The Classic Period (500-323 BC). The classical virtues valued by the Greeks were order, balance, symmetry, clarity and control. They idealized humans being noble creatures, dignified, poised, unterrified by life or death, masters of themselves and their feelings.
Politics: was often turbulent in the small Greek states. Democracy alterned with aristocracy, oligarchy, despotism, and tyranny.
Guerra del Peloponneso (431-404) tra Atene e Sparta con la vittoria di quest’ultima. Gli Spartani premono per un cambiamento istituzionale a favore dell'oligarchia e gli aristocratici colgono l'occasione per instaurare un regime tirannico e dittatoriale: il governo dei Trenta Tiranni (Crizia).
334-23 BC Alexander conquests – The Hellenistic World;
327 he conquers most of the Indus valley
Rome
(264-133 BC)
By 264 BC Rome had conquered all of the Italian peninsula. During the period 264-133 BC Rome mastered the broad Mediterrenean world.
Two great Punic wars with Carthage for the control of the western Mediterranean.
Then Rome conquered the Hellenistic world, which was falling to pieces.
Near East
(247BC-224 AD)
The Parthians, nomadic people entered Mesopotamia after the Seleucid had been defeated by the Romans.
Social: they were a loose type of organization in which the great landlords were virtually independent local princes. Greek upper classes continued to govern the major cities, but Hellenism began to retreat as Near eastern influences became more dominant.
India
Mauryan Empire appeared in North Idia soon after Alexander’s departure. It was an autocratic and centralized realm with Hellenistic administrative skills. Asoka (269-232) was a devout Buddhist who sought to inculcate morality in his subjects and started the Theravada School.
The Kushan dynasty followed which was not purely Indian: Buddhism spread, but Hinduism and Jainism were tolerated.
By 300 AC the Gupta, a more specifically Indian dynasty began.
Religion: Consolidation of Hinduism
China
Following the decline of principalities in 400BC, two states had spread down from the western hills: the Ch’u state in the south and the Ch’in in the north. Eventually under Shih Huang Ti (221-210BC) the Ch’in ruthlessly welded the separate states together. His tomb was guarded by 7,000 terracotta warriors.
Politics: he laid the first foundations of the great Chinese burocracy; and gave ownership of the land to the peasants, who paid taxes to the state, to weaken the nobles (government extended its monopolies); he also joined together the earlier walls to create the Great Wall (2500 miles long).
Religion: the emperor found Legalism a helpful tool and was implacable against intellectual opposition, in particular Confucian scholars who were conservative of the past and valued freedom of speech.
The Han Dinasty (206BC-220AD) followed along the same organizational lines drawn by the Ch’in. In an Earlier period (Western Han: 206BC-8AD), the state was united into 13 provinces (which still exist today) and survided the attack of the Huns under the Martial Emperor, Han Wu Ti.Confucianism became the official creed. Government monopolies extended to most commodities; nationalization of the land under Wang Mang (9-23AD).
The Later period (Eastern Han: down to 220AD), rulers and rural gentry often followed anti-commercial policies. The internal economy was fully controlled by the government through monopolies of vital raw materials, control of coinage, tax structure.
Rome
(133-27 BC)
From 133BC down to 27 BC the Mediterrenean world groaned under the most widespread wars it ever suffered in antiquity. Roman generals ruthlessly expanded the hegemony of Rome both for their personal interests and for the benefits of allied financial interests. The Roman Republic at home, as a political system, shaked and then collapsed into the dictatorship of Julius Ceasar (100-44 BC.) By 14 AD death of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, a new style of political organization under the rule of one man had been consolidated.
Rome
(27BC-284AD)
The Early Roman Empire extended from 27BC down to 284AD (Diocletian)
Until the death of Marcus Aurelius (180 AD), the ancient Mediterranean World experienced the most peaceful and secure period.
Culture: Schools were still supported by state and individuals. After Marcus Aurelius, possession or absence of culture indeed became a powerful basis for judging the quality of rulers, administrators and other notable men.
Philosophy: from Plutarch (46-127) onward men turned especially to Plato as a base for their merger of religious and philosophical views.
Religion: The pagan world, although blindly, was already moving in the direction that Christianity thought was to take more consciously. By 200BC men were seeking to believe; the only question was, in what? Conventional Greco-Roman polytheism, born in a primitive era and designed mainly to answer the physical problems of life in this world by groups, did not meet new needs. Oriental faiths could not be adopted because were too willing to accept mastery of the state, and not fully integrated into Greco-Roman civilization.
Christianity sprang directly out of Judaism.
At the time of Jesus, there were two main spiritual groups in Palestine:
China
The power of the central government weakened and local landowners increasingly assumed control over their neighborhoods. As a consequence social unrest rose and so did uncertainty of life.
Religion: because of the increasing uncertanty of life, men sought more religious reassurance. The mystical and magical aspects of Taoism becaome prominent. Christianity and Buddhism were also available options.
Rome
(284-364 AD)
The Later Roman Empire starts in 284AD when Diocletian (245-312), a great reformer, becomes emperor.
Constantine was the other great emperor (280-337) of that period. He embraced Christianity and founded Constantinople (old city of Byzantium and current Istambul) the second capital of the Roman Empire.