Studying Ancient History

By 1300, the Greek mainland was under attack by ships from Asia Minor and by 1100, Mycenae was completely destroyed. This invasion is known as the Dorian Invasion - the Doric Greeks were supposedly tribes who had left Greece at an earlier time and then returned by 1200 B.C. Following the Dorian Invasion Greece fell into its own period of the Dark Ages. For the most part, Greek culture began to go into decline - pottery became less elegant, burials were less ornate and the building of large structures and public buildings came to an abrupt halt. However, the invasion and subsequent Dark Age did not mark the end of Greek civilization. Some technological skills survived and the Greek language was preserved by those people who settled in areas unaffected by the Dorian Invasion.

After 800 B.C. a new spirit of optimism and adventure began to appear in Greece. This spirit became so intensified that historians have called the period from 800-600 the Greek Renaissance. For instance, in literature, this is the age of the great epic poets, poets who wrote of the deeds of mortal men as well as of immortal gods. It is also the period of the first Olympic games, held in 776 B.C.

Ex. 1. Answer the following questions:

1) Where did the first Greek society originate from?

2) Who was the Cretan civilization named after?

3) What family of languages did the bureaucrats of Crete belong to?

4) Who was the main trade partner of the Minoans?

5) What was the alleged cause for the Cretan Civilization decline?

6) What was the most powerful Greek city in the period of 1600-1100?

7) Why was the city of Mycenae completely destroyed?

8) What did the period of the Dark Ages mean for Greece?

9) What period does the Greek Renaissance apply to?

Ex. 2. Match the words with their definitions:

Trade	the state of human society marked by a high level of intellectual, technological, cultural and social development
Island	a great land mass; the principal section of a continent as compared with an island near it
Mythical	a man engaged or experienced in warfare
Mainland	a state comprised of an autonomous city and its surrounding dependent territories
Immortal	fictitious or fabled hero having his own history and no existing in fact
Warrior	not liable or subject to death; remembered or celebrated through all time
city-state	a tract of land surrounded by water, whether of the sea, a river or a lake
Civilization	buying and selling or exchanging commodities either by wholesale or retail; a particular commercial or business transaction

Ex. 3. Complete the chart with the appropriate forms of the words:

VERB	NOUN
Remain
Assume
Invade
	Discovery
Attack
	Burial

Ex. 4. Complete the sentences below with the correct word forms from the box:

assume trade city-state population remain рeriod wealthy magnificent

a) Athens was similar to other __________ of the ________of the Greek Renaissance.

b) Athens never faced the problem of trying to control a large _________ of angry and sometimes violent subjects.

c) This also explains why Sparta had to ___________ an intensely militaristic state.

d) In 561, the former military leader Pisistratus rewarded dispossessed peasants with land confiscated from ___________ families.

e) He also encouraged __________ and industry and engaged in great public works programs.

f) ____________ temples were built and religious centers improved.

g) Pisistratus was succeeded by his eldest son, Hippias, whose rule was____________ to be somewhat similar to that of his father.

Ex. 5. Translate from Russian into English:

1. Остров Крит стал местом появления первого греческого общества, жители острова Крит были выходцами с западной части полуострова Малая Азия.

2. Критская цивилизация получила название «Минойская» по имени мифического короля Миноса.

3. Несмотря на высокий уровень развития торговли, архитектуры и искусства Минойская цивилизация пришла в упадок.

4. У историков нет единого мнения о причинах упадка Минойской цивилизации.

5. После упадка минойское общество постепенно менялось под влиянием греческих завоевателей.

6. Греческие поселения представляли собой независимые политические сообщества: такие поселения вскоре стали известны как города-государства, самым крупным городом государством стали Микены.

7. Каждое государство Микенского периода было независимым, они объединились всего один раз во время Троянской войны.

8. К 1100 году Микены были полностью разрушены греческими Дорийскими племенами.

9. После Дорийского нашествия для Греции наступил период “Мрачного Средневековья” и, хотя он не означал конца Греческой цивилизации, многие культурные ценности пришли в упадок.

10. Период с 800 по 600 гг. до н.э был назван Греческим Ренессансом. Он характеризовался духом оптимизма и культурного расцвета.

Ex. 6. Discuss the following questions in pairs:

How did the ancient Greeks view their gods and goddesses? Were they similar to ordinary people?

Text B. The Myceneans

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1) Who settled Greece before Greeks invaded there?

2) How many periods can you outline in the history of Greece? How are they called?

3) What happened to the Myceneans after the Dorians' invasion?

Somewhere between 3000 BC and 2000 BC, the lands of Greece were settled by a metal-using agricultural people who spoke a language other than Indo-European. The period when they dominated Greece, called the "Early Helladic" period, seemed to be one of comparative quiet and peace. All that ended around 2000 BC; the early Helladic sites and villages were destroyed in fire or abandoned outright. An invader had entered the stage, one that quickly dominated the landscape: the Greek.

This period of conquest and settlement by the Greeks makes up the Middle Helladic period. These new invaders settled all the parts of Greece, in some instances settling peacefully with the previous inhabitants, and began to dominate Greek culture. They spoke an Indo-European language; in fact, they spoke Greek. Their society was primarily based on warfare; their leaders were essentially war-chiefs. They had settled a difficult land: the Greek mainland is hot, dry and rocky. Agriculture is difficult, but some crops grow extremely well, such as grapes and olives. The coastal settlers relied heavily on fishing for their diet. In spite of the ruggedness of their life and the harshness of their social organization, these early Greeks traded with a civilization to the south, the Minoans. Their contact with the Minoans was instantly fruitful; they began to urbanize somewhere in the Middle Helladic period and translated their culture into a civilization.

