Studying Ancient History

Augustus appointed able men to supervise the postal service and the grain trade. The emperor also gave Rome its first fire department. Education was another concern for him. Augustus paid the salaries of school teachers and librarians and urged that students be given a basic training in citizenship.

The emperor was well aware that the army had become bloated during the wars of the Late Republic. So he reduced the size of the army from 60 to 28 legions. Dismissed soldiers, 100,000 of them, were settled in different parts of the Empire furthering its Romanization. He also expanded Rome's borders even farther. The Rhine River become a permanent boundary between Germans and Romans for the next 300 years. All the territory south of the Danube was brought under Roman Rule. In Anatolia the Roman border was placed on the Euphrates River.

The reign of Augustus lasted until AD 14 when he died at 76 years of age. He had truly become father of his countrymen. His vision for the Empire was to unite all people for service on behalf of Rome. He came close to success. It is not too surprising that some people thought him a god.

Ex. 1. Give a title to each part of the text.

Ex. 2. Give the content of each part in 1-2 sentences.

Ex. 3. Give a brief summary of the text.

Ex. 4. Give a written translation of the text paying attention to historical terminology.

Lesson 12

Text A. Augustus Caesar and the Pax Romana

Answer the following questions:

What does the term “Pax Romana” mean?

What historical role did Augustus Caesar play in history?

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

Julius Caesar ['d?u:li?s 'si:z?]

Marc Antony [ma:k '?nt?ni]

Lepidus ['lepid?s]

Octavian [?k't?vi?n]

Augustus Caesar [?:'g?st?s 'si:z?]

Pax Romana ['p?x 'r?uma:n?]

Study the following words and expressions:

claim [kleim], v - требовать, претендовать

despite [dis'pait], prep - несмотря на

dubious ['dju:bi?s], adj - сомнительный

extend [iks'tend], v - расширять

meddle in [medl], v - вмешиваться в

overhaul [?uv?'h?:l], v - производить полную проверку

proclaim [pr?'kleim], v - провозглашать

reduce [ri'dju:s], v- уменьшать, сокращать

self-sufficient [?selfs?'fi??nt], adj - самодостаточный

triumvirate [trai'?mvirit], n - триумвират

armed forces [a:md 'f?:siz] вооружённые силы

at once [?t 'w?ns] сразу же

cash payment [k?? 'peim?nt] оплата наличными

civic affair ['sivik ?'f??] гражданское дело

rise to power [raiz t? pau?] приходить к власти

slave-labour [sleiv 'leib?] рабский труд

solid supporter ['s?lid s?'p?:t?] надёжный сторонник

to do away with [d? ?wei wi?] покончить с

to face a problem [feis ? pr?bl?m] столкнуться с проблемой

to head a faction [hed ? 'f?k??n] возглавлять группу

to lay down supreme power [lei daun su:'prim pau?] - устанавливать верховную власть

to purge of something [p?:d?] избавляться от

to spell the death [spel ?? de?] повлечь за собой смерть

to take an oath of allegiance [?u? ?v ?'li:d??ns] дать присягу на верность

Read the text below using a dictionary if necessary:

On the morning of March 15, 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated by several members of the Roman Senate. This was just one month after he had declared himself dictator of the Roman world. In the wake of his death, three men moved forward to form a new triumvirate which would punish Caesar's assassins and then divide up the Roman world. The members of this triumvirate consisted of Mark Anthony (consul), Lepidus (high official), and Octavian (the grand nephew of Caesar). Up to the year 37 B.C., there was relative peace in the Roman world. These three men headed a republican faction against Caesar for the simple reason that Caesar had claimed absolute power for himself. But in 37 B.C., stability appeared to disintegrate.

In the wake of the decisive battle, the Battle of Actium, Octavian emerged as the sole master of the Roman world and would rule the Roman Empire for 45 years, until his death in A.D.14. Although his rise to power was always suspect, he succeeded in overhauling and reforming almost every Roman institution. He also helped to establish the Roman Empire on a much more rational basis. His reforms carried the Roman Empire for almost 200 years, and this, the most creative period of the Roman Empire, is often called the Age of Augustus.

On January 13, 27 B.C., Octavian appeared before the Roman Senate and laid down his supreme powers. It was at this time that Octavian took the name of Augustus Caesar. The Senate had been purged of its dubious members and reduced from about 1000 members to 800. The majority of these men were solid supporters of Augustus (indeed, they were handpicked by Augustus). Augustus proclaimed that he had restored the Republic. The Senate voted to allow Augustus to govern in for ten years which he gladly accepted. Despite all the pomp and circumstance which accompanied this, the plain fact was that he was now left with total control of the armed forces of the Roman State. The Senate took an oath of allegiance to Augustus as emperor. In 23 B.C., Augustus was granted the authority of tribune for life. This enabled him to have ultimate veto power and also to deal directly with the people.

