II semester

Historical geography of Ancient Greece.

Written sources on the history of Ancient Greece.

Minoan civilization on Crete.

Mycenaean Greece.

Trojan War.

Dark Ages" in the history of Greece.

Greek mythology: main plots.

Poems of Homer.

Great Greek Colonization.

Sparta as a type of polis.

Formation of the polis in Athens (VIII-VI centuries BC).

Solon's reforms.

Tyranny of Pisistratus.

Cleisthenes' reforms.

Greco-Persian Wars.

Athenian democracy in the 5th century. BC.

Athenian maritime power in the 5th century. BC.

Peloponnesian War.

Crisis of the polis in Greece in the 4th century. BC.

Greek culture of archaic times.

Greek culture of classical times.

Rise of Macedonia.

Alexander's campaigns.

Hellenism and its manifestations in economics, politics, culture.

The main Hellenistic states.

Northern Black Sea region in the classical and Hellenistic era.

Periodization of the history of Rome.

Historical geography of Rome, Italy and the Empire.

Written sources on Roman history.

Etruscans and their culture.

The royal period of Roman history.

The Early Republic: the struggle between patricians and plebeians.

Rome's conquest of Italy.

Second Punic War.

Conquest of the Mediterranean by Rome in the 2nd century. BC.

Reforms of the Gracchi brothers.

The struggle between optimates and popularists. Marius and Sulla.

Political struggle in Rome in the 1st half. I century BC.

Conquest of Gaul by Caesar.

Rise of Spartacus.

The struggle for power and the dictatorship of Caesar.

The fight between Antony and Octavian.

Principate of Augustus.

Emperors from the Tiberius-Julian dynasty.

Roman provinces in the 1st-2nd centuries. AD and their romanization.

Golden Age of the Roman Empire in the 2nd century. AD

Roman culture during the civil wars.

Roman culture of the era of the Principate.

The era of "soldier emperors".

Reforms of Diocletian-Constantine.

Ancient Christian church. Adoption of Christianity in the 4th century.

The onslaught of Germanic tribes on the borders of the empire in the 4th-5th centuries.

Eastern provinces in the IV-VI centuries. Birth of Byzantium.

Fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Culture of the Late Empire.

Ancient traditions in the culture of subsequent eras.

The main features of ancient civilization, its differences from the civilizations of the Ancient East.

Ancient civilization is an exemplary, normative civilization. Events took place here that were only repeated later; there is not a single event or manifestation that was not meaningful that did not occur in Ancient Greece and others. Rome.

Antiquity is understandable to us today, because: 1. in antiquity they lived according to the principle of “here and now”; 2. religion was superficial; 3 the Greeks had no morals, no conscience, they maneuvered through life; 4 personal life was a person's personal life if it did not affect public morality.

Not like: 1. There was no concept of ethics (good, bad). Religion was reduced to rituals. And not to evaluate good and bad.

1. In ancient civilization, man is the main subject of the historical process (more important than the state or religion), in contrast to the civilization of the ancient East.

2. Culture in Western civilization is a personal creative expression, in contrast to Eastern civilization, where the state and religion are glorified.

3. The ancient Greek relied only on himself, not on God or the state.

4. Pagan religion for antiquity did not have a moral norm.

5. Unlike the ancient Eastern religion, the Greeks believed that life on earth was better than in the other world.

6. For Ancient civilization, the important criteria of life were: creativity, personality, culture, i.e. self-expression.

7. In ancient civilization there was mainly democracy (national assemblies, council of elders), in the Ancient East - monarchies.

Periodization of the history of Ancient Greece.

Period

1. Civilization of Minoan Crete - 2 thousand BC – XX – XII century BC

Old palaces 2000-1700 BC - emergence of several potential centers (Knossos, Festa, Mallia, Zagross)

The period of new palaces 1700-1400 BC - the palace at Knossos (Palace of Mitaurus)

Earthquake XV - conquest of Fr. Crete from the mainland by the Achaeans.

2. Mycenaean (Achaean) civilization - XVII-XII centuries BC (Greeks, but not yet ancient)

3. The Homeric period, or the dark ages, or the pre-polis period (XI-IX centuries BC), - tribal relations in Greece.

Period. Ancient civilization

1. Archaic period (archaic) (VIII-VI centuries BC) - the formation of a polis society and state. The settlement of the Greeks along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas (Great Greek Colonization).

2. Classical period (classics) (V-IV centuries BC) - the heyday of ancient Greek civilization, rational economy, polis system, Greek culture.

3. Hellenistic period (Helinism, postclassical period) – end. IV - I century BC (expansion of the Greek world, depleted culture, lighter historical period):

Eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great and the formation of the system of Hellenistic states (30s of the 4th century BC - 80s of the 3rd century BC);

Functioning of Hellenistic societies and states (80s of the 3rd century BC - mid-2nd century BC);

The crisis of the Hellenistic system and the conquest of the Hellenistic states by Rome in the West and Parthia in the East (mid-2nd century - 1st century BC).

3. Historical geography of Ancient Greece.

The geographical framework of ancient Greek history was not constant, but changed and expanded with historical development. The main territory of ancient Greek civilization was the Aegean region, i.e. the Balkan, Asia Minor, Thracian coasts and numerous islands of the Aegean Sea. From 8-9 centuries BC, after a powerful colonization movement from the Aeneid region, known as the Great Greek Colonization, the Greeks mastered the territories of Sicily and South. Italy, which received the name Magna Graecia, as well as the Black Sea coast. After the campaigns of A. Macedonian at the end of the 4th century. BC. and the conquest of the Persian state on its ruins in the Near and Middle East up to India, Hellenistic states were formed and these territories became part of the ancient Greek world. In the Hellenistic era, the Greek world covered a vast territory from Sicily in the west to India in the East, from the Northern Black Sea region in the north, to the first cataracts of the Nile in the south. However, in all periods of ancient Greek history, the Aegean region was considered its central part, where Greek statehood and culture arose and reached their dawn.

The climate is Eastern Mediterranean, subtropical with mild winters (+10) and hot summers.

The terrain is mountainous, the valleys are isolated from each other, which interfered with the construction of communications and presupposed the implementation of natural agriculture in each valley.

There is an indented coastline. There was communication by sea. The Greeks, although they were afraid of the sea, mastered the Aegean Sea and did not go out to the Black Sea for a long time.

Greece is rich in minerals: marble, iron ore, copper, silver, wood, and good quality pottery clay, which provided Greek crafts with a sufficient amount of raw materials.

The soils of Greece are rocky, of average fertility and difficult to cultivate. However, the abundance of sun and mild subtropical climate made them favorable for agricultural activities. There were also spacious valleys (in Boeotia, Laconia, Thessaly) suitable for agriculture. In agriculture there was a triad: grains (barley, wheat), olives (olives), from which oil was made, and its extracts were the basis for lighting, and grapes (a universal drink that did not spoil in this climate, wine 4 -5%). Cheese was made from milk.

Cattle breeding: small cattle (sheep, bulls), poultry, because there was nowhere to turn around.

4. Written sources on the history of Ancient Greece.

In Ancient Greece, history was born - special historical works.

In the 6th century BC, logographs appeared - word writing, the first prose, descriptions of memorable events. The most famous logographs are Hecataeus (540-478 BC) and Hellanicus (480-400 BC).

The first historical research was the work “History” by Herodotus (485-425 BC), called in ancient times by Cicero “the father of history.” “History” is the main type of prose, has public and private significance, explains the whole history as a whole, broadcasts, transmits information to descendants. The work of Herodotus differs from chronicles and chronicles in that the causes of events are present. The purpose of the work is to present all the information communicated to the author. Herodotus's work is dedicated to the history of the Greco-Persian wars and consists of 9 books, which in the 3rd century. BC e. were named after 9 muses.

Another outstanding work of Greek historical thought was the work of the Athenian historian Thucydides (about 460-396 BC), dedicated to the events of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Thucydides' work consists of 8 books, they set out the events of the Peloponnesian War from 431 to 411 BC. e. (the essay remained unfinished). However, Thucydides does not limit himself to a careful and detailed description of military actions. He also gives a description of the internal life of the warring parties, including the relationships between different groups of the population and their clashes, changes in the political system, while partially selecting information.

A diverse literary legacy was left behind by Thucydides' younger contemporary, historian and publicist Xenophon from Athens (430-355 BC). He left behind many different works: “Greek History”, “The Education of Cyrus”, “Anabasis”, “Domostroy”.

The first Greek literary monuments - Homer's epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" - are practically the only sources of information on the history of the dark ages of the 12th - 6th centuries. BC e., i.e.

Among the works of Plato (427-347 BC), the most important are his extensive treatises “The State” and “Laws”, written in the last period of his life. In them, Plato, starting from the analysis of socio-political relations of the mid-6th century. BC e., offers his own version of the reconstruction of Greek society on new, fair, in his opinion, principles.

Aristotle owns treatises on logic and ethics, rhetoric and poetics, meteorology and astronomy, zoology and physics, which are substantive sources. However, the most valuable works on the history of Greek society in the 4th century. BC e. are his works on the essence and forms of the state - “Politics” and “Athenian Polity”.

Of the historical works that provide a coherent account of the events of Hellenistic history, the works of Polybius (the work details the history of the Greek and Roman world from 280 to 146 BC) and Diodorus’s “Historical Library” are of greatest importance.

Great contribution to the study of history Dr. Greece also has the works of Strabo, Plutarch, Pausanias, and others.

Mycenaean (Achaean) Greece.

Mycenaean civilization or Achaean Greece- cultural period in the history of prehistoric Greece from the 18th to the 12th centuries BC. e., Bronze Age. It got its name from the city of Mycenae on the Peloponnese Peninsula.

The internal sources are tablets written in Linear B, deciphered after World War II by Michael Ventris. They contain documents on economic reporting: taxes, land lease. Some information about the history of the Archean kings is contained in Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristotle, which is confirmed by archaeological data.

The creators of the Mycenaean culture were the Greeks - the Achaeans, who invaded the Balkan Peninsula at the turn of the 3rd–2nd millennium BC. e. from the north, from the region of the Danube lowland or from the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, where they originally lived. The newcomers partially destroyed and plundered the settlements of the conquered tribes. The remnants of the pre-Greek population gradually assimilated with the Achaeans.

In the first stages of its development, Mycenaean culture was strongly influenced by the more advanced Minoan civilization, for example, some cults and religious rituals, fresco painting, plumbing and sewerage, styles of men's and women's clothing, some types of weapons, and finally, linear syllabary.

The 15th–13th centuries can be considered the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization. BC e. The most significant centers of early class society were Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos in the Peloponnese, in Central Greece Athens, Thebes, Orchomenus, in the northern part of Iolcus - Thessaly, which were never united into one state. All states were at war. Male martial civilization.

Almost all Mycenaean palace-fortresses were fortified with stone cyclopean walls, which were built by free people, and were citadels (for example, the Tiryns citadel).

The bulk of the working population in the Mycenaean states, as in Crete, were free or semi-free peasants and artisans, who were economically dependent on the palace and were subject to labor and in-kind duties in its favor. Among the artisans who worked for the palace, blacksmiths occupied a special position. Usually they received from the palace the so-called talasia, i.e. a task or lesson. Craftsmen recruited for public service were not deprived of personal freedom. They could own land and even slaves, like all other members of the community.

At the head of the palace state was the “wanaka” (king), who occupied a special privileged position among the ruling nobility. The duties of Lavaget (military leader) included command of the armed forces of the kingdom of Pylos. C The king and the military leader concentrated in their hands the most important functions of both an economic and political nature. Directly subordinate to the ruling elite of society were numerous officials who acted locally and in the center and together constituted a powerful apparatus for the oppression and exploitation of the working population of the Pylos kingdom: karters (governors), basilei (supervised production).

All land in the Pylos kingdom was divided into two main categories: 1) palace land, or state land, and 2) land that belonged to individual territorial communities.

The Mycenaean civilization survived two invasions from the north with an interval of 50 years. In the period between the invasions, the population of the Mycenaean civilization united with the goal of dying with glory in the Trojan War (not a single Trojan hero returned home alive).

Internal reasons for the death of the Mycenaean civilization: a fragile economy, an undeveloped simple society, which led to destruction after the loss of the top. The external cause of death was the invasion of the Dorians.

Eastern-type civilizations are not suitable for Europe. Crete and Mycenae are the parents of antiquity.

7. Trojan War.

The Trojan War, according to the ancient Greeks, was one of the most significant events in their history. Ancient historians believed that it happened around the turn of the 13th-12th centuries. BC e., and began with it a new - “Trojan” era: the ascent of the tribes inhabiting Balkan Greece to a higher level of culture associated with life in cities. The campaign of the Achaean Greeks against the city of Troy, located in the northwestern part of the Asia Minor peninsula - Troas, was told by numerous Greek myths, later united in a cycle of legends - cyclical poems, among them the poem "Iliad", attributed to the Greek poet Homer. It tells about one of the episodes of the final, tenth year of the siege of Troy-Ilion.

