BY Pragyansharma Polavarapu
INTRODUCTION
The ancient Roman
emperors made the new religion of love and sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ the
state religion of the empire in western Europe in fourth century
AD. Christianity brought cultural uniformity in entire Roman Empire
and it was as if a new light entered the lives of European people. With the
direct support of the Roman emperor, the various kings and nobles
magnificent churches , cathedrals and monasteries were built all over
Europe. The church of the Roman Empire became the Roman
Catholic church and it administered the entire church matters and
spiritual matters in all countries of Europe. (This was the position
before the Protestant Movement of 16th century).
Many universities were opened teaching both religion and spirituality and
subjects like astronomy, mathematics, geometry, state craft etc.
After printing press was invented in 1440 the Holy Bible was translated into
all European languages including English . In course of centuries as the Empire
became vast and unmanageable it had to be split for adminstrative
convenience into West Roman Empire and Eastern Byzantine Empire.
Latin was the language of Western Empire and and Greek was the
language of the Eastern Empire. In course of centuries , to add to the
difficulties of the West Roman Empire , powerful German warlords with
their huge war bands attacked during 3rd to
5th centuries
AD. Countries like France, Spain, Portugal developed into powerful
independent kingdoms . The western empire disintegrated in Fifth century
AD(in 476 AD).
The Eastern Empire
flourished for another 1000 years upto 1453. Greek mythologies and works of
art, sculpture and architecture, works of philosophy and science
were created, nurtured and preserved in the Eastern Empire. For a few
centuries the people of western Europe remained unaware of the ancient
cultural and literary treasures preserved in the Byzantine empire . Only
after the great Renaissance movement swept all Europe in the middle ages
the art and cultural treasures of ancient Greeks preserved in the Byzantine
empire became widely known in Europe . Renaissance (i.e.
rediscovery of old art treasures) resulted in sudden flowering of
high quality new literature in most European languages . In many cases it was
inspired by the ancient Greek literary models. England had its own literary
explosion seen in writing of Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare, John Milton
and others. Later the famous Romantic Movement in literature in
England resulted in great poetic works in simple modern English full of
realism, discovery of nature’s mystic power, sensitive studies of lives
of simple common folk etc. Such was the influence of ancient Greek
literature , philosophy and art in England and all over Europe.
Earlier,the
powerful Roman Empire (that existed before arrival of Christianity in
Europe ) conquered all the old Greek kingdoms that existed after death of
the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great. But Romans followed the ancient
Greek religion . They considered the Greek art, philosophy etc as their own and
later made their own great contributions .
Here we have
to note a most important point. No doubt,the ancient Greek art and
philosophy were vast and thrilling . The Greeks created the ideas of
urbanization, democratic ideas, militarist philosophy etc earlier than the
Romans. But the Roman rulers ( who historians say had their origins in tough
Italian farming communities) further improved upon the Greek ideas and
transformed small Italian republic into a huge Italy-wide kingdom and
later Europe-wide military dominated empire. In a way we can say that if Greek
ideas were like scale models the roman achievements were like huge
concrete structures on the ground with foundations based on Greek
models.(There exist ruins of many magnificent Greek buildings of huge
size with engineering and artistic perfection and as majestic as those of later
Roman empire) .
The Romans
established the biggest empire in Europe and became inspirers for later
western kingdoms and empires in matters of administration and in
establishing democratic governments. So before learning about medieval history
of Britain we may know about history of ancient Greece and about
history of the ancient and medieval Roman empires.
ANCIENT
GREECE
Greek
civilization was an ancient European civilization of the Mediterranean
region. It existed from 9th centuries BC to 6th century
AD and was spread in the Greek peninsula and the hundreds of islands
nearby. Ancient Greece was not a single country but a big
group of “city- states” i.e. each city considering itself as a separate
kingdom. The “city –states” were either in the islands or in the deep isolated
valleys in mainland Greece . All city states contained the
same Greek people, speaking same language and following same
customs and culture. Such Greek city states began to form from 8th
century BC. The geography of Greece, where communities were boxed in
mountainous valleys or in islands dictated the development of
a system of independent city-states.
