn that in the Greece of that period a natural economy was practised. The people were engaged mainly in cultivation and stockbreeding. The old trade links had collapsed and trade had decayed and was based first and foremost on primitive barter.

Social relations were patriarchal and retained many relics of primitive society on the clan pattern. The hereditary nobility played a very important role in this society, as the section of the population owning the best lands, and its members are referred to as the "richly endowed" in Homer's works. Side by side with them there lived the peasants who either owned small allotments of poor land or no land at all. The landless peasants were virtually nothing more than farm labourers. Slavery was also of a patriarchal variety. Slaves were few and mainly employed for household duties.

Each tribe had a leader or basileus, who led his tribe in battle and also fulfilled the functions of supreme judge and high priest. His power was limited to some extent by a council of elders, which incorporated the heads of all the noble families. The tribal leader was obliged to deliberate with them when matters of extreme importance were being discussed. In Homer's poems mention is made of a popular assembly but obviously it did not play an important part at that period.

Archaic Greece

The period from the eighth to the sixth century B.C. is marked by important economic and social advances. This was a time of momentous discoveries and technical innovations. Wide use was made of iron and skill in fashioning it grew apace: soldering was 54 first developed on the island of Chios and casting on the island of Samos. Weaving (mainly in the town of Megara), pottery and stonework (mainly in Athens) also developed widely. A new variety of trades and professions grew up. Trade links were reestablished, especially those with the Phoenicians from whom the Greeks adopted various religious practices and later an alphabet (their earlier one having been forgotten after the Dorian invasion). As a result of the growth of trade a monetary system evolved and the Greeks soon started to mint metal coins.

The development of crafts and their separation from agriculture combined with the growth of trade led to the growth of various economic (and political) centres, and of real townships. Although towns were mentioned in Homer's poems, in fact these were little more than fortified settlements. Gradually, owing to various factors, these tribal settlements started to amalgamate and turn into larger centres, for example Athens in Attica ( central Greece), Sparta (in Laconia), and Corinth (on the isthmus connecting the Peloponnesus with the rest of the peninsula). The distinctive feature of these Greek towns was the fact that each of them became not merely an economic but also a political centre, constituting the focal point of the social life of a whole region. Thus each Greek town resembled a small independent state. They were known as poleis, or city-states. In ancient times Greece never constituted a united centralised state but always consisted of a number of these city-states, which not only led completely separate existences but frequently warred among themselves.

Parallel to this process on the mainland, intensive colonisation was being carried on, and this period of Greek history ( eighthsixth centuries B.C.) is sometimes known as the era of Greek colonisation.

The word ``colony'' at that period implied a settlement of Greeks in a foreign country. Colonies were set up by individual poleis and they remained completely independent of the polis which originally set them up (i.e., from the mother city or " metropolis''). Each colony had its own separate constitution, citizenship, laws, courts and coinage. Colonies were set up for a variety of different reasons: sometimes as a result of the development of trade when they served as trading posts; sometimes because a certain polis was overpopulated and part of the population set off in search of better lands; sometimes as a result of political conflict. Thus, where a democracy was established, the aristocrats (representatives of the patriarchal nobility) might be banished and settling in a foreign land proceed to found their own polis. Or again democratic sections of the population might be banished by the aristocratic leaders.

55

From the eighth to the sixth century the three main centres of Greek colonisation were: 1) the coast of Asia Minor and the islands in the Aegean Sea (Ephesus, Miletus, Halicarnassus, the islands of Samos and Rhodes, etc.); 2) the western Mediterranean (southern Italy and Sicily; Massilia in Gaul, Saguntum in Hispania), and 3) the eastern straits and the Black Sea coast ( Byzantium, Sinope, Olbia, Chersonesus, Panticapaeum, etc.). Many of these colonies developed into large independent centres, flourishing city-states which in their turn founded colonies of their own. In this way between the eighth and sixth centuries Greek poleis spread across the whole of the Aegean area and along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts.

Ancient Sparta

Sparta was situated in the fertile valley of the Eurotas river between ranges of mountains leading in a north-south direction across Laconia. The ancient population of Sparta were most probably Achaean peoples who had been conquered by the invading Dorian tribes. We know little of the early history of Sparta. Many of the interesting customs and laws which existed there at early periods and later and have been handed down to us, are attributed to the legendary law-giver Lycurgus, for example the division of the territory of Laconia into 39,000 estates, the suppression of gold and silver coins (in Sparta only iron money was used).

