Ancient Greece is the birthplace of antiquity. Greece, Crete – an island of attractions, mountains and sea V

Oleg Ivanov, composer Altai for him is the Motherland, and the Motherland is Altai. My acquaintance with Mikhail occurred in the early eighties. At that time I lived and worked in Novosibirsk. One day they called me and asked me to give a concert at the Institute of Soviet

Civilizations and democracies

From the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Ancient Eastern civilizations began to lose priority in historical development and gave way to a new civilizational center that arose in the Mediterranean Sea, called the “Ancient Civilization of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.” It was based on qualitatively different, democratic foundations in economic, political and socio-cultural relations, and was more dynamic compared to ancient Eastern civilizations. Based on the achievements of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the entire modern Western and Russian civilization was formed. Features of the development of modern civilizations cannot be understood without knowledge ancient history and culture.

The beginning of ancient civilization was laid in Greece. King Hellenes is considered the legendary ancestor of the Greeks. Therefore, the Greeks themselves called themselves Hellenes and their country Hellas. But at first, relatively sparsely populated Ancient Greece developed in the general mainstream of ancient Eastern civilizations. For example, the oldest civilization in Europe is the Aegean civilization, usually called Minoan, named after its legendary founder, King Minos. It existed in the 3rd – first half of the 2nd millennium BC. on the islands of the Aegean Sea, partly in mainland Greece and Asia Minor; known from the monuments of the Knossos Palace of King Minos on the island of Crete, explored in the first half of the 20th century. English archaeologist A. Evans. This palace had about 300 rooms, the walls of which were decorated with numerous frescoes. In total, there were four palaces in Crete, in which the kings, their entourage and servants lived. Around the palaces there were settlements of farmers, cattle breeders and artisans.

Other regions of Greece, which was poor in fertile lands, were inhabited by small tribes of Danaans, Ionians, Aeolians, etc., led by kings or basileus. Some of the Hellenic tribes migrated to the North in search of more fertile lands Balkan Peninsula. The Pelasgians lived in Thrace; they mastered agriculture before anyone else in Europe. One part of the Pelasgians moved to the lands of continental Greece, the other, together with the Thracians and, possibly, with part of the Wends (future Western Slavs) - to Asia Minor. On the banks of the Danube, right up to the Northern Black Sea region, lived the Hellenic tribes of the Achaeans and Dorians, who managed to largely preserve the traditions of “military democracy”. By the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Achaeans and Dorians came into contact with the Aryan tribes - descendants of the Hyperboreans - the Rus (Rus) and the Wends with no less developed traditions of “military democracy”. From the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The Achaeans and part of the Aryans began to move to the south. This ethnic expansion, which also captured Crete, was called the “Achaean conquest” of Greece. The Minoan civilization was seriously weakened. But she died as a result of a powerful earthquake and eruption of the Santorini volcano in the middle of the 17th century. BC. Some of the Rus (Rus) remained in Greece after this, but the majority returned across the Danube to their fellow tribesmen.

From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the south of Greece, freed from the power of Crete, a new Mycenaean civilization emerged, centered in the city of Mycenae on the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Its creators, the Achaean Greeks, borrowed many of the achievements of the Minoans from Crete. The centers of Mycenaean civilization were the well-fortified palaces of tribal leaders (kings, basileus), to whom rural settlements gravitated. Homer's Odysseus, for example, was the king (basileus) of the Achaean tribe living on the island of Ithaca. The Achaeans waged frequent wars among themselves. But sometimes, for the sake of victory over a common enemy, they united in alliances. It was an alliance of Achaean tribes that fought the Trojan War, which ended around 1270 BC. the capture and destruction of the rich city of Troy (Ilion) in Asia Minor. Some of the Hellenic tribes that migrated to Asia Minor, primarily the Pelasgians, as well as the Thracians and Wends, fought on the side of Troy. The real reason for the war was that the Hellenic city of Troy, located near the Dardanelles, blocked its competitors, other Greek cities, from reaching the Black Sea colonies, and not the abduction of Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus, by the son of the Trojan king Priam, the handsome Paris. These events are reflected in Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey".