80% of Greece
is said to be very mountainous with rough mountains with deep valleys .
It has about 1200 big islands and a few thousand tiny islets. About 200 islands
were inhabited since ancient times. It is a beautiful land with blue skies and
blue sea and a pleasant climate.
Some of the city
states are –Athens(famous for its ideas of democracy) and Sparta(famous for its
militarist philosophy , military training to youth and military style
government).Politically, in the ancient times the city state of Athens with its
liberal democratic ideas and ideas of individual freedom dominated Greece.
Later there was rise of Sparta during
4th century BC . In Athenian society there were great
writers and sublime philosophers whose works are read with great
enjoyment and also with awe and respect even today by modern
readers. There were philosophers like Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle.
Most were Athenian . Religion was a central part of ancient Greek
life. The Greeks were polytheistic, worshipping many gods.
Sparta was an
important and powerful state that followed and propagated a very strict
militaristic view of life . In the later Roman Empire such a militarist
view was implemented on a Europe-wide scale. There were other city states.
Corinth(famed for commerce and navigation),Thebes(a military power),Delphi(a
big religious state),Syracuse( another powerful city state). It is wonderful to
note that ancient Greece consisted of several hundred such
independent city-states! There is no such situation in
other parts of world. Every city was a separate kingdom and treated itself as a
separate country fiercely defending its independence!
Unification
of Greece was never contemplated in the ancient times.
However, the Greeks greatly valued their common culture. The
Olympic games were an ancient Greek idea of eighth century BC .The games
were conducted every four years to instill the idea of oneness of all
Greeks. European games and international games reminding of ancient Olympic
games were started again in modern Athens in 1896!
HISTORY OF GREEK
CITY STATES
Now again back to
ancient Greek history.At times of Persian wars even inimical city states united
but after the wars the allies quickly returned to infighting. During the
period 800BC to 500 BC the city states formed several military
alliances and quarreled for supremacy . First the Dalian League led
by Athens dominated . There was a Spartan alliance led by states with a strict
militarist thinking. In some of the wars with the adjacent
Persian Empire the Athenian league led in some wars and the Sparta
league led in some . In some cities tyrants ruled. Some cities even took
the help of Persia to defeat other city states.
Athens
surprisingly recognized ,even by 7th century BC, the right of all
citizens to participate in creating a parliament –type assembly to rule the city statE. History
says that there was for a century or more much political tension between the
poor and the elites in Athens. In such prevailing situation of tension
the republican philosophy might have evolved after much discussion and
deliberation among statesmen and philosophers. In Sparta, in a different way,
a militarist dictatorial political system was evolved in 8th and
7th centuries. Sparta subjugated the neighboring city states . There were some
other such minor military alliances . In two wars with Persian
empire there was alliance between Athens and Sparta and Persians
were defeated. But later there were endless quarrels for decades between Sparta
and Athens . This period of Greek history is called “Archaic
PerioD”.
The powerful
king Philip of Macedon observed the disunity among the
city states. He at last got an idea of subjugating the city states and
establishing a Greek country and Greek empire. He conquered many city-states
and established the Macedonian empire. He was murdered in 336 BC.
His son Alexander the Great was a great conqueror
. He fought wars against Macedon's enemies and then conquered many
kingdom in western Asia. He defeated Persia and proclaimed himself king
of Asia. He died in 323 BC. After his death the empire disintegrated
. Many of Alexander's generals became kings and ruled the several
kingdoms independently . Thus there were many Greek kingdoms following the
ancient Greek culture . It is a very long period of about 300 years . This period
of flourishing of greek kingdoms in parts of Europe and Asia is called by
historians as Hellenistic period. At the end of this period
all the Greek kingdoms were conquered and annexed by the mighty
Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor Augustus made
the entire Greek peninsula a Roman provice in 27 BC.