The whole of the population of Laconia was divided into three groups. The first and most privileged were the Spartans, descendants of the Dorian conquerors, who referred to themselves as "the commune of equals''. The Spartans owned all the land, which was divided up into approximately equal estates, but they themselves did not work it. They made up ten per cent of the population and lived in the city of Sparta, enjoying full political and civil rights.

The second group was that of the perioeci (those living around Sparta) who were descended from subject or immigrant peoples. This group enjoyed personal freedom but no political rights. The majority of the perioeci worked as artisans.

Finally the third and largest group were the helots---- descendants of subject and enslaved Achaeans. The helots were attached to landed estates, which they worked, being obliged at the same time to pay quit-rent to their Spartan absentee landlords. The helots had no rights whatsoever and were virtually deprived of their personal freedom. Nevertheless the Spartans lived in continual fear of the helots and the eventuality of an uprising among 56 them, and from time to time punitive expeditions were organised against them which led to mass slaughters.

Sparta had its own special constitution. The "commune of equals" was ruled by two kings and a gerousia or council of elders, made up of representatives of the noble families (none of whom were younger than 60). The gerousia supervised state affairs and also acted as the main organ of justice. There was also an apella or assembly of citizens, which however was convened infrequently, for the election of important officers or for the deliberation of questions of war and peace. An interesting institution was the ephoralty, an elective collegium of five members, which was in effect the supreme organ of power, to which even the kings were accountable.

The Spartans' everyday life and customs were all directed to one end---military training. From the age of seven children were sent to state lyceums where courage, initiative and endurance were fostered in them and where the accent was on physical training. From the age of 20 every young Spartan was liable for military service and his life from then on was one of military subordination---communal meals, frugal in the extreme, regular physical and military training, conversations with the elders at public gatherings, at which the young Spartans were expected to converse concisely and with an accurate choice of words---hence the word ``laconic''.

Such customs and rules enabled the Spartans to build up a remarkable army which for a long period was considered invincible. In the south of Greece Sparta conquered Messenia, part of Argolis and concluded a military alliance with a number of other poleis. This alliance was called the Peloponnesian League and Sparta was its acknowledged figure-head and leader.

The State of Athens

The town of Athens grew up in Attica (central Greece) in a mountainous, infertile region. The soil of this area required very thorough, painstaking cultivation and the main crops were thus fruit and vegetables, olives and vines being two of the most important. Attica could not grow enough corn and had to import it. The indented coastline of Attica led to the rapid development of sea-faring and trade.

In ancient times Attica was ruled over by a king but our knowledge of this period of Athenian history is fragmentary and based mainly on legends. The Athens of classical times was a republic, at first of a distinctly aristocratic type. The aristocratic council or the Areopagus took the place of a council of elders and 57 constituted the leading state organ. Those occupying the leading state posts were called archons, nine of which were appointed annually from among representatives of the leading rich aristocratic families by the Areopagus. At this period the citizens' assembly played no significant role.

The free population of Athens consisted of three groups. The privileged stratum of society was the hereditary aristocracy, the class of the Eupatridae, who enjoyed full political and civil rights. The bulk of the population was known as the demos or people, a term including farmers, artisans, traders, sailors, etc., and covering a wide range of occupations and levels of material well-being from the poor peasants to the prosperous traders and manufacturers. The demos enjoyed civil rights, but hardly any political ones. The third and last group was made up of the socalled metics or foreigners, settled in Athens, engaged for the most part in trade or manufacture. The metics were not granted any civil or political rights. The slaves of course represented a category of their own, being completely without rights and considered as animals or livestock rather than people.

Political contradictions in the Athenian state structure made themselves felt early on and a bitter political struggle developed, a struggle waged by the poor peasants for their rights to freedom and the land, in particular against the practice of debt slavery. Strife also developed between the demos and the Eupatridae, as the richer strata of the demos sought to gain the same political rights and privileges as those enjoyed by the aristocracy.

The Reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes

This political battle reached its height at the end of the seventh and beginning of the sixth century B.C., aggravated as it was by plague epidemics, bad harvests and setbacks in the war for the island of Salamis. In 594 Solon was elected archon and he proceeded to introduce a series of bold revolutionary reforms. In the first place he abolished all existing debts, freed all debt slaves and prohibited this practice in the future. Then he introduced a new constitution, which divided all Athenian citizens into four classes, depending on the size of their landed property or the income which they drew from it. From then on it was not noble blood but property and wealth which was required for membership of the privileged class. Political privileges were also made subject to property.