The Mycenaean civilization of the Achaean Greeks, weakened by the Trojan War, suffered at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. a new invasion from the north. The next conquerors were the Dorian tribes, who were again supported by the tribes of the Slavic-Russians (Russians) and the Wends. The Iron Age was beginning and the new conquerors were already armed with iron swords, against which the bronze weapons of the Achaeans were ineffective. The small states of the Achaeans were quickly destroyed by the Dorians. After this, part of the Slavic-Russians and Wends, who supported the Dorians and showed themselves to the Hellenes as brave and “glorious warriors,” returned to the north. The remaining Wends and Slavic-Russians settled in Crete, the Peloponnese, Asia Minor, in the middle part and in the north of the Apennine Peninsula. Weakened by the Trojan War, Greece was thrown back to the time of the birth of civilization.

This zigzag in development had serious historical consequences. The Achaeans, Dorians and the Rosas (Russ) who remained in Greece mixed with the local population and adopted its mythology and religion. In turn, the local population adopted the name of the new settlers and began to be called Hellenes - Dorians. Ancient Greece at this stage of its history was a country with an ethnically mixed population, a significant part of which came from the north. In the Hellenic states that were revived after the Dorian invasion, the power of the kings disappeared over time, and where it remained, it was limited. Greece turned into a conglomerate of small city-states (polises), which at the same time remained communities. Every free, full-fledged resident of such a state-community or polis had the right to his own plot of land, had civil rights, and participated in the elections of rulers.

What is the reason for the unique social mutation that occurred in Hellas, the only one in the history of the Ancient World? Firstly, the Hellenes adopted the art of shipbuilding and navigation from the Phoenicians and became brave sailors. And sailors already in ancient times were people of a special kind. Let us recall, for example, Homer’s Odysseus and how much initiative, ingenuity, independence, activity, courage, and desperate courage he showed during his many-year return to Ithaca. On the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, Marmara, Black and Azov seas The Hellenes, following the example of the Phoenicians, founded over a hundred colonies that supplied mainland Greece with bread, other products, and slaves, which they bought from local rulers. These colonies, together with the metropolis in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, formed Magna Graecia.

Secondly, the religion and mythology of the ancient Greeks, which established itself after the Achaean and Dorian conquests, were fundamentally different from the ancient Eastern myths and religions. The ancient Gods, according to Hellenic myths, “descended from heaven to earth” and settled on Mount Olympus. The Olympian gods of the ancient Greek pantheon constantly argued and quarreled among themselves, fought, and committed adultery. These were Gods with “human faces”, and not with animal heads, as in Egypt or Mesopotamia. They, according to myths, directly communicated with the Hellenes, helped or hindered them, and set examples of pluralism, independence, ingenuity, initiative, and spiritual looseness. The Hellenes, in turn, sought to imitate the Olympian Gods and learn from their experience and examples.

Hellenic myths mention that Hephaestus, the God of fire and blacksmithing, had mechanisms (industrial robots) with which he forged weapons and armor. Jason's Argonauts, during their journey to Colchis for the Golden Fleece, observed on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus the mechanisms created by the “Gods who descended from heaven” (tractors and tractor plows), with the help of which the land was plowed, etc. But this is in myths. The Hellenes, unlike the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians, did not have common affairs and did not meet with the real “Alien Gods,” but sometimes (as we will see later) they used their help. And Callisthenes is a historian and writer of the last third of the 4th century. BC. he himself became the author of a novel about Alexander the Great that has survived to this day, acting as the creator of a myth popular in Hellas, calling his hero and contemporary nothing less than the son of Zeus himself - the head of the pantheon of the Olympian Gods.

It was in Hellas that a classical ancient society was formed, based on democracy, pluralism in political relations and private property. There had never been anything like this in the Ancient East. The coming to the fore of private property relations and the emergence of market-oriented commodity production contributed to the emergence of fundamentally different socio-political and legal structures that determined the specifics of ancient society. Namely: the emergence of a polis (city-state) in Ancient Greece or “civitas” - a civil community in Ancient Rome as the main form of political organization of society; the presence of concepts of popular sovereignty and democratic government; a developed system of legal guarantees for the protection of the rights and freedoms of every citizen, recognition of his personal dignity, a system of socio-cultural principles that contributed to the comprehensive development of the individual.