But we should
remember that Romans followed mostly the Greek religion and culture
. Greek language was spoken by most people all over the
Roman empire while Latin was the language of the royals
and military in Rome. Greek was a highly developed language spoken and was
the language of scholars. After the Greek kingdoms were conquered by the
Roman empire , Rome became a centre of Greek literature. Romans greatly
revered the ancient Greek culture, literature and philosophy as their very own.
Ancient
Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries
from ancient times to the present day-- in the areas of art, sculpture
and architecture , in the area of literature and philosophy and
also in public administration, urban planning, etc. The method of scientific
reasoning existing in Greek philosophy influenced the modern
ideas of scientific research . The most famous names in Greek philosophy are
Socrates and his disciple Plato and Aristotle.
Famous names in science and mathematics are Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes
etc . Ancient Greek astronomers using their mathematical and abstract
reasoning proposed that the Earth rotates around its axis and
that Earth and planets rotate around the Sun. They prepared the first star
catalogues. Hippocrates is respected today as a great figure in the history of medicine. He declared medical
science as a separate profession. The poetic works of the ancient Greek
poet and philosopher Homer, the most beautiful mythologies of Illiad and
the Odyssey , are both very artistic and philosophic. The Homeric tales
are also enjoyed as part of children’s literature all over the
world.
“The isles of
Greece! the isles of Greece!
Where burning
Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose,
and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds
them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set”.
--Lord Byron(1819)
ROMAN EMPIRE
(1) ROMAN REPUBLIC
(A) Roman Empire
controlled the Mediterranean and much of Western Europe, Western Asia and North
Africa during the ancient times and medieval ages . Rome was
capital of the empire. Roman
Republic was founded in the 6th century BC. The republic was a
combination of republican democracy, aristocratic rule and military
administration. It can be roughly described as an association of
(a)central administration in the capital city of Rome,(b) conquered
city-states which accepted to live as self-ruled towns under Rome’s
overall control and ( c ) conquered countries which became provinces in Roman
Empire and were ruled by retired senior Roman military generals (the
equestrians).
The central administration
consisted of (a) several “Assemblies” which were the main law- making
bodies but each concerned with a different category of duties and
(b) a powerful advisory body called Senate consisting of 300 senators
who were retired rich magistrates or military officers all elected for
life.
The advice of
Senate was always followed and implemented as the senators were all experienced
administrators --either retired civilian magistrates or military generals
(the equestrians). The “Assemblies” consisted of elected representatives
who had huge powers to make laws but were subject to following advice of
senate. The permanent governors sent to administer provinces were also
senior magistrates with military experience who seved at least a
few years in Rome.
We can see that the
Roman Republic was ruled by a well–organized
administrative structure. It gave opportunities
to eligible citizens to participate in administration. Very
efficient well organized professional army was ready to manage any trouble
spots.
The central
administration could effectively control (1)conquered city-states
(2) conquered kingdoms ( provinces) which had to be governed very firmly
(3)carry out overall administration of empire with the help of
Assemblies containing elected representatives and Senate consisting of
experienced retired magistrates and retired military commanders
(2) HISTORY OF
ROMAN REPUBLIC
Roman central
administration was very powerful and by 100 BC, the Republic controlled
most of the the Mediterranean region with the hep of powerful
army .During the 1st century there were civil wars and
political and military upheavals. Julius Caesar a
powerful Roman general who subdued all disturbances declared himself in
44 BC as permanent dictator and ruler of the Republic. But some
independent- minded senators of the Republic strongly objected and when
he refused they got him assassinated . Mark Antony (a
Roman general friendly to Julius Ceaser)and Octavian, Caesar's
adopted son became joint rulers . In course of time differences arose
between the two and the Empire was divided between the two. There was war
between them. Octavian's forces defeated those of Mark Antony in 31
bc. Four years later in 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted
Octavian unlimited military power and the new title of Augustus. He
was accepted as the first Roman
Emperor. Emperor Octavian ruled for 40-years. He
established a royal dynasty. Upon his death, Tiberius
his adopted son succeed as the new emperor. The 200 years that began with
Augustus's rule were a period of stability in the Roman Empire. There was peace
and economic prosperity . Uprisings in the provinces were put
down swiftly.
