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Pax Romana

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9.3 SQ 23 What led to the Roman Golden Age, Pax Romana_ How did Pax Romana impact Rome, other regions, and later periods in history_

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Rome

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Rome

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When was the Roman Empire's golden age? The Roman Empire had a very extensive golden age. It lasted from 27 A.D. to 180 B.C. Where was the Roman Empire located? The Roman Empire's Religion Achievements in the Roman Empire Mosaic Art Architecture; Roads Architecture; Colosseum Presented by: Michelle Johnson Abby Nemeth Dominick Sanders The Roman Empire's Golden Age Roman Numerals Aqueducts Education in the Roman Empire .

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Rome

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Beginning in the eighth century B.C., Ancient Rome grew from a small town on central Italy's Tiber River into an empire that at its peak encompassed most of continental Europe, Britain, much of western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands. Among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the widespread use of the Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) derived from Latin, the modern Western alphabet and calendar and the emergence of Christianity as a major world religion. After 450 years as a republic, Rome became an empire in the wake of Julius Caesar's rise and fall in the first century B.C. The long and triumphant reign of its first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity; by contrast, the empire's decline and fall by the fifth century A.D. was one of the most dramatic implosions in the history of human civilization.

Origins of Rome

As legend has it, Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Mars, the god of war. Left to drown in a basket on the Tiber by a king of nearby Alba Longa and rescued by a she-wolf, the twins lived to defeat that king and found their own city on the river's banks in 753 B.C. After killing his brother, Romulus became the first king of Rome, which is named for him. A line of Sabine, Latin and Etruscan (earlier Italian civilizations) kings followed in a non-hereditary succession.

Did you know? Four decades after Constantine made Christianity Rome's official religion, Emperor Julian-known as the Apostate-tried to revive the pagan cults and temples of the past, but the process was reversed after his death, and Julian was the last pagan emperor of Rome.

Rome's era as a monarchy ended in 509 B.C. with the overthrow of its seventh king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, whom ancient historians portrayed as cruel and tyrannical, compared to his benevolent predecessors. A popular uprising was said to have arisen over the rape of a virtuous noblewoman, Lucretia, by the king's son. Whatever the cause, Rome turned from a monarchy into a republic, a world derived from res publica, or "property of the people."

The Early Republic

The power of the monarch passed to two annually elected magistrates called consuls; they also served as commanders in chief of the army. The magistrates, though elected by the people, were drawn largely from the Senate, which was dominated by the patricians, or the descendants of the original senators from the time of Romulus. Politics in the early republic was marked by the long struggle between patricians and plebeians (the common people), who eventually attained some political power through years of concessions from patricians, including their own political bodies, the tribunes, which could initiate or veto legislation.

In 450 B.C., the first Roman law code was inscribed on 12 bronze tablets-known as the Twelve Tables-and publicly displayed in the Roman Forum. These laws included issues of legal procedure, civil rights and property rights and provided the basis for all future Roman civil law. By around 300 B.C., real political power in Rome was centered in the Senate, which at the time included only members of patrician and wealthy plebeian families.

Military Expansion

During the early republic, the Roman state grew exponentially in both size and power. Though the Gauls sacked and burned Rome in 390 B.C., the Romans rebounded under the leadership of the military hero Camillus, eventually gaining control of the entire Italian peninsula by 264 B.C. Rome then fought a series of wars known as the Punic Wars with Carthage, a powerful city-state in northern Africa. The first two Punic Wars ended with Rome in full control of Sicily, the western Mediterranean and much of Spain. In the Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.), the Romans captured and destroyed the city of Carthage and sold its surviving inhabitants into slavery, making a section of northern Africa a Roman province. At the same time, Rome also spread its influence east, defeating King Philip V of Macedonia in the Macedonian Wars and turning his kingdom into another Roman province.

Rome's military conquests led directly to its cultural growth as a society, as the Romans benefited greatly from contact with such advanced cultures as the Greeks. The first Roman literature appeared around 240 B.C., with translations of Greek classics into Latin; Romans would eventually adopt much of Greek art, philosophy and religion.

Internal Struggles in the Late Republic

Rome's complex political institutions began to crumble under the weight of the growing empire, ushering in an era of internal turmoil and violence. The gap between rich and poor widened as wealthy landowners drove small farmers from public land, while access to government was increasingly limited to the more privileged classes. Attempts to address these social problems, such as the reform movements of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus (in 133 B.C. and 123-22 B.C., respectively) ended in the reformers' deaths at the hands of their opponents.