The transition between the Middle and Late Helladic periods is indistinguishable, for the Greek settlers had begun building the rudiments of a civilization earlier in the millenium. Around 1600 BC, though, these urban centers began to thrive and the Greek settlers entered their first major period of cultural creativity. Their cities grew larger, their graves more opulent, their art more common, their agriculture more efficient, and the power of these new warlord cities began to be felt around the Aegean. This period of Greek development and prosperity is called the Late Helladic Period or simply the Mycenean period.

The Myceneans derived much of their culture from the Minoans, but with some dramatic differences. Mycenean society was monarchical. The monarch, called a wanax, ruled over a large administration as a kind of head bureaucrat. Unlike the Minoans, though, the Mycenean kings accumulated vast wealth in concentrated form; the rest of society did not share in the prosperity as did the Minoans. The king was also primarily a warlord, and Mycenean society was constantly geared for battle and invasion. Their cities were heavy fortresses with unimaginably thick perimeter walls. While the Minoans surrounded themselves with delicate art of everyday life, Mycenean art was about warfare and hunting. After Minoan civilization had been weakened in a series of earthquakes, the Myceneans conquered Crete and other Aegean civilizations, establishing themselves over the culture that so deeply influenced their own.

The most famous of the Mycenean raids, of course, is the war against Troy, a wealthy commercial city on the coast of Asia Minor. This city was totally destroyed by the Myceneans. The Myceneans ranged far and wide as merchants, trading raw goods such as oil and animal skins for jewelry and other goods from Crete, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Some of this commercial activity was not exactly above-board; the Mycenean kings were not above a little piracy or rapine. All of this activity concentrated a great deal of wealth in the hands of the kings and a few officials. Most of the wealth, of course, was spent on warfare and defense; a large part of it, though, went into other activities: crafts, jewelry, and expensive burials. Like most societies dominated by an extremely powerful ruler, the Myceneans spent a great deal of wealth and labor burying that ruler. Initially, the most powerful Myceneans were buried in deep shaft graves, but sometime around 1500 BC, they began burying their most powerful people in tholos tombs, which were large chambers cut into the side of a hill. Their principle purpose was probably a display of power.

At the very peak of their power, shortly after the destruction of Troy, the Myceneans suddenly disappear from history. Around 1200 BC, the populations of the cities dramatically decrease until they are completely abandoned by 1100 BC. The Greeks believed that the Myceneans were overrun by another Greek-speaking people, the Dorians, and there is some evidence that invasions may have taken place. If that were the case, the Dorians were uninterested in the Mycenean cities but chose to live in small, tribal, agricultural groups. It may be that no invasions took place, but that economic collapse drove people from the cities out into the countryside. Whatever happened, the great Mycenean cities were abandoned to their fates; Greek society once again became a non-urbanized, tribal culture. The Greeks also stopped writing, so the history of this period is lost to us forever; for this reason it's called the "Greek Dark Ages."

Ex.1. Make up a plan of the text.

Ex.2. Find the key words in each paragraph of the text.

Ex.3. Summarize the text in brief.

Ex.4. Guess the meaning of the following words from the text:

Rudiments

a bureaucrat

economic collapse

non-urbanized

raids

a war-chief.

Ex.5. Translate the text from English into Russian.

Lesson 9

Text A. The Athenian Origins of Direct Democracy

Answer the following questions:

What is democracy? Give your definition. How does it differ from other political regimes?

What is «polis»? Is it similar to modern cities?

Give Russian equivalents to the following terms:

Athens ['??(?)nz]

The Acropolis [?'kr?p?lis]

Aristotle ['?ris?t?ut(?)l]

Plato ['pleit?u]

Sparta ['spa:t?]

Study the following words and expressions:

agora (the) ['?g?r?], n - Агора (место собраний, рыночная площадь)

citizenry ['sitiz(?)nri], n - граждане, гражданское население

defensible [di'fens?bl], adj - легко обороняемый, защищаемый

hereditary [hi'redit?ri], adj - наследственный

inferior [in'fi?ri?], adj - наихудший

juror ['d?u?r?], n - присяжный

magistrate ['m?d?istreit], n - мировой судья

peasant ['pez?nt], n - крестьянин

replica ['replik?], n - копия, повторение

reprehensible [?repri'hens?bl], adj - предосудительный

retreat [ri'tri:t], v - отступать

shirk ['??:k], v - увиливать, уклоняться, избегать

slave ['sleiv], n - раб

socially disruptive ['s?u??li diz'r?ptiv], adj - социально опасный

artistic pursuit [a:'tistik p?'sju:t] - художественное призвание

cast a vote [ka:st ?'v?ut] - подавать голос, голосовать на выборах

commercial convenience [k?'m ?: ??l] - преимущества (удобства) ведения торговли

public assembly ['p?blik ?'sembli] - общественное собрание

resident alien ['rezid?nt 'eili?n] - подданный другого государства

Read and translate the text using a dictionary if necessary:

One of the hallmarks of Greek Civilization was the polis, or city-state. The city-states were small, independent communities which were male-dominated and bound together by race. What this means is that membership in the polis was hereditary and could not be passed on to someone outside the citizen family. The citizens of any given polis were an elite group of people - slaves, peasants, women and resident aliens were not part of the body of citizens.