A distinctive feature of ancient Greek life was its agonistic character (from the Greek “agon” - struggle, competition) - an uncontrollable desire for competition in all spheres of life. For example, sports competitions, the Olympic Games, held since 776 BC. once every four years. From the middle of the 2nd century. BC. to 394 AD they already took place within the framework of the Roman Empire, integral part which Greece became. During the Olympic Games, frequent wars between the ancient Greek city-states ceased. Musical and poetic competitions were also favorite in Hellas - the Delphic or Pythian games in honor of Apollo, the god of harmony, spiritual activity and the arts. Common in everyday life was the desire of the Hellenes to do something better than a neighbor in the community did, to build a temple in honor of the Olympian Gods more beautiful than in the neighboring polis, etc. This contributed to the powerful development of all spheres of life of Hellenic society. Sports and other competitions were very common in Ancient Rome, and gladiator fights became a favorite spectacle of the Romans.

The emergence of the optimal form of slavery for that time was associated with Greek colonization. They began to turn into slaves not compatriots who were debtors, but captured foreigners. Most often in large quantities they were bought in the colonies from local rulers and sold in the markets of Greek policies. Slave labor was used in all spheres of the economy, and free citizens had more free time to engage in politics, sports, literature, art, and philosophy. Literate slaves helped Hellenic intellectuals, copied and “replicated” their works for sale or for use in public libraries.

For the Hellene, the polis, and for the Roman, his civil community - “civitas” were the only place where free man felt like a member of a society whose life is regulated by laws, protected from arbitrariness and under the protection of the Gods. So Jupiter (the Roman analogue of Zeus) patronized Rome, and Pallas Athena - Athens, etc. The economic basis of the polis was the ancient, dual form of ownership: on the one hand, the ownership of the civil community over the entire territory and wealth of the polis, and on the other, the individual ownership of the citizen’s house (“oikos”) in which he lived. The free Hellene simultaneously acted as the owner of the house - “oikon”, as a citizen - “polites”, and as a militia warrior, ready with his own weapon in his hands to defend his native city. The formation of ancient democracy and civil society took place in an acute struggle between the people - the “demos” and the tribal aristocracy. In those policies where the demos won, democracy was established - the power of the people. But even where the aristocracy managed to defend its power (for example, in Sparta), it existed in the form of an aristocratic or oligarchic republic, but not a monarchy. In Sparta there were elected kings, but their power concerned only the army and military affairs.

The great Hellenic legislators played a major role in establishing democratic values: the Athenians - Solon, Cleisthenes, Peisistratus and the Spartan - the legendary Lycurgus. The most significant among the reforms of Solon in the 6th century. BC. became a reform of debt law, the so-called “shaking off the burden.” All debts and interest on them were declared invalid, the sale of family members into slavery and self-mortgage transactions were prohibited. Previously concluded such transactions were canceled by law. This saved a significant part of the Athenians from enslavement and made it possible further development democracy. The heyday of Athens, the most brilliant era in the history of the Athenian polis, occurred during the reign of Pericles (444-429 BC). He was elected 15 times to the highest position of strategist in Athens, the de facto head of the polis. Pericles satisfied the demands of the average and poor Athenian citizens to involve them in the management of the policy and introduced payment for elected positions. Impoverished citizens were given land. The highest legislative power in Athens was the people's assembly - the Areopagus, at which all officials, including strategists, were elected. The executive power was in the Council of Five Hundred, which dealt with current affairs and prepared them for discussion and approval at the Areopagus. The Athenian polis turned into the largest economic, political and cultural center of the entire Hellenic world, and became a standard and example for other ancient Greek polis.