The reforms of Augustus as well as his long life contributed to the idea that he was something more than human -- he was certainly a hero, the Romans thought, perhaps even a god. His reforms of the system of Roman government were important. He compromised between inherited traditions and a changed economic, political and social reality. In other words, he effectively mixed both the old and the new, a typically Roman idea. His system of reforms save the Empire, but in the long run spelled the death of representative institutions. Augustus never did away with these institutions, he merely united them under one person -- himself. He was consul, tribune, chief priest of the civic religion and the public censor. He ruled by personal prestige: he was princeps (first citizen among equals) and pater patriae (father of the country). He was the supreme ruler, the king, the emperor and his authority was absolute.

He immediately faced four distinct problems:

(1) He had to secure the northern frontiers against attack. Civil wars had involved the army and had led to a weakening of the frontiers of the border.

(2) The army had grown too large and unmanageable: the army formed a state within a state.

(3) The urban population and small farmers had to be helped.

(4) His new government had to promote confidence among the senatorial class which was necessary for efficient rule.

His reform of the administration of the provinces hit all these problems at once. First, the frontiers were consolidated. His policy was to extend the northern frontier (the Rhine and Danube Rivers) no further and to bolster what remained. Augustus reduced the size of the army and the remainder were stationed in the provinces. He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who had served for more than twenty years, thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to their generals. The army was removed from Rome where they were tempted to a meddle in civic affairs. He also created the Praetorian Guard, an elite corps of 9000 men charged with defending him. Stationed at Rome, the members of the Guard were from Italy only, and received higher pay than soldiers in the Roman legions. The Guard served as the personal bodyguard to Augustus but a few decades after the death of Augustus, they often played a decisive role in the "selection" of new emperors. In the home provinces near Rome, Augustus entrusted the senatorial class. He made the senatorial aristocracy feel as if they still had power. They were, of course, losing it quickly. The reforms of Augustus stabilized the economy and made the Mediterranean basin nearly self-sufficient.

But there were flaws which soon became apparent. Economically, the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas. If one fell, it could hurt the whole Empire. The system of slave labor was also showing signs of deterioration. Slaves had no desire to work. Furthermore, the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won their freedom by manumission. As a result, manpower was drained off the farms.

In general, the Augustan system worked fairly well, in fact, it lasted more than 200 years. It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the Greeks under Pericles. This is the age of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. But the Augustan reforms were not limited to political, economic and social issues alone. They also envisioned a fundamental change in Roman culture itself. Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind. They were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing world.

Ex. 1. Answer the following questions:

1. Why did Marc Antony Lepidus and Octavian head a faction against Caesar?

2. What period of Roman Empire is called the Age of Augustus?

3. How did Augustus get the total control of the armed forces and authority of tribune?

4. What kinds of innovation did Augustus introduce?

5. What problems did Augustus face when he rose to power?

6. What was made to cope with all the problems?

7. What were disadvantages of his reforms?

Ex. 2. Match the words with their definitions:

bodyguard	to make sure
Pax Romana	a position that gives someone the ability, power or right to control and command
Priest	A man whose job is to guard an important person
secure	to do work
manumission	a specially trained person, usually a man, who performs various religious duties and ceremonies for a group of worshippers
destiny	to break into small pieces
disintegrate	the peace supposed to be established in the world by the presence of the Roman Empire
vote	fate, what must happen and cannot be changed or controlled
authority	to express one's choice officially from among the possibilities or suggested
serve	the act of freeing or the state of being freed from slavery, servitude, etc

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

verb	noun	adjective
assassinate
suspect
achieve
decide
inherit
weaken
Die
Deteriorate

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

assassinate lay down take lead provide reduce envision

1. Who … the Senate … an oath of allegiance?

2. A cash payment … to those soldiers who had served for more than twenty years.

3. Augustan reforms … a fundamental change in Roman culture.

4. Who … Julius Caesar … by?

5. Civil wars … to a weakening of the frontiers of the border.

6. Since many slave families won their freedom, the number of slave … .

7. How … Augustus … his supreme powers?

Ex. 5. Translate from Russian into English:

1. Август Цезарь правил римской империей в течение 45 лет, вплоть до своей смерти в 14 году н.э.

2.Кто и каким образом получил полный контроль над вооружёнными силами Римского государства?

3. Система реформ Августа спасла империю, но повлекла за собой смерть института законодательной власти.

4. Сенат избавился от своих сомнительных членов, и их количество сократилось с 1000 до 800 человек.

5. Преторианский корпус, созданный Августом, впоследствии сыграл решающую роль при выборе новых императоров.

6. Почему римляне считали Августа Цезаря несомненным героем и почитали почти как бога?

7. Так как система была основана на сети взаимозависимых районов, развал одной мог причинить вред всей империи.

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

1.The period of Pax Romana.

2. Innovations of Augustus Caesar.

3.Age of Augustus.