Originally the polis referred to a defensible area to which farmers of a particular area could retreat in the event of an attack. The Acropolis in Athens is one such example. Over time, towns grew around these defensible areas. The growth of these towns was unplanned and they were not placed for commercial convenience near rivers or seas. In fact, the poleis were situated well inland to avoid raids by sea. With time, the agora or marketplace began to appear within the polis. The agora was not only a marketplace but the heart of Greek intellectual life and discourse.

The scale of the polis was indeed small. When the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) came to discuss the origins of the polis in his book “Politics” in the early 4th century B.C. he suggested that "it is necessary for the citizens to be of such a number that they knew each other's personal qualities and thus can elect their officials and judge their fellows in a court of law sensibly." Before Aristotle, Plato fixed the number of citizens in an ideal state at 5040 adult males. For Plato (c.427-c.347 B.C.), as it was for Aristotle, the one true criteria of the size of the polis was that all the citizens know one another. The issue at stake here is between public and private worlds. The ancient Greeks did not really see two distinct worlds in the lives of the citizenry. Instead, the public world was to be joined with the private world.

The citizens in any given polis were related to one another by blood and so family ties were very strong. As boys, they grew up together in schools, and as men, they served side by side during times of war. They debated one another in public assemblies - they elected one another as magistrates - they cast their votes as jurors for or against their fellow citizens. In such a society - the society of the polis - all citizens were intimately and directly involved in politics, justice, military service, religious ceremonies, intellectual discussion, athletics and artistic pursuits. To shirk one's responsibilities was not only rare but reprehensible in the eyes of the Greek citizen. Greek citizens did not have rights, but duties. A citizen who did not fulfill his duties was socially disruptive. At the polis of Sparta, such a citizen was called "an Inferior." At Athens, a citizen who held no official position or who was not a habitual orator in the Assembly was branded as idiotai.

Every polis was different from another. For example, some poleis had different names for the months of the year. Although there were similarities and differences between the city-states, they all made the effort to preserve their own unique identity. What we call the ancient Greek world was really hundreds of independent city-states or poleis. No one polis was a replica of another. Those who lived within the confines of a city state considered everyone else to be inferior. Furthermore, those people who did not speak Greek were referred to as barbar, the root of our word barbarian.

Ex. 1. Answer the following questions:

1) What is a city-state?

2) Who were and who were not the citizens of a polis?

3) What era did the polis originally refer to?

4) What was “the heart” of intellectual life in the polis?

5) What, in Plato's opinion, the number of citizens had to be?

6) What was a citizen who didn't fulfill his duties called at the polis of Sparta?

7) Were poleis similar to each other?

Ex. 2. Match the words with their definitions:

Peasant (n)	a city-state of ancient Greece
polis (n)	one of a body of persons sworn to deliver a verdict in a legal case submitted to them
shirk (v)	lawfulness, governmental judiciary department
intellectual (adj)	to select for an office by vote or designation
juror (n)	without a like or equal, single in its kind
unique (adj)	a countryman engaged in working on the land as a small farmer
elect (v)	relating to the exercise of mental faculties, engaged in creative thinking
justice (n)	to avoid an obligation or performance of duty

Ex. 3. Choose the word from A, B, C or D that best keeps the meaning of the original sentences below if substituted for the underlined word or phrase:

1) One of the hallmarks of Greek Civilization was the polis, or city-state

A) symbol C) mark

B) objective D) label

2) Originally the polis referred to a defensible area to which farmers could retreat in the event of an attack.

A) go forward C) escape

B) move D) pass

3)To shirk one's responsibilities was not only rare but reprehensible in the eyes of the Greek citizen.

A) innocent C) blameworthy

B) excellent D) trustworthy

4) A citizen who was not a habitual orator in the Assembly was called as idiotai.

A) unusual C) former

B) customary D) further

5) No one polis was a replica of another.

A) reduplication C) fax message

B) twin D) copy

Ex. 4. Read the passage below and answer which of the following is not true?

Athens and Sparta were the most advanced Greek cities of the Hellenic period (750-338 B.C.). Both had a city-state type of government, and both took slaves from peoples they conquered. However, the differences outweigh the similarities in these two ancient civilizations. Sparta was hostile, warlike (constantly fighting the neighboring cities), and military, while Athens catered more toward the democratic and cultural way of life. The latter city left its mark in the fields of art, literature, philosophy and science, while the former passed on its totalitarianism and superior military traditions. The present system of a well-rounded education is based on the ancient Athenian idea. The Spartan system, on the other hand, was concerned only with military education.

A) Both cities had city-state types of government.

B) Both cities took slaves.

C) Both cities were advanced, but in different areas.

D) Both cities developed a well-rounded education.

Ex. 5. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English:

1. Города-государства представляли собой небольшие сообщества.

2. Членство в полисе передавалось по наследству.

3. Гражданами полисов являлись лишь элитные группы людей, а рабы и крестьяне не входили в состав гражданского населения.

4. Структура полиса предусматривала защиту от вражеских нападений. Со временем вокруг полисов стали складываться города.

5. Центром интеллектуальной жизни городов стала Агора, которая изначально была торговой площадью.

