The Times History of the World

The quantity of goods passing across the Eurasian landmass varied enormously depending on the political conditions of the time. Between 200 BC and AD 200 stable regimes in the Roman Mediterranean, the Persian Parthian empire, the Kushan empire and China under the Han dynasty, helped to stabilize the routes between Europe, Persia and China. Such favourable conditions for the movement of goods and people did not recur until the 8th century AD. These earlier empires, however, were not directly interested in facilitating trade. Chinese campaigns in the area of the Silk Road in Sinkiang, north of Tibet, such as that of Pan Ch’ao against the Kushans in c. AD 90, confronted a military rather than a commercial threat. The Han emperors certainly wanted valuable commodities like horses from Ferghana, but they expected to receive them as diplomatic gifts, tribute or booty from war.

Since the time of Assyrian merchants in Anatolia in the second millennium BC there are examples of communities of traders who settled in foreign territories to import goods from their homelands. In the 8th century BC Greek and Phoenician trading posts were established across the Mediterranean for the same purpose. These “trade diasporas” made possible effective communication between different cultural groups. The people who made up the diaspora communities were not wealthy merchants, but of much lower status. The “Roman” traders who sailed across the Indian Ocean or visited the Chinese court would not have been Italians, but inhabitants of the eastern provinces, who were probably not even Roman citizens.

Trade was not the only way in which goods travelled across this route. The Han rulers of China maintained peace on their northwest frontier by regular gifts of large quantities of silk and lacquerware to the Hsiungnu tribes outside the Great Wall. Some items would have been passed on in dowries or as gifts, and gradually made their way to the Mediterranean where silken clothing was sought by Roman senators, much to the distaste of more austere emperors.

While silk was the major import from China to the Mediterranean, a variety of goods found their way westwards. The Roman writer Pliny (AD 23–79) complains that the desire for eastern goods was draining the empire of its gold and silver, but this is not supported by the archaeological evidence. Glass was certainly sought after, but slaves were probably also a significant item of trade, and there are references in Chinese sources to “Syrian jugglers” reaching the Chinese court.

MARITIME TRADE

Maritime trade developed at the same time as the overland routes, making increased use of the monsoons for trade between southern Arabia and south India. Vital information about the goods traded between the Roman empire and the east comes from A Voyage around the Red Sea, an anonymous handbook for traders written in the 1st century AD, which describes the coastal routes from the Egyptian Red Sea ports of Myos Hormus and Berenice to east Africa and the Ganges delta. The author knows of China as a vast city, but east of India his geographical knowledge is hazy.

The exchange of goods might have profound cultural effects. Begram in Gandhara was the location of the summer palace of the Kushan emperors. A rich hoard from there dating from around AD 100 included lacquer from China and ivory from India, as well as bronzes, glassware and pottery from the Mediterranean. The Kushan interest in Mediterranean artefacts illustrated by the Begram hoard had a profound effect on local practices, acting as a catalyst for the development of Gandharan art which emerged in the 2nd century AD, in part modelled on Greco-Roman styles.

1000–539 BC

THE NEAR EAST

As the Near East recovered from the upheavals of the late Bronze Age, Assyria re-emerged as the great regional power. At its greatest extent Assyrian territory stretched from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, and from southern Egypt to Lake Van. At the height of Assyrian power, internal conflict saw the Babylonians replace the Assyrians as the rulers of the empire, but less than a century later they, in their turn, were overthrown by the Persians.

Our knowledge of this period is drawn largely from Assyrian, and later Babylonian, documents, but some idea of how neighbouring states saw Assyria can be gained from the Hebrew Bible, which contains historical material from the 8th century BC onwards. Although its narrative was revised several times in later centuries, the Bible provides information about the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which emerged in the area of Palestine in around 1000 BC, initially as a single kingdom with its centre at Jerusalem. Over the next 300 years Israel and Judah came increasingly into the Assyrian sphere of influence, with their kings adopting varying attitudes to the neighbouring superpower.

Assyrian expansion started in the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC), who rebuilt and expanded the city and palace of Nimrud to be his capital. His successor Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC) extended the power of the kingdom westwards, partly by conquest and partly by accepting tribute from the local rulers in Syria and the Levant. In the following century Assyrian expansion turned south and east under three powerful rulers, Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 BC), Sargon II (721–705 BC) and Sennacherib (704–681 BC). Repeating the achievements of the 13th-century kings they conquered the city of Babylon and brought Mesopotamia under Assyrian control.

