Classical antiquity, also known as theclassical era,classical period,classical age, or simplyantiquity,[1] is the period of culturalEuropean history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD.[note 1] It comprises the interwoven civilizations ofancient Greece andRome, known together as theGreco-Roman world, which played a major role in shaping the culture of theMediterranean Basin.[2] It is the period during which ancient Greece and Rome flourished and had major influence throughout much ofEurope,North Africa, andWest Asia.[3][4] Classical antiquity was succeeded by the period now known aslate antiquity.
Conventionally, it is often considered to begin with the earliest recordedEpic Greek poetry ofHomer (8th–7th centuries BC) and end with thefall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. Such a wide span of history and territory covers many disparate cultures and periods.Classical antiquity may also refer to an idealized vision among later people of what was, inEdgar Allan Poe's words, "the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome".[5]
Theculture of theancientGreeks, together with some influences from theancient Near East, was the basis of art,[6] philosophy, society, and education in the Mediterranean and Near East until theRoman imperial period. The Romans preserved, imitated, andspread this culture throughout Europe, until they were able to compete with it.[7][8] This Greco-Roman cultural foundation has been immensely influential on the language, politics, law, educational systems,philosophy, science, warfare, literature, historiography, ethics, rhetoric, art and architecture of both theWestern, and through it, the modern world.[9]
Surviving fragments of classical culture helped produce a revival beginning during the 14th century which later came to be known as theRenaissance, and variousneo-classical revivals occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries.[10][11]
The earliest period of classical antiquity occurs during a time of gradual resurgence ofhistorical sources after theLate Bronze Age collapse. The 8th and 7th centuries BC are still largelyprotohistorical, with the earliestGreek alphabetic inscriptions appearing during the first half of the 8th century. The legendary poetHomer is usually assumed to have lived during the 8th or 7th century BC, and his lifetime is often considered as the beginning of classical antiquity. During the same period is thetraditional date for the establishment of theAncient Olympic Games, in 776 BC.
The Phoenicians originally expanded fromports inCanaan, by the 8th century dominating trade in theMediterranean.Carthage was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians by 700 BC had established strongholds inSicily, Italy andSardinia, which created conflicts of interest withEtruria. Astele found inKition,Cyprus, commemorates the victory of KingSargon II in 709 BC over the seven kings of the island, marking an important part of the transfer of Cyprus fromTyrian rule to theNeo-Assyrian Empire.[12][13][14][15]
The Archaic period followed theGreek Dark Ages, and saw significant advancements inpolitical theory, and the beginnings ofdemocracy,philosophy,theatre,poetry, as well as the revitalization of the written language (which had been lost during the Dark Ages).
In pottery, the Archaic period sees the development of theOrientalizing style, which signals a shift from thegeometric style of the later Dark Ages and the accumulation of influences derived from Egypt,Phoenicia andSyria.
TheEtruscans had established political control in the region by the late 7th-century BC, forming the aristocratic and monarchial elite. The Etruscans apparently lost power in the area by the late 6th-century BC, and at this time, theItalic tribes reinvented their government by creatingrepublics, with greater restraints on the ability of individual rulers to exercise power.[16]
According to legend,Rome was founded on 21 April 753 BC by twin descendants of theTrojan princeAeneas,Romulus and Remus.[17] As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited theSabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, resulting in the integration of Latins and Sabines.[18]
Archaeological evidence indeed shows first traces of settlement at theRoman Forum in the mid-8th century BC, though settlements on thePalatine Hill may date back to the 10th century BC.[19][20]
According to legend, the seventh and final king of Rome wasTarquinius Superbus. As the son ofTarquinius Priscus and the son-in-law ofServius Tullius, Superbus was of Etruscan birth. It was during his reign that the Etruscans reached their apex of power. Superbus removed and destroyed all the Sabine shrines and altars from theTarpeian Rock, enraging the people of Rome. The people came to object to his rule when he failed to recognize the rape ofLucretia, a patrician Roman, by his own son. Lucretia's kinsman,Lucius Junius Brutus (ancestor toMarcus Brutus), summoned the Senate and had Superbus and the monarchy expelled from Rome in 510 BC. After Superbus' expulsion, the Senate in 509 BC voted to never again allow the rule of a king and reformed Rome into arepublican government.
Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), just before thePeloponnesian War in 431 BC.
The classical period of ancient Greece corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, in particular, from the end of theAthenian tyranny in 510 BC to thedeath of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. In 510, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrantHippias, son ofPeisistratos.Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, established a pro-Spartan oligarchy conducted byIsagoras.
Greece began the 4th century withSpartan hegemony, but by 395 BC the Spartan rulers dismissedLysander from office, and Sparta lost its naval supremacy.Athens,Argos,Thebes andCorinth, the latter two of which were formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in theCorinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC. Later, in 371 BC, the Theban generalsEpaminondas andPelopidas won a victory at theBattle of Leuctra. The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment ofTheban hegemony. Thebes sought to maintain its dominance until it was finally ended by the increasing power ofMacedon in 346 BC.
During the reign ofPhilip II, (359–336 BC), Macedon expanded into the territory of thePaeonians, theThracians and theIllyrians. Philip's son,Alexander the Great, (356–323 BC) managed to briefly extendMacedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states but also to thePersian Empire, includingEgypt and lands as far east as the fringes ofIndia. The classical Greek period conventionally ends at the death of Alexander in 323 BC and the fragmentation of his empire, which was at this time divided among theDiadochi.
The Hellenistic period ended with the increase of theRoman Republic to a super-regional power during the 2nd century BC and the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC.
The extent of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in 218 BC (dark red), 133 BC (light red), 44 BC (orange), 14 AD (yellow), after 14 AD (green), and maximum extension under Trajan 117 (light green).
TheRepublican period of Ancient Rome began with the overthrow of theMonarchy c. 509 BC and lasted more than 450 years until itssubversion through a series ofcivil wars, into thePrincipate form of government and the Imperial period. During the half millennium of the Republic, Rome increased from a regional power of theLatium to the dominant force in Italy and beyond. The unification of Italy by the Romans was a gradual process, brought about by a series of conflicts of the 4th and 3rd centuries, theSamnite Wars,Latin War, andPyrrhic War. Roman victory in thePunic Wars andMacedonian Wars established Rome as a super-regional power by the 2nd century BC, followed by the acquisition ofGreece andAsia Minor. This tremendous increase of power was accompanied by economic instability and social unrest, resulting in theCatiline conspiracy, theSocial War and theFirst Triumvirate, and finally the transformation to the Roman Empire during the latter half of the 1st century BC.
The extent of the Roman Empire under Trajan, AD 117.
The precise end of the Republic is disputed by modern historians;[note 2] Roman citizens of the time did not recognize that the Republic had ceased to exist. The earlyJulio-ClaudianEmperors maintained that theres publica still existed, albeit protected by their extraordinary powers, and would eventually return to its earlier Republican form. The Roman state continued to term itself ares publica as long as it continued to use Latin as its official language.
Culturally, the Roman Empire was significantlyHellenized, but also incorporated syncretic "eastern" traditions, such asMithraism,Gnosticism, and most notablyChristianity.
Classical Rome had vast differences within their family life compared to the Greeks. Fathers had great power over their children, and husbands over their wives. In fact, the word family,familia in Latin, actually referred to those who were subject to the authority of a male head of household. This included non-related members such as slaves and servants. By marriage, both men and women shared property. Divorce was allowed first during the first century BC and could be done by either man or woman.[21]
Many writers have attempted to name a specific date for the symbolic "end" of antiquity, with the most prominent dates being the deposing of the lastWestern Roman Emperor in 476,[22][23] the closing of the lastPlatonic Academy in Athens by theEastern Roman emperorJustinian I in 529,[24] and theconquest of much of the Mediterranean by the newMuslim faith from 634 to 718.[25] These Muslim conquests, of Syria (637), Egypt (639), Cyprus (654), North Africa (665), Hispania (718), Southern Gaul (720), Crete (820), Sicily (827), Malta (870), as well as the sieges of the Eastern Roman capital (first in 674–78 and then in717–18) severed the economic, cultural, and political links that had traditionally united the classical cultures around the Mediterranean, ending antiquity (seePirenne Thesis).[25]
The Byzantine Empire in 650 after theArabs conquered the provinces of Syria and Egypt. At the same timeearly Slavs settled in the Balkans.