The Trojan War, according to myths, began by the will and fault of the gods. All the gods were invited to the wedding of the Thessalian hero Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis, except Eris, the goddess of discord. The angry goddess decided to take revenge and threw a golden apple with the inscription “To the Most Beautiful” to the feasting gods. Three Olympian goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, argued over which of them it was intended for. Zeus ordered young Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, to judge the goddesses. The goddesses appeared to Paris on Mount Ida, near Troy, where the prince was tending flocks, and each tried to seduce him with gifts. Paris preferred the love of Helen, the most beautiful of mortal women, offered to him by Aphrodite, and handed the golden apple to the goddess of love. Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, was the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Paris, who came as a guest to the house of Menelaus, took advantage of his absence and, with the help of Aphrodite, convinced Helen to leave her husband and go with him to Troy.

Insulted Menelaus, with the help of his brother, the powerful king of Mycenae Agamemnon, gathered a large army to return his unfaithful wife and stolen treasures. In response to the brothers' call, all the suitors who had once wooed Helen and swore an oath to defend her honor appeared: Odysseus, Diomedes, Protesilaus, Ajax Telamonides and Ajax Oilides, Philoctetes, the wise old man Nestor, and others. Achilles, the son of Peleus, also took part in the campaign. Thetis. Agamemnon was elected leader of the entire army, as the ruler of the most powerful of the Achaean states.

The Greek fleet, numbering a thousand ships, assembled at Aulis, a harbor in Boeotia. To ensure the fleet's safe voyage to the shores of Asia Minor, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. Having reached Troas, the Greeks tried to return Helen and the treasures peacefully. Odysseus and Menelaus went as envoys to Troy. The Trojans refused them, and a long and tragic war began for both sides. The gods also took part in it. Hera and Athena helped the Achaeans, Aphrodite and Apollo - the Trojans.

The Greeks were unable to immediately take Troy, which was surrounded by powerful fortifications. They built a fortified camp on the seashore near their ships, began to ravage the outskirts of the city and attack the allies of the Trojans. In the tenth year, Agamemnon insulted Achilles by taking away his captive Briseis, and he, angry, refused to enter the battlefield. The Trojans took advantage of the inaction of the bravest and strongest of their enemies and went on the offensive, led by Hector. The Trojans were also helped by the general fatigue of the Achaean army, which had been unsuccessfully besieging Troy for ten years.

The Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and nearly burned their ships. Achilles's closest friend, Patroclus stopped the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself died at the hands of Hector. The death of a friend makes Achilles forget about the insult. The Trojan hero Hector dies in a duel with Achilles. The Amazons come to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles kills their leader Penthesilea, but soon dies himself, as predicted, from the arrow of Paris, directed by the god Apollo.

A decisive turning point in the war occurs after the arrival of the hero Philoctetes from the island of Lemnos and the son of Achilles Neoptolemus to the Achaean camp. Philoctetes kills Paris, and Neoptolemus kills the Trojans' ally, the Mysian Eurinil. Left without leaders, the Trojans no longer dare to go out to battle in the open field. But the powerful walls of Troy reliably protect its inhabitants. Then, at the suggestion of Odysseus, the Achaeans decided to take the city by cunning. A huge wooden horse was built, inside which a selected squad of warriors hid. The rest of the army took refuge not far from the coast, near the island of Tenedos.

Surprised by the abandoned wooden monster, the Trojans gathered around it. Some began to offer to bring the horse into the city. Priest Laocoon, warning about the treachery of the enemy, exclaimed: “Fear the Danaans (Greeks), who bring gifts!” But the priest’s speech did not convince his compatriots, and they brought the wooden horse into the city as a gift to the goddess Athena. At night, the warriors hidden in the belly of the horse come out and open the gate. The secretly returned Achaeans burst into the city, and the beating of the inhabitants, taken by surprise, begins. Menelaus, with a sword in his hands, is looking for his unfaithful wife, but when he sees the beautiful Helen, he is unable to kill her. The entire male population of Troy dies, with the exception of Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, who received orders from the gods to flee the captured city and revive its glory elsewhere. The women of Troy became captives and slaves of the victors. The city was destroyed by fire.

After the destruction of Troy, strife began in the Achaean camp. Ajax Oilid brings the wrath of the goddess Athena upon the Greek fleet, and she sends a terrible storm, during which many ships sink. Menelaus and Odysseus are carried by a storm to distant lands (described in Homer's poem "The Odyssey"). The leader of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, after returning home, was killed along with his companions by his wife Clytemnestra, who did not forgive her husband for the death of her daughter Iphigenia. So, not at all triumphantly, the campaign against Troy ended for the Achaeans.

The ancient Greeks had no doubt about the historical reality of the Trojan War. Thucydides was convinced that the ten-year siege of Troy described in the poem was a historical fact, only embellished by the poet. Certain parts of the poem, such as the “catalog of ships” or the list of the Achaean army under the walls of Troy, are written as a real chronicle.

Historians of the 18th-19th centuries. were convinced that there was no Greek campaign against Troy and that the heroes of the poem were mythical, not historical figures.

In 1871, Heinrich Schliemann began excavating the Hissarlik hill in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, identifying it as the location of ancient Troy. Then, following the directions of the poem, Heinrich Schliemann conducted archaeological excavations in the “gold-abundant” Mycenae. In one of the royal graves discovered there lay - for Schliemann there was no doubt about this - the remains of Agamemnon and his companions, strewn with gold jewelry; Agamemnon's face was covered with a golden mask.

Heinrich Schliemann's discoveries shocked the world community. There was no doubt that Homer's poem contained information about the events that actually took place and their real heroes.

Subsequently, A. Evans discovered the palace of the Minotaur on the island of Crete. In 1939, American archaeologist Carl Blegen discovered the “sandy” Pylos, the habitat of the wise old man Nestor on the western coast of the Peloponnese. However, archeology has established that the city, mistaken by Schliemann for Troy, existed a thousand years before the Trojan War.

But it is impossible to deny the existence of the city of Troy somewhere in the northwestern region of Asia Minor. Documents from the archives of the Hittite kings indicate that the Hittites knew both the city of Troy and the city of Ilion (in the Hittite version of “Truis” and “Wilus”), but, apparently, as two different cities located nearby, and not one under a double title, as in a poem.

Poems of Homer.

Homer is considered the author of two poems - the Iliad and the Odyssey, although modern science has not yet resolved the question of whether Homer actually lived or whether he is a legendary figure. The set of problems associated with the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, their origin and fate before the moment of recording, was called the “Homeric question.”

In Italy G. Vico (17th century) and in Germany fr. Wolf (18) recognized the folk origin of the poems. In the 19th century, the “theory of small songs” was proposed, from which both poems subsequently arose mechanically. The “Grain Theory” suggests that the Iliad and Odyssey are based on a short poem, which over time has acquired details and new episodes as a result of the work of new generations of poets. Unitarians denied the participation of folk art in the creation of Homeric poems and considered them as a work of art created by a single author. At the end of the 19th century, a theory of the folk origin of poems was proposed as a result of the gradual natural development of collective epic creativity. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, synthetic theories arose, according to which the Iliad and Odyssey are represented as epics, processed by one or two poets.

The plots of both poems date back to Mycenaean times, which is confirmed by numerous archaeological materials. The poems reflected the Cretan-Mycenaean (end of the 12th century - information about the Trojan War), Homeric (XI-IX - most of the information, because information about the Mycenaean time did not reach in oral form), early archaic (VIII-VII) eras.

The content of the Iliad and Odyssey is based on legends from the cycle myths about the Trojan War, took place in the XIII–XII centuries. BC uh. The plot of the Iliad is the anger of the Thessalian hero Achilles against the leader of the Greek troops besieging Troy, Agamemnon, for taking away his beautiful captive. The most ancient part of the Iliad is the 2nd song about the “Lists of Ships”. The plot of the Odyssey is the return to the homeland of the island of Ithaca by Odysseus after the Greeks destroyed Troy.

The poems were written down in Athens under the tyrant Pisistratus, who wanted to show that there was sole power in Greece. The poems acquired their modern form in the 2nd century BC during the Alexandrian monsoon (Hellenistic era).

The meaning of the poems: a book for studying literacy, a “handbook” of the Greeks.

One of the most important compositional features of the Iliad is the “law of chronological incompatibility” formulated by Thaddeus Frantsevich Zelinsky. It is that “In Homer, the story never returns to its point of departure. It follows that parallel actions in Homer cannot be depicted; Homer’s poetic technique knows only a simple, linear dimension.” Thus, sometimes parallel events are depicted as sequential, sometimes one of them is only mentioned or even suppressed. This explains some apparent contradictions in the text of the poem.

A complete translation of the Iliad into Russian in original size was made by N. I. Gnedich (1829), and the Odyssey by V. A. Zhukovsky (1849).

Sparta as a type of polis.

The Spartan state was located in the south of the Peloponnese. The capital of this state was called Sparta, and the state itself was called Laconia. The polis could not be conquered, but only destroyed. All policies developed, but only Sparta in the 6th century. mothballed.

The main sources on the history of the Spartan state are the works of Thucydides, Xenophon, Aristotle and Plutarch, and the poems of the Spartan poet Tyrtaeus. Archaeological materials become important.

During the 9th–8th centuries BC, the Spartans waged a stubborn struggle with neighboring tribes for dominance over Laconia. As a result, they managed to subjugate the area from the southern borders of the Arcadian Highlands to the Capes of Tenar and Malea on the southern coast of the Peloponnese.

In the 7th century BC, an acute land hunger began to be felt in Sparta and the Spartans undertook a conquest in Messenia, also inhabited by the Dorians. As a result of the two Messenian wars, the territory of Messenia was annexed to Sparta, and the bulk of the population, with the exception of residents of some coastal cities, was turned into helots.

The fertile lands in Lakonica and Messenia were divided into 9,000 plots and distributed to the Spartans. Each plot was cultivated by several families of helots, who were obliged to support the Spartan and his family with their labor. The Spartan could not dispose of his allotment, sell it or leave it as an inheritance to his son. Nor was he the master of the helots. He had no right to sell or release them. Both the land and the helots belonged to the state.

Three population groups formed in Sparta: the Spartans (the conquerors themselves were Dorians), the Perieki (residents of small towns scattered at some distance from Sparta, along the borders, called periekami ("living around"). They were free, but did not have civil rights) and helots (dependent population).

Ephors - V the highest control and administrative body of Sparta. 5 people are elected for a year. They monitor the behavior of the citizens, acting as overseers in relation to the enslaved and dependent population. They declare war on the helots.

The constant threat of the helot rebellion looming under the ruling class of Sparta required maximum cohesion and organization from it. Therefore, simultaneously with the redistribution of land, the Spartan legislator Lycurgus carried out a whole series of important social reforms:

Only a strong and healthy person could become a real warrior. When a boy was born, his father brought him to the elders. The baby was examined. The weak child was thrown into the abyss. The law obliged each Spartiate to send his sons to special camps - agels (lit. Herd). Boys were taught to read and write only for practical purposes. Education was subordinated to three goals: to be able to obey, to endure suffering courageously, to win or die in battles . The boys were engaged in gymnastic and military exercises, learned to wield weapons, and live like a Spartan. They walked all year round in the same cloak (himatium). They slept on hard reeds, picked with their bare hands. They were fed from hand to mouth. To be dexterous and cunning in war, teenagers learned to steal. The boys even competed to see which of them could endure the beatings longer and more gracefully. The winner was glorified, his name became known to everyone. But some died under the rods. The Spartans were excellent warriors - strong, skillful, brave. The laconic saying of one Spartan woman who saw off her son to war was famous. She handed him a shield and said: “With a shield or on a shield!”

In Sparta, great attention was paid to the education of women, who were highly respected. To give birth to healthy children, you need to be healthy. Therefore, the girls did not do housework, but gymnastics and sports; they knew how to read, write, and count.

According to the law of Lycurgus, special joint meals were introduced - sistia.

The “Lycurgian system” was based on the principle of equality; they tried to stop the growth of property inequality among the Spartiates. In order to remove gold and silver from circulation, iron obols were introduced into circulation.

The Spartan state prohibited all foreign trade. It was only internal and took place in local markets. The craft was poorly developed, it was carried out by the perieki, who made only the most necessary utensils for equipping the Spartan army.

All transformations contributed to the consolidation of society.

The most important elements of the political system of Sparta were the dual royal power, the council of elders (gerusia) and the people's assembly.

The people's assembly (apella), in which all full-fledged citizens of Sparta took part, approved the decisions made by the kings and elders at their joint meeting.

The Council of Elders - gerousia consisted of 30 members: 28 geronts (elders) and two kings. The Geronts were elected from among the Spartans who were at least 60 years old. The kings received power by inheritance, but their rights in everyday life were very small: military leaders during hostilities, judicial and religious functions in peacetime. Decisions were made at a joint meeting of the council of elders and kings.

The city of Sparta itself had a modest appearance. There weren't even defensive walls. The Spartans said that the best defense of a city is not its walls, but the courage of its citizens.

By the middle of the 6th century. BC. Corinth, Sikyon and Megara were subordinated, as a result of which the Peloponnesian Union was formed, which became the most significant political union of the then Greece.