In the everyday life of the Athenian polis, naturally, antagonisms between the upper and lower classes existed and developed. Equality of citizens in practice was often formal; it concerned only a minority of the population of Athens. Women and metics, which included all residents of Athens not of purely Athenian origin, did not enjoy civil rights. There is no need to talk about slaves and freedmen at all. At the Council of Five Hundred, for example, the question of introducing insignia for slaves was once raised. But this idea was immediately abandoned, because... it may turn out that slaves made up the majority of the population of Athens. This is how it actually happened. A similar situation occurred in other policies. It was not uncommon to be suspicious of anyone who rose above the masses, even if he stood out for his selfless service to the Athenian polis. Themistocles - organizer of the Greek victory over the Persian fleet in the Battle of Salamis 480 BC. a few years later he was expelled from Athens and ended his life in the service... of the Persian king. Pericles in last years life, even after being elected by the Areopagus to the highest position of strategist, he was under investigation on charges of financial abuse during the reconstruction of the Acropolis. The great sculptor Phidias, an active participant in the reconstruction of the Acropolis and creator giant statue Zeus Olympus in Olympia, considered one of the "seven wonders of the world", ended his life in prison. The famous philosopher Socrates was accused of anti-democracy, imprisoned, where he was forced to take a cup of poison.

The Greco-Persian wars of the first half of the 5th century became a serious test for Hellas and the Hellenes. BC, which began with the conquest of the Greek city-states in Asia Minor by the Persians, led by Xerxes, the Persians even occupied part of Greece, including Athens, whose inhabitants left the city. As a result, the victory in the wars with the Achmenid Empire was won by the Greek city-states, united in the name of this goal. The most famous events of this era were the battles: 490 BC. near the village of Marathon, 42 km from Athens, 480 BC. - defeat of the Persian fleet near the island of Salamis in the Aegean Sea. In the memory of the Greeks, the feat of 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas, who died heroically in 480 BC, but did not allow the Persians to enter the center of Greece through the Thermopylae mountain pass, remained forever.

The Greeks defended their independence. The result was the strengthening of Athens, which led the Athenian Maritime League. He united democratic cities. Over time, the Athenians began to interfere in the internal life of the allies. Their monetary contributions to the treasury of the union actually turned into tribute to Athens, part of which was used under Pericles for the reconstruction of the Acropolis. The unity of Hellas turned out to be fragile and short-lived. In 431 BC. A war began between the Peloponnesian (led by Sparta) League and the Athenian Naval League. The war ended in 404 BC. the defeat of Athens and the dissolution of the Athenian Maritime League, the establishment of Spartan dominance in Greece. The winners imposed oligarchic rule everywhere. Many city policies continued grueling wars with Sparta. The crisis of the polis system was manifested in growing economic inequality between citizens. Many of them went bankrupt, got into debt, and lost their livelihood.

To the north of Greece was Macedonia, where a population related to the Hellenes lived. In the middle of the 4th century. BC. Philip II, an admirer of Hellenic culture, an outstanding diplomat and commander, became the king of Macedonia. Many Greeks hoped that Philip would restore order and stop the wars between the policies. Some of the Greeks, led by the Athenian Demosthenes, called for a unification of forces to fight Macedonia. But in 338, in the battle of the town of Chaeronea, the Greeks were defeated. Hellas came under the rule of Philip. He was preparing for war with Persia, but in 336 BC. was killed. His son Alexander, soon nicknamed the Great, became king of Macedonia. He suppressed the anti-Macedonian uprising in Greece, and in 334-31. BC. defeated the main enemy of Hellas - the Achmenid Empire. The chronicles of the campaigns of Alexander the Great repeatedly mention the appearance of unknown disc-shaped objects (UFOs) in the sky. So during the assault in 332 BC. of the Phoenician city of Tire, 5 “flying shields” appeared above the city, from which lightning flashed, forming gaps in the walls of the fortress. The delighted Greeks rushed to storm and captured the city. After this, the “flying shields” rose up and disappeared.

The conquests continued. Alexander the Great became the founder and ruler of a huge empire, which included, in addition to Greece, the territories of Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, parts of Transcaucasia, Central Asia and India. The main goal Alexander’s goal was to unite the West and the East into a single civilization, the capital of which he made Babylon. Only about one and a half dozen cities with the name “Alexandria” appeared in the conquered territories. They were intended to become strongholds of a new civilization and centers of a new Hellenistic culture with theaters, libraries, and scientific centers. True, most of these “Alexandrias” were not newly built cities (such as Alexandria in the Nile Delta), but renamed old cities. In 327 BC. Alexander led his army to India. On east coast Indus he defeated the army of the local king Porus. When it became clear to the Greeks that the world inhabited by India in the East was far from ending, and that endless China was ahead, the army rebelled. Alexander returned to Babylon. He was planning new trips. But in 323 BC. The “conqueror of the world,” who had not known a single defeat, suddenly died of tropical fever before reaching the age of 33.