Text B. Gladiators

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

1. What were the most important leisure activities in the Roman Empire?

2. What were the main rules in gladiatorial contests?

3. How was the fate of a loser decided?

4. What do expressions "Missum" and "iugula" mean?

5. Part of what ceremony were gladiatorial combats?

6. Who were the first gladiators?

For more than five hundred years spectacular events took place in amphitheatres, circuses and theatres across the Roman Empire. The most important leisure activities of their day, they captured the popular imagination, and remain fascinating to this day. In the year of Ridley Scott's epic film Gladiator, The British Museum held the sensational exhibition “Gladiators and Caesars” in 2001, which looked at all aspects of the ancient Roman entertainment industry. Using objects lent from European museums and major pieces from the British Museum's own collections, there were sections on gladiatorial combat, chariot-racing, athletics, boxing, and the theatre.

Two armed men faced each other in an arena. There was no time limit; they fought until victory was decided. There was usually a clear winner; either one of the gladiators was so severely wounded that he died or was unable to continue, or he was forced to capitulate through exhaustion or loss of blood. His ultimate fate, however, still hung in the balance.

This was decided by the editor, the organizer or sponsor of the games, but he usually went along with the feeling of the crowd. If the loser had fought courageously and fairly, they might feel sympathy, and wave the hems of their togas or cloacs, crying “missum!” or “mitte!” (“let him go”). However, if his performance displeased them, they would demand his death, turning their thumbs up (pollice verso) and crying “iugula!” (“kill him”).

The first public appearance of gladiator in the city of Rome was in the third century BC. Gladiatorial combat originated in warrior fights staged as part of funeral ceremonies for important citizens. The shedding of blood beside a dead man's grave is an ancient practice common to many Mediterranean cultures. During the second and first centuries BC these spectacles became more and more common and elaborate. Gladiatorial schools recruited from among prisoners of war, slaves, condemned criminals and volunteers.

Ex. 1. Give a title to each part of the text.

Ex. 2. Give the contents of each part in 1-2 sentences.

Ex. 3. Give a brief summary of the text.

Ex. 4. Give a written translation of the text paying attention to historical terminology.

Lesson 13

Text A. The Decline and Fall of Rome

Answer the following questions:

1. What do you remember about the beginning of the Roman Empire?

2. Name the most prominent Roman emperors. What were they famous for?

3. When did the Roman Empire fall?

Give Russian equivalents to the following terms and proper names:

Byzantine[?biz?nti:n]

Greece [gri:s]

Greek [gri:k]

Hellenistic [?heli?nistik]

Renaissance [ri?neis?ns]

Roman Empire [?r?um?n ?empaie]

Give Russian equivalents to the following words and expressions:

deity [?di:iti], n

refashion [ri:f??(?)n], v

Romanize [?r?um??naiz], v

at best

the city state

a world view

Study the following words and expressions:

accomplish [??k?mpli?], v - завершать, выполнять, совершать

assassination [??s?sinei?(?)n], n - убийство

cognizant [?kogniz(?)nt], adj - знающий, осведомленный

cohesion [k?u?hi:?(?)n], n - сцепление, сплоченность

devious [?di:vi?s], adj - лукавый, неискренний

embody [im?bodi], v - содержать, включать

emphasis [?emf?sis], n - акцент, ударение, значительность

endow [in?dau] , v - наделять, одарять

equate [i?kweit] , v - уравнивать, приравнивать

forge [f?:d?], v - изобретать, выдумывать

ripen [?raip?n], v - зреть, созревать

rival [?raiv(?)l], n - соперник, конкурент

scheming [?ski:mi?], n - плетущий интриги

secular [?sekjul?(r)], adj -мирской, светский

strangulation [‚str??gju?lei?(?)n], n - удушение

stupendous [stju:?pend?s], adj - изумительный, колоссальный

subsist [s?b?sist], v - существовать, жить

sustain [s??stein], v - поддерживать

virtue [?v?:tju:], n - добродетель, целомудрие, достоинство

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

yield [ji:ld], v - поддаваться, уступать

abundantly clear [??b?nd(?)ntli ?kli?]- предельно ясно

downright insanity [?daunrait in?s?niti] - явное безумие

to eat away - разъедать

no doubt [nou daut] - без сомнения, вероятно

to pay homage to [pei ?h?mid?]- преклоняться перед

regardless of [ri?ga:dlis] - невзирая на

to take great pain - мучиться, прилагать старания

through and through [?ru:] - до мозга костей, полностью

Read and translate the text using the dictionary if necessary:

One of the reasons for the success of the Roman Empire was that the Romans treated their Empire as the world. In other words, the world was equated with the Empire. This belief formed the social cement which kept the Empire sustained. However, this bond, this social cohesion, was temporary at best. There were forces outside the Roman Empire which were eating away at the Empire itself. And regardless of whether we accept the fact that Rome fell as a result of internal pressure or invasions from the outside, or both at one and the same time, one thing is abundantly clear: Rome fell, and did so with a loud noise. It would take Western Civilization nearly ten centuries to recover and refashion a world which could be the rival of the civilization of Rome.