(3) THE DIFFERENT
EMPERORS
(a) Emperor Hadrian
(r. 117–138) strengthened the empire and also implemented many big
building projects throughout the provinces. He made Jerusalem
a Roman colony . It was a time when the religion of Lord Jesus Christ was
not yet followed by the Roman people and Roman kings. There were frequent
disturbances between the Roman army and the Jewish people. In the early
times of Christianity ,particularly during first two or three
centuries of Christian era , the Roman emperors and Roman military officers and
other administrators were much opposed to Christianity treating it
as a non-European subversive movement. But it was becoming popular
even among some Greeks and Romans because of its sublime message of love
and sacrifice.
However entire
Italian and Greek society right from Emperor and nobles to common people were
accustomed only to the ancient social and religious practices of
Roman and Greek culture coming down since centuries. The entire economic and
social structure was based on the old Roman and Greek customs . They could not
shift to new Christian procedures . In course of time common people ,
intellectuals and even some people of noble and rich classes appreciated the
message of sublime love and spirituality in religion of Lord Jesus Christ.Some
emperors were very cruel and harsh towards Christianity in the beginning but
from fourth century AD onwards all sections of people became friendly
towards Christianity as the emperors declared it as the state religion.
(b) Emperor
Diocletian ruled in the in the 3rd century (284 AD-305 AD). The Roman
Empire faced civil war and also barbarian
invasions from Germanic tribes . The empire was quite
ungovernable . Therefore emperor Diocletian set up two different
capitals ---one in Rome for western part of empire and one in
the Greek eastern part in the city of Byzantium .The
western part of the empire used Latin language and the eastern part used the
Greek language. Diocletian persecuted Christians treating Christianity
as a subversive movement and a threat to the empire.
( c ) Emperor
Constantine ruled during the period 306 AD to 337 AD. Though his strong
rule ensured that the entire Roman Empire remained united ,the
empire being too vast was proving ungovernable . Emperor Constantine made
Byzantium (renamed Constantinople) as the capitol for entire empire. Being personally attracted by the
noble message of Christianity he converted to Christianity
( d ) Emperor
Theodosius One
(379-375) ruled the eastern part but when some rebels tried to take over
the west from the legitimate king he defeated the rebels and ruled
over both parts until his death. He was a very religious
person and devout Christian and made Christianity the state religion of entire roman
empire. After his death his two sons became emperors for the
eastern and western empires.
The Easrern Roman
empire,the Byzantine empire became very
powerful and existed for another 1000 years. It flourished
as a great greek Christian military power and acted as a bridge between eastern
and western Europe in cultural and military matters. It became center of
Eastern Orthodox Church. The eastern empire also preserved ancient
Greek knowledge and philosophy. Emperor Justinian (527 AD-565AD)
was a famed east roman emperor and a great conqueror. He fought wars with
barbarian invaders and protected the empire. He also fought many wars with the
Persian emperors. He was famous for getting standard legal codes(Justinian
Codes) prepared for the Byzantine empire. He was devout Christian.
CONCLUSION
Roman institutions
and Roman culture had a lasting influence on the
development of language, religion, art, architecture, literature, philosophy, law,
and political organization in all areas it ruled . Latin language
evolved into languages like Italian,French ,spanish and portugese. The empire's adoption of Christianity resulted
in the creation of powerful medieval Christian
society in Europe.
Roman and Greek art had
a profound impact on the European Renaissance movement and
inspired architectural styles in many countries in the world. The ancient Greek
and Roman mathematical, astronomical and scientific discoveries form basis for
some of modern scientific theories. Rome’s republican institutions have
influenced the writing of constitution of United States and
constitutions of many ountries of modern world.
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