Ancient Greece is the birthplace of the ancient. Features of the origin of Greek civilization Why ancient Greece is considered the birthplace of democracy

Topic 2.2.

Ancient civilization.

PLAN.

1. City-states of Greece.

1. Features of the development of the city-states of Italy.
2. Struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean:

a) Greco-Persian wars;

b) the Peloponnesian wars;

c) the empire of Alexander the Great. The reasons for the collapse.

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The history of the ancient world has attracted special attention of European scholars since ancient times. The point is not only that of all the periods of antiquity, it is the best studied. It is believed that the civilizations of Greece and Rome stood at the origins of the European traditions of political, economic and spiritual life.

In ancient Greece, a large unified state did not take shape. As in all pre-industrial civilizations, the community in Ancient Greece was the main unit of society, but it was distinguished by its originality and in many of its features was not similar to the eastern community.

It was a polis community that included not only the rural population (as in the East), but also the urban one. One could become a member of the community under two conditions: if the person was a Greek by nationality, if he was free and owned private property. All members of the community - free owners - had political rights (although not always equal), which allowed them to take part in government activities.

The state in Greece did not exist above the community (as it did in the East), it grew out of the community, or rather, the community itself turned into a small state with its own laws, authorities and system of government.

Within the policies, civil law was gradually formed, i.e. codes of laws were formed that determined the rights and obligations of community members, which gave them some social guarantees. Polis was not only engaged in internal affairs, but could also conduct foreign policy activities, had its own army; citizens of the polis joined the militia and during the wars turned into warriors.

The polis (that is, the collective of citizens) had the right of supreme ownership of land.

An important role was played by the People's Assembly, which had the right to make the final decision on all major issues. the high role of the people's assembly and the election of power are two main factors that created the conditions for the development of Greek democracy.

Ancient Greece is considered to be the birthplace of democracy. Indeed, over time, in the largest city-states, especially in Athens, which escaped the Dorian conquest, significant changes took place in social life.

Instead of the hereditary power of tribal leaders (kings), the principle of the election of the supreme ruler (archon), his accountability to the council of heads of clans (Areopagus) was introduced. What does it mean: the hill of Areya. It existed already under the tsars, and during the time of the republic it acquired the significance of the highest court for the most important crimes; those of the former archons who held this position with honor were appointed to it. The meetings of the Areopagus took place under the leadership of the archon-basileus; they were produced in the open air, at night, by torchlight. The accuser and the accused had to speak simply, under terrible vows in the truth of their words. When the time came for a decision, each oreopagite took a pebble from the altar and put it either in a copper urn - Mercy, or in a wooden urn - death. The verdict was pronounced on the basis of counting pebbles: in the case of an equal number, preference was given to Mercy.

Early VI v. BC. was elected archon Solon.

Solon came from the noble family of the Codrids, who once reigned in Athens. In order to maintain the well-being of his family and to see foreign countries, he was actively engaged in sea trade in his youth. Solon entered the political arena when Athens had been failing for a long time in the war with neighboring Megaras for the island of Salamis adjacent to Attica. After he called for the continuation of the struggle to a victorious end in a poetic pamphlet "Salamis", the majority of citizens supported the idea of ​​resuming hostilities. At the head of the armed forces, the Athenians put Solon, who soon managed to recapture Salamis.

The Athenian state at that time was gripped by a deep internal crisis. The sharp inequality of property among the citizens of the policy led to the fact that the mass of the poor found themselves in debt bondage with the rich. Those who did not pay the debt on time were forced to sell their children or became slaves themselves. The ripening discontent of the people threatened to result in open rebellion and a coup d'etat. In such conditions, the powerthose in power decided to go for the necessary reforms from above. This difficult mission was assigned to Solon as the person most authoritative and, moreover, neutral in relation to various political groups. He was elected as the first archon and was given broad powers to enact new laws.

Among the economic reforms carried out by him, in the first place is the so-called "shaking off the burden" - the removal of stones from the mortgaged land plots, which symbolized the rights of creditors-lenders (as a kind of bills of exchange). A full cassation of debts was made, debt slavery was outlawed. All those who became slaves due to non-payment of the debt on time were freed, and those of them who were sold outside Attica were redeemed at public expense.

At the initiative of Solon, the entire population of the policy was divided into four categories, depending on the property status.

This division weakened the position of the clan nobility. The wealthy merchants and artisans became equal with her in rights.

At the end of VI v. BC. instead of dividing the policy into tribal possessions, the principle of its delimitation into ten districts was adopted, each of which elected its representatives to a new council (council of five hundred), which dealt with all current affairs.

Foreigners successfully conducting business in Athens received citizenship rights. The total number of citizens was about 30 thousand people.

According to the established tradition in Athens, active participation in the affairs of the polis, the defense of democracy was the most important right and duty of citizens. At the meetings, issues of war and peace were decided, officials were elected. The assembly could have sentenced to expulsion from the polis persons who posed a threat to Athenian democracy.

Every year, on a certain day, the people's assembly was given the right to condemn for the temporary expulsion of citizens who, in their influence, turned out to be dangerous for the peace of the republic. At the same time, the casting of votes was secret, by means of an inscription on the shards (ostracons), which were then taken from citizens and recounted; the majority of votes decided the issue, but this majority had to include at least six thousand. This form of voting in Athens was called ostracism.

Thus, to V v. BC. the tribal system in Athens was finally supplanted by a new state organization, which was called democracy.

Sparta showed another path of development of the polis.

The Spartan state was formed around IX v. BC. and at first consisted of five settlements of the Dorian Greeks. The further life of the polis proceeded in continuous wars with neighboring communities. The Spartans seized their lands, livestock, and the population turned into slaves-helots. In addition to the helots, the Periecs (inhabitants of the Achaean cities, conquered by the Doryans) also worked for the Spartans, who were personally free, but paid tribute. According to legend, all life in Sparta was built on the basis of ancient laws introduced by the legendary king Lycurgus.

The Spartans themselves were only warriors. None of them was engaged in productive labor: the fields of the Spartans cultivated helots. Only periecs could conduct trade; for the Spartans, this occupation was prohibited, like craft. As a result, Sparta remained an agricultural policy with a closed economy, in which commodity-money relations could not develop.

The most strict way of life was prescribed for the Spartans and all luxury was forbidden. The upbringing of the children was very harsh. They did not belong to their parents, but to the state.

The father was supposed to exhibit the newborn boy in a known place where the elders gathered. If they found a child weak or ugly, they would throw him into the abyss from the top of Taygetus.

By this time, in almost all ancient Greek states, hereditary royal rule had ceased, in Sparta it remained, but with such a limitation of power that did not interfere with the republican way of government.

At the head were two kings (the Doryans conquered Laconia under the leadership of two brothers and since then there have always been two kings in Sparta), who performed the duties of military leaders, judges and priests, as well as a council of elders (gerusia), which consisted of representatives of noble families no younger 60 years. Unlike elders, kings were not elected - this was a hereditary title. The kings had great privileges, but they could not make decisions without the approval of the council of elders, which in turn had to rely on the opinion of the popular assembly. But the elements of democracy did not develop in Sparta: the national assembly, although it was formally considered the highest body, did not have much influence on political life. Unlike Athens, at the meetings, ordinary Spartiats did not make speeches, did not prove their point of view, but shouted their approval or disapproval of the proposed solutions.

The Spartan state waged constant wars against neighboring poleis, capturing slaves, collecting tribute and gradually expanding its territory. If in Athens, slave labor was used to a limited extent, only in mines and workshops, then in Sparta it was the basis of the economy.

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In the development of cities in Italy and Greece, many similarities were manifested. V VIII - VI centuries BC. the Greeks colonized the coast of southern and central Italy, built Naples and Syracuse, which became important trade centers of the Mediterranean. This had a great influence on the tribal formations inhabiting Italy.

The Etruscans dominated in the north of Italy. They were the closest neighbors of the Romans, occupying an area called Etruria (a region of modern Tuscany). The Etruscans used the Greek alphabet, but their language has not yet been deciphered. The Etruscans had a strong influence on the Romans. This manifested itself in art, religion, in the planning of cities, in the special architecture of houses - with an inner courtyard. From the Etruscans, the Romans took the signs of royal power - bundles of rods with hatchets embedded in them.

In 753 BC. Rome was founded by three tribes of Latins who lived in the region of the Tiber River.

Initially, as in Athens, the social life of Rome was built on the basis of tribal traditions. The supreme governing body was the Senate (from lat. sense - "old man"), which consisted of 300 people, the elders of the clans who founded the city. Ordinary members of the tribe, united in curia according to the tribal principle, could also express their opinion on the issues discussed. The role of the supreme ruler was assigned to the elected king, who was to rule in accordance with the tradition and will of the Senate. From 616 BC emigrants from the noble Etruscan family of Tarquinians were elected as kings, which reflected the special role of the Etruscans in Italy.

The descendants of the founders of the city called themselves patricians ( patres - "fathers"), they belonged to the land adjacent to Rome. These lands were cultivated by individual families, in which the strict principle of patriarchy was in effect. At the same time, the land was considered the common property of the Romans, they could not belong to outsiders. The patricians had more and more large land holdings when Rome won military victories.This was the Roman aristocracy.

Another large stratum of society, the plebeians, was in a different position. The plebeians were personally free, but did not belong to the clans, and therefore were not members of the community. Most likely, the population of Rome increased due to the settlers and residents of the conquered regions, from which this social stratum was formed. Initially, the plebeians did not have any rights: they were not allowed into public assemblies, did not participate in religious rituals, and could not marry patricians. Their struggle for the right to citizenship began. V VI v. BC. plebeians were admitted to military service and to popular assemblies. They were involved in military service in auxiliary units.

Tribal traditions limited the royal power. At Servia Tullia(578-534 BC) reforms were carried out, similar to the reforms of Solon in Athens, which dealt a serious blow to the privileges of the clan nobility.

He marked his reign with special patronage of the plebeians, who received some civil rights under him.