Under Solon a new elective organ was also set up---the Council of 400, which was gradually to oust the Areopagus. The assembly of citizens also started to assume a much more important 58 role in state affairs, since it was given the last voice in decisions taken on all important problems of state. The reforms introduced by Solon served to consolidate the political position of the upper strata of the demos and thus led to a general democratisation of the Athenian state.

These democratic reforms were improved on still further by Cleisthenes (510--509 B.C.) who abolished many vestiges of the former clan society, by introducing a new territorial division of Attica. The distribution of state posts and military service obligations were reorganised in accordance with the new territorial divisions, which ruled out any possibility of the predominance of the hereditary nobility. Cleisthenes also replaced the Council of 400 by the Council of 500 and set up an elective military collegium consisting of 10 strategoi.

Cleisthenes' reforms dealt the death blow to the political supremacy of the hereditary aristocracy and laid the foundations for still further democratisation of the Athenian state.

[59] __NUMERIC_LVL2__ Chapter Five __ALPHA_LVL2__ GREECE IN THE FIFTH
AND FOURTH CENTURIES B.C.
THE CRISIS IN GREEK SOCIETY

[introduction.]

The wars with Persia marked an important turning point in the history of classical Greece. These wars resulted from the fact that Persia, which as far back as the time of Cyrus had held sway over the rich Greek towns on the coast of Asia Minoi, was aspiring to capture the city-states on the Greek mainland.

In 500 B.C. one of the largest Greek towns in Asia Minor, Miletus, rose up against Persian rule and the remaining Gieek towns in Asia Minor then followed suit. In their search for outside help in the struggle against the vast Persian Empire the insurgent towns turned to the mainland cities for help. The only Greek states to respond to this request were Athens, which sent 20 ships, and Eretria, a small town on the island of Euboea which was only able to send 5 ships. Such help was very limited and insufficient, but after quelling the uprising the Persian King Darius used it as a pretext for declaring war against the Greek mainland states.

The Battle of Marathon

Darius sent envoys to the Greek city-states who in the name of the "Great King, the King of Kings" demanded "eaith and water'', tokens of complete submission. The majority of the Gieek city-states feeling themselves unable to stand up to Peisian attack complied with this demand. Only two states gave the envoys a different reception: in Athens they were killed and in Sparta they were thrown into a deep well, where they were told thev would find sufficient earth and water.

In 492 the Persians embarked on their first expedition against Gieece, which proved unsuccessful. The Persian fleet ran into a 60 099-15.jpg __CAPTION__ ANCIENT GREECE OF THE CLASSICAL PERIOD [61] serious storm off the cape of Athos on the Chalcidice peninsula and all the troops were obliged to return home. In 490 a second expeditionary force set sail across the Aegean to the shores of Attica. The troops were disembarked on the island of Euboea where they took the town of Eretria by storm and plundered it taking the inhabitants as slaves.

The decisive battle between the Greeks and the Persians took place on the eastern shore of Attica near the town of Marathon. The Athenians had only ten thousand troops at their disposal and another 1,000 sent to their aid by the small town of Plataea. The Persian army, several times larger than that of the Greeks, nevertheless suffered a crushing defeat. The Greek troops under the old and experienced commander Miltiades who was familiar with Persian tactics, fought with rare courage and tenacity, inspired by the ideals of patriotism and freedom and devotion to their families: for every one of them it was clear that defeat meant slavery.

A messenger was sent to Athens with the joyful news. Breathing his last he ran onto the square where the old men, women and children had gathered impatiently waiting for news of the battle's outcome; he summoned up the last ounce of his strength to cry out the one word ``victory'' and collapsed. The marathon race in present-day Olympics takes its name from this exploit and is run over a distance roughly equal to that between Marathon and Athens.

Xerxes' Expedition

After the battle of Marathon there was a pause of 10 years before the resumption of hostilities between the Persians and the Greeks, although the peoples of both countries were well aware that a new war was inevitable. Darius' death was followed by the habitual unrest at the Persian court on such occasions. Eventually his son Xerxes succeeded him on the throne. Xerxes soon embarked on intensive preparations for a new expedition against Greece, which lasted for four years and included the erection of a bridge across the Hellespont (now known as the Dardanelles) and the construction of a canal through the narrow neck of the Chalcidice peninsula, near treacherous cape Athos.

The Greeks also made preparations. A defensive alliance was concluded between a number of Greek city-states, led by Sparta. Since Sparta was difficult of access from the sea and famed as the state with the best fighting force in the whole of Greece, they urged for the battle to be fought out on dry land rather than at sea.