At this time a new power was growing on Assyria’s northern border in the shape of Urartu. Little is known about this state, which had its capital at Tushpa on Lake Van. Many Urartian sites were heavily fortified, and the state flourished from the 9th to the 7th centuries BC. If the Assyrians did try to conquer it, they had little success. Along with its western neighbours, Phrygia and Lydia, Urartu had grown up after the collapse of the Hittite empire, but a number of “neo-Hittite” city-states also emerged in the region of northern Syria.

A little before 700 BC Egypt was beginning to recover from the disorganization of the Third Intermediate Period after the end of the New Kingdom, and attempted to influence affairs in the Levant. In response Esarhaddon (680–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (668–627 BC) led campaigns into Egypt, going as far south as Thebes and more or less installing pro-Assyrian rulers in the country. Ashurbanipal also invaded Elam, extending his empire further than ever before. His death in 627 BC however marked the end of Assyrian power: within 15 years his capital, Nineveh, had been sacked, and his empire had come under the control of Babylon.

It has been suggested that the transformation of the neo-Assyrian empire into the neo-Babylonian empire should be seen as the result more of an internal dynastic conflict than of conquest. With the help of the Medes, who were settled on the northeastern borders of Assyria, the first neo-Babylonian ruler, Nabopolassar (626–605 BC), took advantage of quarrels within the Assyrian ruling house to seize control of the whole empire. In the process, Median and Babylonian armies destroyed Ashur, Nimrud and Nineveh, but, with the exception of Egypt, the empire that these cities controlled held together under its new rulers.

When the Egyptians tried to take advantage of the upheaval, Nabopolassar and his successor Nebuchadnezzar (604–562 BC) marched to the Levant, drove the Egyptians away, and at the same time captured Jerusalem and deported its leaders. The wealth of the empire was used to rebuild the cities of Mesopotamia, and above all Babylon. Excavation in the early 20th century revealed the splendour and the sheer size of the city as it was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar.

After Nebuchadnezzar’s death there was a period of instability, which ended with a palace coup that placed Nabonidus (555–539 BC) on the throne. Although he had a long reign, his religious reforms appear to have made him unpopular with many leading members of the kingdom. This may have critically weakened Babylonian military strength when, in 539 BC, the city was taken by the Persians under Cyrus I (752).

550 BC TO AD 637

THE EMPIRES OF PERSIA

The Iranian plateau was the heartland of three great empires whose territory stretched from the ancient centres of civilization in Mesopotamia to India. For more than a millennium, the Persian empire was governed successively by the Achaemenid, Arsacid and Sasanid ruling families, and offered a constant challenge to the Mediterranean lands to the west.

The downfall of the Assyrian empire around 612 BC was brought about by the Babylonians and the Medes, a loose confederacy of tribes in western Iran. It was the Persians, however, who proved to be the main beneficiaries. The Persian state emerged in the 7th century BC on the edge of the area dominated by Assyria, and in 550 BC its ruler, Cyrus (559–530 BC), defeated an invading Median army at Pasargadae. The next 11 years saw attempts to stop the growth of Persian power by both Croesus of Lydia and Nabonidus of Babylon. Both were defeated, leaving Cyrus in possession of Anatolia, the Levant and Mesopotamia.

The absorption of Lydian territory into Cyrus’s empire brought Persia into contact with the Greeks. He then turned his attention eastwards, gaining control of much of Afghanistan and south central Asia. Though Cyrus’s successor, Cambyses (530–522 BC), added Egypt to the empire in 525 BC, his death was followed by the first of several upheavals within the empire as uncertainty over the succession encouraged widespread revolts.

These were quickly suppressed by Darius (522–486 BC), who also incorporated northwest India into the empire. The northwestern boundary of the empire remained a problem, but after the failure of expeditions into Europe by Darius and Xerxes (486–465 BC), the Persians protected their interests by a series of peace treaties with the Greek states.

Achaemenid rule was brought to an end by the invasion of Alexander the Great in 334 BC. Dynastic struggles in the 330s may have had an effect, but no entirely satisfactory explanation has been given for the rapidity with which the Achaemenid empire fell.

THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE

After Alexander’s death, Iran and its neighbouring territories became part of the Seleucid kingdom. In the 3rd century BC internal disputes and conflict with other Hellenistic kingdoms weakened Seleucid control of their eastern territories. Bactria broke away to become an independent kingdom, and the provinces of Parthia and Hyrcania were taken over by Arsaces, leader of the Parni in 238.