The entire male population (patricians and plebeians) was divided into five categories, depending on the property status and taxes and weapons were distributed in accordance with this division. He divided each class into centuries, which were approximately equal to each other not in the number of members, but in the amount of their property, therefore the number of all centuries in the first class was much greater than in the subsequent ones, and the members were much smaller. There were 193 centuries in total.

The poorest Romans, unable to buy weapons, united, regardless of their number, in the century of "proletarians" (from lat. proles - "offspring"). It was understood that they are only suitable for its reproduction.

The patricians strongly disliked these institutions of Servius Tullius, they also feared that the king would not strengthen his power with the help of grateful plebeians. Therefore, they conspired, and Servius Tullius was killed by his own son-in-law Tarquinius. He became king and was called the Proud. Tarquinius the Proud waged happy wars and completed the construction of the famous Roman Capitol. But he wanted to make his power unlimited and began to execute the patricians. In 509 BC. he was expelled by supporters of the supreme power of the senate and a republic was established in Rome.

The patricians instead of the king began to elect annually from among their midst two consuls, who led the army and tried the criminals. The right to issue laws belonged to the Senate and the People's Assembly (for the first time uniform laws for all were adopted in 451-450 BC), the supreme supervision of the entire administration also belonged to the Senate. State offices were still in the hands of the patricians, therefore, Rome became an aristocratic republic. (At the time of danger, external or internal, the Romans usually chose a dictator, but for no more than 6 months).

The patricians used the debt laws with particular severity, turning insolvent debtors into slavery or subjecting them to torture. The plebeians murmured. Finally, out of patience, they refused to march against the enemies - the Senate agreed to suspend the debt obligations. But at the end of the war, he again gave them their former strength. Then the plebeians left Rome and went with their families to one of the neighboring hills, called the sacred mountain, where they camped and wanted to found their own city (494 BC). Frightened patricians decided to make concessions and negotiated with the plebeians. After many convictions, the plebeians agreed to return to Rome, but on the condition that their debts were relieved and that they could choose from among their midst annually two tribunes of the people. These tribunes, by their intervention, could stop the decision of any dignitary against the plebeian. Their person was considered inviolable, the doors of their house were never locked, so that every plebeian could demand protection from them.

The plebeians also demanded that laws be written to prevent abuse by the patricians. After long discussions, the laws were engraved on 12 copper plaques (tables) and put on public display. Laws 12 tables confirmed private ownership of land and all other property of citizens.

Patricians and plebeians ceased to be at enmity with each other. Their elite united in the class of senators - members of the Senate. Average farmers, merchants and wealthy people in general were called horsemen. The rest of the poor townspeople were the plebs (in the new meaning of the word). All citizens of Rome, regardless of their position, were considered rapacious before the law.

From 445 BC allowed marriages between patricians and plebeians. A century later, the plebeians were given access to elective positions, including consular ones. At the same time, in Rome, officials did not receive salaries, they covered all the costs associated with the performance of the service at their own expense. This ensured access to power only to wealthy citizens.

In V v. BC. in Rome, as before in Athens, a new political system of social organization took shape, in which citizenship was of greater importance than tribal ties.

B VI - V centuries BC. Rome begins to conquer neighboring territories. The basis of the strength of Rome was the army - legions, consisted of all citizens - members of the policy. The Romans managed to repel the invasion of the Gauls (Celts), who poured into IV v. BC. to Italy. They gradually conquered Italy and by the beginning III v. BC. became its complete masters.

The hardest test for the early Roman Republic was 2nd Punic War with Carthage - Phoenician state in North Africa. Having suffered defeat in the hall of the long 1st Punic War (the Romans called the Carthaginians Punami), having lost the fleet and possessions in Sicily and Sardinia, Carthage did not accept this. The Carthaginians captured part of Iberia (modern-day Spain). In 218 BC. Carthaginian general Hannibal made an unparalleled trip to Italy, crossing the Alpine mountains. He defeated the Romans in northern Italy, and in the spring of 217 BC. on the shores of Lake Trasimene, he broke them again. However, Hannibal's forces were dwindling, and the Roman army grew stronger. In 216 BC. The 87,000th Roman army met with the 54,000th army of Hannibal near the town of Cannes. The Romans hit Hannibal's weak center, but were sucked into a sack between his strong flanks. Trapped in the Romans tried to resist, but soon the battle turned into beating them.

It seemed. Rome cannot escape destruction. But extraordinary measures were taken, and the war continued. The Romans began to gain victories. Young talented commander of Rome Publius Cornelius Scipio won the possession of the Carthaginians in Iberia. In 204 BC. Scipio landed in Africa. Hannibal was forced to leave Italy. In 202 BC. Scipio defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. Carthage made peace with Rome, accepting all the conditions of the victors. During 3rd Punic War in the 11th century. BC. Carthage was destroyed, then Macedonia and Greece, and a number of other lands were captured.

The Romans turned the conquered lands into provinces -"The estates of the Roman people." They were headed by governors from among the officials of Rome. The local population was taxed, part of the land was taken away from it. In an effort to disunite the inhabitants of the provinces, the Romans used the "divide and conquer" method. Cities and communities loyal to them received benefits and privileges, the rest were deprived of them.

The consequence of long wars that enriched some of the Romans and ruined others was the weakening of the army: the impoverished citizens could no longer arm themselves at their own expense, and many rich people did not want to shed blood in battles. Roman general consul Guy Mari at the end II v. BC. first began to recruit for service in the legions of volunteers - Roman citizens and allies of Rome. The soldiers received weapons, payment for the service, and after its completion they were promised land. The fighting efficiency of the Roman army increased sharply again. But having lost direct contact with the Roman community, the soldiers turned into executors of the will of their commanders-generals.

A strong family was considered the basis of Rome's strength. Behold, the head was the sovereign master of his household. The younger ones unquestioningly obeyed the older ones, the older ones took care of the younger ones. The mother woman enjoyed great rights and respect.

After the Punic Wars (the period of the Late Roman Republic), the "corruption" of the virtuous morals of the Romans became noticeable. The thirst for enrichment was the main goal of a section of the elite of Roman society. New seizures promised them new income. On the contrary, the poor had little interest in conquests. After all, while they served in the army, their farms were ruined, their families became poorer.

The Romans of the Late Republic were more educated than their ancestors. Many of them knew the Greek language, the children were brought up by Greek teachers. The Romans took over from the Greeks a passion for luxury andpyramids. The "corruption" of morals was observed even among the plebeians. More and more

The labor of slaves took on importance.

An important event during the period of the Late Roman Republic wasslave revoltunder the leadership of Spartacus, come from

Thrace. It began with a performance in 74 BC. gladiators and soon covered all of Italy. The army of Spartacus, to which thousands of slaves fled, inflicted a number of defeats on the legions. With great difficulty the Romans under the leadership Licinia Crassus managed to break in 71 BC. insurgents.

Civil wars and uprisings of the first half I v. BC. led to the weakening of the republican institutions of power. In 60 BC. an agreement was made triumvirate between the most influential politicians in Rome - With anger Pompey, Lycism Crassus and Julius Caesar. The Senate was ousted from power by the triumvirs. Soon Gaius Julius Caesar became the governor of the provinces in Gaul, where he became famous as a commander, having conquered in 58 - 51 years. BC NS. transalpine Gaul to the Rhine River. In 53 BC. NS. Krasé died in the war, and Pompeii entered into an agreement with the Senate and opposed Caesar. In 49 BC. a new civil war began. Caesar defeated Pompey and became the sole ruler of Rome. His power was approaching the royal one. However, in 44 BC. NS. he was stabbed to death in the Senate by conspirators.

After the death of Caesar, a struggle unfolded both between supporters and opponents of the republic, and between contenders for supreme power. One such contender was Caesar's great-nephew Guy Octavian. He made an agreement with Markim Antony, assistant to Julius Caesar. Together they defeated in 42 BC. NS. supporters of the republic. Octavian received the thrust of the Roman state under his rule, and Antony - the east. A clash between them was inevitable. Octavian strengthened his power in Rome, Antony married the queen of Egypt Cleopatra. The war between Octavian and Antony ended in 30 BC. the death of Antony and Cleopatra and the capture of Egypt by the Romans. In 29 BC. NS. Octavian received the title of emperor from the Senate and the People's Assembly. Until the end of his life (AD 14) he headed the Roman state. Emperor who received title August(in Latin, sacred, exalted), became the head of the Senate, as the tribune of the people had the right to veto all decisions of the Senate, popular assemblies and other authorities. He commanded the army for life.

With the accession of Augustus in the history of Rome, the period of the principate began (27 BC - 193 AD). Formally, the republican institutions remained - the senate, people's assemblies, and other elected bodies. In fact, power belongs to the emperor and his officials. The successors of Octavian Augustus (Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Claudius) became famous for terror against all those dissatisfied with the new order. They themselves also perished at the hands of the conspirators. By the end of the 1st century. AD the election of emperors was actually in the hands of the troops. The generals, relying on their legions, fought for power. As a result, the Romans began to suffer defeat in wars with their neighbors. The situation returned to normal under the emperor Trajan(98 - 117 AD), who ruled, taking into account the opinion of the senate.

In III and. The Roman Empire again entered a period of crisis.

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

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The growing economic importance and profitability of Mediterranean trade led to the beginning of the struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean coast. It lasted with V to II v. BC. and ended with the triumph of Rome, which created the largest world power.

The first attempt to establish control over Mediterranean trade was made by the Persian military despotism. V VI v. BC NS. on the territory of the Iranian Highlands, the Persian kingdom is created. The kings from the Achaemenid dynasty, relying on the combat-ready Persian army, managed to conquer Media, Assyria, Egypt, Lydia, creating a huge power in the conquered territories. At the end VI v. the Persians conquered the Greek cities located on the Asia Minor coast of the Aegean Sea (Ionia).

... Ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, Macedonia)

The history of the ancient world has long attracted special attention of European scholars. The point is not only that of all the periods of antiquity, it is the best studied. It is believed that the civilizations of Greece and Rome stood at the origins of the European traditions of political, economic and spiritual life.