Solon's reforms

Solon went down in history as an outstanding reformer, who significantly changed the political face of Athens and thus gave this polis the opportunity to get ahead of other Greek cities in its development.

The socio-economic and political situation in Attica continued to deteriorate throughout almost the entire 7th century. BC e. The social differentiation of the population led to the fact that a significant part of all Athenians was already eking out a miserable existence. Poor peasants lived in debt, paid huge interest, mortgaged the land, and gave up to 5/6 of the harvest to their rich fellow citizens.

Failure in the war for the island of Salamis with Megara at the end of the 7th century added fuel to the fire.

Solon. came from an ancient but impoverished noble family, was engaged in maritime trade and was thus associated with both the aristocracy and the demos, whose members respected Solon for his honesty. Pretending to be crazy, he publicly called on the Athenians for revenge in poetry. His poems caused a great public outcry, which saved the poet from punishment. He was tasked with assembling and leading the fleet and army. In the new war, Athens defeated Megara, and Solon became the most popular man in the city. In 594 BC. e. he was elected the first archon (eponym) and was also assigned to perform the functions of the aisimnet, that is, he was supposed to become a mediator in resolving social issues.

Solon resolutely took up reforms. To begin with, he carried out the so-called sisakhfiy (literally “shaking off the burden”), according to which all debts were canceled. Mortgage debt stones were removed from mortgaged land plots, and for the future it was forbidden to borrow money against people's mortgages. Many peasants received their plots back. Athenians sold abroad were redeemed at state expense. These events in themselves improved the social situation, although the poor were unhappy that Solon did not carry out the promised redistribution of land. But the archon established the maximum maximum rate of land ownership and introduced freedom of will - from now on, if there were no direct heirs, it was possible to transfer property by will to any citizen, allowing the land to be given to non-members of the clan. This undermined the power of the clan nobility, and also gave a powerful impetus to the development of small and medium-sized landownership.

Solon carried out a monetary reform, making Athenian coins lighter (reducing weight) and thereby increasing money circulation in the country. He allowed the export of olive oil and wine abroad, and prohibited the export of grain, thus contributing to the development of the most profitable sector of Athenian agriculture for foreign trade and preserving scarce grain for his fellow citizens. An interesting law was adopted to develop another progressive sector of the national economy. According to Solon's law, sons could not provide for their parents in old age if they did not at one time teach their children some craft.

The most important changes occurred in the political and social structure of the Athenian state. Instead of the previous classes, Solon introduced new ones, based on the property qualifications he carried out (census and income accounting). From now on, the Athenians, whose annual income was at least 500 medimni (about 52 liters) of bulk or liquid products, were called pentacosiamedimni and belonged to the first category, at least 300 medimni - horsemen (second category), at least 200 medimni - zeugites (third category) , less than 200 medimn - fetami (fourth category).

The highest state bodies from now on were the Areopagus, the Bule and the People's Assembly. Bule was a new organ. This was the Council of Four Hundred, to which each of the four Athenian phyla elected 100 people. All issues and laws had to be discussed in advance before they were subject to consideration in the People's Assembly. The People's Assembly (ekklesia) itself began to meet much more often under Solon and acquired greater importance. The Archon decreed that during periods of civil strife, every citizen must take an active political position under the threat of deprivation of civil rights.

Western type of civilization: the ancient civilization of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

The next global type of civilization that emerged in ancient times was Western type of civilization. It began to emerge on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and reached its highest development in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, societies that are commonly called the ancient world in the period from the IX-VIII centuries. BC e. until IV-V centuries. n. e. Therefore, the Western type of civilization can rightfully be called the Mediterranean or ancient type of civilization.

Ancient civilization went through a long path of development. In the south of the Balkan Peninsula, for various reasons, early class societies and states arose at least three times: in the 2nd half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. (destroyed by the Achaeans); in the XVII-XIII centuries. BC e. (destroyed by the Dorians); in the IX-VI centuries. BC e. the last attempt was a success - an ancient society arose.

Ancient civilization, like eastern civilization, is a primary civilization. It grew directly from primitiveness and could not benefit from the fruits of the previous civilization. Therefore, in ancient civilization, by analogy with Eastern civilization, the influence of primitiveness is significant in the minds of people and in the life of society. The dominant position is occupied religious and mythological worldview. However, this worldview has significant features. Ancient worldview cosmological. In Greek, space is not only the world. The Universe, but also order, the world whole, opposing Chaos with its proportionality and beauty. This ordering is based on measure and harmony. Thus, in ancient culture, on the basis of ideological models, one of the important elements of Western culture is formed - rationality.

The focus on harmony throughout the cosmos was also associated with the culture-creating activity of “ancient man.” Harmony manifests itself in the proportion and connection of things, and these connection proportions can be calculated and reproduced. Hence the formulation canon- a set of rules that define harmony, mathematical calculations of the canon, based on observations of the real human body. The body is a prototype of the world. Cosmologism (ideas about the universe) of ancient culture was anthropocentric character, that is, man was considered as the center of the Universe and the ultimate goal of the entire universe. Space was constantly correlated with man, natural objects with human ones. This approach determined people’s attitude towards their earthly life. The desire for earthly joys, an active position in relation to this world are the characteristic values ​​of ancient civilization.

The civilizations of the East grew up on irrigated agriculture. Ancient society had a different agricultural basis. This is the so-called Mediterranean triad - growing grains, grapes and olives without artificial irrigation.

Unlike eastern societies, ancient societies developed very dynamically, since from the very beginning a struggle flared up in it between the peasantry enslaved into shared slavery and the aristocracy. For other peoples, it ended with the victory of the nobility, but among the ancient Greeks, the demos (people) not only defended freedom, but also achieved political equality. The reasons for this lie in the rapid development of crafts and trade. The trade and craft elite of the demos quickly grew rich and economically became stronger than the landowning nobility. The contradictions between the power of the trade and craft part of the demos and the receding power of the landowning nobility formed the driving force behind the development of Greek society, which by the end of the 6th century. BC e. resolved in favor of the demos.

In ancient civilization, private property relations came to the fore, and the dominance of private commodity production, oriented primarily at the market, became evident.

The first example of democracy in history appeared - democracy as the personification of freedom. Democracy in the Greco-Latin world was still direct. The equality of all citizens was provided for as a principle of equal opportunity. There was freedom of speech and election of government bodies.

In the ancient world, the foundations of civil society were laid, providing for the right of every citizen to participate in government, recognition of his personal dignity, rights and freedoms. The state did not interfere in the private lives of citizens or this interference was insignificant. Trade, crafts, agriculture, family functioned independently of the authorities, but within the framework of the law. Roman law contained a system of norms regulating private property relations. Citizens were law-abiding.

In antiquity, the issue of interaction between the individual and society was resolved in favor of the former. The individual and his rights were recognized as primary, and the collective and society as secondary.

However, democracy in the ancient world was limited in nature: the mandatory presence of a privileged layer, the exclusion of women, free foreigners, and slaves from its action.

Slavery also existed in the Greco-Latin civilization. Assessing its role in antiquity, it seems that the position of those researchers who see the secret of the unique achievements of antiquity not in slavery (the work of slaves is ineffective), but in freedom, is closer to the truth. The displacement of free labor by slave labor during the Roman Empire was one of the reasons for the decline of this civilization (see: Semennikova L.I. Russia in the world community of civilizations. - M., 1994. - P. 60).

Civilization of Ancient Greece. The uniqueness of Greek civilization lies in the emergence of such a political structure as "polis" - "city-state", covering the city itself and the surrounding area. Polis were the first republics in the history of all mankind.

Numerous Greek cities were founded along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, as well as on the islands of Cyprus and Sicily. In the VIII-VII centuries. BC e. A large stream of Greek settlers rushed to the coast of southern Italy; the formation of large policies in this territory was so significant that it was called “Great Greece.”

Citizens of the policies had the right to own land, were obliged to take part in state affairs in one form or another, and in case of war, a civil militia was formed from them. In Hellenic policies, in addition to the citizens of the city, a free population usually lived personally, but was deprived of civil rights; Often these were immigrants from other Greek cities. At the bottom rung of the social ladder of the ancient world there were completely powerless slaves.

In the polis community, the ancient form of land ownership dominated; it was used by those who were members of the civil community. Under the policy system, hoarding was condemned. IN In most policies, the supreme body of power was the people's assembly. He had the right to make final decisions on the most important policy issues. The cumbersome bureaucratic apparatus, characteristic of eastern and all totalitarian societies, was absent in the policy. The polis represented an almost complete coincidence of political structure, military organization and civil society.

The Greek world was never a single political entity. It consisted of several completely independent states that could enter into alliances, usually voluntarily, sometimes under duress, wage wars among themselves or make peace. The size of most policies was small: usually they had only one city, where several hundred citizens lived. Each such town was the administrative, economic and cultural center of a small state, and its population was engaged not only in crafts, but also in agriculture.

In the VI-V centuries. BC e. the polis developed into a special form of slave state, more progressive than eastern despotism. Citizens of a classical polis are equal in their political and legal rights. No one stood higher than the citizen in the polis, except the polis collective (the idea of ​​​​the sovereignty of the people). Every citizen had the right to publicly express his opinion on any issue. It became a rule for the Greeks to make any political decisions openly, jointly, after full public discussion. In the policy there is a division of the highest legislative power (the people's assembly) and the executive power (elected fixed-term magistrates). Thus, in Greece the system known to us as ancient democracy was established.

Ancient Greek civilization is characterized by the fact that it most clearly expresses the idea of ​​​​the sovereignty of the people and a democratic form of government. Greece of the archaic period had a certain specificity of civilization in comparison with other ancient countries: classical slavery, a polis system of management, a developed market with a monetary form of circulation. Although Greece at that time did not represent a single state, constant trade between individual policies, economic and family ties between neighboring cities led the Greeks to self-awareness - to be in a single state.

The heyday of ancient Greek civilization was achieved during the period of classical Greece (VI century - 338 BC). The polis organization of society effectively carried out economic, military and political functions and became a unique phenomenon, unknown in the world of ancient civilization.

One of the features of the civilization of classical Greece was the rapid rise of material and spiritual culture. In the field of development of material culture, the emergence of new technology and material values ​​was noted, crafts developed, sea harbors were built and new cities emerged, maritime transport and all kinds of cultural monuments were built, etc.

The product of the highest culture of antiquity is the Hellenistic civilization, which began with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 334-328. BC e. The Persian power, which covered Egypt and a large part of the Middle East to the Indus and Central Asia. The Hellenistic period lasted three centuries. In this wide space, new forms of political organization and social relations of peoples and their culture emerged - the Hellenistic civilization.

What are the features of Hellenistic civilization? The characteristic features of the Hellenistic civilization include: a specific form of socio-political organization - the Hellenistic monarchy with elements of eastern despotism and polis structure; growth in the production of products and trade in them, development of trade routes, expansion of money circulation, including the appearance of gold coins; a stable combination of local traditions with the culture brought by the conquerors and settlers of the Greeks and other peoples.

Hellenism enriched the history of mankind and world civilization as a whole with new scientific discoveries. The greatest contributions to the development of mathematics and mechanics were made by Euclid (3rd century BC) and Archimedes (287-312). A versatile scientist, mechanic and military engineer, Archimedes from Syracuse laid the foundations of trigonometry; they discovered the principles of analysis of infinitesimal quantities, as well as the basic laws of hydrostatics and mechanics, which were widely used for practical purposes. For the irrigation system in Egypt, an “Archimedes screw” was used - a device for pumping water. It was an inclined hollow pipe, inside of which there was a screw tightly fitting to it. A screw rotated with the help of people scooped up water and lifted it up.

Traveling overland necessitated the need to accurately measure the length of the path traveled. This problem was solved in the 1st century. BC e. Alexandrian mechanic Heron. He invented a device he called a hodometer (path meter). Nowadays, such devices are called taximeters.

World art has been enriched with such masterpieces as the Altar of Zeus in Pergamon, the statues of Venus de Milo and the Nike of Samothrace, and the Laocoon sculptural group. The achievements of ancient Greek, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Byzantine and other cultures were included in the golden fund of Hellenistic civilization.

Civilization of Ancient Rome compared to Greece was a more complex phenomenon. According to ancient legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC. e. on the left bank of the Tiber, the validity of which was confirmed by archaeological excavations of the present century. Initially, the population of Rome consisted of three hundred clans, the elders of which formed the Senate; At the head of the community was a king (in Latin - reve). The king was the supreme military leader and priest. Later, the Latin communities living in Latium, annexed to Rome, received the name plebeians (plebs-people), and the descendants of the old Roman families, who then made up the aristocratic layer of the population, received the name patricians.

In the VI century. BC e. Rome became a fairly significant city and was dependent on the Etruscans, who lived northwest of Rome.