62

The state of affairs in Athens at this time was more complicated. The rich landowners, who feared above all else that their estates would be laid waste, supported the Spartan plan of defence. Their interests were represented by the renowned statesman Aristeides.

He was opposed in this plan by Themistocles who succeeded in gaining a dominant position in Athens purely as a result of his energy, ambition and outstanding abilities. When no more than a little over thirty he was elected as an archon and three years later distinguished himself at the battle of Marathon. Yet still not satisfied, he aspired after still greater fame. He admitted to his friends that "the laurels of Miltiades give me no peace".

Themistocles considered that the Greeks stood no chance of defeating the Persians on dry land. He insisted that Athens' future was as a sea power and he did all he could to build up a powerful fleet. He succeeded in setting aside the revenue from the Laurion silver mines, which were considered state property, for the building of warships. The plan for a war with Persia at sea coincided with the interests of the Athenian traders and manufacturers who did not own landed estates.

The third expedition against Greece began in the year 480 B.C. It was led by Xerxes, who by making use of Persia's subject peoples was able to amass enormous forces. Writers of classical times recorded that these forces totalled almost five million. Even if this was a considerable exaggeration it still remains certain that the Persian strength surpassed that of the Greek army many times over.

Thermopylae and Salamis

Part of the Persian army advanced overland along the coast of Thrace and part was transported in ships. The first sea battle took place off the Artemisium promontory on the northern coast of Euboea and the first land battle at Thermopylae, a narrow pass leading from Thessaly into central Greece, so narrow indeed that only one vehicle could go through it at a time. On the western side it was overhung by sheer, forbidding rocks and on the eastern side impassable swamps stretched right down to the sea. It was at this point that a holding "force of Greeks took up their positions under the command of King Leonidas of Sparta.

An enormous Persian army approached Thermopylae and Xerxes was sure that he would not run into serious resistance at ^his point. He sent word to Leonidas demanding that he lay down his arms, but Leonidas replied in true laconic style, "Come 63 and take them.'' The first Persian attacks met with no success. Making skilful use of their position, the Greek detachments defended the pass heroically and held out against the onslaught of the enemy hordes for several days. However, a traitor from among the Greek forces led a large detachment of Persians along mountain paths to the Greeks' rear. When Leonidas saw that they were being surrounded, he sent a large part of his troops off the field remaining alone with his fellow Spartans to face the enemy. They fell to a man in this unequal struggle. Later a marble statue of a lion was set up in honour of Leonidas at the entrance to the Thermopylae pass.

While the battle of Thermopylae was in progress a sea battle was also being fought off the Artemisium promontory. The Greeks were victorious, but after the Persian army had succeeded in cutting the Thermopylae pass the fleet was compelled to withdraw to the coast of Attica.

The Spartan commanders were of the opinion that the fleet should withdraw still further, to the Corinthian isthmus, where they wished to set up---both on sea and dry land---the last line of defence. The Athenians, who had been forced to abandon their native city to be plundered and destroyed by the enemy, were adamant that the battle with the Persian fleet should take place in the narrow straits between the shores of Attica and the island of Salamis. This plan of action was upheld with especial vehemence by Themistocles, who was vindicated by subsequent events.

With the first light of dawn Xerxes gave orders for his golden throne to be placed on one of the hills overlooking the Attican shore to give him a good view of the battle. However, the outcome of the battle of Salamis was very different from what he had expected. The heavy Persian vessels had difficulty in manoeuvring in the narrow straits, while the smaller and much lighter Greek ships were easily able to ram them. The Persian ships floundered and many of Xerxes' men were drowned. Soon panic spread among the Persian troops and the ships which were still sea-worthy made a hasty retreat. The Greek fleet gained a decisive victory. As subsequent events showed the battle of Salamis was a turning point in the course of the war.

After the battle of Salamis, Xerxes was compelled to leave Greece, withdrawing a large part of his troops. However, he left behind between sixty and seventy thousand soldiers under the command of the experienced general Mardonius, and the following year (479 B.C.) two more important battles took place. According to legend they took place on the same day, one on land near the town of Plataea where Mardonius' troops were dealt a crushing defeat and the Persian army was finally driven out of 64 __FOLD_OUT__ ANCIENT WORLD IN THE 5\thinspaceth -- 4~th CENTURIES B.~C. Greece, and the other at sea off the coast of Asia Minor near Cape Mycale. Soon after this victory the Greek towns in Asia Minor were freed from the Persian yoke.