Ancient Greece

At the turn of the III-II millennium BC. the inhabitants of Greece and the adjacent islands learned how to make tools from bronze - an alloy of copper and tin. During this period, on the island of Crete, the first state formation in Europe was formed. Archaeologists have found ruins of palaces on the island, evidence of the existence of a developed writing system.

Figure 2.4.1.

In 1450 BC. the civilization of Crete was destroyed by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Around the same time Crete was invaded by the Mycenaean (Achaean) tribes, then living in Greece. They adopted the Cretan writing system and began to play a prominent role in the trade of the Eastern Mediterranean. However, in the XII century BC. the developing Achaean civilization was destroyed by the alliances of the Greco-Dorian, Thessalian, Boeotian, Ionian tribes of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor (they were known to the Egyptians as the "peoples of the sea"). Having moved to Greece, these tribes partially merged with the Achaeans, partially enslaved them.

After the conquest, the economy of Greece fell into decay, and the population dropped sharply. Only from the VIII century BC. the rise of the Greek city-states began. The peculiarities of their development were largely determined by natural conditions, the geopolitical position of Greece.

The relatively small, mountainous area was favorable for horticulture and livestock raising, but not agriculture. Here the sea played an important role: fishing and sea trade made it possible to make up for the lack of products. From the 5th century BC colonization of the coast of Asia Minor, the Black Sea region, and Italy began to acquire an increasing importance. An excess of the population rushed to the colony, they supplied Greece with the missing products. The first Greek colony, the city of Qom, was founded in 750 BC. on the coast of Italy.

City-states of Greece

In ancient Greece, a large, unified state did not take shape. The gradual development of tribal communities led to the formation on their basis of several hundred small independent states-policies, including a settlement (city) and adjacent land. Each polis had its own laws, a special system of government, although common features inherited from the tribal system were preserved. Thus, a special role was played by the councils of elders, which were the tribal aristocracy and meetings of tribal members, for which the rights of citizens were recognized. Foreigners, even wealthy ones, and slaves had no right to participate in public life. The land was considered as the common property of the policy, its property. With the development of commodity-money relations, it became possible to buy and sell plots of land (although in some policies it was limited), but only by citizens of this policy.

Ancient Greece is considered to be the birthplace of democracy. Indeed, over time in the largest city-states, especially in Athens who escaped the Dorian conquest, significant changes took place in social life.

Instead of the hereditary power of tribal leaders (kings), the principle of the election of the supreme ruler (archon), his accountability to the council of heads of clans (Areopagus) was introduced. The power of tradition and custom was gradually replaced by laws (the first of them, establishing general norms of behavior for all citizens and punishment for violating them, were adopted in 621 BC).

At the beginning of the 6th century BC. on the initiative of Archon Solon (635-559 BC), the entire population of the polis was divided into four categories, depending on the property status. This weakened the position of the clan nobility. The wealthy merchants and artisans became equal with her in rights.

At the end of the 6th century BC. instead of dividing the policy into tribal possessions, the principle of delimiting it into 10 districts was adopted, each of which elected its representatives to a new council (council of five hundred), which dealt with all current affairs. The Areopagus retained only judicial functions in cases that did not involve property disputes. Foreigners successfully conducting business in Athens received citizenship rights. The total number of citizens was about 30 thousand people.

According to the tradition established in Athens, active participation in the affairs of the polis, the defense of democracy were the most important right and duty of citizens. At the meetings, the issues of war and peace were decided by officials. The assembly could condemn to expulsion from the polis persons who posed a threat to the rule of the people and prone to tyranny.

Thus, by the 5th century BC. the tribal system in Athens was finally supplanted by a new state organization, which received the name democracy .

Another path of development of the policy was demonstrated Sparta... This state was founded by a Dorian tribe, which, having settled in the south of the Peloponnesian peninsula, turned the local population into disenfranchised slaves (helots). The Spartans considered it unworthy for themselves to cultivate the land, engage in trade, craft. This was the lot of slaves and newcomers from the surrounding settlements. The only respectable occupation for men was considered to be war. The educational system was subordinated to one goal - the training of hardy, laconic, disciplined soldiers. The tradition of the Spartans went down in history to kill children who were born weak, from which, as they believed, would not make good soldiers.

Figure 2.4.2.

In Sparta, the order of the tribal system remained unchanged. It was ruled by a council of elders and a gathering of warriors, the role of leaders (kings) was limited. The equalizing distribution was preserved. All Spartans wore simple clothes, ate together, money was not recognized by them.

The Spartan state waged constant wars against neighboring poleis, capturing slaves, collecting tribute and gradually expanding its territory. If in Athens, slave labor was used to a limited extent, only in mines and workshops, then in Sparta it was the basis of the economy.

City-states of Italy. Founding of Rome

In the development of cities in Italy and Greece, many similarities were manifested. In the VIII-VI centuries. BC. the Greeks colonized the coast of southern and central Italy, built Naples and Syracuse, which became important trade centers of the Mediterranean. This had a great influence on the tribal formations inhabiting Italy. In the north of Italy (on the territory of present-day Tuscany), Etruscans dominated. Their origin is not exactly known, it is assumed that, like the Dorians, they belonged to the "peoples of the sea" and came from the East, conquering the local population.

In 753 BC. the city was founded by three Latin tribes living in the area of ​​the Tiber River Rome .

Figure 2.4.3.

View drawing

According to legends, Rome was built by a descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas Romulus, who, together with his brother Remus, miraculously escaped murderers in infancy and was fed by a she-wolf.

Initially, as in Athens, the social life of Rome was built on the basis of tribal traditions. The supreme governing body was the Senate (from the Latin "senex" - "old man"), which consisted of 300 people, the elders of the clans who founded the city. Ordinary members of the tribe, united in curia according to the tribal principle, could also express their opinion on the issues discussed. The role of the supreme ruler was assigned to the elected king, who was to rule in accordance with the tradition and will of the Senate. From 616 BC emigrants from the noble Etruscan family of Tarquinians were elected as kings, which reflected the special role of the Etruscans in Italy.

The descendants of the founders of the city called themselves patricians ("patres" - "fathers"), they owned the lands adjacent to Rome. These lands were cultivated by individual families, in which the strict principle of patriarchy was in effect: the head of the family owned all the property, could execute or sell into slavery its guilty member. At the same time, the lands were considered the common property of the Romans, they could not belong to outsiders. Since Rome often waged wars of conquest against neighboring tribes and city-states, the amount of land that was at the disposal of patrician clans constantly increased.

The alien population, members of other tribes who settled in Rome, were called plebeians. They did not have the right to participate in the life of the city, although they were involved in military service in auxiliary units. They could ask patricians for patronage, becoming their "clients", and get work in their farms, be artisans, merchants.

Tribal traditions limited the royal power. Under Servius Tullius (578-534 BC), reforms were carried out, similar to the reforms of Solon in Athens, which dealt a serious blow to the privileges of the clan nobility.

The entire male population, including the plebeians, was divided into five categories, depending on property status and, accordingly, the ability to acquire light or more expensive heavy weapons. Each category was divided into centuria (hundreds), which, in the event of war, performed on the battlefield. There were 193 centurias in total, the patricians nominated 19 equestrian centuries. (Equipping the equestrian warriors required the greatest expense.) In peacetime, members of each centuria received the right to discuss the current affairs of the city, becoming a governing body.

The poorest Romans, unable to buy weapons, united, regardless of their number, in the century of “proletarians” (from the Latin “proles” - “offspring.” It was understood that they were only fit for its reproduction).

The infringement of the interests of the clan nobility provoked resistance. Tullius was killed, the new king Tarquinius the Proud canceled the reforms. However, the tyrannical nature of his reign also drew the ire of the Senate. In 509 BC. he was expelled. In Rome, established republic... A form of government in which the supreme power belongs to a person or several persons, or bodies elected by the population for a certain period. Antique r. Bourgeois r. Soviet r. (dictionary of the Russian language by Ushakov). The supreme power passed into the hands of two consuls, who were elected by the senate from among the patricians for a year. In the outbreak of the war with the Etruscans, the Romans managed to defend their independence.

In 494 BC. the plebeians, dissatisfied with their position, refused to participate in the next military campaign and left Rome in full armor. The patricians were forced to restore the order introduced by Tullius. The plebeians received the right to choose the tribunes of the people who defend their interests before the Senate. In particular, the tribunes could suspend the implementation of decisions made by them.

In 451-450 BC. in Rome, for the first time, uniform laws were adopted for all (before that, disputes were resolved on the basis of tribal customs and traditions). From 445 BC allowed marriages between patricians and plebeians. A century later, plebeians were given access to elective positions, including consular ones. At the same time, in Rome, officials did not receive salaries, they covered all the costs associated with the performance of the service at their own expense. This ensured access to power only to wealthy citizens.

The changes that took place meant that in the 5th century BC. in Rome, as before in Athens, a new political system of social organization took shape, in which citizenship was of greater importance than tribal ties.

These changes contributed to the transformation of city-states into major centers of trade and crafts. They began to build up their military power and began a struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean.

Struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean

The growing economic importance and profitability of Mediterranean trade led to the beginning of the struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean coast. It lasted from the 5th to the 2nd century BC. and ended with the triumph of Rome, which created the largest world power.

Greco-Persian Wars

The first attempt to establish control over Mediterranean trade was made by the Persian military despotism. She captured the Greek cities in Asia Minor, imposed tribute on them, and placed her garrisons there. In an effort to subjugate the Black Sea Greek settlements, Darius began a march to the north. His troops crossed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, crossed the Danube, Dniester and reached the lower reaches of the Dnieper. However, here the army of the "king of kings" faced the warlike tribes of the inhabitants of the Black Sea steppes - the Scythians, who defeated it.