6. Жители полисов были связаны крепкими семейными узами, участвовали в политической, интеллектуальной и спортивной жизни.

7. Уклонение от своих гражданских обязанностей считалось социально опасным явлением.

8. Ни один древнегреческий полис не был похож на другой.

Ex. 6. Role - play: “Elect a magistrate!”

Work in pairs. Each of you is a habitual orator in the Public Assembly. Elect one another a magistrate and prove your choice. Use the active vocabulary from the text.

Text B. Polis (City-State)

Read the text without a dictionary and answer the following questions:

1) How did the first city-states arise?

2) Which city-state was the greatest?

3) Which word in modern English or other languages reveals the importance of the polis in the world history?

4) What was the most common form of government in the Greek city-states?

The single greatest political innovation of the ancient Greeks was the establishment of the polis, or "city-state”. In the Mycenean age, the Greeks lived in small, war-oriented kingdoms, but for reasons unknown to us, they abandoned their cities and their kingdoms sometime between 1200 and 1100 BC. From that point onwards, they lived in either sedentary or nomadic tribal groups; the period is called the Greek Dark Ages and lasted until sometime between 800 and 700 BC. The tribal or clan units of the dark ages slowly grew into larger political units at the end of this period; beginning around 800 BC, trade began to dramatically accelerate between the peoples of Greece. Marketplaces grew up in Greek villages and communities began to gather together into large defensive units, building fortifications to use in common. On this foundation, the Greek-speaking people who lived on the Greek peninsula, the mainland, and the coast of Asia Minor, developed political units that were centrally based on a single city. These city-states were independent states that controlled a limited amount of territory surrounding the state. The largest of these city-states, for instance, was Sparta, which controlled more than 3000 square miles of surrounding territory.

The overwhelming characteristic of the city-state was its small size; this allowed for a certain amount of experimentation in its political structure. The age of the city-state in Greece is an age of dynamic and continual experimentation with political structures; this period of experimentation gave the European world most of its available political structures. Its small size also allowed for democracy, since individual city-states were small enough that the free male citizens constituted a body small enough to make policy decisions relatively efficiently. The overwhelming importance of the polis in the evolution of European political structures is betrayed by the word "political" itself: derived from the word polis, "political" etymologically means "of or relating to the polis ."

Politically, all the Greek city-states began as monarchies. In their earliest stages, they were ruled by a basileus , or hereditary king. The Greeks living in those city-states, however, soon tired of the kings, many of which were overthrown in the eighth century BC. A variety of political alternatives were experimented with in place of the basileus : these included oligarchy, timocracy, tyranny, and democracy. The most common form of government in the Greek city-states was oligarchy, or "rule by a few." The oligarchs were almost always drawn from the noble classes or from the wealthiest citizens of the state ("rule by the wealthy" is called a timocracy), but a variety of oligarchic forms were invented in the eighth century. These include having the members of the oligarchy chosen by lot, having them elected, or rotating the oligarchy among members of a certain class. The oligarchs most often ruled absolutely; they had many of the powers granted to a king. However, many oligarchies ruled in conjunction with other political structures: in Sparta, for instance, the oligarchy ruled over and with a pair of kings, a council, and a democratic assembly. The reforms of Solon in Athens left in oligarchy of nobles in charge of the state, but granted enormous powers to an elected, democratic Assembly. Even though the powers of the oligarchs were diffused among a group (which could be surprisingly large), the power of the oligarchy could be remarkably totalitarian, since many of the members of the oligarchy were drawn from the same class and had the same interests.

Many of the early oligarchic governments and a few of the kings were overthrown by "tyrants" (in Greek, tyrranos); oligarchy could be a particularly unstable form of government when it was also a timocracy, or "rule by the wealthy." While Greek history is generally unkind to the tyrants, we can through the haze of later Greek propaganda come to some dispassionate conclusions about the nature of the tyrannies. The Greeks believed that the tyrants were illegitimate usurpers of political power; they seem, however, to have had in many cases popular support. The Greek tyrants were often swept into power by dissatisfaction or crisis; they were more often then not extremely popular leaders when they assumed the tyranny. They often assumed absolute control in the name of reforming the government; Solon, the great reformer of the Athenian constitution, was essentially granted all the powers of a tyrant. Many of the tyrants, in fact, were brilliant and morally sound reformers and activists; many, however, were not. Once in power, they ruled as a king would rule, and many attempted, and some succeeded, to make the tyranny hereditary--in essence, a form of monarchy. The tyrants ruled only by a thread; they maintained power only by their hold on military force and often fear. The tyrannies were by nature highly unstable, and they fell apart rapidly. Even so, tyranny was a widespread political institution throughout the Greek-speaking world.

By the sixth century the tyrannies never died out, but oligarchy became the settled norm of the Greek city-states. Several of these oligarchies, however, were replaced by a second alternative that originated sometime in the sixth century: democracy. The word means, "rule by the demos (people)," but the Greek democracies looked nothing like modern democracies. First, they really do mean rule by the people ; the Greek democracies were not representative governments, they were governments run by the free, male citizens of the city-state. Second, all the members of a city-state were not involved in the government: slaves, foreigners, and women were all disbarred from the democracy. So, in reality, the democratic city-states more closely resembled oligarchies for a minority ruled the state--it was a very large minority, to be sure, but still a minority.

Ex.1. Divide the text into logical parts.