At the end of the 6th century. BC e. With the liberation from the Etruscans, the Roman Republic was formed, which lasted for about five centuries. The Roman Republic was initially a small state in area, less than 1000 square meters. km. The first centuries of the republic were a time of persistent struggle of the plebeians for their equal political rights with the patricians, for equal rights to public land. As a result, the territory of the Roman state gradually expanded. At the beginning of the 4th century. BC e. it has already more than doubled the original size of the republic. At this time, Rome was captured by the Gauls, who had previously settled in the Po Valley. However, the Gallic invasion did not play a significant role in the further development of the Roman state. II and I centuries. BC e. were times of great conquests, which gave Rome all the countries adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe to the Rhine and Danube, as well as Britain, Asia Minor, Syria and almost the entire coast of North Africa. Countries conquered by the Romans outside Italy were called provinces.

In the first centuries of Roman civilization, slavery in Rome was poorly developed. From the 2nd century BC e. the number of slaves increased due to successful wars. The situation in the republic gradually worsened. In the 1st century BC e. the war of the disenfranchised Italians against Rome and the slave uprising led by Spartacus shocked all of Italy. It all ended with the establishment in Rome in 30 BC. e. the sole power of the emperor, who relied on armed force.

The first centuries of the Roman Empire were a time of severe property inequality and the spread of large-scale slavery. From the 1st century BC e. The opposite process is also observed - the release of slaves. Subsequently, slave labor in agriculture is gradually replaced by the labor of colons, personally free, but attached to the land cultivators. Previously prosperous Italy began to weaken, and the importance of the provinces began to increase. The collapse of the slave system began.

At the end of the 4th century. n. e. The Roman Empire is divided roughly in half - into eastern and western parts. The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire lasted until the 15th century, when it was conquered by the Turks. Western Empire during the 5th century. BC e. was attacked by the Huns and Germans. In 410 AD e. Rome was taken by one of the Germanic tribes - the Ostrogoths. After this, the Western Empire eked out a miserable existence, and in 476 its last emperor was dethroned.

What are the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire? They were associated with the crisis of Roman society, caused by the difficulties of reproducing slaves, the problems of maintaining controllability of a huge empire, the increasing role of the army, the militarization of political life, and the reduction of the urban population and the number of cities. The Senate and city government bodies turned into fiction. Under these conditions, the imperial power was forced to recognize the division of the empire in 395 into Western and Eastern (the center of the latter was Constantinople) and abandon military campaigns in order to expand the territory of the state. Therefore, the military weakening of Rome was one of the reasons for its fall.

The rapid fall of the Western Roman Empire was facilitated by the invasion of barbarians, a powerful movement of Germanic tribes on its territory in the 4th-7th centuries, which culminated in the creation of “barbarian kingdoms”.

A brilliant expert on the history of Rome, the Englishman Edward Gibbon (18th century), names among the reasons for the fall of Rome the negative consequences of the adoption of Christianity (officially adopted in the 4th century). It instilled in the masses a spirit of passivity, non-resistance and humility, forcing them to meekly bow under the yoke of power or even oppression. As a result, the proud warrior spirit of the Roman is replaced by a spirit of piety. Christianity taught only “to suffer and submit.”

With the fall of the Roman Empire, a new era in the history of civilization begins - the Middle Ages.

Thus, in the conditions of antiquity, two main (global) types of civilization were determined: Western, including European and North American, and Eastern, absorbing the civilization of Asian and African countries, including Arab, Turkic and Asia Minor. The ancient states of the West and East remained the most powerful active historical associations in international affairs: foreign economic and political relations, war and peace, establishment of interstate borders, resettlement of people on a particularly large scale, maritime navigation, compliance with environmental problems, etc.

topic 3 The place of the Middle Ages in the world historical process. Civilization of Ancient Rus'.

1/ The Middle Ages as a stage in world history.

Main civilizational regions

2/ Russia’s place in world civilization

3/ The emergence of Old Russian society

Not only professional historians and students of history faculties are fascinated by ancient Greece. This is a subject of admiration and interest for researchers from related fields of science, tourists and travelers who want to know everything about Ancient Greece. This applies to both historical events and everyday life, culture, philosophy, scientific knowledge, philosophy, mythology.

Ancient Greece is usually understood as a period in world history that began in 3 thousand BC and lasted until the middle of the 1st century AD.

Periodization

Depending on what criteria scientists put into the division of ancient Greek history, this may be the periodization. There are two most common and accepted classifications in science. The first of them involves division into three large periods:

• Preclassical, which began in the 3rd century. BC. and lasted until the 4th century. BC.;
• Classical, covering the 5th-4th centuries. BC.;
• Hellenistic, dating from the second half of the 4th century. – mid 1st century. AD

Archaeologists insist that the pre-classical period should be further divided into three stages - Crete-Mycenaean, Homeric and Archaic. At the Frontier 3-2 thousand BC. The first civilization arose on the island of Crete, which was separated from other periods thanks to various artifacts. The culture of the Cretan-Mycenaean period is not as rich as other eras of Ancient Greece, but it suggests that this civilization requires special attention from researchers.

The Homeric period has been little studied by historians; basic information about it has been preserved in the works of Homer. Chronologically covered the period from the 11th to the 9th centuries. BC.

After it came the archaic stage, in which the foundations of the Greek statehood, mentality, culture, and mythology began to take shape. The period began in the 8th century. BC. and ended at the border of the 5th-4th centuries. BC.

Settlement of Hellas

People began to appear on the southern outskirts of the Balkan Peninsula during the Middle Paleolithic period. Traces of primitive man have been discovered from Macedonia to Elis. In the Neolithic, people were already engaged in agriculture, raised livestock, began to build houses, and a clan system took shape, which in 3-2 thousand BC. developed into an early class society.

During the Aegean period, the settlement of mainland and island Greece took place. In particular, Minoan culture developed on Crete, Helladic culture on the mainland, and Cycladic culture on the islands.

In the Bronze Age, civilization actively developed on the Greek islands. This period was characterized by the following features and achievements:

• Mining of ores, including copper, began;
• People began to actively use silver and lead;
• Weapons, decorations, tools, and religious things were made of metal;
• Ceramic and pottery products were created;
• Construction and crafts associated with it developed. This allowed the development of shipping. The construction of ships contributed to the gradual development of the islands neighboring Greece. As a result, the ancient Greeks established dominance over the coast of the entire Aegean Sea;
• Large cities arose that were the centers of certain tribes. The settlements were located at higher elevations, which indicates the beginning of differentiation of society. Rulers appeared who sought to rise above other people. This sparked the first tribal wars in Ancient Greece.

In the Bronze Age, the center of social and economic development was Crete, where several states emerged. These include Festus, Mallia, Knossos. By their nature, these were early slaveholding states that had their own written language (hieroglyphic). At the very end of the Bronze Age in Crete, the new palace period began, during which the creation of new palaces and the renovation of old ones took place. The Cretan-Mycenaean civilization was one of the most developed in Ancient Greece, during which communications with the outside world, maritime dominance significantly expanded, and cities strengthened. In 1470 BC. An earthquake occurred on the island of Thera, which reached Crete. Cities, palaces, and fleets were instantly destroyed. The entire population of the island also died, after which its territory began to fall into desolation. A hundred years later, the Knossos Palace was restored, but this state no longer achieved its former power.

Other slave-owning centers arose on the mainland, becoming separate city-states. It was Pylos, Tiryns and Mycenae that created the Achaean tribes. They built not only warships, but also large merchant ships, which allowed them to establish dominance over the existing trade routes of the time. Achaean products were sold to such Eastern countries as Phenicia, Syria, and Egypt. Products of the ancient Greeks are found both in Asia Minor and Italy. The Achaeans came up with their own writing, which, unlike the Cretan one, was not hieroglyphic, but syllabic.

Features of the Homeric period

The Achaean civilization fell under the onslaught of new tribes - the Dorians, who captured states in the middle and southern regions. Athens survived, where the Achaeans from the Peloponnese moved. Here it was possible to preserve a high culture and develop further, but the rest of Greece was thrown back in development.

This is due to the fact that the Dorian tribes were in the conditions of the formation of a tribal system. Therefore, production, cities and political systems began to change rapidly. Tribal relations again came to the fore, which is why tools and weapons made of iron began to spread in ancient Greek society. Products made of metal and iron caused the formation of a special class of society - artisans, thanks to which at the end of the 9th century. BC. crafts were finally separated from agriculture and cattle breeding. This is how a market began to form; individual cities began to specialize in the production of only one type of iron products.

Independent communities led by basilei began to emerge. Their power was supported by the clan nobility, which strengthened its influence through land holdings. The population living in such territories fell into slavery. People became dependent on the rich in different ways:

• In Sparta, the dependent categories of the population included the perieci, who formed the basis of the indigenous population of the state; as well as helots - farmers from Messenia. The Perieks had little self-government, continuing to engage in trade and various crafts. The helots were state property, they were attached to plots of land of the Spartiates - representatives of the local nobility;
• In Thessaly, the conquered population was called penesti;
• In Crete these were the Clarotes.

Slavery also existed in Athens during the Homeric period, but people who did not pay their debts became slaves.

Greece in the Archaic Period

The increase in the number of cities and the complication of the social system caused the active development of trade. Residents of populated areas required constant raw materials for work and food. The situation was worsened by the fact that the cities became refuges for peasants whose land had been taken away. The number of representatives of the nobility, who were constantly in need of slaves, also increased. They were used to build palaces, cultivate fields, and do household work.

All this created the preconditions for the beginning of a new stage in the history of Ancient Greece - the colonial one. The impetus for the creation of colonial cities was the aggravation of social struggle within Greek society. During the 8th-6th centuries. BC, colonies were established on the islands of Sicily and Euboea, the coast of the Gulf of Tarentum, the Black Sea, and along the Aegean coast.

The presence of a large number of colonies brought Greek trade to a new level of development - international. The consequences of creating colonies include:

• Growing demand for Greek goods;
• Slaves were constantly arriving in the metropolis;
• The nobility received wealth and luxury goods;
• Coins borrowed from other peoples began to be used in trade;
• The position of many landowners and family nobility strengthened;
• Individual cities in Greece became common religious centers.

The archaic period was characterized by a constant struggle between the demos and the aristocracy. The population of the cities sought to get rid of slavery, and this was done in a number of cities of Hellas.

Resistance was provided by the tribal nobility, which was pacified through the establishment of a regime of tyranny.

During the 8th-6th centuries. BC. A special form of political, social and economic structure of the Greek city also emerged. It was a polis - a free settlement in which only free citizens lived. If people belonged to the polis, then this provided them with rights, including to slaves and land.

The policies were divided into two groups:

• Oligarchic (Sparta and Crete);
• Democratic (Athens).

In the city-states, slavery and elements of the tribal system existed simultaneously. In the south of mainland Greece, agricultural communities that belonged to individual tribes continued to develop.

Hellas in the classical period of development

Greece reached the peak of its development in the 5th-4th centuries. BC. Historians believe that this was a time of flourishing economics, culture, politics, trade, sciences and arts. Trade and craft policies continued to use slaves - in craft workshops, in mines, in the fields, and on the farm.

Small peasant farms and crafts became widespread.

During the classical period, the center of political life was Athens, which was famous for its democratic traditions. This allowed them to win a series of Greco-Persian wars and create the Delian League to fight against the Persians.

In Greece, there was never unity between the poleis, and the struggle for dominance intensified during the classical period. The peak of the confrontation was the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens, which ended in the loss of the latter polis. The Greek cities that supported Athens suffered defeat and losses. But the war caused the rise of Sparta and its supporters.

But this was not the last war in Hellas of that period. Another one flared up in 395-387. BC, and received the name Corinthian. It ended with the defeat of Sparta, and the fall of part of the Greek city-states under the rule of Persia.

In the middle of the 4th century. BC. In the northern Greek regions, a new political force was formed, led by the city-police of Macedonia. Its king, Philip II, gradually captured the coast of Thrace, Thessaly, Hacidica and Phocis. The influence of Macedonia was so strong that pro-Macedonian parties appeared in other states.

In 338-337. BC, Philip II convened the Corinthian Congress, at which Macedonian dominance over island and mainland Greece was formalized. He also created a union of poleis, in which the regime of government was proclaimed oligarchic. Order among the population and in the authorities was maintained by the efforts of the Macedonian army.

Decline of Ancient Greece

At the end of the 4th century. BC Hellas entered a new period of development, which in historiography is called Hellenistic. It was associated with the name of Alexander the Great, son of Philip II. His conquests qualitatively changed all spheres of life in Greece, formed many other states, and enriched Greek culture. Alexander the Great managed to create a huge empire, which ceased to exist immediately after his death in 323 BC.

The Hellenistic period in Greece was characterized by the following events:

• Creation of permanent unions of cities and policies. Such formations were military in nature, and were aimed at challenging the dominance of Macedonia, Sparta or Athens in Greece;
• The policies were headed by oligarchs or kings, who constantly fought among themselves;
• Macedonia won the fight against Athens, ending the famous Athenian democracy;
• Macedonia lost power over the Balkans, since the Achaean and Aetolian military alliances constantly fought against it;
• The death of Alexander the Great unleashed a struggle between his successors, as a result of which cities were destroyed, people died, the sale of people into slavery intensified, and new colonies were created. Pirates also began to attack Greece, the island and coastal cities suffered especially from this;
• The social struggle intensified in the policies, which depended on which political force interfered in the internal affairs of Greece. These were both Romans and Persians.