Taking advantage of the failure of the Persians, the cities of Asia Minor in 500 BC. refused to acknowledge their authority. However, in the outbreak of the war, they received only insignificant help from the policies of Greece and were defeated. Following this, Darius demanded obedience from the cities of Greece itself. Many of them agreed to recognize themselves as tributaries of Darius, seeing no opportunity to defend themselves. However, the two largest cities - Athens, which had a strong fleet, and Sparta, which had a powerful army, decided to resist. The union created by them included 31 policies.

Peloponnesian Wars IV-V centuries BC .

The war with the Persians lasted for about thirty years and ended with the liberation of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor from their rule.

The most important result of the war was the growing influence of Athens, which became the largest financial and commercial center in the Mediterranean. Operations for the exchange of money, the provision of loans allowed many Athenians to enrich themselves. The seaport of Athens Piraeus has become a major city. In Athens, temples were erected, the ruins of which still amaze tourists with the elegance of their design: the Parthenon (the temple of Athena), the Propylaea (the main entrance to the Acropolis).

Athenian democracy reached its peak. Under Archon Pericles (490-429 BC), payment was introduced for holding public office, which opened access to power for ordinary citizens. Athens became the center of the scientific and cultural life of Greece. Philosophy, poetry, and theatrical art flourished especially.

The mainstay of Athens' influence was the maritime union, which included about 200 policies. Athenian garrisons were located in the cities of the union, all their funds were to be stored in Athens. Their authorities played the role of the highest court in the union.

The hegemony of Athens caused discontent in many of the traditionally rival city-states of Greece - Thebes, Corinth, Megara, as well as in Sparta, which was negative about democracy and supported the city-states where the clan nobility remained in power.

The war between the Peloponnesian Union, created under the auspices of Sparta, and the Athenian Maritime Union began in 431 BC. and continued intermittently for over 70 years. In its orbit were drawn Greek city-states in Italy and Sicily, as well as Persia. Ultimately, Sparta was defeated, but the war so weakened all the Greek city-states that none of them was able to reap the benefits. Athens suffered the most damage. They had to endure ruin, plague, undermining of influence in Greece.

Rise of Macedonia

Mountainous Macedonia in the 4th century BC was the land of shepherds and farmers. Ancestral nobility, heads of tribes, princes obeyed the king. His power was inherited. Relations with the city-states of Greece were limited, but the wars that engulfed them also affected Macedonia, which was forced to pay tribute to the Peloponnesian Union. Thus, King Philip II (359-336 BC) in his youth lived in Thebes as a hostage and studied the Greek art of war.

Philip began his reign with the reorganization of the army. Heavily armed infantry became its basis. Protected by armor and armed with long spears (sarissa), the former shepherds, moving in formation (phalanx), literally swept away the opposing troops, the defeat of which was completed by heavy cavalry.

After reorganizing the army, Philip II began a war with the Greek city-states, showing himself not only as a talented commander, but also as a skillful politician who used the contradictions between city-states. After the Battle of Chaeronea in Boeotia in 338 BC, where the combined forces of the Greeks were defeated, the king of Macedonia convened a general Greek congress in Corinth. On it, Philip II proposed to create an alliance and unite forces to fight the traditional enemy of the Greeks - the Persian military despotism.

Many Greek politicians, especially the brilliant Athenian orator Demosthenes (384-322 BC), considered Macedonia a more dangerous enemy than Persia. However, the fear of Philip II was too great. The Greek city-states entered into an alliance with Macedonia and pledged to provide troops for the war with Persia. In 336 BC, when the Macedonians moved into Asia Minor, Philip II was killed. The army was led by his twenty-year-old son Alexander(356-323 BC) (Fig. 2.4.4). He had to begin his reign by suppressing uprisings against Macedonian rule in the Greek cities. They soon felt the toughness of the new king: one of the largest cities, Thebes, was completely destroyed, and its inhabitants were sold into slavery.

Figure 2.4.4.

In 334 BC. Alexander's troops - about 35 thousand people - marched against Persia.

Conquests of Alexander the Great

Numerous, but not trained to fight in the ranks of the Persian troops fled when faced with the iron phalanxes of the Macedonians. Rebellions against Persian rule began in the satrapies. In the Greek cities of Asia Minor, Alexander's army was hailed as a liberator. In Egypt, the priests proclaimed Alexander the son of God and the heir to the power of the pharaohs. In Babylon, surrounded by impregnable walls, the inhabitants opened the gates of the city in front of the Greco-Macedonian army. Alexander proclaimed himself king of the new Persian state.

Pursuing the fleeing Persian king Darius III, Alexander's troops reached Central Asia, then turned to India, attracted by rumors about her fabulous riches. For the first time, the Macedonians met the war elephants and, nevertheless, won the victory. However, exhausted by the campaign, which had been going on for eight years, and the unusually hot climate, the troops mutinied and refused to move on. Alexander had to return to Babylon.

The conqueror dreamed of creating a great empire, in particular, he intended to undertake a campaign to the west, to Italy. These plans were not destined to come true: in 323 BC. at the age of 32, Alexander died (either from poison or disease), and his power began to disintegrate.

The fact is that, having defeated the troops of the Persian military despotism, which constituted its backbone, Alexander was unable to create a system of control over the conquered lands. His campaign was more like a raid by barbarians ravaging everything in their path than a deliberate conquest. Alexander's attempts to bring the Persian nobility closer to him (in particular, by his will, 10 thousand Macedonian soldiers were to marry the daughters of the Persian nobles) did not yield results. Neither the Macedonians nor the Persian nobility had sufficient strength to preserve the integrity of the huge conglomerate of tribes, nationalities, city-states that were part of the empire of Darius. Several states arose on its ruins, headed by the generals and relatives of Alexander.

The largest state formations were Egypt, where the Ptolemaic dynasty was established, the Syrian kingdom, which included the lands before the Indus, including Babylonia (the Seleucid dynasty), and Macedonia, which retained control over Greece and the policies of Asia Minor.

Alexander failed to create the Greco-Persian empire. And yet his conquests had a great influence on the development of the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean. The opportunities for trade have increased, the horizons of the scientists of Ancient Greece have significantly expanded.

The religions of salvation of the soul, which originated in the countries of the East, did not spread in Greece, where faith in the gods who personified the forces of nature persisted: Zeus - the lord of lightning, Poseidon - the god of the seas, Hermes - the god of trade, Ares - the god of war, etc. time echoes of the world outlook inherent in such religions as Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, found a certain reflection in the philosophical systems of Greek thinkers. Later, many of their ideas gained popularity in the Roman Empire, revived in medieval Europe, and became the basis of the philosophy of modern times.

Interaction with Greek culture and science did not pass unnoticed for the societies of the Ancient East. The curiosity of Greek thinkers, geographers, historians, combined with the knowledge accumulated over the centuries by the priests of the religious cults of the East, gave a new impetus to the development of science. Alexandria, the capital of Egypt under the Ptolemies, became a major scientific center, the Alexandrian library was revered in the ancient world as one of the wonders of the world.

The Roman Empire

The most ambitious attempt in the history of the ancient world to create a vast, effectively governed empire was undertaken by Rome, whose possessions covered the entire Mediterranean.

In the 4th century BC. The Romans, as a result of numerous wars with the Italic tribes (Latins, Samnites) and Etruscans, subjugated Central Italy.

In the 3rd century BC. the Romans began to conquer the Greek city-states on the coast of southern Italy. The largest of them - Tarentum - turned for help to the king of Epirus (northwestern Greece) Pyrrhus, descended from Alexander the Great. In 280 BC. his troops landed in Italy. The Romans first encountered war elephants and the Macedonian phalanx and were defeated. However, Pyrrhus suffered such losses that the continuation of the war became difficult for him. Meanwhile, Rome fielded one army after another. In 275 BC. Pyrrhus was forced to leave Italy.

Punic Wars

The next step towards the rise of Rome was the crushing of Carthage. This city was founded by the Phoenicians in the 9th century BC. and became the largest center of trade in the Western Mediterranean. The Carthaginians (the Romans called them Punas) established their own colonies in Spain, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica.

First Punic War(264-241 BC) went mainly on the territory of Sicily. After the Romans created a powerful fleet and achieved dominance at sea, Carthage was forced to admit defeat. He paid indemnity, Sicily passed to the Romans, who then freely captured Corsica and Sardinia.

During the second Punic War(218-202 BC) the Carthaginians attempted to take revenge. Their troops, led by a talented commander Hannibal(246-183 BC), setting out from Spain, passing through the Alps, invaded the territory of Italy and inflicted heavy defeats on the Romans. The model of excellence in the art of war has become battle of cannes(216 BC), during which the Roman legions were surrounded and completely defeated. Nevertheless, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion. Carthage could not support Hannibal's troops isolated in southern Italy. Meanwhile, the Romans landed near Carthage, which forced Hannibal to urgently return to North Africa. In 202 BC. near the town of Zama, he suffered his first and last defeat.

Under the terms of the peace, Carthage lost all of its colonies, paid an indemnity. The Romans received his entire fleet and war elephants. The military and economic power of Carthage was undermined. Rome turned its attention to the Eastern Mediterranean. His iron legions defeated Macedonia, turning it into a Roman province. The city-states of Greece, which the Romans declared liberated from Macedonian rule, were devastated. Corinth, trying to fight for its independence, was destroyed. The Romans defeated the troops of the Syrian king Antiochus, who was trying to come to the aid of Macedonia. Greek thinkers, poets, traders, who were enslaved, were sold in the slave markets of the new great power.

In 149 BC. Rome accused Carthage, which began to restore its trade influence, of violating the terms of peace and again began a war against it. In 146 BC. the Roman Senate ruled on the complete destruction of the rival city. Carthage was burned, the territory it occupied was plowed up and given to eternal damnation. The domination of Rome over the Mediterranean became undivided.

Crisis of the Roman Republic

The influx of wealth from the conquered lands, the growth of income from trade, the increase in the number of slaves at the disposal of the Roman nobility, became the reasons for the growth of contradictions in Rome itself.