Gaius Marius, a commoner whose military prowess elevated him to the position of consul (for the first of six terms) in 107 B.C., was the first of a series of warlords who would dominate Rome during the late republic. By 91 B.C., Marius was struggling against attacks by his opponents, including his fellow general Sulla, who emerged as military dictator around 82 B.C. After Sulla retired, one of his former supporters, Pompey, briefly served as consul before waging successful military campaigns against pirates in the Mediterranean and the forces of Mithridates in Asia. During this same period, Marcus Tullius Cicero, elected consul in 63 B.C., famously defeated the conspiracy of the patrician Cataline and won a reputation as one of Rome's greatest orators.

Caesar's Rise

When the victorious Pompey returned to Rome, he formed an uneasy alliance known as the First Triumvirate with the wealthy Marcus Licinius Crassus (who suppressed a slave rebellion led by Spartacus in 71 B.C.) and another rising star in Roman politics: Gaius Julius Caesar. After earning military glory in Spain, Caesar returned to Rome to vie for the consulship in 59 B.C. From his alliance with Pompey and Crassus, Caesar received the governorship of three wealthy provinces in Gaul beginning in 58 B.C.; he then set about conquering the rest of the region for Rome.

After Pompey's wife Julia (Caesar's daughter) died in 54 B.C., and Crassus was killed in battle against Parthia (present-day Iran) the following year, the triumvirate was broken. With old-style Roman politics in disorder, Pompey stepped in as sole consul in 53 B.C. Caesar's military glory in Gaul and his increasing wealth had eclipsed Pompey's, and the latter teamed with his Senate allies to steadily undermine Caesar. In 49 B.C., Caesar and one of his legions crossed the Rubicon, a river on the border between Italy from Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar's invasion of Italy ignited a civil war from which he emerged as dictator of Rome for life in 45 B.C.

From Caesar to Augustus

Less than a year later, Caesar was murdered by a group of his enemies (led by the republican nobles Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius). Consul Mark Antony and Caesar's great-nephew and adopted heir, Octavian, joined forces to crush Brutus and Cassius and divided power in Rome with ex-consul Lepidus in what was known as the Second Triumvirate. With Octavian leading the western provinces, Antony the east, and Lepidus Africa, tensions developed by 36 B.C. and the triumvirate soon dissolved. In 31 B.C., Octavian triumped over the forces of Antony and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt (also rumored to be the onetime lover of Julius Caesar) in the Battle of Actium. In the wake of this devastating defeat, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.

By 29 B.C., Octavian was the sole leader of Rome and all its provinces. To avoid meeting Caesar's fate, he made sure to make his position as absolute ruler acceptable to the public by apparently restoring the political institutions of the Roman republic while in reality retaining all real power for himself. In 27 B.C., Octavian assumed the title of Augustus, becoming the first emperor of Rome.

Age of the Emperors

Augustus' rule restored morale in Rome after a century of discord and corruption and ushered in the famous pax Romana -two full centuries of peace and prosperity. He instituted various social reforms, won numerous military victories and allowed Roman literature, art, architecture and religion to flourish. Augustus ruled for 56 years, supported by his great army and by a growing cult of devotion to the emperor. When he died, the Senate elevated Augustus to the status of a god, beginning a long-running tradition of deification for popular emperors.

Augustus' dynasty included the unpopular Tiberius (14-37 A.D.), the bloodthirsty and unstable Caligula (37-41) and Claudius (41-54), who was best remembered for his army's conquest of Britain. The line ended with Nero (54-68), whose excesses drained the Roman treasury and led to his downfall and eventual suicide. Four emperors took the throne in the tumultuous year after Nero's death; the fourth, Vespasian (69-79), and his successors, Titus and Domitian, were known as the Flavians; they attempted to temper the excesses of the Roman court, restore Senate authority and promote public welfare. Titus (79-81) earned his people's devotion with his handling of recovery efforts after the infamous eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

The reign of Nerva (96-98), who was selected by the Senate to succeed Domitian, began another golden age in Roman history, during which four emperors-Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius-took the throne peacefully, succeeding one another by adoption, as opposed to hereditary succession. Trajan (98-117) expanded Rome's borders to the greatest extent in history with victories over the kingdoms of Dacia (now northwestern Romania) and Parthia. His successor Hadrian (117-138) solidified the empire's frontiers and continued his predecessor's work of establishing internal stability and instituting administrative reforms.