By the third and fourth centuries AD, it is proper to speak of a Greco-Roman tradition of thought. The Romans tried to limit the influence of Greek thought in the early days of the Empire. However, over time Greek ideas joined with Roman conceptions and a new tradition of thought was forged. In some respects, the Hellenistic world became Romanized. This is just one more example of how the Romans succeeded by assimilated other cultures. Furthermore, the Greco-Roman tradition refers as much to classical and Hellenistic Greece as it does the days of the Roman Republic and the Empire. Both civilizations produced a world view which we could only call pagan. This world view was secular through and through. Gods and goddesses were common to both civilizations and yet as time passed it was the virtuous life of the good citizen that was of supreme importance. The emphasis was on living the good life in the here and now, whether in the city state or the cosmopolis.

The Greco-Roman tradition was fashioned over the one thousand year history of the classical world, the world of Greece and Rome. The Renaissance of the 14th through 16th centuries attempted to revive the ideals of the classical world, and so the humanists of the Renaissance tried to imitate the humanism of centuries past. Humanist scholars took great pains to study the texts of the ancient world, not just to "harvest" the virtuous life of classical man, but to learn classical Greek and Latin. If ancient texts needed to be studied, then they needed to be studied in the language in which they were composed. What had happened between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance was the bastardization of classical languages. As scholars, the humanists needed the classical world for its language as much as it did for its ideas.

The Greco-Roman tradition was secular: it proposed no one God and formal religion as we know it today, did not exist. While the Greeks would pay homage to their many deities, as would the Romans, there is no doubt that they placed their true faith in the hands of man. In other words, humanism: man the thinker, man the doer, man the maker. For the Greeks, man was endowed with Reason, the capacity to think and use his intellect. This initially took the form of glorifying the city state: the city state was the world.

Above all, the Greeks asked questions. What is knowledge? What is the state? What is beauty? What is virtue? What is justice? Was the best form of government? The Greeks, in the last analysis, were thinkers rather than doers. In time, the Greek world view came or to be based on the intellect more than it was on action.

The Romans, on the other hand, were doers, they were men of action. They succeeded in translating into action what the Greeks had only thought possible. The Romans also asked questions about the world, about nature, and about man. To be sure, they inhabited the same world as the Hellenistic Greeks. They understood and accepted the chaos and disorder of the world. However, they were clearly more prepared to develop their thought of the world in relation to what kind of world in which they wanted to live. The Romans also had the example of the Greeks and their history. In other words, the Romans were cognizant of what the Greeks had accomplished and not accomplished. The Greeks had no such history to which they could refer.

The end result for the Romans was that they managed to create their own world and they called it the Roman Empire. And their world view became embodied in a pagan cult. This cult was nothing less than the patriotic worship of Rome itself.

Despite the obvious fact that the majority of Roman emperors were scheming, devious, opportunistic, or plainly insane, the world view dominated the social life of the Roman citizen of the Empire. The history of the Empire is dotted with political assassinations, strangulations, emperors playing fiddles while Rome burned, court intrigue and rivalry not to mention a widespread incidence of downright insanity or paranoid schizophrenia. In the end, it is extraordinary that the Roman Empire existed for as long as it did. For Edward Gibbon, author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (3 vols, 1770s), the decline of Rome was natural and required little explanation: "The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious: and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long."

It's a complicated question and has occupied the attention of historians for centuries. One thing can be said with certainty - although Rome ultimately fell in A.D. 476, its decline was a process that had been going on for centuries. Roman strengths eventually became Roman weaknesses. Another thing which we ought to remember is that the Roman Empire was large, and when we speak of the fall of Rome, we are talking about the western half of the Empire. The eastern half survived as the Byzantine Empire until 1453. Lastly, there is no one explanation that accounts for Rome's decline and fall.

Ex.1. Answer the following questions:

1. What were the reasons for successful growth of the Roman Empire?

1. Why did Rome fall?

2. What do you know about the Greco-Roman tradition?

3. What did the Greeks and the Romans contribute to the world?

4. Why did scholars of the Renaissance study ancient languages?

5. What does E.Gibbon say about the decline of Rome? What is your opinion?

6. What happened to the eastern part of the Empire after the fall of Rome?

Ex. 2. Match the words with their definitions:

1. empire	Strong usually religious feelings of love, respect, admiration
2. cohesion	Good fortune and success, especially in money matters
3. invasion	A system of worship, especially one that is different from the usual and established form of religion in a society
4. secular	A group of countries all ruled by the ruler or government of one particular country
5. cult	Not connected with or controlled by a church, not religious
6. worship	A period or process of movement to a lower or worse position
7. decline	An act of invading when the enemy spreads into and tries to control a country, city
8. prosperity	The act or state of sticking together tightly

Ex. 3. a) Give English equivalents to the following expressions:

1. мировоззрение древних греков

2. преклоняться перед богами

3. добродетельная жизнь простых граждан

4. языческий культ

5. большинство римских императоров

6. неизбежный эффект

7. явное безумие

8. Византийская империя

b) Choose the expressions from 3 a) to speak about:

1. The Greco-Roman tradition.

2. The decline and fall of Rome.

Ex. 4. Complete the table with the appropriate forms of the words given:

Verb	Noun
to treat
to invade	1. 2.
	forgery
to press
	conquest

Ex. 5. Translate from Russian into English:

1. Автор считает, что одной из причин успеха Римской Империи было то, что римляне считали свою империю целым миром.