With the increasingly widespread distribution of commodity-money relations, the small, subsistence and semi-subsistence economies of the Roman colonists in Italy were ruined. The lands passed into the hands of large landowners, mainly patricians. They produced marketable products, and used the labor of slaves.

The ruin of the small landowners had the most unfavorable consequences for Rome. It was they who made up the main contingent of heavily armed infantry for the legions. Having lost their land, the citizens of Rome returned to the "Eternal City", where only a few of them found work. The majority lived off the distribution of free bread by noble citizens who sought the support of the plebs.

Contradictions intensified among the nobility. The wealthy Romans, who had grown rich on trade and campaigns of conquest, came from the plebeians (they were called horsemen, since they put cavalry in the army of Rome) began to seek political influence, entering into conflict with the patrician families of landowners who controlled the Senate.

In 133 BC. was elected as a tribune Tiberius Gracchus, who proposed to carry out land reform. He wanted to redistribute the land owned by Rome, setting the maximum size of land holdings (250 hectares per family) for the patricians, and transferring the surplus on an equalizing basis (7.5 hectares each) to the poor. Despite the stubborn resistance of the patricians, Gracchus managed to achieve the adoption of a law on land reform, but in an armed conflict on the streets of Rome in 132 BC. he was killed. His brother Gaius Gracchus allotted land to about 50 thousand people, but this did not solve the problem of the ruin of small owners. In 121 BC. on the streets of Rome, fighting broke out again between supporters of the patricians and the plebs. Guy and about 3 thousand of his supporters were killed.

The significantly increased number of slaves was a serious problem. Those of them who were used as servants in the families of noble Romans were literate (especially for immigrants from Greece), were highly valued and had tolerable living conditions. However, mainly slaves were used on plantations, they were completely deprived of rights, were subjected to cruel treatment. They had nothing to lose, and keeping them obedient required large military forces. Soon there was an uprising of slaves in Sicily, who captured the entire island and, since many of them were from Syria, proclaimed the creation of the New Syrian kingdom. It took the Romans four years to regain control of the island.

The most dangerous challenge for Rome was its conflict with the cities of Italy, which led in 90-88. BC. to the civil war in the Apennine Peninsula. The inhabitants of these cities, previously subordinated to Rome, were obliged to serve in the Roman legions. But they did not have the right to receive a share of the war booty. The lands of the Italian cities also passed under the control of large owners and Roman patricians. However, the cities did not have the means to feed the poor, which Rome had.

Rome could not cope with the uprising against Roman rule that swept all of Italy. He had to make concessions. All residents of Italian cities were considered Roman citizens.

Stormy events of the late 2nd - early 1st century BC in Rome and its dominions marked the offensive crisis of the Roman Republic .

Discussion of issues of current politics by Roman citizens now living in dozens of cities has largely lost its meaning, since it became impossible to take their opinion into account. The principles of communal democracy, which grew out of the tribal system, could not remain valid in the vast state created by Rome.

Great difficulties were caused by the management of a power that covered the entire Mediterranean. During the period of the republic, the provinces were under the jurisdiction of governors. Their main business was the efficient collection of taxes and the maintenance of order. The governors were appointed for one year, but the Senate of Rome and the consuls could not really control their activities. Extortions and arbitrariness became the cause of frequent uprisings, they, like the actions of slaves, were suppressed by military force.

The army was the main pillar of Rome's power over the conquered lands. This led to the collapse of the Roman Republic and its replacement by an empire that had many features of military despotism. This was the only possible form of existence for the major powers of the Ancient World, which were conglomerates of conquered tribes and state formations.

Formation of the Roman Empire

Only those generals who were popular in the army and achieved military victories could claim the role of dictators. Attempts to establish dynastic rule were made several times, but the heirs of the imperial crown, who did not possess military talent, were most often removed from power by the army.

The first of the dictators in Rome was Sulla(138-78 BC), a talented military leader, commander of an army stationed in southern Italy. In response to an attempt by the tribunes of the people to remove him from command, he moved his troops to Rome and took it in battle. After defeating the king of Pontius Mithridates, who began a war with Rome, Sulla in 83 BC. returned to Italy and captured Rome again, establishing his dictatorship. To fight political opponents, he introduced a system of proscriptions - lists of people outlawed. In this way, under Sulla, about 100 senators and 2,500 horsemen were killed.

After the death of Sulla and a long civil strife, power in Rome passed into the hands of triumvirate(60 BC) - Caesar, Pompey and Crassus... The most ambitious of these leaders, Guy Julius Caesar(102-44 BC), became the governor of Gaul, which still had to be conquered. Having recruited an army, he started a war and proved himself to be a brilliant commander. The Rhine became the border of the possessions of Rome in the north, Britain was subordinated. Caesar led 300 tribal associations to obedience, took 800 cities by storm, the wealth of which entered Rome. About 1 million prisoners were sold in the slave markets.

At the end of the war, Caesar did not disband the troops and in 49 BC. captured Rome. In the outbreak of civil war, which engulfed all Roman possessions, Caesar achieved victory and was proclaimed a dictator for life. But his power was short-lived: in 44 BC. he was killed by supporters of the preservation of the republican system. They, however, did not receive support in Rome and were forced to flee. Power passed into the hands of the military leaders close to Caesar - Antony, Octavian and Lepidus. The rivalry between them led to a new civil war. Antony, being defeated, entered into an alliance with the ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra. However, the legions of Octavian defeated the Egyptians. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Egypt was annexed to Roman possessions.

Returning in triumph to Rome, in 27 BC. Octavian was proclaimed Caesar (Emperor), he was given the title of Augustus. He reigned for 40 years, until A.D. 14.

Under Augustus, the external trappings of the republic were preserved. He emphatically expressed his respect for the Senate, who regularly elected him as consul, at the same time was a tribune and high priest, concentrating all power in his hands. In relation to the plebs, the policy of "bread and circuses" was carried out, the theatrical art was encouraged. The construction of the Colosseum, designed for 50 thousand spectators, began, as well as new temples, in particular the Pantheon, which was approaching the size of the Egyptian pyramids.

Augustus was merciless towards slaves. During his reign, a law was introduced according to which, in the event of the violent death of the owner, all the slaves living in his house were subject to execution. It was forbidden to set slaves free.

Augustus strove to make his power hereditary. However, his successors were not flexible. They openly demonstrated disdain for the Senate, showed despotic inclinations.

Grandson of August Guy Caesar(12-41), who received the nickname Caligula, became famous for having produced his own horse for senators. Nero (37-68), who killed his brother and his own mother, executed many senators, spent huge amounts of money on the maintenance of the court. He is credited with a massive fire in Rome, which he allegedly ordered to be set on fire in order to admire the unprecedented sight.

Protests against tyranny took the only possible form of military coups. As a result, the most successful generals came to power, striving to found their own dynasties.

Civilization and democracy

From the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. ancient Eastern civilizations began to lose their priority in historical development and gave way to a new civilizational center that arose in the Mediterranean Sea, which was named "The Ancient Civilization of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome". It was based on qualitatively different, democratic foundations in economic, political and socio-cultural relations, and was more dynamic in comparison with ancient Eastern civilizations. On the basis of the achievements of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the entire modern Western and Russian civilization was formed. The peculiarities of the development of modern civilizations cannot be understood without knowledge of ancient history and culture.

Ancient civilization began in Greece. The legendary ancestor of the Greeks is considered the king of Hellen. Therefore, the Greeks themselves called themselves Hellenes, and their country - Hellas. But at first, the relatively sparsely populated Ancient Greece developed in the general mainstream of ancient Eastern civilizations. For example, the most ancient Aegean civilization in Europe, commonly referred to as Minoan, after its legendary founder, King Minos. It existed in the 3rd - first half of the 2nd millennium BC. on the islands of the Aegean Sea, partly in mainland Greece and Asia Minor; known from the monuments of the Knossos Palace of King Minos on the island of Crete, explored in the first half of the XX century. English archaeologist A. Evans. There were about 300 rooms in this palace, the walls of which were decorated with numerous frescoes. In total, there were four palaces in Crete, in which the kings, their entourage and servants lived. Settlements of farmers, cattle breeders and artisans were located around the palaces.

Other regions of Greece, poor in fertile lands, were inhabited by small tribes of Danaans, Ionians, Aeolians, etc., headed by kings or Basileus. Part of the Hellenic tribes in search of more fertile lands migrated to the North of the Balkan Peninsula. The Pelasgians lived in Thrace, the earliest in Europe who mastered agriculture. One part of the Pelasgians moved to the lands of continental Greece, the other, together with the Thracians and, possibly, with a part of the Wends (future Western Slavs), to Asia Minor. The Hellenic tribes of the Achaeans and Dorians lived on the banks of the Danube, right up to the Northern Black Sea coast, who managed to preserve the traditions of "military democracy" to a significant extent. By the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Achaeans and Dorians came into contact with the Aryan tribes - the descendants of the Hyperboreans - the Rus (Ros) and the Wends with no less developed traditions of "military democracy". From the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. the Achaeans and part of the Aryans began to move to the south. This ethnic expansion, which also captured Crete, was called the "Achaean conquest" of Greece. The Minoan civilization was seriously weakened. But she died as a result of a powerful earthquake and the eruption of the Santorini volcano in the middle of the 17th century. BC. Part of the Rus (Ros) then remained in Greece, but the majority returned across the Danube to their fellow tribesmen.