In 196 BC. The Isthmian Games took place, at which the commander Flaminin announced that the Greeks had freedom. This increased the popularity of Rome in Greece, which effectively became the property of the republic. In 27 BC. Hellas became one of the Roman provinces called Achaea. And this continued for several centuries, until in the 4th century. AD the raids of the barbarians did not destroy the Roman Empire, dividing it into Western and Eastern. On the basis of the latter, a new political force began to form on the Balkan Peninsula - the Byzantine Empire.

Religion and mythology of Ancient Greece

The inhabitants of Hellas had their own distinctive religion, which linked culture, mythology and art into a single whole. The Greeks believed that the main god was Zeus, sitting on Mount Olympus. Eleven other gods and goddesses lived there with him. Greek religion, like mythology, is interesting because the Greeks represented their gods as people, endowing them with human traits of character and behavior. The gods had the same feelings as people, the vices and desires that were present in the ancient world.

Mythology was formed over several centuries, and reflected all the problems that the Greeks faced in everyday life. In addition to gods, Greek mythology is rich in characters such as mortal heroes, such as Achilles and Hercules, mythical creatures. These were satyrs, oras, nymphs, forest and river monsters, dragons, muses, dragons and vipers.

Art and Science

The inhabitants of Ancient Hellas made a huge contribution to the development of theater, painting, and sculpture. Greek art is present in almost every corner of the globe. First of all, these are temples and architectural styles. The Greeks built temples in honor of the gods so that Zeus and his supporters would have a place to live. But, unlike the Romans, or the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, the Greeks built temples that were not large (relatively speaking, judging by their size), placing them in the acropolis of the city. This was the most protected part of the settlement. To make the temple visible from afar, it was built on a mountain or hill. For construction, they tried to use two main materials - limestone and white marble. Each temple, like any Greek building, necessarily had columns located in one or two rows. During the classical period, the art of building temples reached its peak. In the next era – the Hellenistic era – stadiums, sports grounds, walking spaces, and amphitheaters began to appear.

Simultaneously with sculpture, sculpture developed, which changed throughout the entire period of the existence of Ancient Greece. If in the archaic period the sculptures of people necessarily had robes, then in the classical era the masters concentrated their main attention on the human body. It was customary to depict physically developed, strong, athletic people, which emphasized internal and external beauty. In Hellenism, sculptures began to have a metaphorical character, exaggerations and pomp appeared in works of art, which did not exist before.

The Greeks were also distinguished by their special painting technique, examples of which have practically not survived to this day. But the drawings can be seen on the vases. The Greeks used two methods of painting such items as black-figure and red-figure. The first was characterized by the use of black varnish to depict people and animals. And red-figure meant completely painting over the black background, the figures were made red, and the black varnish also helped to clearly draw the details.

During the celebration of the wine festival, which was dedicated to the god Dionysus, the Greek theater began to take shape. With its emergence, music and literature began to actively develop. Often these directions were not separated from each other, which made both literature and theater an organic whole. In productions, it was customary to use special masks that were worn only by male actors. Women did not take part in the performances.

The special role of theater in the everyday and social life of Greece is evidenced by the large number of theaters and amphitheaters. Neither festivals nor public celebrations were complete without performances. The theater was distinguished by a wide variety of plots, themes, and genres. These were comedies, tragedies, satires, and ironic performances on the topic of the day.

The scientific knowledge of the Greeks developed in various fields - philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, geometry, biology, physics, chemistry, history. A special place among knowledge was occupied by philosophy, which studied the problems of the origin of space, planets, man, and the search for answers to questions related to immortality. Several philosophical schools were formed in Hellas, the prominent representatives of which were Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Thales, Herodotus, etc.

Literature, grammar, mathematics, history, astronomy, and philosophy were taught in the schools of Ancient Greece. Physical education was mandatory so that a person’s personality would develop harmoniously.

The most famous legacy of the Greeks is the Olympic Games, which were created to praise the gods and bring them various honors. At first these were local competitions, which over time developed into pan-Greek ones. Athletes from different cities of Greece competed, trying to gain the status of the best athlete. The main competitions took place in the discipline of pentathlon, which is now also present at the Olympic Games.

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Introduction

1. Main features of ancient Greek civilization

2. Greek family

3. Phratry, tribe and nation of the Greeks

4. Religion

5. Culture

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The Latin word "antiquus", which means "ancient", gave the name to one of the most remarkable eras in the history of mankind - Antiquity, an era that lasted almost 15 centuries, incorporating the formation, flourishing and decline of the grandiose civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome! The greatest achievements of the ancient Mediterranean for the first time revealed to subsequent generations many forms of culture: theater, philosophy, dialectics, mathematics, sports, mythology, the order system in architecture and much, much more... Despite the fact that neither geographical characteristics nor the socio-political system Ancient Greece did not represent unity; Greek culture itself was surprisingly holistic.

The state system of Ancient Greece was not unified; it consisted of independent policies - city-states, most often defined by natural boundaries. The peculiarities of the ancient culture of Greece lie in its cosmology, in the affirmation of the aesthetic categories of beauty, proportion, harmony; in its rationality and anthropocentrism. For the ancient Greeks, space is an immense world, a universe in a special order and beauty, opposed to Chaos. Already in these ideas one can see interrelated aesthetic categories that permeate the entire Greek culture: measure, beauty, harmony. Compliance with measure, according to the concepts of the ancient Greeks, was a necessary condition for order and harmony. Measure had to be present in everything: in philosophy, politics, ethical and aesthetic ideas. “Keep moderation in everything,” the Greek sages recommend. In their understanding, proportionality, certainty, and limitation constitute beauty, and unity in diversity constitutes harmony.

The purpose of the essay is to characterize the civilization of Ancient Greece

1. Main features of ancient Greek civilization

The entire history of Ancient Greece is conventionally divided into several periods: Cretan-Mycenaean (XXX-XX centuries BC), Homeric (XI-IX centuries BC), Archaic (VIII-VI centuries BC). e.), classical (V - IV centuries BC) and Hellenistic (IV - I centuries BC)

There is no gold in Greece: it was mined outside of Greece - on the island of Thassos, in Macedonia and Thrace. But the Greeks had plenty of copper, finding it primarily in Euboea, where the name of the city of Chalkis comes from the Greek word for copper. A number of other ferrous and non-ferrous metals were also mined in Ancient Greece. Mining was at a high level of development in Athens: they knew how to find new deposits of valuable metals with extraordinary skill, and the depth of the mines reached 120 m. Even more important than silver for Greek art was clay, from which they made bricks, but above all ceramics - in this the Greeks achieved is known to have the highest artistic achievements. Finally, stone was also highly valued: thanks to it, Greek temples and other architectural monuments and sculptures arose over time.

In the Aegean Sea region, three cultural communities existed and interacted: the oldest of them is Cretan, or Minoan, with its center on Crete (3000 - 1200 BC); Cycladic, which flourished on the islands; and Hellenic - in Greece proper. The reflection of Cretan culture in mainland Greece was the Mycenaean culture: artists and artisans from Crete, brought as slaves by the winners - the Achaeans, obviously played a significant role in its formation.

In the archaic era, the main features of the ethics of ancient Greek society took shape. Its distinctive feature was the combination of an emerging sense of collectivism and an agonistic (competitive) principle. Formation of the polis as a special type of community. which replaced the loose associations of the “heroic” era, brought to life a new, polis morality - collectivist at its core, since the existence of an individual outside the framework of the polis was impossible. The military organization of the polis also contributed to the development of this morality. The highest valor of a citizen consisted in the defense of his polis: “It is sweet to lose one’s life, among the valiant warriors, to a brave man in battle for the sake of his fatherland” - these words of the Spartan poet Tyrtaeus perfectly expressed the mentality of this era, characterizing the system of values ​​that prevailed then Ancient civilizations . Under the general editorship. Bongard-Levina G.M. M., “Thought”, 1989, p. 304

Religion also experienced a certain transformation. The formation of a single Greek world, with all its local features, entailed the creation of a pantheon common to all Greeks.

2. Greek family

It can be said that civilization began among the Asian Greeks with the creation of the Homeric poems, around 850 BC. e., and among the European Greeks about a century later, with the creation of the poems of Hesiod. These eras were preceded by several millennia, during which the Hellenic tribes passed through the later period of barbarism and prepared to enter civilization. Their oldest traditions find them already settled on the Greek peninsula, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and on the intermediate and neighboring islands. A more ancient branch of the same trunk, the main representatives of which were the Pelasgians, owned most of this region before the Hellenes and were either Hellenized or supplanted by them over time. We can judge the earlier state of the Hellenic tribes and their predecessors from the industries and inventions which they brought with them from the previous period, from the degree of development of their language, from their traditions, and from the social institutions which survived in varying degrees into the period of civilization.

Both Pelasgians and Hellenes were organized into clans, phratries and tribes, and the latter were united into nations by merger. In some cases the organic series was not complete. Both among individual tribes and among nations, government was based on the clan as the unit of organization and resulted in a tribal society or people, a system sharply different from political society or the state. The governing body was a council of chiefs together with an agora, or popular assembly, and a basileus, or military commander. The people were free and their institutions democratic. Under the influence of advanced ideas and needs, the gens moved from archaic to its final form. Its changes were determined by the insurmountable demands of a developing society, but, despite all the concessions, the inability of the clan to satisfy these needs became increasingly obvious. These changes were limited mainly to three points: firstly, the account of descent moved to the male line; secondly, marriage within the clan was allowed in cases where the case involved an orphaned girl and an heiress, and thirdly, children received the exclusive right to inherit their father’s property. Below we will try to briefly outline these changes and the reasons that caused them. The Hellenes, as a general rule, consisted of fragmented tribes, the forms of government of which revealed the same characteristic features characteristic of all generally barbarian tribes, organized into clans and at the same stage of development. Their condition was exactly what could be expected given the existence of tribal institutions, and therefore does not represent anything remarkable.

When Greek society first appeared on the radar of history, around the time of the first Olympiad (776 B.C.), until the legislation of Cleisthenes (509 B.C.), it was occupied with the solution of a great problem. The task was to radically change the management plan, requiring profound changes in public institutions. The people sought to move from the tribal society in which they had lived since time immemorial into a political society based on territory and property, which was an essential condition for entry into civilization. In a word, they sought to establish a state, the first in the history of the Aryan family, and to make territory the foundation on which the state has rested from then to the present day. Ancient society was based on the organization of individuals and was governed through the relationships of individuals to clan and tribe; but the Greek tribes outgrew this ancient plan of government and began to feel the need for a political system. To achieve this result, it was only necessary to create a dem, or urban community, enclosed within certain boundaries, give it a name and organize the people within its boundaries into a political whole. The urban community with the real estate located in it and the population currently living in it was to become the unit of organization in the new management plan. From now on, a member of the clan, turned into a citizen, was associated with the state on the basis of his territorial relations, and not personal relations with the clan.

The privileges and duties of members of the Greek family can be summarized as follows:

1. General religious rituals.

2. General cemetery.

3. Mutual right of inheritance in the property of deceased members.

4. Mutual obligation to help, protect and avenge grievances.

5. The right to marry within the clan with orphaned daughters and heirs.

6. Ownership of common property, with its own archon and treasurer.

7. Account of descent only through the male line.

8. The obligation not to marry within the clan, except in special cases.

9. The right to adopt strangers into the family.

10. The right to elect and remove their leaders.

It can be considered firmly established that the Greek families possessed the ten main attributes listed above. With the exception of three, namely the account of descent through the male line, marriage within the clan with heiresses and the possible transfer of the highest military position by inheritance, we also find these attributes with minor changes in the clans of the Iroquois. From this it is clear that both the Greek and the Iroquois tribes had the same initial institution, the former having the gens in its later form, and the latter in its archaic form.

The genus in its origin is older than the monogamous family, older than the syndiasmic family, and indeed modern to the punaluan family. None of these family forms in any case served as the basis of a clan. The clan does not recognize the existence of the family, of any form, as an integral part of itself. On the contrary, each family, both in the archaic and in the later period, was partly inside and partly outside the clan, since the husband and wife had to belong to different clans. The simple and complete explanation of this is that the family appears independently of the clan, developing freely from lower to higher forms, while the clan, as the unit of the social system, remains constant. The clan was included entirely in the phratry, the phratry was included entirely in the tribe, and the tribe was included entirely in the nation; but the family as a whole could not be included in the clan, since the husband and wife had to belong to different clans.

In reality, the family in none of its forms served as such a basis, since it as a whole could not enter into the clan. The clan was a homogeneous and highly stable organization and, as such, was the natural basis of the social system. A family of a monogamous type could individualize and acquire significance in the clan and in society in general, but the clan, nevertheless, could not recognize the family as its integral part, nor depend on it. The same applies to the modern family and political society. Although the family, thanks to property rights and privileges, has been individualized and recognized by law as a legal unit, it does not constitute a unit of the political system. The state recognizes the provinces of which it consists, the province recognizes the communities within it, but the community does not take into account the family; Thus, the nation recognized its tribes, the tribe - its phratries, the phratries - its clans; but the clan did not consider the family.