After the death of Alexander, the struggle for his legacy began between the diadochi - former comrades-in-arms, commanders of the great conqueror. The collapse of the state was inevitable. The conquered lands were too large, and the system of governing them was too weak. In place of Alexander's empire, several Hellenistic states arose from the Balkan Peninsula to the lower reaches of the Indus. The Antigonid dynasty established itself in Macedonia, the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Attalids in Pergamum, and the Seleucids in Mesopotamia, Syria and part of Asia Minor. They developed a unique culture that combined Greek and Oriental features to varying degrees. This was precisely the prerequisite for the spread of Hellenic civilization and culture far beyond the borders of Hellas and giving them global significance.

The most significant center of Hellenistic culture was Egypt, with its capital at Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the Nile Delta. Alexandria, built very quickly, occupied an area of ​​about 100 square meters. km and amazed contemporaries with the wealth, luxury and uniqueness of its layout, architecture, multi-story public buildings and residential buildings, maintained in the best traditions of antiquity. The city was divided into four quarters by two straight highways, intersecting in the center and running from north to south and from west to east. The secondary streets were also straight. The most famous center of Hellenistic culture was Museion (Greek “place of residence of the muses”) - the largest Ancient world The Library of Alexandria, which contained over 700 thousand books (papyrus scrolls) on various industries knowledge. The Ptolemies spared no expense in purchasing books from other countries or copying them. Due to the high consumption of papyri, their export outside Egypt was prohibited. Scientists of another large center Hellenistic culture - Pergamon in the north of Asia Minor discovered a method of using parchment - specially treated calfskin - as a material for writing. Established in the 2nd century. BC. the production of parchment satisfied the needs of the Pergamon Library, which successfully competed with the Library of Alexandria.

The Alexandrian Museion was a serious scientific center of the Hellenistic era. The scientists who worked there studied problems of philosophy, philology, mathematics, astronomy, botany and zoology, using the most modern scientific instruments and equipment of that time. One of the outstanding scientists of antiquity was Claudius Ptolemy, the author of works on many branches of knowledge, incl. on history. The most famous thing is that in the 2nd century. AD he substantiated the geocentric system of the world, which was refuted by the heliocentric system of N. Copernicus only in 1453. At the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. on the island of Pharos near Alexandria seaport A 110-meter lighthouse, unique in its design, was built, the light of which was visible more than 100 miles away. Faros lighthouse- one of the “seven wonders of the world” - stood until 1326 and collapsed, probably as a result of an earthquake. The Museion with its library, the last citadel of ancient science and culture, was destroyed by Christian fanatics at the end of the 4th century. during fierce religious strife with the pagans.

The most important result of Alexander’s conquests was the further weakening of Greece and its subjugation in the middle of the 2nd century. BC. Roman Republic as a province. As for the Hellenistic states, in most of them, with the exception of Egypt, which became a Roman province, the influence of antiquity turned out to be fragmentary and formal. In the final historical result, everything returned “to normal”: the West remained the West, and the East remained the East. Nevertheless, the influence of Greece and the charm of its highly developed Hellenistic culture was exceptionally great. The Romans even called themselves barbarians compared to the Hellenes. Libraries, some marble sculptures, many of which have survived to this day in Roman bronze copies, and educated slaves were taken to Rome from Greece. The Greek intellectual elite became an integral part of the intellectual elite of the Roman Republic, and then the empire. The Roman poet Horace wrote at the end of the 1st century. BC: “Greece, having become a captive, captured the rude victors.” Differences between ancient Greece and Rome remained, but we can confidently talk about common features in their subsequent political and socio-cultural development. The very era of political dominance of the Roman Republic, and then the empire, as one of the eras of antiquity, is often called Hellenistic-Roman.

From the Dark Ages - a period of decline that began in the 11th-9th centuries. BC e. - Hellas brought out the seeds of a new government system. From the first kingdoms there remained a scattering of villages that fed the nearest city - the center of public life, a market and a refuge during the war. Together they constituted a city-state (“polis”). The largest policies were Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes.