From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. in the south of Greece, freed from the power of Crete, a new, Mycenaean civilization took shape with its center in the city of Mycenae on the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Its creators, the Achaean Greeks, borrowed from Crete many of the achievements of the Minoans. The centers of the Mycenaean civilization were the well-fortified palaces of tribal leaders (kings, Basileus), to whom rural settlements gravitated. Homeric Odysseus, for example, was the king (Basileus) of the Achaean tribe living on the island of Ithaca. The Achaeans waged frequent wars among themselves. But sometimes, for the sake of victory over a common enemy, they united in alliances. It was the union of the Achaean tribes that waged the Trojan War, which ended around 1270 BC. the capture and destruction of the rich city of Troy (Ilion) in Asia Minor. Part of the Hellenic tribes who moved to Asia Minor, primarily the Pelasgians, as well as the Thracians and Wends, fought on the side of Troy. The real reason for the war was that the Hellenic policy of Troy, located near the Dardanelles, blocked the way to the Black Sea colonies for its competitors, other Greek policies, and not at all the abduction by the son of the Trojan king Priam, the handsome Paris, Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta Menelaus. These events are reflected in Homer's poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Weakened by the Trojan War, the Mycenaean civilization of the Greeks-Akhets, underwent at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. new invasion from the north. The next conquerors were the Dorian tribes, who were again supported by the tribes of the Slavic-Rus (Ros) and the Wends. The Iron Age began and the new conquerors were already armed with iron swords, against which the bronze weapons of the Achaeans were ineffective. The small states of the Achaeans were quickly destroyed by the Dorians. After that, part of the Slavic-Rus and Wends, who supported the Dorians and showed themselves to the Hellenes as brave and "glorious warriors", returned to the north. The remaining Wends and Slavic-Rus settled in Crete, the Peloponnese, in Asia Minor, in the middle and in the north of the Apennine Peninsula. Weakened by the Trojan War, Greece was thrown back to the days of the birth of civilization.

Such a zigzag in development had serious historical consequences. The Achaeans, Dorians and the dews (Rus) who remained in Greece mixed with the local population, adopted its mythology and religion. In its own way, the local population adopted the name of the new settlers and began to be called the Hellenes - Dorians. Ancient Greece at this stage in its history was a country with an ethnically mixed population, largely from the north. In the Hellenic states that were reborn after the invasion of the Dorians, the power of the kings eventually disappeared, and where it survived, it was limited. Greece became a conglomerate of small city-states (policies), which at the same time remained communities. Every free, full-fledged resident of such a state-community or polis had the right to his own piece of land, had civil rights, and participated in the elections of rulers.

What is the reason for the unique, unique in the history of the Ancient World, social mutation that took place in Hellas? First, the Greeks, adopted the Phoenicians' art of shipbuilding and navigation, became brave sailors. And sailors in ancient times were people of a special kind. Let us recall at least Homer's Odyssey and how much initiative, ingenuity, independence, activity, courage, desperate courage he showed during his many years of returning to Ithaca. On the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, Marmara, Black and Azov seas, the Greeks, following the example of the Phoenicians, founded over a hundred colonies that supplied mainland Greece with bread, other products, and slaves, which they bought from local rulers. These colonies, together with the metropolis in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, made up Greater Greece.

Secondly, the religion and mythology of the ancient Greeks, which took root after the Achaean and Dorian conquests, were fundamentally different from the ancient Eastern myths and religions. Ancient Gods, according to Hellenic myths, “descended from heaven to earth” and settled on Mount Olympus. The Olympian gods of the ancient Greek pantheon constantly argued and quarreled among themselves, fought, committed adultery. These were Gods with "human faces", and not with animal heads, as in Egypt or Mesopotamia. They, according to myths, directly communicated with the Hellenes, helped or hindered them, provided examples of pluralism, independence, ingenuity, initiative, and spiritual relaxedness. The Greeks, in turn, strove to imitate the Olympian Gods, to learn from their experience and examples.

In Hellenic myths, it is mentioned that Hephaestus - the God of fire and blacksmithing - had mechanisms (industrial robots) with which he forged weapons and armor. The Argonauts of Jason, during their journey to Colchis, observed the golden fleece on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, created by the "Gods Descended from Heaven", mechanisms (tractors and tractor plows), with the help of which the land was plowed, etc. But this is in the myths. The Hellenes, unlike the Sumerians and the ancient Egyptians, did not have common affairs with real "alien gods" and did not meet, but sometimes (as we will see later) they used their help. And Callisfen is a historian and writer of the last third of the 4th century. BC. he himself became the author of the surviving novel about Alexander the Great, acting as the creator of a popular myth in Hellas, calling his hero and contemporary only the son of Zeus himself - the head of the pantheon of the Olympian Gods.

It was in Hellas that the classical ancient society was formed, based on democracy, pluralism in political relations and private property. There has never been anything like this in the Ancient East. The emergence of private property relations, the emergence of market-oriented commodity production, contributed to the emergence of fundamentally different socio-political and legal structures that determined the specifics of ancient society. Namely: the emergence of a polis (city-state) in Ancient Greece or "civitas" - a civil community in Ancient Rome as the main form of the political organization of society; the presence of concepts of sovereignty of the people and democratic government; a developed system of legal guarantees for the protection of the rights and freedoms of every citizen, recognition of his personal dignity, a system of socio-cultural principles that contributed to the all-round development of the individual.

A distinctive feature of ancient Greek life was its agonal character (from the Greek "agon" - struggle, competition) - an irrepressible desire for competition in all spheres of life. For example, sports, the Olympic Games, held from 776 BC. every four years. From the middle of the II century. BC. to 394 AD they took place already within the framework of the Roman state, of which Greece became an integral part. During the Olympic Games, frequent wars between the ancient Greek policies ceased. Favorite in Hellas were also musical and poetry competitions - the Delphic or Pythian games in honor of Apollo - the god of harmony, spiritual activity and arts. Common in everyday life was the desire of the Hellenes to do something better than their neighbor in the community did, to build a temple in honor of the Olympian Gods more beautiful than in a neighboring polis, etc. This contributed to the powerful development of all spheres of life in Hellenic society. Sports and other competitions were very common in ancient Rome, and gladiator fights became a favorite show of the Romans.

The appearance of the optimal form of slavery for that time was associated with the Greek colonization. They began to turn into slaves not compatriots - debtors, but captured foreigners. Most often, and in large quantities, they were bought in the colonies from local rulers and sold in the markets of Greek policies. Slave labor was used in all spheres of the economy, and free citizens had more free time to engage in politics, sports, literature, art, and philosophy. Literate slaves helped the Hellenic intellectuals, rewrote, "replicated" their works for sale or for use in public libraries.

For the Hellene, the polis, and for the Roman, his civil community - "civitas" were the only place where a free person felt like a member of society, whose life is governed by laws, protected from arbitrariness and is under the auspices of the Gods. So Jupiter (the Roman counterpart of Zeus) patronized Rome, and Pallas Athena - Athens, etc. The economic basis of the policy was the ancient, two-pronged form of ownership: on the one hand, it is the property of the civil community for the entire territory and wealth of the policy, and on the other, the individual property of a citizen on the house ("oikos") in which he lived. A free Hellene at the same time acted as the owner of the house - "oikon", as a citizen - "polites", and as a militia warrior, ready to defend his own polis with his own weapon in his hands. The formation of ancient democracy and civil society took place in an acute struggle of the people - "demos" with the clan aristocracy. In those policies where the demos won, democracy was established - the rule of the people. But even where the aristocracy managed to defend its power (for example, in Sparta), it existed in the form of an aristocratic or oligarchic republic, but not a monarchy. In Sparta, there were elected kings, but their power concerned only the army and military affairs.

The great Hellenic legislators played an important role in the establishment of democratic values: the Athenians - Solon, Cleisthenes, Pisistratus and the Spartan - the legendary Lycurgus. The most significant among the reforms of Solon in the VI century. BC. became the reform of the law of debt, the so-called "shaking off the burden" All debts and interest on them were declared invalid, the sale of family members into slavery and self-mortgage transactions were prohibited. Previously concluded such transactions were legally canceled. This saved a significant part of the Athenians from enslavement and made possible the further development of democracy. The heyday of Athens, the most brilliant era in the history of the Athenian polis fell on the period of the reign of Pericles (444-429 BC). He was elected 15 times to the highest post of strategist in Athens, the actual head of the polis. Pericles satisfied the demands of the middle and poor Athenian citizens to be included in the administration of the policy and introduced the payment of elected offices. The impoverished citizens were given land. The highest, legislative power in Athens was the popular assembly - the Areopagus, at which all officials, including strategists, were elected. The executive power was in the Council of Five Hundred, which dealt with current affairs and prepared them for discussion and approval at the Areopagus. The Athenian city-state has become the largest economic, political and cultural center of the entire Hellenic world, has become a standard, an example for other ancient Greek city-states.

In the daily life of the Athenian polis, antagonisms of the upper and lower classes naturally existed and developed. The equality of citizens in practice was often formal; it concerned only a minority of the population of Athens. Women and meteki, which included all the inhabitants of Athens not of pure Athenian origin, did not enjoy civil rights. There is no need to talk about slaves and freedmen at all. At the Council of Five Hundred, for example, the question of introducing insignia for slaves was once raised. But this idea was immediately abandoned, tk. it could be that slaves constituted the majority of the population of Athens. So it really was. A similar situation took place in other policies. It was not uncommon to be suspicious of anyone who rose above the masses, even if he stood out for selfless service to the Athenian polis. Themistocles - organizer of the victory of the Greeks over the Persian fleet in the battle of Salamis 480 BC. a few years later he was expelled from Athens and ended his life in the service ... of the Persian king. In the last years of his life, Pericles, even being elected by the Areopagus to the highest position of strategist, was under investigation on charges of financial abuse during the reconstruction of the Acropolis. The great sculptor Phidias, an active participant in the reconstruction of the Acropolis and the creator of the giant statue of Olympian Zeus in Olympia, considered one of the "seven wonders of the world", ended his life in prison. The famous philosopher Socrates was accused of anti-democracy, imprisoned, where he was forced to take a bowl of poison.

The Greco-Persian wars of the first half of the 5th century became a serious test for Hellas and the Hellenes. BC, which began with the conquest of the Greek city-states in Asia Minor by the Persians, led by Xerxes, Persidage occupied part of Greece, including Athens, whose inhabitants left the city. As a result, the Greek city-states, united in the name of this goal, won the wars with the Ahmenid empire. The most famous events of this era were the battles: 490 BC. near the village of Marathon, 42 km from Athens, 480 BC - the defeat of the Persian fleet off the island of Salamis in the Aegean Sea. In the memory of the Greeks, the feat of 300 Spartans, led by King Leonidas, who died heroically in 480 BC, but did not let the Persians enter the center of Greece through the Thermopylae mountain pass, forever remained in the memory of the Greeks.