The original Roman Senate continued to express decrees into the late 6th century, and the last Eastern Roman emperor to useLatin as the language of his court in Constantinople was emperorMaurice, who reigned until 602. The overthrow of Maurice by his mutinying Danube army commanded byPhocas resulted in the Slavic invasion of the Balkans and the weakening of Balkan and Greek urban culture (resulting in the flight of Balkan Latin speakers to the mountains, seeOrigin of the Romanians), and also provoked theByzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 in which all the great eastern cities except Constantinople were lost. The resulting turmoil did not end until theMuslim conquests of the 7th century finalized the irreversible loss of all the largest Eastern Roman imperial cities besides the capital itself. The emperorHeraclius inConstantinople, who reigned during this period, conducted his court in Greek, not Latin, though Greek had always been an administrative language of the eastern Roman regions. Eastern-Western associations weakened with the ending of theByzantine Papacy.
The Eastern Roman empire's capital cityConstantinople remained the only unconquered large urban site of the original Roman empire, as well as being the largest city in Europe. Yet many classical books, sculptures, and technologies survived there along with classical Roman cuisine and scholarly traditions, well into the Middle Ages, when much of it was "rediscovered" by visiting Western crusaders. Indeed, the inhabitants of Constantinople continued to refer to themselves as Romans, as did their eventual conquerors in 1453, theOttomans (seeRomaioi andRûm.) The classical scholarship and culture that was still preserved in Constantinople were brought by refugees fleeing its conquest in 1453 and helped to begin theRenaissance (seeGreek scholars in the Renaissance).
Ultimately, it was a slow, complex, and graduated change of the socio-economic structure inEuropean history that resulted in the changeover between classical antiquity and medieval society and no specific date can truly exemplify that.
In politics, the late Roman conception of the Empire as a universal state, commanded by one supreme divinely appointed ruler, united with Christianity as a universal religion likewise headed by a supremepatriarch, proved very influential, even after the disappearance of imperial authority in the west. This tendency reached its maximum whenCharlemagne wascrowned "Roman Emperor" in the year 800, an act which resulted in the formation of theHoly Roman Empire. The notion that anemperor is amonarch who outranks a king dates from this period. In this political ideal, there would always be a Roman Empire, a state the jurisdiction of which extended through the entire civilized western world.
That model continued to exist in Constantinople for the entirety of the Middle Ages, where theByzantine Emperor was considered the sovereign of the entire Christian world. ThePatriarch of Constantinople was the Empire's highest-ranked cleric, but even he was subordinate to the emperor, who was "God's Vicegerent on Earth". The Greek-speaking Byzantines and their descendants continued to call themselves "Romioi" until the creation of a new Greek state in 1832.
After thecapture of Constantinople in 1453, the RussianCzars (a title derived fromCaesar) claimed the Byzantine legacy as the champion ofOrthodoxy;Moscow was described as the "Third Rome", and the Czars ruled as divinely appointed Emperors into the 20th century.
Despite the fact that the Western Roman secular authority disappeared entirely in Europe, it still left traces. ThePapacy and theCatholic Church in particular maintained Latin language, culture, and literacy for centuries; to this day the popes are termedPontifex Maximus which during the classical period was a title belonging to the emperor, and the ideal ofChristendom continued the legacy of a united European civilization even after its political unity had ended.
The political idea of an Emperor in the West to match the Emperor in the East continued after the Western Roman Empire's collapse; it was revived by the coronation ofCharlemagne in 800; the self-describedHoly Roman Empire ruled central Europe until 1806.