However, the Persian war was to last for some years yet. From now on most of the battles were to take place at sea. Following Greek attacks, the Persians gradually withdrew from the islands of the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor.

Thus, fighting desperately to defend their freedom and their homeland a small, courageous people achieved a brilliant victory over the mighty and once invincible Persian Empire.

The Delian League and the Rise
of Athenian Economic Prosperity

The victorious conclusion of the war against Persia was of tremendous importance for the whole of Greece. But since in the last years of the struggle the most decisive battles had been fought at sea, it was natural that Athens, the state with the largest fleet, should rise to a position of ascendancy among the Greek states.

In the course of the hostilities an Athenian naval alliance had been formed. It was joined by the Greek city-states on the Aegean islands and along the coast of Asia Minor as they were gradually freed from the Persian yoke. The size of the alliance grew steadily and at its height it numbered over two hundred nomes.

To begin with all members of the alliance enjoyed absolutely equal rights. Each nome or city had one vote in the general council which convened on the island of Delos, where the common treasury was also kept. The revenue consisted of contributions from the individual members of the league, the amount of which was proportional to their size. Since the military command was in the hands of the Athenians the decisive political voice in the affairs of the league was also bound to be theirs sooner or later. The naval alliance was gradually replaced by Athenian sea power, the partners becoming subjects from whom tribute was exacted. The treasury was then transferred to Athens, Athenian officials were sent out to all the member-cities and nomes, and things went so far that any attempts to withdraw from the league were treated as revolts and cruelly put down by Athenian military might.

The setting up of the Delian League and the victory over the Persians furthered the expansion of slavery, trade and commerce in Athens. The total number of slaves was several times more than in the period before the Persian wars. There was nothing __PRINTERS_P_65_COMMENT__ 5---126 65 surprising in this fact, since the bulk of the prisoners taken during the war had been turned into slaves. The slave trade also grew apace. Pirates used to capture large quantities of slaves and then sell them at the slave markets which existed in almost all sizable towns of the Athenian state. Sometimes slaves were sold by auction. They were treated like domestic animals, having to undress, show their teeth and run when being inspected by prospective buyers. Prices for slaves varied considerably: those with no qualifications were sold very cheaply, while skilled craftsmen (such as armourers) and educated slaves (such as teachers and physicians) fetched very high prices.

Slave labour was made use of above all in workshops. As a rule these were quite small, each employing about ten or twelve slaves. Large quantities of slaves were also used for the heaviest work of all---in the Laurion silver mines.

The lot of the slaves in Athens as in all other slave-holding societies was extremely hard. The slaves were deprived of all rights and were treated as chattels which could be bought or sold and which owners could treat as they pleased with impunity. As a result every free Athenian, even the poorest of peasants, looked on slaves with contempt.

The formation of the Delian League and the victory over the Persians meant that the Athenian trading ships could now sail in safety not merely to any part of the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor but also through the Hellespont to the countries bordering on the Black Sea. Athens' trade links were expanding steadily and one of the Athenian statesmen of that time was able to remark: "All the products of the world flow into her (Athens ---Trans.} and we enjoy the good things of other lands as easily as our own.''

From Thrace and the Black Sea coast came corn, which never grew in sufficient quantities on the infertile soil of Attica. Other imports were timber, pitch, honey, leather and salt fish from the Black Sea coast; ivory from Africa, spices from the East and iron and copper from Italy. Finally there was also the living cargo of slaves imported from many lands. The main Athenian exports were olive oil, wine, metalware and pottery.

The Athenian port of the Piraeus situated a few miles from Athens became an important town in its own right with crowded streets, ringing with many languages, and its harbour always full of ships from distant lands. The port's annual turnover ran well into the millions and large trade deals were concluded there. A large variety of merchants' guilds and unions were set up. Since coinage from many different countries passed through the Piraeus, people were employed to organise the exchange of money. Gradually these simple transactions were replaced by more complex 66 financial deals. Individual merchants or groups of merchants were lent large sums of money at fixed rates of interest, or money changers would guarantee to hold sums in safe keeping for a certain period and make a profit on them in the meantime. Some of the Athenian money changers engaged in this kind of transaction succeeded in making large fortunes. Such, briefly, was the development of Athenian overseas trade and the financial and credit transactions bound up with it.

The Zenith of Athenian Democracy

The growth of the Athenian fleet during the Persian wars was closely bound up with the development of democracy. In Athens every citizen engaged in the ranks of the heavy infantry (which made up the hard core of the army) was obliged to provide his armour at his own expense. Since such armour was fairly expensive, only those receiving a decent income