The early history of the new kingdom of Parthia is uncertain, but under Mithradates I (171–138 BC) its territory was extended into Mesopotamia and as far east as the mouth of the Indus, its success, like that of Sasanid Persia later, largely the result of the use of mounted archers and armoured cavalry. In the years after Mithradates’s death the empire was threatened by the Tocharians and the Shakas in the east, but order was restored by Mithradates II (123–87 BC). From the 1st century BC onwards, in spite of further severe Shaka incursions from the east, the main threat to Parthian security was Rome. But although there were a number of wars between the two empires, they were well matched militarily and Arsacid, or Parthian, rule remained secure until it was challenged from within.

SASANID PERSIA

Considerable autonomy was left in the hands of local ruling families, and it was from one of these in Persis that the new rulers of Persia arose. The first Sasanid ruler, Ardashir, defeated his Arsacid overlord Ardavan in AD 224 and rapidly took control of the whole of Parthia’s empire and the areas beyond. Roman and Byzantine rule in Mesopotamia, Syria and eastern Anatolia was constantly challenged over the next centuries. The last century of Parthian rule had seen the rise of the Kushana empire in the east (see p. 68). This ended in 225 and Gandhara, Bactria and Sogdiana were brought under Sasanid control. From the 4th century this territory was threatened by Hephthalite and Chionite Huns and in the 6th century by the Turks.

The Arabs were a constant presence to the southwest of Persia’s empires. The Achaemenids had established some control over northern Arabia, but in the Parthian period an independent state of Characene emerged at the head of the Persian Gulf, whose rulers styled themselves “kings of the Arabs”. The Sasanids ended the independence of Characene, but maintained friendly relations with the Lakhmid Arab kingdom of Hira in western Mesopotamia which supported them against the Romans. Southern Arabia was never brought under Persian control, and in c. 604, after the Sasanid Chosroes II had ended Lakhmid independence, the Persians were defeated in battle by a confederacy of Arabs from the south. Success created confidence and increased Arab unity to such an extent that with further victories at Al Qadisiyya (637) and Nihavand (642) they brought Sasanid power to an end.

800 TO 336 BC

THE SPREAD OF GREEK

CIVILIZATION

The Greek heartland is an area of islands and plains divided by mountains. After the collapse of the Mycenaean palace system, a new form of political and religious community emerged here, the polis, or city-state, which became the Mediterranean world’s dominant form of political organization.

The 8th century BC was a period of great transformation in Greece. It saw the appearance of the first monumental public buildings, and with them other indications of the emergence of new communities, including changes in burial practices and artistic styles. At the same time literacy was reintroduced into Greece, with a new alphabet. Though contact with the wider world had not been totally broken in previous centuries, it now increased dramatically, above all on the island of Euboea. Although it is impossible to be certain what produced this transformation, one important factor was the activities of the Phoenicians, who at this time began to explore and settle throughout the Mediterranean.

THE AGE OF EXPANSION

From the middle of the century, following in the wake of the Phoenicians, groups of Greeks began to create settlements around the Mediterranean. The earliest were in Italy and Sicily, but by the middle of the 6th century there were numerous Greek communities in north Africa and, to the east, along the Black Sea coast. These colonies were set up for a variety of reasons. Some of the earliest were trading posts, which over time developed into permanent settlements. Others were formally dispatched as a response to land shortage in the mother city. Others may have been founded by bands of discontented young men looking for a new and better life away from old Greece. It is probable that the experience of the colonists had an effect on the political development of their mother cities.

From its earliest existence, decision-making in the Greek polis lay with an assembly of adult male citizens. Leadership, however, would have been in the hands of the wealthy elite. Increasing wealth and overseas contact in the 7th and 6th centuries led to the emergence in many city-states of powerful individuals, known as tyrants, who were able to impose their will on the community, usually with popular support. The “age of the tyrants” was a period of urban development, with new buildings, in particular enormous temples such as those of Hera on Samos, Artemis at Ephesus and Olympian Zeus at Athens. Citystates published law-codes on large stone tablets, advertising to the world that they were communities governed by the rule of law. Poetry flourished, with the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer and the poems of Hesiod appearing in the early 7th century, followed by the great lyric poets, among them Archilochus, Anacreon and Sappho. Certain religious sanctuaries, above all Olympia and Delphi, gained “pan-Hellenic” status, and became meeting places for the leading members of the different Greek communities.

THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE

The experience of the Persian invasion of Greece under Xerxes encouraged the Greeks in the Aegean and Asia Minor to join together to defend themselves from future threats. Athens, which had by far the largest fleet, took command, turning this alliance of city-states into an Athenian empire. Member states were required to pay tribute to finance the Athenian fleet, which guaranteed security. The existence of the Athenian empire considerably affected life in Athens. The fleet gave employment and status to the poorer citizens, who served as oarsmen and were able to participate in political activity to an extent unequalled elsewhere in the Greek world. A proportion of the tribute, along with some of the booty from successful naval campaigns, was given to the gods, funding great building programmes in Athens. The last three decades of the 5th century were also the period of Athens’ most enduring literary achievements. Following the work of Aeschylus earlier in the century, Sophocles and Euripides wrote tragedies, and Aristophanes his comedies, for performance at the great dramatic festivals, the City Dionysia and the Lenaea. Herodotus, the first historian, lived in Athens for some time, while sophists, philosophers and rhetoricians flocked there to make their names and their fortunes. Athens also produced its own great historian, Thucydides.

At the same time, Athens’ growing power was seen as a threat by the states of the Peloponnese, above all Sparta. After some inconclusive conflicts in the mid-century, in 431 BC Sparta declared war on Athens. This, the Peloponnesian War, developed into a conflict which ended 27 years later in the defeat of Athens and the disbanding of its empire.

THE RISE OF MACEDON

The economies of all Greek city-states were dominated by agriculture, and, except perhaps in Sparta, which relied on the labour of its conquered Messenian subjects (the “helots”), most of the population was made up of small-scale farmers, who were available for military service in the periods of less intense agricultural activity. One effect of this was that even prolonged periods of warfare had little long-term impact on the economies of the city-states involved. Thus within a decade of surrendering to the Peloponnesians, Athens was again at war with Sparta, this time supported by several of her former opponents.

The Spartans had originally defeated the Athenians with Persia’s help. In 387 BC the Persian king attempted to impose a peace settlement on Greece, and the next 30 years saw Athens, Sparta and Thebes vying for dominance in Greece, looking always for backing from Persia. In 359 BC Philip II became king of Macedon. He united the country and took advantage of conflicts elsewhere in Greece to gain control of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south. This gave him a firm base for involvement in Greek affairs, and, after Philip had brought to an end the “Sacred War” of 356–46, Macedon was left as the major power in Greece. In 338 BC Philip defeated the Athenians and Thebans at Chaeronea, and imposed a settlement on the whole of Greece, the “League of Corinth”. His death two years later left his son Alexander a more or less united Greece, from which he was able to launch his invasion of the Persian empire.

336 TO 30 BC

THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian empire transformed the eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern world. The spread of Greek culture and political organisation which followed in his wake shaped the region for a millennium. Greek became the common language, and the city-state the common form of social organisation.

Along with the kingdom of Macedon, in 336 BC Alexander inherited from his father the leadership of a league of Greek states that he had intended to use to campaign against the Persian empire. Through his ambition and brilliant generalship, by the time of his death less than 13 years later at the age of 32, he was recognized as legitimate ruler of an empire stretching from Egypt to India. From the moment he died there was competition between his closest companions and generals. Until the assassination of Alexander’s young son in 307 BC, the contenders, for all that each had ambitions to take over the whole empire, could at least claim to be acting as regents. Thereafter, they were fighting for themselves, rapidly styling themselves as kings, and attempting to carve out areas of personal influence. By 276 BC, a division of the empire into three main kingdoms—Antigonid Macedon, Seleucid Asia and Ptolemaic Egypt—had been established.

CULTURAL LIFE IN THE SUCCESSOR STATES

The basic political units of these new kingdoms was the city-state, some nominally independent, but most owing allegiance to one of the successor kings. The cities of old Greece, such as Athens, retained their prestige, but they were eclipsed by the newly created or reorganized cities of the east, named inevitably after their founders or rulers: Alexandria, Seleucia, Antioch. The new cities had all the elements of their older counterparts, with gymnasia, theatres and temples to the gods, and regular festivals, some including athletics, which might be attended by Greeks from far afield. Citizenship was restricted almost entirely to the Greek and Macedonian minority, and the land was in the hands of citizens or of the kings and their friends. The local populations might farm the land as tenants or as labourers, but they were excluded from administrative positions. The network of cities helped the spread of a common Greek culture and language throughout the region: Clearchus, a pupil of Aristotle, brought a collection of maxims from Delphi in central Greece to the city of Ai Khanoum in eastern Afghanistan. In a number of cities, but above all in Alexandria, with its access to papyrus, and Pergamum, from where parchment got its name, the kings established great libraries, and these became centres for literary work.