TheRenaissance idea that the classical Roman virtues had been lost as a result of medievalism was especially powerful in European politics of the 18th and 19th centuries. Reverence for Roman republicanism was strong among theFounding Fathers of the United States and the Latin American revolutionaries; the Americans described their new government as arepublic (fromres publica) and gave it aSenate and aPresident (another Latin term), rather than use available English terms likecommonwealth orparliament.
Similarly inRevolutionary andNapoleonic France, republicanism and Roman martial virtues were promoted by the state, as can be seen in the architecture of thePanthéon, theArc de Triomphe, and the paintings ofJacques-Louis David. During the revolution, France transitioned from kingdom to republic to dictatorship to Empire (complete with Imperial Eagles) that the Romans had experienced centuries earlier.
Classical antiquity is a general term for a long period of culturalhistory. Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many rather disparate cultures and periods. "Classical antiquity" often refers to an idealized vision of later people, of what was, inEdgar Allan Poe's words, "the glory that wasGreece, the grandeur that wasRome!" During the 18th and 19th centuries AD, reverence for classical antiquity was much greater inEurope and theUnited States than it is now. Respect for the ancient people of Greece and Rome affectedpolitics,philosophy,sculpture,literature,theatre,education,architecture, andsexuality.
Epic poetry inLatin continued to be written and circulated well into the 19th century.John Milton and evenArthur Rimbaud received their first poetic educations in Latin. Genres like epic poetry,pastoral verse, and the frequent use of characters and themes fromGreek mythology affected Western literature greatly. In architecture, there have been severalGreek Revivals, which seem more inspired in retrospect by Roman architecture than Greek.Washington, DC has many largemarble buildings with façades made to look likeGreek temples, with columns constructed in theclassical orders of architecture.
The philosophy of St.Thomas Aquinas was derived largely from that ofAristotle, despite the intervening change inreligion fromHellenic Polytheism toChristianity.[26] Greek and Roman authorities such asHippocrates andGalen formed the basis of the practice ofmedicine even longer than Greek thought prevailed in philosophy. In theFrenchtheater, playwrights such asMolière andRacine wrote plays on mythological or classical historical subjects and subjected them to the strict rules of theclassical unities derived from Aristotle'sPoetics. The desire todance in a manner allegedly similar to the manner of the ancient Greeks causedIsadora Duncan to create her brand ofballet.
^The precise end date of this period is disputed, with estimates ranging from the 3rd–8th centuries AD. Traditionally, it is given as the late 5th century AD.
^McLaughlin, Raoul (11 September 2014).The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and India.Pen & Sword.ISBN9781473840959.
^McLaughlin, Raoul (11 November 2016).The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy & the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia & Han China.Pen & Sword.ISBN9781473889811.
^Helga von Heintze [de]: Römische Kunst (Roman art). In:Walter-Herwig Schuchhardt (1960): Bildende Kunst I (Archäologie) (Visual arts I – archaeology).Das Fischer Lexikon [de].S. Fischer Verlag. p. 192. "Bestimmend blieb (...) der italisch-römische Geist, der sich der entlehnten Formen nur bediente. (...) Ohne [die] Begegnung [mit der griechischen Formenwelt, author's note] hätte der italisch-römische Geist sich wohl kaum in künstlerischen Schöpfungen ausdrücken können und wäre nicht über die Ansätze, die wir in denKanopen von Chiusi (...), derkapitolinischen Wölfin (...), demKrieger von Capestrano (...) erhalten haben, hinausgekommen. Auch die gleichermaßen realistische wie unkünstlerische Auffassung derPorträts im 2. und 1. J[ahr]h[undert] v[or] Chr[istus] konnte sich nur unter dem Einfluß griechischer Formen ändern." ("Determinant remained the Italic-Roman spirit, that just availed itself of the borrowed forms. (...) Without having come across [the world of the Greek forms], the Italic–Roman spirit would hardly have been able to express itself in works of art and would not have got beyond the starts that are preserved in the canopic jars of Chiusi, the Capitoline Wolf, the Warrior of Capestrano. Also the likewise realistic and inartistic conception and production of the portraits in the second and the first centuries BC could only change under the influence of Greek forms.")