Ex.2. Give a title to each paragraph of the text.

Ex.3. Tell the content of each paragraph in 1-2 sentences.

Ex.4. Summarize the text in brief.

Ex.5. Discuss the question as a group: Did city-states in your opinion get more advantages or disadvantages from oligarchy as a form of government?

Lesson 10

Text A. From Polis to Cosmopolis: Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World, 323-30 B.C.

Answer the following questions:

What do you know about Alexander the Great?

What is he famous for?

Give Russian equivalents to the following proper names, study the pronunciation:

Achilles [?'kili:z]

Alexander ['?lig?za:nd?] the Great

Danube, The ['d?nju:b]

Hercules ['h?:kjuli:z] - (also Heracles)

Persia ['p?:??]

Thebes [?i:bz]

Study the following words and expressions:

amateur ['?m?t?], n - любитель

attitude to/toward ['?titju:d], n - отношение к

breakdown ['breikdaun], n - развал

captive ['k?ptiv], n - пленный

consolidate [k?n's?li?deit], v - укреплять, объединять

demand [di'ma:nd], v - требовать

descend [di'send], v - происходить (из к-л. рода)

embrace [im'breis], v - принимать

immensity [i'mensiti], n - необъятность

introspection [intr?u'spek??n], n - самонаблюдение

regadless [ri'ga:dlis], adj - не взирая на, не считаясь с

urge [?:d?], v - настаивать

virtuous ['v?:tju?s], adj - добродетельный, целомудренный

visionary ['vi??n?ri], n - мечтатель, фантазёр

warfare ['w?:?fea], n - война

worship ['w?:?ip], v - почитать

for instance [f?r'inst?ns] - например

in general - в общем

pay attention to [pei ?'ten??n] обращать внимание на

private affair [praiv?t ?'fea] - личное дело

sense of importance [sens ?v im'po:t?ns] - чувство значимости

to gain the throne [gein ?? ?r?un] получать трон

to run something - руководить, управлять

tolerable way of life ['tol?r?bl] - сносный уровень жизни

Read the text below using a dictionary if necessary:

Alexander III (356-323 B.C.) or, as he is better known, Alexander the Great, gained the throne he had just reached his 20th birthday. Within fifteen months he stamped out rebellions, marched into various Greek cities demanding submission, sent his armies as far north as the Danube River, and destroyed the city of Thebes. By 327, Alexander's armies had moved as far east as India. However, his troops were exhausted and could go no further. We can only wonder how much more territory Alexander would have added to the Empire had he had a fresh supply of troops.

Regardless, his illustrious career as leader and military strategist came to an end in 323 B.C., when he died from fever. He was 33 years old. Alexander has been portrayed as an idealistic visionary and as an arrogant and ruthless conqueror. He sought to imitate Achilles, the hero of Homer's Iliad. He claimed to be descended from Hercules, a Greek hero worshipped as a god. In the Egyptian fashion, he called himself pharaoh. After victories against the Persians, he adopted features of their rule. He called himself the Great King. He urged his followers to bow down before him, in Persian fashion. He also married Roxane, a Persian captive, and arranged for more than 10,000 of his soldiers to do the same. He wore Persian clothes and used Persians as administrators. By doing this, Alexander was trying to fuse the cultures of East and West, of Asia Minor and Greece. This fusion, and all that it came to represent, is what historians mean by the expression Hellenization.

The immediate cause for the collapse of Classical Greece was the experience of a century of warfare. The city-state could no longer supply a tolerable way of life for its citizens. Intellectuals began to turn away from the principles of direct democracy and embrace the idea of the monarchy.

On a spiritual level, the 4th century witnessed a permanent change in the attitudes of all Greeks. What resulted was a new attitude toward life and its expectations - a new world view. In the classical world of the polis, public and private lives were fused. Duty to the city-state was in itself virtuous. But in the Hellenistic world, public and private lives were made separate, and the individual's only duty was to himself. In art, sculpture, architecture, or philosophy or wherever we choose to look, we see more attention paid to individualism and introspection. By the 4th century, Greek citizens became more interested in their private affairs rather than in the affairs of the polis.

In general, the democracy of the city-state was made for the amateur and not the professional. The ideal of the polis was that every individual was to take a direct role in political, economic, spiritual and social affairs. But perhaps this was just too much responsibility to place on the shoulders of the citizens.

Hellenistic Greece was a predominately urban culture. The cities founded by Alexander were centers of government and trade as well as culture. These were large cities by ancient standards. For instance, Alexandria in Egypt contained perhaps 500,000 people. The Greeks brought their temples, their theatres and schools to other cities, thus exporting their culture and Greek culture became a way of life. The upper classes began to copy the Greek spirit. They sent their children to Greek schools and the Greek language became a common, almost international language.

What the breakdown of Alexander's empire had accomplished was nothing less than the Hellenization of the Mediterranean world. Cultures once foreign to the Hellenic world now became more Greek-like - they were Hellenized. One of the most important developments in association with this process of Hellenization, was the shift from the world of the polis to the new world of the cosmopolis. Such a shift was decisive in creating the Hellenistic world as a world of conflicting identities, and when identities are challenged or changed, intense internal conflicts are the result.