Under Antoninus Pius (138-161), Rome continued in peace and prosperity, but the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180) was dominated by conflict, including war against Parthia and Armenia and the invasion of Germanic tribes from the north. When Marcus fell ill and died near the battlefield at Vindobona (Vienna), he broke with the tradition of non-hereditary succession and named his 19-year-old son Commodus as his successor.

Decline and Disintegration

The decadence and incompetence of Commodus (180-192) brought the golden age of the Roman emperors to a disappointing end. His death at the hands of his own ministers sparked another period of civil war, from which Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211) emerged victorious. During the third century Rome suffered from a cycle of near-constant conflict. A total of 22 emperors took the throne, many of them meeting violent ends at the hands of the same soldiers who had propelled them to power. Meanwhile, threats from outside plagued the empire and depleted its riches, including continuing aggression from Germans and Parthians and raids by the Goths over the Aegean Sea.

The reign of Diocletian (284-305) temporarily restored peace and prosperity in Rome, but at a high cost to the unity of the empire. Diocletian divided power into the so-called tetrarchy (rule of four), sharing his title of Augustus (emperor) with Maximian. A pair of generals, Galerius and Constantius, were appointed as the assistants and chosen successors of Diocletian and Maximian; Diocletian and Galerius ruled the eastern Roman Empire, while Maximian and Constantius took power in the west.

The stability of this system suffered greatly after Diocletian and Maximian retired from office. Constantine (the son of Constantius) emerged from the ensuing power struggles as sole emperor of a reunified Rome in 324. He moved the Roman capital to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Constantine made Christianity (once an obscure Jewish sect) Rome's official religion.

Roman unity under Constantine proved illusory, and 30 years after his death the eastern and western empires were again divided. Despite its continuing battle against Persian forces, the eastern Roman Empire-later known as the Byzantine Empire-would remain largely intact for centuries to come. An entirely different story played out in the west, where the empire was wracked by internal conflict as well as threats from abroad-particularly from the Germanic tribes now established within the empire's frontiers-and was steadily losing money due to constant warfare.

Rome eventually collapsed under the weight of its own bloated empire, losing its provinces one by one: Britain around 410; Spain and northern Africa by 430. Attila and his brutal Huns invaded Gaul and Italy around 450, further shaking the foundations of the empire. In September 476, a Germanic prince named Odovacar won control of the Roman army in Italy. After deposing the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, Odovacar's troops proclaimed him king of Italy, bringing an ignoble end to the long, tumultuous history of ancient Rome.
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PHOTO GALLERIES

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Beginning in the eighth century B.C., Ancient Rome grew from a small town on central Italy's Tiber River into an empire that at its peak encompassed most of continental Europe, Britain, much of western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands.

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Greece

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The Classical Period or Golden Age of Greece, from around 500 to 300 BC, has given us the great monuments, art, philosophy, architecture and literature which are the building blocks of our own civilization.

The two most well known city-states during this period were the rivals: Athens and Sparta. It was the strengths of these two societies that brought the ancient world to its heights in art, culture and with the defeat of the Persians, warfare. It was the same two Greek states whose thirst for more power and territory, and whose jealousy brought about the Peloponnesian wars which lasted 30 years and left both Athens and Sparta mere shadows of their former selves.

The seeds of the classical period were sown in the 8th century with the committing to writing of the works of Homer, the Illiad and the Odyssey, which in a way created a code of conduct and an ethnic identity for the Greeks. The heroic exploits of Odysseus, Achilles and the other Achaeans served as role models for the Greeks which told them how to behave, (and in some cases, how not to behave) in many situations, particularly on the field of battle and in competition. Just as important in the creating of a Greek identity was the emergence of the Olympic games and the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi both of which had their roots in the 8th century.

The Spartans

The around 800 BC were known for their militaristic society. These Spartans, known as the Lacedemonians controlled the Spartans who were founded by Lycurgus Peloponessos. The Spartans had not always lived in such a society. Earlier in their history they had produced art, poetry and music and seemed to be on the same course as the rest of Greek civilization which might have led them to give us some of the famous names that have been passed down through history. But from the late 8th Century Sparta fought a war with their neighbors in Messinia to the west and unlike other wars in ancient Greece where an invading army fought, won, worked out a treaty and left (to fight again someday), the Spartans subjugated the entire population of Messinia, reducing them to slaves or helots. These helots were no more than serfs and worked the land for the Spartans. Because the helots vastly outnumbered them, the Spartans had to create a society that would protect themselves not just from external enemies but from a helot revolt from within. Men lived in barracks and male children were taken from their mothers at a young age to learn how to serve the state, meaning the art of warfare. Unhealthy children were killed or left to die. Life had one purpose. To defend the state.