2. Со временем наибольшую важность для древних римлян стала приобретать добродетельная жизнь простых граждан.

3. Итогом стараний римлян было то, что они смогли создать свой собственный мир, который они назвали Римской Империей.

4. Эпоха Возрождения пыталась оживить идеи классического мира, поэтому гуманисты того времени старались подражать идеалам прошедших веков.

5. Древние тексты нужно было изучать на том языке, на котором они были написаны, поэтому ученые-гуманисты учили классические греческий и латинский языки.

6. Независимо от того, принимаем мы тот факт, что Рим пал в результате внутреннего давления или влияний извне, или из-за обеих причин одновременно, предельно ясно одно: Рим пал, и пал он с оглушительным треском.

Ex. 6. Make a brief report on one of the following topics, use the vocabulary from the text:

- The Greko - Roman tradition

- The decline of Rome

Text B. Guess the meaning of the following words:

Autocracy

Constitutional

Republic

Principate

Usurpation

Inauguration.

Read the text without a dictionary and choose the most suitable title:

a) The autocracy.

b) The reign of Augustus.

c) The Republic of Rome.

The Roman Empire was founded by Augustus, but for three centuries after its foundation the State was constitutionally a republic. The government was shared between the Emperor and the Senate; the Emperor, whose constitutional position was expressed by the title Princeps was limited by the rights of the Senate. Hence it has been found convenient to distinguish this period as the Principate or the Dyarchy. From the very beginning the Princeps was the predominant partner, and the constitutional history of the Principate turns on his gradual and steady usurpation of nearly all the functions of government which Augustus had attributed to the Senate. The republican disguise fell away completely before the end of the third century. Aurelian adopted external fashions which marked a king, not a citizen; and Diocletian and Constantine definitely transformed the State from a republic to an autocracy. This change, accompanied by corresponding radical reforms, was, from a purely constitutional point of view, as great a break with the past as the change wrought by Augustus, and the transition was as smooth. Augustus preserved continuity with the past by maintaining republican forms; while Constantine and his predecessors simply established on a new footing the supreme Imperial power which already existed in fact, discarding the republican mask which had worn too thin.

The autocracy brought no change in the principle of succession to the throne. Down to its fall in the fifteenth century the Empire remained elective, and the election rested with the Senate and the army. Either the Senate or the army could proclaim an Emperor, and the act of proclamation constituted a legitimate title. As a rule, the choice of one body was acquiesced in by the other; if not, the question must be decided by a struggle. Any portion of the army was considered, for this purpose, as representing the whole army, and thus in elections in Constantinople it was the troops stationed there with whom the decision lay. But whether Senate or army took the initiative, the consent of the other body was required; and the inauguration of the new Emperor was not complete till he had been acclaimed by the people. Senate, army, and people, each had its place in the inaugural ceremonies.

But while the principle of election was retained, it was in actual practice most often only a form. From the very beginning the principle of heredity was introduced indirectly. The reigning Emperor could designate his successor by appointing a co-regent. In this way Augustus designated his stepson Tiberius, Vespasian his son Titus. The Emperors naturally sought to secure the throne for their sons, and if they had no son, generally looked within their own family. From the end of the fourth century it became usual for an Emperor to confer the Imperial title on his eldest son, whether an adult or an infant. The usual forms of inauguration were always observed; but the right of the Emperor to appoint co-regents was never disputed. The consequence was that the succession of the Roman Emperors presents a series of dynasties, and that it was only at intervals, often considerable, that the Senate and army were called upon to exercise their right of election.

1. Express the main ideas of the text in 5 sentences.

2. Give a written translation of the text.

Texts for additional reading

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers") is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria,[2] some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran.

Commonly known as the "cradle of civilization", Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire, and later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It mostly remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire. Under the Caliphate, the region came to be known as Iraq.

The regional toponym Mesopotamia ( < meso (?????) = middle and potamia < ??????? = river, literally means "between two rivers") was coined in the Hellenistic period without any definite boundaries, to refer to a broad geographical area and probably used by the Seleucids. The term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept and coined at the time of the Aramaicization of the region, in the 10th century BCE. It is however widely accepted that early Mesopotamian societies simply referred to the entire alluvium as kalam in Sumerian (lit. "land"). More recently terms like "Greater Mesopotamia" or "Syro-Mesopotamia" have been adopted to refer to wider geographies corresponding to the Near East or Middle East. The later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th century Western encroachments.

Mesopotamia encompasses the land in between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers; both of which have their headwaters in the mountains of Armenia in modern Turkey. Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 6,000 square mile region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, and reed banks in the south. In the extreme south the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf.