The world of the polis had clearly given way to the world of the cosmopolis. And with that change from the smallness of the city-state to the immensity of the world-city, there were corresponding changes in the world view. The city-state was no longer run by citizens, citizens whose private and public duties were identical. In the world-state, bureaucrats and officials took over the duties formerly given over to citizens. Citizens lost their sense of importance as they became subjects under the control of vast bureaucratic kingdoms. From the face-to-face contact of the Athenian public Assembly, the people now became little more than numbers. As a result, they lost their identity.

Ex.1. Answer the following questions:

1. What did Alexander manage to do within 15 month of the throne?

2. What kind of person was Alexander the Great like?

3. What is called for Hellenization?

4. What was the main reason for the collapse of Classical Greece?

5. What are the principal differences between the polis and the Hellenistic world?

6. What did citizens lose in the world of the cosmopolis?

Ex.2. Match the words with their definitions:

Troop	break down
Rebellion	a person who holds a government office
Supply	a group of soldiers
Ruthless	the procees of making or becoming like the ancient Greeks
Bow	showing no human feelings, without pity or forgiveness
Collapse	opposition or fight against someone in a position of control
Hellenization	to bend the upper part of the body forward, as a way of showing respect
Official	to provide something that is needed

Ex. 3. Complete the table with the appropriate forms of the words given:

Verb	Noun	adjective
destroy
care		careful
exhaust
fuse
expect
	Responsibility
accomplish

Ex. 4. Insert the words and phrases given into the sentences in their correct form. Translate the sentences into Russian:

to exhaust /to arrange /to fuse /to run /collapse

1. What _______ in the classical world of the polis?

2. The immediate cause of the _______ of Classical Greece was the experience of a century of warfare.

3. Alexander's troops couldn't go further as they_________.

4. Who _____the city ________ by?

5. What ______ Alexander _________ to for more than 10 000 of his soldiers?

Ex. 5. Translate from Russian into English:

1. Войска Александра не могли двигаться дальше, потому что солдаты были сильно истощены.

2. Элленизация - это смешение культур запада и востока и введение греческих обычаев и традиций.

3. В области философии, архитектуры и культуры много внимания уделялось самонаблюдению и к IV веку граждане стали больше интересоваться личными делами, чем государственными.

4. Город Александрия в Египте, например, имел население в 500 000 человек, а его библиотека содержала 500 000 разных книг.

5. Граждане потеряли чувство независимости, так как они находились под контролем огромной бюрократической машины.

6. Римляне создали империю, о которой греки только мечтали.

Ex. 6. Make a brief report on one of the following topics:

1. The role of Alexander the Great in world history.

2. Hellenization.

3. Advantages and disadvantages of Hellenization.

Text B. Stoicism

Before reading the text answer the questions:

1. What Hellenistic philosophies do you know?

2. What have you heard about the school of Stoicism?

Read the following text quickly without a dictionary and find out the following information:

1. Why was the therapy called Stoicism?

2. What are the main ideas of this philosophy?

3. Why was it thought that human beings were essentially brothers?

4. How do you understand the phrase: "Stoicism was a therapy of choice for individuals who were still trying to bring order out of the chaos"?

The school of Stoicism was founded by Zeno (c.336-c.265 B.C.) in the late 4th century. Zeno was born at Citium, a small Phoenician-Greek city on Cyprus. His father, Mnaseas, was a merchant and, according to Diogenes Laertius, he brought back many Socratic books to Zeno when he was still a boy. At the age of twenty-two Zeno went to Athens and in 300 he started his school, first called the Zenonians and later called the Stoics because he gave his lectures in the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Colonnade, where he soon became a familiar part of Athenian intellectual life. His followers were known as the Stoics or "Colonnaders.

Zeno taught that a single, divine plan governed the universe. To find happiness, one must act in harmony with this divine plan. By cultivating a sense of duty and self-discipline, one can learn to accept their fate - they will then achieve some kind of inner peace, freedom and tranquility. The Stoics believed that all people belong to the single family of mankind and so one should not withdraw from the world, but try to make something of the world. The Stoics believed that the universe contained a principle of order, called the Divine Fire, God or Divine Reason (Logos). This was the principle that formed the basis for reality -- it permeated all things. Because men was part of the universe, he too shared in the Logos. Since reason was common to all, human beings were essentially brothers -- it made no difference whether one were Greek, barbarian, free man or slave since all mankind were fellow citizens of a world community. It was the Stoics who took the essentials of Socratic thought -- a morality of self-mastery based on knowledge -- and applied it beyond the Athenian polis to the world community.

By teaching that there was a single divine plan called Logos, and that the world constituted a single society, it was Zeno who gave perfect expression to the cosmopolitan nature of the post-Alexandrine world. Stoicism, then, offered an answer to the problem of alienation and fragmentation created by the decline of the polis. Surrounded by a world of uncertainty, Stoicism promised individual happiness.

Stoicism is therapy which reflected the change in man's social and political life during the Hellenistic Age. On the one hand, therapy suggests a disenchantment with the overtly political world of a Pericles or Thucydides, Athenian or Spartan. So, it can be seen as direct reactions to the philosophy of both Plato and Aristotle. On the other hand, the Stoics also reflect profound social changes within Greece itself. Greek society had become more complex and more urban as a result of Alexander's conquests. Politics fell into the hands of the wealthy few and the citizens were left with nothing. And Hellenistic politics became little more than an affair of aristocrats and their bureaucratic lackeys and experts.