^Der Große Brockhaus. 1. vol.: A-Beo. Eberhard Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1953, p. 315. "Ihre dankbarsten und verständnisvollsten Schüler aber fand die hellenistische Kultur in den Römern; sie wurden Mäzene, Nachahmer und schließlich Konkurrenten, indem sie die eigene Sprache wetteifernd neben die griechische setzten: so wurde die antike Kultur zweisprachig, griechisch und lateinisch. Das System dieser griechisch-hellenistisch-römischen Kultur, das sich in der römischen Kaiserzeit abschließend gestaltete, enthielt, neben Elementen des Orients, die griechische Wissenschaft und Philosophie, Dichtung, Geschichtsschreibung, Rhetorik und bildende Kunst." ("The Hellenistic culture but found its most thankful and its most understanding disciples in the Romans; they became patrons, imitators, and finally rivals, when they competitively set the own language beside the Greek: thus, the antique culture became bilingual, Greek and Latin. The system of this Greco-Latin culture, that assumed its definitive shape in the Roman imperial period, contained, amongst elements of the Orient, the Greek science and philosophy, poetry, historiography, rhetoric and visual arts.")
^Veit Valentin: Weltgeschichte – Völker, Männer, Ideen (History of the world – peoples, men, ideas).Allert de Lange [de], Amsterdam 1939, p. 113. "Es ist ein merkwürdiges Schauspiel – dieser Kampf eines bewussten Römertums gegen die geriebene Gewandtheit des Hellenismus: der römische Geschmack wehrt sich und verbohrt sich trotzig in sich selbst, aber es fällt ihm nicht genug ein, er kann nicht über seine Grenzen weg; was die Griechen bieten, hat soviel Reiz und Bequemlichkeit. In der bildenden Kunst und in der Philosophie gab das Römertum zuerst den Kampf um seine Selbständigkeit auf – Bilden um des Bildes willen, Forschen und Grübeln, theoretische Wahrheitssuche und Spekulation lagen ihm durchaus nicht." ("It is a strange spectacle: this fight of a conscious Roman striving against the wily ingenuity of Hellenism. The Roman taste offers resistance, defiantly goes mad about itself, but there does not come enough into its mind, it is not able to overcome its limits; there is so much charm and so much comfort in what the Greeks afford. In visual arts and philosophy, Romanism first abandoned the struggle for its independence – forming for the sake of the form, poring and investigation, theoretical speculation and hunt for truth were by no means in its line.")
^Yon, M., Malbran-Labat, F. 1995: "La stèle de Sargon II à Chypre", in A. Caubet (ed.), Khorsabad, le Palais de Sargon II, Roi d'Assyrie, Paris, 159–179.
^Radner, K. 2010: "The Stele of Sargon II of Assyria at Kition: A focus for an emerging Cypriot identity?", in R. Rollinger, B. Gufler, M. Lang, I. Madreiter (eds), Interkulturalität in der Alten Welt: Vorderasien, Hellas, Ägypten und die vielfältigen Ebenen des Kontakts, Wiesbaden, 429–449.
^Matyszak, Philip (2003).Chronicle of the Roman Republic: The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus. Thames & Hudson. p. 19.ISBN978-0500051214.
^Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (6 July 2010).Gender in History Global Perspectives (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN978-1-4051-8995-8.
^Clare, I. S. (1906). Library of universal history: containing a record of the human race from the earliest historical period to the present time; embracing a general survey of the progress of mankind in national and social life, civil government, religion, literature, science and art. New York: Union Book. p. 1519 (cf., Ancient history, as we have already seen, ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire; [...])
^United Center for Research and Training in History. (1973). Bulgarian historical review. Sofia: Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]. p. 43. (cf. ... in the history of Europe, which marks both the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages, is the fall of the Western Roman Empire.)
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