The arid environment which ranges from the northern areas of rain fed agriculture, to the south where irrigation of agriculture is essential if a surplus energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) is to be obtained. This irrigation is aided by a high water table and by melted snows from the high peaks of the Zagros Mountains and from the Armenian cordillera, the source of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, that give the region its name. The usefulness of irrigation depends upon the ability to mobilize sufficient labor for the construction and maintenance of canals, and this, from the earliest period, has assisted the development of urban settlements and centralized systems of political authority. Agriculture throughout the region has been supplemented by nomadic pastoralism, where tent dwelling nomads move herds of sheep and goats (and later camels) from the river pastures in the dry summer months, out into seasonal grazing lands on the desert fringe in the wet winter season. The area is generally lacking in building stone, precious metals and timber, and so historically has relied upon long distance trade of agricultural products to secure these items from outlying areas. In the marshlands to the south of the country, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since pre-historic times, and has added to the cultural mix.

Periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. The demands for labour has from time to time led to population increases that push the limits of the ecological carrying capacity, and should a period of climatic instability ensue, collapsing central government and declining populations can occur. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists have led to periods of trade collapse and neglect of irrigation systems. Equally, centripetal tendencies amongst city states has meant that central authority over the whole region, when imposed, has tended to be ephemeral, and localism has fragmented power into tribal or smaller regional units. These trends have continued to the present day in Iraq.

Ancient Egypt

Egyptian religion, like that of Mesopotamia, was polytheistic and each region had its own patron deity. Some of these local or regional gods gained notoriety throughout Egypt. For instance, the god Ptah gained power when the city of Memphis became the capital of Egypt. Later, the god Re of Heliopolis eclipsed that of Ptah. Finally, the god Amon rose to supremacy in Thebes in connection with the political authority of the Thebian pharaoh. As a rule, whenever a new capital was founded, a new supreme god was chosen.

Egyptian gods were often represented as animals - as falcons, vultures, a cobra, dog, cat or crocodile. For the Egyptians, because animals were non-human, they must have possessed religious significance. Other gods, such as Ptah and Amon, were given human representation, but the most important god Re, was not represented at all. The gods created the cosmos - they created order out of chaos. The Sumerians had a similar belief. But the life of the Sumerian was filled with anxiety and pessimism because the gods themselves were unstable and the idea of an afterlife was unknown.

Egyptian religion inspired confidence and optimism in the external order and stability of the world. The gods guided the rhythms of life and death. And what really distinguished Egyptian religion from that of Mesopotamia, was that any man or woman could share in the benefits of an afterlife. As one historian has put it: "death meant a continuation of one's life on earth, a continuation that, with the appropriate precautions of proper burial, prayer, and ritual, would include only the best parts of life on earth - nothing to fear, but on the other hand, nothing to want to hurry out of this world for."

Religion was the unifying agent in ancient Egypt. Pharaoh indicated his concern for his people by worshipping the local deities in public ceremonies. The gods protected the living and guaranteed them an afterlife. The Egyptians believed they were living in a fixed, static or unchanging universe in which life and death were part of a continuous, rhythmic cycle. Certain patterns came to be expected - grain had to be harvested, irrigation canals had to be built and pyramids had to be built. Just as the sun rose in the east and set in the west, so all human life and death passed through regular and predictable patterns.

The first pyramids, built around 2900 B.C., were little more than mudbrick structures built over the burial pits of nobles. These structures protected the body from exposure and also provided a secure place for the personal belongings of the dead noble. By 2600 B.C., mudbrick structures were replaced by the familiar stone pyramid. The pyramids were completely inaccessible structures - once pharaoh was buried, hallways and passages were sealed and obliterated. In this way, the pyramids would stand eternal, unchanged, and fixed, as they stand today. The pyramid symbolizes much of what we know about ancient Egypt. They reflect the extreme centralization of the Egyptian government as well as rule by pharaoh.

The great pyramids of Giza, built more than 4500 years ago, expressed pharaoh's immortality and divinity. The earliest built of the Giza pyramids is that of Khufu, better known as Cheops, the Greek name given to it by the Greek historian Herodotus, when he visited the pyramids around 480 B.C. Cheops covers 13 acres and contains two million stone blocks, each weighing 5000 pounds. Its height originally stood at 481 feet. One of the most compelling features of the pyramids, in addition to the architectural feat of just building them, was their mortuary art. Inside the pyramids was the royal burial chamber. The walls of the chamber are covered with hieroglyphics, which detail the life of pharaoh. We find art detailing people fishing and hunting. We also see people seated at banquets. Representations of food and wine were included as well. Jars of wine, grain, fruits and other foods were included, as well as boats, bows, arrows and other objects from the real world. Slaves were often entombed as well. Why? Very simple. Pharaoh would need these things in the afterlife, since death was not final, but an extension of this worldly life. The emphasis on mortuary art was not death but life. Like the seasons, man lives and dies. Death was nothing final but the beginning of yet another cycle. In the next life there would be birds, people, oceans, rivers, desert, food and wine.