Hellenistic philosophers questioned such an order and in general, turned to the inner harmony of the individual - a form of therapy with which to deal with an increasingly cold and impersonal world. This is an ironic situation. A culture congratulates itself that it has been able to progress from simplicity to complexity. But with complexity - improvement? progress? - the control of one's life seems to fall away. We are not in control since control is in the hands of unidentifiable entities.

Given this, Hellenistic Greeks turned to personal philosophies - therapies - for comfort. What do we turn to? Do we turn inward? No! the majority of us "find ourselves" reflected in things external to us. We become members of "the club," losing our own identity in collective identities. We are asked to say, "don't worry, be happy." In the Hellenistic world, Stoicism became the point of view and therapy of choice for individuals who were still trying to bring order out of the chaos of Hellenistic life.

Ex. 1. Use the context of the article to work out the meaning of these words:

- divine plan

- to withdraw

- to permit smth

- to reflect

- profound

- simplicity

- complexity

Ex. 2. Give a short summary of the article in 4-5 sentences.

Lesson 11

Text A. Early Roman Civilization, 753-509BC

Answer the following questions:

What do you know about the Roman Empire?

Why was the Roman Empire so powerful?

Study the pronunciation of the following words:

Actium ['?kti?m] - Актиум (город в Др. Греции, при котором произошла знаменитая морская битва)

Aequi ['ekwi] - Экви (одно из племен, завоеванных римлянами)

Etruscans [i'tr?sk?nz] - этруски (представители одного из племен, населявших древнюю Этрурию, современная Тоскана)

Volski ['v?lski] - Вольски (одно из племен, завоеванных римлянами)

Give Russian equivalents to the following words and expressions:

superiority [sju:?pi?ri'?riti], n

establish [ist'?bli?], v

illuminate [i'lju:mineit],v

gladiatorial contest [gl?di?'to:ri?l 'kontest]

highest military and civil authority [?:'??riti]

thanks to

to consolidate power [k?n's?li?deit]

Study the following words and expressions:

failure ['feilj?], n - неудача, провал.

grandeur [gr?ndj?], n - великолепие

opulence ['opjul?ns], n - изобилие

defeat [di'fi:t], v- наносить поражение

expel [iks'pel], v - изгонять, высылать.

opt for [?pt], v - выбирать кого-либо.

refer to [ri'f?:], v- ссылаться на…

succumb [s?'kаm], v - уступать.

trait [treit], n - отличительная черта.

trite [trait], adj - банальный.

viability [vai?'biliti], n- жизнеспособность.

executive office [ig'zekjutiv] - исполнительный комитет.

loose organisation [lu:s ,?:g?nai'zei??n]- свободная организация.

tenacious soldier [ti'nei??s 's?uld??] - несгибаемый, крепкий солдат

ultimate power ['?ltimit]- - максимальная власть.

Read the text below using a dictionary if necessary:

Roman History can be divided into three convenient periods or episodes. The years 753-509 B.C. concern the years of Rome's origins. By 509 B.C., Rome had established itself by pushing the Etruscans out of northern Italy. The era of the Roman Republic falls between 509 B.C. and the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. Rome under the Republic consolidated its power both at home and abroad, especially during the Punic and Macedonian Wars. The Republic is also the period when Rome developed its distinctive forms of law and government. Finally, the period from 31 B.C. to A.D 476 consitutes the era of the Roman Empire. It is this period that most people think of when they are reminded of the grandeur that was Rome. Thanks to the greatest of all the Roman emperors, Augustus Caesar, Rome was able to capture and control all of modern day France, Spain, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, North Africa and Great Britain.

By about 750 B.C. the Greeks had established about fifty city-states on the southern peninsula of Italy. To the north lived the tribes of the Etruscans. It is not known how the Etruscans came to occupy the northern territory of Italy. They are not of Indo-European origin and they most likely came from the Near East if not the Orient. Their cities, twelve in number, were autonomous like the city-states of Sumer and Archaic Greece and were combined in a loose organization which historians have referred to as the Etruscan Confederacy. Material objects found from archeological digs of Etruscan city-states illuminate the luxury and opulence of the Etruscan aristocracy.

As a people, the Etruscans played hard and worked hard. They were not a contemplative sort but were always busy. They were practical and realistic, habits of mind which we will see became specifically Roman traits as well. Trite, as it may sound, we could argue that whereas the Greeks were thinkers, the Romans were doers.

The Romans adopted many Etruscan customs over the years. They used the Etruscan alphabet, which the Etruscans had borrowed from the Greeks. The Romans even adopted the Etruscan toga. The vault and the arch were Etruscan in origin as were gladiatorial contests.

Etruscan power and influence over the city of Rome was indeed strong and thanks to their trading interests, the city began to grow. By the mid-6lh century, temples and public buildings could be found throughout the city. The Capitoline Hill became the religious center of the city and the Forum, formerly a cemetery, became a public meeting place, thus serving a similar role as the agora had at Athens.

It is unclear how and why the Romans ended the era of Etruscan superiority but somehow Rome managed to free itself from the kings to the north and establish their own unique culture. What is noticeable is the manner in which the Romans overcame the Etruscans. Rather than simply conquer these people, the Romans assimilated them into the Roman world. I mention this because idea of "assimilation" will become a key to both Roman success and failure. The Greeks had the habit of conquering territories and then importing their culture, a process which, during the age of Alexander and after, we can identify as Hellenization. The Romans conquered territories as well but they were much more willing to bring the conquered peoples into the Roman world as partners. I suppose we could say they Romanized these people by giving them an "offer they couldn't refuse."