The Greeks defended their independence. The result was the strengthening of Athens, which led the Athenian Maritime Union. He united democratic policies. Over time, the Athenians began to interfere in the internal life of the allies. Their monetary contributions to the treasury of the union actually turned into a tribute to Athens, part of which was used under Pericles for the reconstruction of the Acropolis. The unity of Hellas turned out to be fragile and short-lived. In 431 BC. a war began between the Peloponnesian (led by Sparta) union and the Athenian naval union. The war ended in 404 BC. the defeat of Athens and the dissolution of the Athenian naval union, the establishment of the rule of the Spartans in Greece. The victors enforced oligarchic rule everywhere. Many policies continued the grueling wars with Sparta. The crisis of the polis system was manifested in the growing economic inequality between citizens. Many of them went broke, got into debt, lost their livelihoods.

To the north of Greece was Macedonia, where a population related to the Hellenes lived. In the middle of the IV century. BC. Philip II, an admirer of Hellenic culture, an outstanding diplomat and military leader, became king of Macedonia. Many Greeks hoped that Philip would put things in order and end the wars between the policies. Some of the Greeks, led by the Athenian Demosthenes, called for the unification of forces to fight Macedonia. But in 338, in a battle near the town of Chaeronea, the Greeks were defeated. Hellas was ruled by Philip. He was preparing for war with Persia, but in 336 BC. was killed. His son Alexander, who was soon nicknamed the Great, became king of Macedonia. He suppressed the anti-Macedonian uprising in Greece, and in 334-31. BC. defeated the main enemy of Hellas - the empire of the Akhmenids. The chronicles of the campaigns of Alexander the Great repeatedly mention the appearance of unknown disc-shaped objects (UFOs) in the sky. So during the assault in 332 BC. of the Phoenician city of Tire, 5 "flying shields" appeared over the city, from which lightning flashed, forming gaps in the walls of the fortress. The delighted Greeks rushed to the assault and captured the city. After that, the "flying shields" rose up and disappeared.

The conquests continued. Alexander the Great became the founder and ruler of a huge empire, which included, in addition to Greece, the territories of Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, parts of the Caucasus, Central Asia and India. The main goal of Alexander was to unite the West and the East into a single civilization, the capital of which he made Babylon. Only cities with the name "Alexandria" appeared in the conquered territories of about fifteen hundred. They were intended to become the strongholds of a new civilization and centers of a new Hellenistic culture with theaters, libraries, scientific centers. True, most of these "Alexandria" were not newly built cities (such as Alexandria in the Nile Delta), but renamed old cities. In 327 BC. Alexander led his army to India. On the eastern bank of the Indus, he defeated the army of the local king Pora. When it became clear to the Greeks that the inhabited world in the East was far from over with India, and there was endless China ahead, the army rebelled. Alexander returned to Babylon. He was planning new campaigns. But in 323 BC. The "conqueror of the world", who did not know a single defeat, suddenly died of tropical fever, before reaching the age of 33.

After Alexander's death, the struggle for his legacy began between the diadochi - former comrades-in-arms, commanders of the great conqueror. The collapse of the state was inevitable. The conquered lands were too large, and the system of their administration was too weak. In the place of Alexander's empire, from the Balkan Peninsula to the lower reaches of the Indus, several Hellenistic states arose. In Macedonia, the Antigonid dynasty was established, in Egypt - the Ptolemies, in Pergamum - the Attalids, in Mesopotamia, Syria and part of Asia Minor - the Seleucids. They developed a kind of culture that combined, to varying degrees, Greek and Oriental features. This was the prerequisite for the spread of Hellenic civilization and culture far beyond the borders of Hellas and giving them world significance.

The most significant center of Hellenistic culture was Egypt, with its capital in Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the Nile Delta. Alexandria, rebuilt very quickly, occupied an area of ​​about 100 sq. km and amazed contemporaries with the wealth, luxury and uniqueness of its layout, architecture, multi-storey public buildings and residential buildings, sustained in the best traditions of antiquity. The city was divided into four quarters by two straight highways intersecting in the center and running from north to south and from west to east. The secondary streets were also straight. The most famous center of Hellenistic culture was Museyon (Greek "place of residence of the muses") - the largest library of Alexandria in the ancient world, numbering over 700 thousand books (papyrus scrolls) on various branches of knowledge. For the purchase of books in other countries or their correspondence, the Ptolemies spared no expense. Due to the high consumption of papyri, their export outside Egypt was prohibited. Scientists from another major center of Hellenistic culture - Pergamum in the north of Asia Minor - discovered a way to use parchment as a writing material - specially processed calfskin. Established in the II century. BC. the production of parchment met the needs of the Pergamon Library, which competed successfully with the Library of Alexandria.

The Alexandrian Museion was a serious scientific center of the Hellenistic era. Scientists working in it studied the problems of philosophy, philology, mathematics, astronomy, botany and zoology, using the most modern scientific instruments and equipment for that time. One of the outstanding scientists of antiquity was Claudius Ptolemy - the author of works on many branches of knowledge, incl. on history. The most famous is that in the II century. AD he substantiated the geocentric system of the world, which was refuted by the heliocentric system of N. Copernicus only in 1453. At the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. on the island of Pharos, near the seaport of Alexandria, a 110-meter lighthouse, unique in its design, was built, the light of which was visible for more than 100 miles. The Pharos lighthouse - one of the "seven wonders of the world" - stood until 1326 and collapsed, probably as a result of an earthquake. Museion with its library - the last citadel of ancient science and culture, was destroyed by Christian fanatics at the end of the 4th century. the course of fierce religious strife with the pagans.

The most important result of Alexander's conquests was the further weakening of Greece and its subjugation in the middle of the 2nd century. BC. The Roman Republic as a province. As for the Hellenistic states, in most of them, with the exception of Egypt, which became a Roman province, the influence of antiquity was fragmentary and formal. In the end, historically, everything returned "to square one": the West remained the West, and the East - the East. However, the influence of Greece and the fascination of its highly developed Hellenistic culture was exceptionally great. The Romans even called themselves barbarians compared to the Hellenes. Libraries were brought to Rome from Greece, some of the marble sculptures, many of which have survived to this day in Roman bronze copies, formed by slaves. The Greek intellectual elite became an integral part of the intellectual elite of the Roman Republic and then the Empire. The Roman poet Horace wrote at the end of the 1st century. BC: "Greece, having become a captive, captivated the rude victors." Differences between ancient Greece and Rome remained, but we can confidently talk about common features in their subsequent political and socio-cultural development. The very epoch of the political domination of the Roman republic, and then the empire, as one of the eras of antiquity, is often called Hellenistic-Roman.

... Ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, Macedonia)

The history of the ancient world has long attracted special attention of European scholars. The point is not only that of all the periods of antiquity, it is the best studied. It is believed that the civilizations of Greece and Rome stood at the origins of the European traditions of political, economic and spiritual life.

Ancient Greece

At the turn of the III-II millennium BC. the inhabitants of Greece and the adjacent islands learned how to make tools from bronze - an alloy of copper and tin. During this period, on the island of Crete, the first state formation in Europe was formed. Archaeologists have found ruins of palaces on the island, evidence of the existence of a developed writing system.

Figure 2.4.1.

In 1450 BC. the civilization of Crete was destroyed by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Around the same time Crete was invaded by the Mycenaean (Achaean) tribes, then living in Greece. They adopted the Cretan writing system and began to play a prominent role in the trade of the Eastern Mediterranean. However, in the XII century BC. the developing Achaean civilization was destroyed by the alliances of the Greco-Dorian, Thessalian, Boeotian, Ionian tribes of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor (they were known to the Egyptians as the "peoples of the sea"). Having moved to Greece, these tribes partially merged with the Achaeans, partially enslaved them.

After the conquest, the economy of Greece fell into decay, and the population dropped sharply. Only from the VIII century BC. the rise of the Greek city-states began. The peculiarities of their development were largely determined by natural conditions, the geopolitical position of Greece.

The relatively small, mountainous area was favorable for horticulture and livestock raising, but not agriculture. Here the sea played an important role: fishing and sea trade made it possible to make up for the lack of products. From the 5th century BC colonization of the coast of Asia Minor, the Black Sea region, and Italy began to acquire an increasing importance. An excess of the population rushed to the colony, they supplied Greece with the missing products. The first Greek colony, the city of Qom, was founded in 750 BC. on the coast of Italy.

City-states of Greece

In ancient Greece, a large, unified state did not take shape. The gradual development of tribal communities led to the formation on their basis of several hundred small independent states-policies, including a settlement (city) and adjacent land. Each polis had its own laws, a special system of government, although common features inherited from the tribal system were preserved. Thus, a special role was played by the councils of elders, which were the tribal aristocracy and meetings of tribal members, for which the rights of citizens were recognized. Foreigners, even wealthy ones, and slaves had no right to participate in public life. The land was considered as the common property of the policy, its property. With the development of commodity-money relations, it became possible to buy and sell plots of land (although in some policies it was limited), but only by citizens of this policy.

Ancient Greece is considered to be the birthplace of democracy. Indeed, over time in the largest city-states, especially in Athens who escaped the Dorian conquest, significant changes took place in social life.

Instead of the hereditary power of tribal leaders (kings), the principle of the election of the supreme ruler (archon), his accountability to the council of heads of clans (Areopagus) was introduced. The power of tradition and custom was gradually replaced by laws (the first of them, establishing general norms of behavior for all citizens and punishment for violating them, were adopted in 621 BC).

At the beginning of the 6th century BC. on the initiative of Archon Solon (635-559 BC), the entire population of the polis was divided into four categories, depending on the property status. This weakened the position of the clan nobility. The wealthy merchants and artisans became equal with her in rights.

