History of Western civilization before AD 500

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Main article: History of Western civilization

Western civilization describes the development of human

Western Christendom
.

The civilizations of

Eastern Roman Empire
(Byzantine Empire) endured for centuries.

A fresco found at the Minoan site of Knossos, indicating a sport or ritual of "bull leaping". The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC.
The Parthenon, located on the Acropolis in Athens, one of the cradles of Western civilization.

Origins of the notion of "East" and "West"

The

"barbarian" invasions of his own time (see also Assyria and Germany in Anglo-Israelism
).

The "East" in the

Roman Catholic
Christianity.

The Mediterranean and the Ancient West

The earliest

last Ice Age, which allowed for a transition from nomadism to village settlements and then cities like Jericho.[7]

The

Israelites
and others later built important states in this region.

The ancient peoples of the

Carthaginians and Romans to navigate long distances and control large areas by commanding the sea. Cargo galleys often also employed slave oarsmen to power their ships and slavery was an important feature of the ancient Western economy.[8]

Thus, the great ancient capitals were linked — cities such as:

Jesus of Nazareth preached and was executed around AD 30; and the city of Rome, which gave rise to the Roman Empire which encompassed much of Europe and the Mediterranean. Knowledge of Greek, Roman and Judeo-Christian influence on the development of Western civilization is well documented because it attached to literate cultures, however, Western history was also strongly influenced by less literate groups such as the Germanic, Scandinavian and Celtic peoples who lived in Western and Northern Europe beyond the borders of the Roman world. Nevertheless, the Mediterranean was the centre of power and creativity in the development of ancient Western civilisation. Around 1500 BC, metallurgists learned to smelt iron ore, and by around 800BC, iron tools and weapons were common along the Aegean Sea, representing a major advance for warfare, agriculture and crafts in Greece.[8]

Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle in The School of Athens by Raphael
.

The earliest urban civilizations of Europe belong to the Bronze Age

Athenian Golden Age ended with the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War
in 404 BC.

By the 6th century BC, Greek colonists had spread far and wide — from the Russian Black Sea coast to the Spanish Mediterranean and through modern Italy, North Africa, Crete, Cyprus and Turkey. The Ancient Olympic Games are said to have begun in 776 BC and grew to be a major cultural event for the citizens of the Greek diaspora, who met every four years to compete in such sporting events as running, throwing, wrestling and chariot driving. Trade flourished and by 670 BC the barter economy was being replaced by a money economy, with Greeks minting coins in such places as the island of Aegina. Poultry arrived from India around 600 BC and would grow to be a European staple. The Hippocratic Oath, historically taken by doctors swearing to practice medicine ethically, is said to have been written by the Greek Hippocrates, often regarded as the father of western medicine, in Ionic Greek (late 5th century BC),[10]

The Greek city states competed and warred with each other, with Athens rising to be the most impressive. Learning from the Egyptians, Athenian art and architecture shone from 520 to 420 BC and the city completed the Parthenon around 447 BC to house a statue of their city goddess Athena. The Athenians also experimented with democracy. Property owners assembled almost weekly to make speeches and instruct their temporary rulers: a council of 500, chosen by lot or lottery, whose members could only serve a total of 2 years in a lifetime, and a smaller, high council from whom one man was selected by lottery to preside from sunset to the following sunset.[8]

Greek Theatre represented in the Hadrian's Villa mosaic

Thus, the citizens' assembly shared power and prevented lifetime rulers from taking control. Military chiefs were exempt from the short term requirement however and were elected, rather than chosen by lot. Eloquent oratory became a Greek art form as speakers sought to sway large crowds of voters. Athenians believed in 'democracy' but not in equality and excluded women, slaves, the poor and foreigners from the assembly. Notions of a general "brotherhood of man" were yet to emerge.[8]

Socratic dialogues
.

In classical tradition, Homer is the ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad, the Odyssey and other works. Homer's epics stand at the beginning of the western canon of literature, exerting enormous influence on the history of fiction and literature in general.