The Spartan Constitution was credited to Lycurgus who in his travels had studied governments in Crete and Ionia, had read the epics of Homer which strongly influenced his ideas on how a nation should be run. Lycurgus traveled to Delphi for guidance. Told by the Oracle that his laws would make Sparta famous, he returned to convince first his influential friends and eventually all the Spartans that his reforms will bring power and glory to Sparta. The system of government he created included two Kings, five ephors (executives), a council of thirty elders and a general assembly which was made up of all male citizens. Full citizenship was reserved for the elite, known as the Spartiates who spent much of their time training for and fighting in wars, while their helots worked the land to provide food for the communal mess halls known as syssitia. This is where the Spartiates ate their meals and each was expected to contribute a certain quota of produce every month. Those who could not keep up with their commitment were kicked out and became part of the inferior classes. Children served and then listened to the men discuss state affairs and other topics, as part of their education. Girls were required to exercise and be strong so that they would give birth to strong men. They were also required to dance naked in front of the men to teach them bravery and to be too ashamed to let themselves get fat. The boys learned to read and write but their primary educational goal was to learn to be brave and strong.

Maybe the most frightening of the Spartan institutions were the Crypteia, where young boys were sent to the countryside to live off the land similar to 'Outward Bound' except for a critical difference. These boys were permitted to kill any helot they ran into. This pretty much kept the helots at home.

The Spartans not only feared their own subjugated population but they also feared ideas (like democracy for instance) entering and polluting their system. They would occasionally expel all foreigners and they discouraged commerce and trade by banning ownership of silver and gold, instead using heavy iron coins which were then dipped in vinegar to make brittle. This eliminated the import of luxury items, robbery, bribery, prostitution, jewelry and the amassing of property and resulted in a society where it was impossible to get richer than your neighbor, creating equality, among the Spartan elite anyway.

Though it is easy to get the impression that the Spartans were a society of militaristic robots this is not the case. The Spartans were known for their wit and their ability to say a lot without wasting words. Because the helots did all the work the Spartans had plenty of time for leisure and it is a myth that they spent every free moment in training. Nonetheless much of their time was spent in training in the art of war and discipline and their soldiers were feared by all their enemies and even some of their 'friends'. Marching into battle to the sound of flutes and inspirational music, the Spartans seemed to be completely comfortable and at ease which of course made their adversary uncomfortable and uneasy. They used mercy as a tactic as well. The Spartans would not pursue and slaughter a retreating enemy, considering such behavior disgraceful and not befitting a true warrior. This gave their adversaries the option of not fighting to the death but turning around and running and living to fight another day. It was a policy of Lycurgus not to fight too many wars with the same opponent since that gives him a chance to learn your style and strategies and defeat you.

In his final act as leader, Lycurgus informed the Spartans that there was one thing more that had to be done and that he needed to go to Delphi to ask the Oracle how best to implement this final piece of the puzzle. He made the Kings and the people of Sparta take an oath that they would not change any of his laws until he returned. He left the city and disappeared forever.

The Athenians

The primary rivals of the Spartans were the around 1300. Theseus was from the city of Troezen across from the Saronic Island of Athenians who were founded by Theseus Poros and was said to have been born in the union of Aegus, king of Athens, and the daughter of Troezen's King. At the age of sixteen Theseus was given the task of lifting the heavy stone where his father had put a sword and sandals. Successful in his efforts he walked to Athens to find his father, defeating monsters and evil along the way. After arriving in Athens as a hero he volunteers to go to Crete where King Minos has been demanding a sacrifice of young men and virgins to a monster called the Minotaur. Theseus defeats the Minotaur and returns to Athens though he forgets to remove the black sail of death from the ship. His father, King Aegeus, thinking his beloved son has died, hurls himself into the sea, which is how it came to be known as the Aegean. Upon Theseus' return he abolishes the monarchy and declares Athens a democracy and unifies the scattered villages of Attica. He makes it a policy to give aid to the weak and helpless. His exploits also include adventures with Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, the Amazons and even a journey to the underworld. Later he was overthrown and then murdered while exiled on the island of Skyros. Whether fact or fiction, the meaning behind these stories is what is important to the Athenians. Theseus embodies all they stand for. The Athenians of the 5th Century used his deeds as the standards to measure themselves and their democracy. Theseus was to the Athenians what George Washington is to Americans today.