From what we have said so far it should be obvious that religion gave the river civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt their distinctive character. But this religion was not a religion of comfort or morality. Instead, these polytheistic religions were mythoepic. Whereas our world view may be scientific or rational, these river civilizations adopted a world view based on myth. The construction of myths was the first manner in which western civilization attempted to explain life and the universe. Myths explained the creation of the universe as well as the role men and women would play in that universe. Nature, for these earliest river civilizations, was not an inanimate "it." Instead, nature, the world of nature, had a life, will and vitality all its own.

The myth-makers of the Ancient Near East and of Egypt did not seek to rationally or logically explain nature. Instead of natural laws or systematic explanations, these people resorted to divine powers and myths. Although these civilizations certainly exercised their minds to build ziggurats and pyramids, irrigation canals and pottery wheels, cuneiforms and hieroglyphics, they did not advance to the creation of science. They did not deduce abstractions, nor did they make hypotheses or establish general laws of the nature world. These efforts - science and philosophy - were the product of another culture, located in another time and place: the Greeks.

Hebrew Civilization

Dwarfed by the great empires of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Egyptians, were the Hebrews. Of all the ancient civilizations, it was the Hebrews who exerted perhaps the greatest influence on western society as well as the western intellectual tradition.

The Hebrews, a Semitic-speaking people, first appeared in Mesopotamia. For instance, Abraham's family were native to Sumer. But between 1900 and 1500 B.C., the Hebrews migrated from Mesopotamia to Canaan and then into Egypt. At this time, a tribe of Hebrews who claimed to be the descendants of Abraham began to call themselves Israelites ("soldiers of God"). The Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptian pharaohs until 1250 B.C. when their leader, Moses, led them on an exodus out of Egypt to the Sinai peninsula. Moses persuaded his followers to become worshippers of Yahweh or Jehovah.

The Hebrews who wandered into the Sinai with Moses decided to return to Canaan. The move was not easy and the Hebrews were faced with constant threats from the Philistines who occupied the coastal region. Twelve Hebrew tribes united first under Saul and then his successor, David. By the 10th century, David and his son Solomon had created an Israelite kingdom. Economic progress was made as Israeli people began to trade with neighboring states. New cities were built and one in particular, Jerusalem, was built by David to honor God.

In 586, the region of Judah was destroyed and several thousand Hebrews were deported to Babylon. (200 years earlier the northern country of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians. The 586 destruction completed the destruction of the two regions.) The prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah declared that the Babylonian captivity was God's punishment. The Hebrews, in other words, had brought upon their own captivity because they had violated God's laws. Despite this calamity, the Hebrews survived as people. In the 4th century, Alexander the Great conquered nearly all of the Near East and Palestine was annexed to Egypt and fell under Greek control. And by the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C., the Hebrews lost near total independence under the Romans. But the Hebrews would never give up their faith or their religion.

The Hebrews were, as a people, committed to the worship of one God and His Law as it was presented in the Old Testament. The Old Testament represents an oral history of the Jews and was written, in Hebrew, between 1250 and 150 B.C. The Old Testament was written by religious devotees and not by historians - it therefore contains factual errors, discrepancies and imprecise statements. Still, much of the 39 books of the Old Testament are also reliable as history. No historian who wishes to understand the religious faith of the Jews can do so without mastering the Old Testament.

There is only one god in the Old Testament - although the books of the Old Testament emphasize the values of human experience. Its heroes are not gods and goddesses but men and women, both strong and weak. What separates the religious beliefs of the Hebrews from the belief systems of Egypt or Mesopotamia was clearly their monotheism. The Hebrews regarded God as fully sovereign - He ruled all and was subject to no laws Himself. Unlike Near Eastern gods, Jehovah was not created - God is eternal and the source of all creation in the universe. He created and governed the world and shaped the moral laws that govern humanity.

God was transcendent - that is, He is above nature and not part of nature. In this sort of religion, there is no place for a sun god or moon god. Nature was demystified - it was no longer super-natural, but natural. That is, the Hebrews conceived nature as an example of God's handiwork. This is very important because once nature was demystified scientific thought could begin. However, the Hebrews were neither philosophers nor were they scientists. They were concerned with God's will and not with man's capacity to explain away or understand nature. In other words, God's existence was based not on Reason or rational investigation, but on religious conviction or faith alone. Not Reason but Revelation was the cornerstone of the Hebrew faith.

This monotheism made possible for a new awareness of the individual. In God, the Hebrews developed an awareness of the Self or the "I" - the individual was self-conscious and aware of his own moral autonomy and worth. With this in mind, the Hebrews believed that man was a free agent - man had the capacity to choose between good and evil. Although God was omnipotent He was also just and merciful. He did not want His followers to be slaves. Instead, men and women were to fulfill their morality by freely making the choice to do good or evil. God does not control mankind - rather, men must have the freedom to choose.