Rebirth from darkness

During the Dark Ages, Greek settlements spread from the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula to west coast Asia Minor (present-day territory of Turkey), covering the islands of the Aegean Sea. By the beginning of the 8th century BC. e. the Greeks began to restore trade relations with other nations, exporting olive oil, wine, pottery and metal products. Thanks to the recent invention of the alphabet by the Phoenicians, writing, lost during the Dark Ages, began to be revived. However, the established peace and prosperity led to a sharp increase in the population, and it became increasingly difficult to feed it due to the limited agricultural base.

Trying to solve this problem, the Greeks sent entire parties of their citizens to develop new lands and found new colonies capable of supporting themselves. Many Greek colonies settled in southern Italy and Sicily, so this entire territory began to be called “Greater Greece”. Over two centuries, the Greeks built many cities around the Mediterranean and even on the Black Sea coast.

The process of colonization was accompanied by drastic changes in the policies. The monarchy gave way to aristocracy, that is, the rule of the most noble landowners. But with the expansion of trade and the introduction of metallic money into circulation around 600 BC. e. Following the example of the neighboring kingdom of Lydia in the south of Asia Minor, their positions noticeably weakened.

In the 6th century BC. e. Conflicts constantly arose in the policies, and tyrants often came to power. “Tyrant” is a Greek word, like “aristocracy,” but the ancient Greeks did not mean that the regime of a tyrant was cruel and anti-people, but meant that a person forcibly seized power, but could at the same time be a reformer.

Despite the reforms of the famous legislator Solon, power in Athens was seized by the tyrant Peisistratus. But after the expulsion of Pisistratus' successor Hippias from Athens in 510 BC. e. A democratic constitution was adopted. Ancient Greece, the birthplace of the West. This is another word of Greek origin, which means the rule of the demos, that is, the people. Greek democracy was limited because women and slaves did not have the right to vote. But due to the small size of cities, citizens could not depend on their elected representatives, since they took a direct part in determining laws and discussing particularly important decisions at public assemblies.

In the 5th century BC. e. in many cities conflicts broke out between democratic and oligarchic parties. Supporters of oligarchy believed that power in society should belong to the wealthiest citizens.

Athens and Sparta

If Athens can be called a stronghold of democracy, then Sparta was rightly considered the center of an oligarchy. Sparta was distinguished by a number of other features.

In most Greek states, the percentage of slaves to free citizens was quite low, while the Spartiates lived as the "master race" surrounded by a superior number of potentially dangerous helot slaves. To maintain their dominance, the entire people of Sparta were turned into a warrior caste, who were trained from early childhood to endure pain and live in barracks conditions.

Although the Greeks were ardent patriots of their cities, they recognized that they were one people - the Hellenes. They were united by the poetry of Homer, belief in the almighty Zeus and other Olympic gods, and the cult of developing mental and physical abilities, the expression of which was the Olympic Games. In addition, the Greeks, who respected the rule of law, felt that they were different from other peoples, whom they indiscriminately dubbed “barbarians.” Both in democracy and in oligarchic policies, everyone had legal rights, and a citizen could not be deprived of his life at the whim of the emperor - unlike, for example, the Persians, whom the Greeks considered barbarians.

However, the Persian expansion, which began in the 6th century BC. e. and directed against peoples Ancient Greece and Asia Minor seemed inevitable. However, the Persians were not particularly interested in the lands of the Greeks - poor and remote on the other side of the Aegean Sea, until Athens supported the Asian Greeks who rebelled against Persian rule. The uprising was suppressed, and in 490 BC. The Persian king Darius sent troops to take revenge on Athens. However, the Athenians won a landslide victory at the Battle of Marathon, 42 km from Athens. In memory of the feat of the messenger, who ran the entire distance without stopping in order to quickly convey the joyful news, a marathon is included in the program of the Olympic Games.