Each family had its own sacred rites and mourning remembrances of ancestors, performed by the owner of the house with the admission of only family members... Larger unions, called clan, phratry, tribe, existed on the basis of an extension of the same principle - the family, considered as a religious brotherhood, worshiping what - a common god or hero, bearing the appropriate nickname and recognized as their common ancestor. The festivals of Theenia and Apaturia (the first - Attic, the second - common to the entire Ionian race) annually brought together members of these phratries and clans for cult ceremonies, feasts and the maintenance of mutual sympathy; In this way, broader ties were strengthened without weakening narrower ones...

The clans, both in Athens and in other parts of Greece, had patronymic names, a sign of their supposed common origin... But in Athens, at least after the revolution of Cleisthenes, the family name was not used: the man was called by his personal name, followed by first the name of the father, and then the name of the house to which he belonged, for example, Aeschines, son of Atromet, Cophocydes... The clan was a strictly closed group in relation to both property and persons. Before the era of Solon, no one had testamentary rights. If someone died childless, his property was inherited by the genets, and this order was maintained in the absence of a will even after Solon. Each member of the clan could declare his right to marry an orphan girl, with the closest agnates enjoying advantage; if she was poor and the closest agnate did not want to marry her himself, then Solon’s law obliged him to give her a dowry proportional to his property, and to marry her to another... In the case of murder, the closest relatives of the murdered person, first of all, and then his genets and frators had the right and were obliged to prosecute the criminal; the Sodemots of the murdered person, or the inhabitants of the same deme, did not have a similar right to persecute the criminal.

3 . Phratry, tribe and nation of the Greeks

Phratry was the second level of organization in the Greek social system. It consisted of several clans united for common, mainly religious purposes. The phratry had a natural basis in kinship, several clans of one phratry were probably a subdivision of one initial clan, the memory of which was preserved by tradition. It began to be called fatria and phratry when some people began to marry their daughters to another patria. For a woman given in marriage no longer took part in her father’s sacred rites, but was enrolled in her husband’s patra; Thus, instead of the union that previously existed as a result of love between brothers and sisters, another union was created, based on a community of religious rites, which they called phratry; so, while the patra arose in the above way from the consanguinity between parents and children and children and parents, the phratry arose from the consanguinity between brothers.

And the tribe and fellow tribesmen were so named as a result of merging into communities and so-called nations, for each of the merging groups was called a tribe.

It should be noted that the existence of the custom of marriage outside the clan is recognized here and that the wife was enrolled in the clan rather than in her husband's faction. Dicaearchus, who was a student of Aristotle, lived at a time when the gens no longer existed only in the form of a genealogy of individuals, since its role was transferred to new ones. political units. He traced the origin of the gens to primitive times, but his indication that the phratry arose from the marriage customs of the gentes, undoubtedly correct in relation to these customs, represents only his personal opinion as regards the origin of this organization. Mutual marriages, together with common religious rites, were supposed to cement the phratrial union, but a more solid basis for the phratry can be seen in the common origin of the clans of which it consisted. It should not be overlooked that the history of the family embraces three sub-periods of barbarism and goes back to the previous period of savagery, being older even than the Aryan and Semitic families. As you have seen, the phratry arose among the natives of America at the lowest stage of barbarism, while the Greeks were familiar with their history only from the highest stage of barbarism.

The obligation of blood feud, which later turned into the obligation to prosecute the murderer before a legal court, initially lay with the clan of the murdered, but was shared by the phratry, and then became the responsibility of the phratry. In Aeschylus's "Emvenides", Erinnia, having reported the murder of his mother by Orestes, poses the question: "What cleansing bath of the fraters awaits him", from which, apparently, it follows that if the culprit escaped punishment, then the final cleansing was carried out by his phratry, and not by him originally from But the extension of this duty from clan to phratry presupposes the common origin of all clans of one phratry.

Since the phratry was an intermediate link between clan and tribe and was not vested with management functions, it was of less importance than clan and tribe, but it was a common, natural and probably necessary stage of reintegration. If we had a real knowledge of the social life of the Greeks at this early period, it would very likely be found that the phratrial organization was a much more significant center than our meager sources allow us to suppose. As an organization it probably had more power and influence than is usually attributed to it. Among the Athenians, the phratry survived the clan that served as the basis of the system, and under the new political system retained a certain supervision over the registration of citizens, the recording of marriages and the prosecution of the murderer of the phrator in court.

It is usually said that each of the four Athenian tribes was divided into three phratries, and each phratry was divided into thirty clans; but this can be said only for the convenience of description. In tribal institutions, the people are not divided into symmetrical parts and their subdivisions. The natural process of their formation was just the opposite: the clans were united into phratries, and then into tribes, which were further united into a society or people. All these forms were natural formations. The fact that there were thirty gentes in each Athenian phratry is a remarkable fact, which cannot be explained by natural causes. A sufficiently strong motive, for example, the desire for a symmetrical organization of phratries and tribes, could lead to the division of clans by mutual agreement, until their number in each phratry reaches thirty; if there were more clans in the tribe, then the merging of related clans until their number was reduced to thirty. It is more likely that the phratries, which needed to increase the number of clans, accepted other clans into their composition. Given the presence of a certain number of tribes, phratries and clans formed through natural development, it was not difficult to bring the last two groups to uniformity in all four tribes. Once such a ratio of thirty clans in each phratry and three phratries in each tribe was created, it could easily be maintained for centuries, with the exception, perhaps, of the number of clans in each phratry.

Clans and phratries were the center and source of the religious life of the Greek tribes. It must be assumed that in and through these organizations that amazing polytheistic system was created with its hierarchy of gods, symbols and forms of worship, which left such a stamp on the spirit of the classical world. To a large extent, this mythology inspired the great achievements of the legendary and historical periods and was the source of inspiration that created the temple and ornamental architecture that so delights the modern world. Some religious rites, which originated in these social groups, became national due to the high sanctity attributed to them, which shows what a cradle of religion the clans and phratries were. The events of this extraordinary period, in many respects the most remarkable in the history of the Aryan family, are largely lost to history. Legendary genealogies and narratives, myths and fragments of poetic works, ending with Homeric and Hesiod's poems, constitute the literary heritage of this period. But their institutions, productions, inventions, mythological system, in a word, the essence of the civilization they created, constituted the heritage they transmitted to the new society which they were destined to found. The history of this era can still be reconstructed on the basis of various sources reflecting the main features of tribal society shortly before the establishment of political society.

Just as the clan had its own archon, who performed the duties of a priest during the religious ceremonies of the clan, so each phratry had its phratriarch, who led its meetings and led the solemn performance of its religious rites. “The phratry,” notes de Coulanges, “had its own meetings and tribunals and could issue decrees. It had, like the family, its own god, its own priests, a court and its own government.” The religious rites of the phratry were an extension of the rites of the clans of which it consisted. This is where the attention of anyone who wishes to understand the religious life of the Greeks should be directed.

The next stage of organization was the tribe, which consisted of several phratries, which in turn consisted of clans. The members of the phratry were of common origin and spoke the same dialect. Among the Athenians, as has already been said, the tribe consisted of three phratries, which gave each tribe a similar organization. The tribe of the Athenians corresponds to the Latin tribe, as well as to the tribes of the American natives; for a complete analogy with the latter, the only thing missing was that each Athenian tribe spoke a special dialect. The concentration on a small territory of those Greek tribes that merged into one people should have led to the destruction of dialectological differences, and the subsequent emergence of a literary language and literature contributed to this even more. Nevertheless, each tribe was still more or less localized in a certain territory, according to requirements of a social system based on personal relationships. One must think that each tribe had its own council of leaders, which had supreme power in all matters relating exclusively to the tribe. But since information about the functions and rights of the supreme council of leaders, which managed the general affairs of the united tribes, has been lost , it cannot be expected that information about the functions of the lower and subordinate council has been preserved.If such a council existed, which was necessary in their social system, it should have consisted of the leaders of the clans.

When different phratries of one tribe united for the solemn performance of their religious rites, they acted as the highest organic form - a tribe. In this case, they were led, as is directly indicated, by the philobasileus, who was the highest leader of the tribe. He had the priestly functions inherent in the office of basileus, and had criminal jurisdiction in cases of murder.

The fourth and final stage in the organization of clan society was the nation. When several tribes, such as the Athenians and Spartans, merged into one people, the society expanded, but the resulting union was only a more complex reproduction of the tribe. Tribes occupied the same place in the nation as phratries in a tribe and clans in a phratry. This organism, which was simply a society (societas), did not have a special name, but instead the name of a people or nation appeared. Homer's description of the military forces assembled against Troy gives such nations special names, if they existed, for example, Athenians, Aetolians, Locrians; but in other cases they are called by the names of their city or locality.

So, the Greeks before the era of Lycurgus and Solon knew only four stages of social organization (clan, phratry, tribe and nation); they were almost universal in ancient society, existing, as we have seen, partly in the period of savagery and entirely in the lower, middle and higher stages of barbarism, and continued to persist after the beginning of civilization. This organic series expresses the limits of development of the idea of ​​government among humanity up to the establishment of political society. Such was the Greek social system. She created a society consisting of a number of groups of individuals, the management of which was based on their personal relationships to the clan, phratry and tribe. At the same time, it was a tribal society, and not a political society, from which it was essentially different and easily distinguished.

4 . Religion

The cosmogonic ideas of the Greeks were not fundamentally different from the ideas of many other peoples. It was believed that initially there existed Chaos, Earth (Gaia), the underworld (Tartarus) and Eros - the life principle. Gaia gave birth to the starry sky - Uranus, who became the first ruler of the world and the husband of Gaia. From Uranus and Gaia the second generation of gods was born - the Titans. The Titan Kronos (god of agriculture) overthrew the power of Uranus. In turn, the children of Kronos - Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Hestia, Demeter and Hera - under the leadership of Zeus overthrew Kronos and seized power over the Universe. Thus, the Olympian gods are the third generation of deities. Zeus became the supreme deity - the ruler of the sky, thunder and lightning. Among the descendants of Zeus, Apollo stood out - the god of the light principle in nature, often called Phoebus (Shining). The role of Apollo increases more and more over time, and he begins to displace Zeus.

Athena, born from the head of Zeus, was highly respected - the goddess of wisdom, all rational principles, but also war (unlike Ares, who personified reckless courage).

For Greek religious consciousness, especially at this stage of development, the idea of ​​​​the omnipotence of a deity is not characteristic. Due to political fragmentation and the lack of a priestly class, the Greeks did not develop a single religion. A large number of very similar, but not identical, religious systems arose. As the polis worldview developed, ideas about the special connection of individual deities with one or another polis, whose patrons they acted, took shape. Thus, the goddess Athena is especially closely associated with the city of Athens, Apollo with Delphi, Zeus with Olympia, etc.

The Greek worldview is characterized not only by polytheism, but also by the idea of ​​the universal animation of nature.

5 . Culture

5th century BC e. - the heyday of dramatic art in Greece. The most important dramatic genres were tragedy, the plots of which were myths about gods and heroes, and comedy, most often political. Unlike modern theater, there were no permanent troupes in Greece, and professional actors did not appear immediately. Initially, the citizens themselves played, sang and danced. For each production, costumes, masks and very simple sets were prepared. The financing and organization of theatrical performances was one of the duties (liturgies) of the wealthiest citizens (the so-called choregy): the theater was a state institution. The ancient Greek theatre, especially the Athenian one, was closely connected with the life of the polis, being essentially a second national assembly where the most pressing issues were discussed.

The greatest achievement of Greek culture of the archaic era was the creation of alphabetic writing. By transforming the Phoenician syllabary system, the Greeks created a simple way of recording information. In order to learn to write and count, years of hard work were no longer needed; there was a “democratization” of the education system, which made it possible to gradually make almost all free residents of Greece literate.

The picture of the cultural life of the Greek city will be incomplete without mentioning the holidays. Thus, about 60 holidays were celebrated in Athens, some of them lasted for several days. The most important are Dionysia, Lenaeus and Greater Panathenaea. It was in the holidays that the national character of Greek culture, its democracy and the spirit of competition inherent in the life of the ancient Greeks, the desire to surpass others and thereby achieve the highest perfection, was clearly manifested. The holidays included all kinds of competitions, mass dances, costumed processions, and dramatic performances.

Conclusion

Thus, we can conclude that ancient Greek civilization made a huge contribution to the development of world culture. The monuments of architecture and sculpture that have reached us, masterpieces of painting and poetry, are evidence of a high level of cultural development. They have significance not only as works of art, but also social and moral significance.

Most likely, Greek culture had a greater influence on the development of Roman culture due to the fact that it developed in an earlier period of time, and Roman culture seemed to inherit its features, it was their logical development and, of course, added many new signs and features to it.

On the basis of ancient culture, categories of scientific thinking first appeared and began to develop; the contribution of antiquity to the development of astronomy and theoretical mathematics was great. That is why ancient philosophy and science played such an important role in the emergence of modern science and the development of technology. In general, the culture of antiquity was the basis for the further development of world culture.

