Learn first: Civilisations of the ancient East
Ancient Greece and Rome laid the foundations of European civilisation. Democracy, the republic, law, philosophy, theatre and the Olympic Games were all born here. Exams often ask you to order events (Marathon → Salamis → Peloponnesian War), to match people with events, and to count years across BC dates.
Greece is a mountainous peninsula with little fertile land and the sea always close by. So people grew olives and grapes, practised crafts and engaged in sea trade. Mountains split the country into small valleys, so instead of one state hundreds of independent poleis (city-states) appeared.
776 BC — the first Olympic Games; Greeks counted years by Olympiads
Athens was a centre of trade and crafts. The reforms of Solon (early 6th century BC) abolished debt slavery; the reforms of Cleisthenes laid the foundations of democracy. Supreme power belonged to the popular assembly, open to all free adult male citizens, while women, metics (resident foreigners) and slaves had no political rights.
Sparta was a military-agrarian state: two kings and a council of elders; the land was worked by helots (state-owned serfs). Spartans received harsh military training from childhood.
Cause: the Achaemenid Empire had subjugated the Greek cities of Asia Minor; in 500 BC the Ionian (Miletus) revolt broke out and Athens helped the rebels. In response, Persia marched on Greece.
490 BC — Battle of Marathon: the Athenians (general Miltiades) defeated the Persians
480 BC — Thermopylae (King Leonidas and 300 Spartans) and the naval battle of Salamis (Themistocles) — the Persian fleet was crushed in a narrow strait
479 BC — Battle of Plataea; the war ended in a Greek victory in 449 BC
Consequences: the Delian League was formed under Athens, which became the leading sea power. The Age of Pericles (mid-5th century BC) was the "golden age" of Athenian democracy and culture: the Parthenon was built on the Acropolis and officials began to be paid.
Rivalry between Athens and Sparta led to the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Sparta won, but the Greek poleis and their unity were weakened.
Macedon: Philip II defeated the Greeks at Chaeronea in 338 BC. His son Alexander (reigned 336–323 BC) destroyed the Achaemenid Empire and reached India. After his death the empire broke up into Hellenistic kingdoms (the Seleucids, Ptolemaic Egypt, Macedon). Hellenism was a fusion of Greek and Eastern cultures; one of its centres was Alexandria (the Library, the Pharos lighthouse).
753 BC — Rome founded according to legend; 509 BC — the monarchy overthrown and the republic established
The republic was governed by two annually elected consuls, the aristocratic Senate and popular assemblies. Through the struggle between patricians (nobles) and plebeians (commoners), the plebeians won the office of tribune of the people and the Law of the Twelve Tables (mid-5th century BC).
73–71 BC — the largest slave revolt, led by Spartacus
During the civil wars Julius Caesar became dictator and was assassinated in 44 BC. His heir Octavian received the title Augustus in 27 BC — the Empire (Principate) began.
395 — the empire was divided into Western and Eastern halves
410 — the Visigoths sacked Rome; 476 — the Germanic chief Odoacer deposed the last emperor Romulus Augustulus: the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the end of ancient history
The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) lasted until 1453.
Culture: the Greeks — philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle; historians Herodotus ("father of history") and Thucydides; mathematicians Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes; the physician Hippocrates; theatre (Aeschylus, Sophocles). The Romans — Roman law (the basis of European law), Latin, the poet Virgil, the orator Cicero, arches and domes.
Alexander the Great’s eastern campaign (from 334 BC) matters not only for Greek history but also for the history of our own region, because it reached Bactria and Sogdiana, which were part of the Achaemenid Empire.
334 BC — Battle of the Granicus; 333 BC — Battle of Issus
331 BC — Battle of Gaugamela: the main army of Darius III was defeated and the Achaemenid Empire effectively collapsed
Why does Hellenism matter? After Alexander’s death (323 BC) his generals (the Diadochi) divided the empire. Central Asia first became part of the Seleucid state, and in the mid-3rd century BC the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom broke away. As a result, the Greek language, coinage, town planning and artistic traditions blended with local culture. Hellenistic influence is still visible in the art of the later Kushan period. That is why, in the exam, the term "Hellenism" is linked not only with Egypt and Syria but also with Bactria.
"Put in chronological order: A) Battle of Cannae; B) Battle of Salamis; C) Spartacus's revolt; D) Battle of Chaeronea."
"How many years passed between Marathon and the fall of the Western Roman Empire?"
"How many years passed between Alexander’s death and Octavian receiving the title ‘Augustus’?"