Ten years later, Darius' son and successor Xerxes launched a much more massive attack. He ordered his ships to be lined up in a row, forming a bridge across the Hellespont Strait, dividing Asia Minor and Europe (the current Dardanelles), through which his huge army passed. In the face of a common threat, Greek cities were forced to unite. Ancient Greece, the birthplace of the West. Xerxes' army came from the north, and the Greeks, who had gathered troops from different cities, accomplished a real feat by putting a barrier in the way of the Persians. King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans gave their lives trying to hold the narrow Thermopylae Gorge for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, the death of the Spartans was in vain, since Ancient Greece nevertheless fell under the onslaught of the enemy. The inhabitants of Athens were evacuated, and the invaders burned all the temples on the Acropolis. Although the year before the war, the Athenian leader Themistocles seriously strengthened the fleet, in terms of the number of ships it was hopelessly inferior to the superior forces of the Persians and the Phoenicians they conquered. But Themistocles managed to drive the Persian armada into the narrow Strait of Salamis, where it was deprived of the ability to maneuver. This caused panic among the Persians and allowed the Greeks to completely defeat the enemy fleet.

Decisive battle

Since Sparta effectively withdrew from the liberation struggle, Athens became the undisputed leader in Ancient Greece. In 478 BC. e. The Delian League was concluded, allowing Athens and its allies to pool their resources and continue the war. However, the union soon turned into a weapon of political radicalism. The Allies were obliged to introduce democratic forms of government in their states on the model of Athens and finance the maintenance of an ever-increasing fleet for the needs of common defense. After the end of the war with the Persians in 449 BC. e. the union was preserved, and all attempts to leave it were severely suppressed.

Classic Athens

5th century BC e. considered the great age of classicism of Greek civilization, which is primarily identified with Athens. But both before and after this period, other Greek city-states made very significant contributions to Greek culture, giving the world many masterpieces of poetry, ceramics and sculpture, as well as the first philosophers who tried to explain the universe from the perspective of physics, and not through magic and miracles.

And yet the main achievements of human thought and art are associated with Athens. Among the temples rebuilt on the Acropolis, the most famous is the Parthenon with its perfect proportions and excellent stucco decorations. The world's first dramatic works arose from Athenian rituals in honor of the god Dionysus. Athenian philosophers, including the famous Socrates and Plato, were the first to deeply analyze issues of morality and political ideals. In addition, Athens was the birthplace of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the first true historian (that is, a scholar engaged in critical research rather than simply retelling fables and rumors).

An equally outstanding historian was Thucydides, who was not only the military leader of the Athenian army, but also the chronicler of the great Peloponnesian War of 431-404 BC. Concerned about the growing power of Athens, the Spartiates founded the Peloponnesian League, which included representatives of the large Peloponnesian Peninsula in the south of the mainland of Ancient Greece. The first clashes between the two alliances were indecisive, and it seemed that this situation would continue for a long time. However, after a plague broke out in Athens, claiming the life of the leader of the Athenians, Pericles, Sparta won this confrontation. But although the Spartans controlled the area around Athens (Attica), the city itself remained impregnable to them, since the famous Long Walls surrounding the city cut off the approaches to the port of Piraeus, from where supplies were delivered to Athens. Ancient Greece, the birthplace of the West. Thus, Athens' dominance at sea was maintained.

Defeated winners

After a seven-year truce, war broke out again when the Athenian army, besieging the powerful greek city in Sicily, Syracuse itself was surrounded, and the entire expeditionary force was completely destroyed. The Spartans closed Athens in a tight blockade ring. The Athenian fleet was defeated in the battle of Aegospotami. In 404 BC. e. the starving city was forced to surrender.

Sparta and Thebes

Sparta's dominance also did not last long; it was opposed by the unification of Athens, Corinth and Thebes. In 371 BC. e. The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, inflicted a crushing defeat on Sparta at the Battle of Lovktra.

The superiority of Thebes turned out to be even more fleeting, and Greece entered the second half of the 4th century more divided than ever.

Compared to other states, Macedonia, located in northern Greece, remained an underdeveloped outskirts, but it was ruled by the talented king Philip II of Macedon and had a well-trained army. In 338 BC. e. In the battle of Chaeronea, the Macedonian army completely defeated the combined army of the Athenians and Thebans. In Ancient Greece, a single ruler appeared. A new era was beginning.

Nature told the woman: be beautiful if you can, wise if you want, but you must certainly be prudent.

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