Bibliography

1. Ancient civilizations. / Under the general editorship. Bongard-Levina G.M. - M.: Mysl, 1989.

2. History and culture of the ancient world. / Edited by Kobylin M.M. - M.: Nauka, 1977.

3. Kumanetsky K. History of culture of ancient Greece and Rome - M.: Higher school, 1990.

4. Lurie S.A. History of Greece. - SPb.: St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 1993.

5. Lyubimov L. The Art of the Ancient World. - M.: Education, 1980.

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Topic 17

2. The USSR is on the path to radically reforming society. "The Epoch of Gorbachev". Collapse of the Soviet socialist system

Topic 18

2. Foreign policy of modern Russia

Content

3. Western type of civilization: the ancient civilization of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

The next global type of civilization that emerged in ancient times was Western type of civilization. It began to emerge on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and reached its highest development in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, societies that are commonly called the ancient world in the period from the IX-VIII centuries. BC e. until IV-V centuries. n. e. Therefore, the Western type of civilization can rightfully be called the Mediterranean or ancient type of civilization.

Ancient civilization went through a long path of development. In the south of the Balkan Peninsula, for various reasons, early class societies and states arose at least three times: in the 2nd half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. (destroyed by the Achaeans); in the XVII-XIII centuries. BC e. (destroyed by the Dorians); in the IX-VI centuries. BC e. the last attempt was a success - an ancient society arose.

Ancient civilization, like eastern civilization, is a primary civilization. It grew directly from primitiveness and could not benefit from the fruits of the previous civilization. Therefore, in ancient civilization, by analogy with Eastern civilization, the influence of primitiveness is significant in the minds of people and in the life of society. The dominant position is occupied religious and mythological worldview. However, this worldview has significant features. Ancient worldview cosmological. In Greek, space is not only the world. The Universe, but also order, the world whole, opposing Chaos with its proportionality and beauty. This ordering is based on measure and harmony. Thus, in ancient culture, on the basis of ideological models, one of the important elements of Western culture is formed - rationality.

The focus on harmony throughout the cosmos was also associated with the culture-creating activity of “ancient man.” Harmony manifests itself in the proportion and connection of things, and these connection proportions can be calculated and reproduced. Hence the formulation canon- a set of rules that define harmony, mathematical calculations of the canon, based on observations of the real human body. The body is a prototype of the world. Cosmologism (ideas about the universe) of ancient culture was anthropocentric character, that is, man was considered as the center of the Universe and the ultimate goal of the entire universe. Space was constantly correlated with man, natural objects with human ones. This approach determined people’s attitude towards their earthly life. The desire for earthly joys, an active position in relation to this world are the characteristic values ​​of ancient civilization.

The civilizations of the East grew up on irrigated agriculture. Ancient society had a different agricultural basis. This is the so-called Mediterranean triad - growing grains, grapes and olives without artificial irrigation.

Unlike eastern societies, ancient societies developed very dynamically, since from the very beginning a struggle flared up in it between the peasantry enslaved into shared slavery and the aristocracy. For other peoples, it ended with the victory of the nobility, but among the ancient Greeks, the demos (people) not only defended freedom, but also achieved political equality. The reasons for this lie in the rapid development of crafts and trade. The trade and craft elite of the demos quickly grew rich and economically became stronger than the landowning nobility. The contradictions between the power of the trade and craft part of the demos and the receding power of the landowning nobility formed the driving force behind the development of Greek society, which by the end of the 6th century. BC e. resolved in favor of the demos.

In ancient civilization, private property relations came to the fore, and the dominance of private commodity production, oriented primarily at the market, became evident.

The first example of democracy in history appeared - democracy as the personification of freedom. Democracy in the Greco-Latin world was still direct. The equality of all citizens was provided for as a principle of equal opportunity. There was freedom of speech and election of government bodies.

In the ancient world, the foundations of civil society were laid, providing for the right of every citizen to participate in government, recognition of his personal dignity, rights and freedoms. The state did not interfere in the private lives of citizens or this interference was insignificant. Trade, crafts, agriculture, family functioned independently of the authorities, but within the framework of the law. Roman law contained a system of norms regulating private property relations. Citizens were law-abiding.

In antiquity, the issue of interaction between the individual and society was resolved in favor of the former. The individual and his rights were recognized as primary, and the collective and society as secondary.

However, democracy in the ancient world was limited in nature: the mandatory presence of a privileged layer, the exclusion of women, free foreigners, and slaves from its action.

Slavery also existed in the Greco-Latin civilization. Assessing its role in antiquity, it seems that the position of those researchers who see the secret of the unique achievements of antiquity not in slavery (the work of slaves is ineffective), but in freedom, is closer to the truth. The displacement of free labor by slave labor during the Roman Empire was one of the reasons for the decline of this civilization (see: Semennikova L.I. Russia in the world community of civilizations. - M., 1994. - P. 60).

Civilization of Ancient Greece. The uniqueness of Greek civilization lies in the emergence of such a political structure as "policy" - "city-state", covering the city itself and the surrounding area. Polis were the first republics in the history of all mankind.

Numerous Greek cities were founded along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, as well as on the islands of Cyprus and Sicily. In the VIII-VII centuries. BC e. A large stream of Greek settlers rushed to the coast of southern Italy; the formation of large policies in this territory was so significant that it was called “Great Greece.”

Citizens of the policies had the right to own land, were obliged to take part in state affairs in one form or another, and in case of war, a civil militia was formed from them. In Hellenic policies, in addition to the citizens of the city, a free population usually lived personally, but was deprived of civil rights; Often these were immigrants from other Greek cities. At the bottom rung of the social ladder of the ancient world there were completely powerless slaves.

In the polis community, the ancient form of land ownership dominated; it was used by those who were members of the civil community. Under the policy system, hoarding was condemned. IN In most policies, the supreme body of power was the people's assembly. He had the right to make final decisions on the most important policy issues. The cumbersome bureaucratic apparatus, characteristic of eastern and all totalitarian societies, was absent in the policy. The polis represented an almost complete coincidence of political structure, military organization and civil society.

The Greek world was never a single political entity. It consisted of several completely independent states that could enter into alliances, usually voluntarily, sometimes under duress, wage wars among themselves or make peace. The size of most policies was small: usually they had only one city, where several hundred citizens lived. Each such town was the administrative, economic and cultural center of a small state, and its population was engaged not only in crafts, but also in agriculture.

In the VI-V centuries. BC e. the polis developed into a special form of slave state, more progressive than eastern despotism. Citizens of a classical polis are equal in their political and legal rights. No one stood higher than the citizen in the polis, except the polis collective (the idea of ​​​​the sovereignty of the people). Every citizen had the right to publicly express his opinion on any issue. It became a rule for the Greeks to make any political decisions openly, jointly, after full public discussion. In the policy there is a division of the highest legislative power (the people's assembly) and the executive power (elected fixed-term magistrates). Thus, in Greece the system known to us as ancient democracy was established.

Ancient Greek civilization is characterized by the fact that it most clearly expresses the idea of ​​​​the sovereignty of the people and a democratic form of government. Greece of the archaic period had a certain specificity of civilization in comparison with other ancient countries: classical slavery, a polis system of management, a developed market with a monetary form of circulation. Although Greece at that time did not represent a single state, constant trade between individual policies, economic and family ties between neighboring cities led the Greeks to self-awareness - to be in a single state.

The heyday of ancient Greek civilization was achieved during the period of classical Greece (VI century - 338 BC). The polis organization of society effectively carried out economic, military and political functions and became a unique phenomenon, unknown in the world of ancient civilization.

One of the features of the civilization of classical Greece was the rapid rise of material and spiritual culture. In the field of development of material culture, the emergence of new technology and material values ​​was noted, crafts developed, sea harbors were built and new cities emerged, maritime transport and all kinds of cultural monuments were built, etc.

The product of the highest culture of antiquity is the Hellenistic civilization, which began with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 334-328. BC e. The Persian power, which covered Egypt and a large part of the Middle East to the Indus and Central Asia. The Hellenistic period lasted three centuries. In this wide space, new forms of political organization and social relations of peoples and their culture emerged - the Hellenistic civilization.

What are the features of Hellenistic civilization? The characteristic features of the Hellenistic civilization include: a specific form of socio-political organization - the Hellenistic monarchy with elements of eastern despotism and polis structure; growth in the production of products and trade in them, development of trade routes, expansion of money circulation, including the appearance of gold coins; a stable combination of local traditions with the culture brought by the conquerors and settlers of the Greeks and other peoples.

Hellenism enriched the history of mankind and world civilization as a whole with new scientific discoveries. The greatest contributions to the development of mathematics and mechanics were made by Euclid (3rd century BC) and Archimedes (287-312). A versatile scientist, mechanic and military engineer, Archimedes from Syracuse laid the foundations of trigonometry; they discovered the principles of analysis of infinitesimal quantities, as well as the basic laws of hydrostatics and mechanics, which were widely used for practical purposes. For the irrigation system in Egypt, an “Archimedes screw” was used - a device for pumping water. It was an inclined hollow pipe, inside of which there was a screw tightly fitting to it. A screw rotated with the help of people scooped up water and lifted it up.

Traveling overland necessitated the need to accurately measure the length of the path traveled. This problem was solved in the 1st century. BC e. Alexandrian mechanic Heron. He invented a device he called a hodometer (path meter). Nowadays, such devices are called taximeters.

World art has been enriched with such masterpieces as the Altar of Zeus in Pergamon, the statues of Venus de Milo and the Nike of Samothrace, and the Laocoon sculptural group. The achievements of ancient Greek, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Byzantine and other cultures were included in the golden fund of Hellenistic civilization.

Civilization of Ancient Rome compared to Greece was a more complex phenomenon. According to ancient legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC. e. on the left bank of the Tiber, the validity of which was confirmed by archaeological excavations of the present century. Initially, the population of Rome consisted of three hundred clans, the elders of which formed the Senate; At the head of the community was a king (in Latin - reve). The king was the supreme military leader and priest. Later, the Latin communities living in Latium, annexed to Rome, received the name plebeians (plebs-people), and the descendants of the old Roman families, who then made up the aristocratic layer of the population, received the name patricians.

In the VI century. BC e. Rome became a fairly significant city and was dependent on the Etruscans, who lived northwest of Rome.

At the end of the 6th century. BC e. With the liberation from the Etruscans, the Roman Republic was formed, which lasted for about five centuries. The Roman Republic was initially a small state in area, less than 1000 square meters. km. The first centuries of the republic were a time of persistent struggle of the plebeians for their equal political rights with the patricians, for equal rights to public land. As a result, the territory of the Roman state gradually expanded. At the beginning of the 4th century. BC e. it has already more than doubled the original size of the republic. At this time, Rome was captured by the Gauls, who had previously settled in the Po Valley. However, the Gallic invasion did not play a significant role in the further development of the Roman state. II and I centuries. BC e. were times of great conquests, which gave Rome all the countries adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe to the Rhine and Danube, as well as Britain, Asia Minor, Syria and almost the entire coast of North Africa. Countries conquered by the Romans outside Italy were called provinces.

In the first centuries of Roman civilization, slavery in Rome was poorly developed. From the 2nd century BC e. the number of slaves increased due to successful wars. The situation in the republic gradually worsened. In the 1st century BC e. the war of the disenfranchised Italians against Rome and the slave uprising led by Spartacus shocked all of Italy. It all ended with the establishment in Rome in 30 BC. e. the sole power of the emperor, who relied on armed force.

The first centuries of the Roman Empire were a time of severe property inequality and the spread of large-scale slavery. From the 1st century BC e. The opposite process is also observed - the release of slaves. Subsequently, slave labor in agriculture is gradually replaced by the labor of colons, personally free, but attached to the land cultivators. Previously prosperous Italy began to weaken, and the importance of the provinces began to increase. The collapse of the slave system began.

At the end of the 4th century. n. e. The Roman Empire is divided roughly in half - into eastern and western parts. The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire lasted until the 15th century, when it was conquered by the Turks. Western Empire during the 5th century. BC e. was attacked by the Huns and Germans. In 410 AD e. Rome was taken by one of the Germanic tribes - the Ostrogoths. After this, the Western Empire eked out a miserable existence, and in 476 its last emperor was dethroned.

What are the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire? They were associated with the crisis of Roman society, caused by the difficulties of reproducing slaves, the problems of maintaining controllability of a huge empire, the increasing role of the army, the militarization of political life, and the reduction of the urban population and the number of cities. The Senate and city government bodies turned into fiction. Under these conditions, the imperial power was forced to recognize the division of the empire in 395 into Western and Eastern (the center of the latter was Constantinople) and abandon military campaigns in order to expand the territory of the state. Therefore, the military weakening of Rome was one of the reasons for its fall.

The rapid fall of the Western Roman Empire was facilitated by the invasion of barbarians, a powerful movement of Germanic tribes on its territory in the 4th-7th centuries, which culminated in the creation of “barbarian kingdoms”.