There is only one God and the Hebrews believed that the worship of idols would deprive people of the freedom God had given them. This belief was opposed to Near Eastern polytheism which used images to represent their gods and goddesses. For the Hebrews, God is incapable of being represented in any form whatsoever.

Because God was the center of all life only He was worthy of worship. Therefore, the Hebrews would give no ultimate loyalty to kings or generals. To do so would be to violate God's law to have "no other God but me." So, the Hebrews were morally free. But, this freedom came with one solemn condition. Freedom did not mean, do as you please. Instead, it meant voluntary obedience to those moral commands which God had given to the Hebrews through Moses.

Homer

The best though sometimes unreliable source of Greek civilization in this period is Homer, and in particular, two epic poems usually attributed to him. We don't really know much about Homer. His place of birth is doubtful although Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos and Athens have all contended for the honor of having been his birthplace. His date of birth has been assumed to be as far back as 1200 B.C. but, based on the style of his two epic poems, 850-800 B.C. seems more likely. It has been said that Homer was blind, but even that is a matter of conjecture. And lastly, we are not even sure that Homer wrote those two classics of the western literary canon, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The confusion arises from the fact that the world of Homer was a world of oral tradition and oral history. There is evidence to show that Homer's epics were really ballads and were chanted and altered for centuries until they were finally digested into the form we know today 540 B.C. by Pisistratus, a man we shall meet again but in a very different context. We shall assume, as generations before us have done, that Homer was the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

In twenty-four books of dactylic hexameter verse, the Iliad narrates the events of the last year of the Trojan War, and focuses on the withdrawal of Achilles from the contest and the disastrous effects of this act on the Greek campaign. The Trojan War was fought between Greek invaders and the defenders of Troy, probably near the beginning of the 12th century B.C. Archeological evidence gathered in our own century shows that the war did indeed take place and was based on the struggle for control of important trade routes across the Hellespont, which were dominated by the city of Troy. About this war there grew a body of myth that was recounted by Homer in the Iliad, the Odyssey and a number of now-lost epics.

According to the more familiar versions of this complex myth, the cause of the war was the episode of the golden apple which resulted in the abduction by the Trojan prince Paris of Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Earlier, most of the rulers of Greece had been suitors for the Hand of Helen and her father, Tyndareus, had made them swear to support the one chosen. So, they joined Menelaus and prepared to move against Troy under the leadership of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae.

After forcing Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to insure fair weather, they set sail for Troy. In the tenth and final year of the war with Troy, Achilles withdrew from the fight in an argument with Agamemnon over possession of a female captive, however, grieved by the death of his friend Patroclus, he rejoined the battle and killed the Trojan leader, Hector.

That, in brief, is the action of the Iliad. The characters we encounter are warriors through and through - not just warriors, but aristocratic warriors who considered greatness in battle to be the highest virtue a man could attain. This heroic outlook was composed of courage, bravery and glory in battle and was necessary for a strong city-state in Greek civilization. But these were not self-interested goals alone. Instead, the warrior fought bravely in service to his city-state. We are not talking about patriotism here. Virtue was what made man a good citizen, and good citizens made a great city-state. We shall encounter virtue a great deal in conjunction with the Athenian city-state.

The world of Homer is a world of war, conflict, life and death. In the Homeric world of war, men do not have rights, but only duties. By serving the city-state with their virtuous behavior, they are also serving themselves. Indeed, there was nothing higher or more sublime in the Homeric world than virtue. And Homer's epic poems served as the Bible of ancient Greece right down to the time of Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C. In fact, an education in the classical world meant the rote memorization of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Homer's world is a closed and finite world. This is completely unlike our own world which is a mechanical world, governed by mathematics and fixed physical laws. Homer's world is a living world - the earth, man, animals and plants are all endowed with personality, emotion and wills of their own. Even the gods and goddesses were endowed with these qualities. The gods themselves could appear at any time and at any place. Although the gods had no permanent relations with the world of men and women, they were interested in their welfare. They also intervened in the affairs of life, as Homer's Iliad makes abundantly clear. In general, the gods were the guides and councilors of mortal men and women. Still, the gods and goddesses often deceived men by offering them delusion rather than reality.

For Homer, the world was not governed by caprice, whim or chance - what governed the world was "Moira" (fate, fortune, destiny). Fate was a system of regulations that control the unfolding of all life, all men and women, all things of the natural world, and all gods and goddesses. Fate was not only a system of regulations but a fundamental law that maintained the world. It is Moira that gives men and women their place and function in Greek society. That is, it is Moira that determines who shall be slave or master, peasant or warrior, citizen or non-citizen, Greek or barbarian. It is Moira that fixed the rhythm of human life - from childhood through youth to old age and finally death, it was Fate that regulated the personal growth of the individual. Even the gods had their destinies determined by Moira. From the Iliad, the goddess Athena expounds on this principle of Fate to Telemachus when she says the gods may help mortals but "Death is the law for all: the gods themselves/Cannot avert it from the man they cherish when baneful Moira has pronounced his doom."