At the end of the 6th century BC. instead of dividing the policy into tribal possessions, the principle of delimiting it into 10 districts was adopted, each of which elected its representatives to a new council (council of five hundred), which dealt with all current affairs. The Areopagus retained only judicial functions in cases that did not involve property disputes. Foreigners successfully conducting business in Athens received citizenship rights. The total number of citizens was about 30 thousand people.

According to the tradition established in Athens, active participation in the affairs of the polis, the defense of democracy were the most important right and duty of citizens. At the meetings, the issues of war and peace were decided by officials. The assembly could condemn to expulsion from the polis persons who posed a threat to the rule of the people and prone to tyranny.

Thus, by the 5th century BC. the tribal system in Athens was finally supplanted by a new state organization, which received the name democracy .

Another path of development of the policy was demonstrated Sparta... This state was founded by a Dorian tribe, which, having settled in the south of the Peloponnesian peninsula, turned the local population into disenfranchised slaves (helots). The Spartans considered it unworthy for themselves to cultivate the land, engage in trade, craft. This was the lot of slaves and newcomers from the surrounding settlements. The only respectable occupation for men was considered to be war. The educational system was subordinated to one goal - the training of hardy, laconic, disciplined soldiers. The tradition of the Spartans went down in history to kill children who were born weak, from which, as they believed, would not make good soldiers.

Figure 2.4.2.

In Sparta, the order of the tribal system remained unchanged. It was ruled by a council of elders and a gathering of warriors, the role of leaders (kings) was limited. The equalizing distribution was preserved. All Spartans wore simple clothes, ate together, money was not recognized by them.

The Spartan state waged constant wars against neighboring poleis, capturing slaves, collecting tribute and gradually expanding its territory. If in Athens, slave labor was used to a limited extent, only in mines and workshops, then in Sparta it was the basis of the economy.

City-states of Italy. Founding of Rome

In the development of cities in Italy and Greece, many similarities were manifested. In the VIII-VI centuries. BC. the Greeks colonized the coast of southern and central Italy, built Naples and Syracuse, which became important trade centers of the Mediterranean. This had a great influence on the tribal formations inhabiting Italy. In the north of Italy (on the territory of present-day Tuscany), Etruscans dominated. Their origin is not exactly known, it is assumed that, like the Dorians, they belonged to the "peoples of the sea" and came from the East, conquering the local population.

In 753 BC. the city was founded by three Latin tribes living in the area of ​​the Tiber River Rome.

Figure 2.4.3.

View drawing

According to legends, Rome was built by a descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas Romulus, who, together with his brother Remus, miraculously escaped murderers in infancy and was fed by a she-wolf.

Initially, as in Athens, the social life of Rome was built on the basis of tribal traditions. The supreme governing body was the Senate (from the Latin "senex" - "old man"), which consisted of 300 people, the elders of the clans who founded the city. Ordinary members of the tribe, united in curia according to the tribal principle, could also express their opinion on the issues discussed. The role of the supreme ruler was assigned to the elected king, who was to rule in accordance with the tradition and will of the Senate. From 616 BC emigrants from the noble Etruscan family of Tarquinians were elected as kings, which reflected the special role of the Etruscans in Italy.

The descendants of the founders of the city called themselves patricians ("patres" - "fathers"), they owned the lands adjacent to Rome. These lands were cultivated by individual families, in which the strict principle of patriarchy was in effect: the head of the family owned all the property, could execute or sell into slavery its guilty member. At the same time, the lands were considered the common property of the Romans, they could not belong to outsiders. Since Rome often waged wars of conquest against neighboring tribes and city-states, the amount of land that was at the disposal of patrician clans constantly increased.

The alien population, members of other tribes who settled in Rome, were called plebeians. They did not have the right to participate in the life of the city, although they were involved in military service in auxiliary units. They could ask patricians for patronage, becoming their "clients", and get work in their farms, be artisans, merchants.

Tribal traditions limited the royal power. Under Servius Tullius (578-534 BC), reforms were carried out, similar to the reforms of Solon in Athens, which dealt a serious blow to the privileges of the clan nobility.

The entire male population, including the plebeians, was divided into five categories, depending on property status and, accordingly, the ability to acquire light or more expensive heavy weapons. Each category was divided into centuria (hundreds), which, in the event of war, performed on the battlefield. There were 193 centurias in total, the patricians nominated 19 equestrian centuries. (Equipping the equestrian warriors required the greatest expense.) In peacetime, members of each centuria received the right to discuss the current affairs of the city, becoming a governing body.

The poorest Romans, unable to buy weapons, united, regardless of their number, in the century of “proletarians” (from the Latin “proles” - “offspring.” It was understood that they were only fit for its reproduction).

The infringement of the interests of the clan nobility provoked resistance. Tullius was killed, the new king Tarquinius the Proud canceled the reforms. However, the tyrannical nature of his reign also drew the ire of the Senate. In 509 BC. he was expelled. In Rome, established republic ... A form of government in which the supreme power belongs to a person or several persons, or bodies elected by the population for a certain period. Antique r. Bourgeois r. Soviet r. (dictionary of the Russian language by Ushakov). The supreme power passed into the hands of two consuls, who were elected by the senate from among the patricians for a year. In the outbreak of the war with the Etruscans, the Romans managed to defend their independence.

In 494 BC. the plebeians, dissatisfied with their position, refused to participate in the next military campaign and left Rome in full armor. The patricians were forced to restore the order introduced by Tullius. The plebeians received the right to choose the tribunes of the people who defend their interests before the Senate. In particular, the tribunes could suspend the implementation of decisions made by them.

In 451-450 BC. in Rome, for the first time, uniform laws were adopted for all (before that, disputes were resolved on the basis of tribal customs and traditions). From 445 BC allowed marriages between patricians and plebeians. A century later, plebeians were given access to elective positions, including consular ones. At the same time, in Rome, officials did not receive salaries, they covered all the costs associated with the performance of the service at their own expense. This ensured access to power only to wealthy citizens.

The changes that took place meant that in the 5th century BC. in Rome, as before in Athens, a new political system of social organization took shape, in which citizenship was of greater importance than tribal ties.

These changes contributed to the transformation of city-states into major centers of trade and crafts. They began to build up their military power and began a struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean.

Struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean

The growing economic importance and profitability of Mediterranean trade led to the beginning of the struggle for dominance over the Mediterranean coast. It lasted from the 5th to the 2nd century BC. and ended with the triumph of Rome, which created the largest world power.

The first center of civilization originated on the island of Crete at the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC. Around the 15th century BC. the Cretan culture is tragically dying (apparently after a volcanic eruption). It is being replaced by the Achaean culture. The Achaean tribes spread to most of Greece and the Aegean islands. The epochs of the Cretan and Achaean cultures can be considered a kind of preparatory stage, after which the history of the Greek civilization proper begins.

From VIII to VI centuries. BC. Greece occupied the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the western coast of Asia Minor. Around 500 BC begins the great Greek colonization, which opened up tremendous opportunities for trade, accelerated the development of shipbuilding and all the various crafts associated with it. In the colonies, rich cities grew rapidly - Chalkis, Corinth, Megara, Miletus, Eretria. Strong trade ties were established between them and the metropolis. The colonies supplied grain, timber, metals and food. In turn, from the metropolis to the colonies they brought what Greece was so famous for - artisan products, wine, olive oil.

By the 5th century BC. Greece acquired those characteristics that still awaken the interest of millions of people, forcing them to turn again and again to the monuments of Greek history, re-read the works of Homer and admire the ruins of the Athenian Acropolis.

The main form of social organization in Ancient Greece was the polis - a civil community based on antique form of ownership... Only a Greek by birth could become a citizen of the polis, he must be free (not a slave) and have property. The polis consisted of a city center and an adjacent agricultural area. All land was owned by the policy. Only a citizen of the policy could become the owner of a land plot. The main occupations were agriculture (gardening, viticulture), cattle breeding (sheep breeding, pig breeding), and handicrafts. The policy was characterized by a subsistence economy, which was based on the principle autarchy... Polis lived by its own laws. The norms of behavior and life in the policy gradually evolved into civil law. The policy was considered the main value. The welfare of every citizen depended on the welfare of the policy. All citizens of the policy were formally equal and possessed certain political (civil) rights that allowed them to participate in the administration of the policy.

Ancient Greece became the cradle of democracy. The classical form of democracy has developed in Athens. All citizens of the policy had the right to be elected to higher positions (except for the position of a military leader). National Assembly was became the supreme authority and received broad powers:

passed laws,

resolved issues of war and peace,

entered into or terminated contracts with other policies,

elected officials and audited their work.

At the meetings, all issues were thoroughly discussed, and everyone had the right to express their point of view. The supreme governing body - College of Archons consisted of nine people who were elected by all free citizens of Athens (later it was replaced by the Council of Five Hundred). In addition to the College of Archons and the People's Assembly, there were other state bodies in Athens - helium(high court) and College of strategists... Athenian citizens themselves brought charges, defended themselves (the one against whom the accusation was directed had to personally appear in court, as well as the one who accused. It was forbidden to put up a representative), made decisions on the case themselves.

Another characteristic feature of Ancient Greece is classical slavery. The entire population of Greece was divided into free citizens and slaves. They became slaves by birth (the children of a slave were also considered slaves) and as a result of military captivity. The owner had unlimited power over the slave, he could sell, buy, punish, kill him. Slaves were not considered human. They were often called "talking tools", which must be taken care of, since they themselves cannot make independent decisions.

But Ancient Greece is known not only as the birthplace of democracy. The culture and art of Ancient Greece became the basis for the development of European culture. Science developed in Greece - mathematics, medicine, logic, rhetoric, philosophy. A feature of ancient culture is the epic way of perceiving reality and the combination of myth and man. The fantastic interpretation of reality was of an artistic nature, while heroism was considered an indispensable condition for life. In artistic culture, syncriticality is gradually being violated, new genres appear - drama, comedy, tragedy. The desire to reflect the harmony of nature and man is reflected in sculpture, architecture, painting, art.