A brilliant expert on the history of Rome, the Englishman Edward Gibbon (18th century), names among the reasons for the fall of Rome the negative consequences of the adoption of Christianity (officially adopted in the 4th century). It instilled in the masses a spirit of passivity, non-resistance and humility, forcing them to meekly bow under the yoke of power or even oppression. As a result, the proud warrior spirit of the Roman is replaced by a spirit of piety. Christianity taught only “to suffer and submit.”

With the fall of the Roman Empire, a new era in the history of civilization begins - the Middle Ages.

Thus, in the conditions of antiquity, two main (global) types of civilization were determined: Western, including European and North American, and Eastern, absorbing the civilization of Asian and African countries, including Arab, Turkic and Asia Minor. The ancient states of the West and East remained the most powerful active historical associations in international affairs: foreign economic and political relations, war and peace, establishment of interstate borders, resettlement of people on a particularly large scale, maritime navigation, compliance with environmental problems, etc.

subject 3

The place of the Middle Ages in the world historical process. Civilization of Ancient Rus'.

1/ The Middle Ages as a stage in world history.

Main civilizational regions

2/ Russia’s place in world civilization

3/ The emergence of Old Russian society

1. The Middle Ages as a stage in world history. Main civilizational regions

The era of Antiquity in Europe is replaced by the Middle Ages. What is the name of this era associated with? The concept of “Middle Ages” was introduced by Italian humanists, who thus wanted to emphasize the fundamental difference between the culture of their time and the previous historical period. They believed that they were truly reviving the culture of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. And the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and their own time was presented to them as an intertime, a period of cultural decline, when nothing worthy of attention happened in the lives of Europeans, when religious fanaticism reigned and illiteracy reigned. In other words, for the development of culture, this is an empty period of time, about which there is nothing meaningful to say - “medium aerum” - “Middle Age”.

For Italian humanists, the “Middle Age” is the “Dark Age”. On the contrary, historians of the so-called “romantic” school, many religious thinkers looked at medieval society as an ideal society, representing the complete opposite of modern “civilized” society. As you can see, there are extremes in the assessment of the Middle Ages. It is necessary to clarify the concept of the Middle Ages and specifically understand what the significance of the Middle Ages is in world history in general and in the history of Russia in particular.

In historiography, there are different opinions regarding the definition of the time frame of the Middle Ages. Historians of the Annales school date the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 2nd-3rd centuries. n. e. - end of the 18th century Most historians are inclined to date the beginning of the Middle Ages to the 5th century AD. e. - end of the 16th - mid-17th centuries. Within the thousand-year period of the Middle Ages, it is customary to distinguish at least three periods:

Early Middle Ages - V century. - beginning of the 11th century

Classical Middle Ages - XI-XV centuries.

Late Middle Ages - XV century. - mid-17th century

The Middle Ages has special typological features that distinguish it from other historical eras.

Medieval society - it is primarily an agrarian society based on manual labor and feudal socio-economic relations. The main economic cell of this society is the economy of the direct producer - the peasant under the conditions of private ownership of the feudal lords in the main means of production of that time - land.

This society is characterized by a stable and sedentary system of values ​​and ideas, based on religious commandments and the teachings of the church. Medieval man was largely focused on his inner world, intense spiritual life, creating the prerequisites for the “salvation” of the soul, the achievement of the “Kingdom of God.”

Important characteristic features of this society are also the desire for internal unity and external isolation, the corporate isolation of classes and other social groups, and the weak development of individualism.

At the same time, it should be noted that despite the conservative nature of the general value and worldview attitudes, medieval society was an internally dynamic society. Quite complex ethnogenetic and cultural-creative processes took place in it. During the Middle Ages, the birth and formation of modern peoples took place: French, Germans, English, Spanish, Italians, Czechs, Poles, Bulgarians, Russians, Serbs, etc. The Middle Ages created a new urban way of life, high examples of spiritual and artistic culture, including institutions of scientific knowledge and education, among which should be especially highlight the university institute. All this taken together gave a powerful impetus to the development of world civilization.

We have given a generalized description of the Middle Ages. In real history, civilizational processes in different regions had their significant differences. The main civilizational regions of the Middle Ages were Asia and Europe.

In Asia formed in accordance with the specific characteristics of the cultural heritage, geographical environment, farming system, social organization and religion Arab-Muslim civilization. To some extent, it is the historical successor of the eastern type of civilization and exhibits all its most characteristic features. The distinctive features of this form of civilization are associated with the characteristics of its culture. This culture is based on Arabic language, beliefs and cult of Islam. Islam (Muslim) (Arabic - “submission”) arose in the 7th century. n. e. on the Arabian Peninsula. The foundation of the Muslim religion is the belief in the one God Allah and Muhammad as his messenger, as well as the strict observance of the five main religious precepts, the so-called “pillars of faith,” and the recitation of the main symbol of faith during worship: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” , daily prayer (namaz) five times a day, fasting (uraza) during the month of Ramadan, mandatory payment of tax (zalyat), pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj). In Islam, there is a strong belief in divine predestination, the idea of ​​unconditional submission to the divine will, which has left a deep imprint on the entire way of life and Islamic culture.

Islam was formed in the Arab environment. The birthplace of Islam is the Arab cities of Mecca and Medina. The adoption of Islam by Arab tribes contributed to their consolidation; on the basis of Islam, a powerful state grew - the Arab Caliphate, which during its heyday included Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Khiva, Bukhara, Afghanistan, a significant part of Spain, Armenia, and Georgia. Islam contributed not only to the political consolidation of the peoples included in the Arab Caliphate, but also facilitated trade relations and economic interaction between regions of different economies. Active trade in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean stimulated the development of crafts and agriculture. The Arab-Muslim world was characterized by a high level of urbanization (city development). Baghdad was considered one of the greatest cities in the world at that time. Here they traded timber, porcelain, furs, spices, silk, wine, everything that was produced in India, East Africa, China, and Central Asia. An unusually unique and vibrant culture was created in the Middle Ages in the Arab-Muslim East. The Arabic "zero", added to the Babylonian numerical system, created a genuine revolution in mathematics.

Arab astronomy, medicine, algebra, philosophy, undoubtedly, were an order of magnitude higher than European science of that time. The field irrigation system and some agricultural crops (rice, citrus fruits) were borrowed by Europeans from the Arabs. Arab-Muslim influence on medieval Europe was mainly limited to the borrowing of individual innovations and discoveries. There is only one reason - religious differences. Christian Europe preferred to inflame religious hatred of Islam, seeing in Muhammad the embodiment of the Antichrist. The preaching against the “infidels” marked the beginning of the Crusades (late 11th to late 13th centuries).

In Europe The Middle Ages is the period of formation of a new form of Western civilization - European Christian civilization. European civilization is being formed on the territory of the former Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, as noted above, split into two parts: the Eastern (Byzantine) and Western Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist as a result of internal contradictions and the invasion of the so-called “barbarians” in 476. Therefore, civilizational processes in both parts of the Roman Empire, along with general patterns, also had significant differences. As a result of these differences, two varieties of European civilization were formed - Eastern and Western. The formation of European civilization occurred as a result of the synthesis of ancient civilization and the barbarian way of life during the processes of Romanization, Christianization, the formation of statehood and the culture of the new peoples of Europe.

The cultural basis of European civilization is antiquity. Byzantium never broke with antiquity. Its culture, economic activities and political institutions were largely based on ancient tradition and were organic forms of its development. The greatest originality of the Byzantine way of life is associated with the modernization that Christianity acquired in Byzantium.

Even in ancient times Christianity did not represent a single organization. On the territory of the Roman Empire there were a number of Christian churches that had doctrinal, ritual and organizational differences. There was a fierce struggle between the leadership of these churches for hegemony in the Christian world. This struggle was most actively waged by the head of the Western Roman Church - the Pope of Rome and the head of the Byzantine Church - the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Pope declared himself the vicar of Jesus Christ, the successor of the Apostle Peter, the Supreme Pontiff of the Ecumenical (Catholic) Church, while the Patriarch of Constantinople accepted the title of Ecumenical Partriarch of the Orthodox, i.e., true Christian Church, since he recognized the decisions of only the first seven Ecumenical Councils of Christian churches. The formal act of the split of Christianity into the Catholic and Orthodox churches was the mutual anathema (ecclesiastical curse) to which the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople betrayed each other on June 16, 1054.

The Byzantine Empire disappeared as an independent state in the 15th century. But it laid the foundations of Eastern European civilization, the carriers of which are Russians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, Ukrainians, Belarusians and many other peoples of Europe.

The formation of Western European Catholic civilization is associated with the great migration of peoples - the invasion of the Roman Empire by the so-called barbarians: numerous Germanic tribes, Huns, etc. The degree of backwardness and “barbarism” of these peoples should not be exaggerated. Many of them date back to the 3rd-5th centuries. had fairly developed agriculture, mastered crafts, including metallurgy, were organized into tribal unions on the principles of military democracy, and maintained lively trade contacts with the Romans and with each other.

Thus, penetration beyond the Rhine and Danube began long before the start of mass migrations. Separate German tribal unions from the 3rd century. n. e. settled on the territory of the Roman Empire and were included in the Roman army as federal allies. Their tribal aristocracy received a good ancient education and achieved significant influence in the political life of Roman society and in the military leadership. Thus, by the beginning of the great migration of peoples in Western Europe, a fairly intensive process of Romanization of barbarian peoples was already underway. Massive invasions of barbarian tribes at the initial stage of the Medieval era to some extent slowed down this process. Wars of conquest and the destruction of the former statehood of the Western Roman Empire were accompanied by the decline and destruction of centers of cultural life - cities, the destruction of cultural monuments, and a decrease in the general cultural level of the region.

However, already in the early Middle Ages, Western Europe began to overcome these consequences of wars of conquest and revive. In the V-VII centuries. on the territory captured by barbarian tribes, new state formations begin to form, and the 7th-10th centuries. they reach their peak. Among these states, the most notable are first the kingdom and then the empire of the Franks, which reached the highest point of its development during the reign of Charlemagne (768-814), the kingdom of the Germans - transformed under King Otto I in 962 into the Holy Roman Empire.

New state formations to regulate social relations carried out extensive law-making activities (capitularies of Charlemagne, etc.), in which they relied heavily on Roman law. At the court of the emperor, special learned societies are formed, in whose work thinkers from different countries participate, ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts are collected and copied, and schools are created at the bishoprics to train competent clergy and cadres of officials (judges, secretaries, scribes, etc.) .

With the creation of strong state entities, trade and crafts begin to revive, which contribute to the rapid rise of cities and the associated urban culture. In the classical Middle Ages, scientific and educational centers began to take shape in cities - the first universities appeared.

Among all the achievements of ancient civilization, Christianity holds a special place. Despite the internal contradictions of Christian churches, The spiritual basis of all European civilization is Christianity. In the context of the collapse of the Roman Empire, its political and economic institutions, and the decline of culture, Christianity and its organizations - the Catholic and Orthodox Church - for many centuries were the only spiritual and social institutions common to all countries and peoples of Europe. Christianity formed a unified worldview, moral norms, values ​​and patterns of behavior, and the Catholic and Orthodox churches were not only spiritual, but also very influential political organizations. Therefore, the process of formation of European civilization was largely Christianization process- introducing pagan peoples to Christian culture, beliefs and customs, joining Christian organizations - Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Even during the Roman Empire, the church carried out extensive missionary activities on the periphery of the empire among the barbarians. At the end of the 4th century, and especially in the 5th century, many of the neighboring barbarian tribes had already converted to Christianity. Later, the newly formed medieval states pursued an aggressive policy. The capture of certain peoples, as a rule, was accompanied by their forced Christianization.

The influence of the church on state affairs in Western Europe is evidenced by the fact that medieval kings sought to legitimize their leadership position by receiving signs of royal authority from the hands of the pope or his representatives during the coronation ceremony. In the eyes of Western European peoples, the Pope remained the only authority of the shaken but not disappeared authority of Great Rome. In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans in Rome. In 962, the Saxon king Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope.

The Catholic Church possessed colossal material resources. She owned a significant amount of land and large financial resources. For a long period, she fought with secular sovereigns for political power. In 751, a theocratic state (the Exarchate of Ravenna) was created in Western Europe on the territory of Italy, in which the Pope was simultaneously the spiritual and secular leader. The jurisdiction of the pope's spiritual authority was not limited to the Equal Exarchate. It spread throughout Western Europe.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church repeatedly came up with ideas that initiated broad social movements. The most striking of these ideas is the idea of ​​liberating the Holy Sepulcher and Christian shrines from infidels, which formed the basis of the so-called Crusades.

The Catholic Church occupied an exceptional position in the fields of education and science. In the Middle Ages, monasteries were centers of education. The monasteries had rich libraries, scriptoria (workshops for copying books), and maintained primary schools. The medieval centers of scientific research and higher education - universities - were also under the full control of the church.

So, on the basis of economic, political and cultural processes in the medieval world, the main civilizational regions were formed: Arab-Muslim, Western European and Eastern European. All events of medieval history, economic activity, trade, wars, exchange of cultural achievements and ideas.