Alexander the Great

Indus river. He died in Babylon in 323 BC and his empire did not long survive his death. Nevertheless, the settlement of Greek colonists around the region had long lasting consequences and Alexander features prominently in Western history and mythology.[12]

The city of

Herophilus; constructed the great Library of Alexandria; and translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek (called the Septuagint for it was the work of 70 translators).[8]

The ancient Greeks excelled in engineering, science, logic, politics and medicine. Classical

Mediterranean region and Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization.[13][14][15]

South-Eastern Europe/the Balkans and the Mediterranean region through conquest and assimilation
.

Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct built c. 19 BC

Originally ruled by Kings who ruled the settlement and a small area of land nearby, the Romans established a republic in 509BC that would last for five centuries. Initially a small number of families shared power, later representative assemblies and elected leaders ruled. Rome remained a minor power on the Italian peninsula, but found a talent for producing soldiers and sailors and, after subduing the

Piceni began to challenge the power Carthage. By 240BC, Rome controlled the formerly Greek controlled island of Sicily. Following the 207 BC defeat of the bold Carthaginian general Hannibal, who had led an army spearheaded by war elephants over the Alps into Italy, the Romans were able to expand their overseas empire into North Africa. Roman engineers built arterial roads throughout their empire, beginning with the Appian Way through Italy in 312 BC. Along such roads marched soldiers, merchants, slaves and citizens to all corners of a flourishing mercantile empire. Roman engineering was so formidable that roads, bridges and aqueducts survive in impressive scale and quantity to the present day. According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey, the population of the Imperial capital was probably the first in the world to approach one million people. It eventually consisted of monumental public buildings, such as the Colosseum (dedicated to sport), the bathhouses (dedicated to leisure) and the Roman Forum dedicated to civic affairs. Slavery helped power the economy, but also created occasional tension — as in the slave rebellion led by Spartacus which was put down in 71BC.[8]

Augustus, first emperor of Rome

general and statesman who played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Conspirators who feared he was seeking to re-establish a monarchy assassinated him on the floor of the Roman Senate in 44 BC. His anointed successor Augustus outmaneuvered his opponents to reign as a de facto emperor from 27 BC. His successors became all-powerful and demanded veneration as gods. Rome entered its period of Imperial rule and stability (albeit often marred by occasional bouts of apparent insanity by various god-emperors) returned to the Empire.[8]

Roman civilization and

religion, and language in the Western world. Ecclesiastical Latin, the Roman Catholic Church's official language, remains a living legacy of the classical world to the contemporary world but the Classical languages of the Ancient Mediterranean influenced every European language, imparting to each a learned vocabulary of international application. It was, for many centuries, the international lingua franca and Latin itself evolved into the Romance languages, while Ancient Greek evolved into Modern Greek. Latin and Greek continue to influence English
, not least in the specialised vocabularies of science, technology and the law.

Judaism and the rise of Christendom

Moses with the Ten Commandments as depicted by Rembrandt (1659)
Western art
.

The

Western art
, literature and scholarship.

Carl Heinrich Bloch

Around 1,000 BC, the Israelites had a period of power under

secular Western ethics and law.[21]

In 63 BC,

Before Christ (BC) (meaning before Jesus was born) and Anno Domini
(AD).

crucified (nailed alive to a wooden cross) and died.[8] According to the Bible, his body disappeared from his tomb three days later, because he had been resurrected from the dead. Easter
celebrates this event.

Saint Paul by the artist El Greco
Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381

The early followers of Jesus, including the apostles

worshiping the emperors. The Emperor Nero famously blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 and condemned them to Damnatio ad bestias, a form of capital punishment in which people were maimed to death by animals in the circus arena.[8]

Nevertheless, carried through the synagogues, merchants and missionaries across the known world, the new religion quickly grew in size and influence.

Sabbath
and "day of rest" for Roman society (though initially this was only for urban dwellers).

The population and wealth of the Roman Empire had been shifting east, and the division of Europe into a Western (Latin) and an Eastern (Greek) part was prefigured in the division of the Empire by the Emperor

Emperor Justinian
, the last emperor to speak Latin as a first language, is said to have proclaimed upon its completion in 562: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!".

The city of Rome itself never regained supremacy and was

Roman and Eastern
Christianity in 1054.