Early Roman history - a history that dates from 509 B.C., when the Etruscan kings succumbed to Rome - is an uneven mixture of fact and myth. According to Roman legend, the Romans expelled the Etruscan king Tarquin the Proud from Rome around 509 B.C. and founded the Roman Republic. In the following years, tbe Romans fought numerous wars with their neighbors on the Italian peninsula. They became tenacious soldiers, Stoic soldiers, a Roman trait. War also rneant diplomacy and the Romans quickly showed their excellence in that art. They knew the viability of alliances and provided leadership for their allies, something the Greeks could never quite do for themselves.

With the Etruscan monarchy at an end, the dignity of the Senate and the Curiate Assembly (both created during the Etruscan Confederacy) was restored. However, there was no executive office. Among the most powerful families it was decided that extraordinary powers be given to two men, who would eventually be called consuls. The reason the Romans opted for two executives was an obvious attempt to prevent tyranny. Both consuls possessed the highest military and civil authority in the state. They could only serve for one year at a time. Only much later was it agreed that there be at least a ten year interval between terms so as to prevent unbridled ambition.

Rome's founding also coincided with war. One of the earliest wars was with two tribes, the Aequi and the Volsci. From this war arose the Roman legend of Cincinnatus. When the Aequi launched an invasion, the Romans called on Cincinnatus to become dictator, that is, he was given ultimate powers for specified period of time. The Roman officials found Cincinnatus working his farm. He listened to the appeal of the officials, dropped his plow, and accepted the office offered to him. As legend has it. fifteen days later, and after he had defeated the Aequi, Cincinnatus returned to his farm, picked up his plow, and continued to plow his fields. This was the ideal Roman citizen - a man of simplicity who places his duty to Rome before personal interest or wealth.

Ex. 1 Answer the following questions:

1. What periods is Roman history divided into?

2. What Etruscan symbols were adopted by Roman culture?

3. What were the main places in the Roman city?

4. How did the process of assimilation look like in Roman and Greek worlds?

5. How was history presented in Roman society?

6. What was the main difference between Roman and Greek war policy?

7. How did the Romans try to present tyrany?

8. What was the legend of Cincinnatus about?

Ex. 2. Match the words with their definitions:

1. Government	to take land by attacking people or win it by fighting a war
2. Plow	a group of countries that are all controlled by the ruler or government of one country
3. Conquer	the group of people who govern a country or state
4. Tribe	indulgence in and enjoyment of rich, comfortable, and sumptuous living
5. Temple	a piece of land almost completely surrounded by water but joined to a large mass of land
6. Peninsula	a large piece of farm equipment used to turn over the earth so that seeds can be planted
7. Empire	a building where people go to worship
8. Luxury	the activity of buying, selling or exchanging goods within a country or between countries
9. Trade	a social group consisting of people of the same race who have the same beliefs, customs, language etc and usually live in one particular area

Ex.3 Complete the table with the appropriate forms of the words given:

Verb	noun	Adjective
divide		-------------------
create
develop
-------------		distinctive
notice
succeed	success
coincide	coincidence

Ex. 4. Insert the words and phrases given into the sentences in their correct form. Translate the sentences into Russian.

be divided into establish according to possess assimilate

1. ___________ the legend, the Romans expelled the Etruscan king and founded the Roman Republic.

2. How _________ the Etruscans _________ into the Roman world?

3. How many city-states _________ the Greeks _________ by 750 BC?

4. Roman history ___________ three convenient periods.

5. Who __________ the highest military and civil authority?

Ex 5. Translate from Russian into English.

1. Своды и арки Римляне заимствовали у Этруссков, также как и некоторые обычаи.

2. Благодаря торговым интересам город стал расти, и к середине VI века можно было найти храмы и общественные здания по всему городу.

3. За завоеваниями немедленно следовала ассимиляция побеждённых народов с римским миром.

4. Несгибаемые римские солдаты показывали своё превосходство в искусстве войны.

5. Высшая военная и гражданская власть в государстве принадлежала консулам.

6. Когда племя начало своё вторжение, Римляне дали своему правителю максимальную власть на определённый период времени.

Ex. 6. Make a brief report on the following topics:

1. Assimilation into the Roman world.

2. Foundation of the Roman Empire.

3. The legend of Cincinnatus.

Text B. The Roman Empire

Read two sayings. Can you explain their meaning?

When in Rome, do as Romans do.

Rome was not built in a day.

Do you know any other sayings with the word “Rome”?

Read the following article without a dictionary and find the answers to the following questions:

1. How was the problem of unemployment solved?

2. What innovations were made in educational system?

3. What were the borders of the Roman Empire?

4. What was the vision of Caesar Augustus for the Empire ?

The Republic ended and the Roman Empire began with the rise of Caesar Augustus to power. It was a new era in European history. In 27 BC he got the title of Augustus. For the next 41 years Augustus gave the Romans good government. To better the administration, he appointed men whom he knew could be trusted to office from every class. In order to solve the problems of so many people without jobs, he put Rome's citizens to work on construction projects building forums, granaries, baths, temples, libraries, and roads. "I found Rome built of sun-dried brick; I leave it clothed in marble," he boasted of his accomplishments.