When the

Western Literature. Augustine profoundly influenced the coming medieval worldview.[26]

The fall of Rome

Main article: Fall of the Western Roman Empire

In 476 the western Roman Empire, which had ruled modern-day Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland and Great Britain for centuries, collapsed due to a combination of economic decline, and drastically reduced military strength which allowed invasion by barbarian tribes originating in southern Scandinavia and modern-day northern Germany. Historical opinion is divided as to the reasons for the fall of Rome, but the societal collapse encompassed both the gradual disintegration of the political, economic, military, and other social institutions of Rome as well as the barbarian invasions of Western Europe.

In Britain, several Germanic tribes invaded, including the Angles and Saxons. In Gaul (modern-day France, Belgium and parts of Switzerland) and Germania Inferior (The Netherlands), the Franks settled, in Iberia the Visigoths invaded and Italy was conquered by the Ostrogoths.

The slow decline of the Western Empire occurred over a period of roughly three centuries, culminating in 476, when

Eastern Roman Empire continued until the Fall of Constantinople
on May 29, 1453.

See also

References

  1. ^ Library Journal. Vol. 97. Bowker. April 1972. p. 1588. Ancient Greece: Cradle of Western Culture (Series), disc. 6 strips with 3 discs, range: 44–60 fr., 17–18 min
  2. ^ Jacob Dorsey Forrest (1906). The development of western civilization: a study in ethical, economic and political evolution. The University of Chicago Press.
  3. ^ Cambridge University Historical Series, An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects, p.40: Hebraism, like Hellenism, has been an all-important factor in the development of Western Civilization; Judaism, as the precursor of Christianity, has indirectly had had much to do with shaping the ideals and morality of western nations since the Christian era.
  4. ^ Caltron J.H Hayas, Christianity and Western Civilization (1953), Stanford University Press, p.2: That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization — the civilization of western Europe and of America— have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo–Graeco–Christianity, Catholic and Protestant.
  5. ^ Horst Hutter, University of New York, Shaping the Future: Nietzsche's New Regime of the Soul And Its Ascetic Practices (2004), p.111:three mighty founders of Western culture, namely Socrates, Jesus, and Plato.
  6. ^ Fred Reinhard Dallmayr, Dialogue Among Civilizations: Some Exemplary Voices (2004), p.22: Western civilization is also sometimes described as "Christian" or "Judaeo- Christian" civilization.
  7. ISBN 0-563-17064-6
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Geoffrey Blainey; A Very Short History of the World; Penguin Books, 2004
  9. ^ "H2g2 - Oops".
  10. ISBN 978-0-8018-0184-6
    (1943)
  11. ^ "Plato". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2002.
  12. ^ Yenne, W. Alexander the Great: Lessons from History's Undefeated General. Palmgrave McMillan, 2010. 244 p.
  13. ^ Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind (New York: Ballantine Books, 1991).
  14. ^ Colin Hynson, Ancient Greece (Milwaukee: World Almanac Library, 2006), 4.
  15. ^ Carol G. Thomas, Paths from Ancient Greece (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1988).
  16. ^ Chris Scarre, The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome (London: Penguin Books, 1995).
  17. ^ "Religion & Ethics — Judaism". BBC. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  18. ^ "Judaism" (PDF). (52.1 KB)
  19. ^ a b "The 3 Monotheistic Religions — Essays — Noel12". StudyMode.com. 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  20. ^ "Judaism page, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance". Religioustolerance.org. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  21. ^ Jewish Contributions to Civilization: An Estimate (book)
  22. ^ BBC, BBC—Religion & Ethics—566, Christianity
  23. ^ Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley-Blackwell, by James B. Rives, page 196
  24. ^ "Bona, Algeria". World Digital Library. 1899. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  25. ISBN 1-56731-014-1
    .
  26. ISBN 0-300-10598-3
    .
  27. ^ Arnaldo Momigliano, echoing the trope of the sound a tree falling in the forest, titled an article in 1973, "La caduta senza rumore di un impero nel 476 d.C." ("The noiseless fall of an empire in AD 476").

Further reading

Further viewing

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