The Athenian democracy was reformed by in 594. Solon was to Athens what Lycurgus was to Sparta and his reforms paved the way out of a volatile period and into the Golden Age. The 6th Century was a time of social strife and to keep society from falling apart the Athenians elected Solon, a poet and statesman, to mediate between the various groups that were in conflict and to reform the system of economics in Athenian society, where there was an enormous difference between those who were well off and those who were not. Under Athenian law if you could not pay your debt, the person you owed money to could seize you and your family and sell you as slaves to get his money back. Solon's economic program was called the King Solon seisachteia or the ' shaking off of burdens' because it released the lower classes from the burden of debt to those in the wealthy classes. By canceling and reducing debts and abolishing a system of mortgage which had turned many poor land owners into slaves, Solon made a more level playing field. Solon wanted even the poor to take part in Athenian government and He formalized the rights and privileges of the four social classes whose access to public office now depended on how much property they had instead of by birth. The lowest class was called the thetes (laborers) who could take part in the general assembly but they could not run for office. The other economic groups from the bottom up were the Zeugitai (Yeomen), Hippeis (Knights) and the Pentakosiomedimnoi (Those with over 500 measures of wet and dry produce).

The economic reforms that Solon enacted led to the future prosperity of Athens. He banned the export of all agricultural products with the exception of olive oil, which was as valuable to the ancient Greeks as it is to the modern Greeks. By offering citizenship he attracted some of the finest craftsmen of the Greek world to Athens. He discarded the Athenians system of weights and measures in favor of the system used in Evia which was in wider use, enabling the Athenians to more easily trade with the other Greeks in the Aegean. He made being unemployed a crime. He created a supreme court made up of former Archons (ruler or chief magistrate) of Athens and another legislative body of 400 to debate laws before putting them before the people for a vote.

Though Solon's reforms did not cure the ills of Athenian society overnight in the way that Lycurgus had done with the Spartans, the long term effect was to solidify the rule of law and eventually led to Athenian democracy. After committing these laws to writing Solon left Athens because he did not want to be bothered by the Athenians who would be continuously asking him to interpret his laws. He wanted to let them figure it out and he went off to Egypt where he started but never finished a story about Atlantis, which he had learned about from the Egyptian priests. After he left, the Athenians began fighting amongst themselves again and for two years the city was a leaderless anarchy. (The word anarchy comes from the Greek, meaning without a leader or archon.)

The Tyrants

Athenian politics was comprised of three groups which corresponded to the different areas of the Attica peninsula. The three groups were the Men of the Shore, the Men of the Plain and the Men from Beyond the Hills. In 561 Pisistratus, the leader of the Beyond the Hills faction from eastern Attica and a remarkable orator, showed up in the agora with his clothes ripped and bleeding and told the Athenians he had been attacked by his enemies. He was given permission to protect himself with bodyguards. With these men he seized the Acropolis and tried to make himself ruler. He was driven out. Three years later he tried again by marrying a young girl from another leading aristocratic family but she left him for not fulfilling his matrimonial duties and Pisistratus left for Thrace where he focused on amassing more wealth by digging for silver and gold. In 546 he returned with his riches and a six foot tall woman who he dressed up as the Goddess Athena and had her drive him into Athens on a chariot. Apparently this worked because his followers defeated his opponents at the Battle of Palini and Psistratus became the ruler of Athens. Though the word tyrant in our culture brings up images of Nazis, secret police and torture chambers it actually means a leader who was not restrained by law or constitution, nor was he elected, chosen or born into power. So in other words it did not mean he was a bad guy. It just meant he could do whatever he wanted because there was nothing above or below that could stop him.

The period of Athenian history under Pisitratus was one of peace and his rule was a positive step in the establishment of democracy, perhaps more so than Solon. It was under his rule that the Dionysian and Panathenaic Festivals turned Athens into the cultural center of the Greek world while the sculpture, and pottery of this period raised the bar to a new level. By establishing relations with other Greek tyrants and annexing the island of Delos and its sanctuary of Apollo he created prosperity as well as a sense of Athenian identity that brought the people of the city together and an end to the in-fighting which had been the cause of so much stasis (stagnation). Unfortunately his sons, who assumed power after his death in 528 were not quite up to the task and were tyrants in the sense of the word that we are familiar. Hipparchus was assassinated in 514 and Hippias was expelled from Athens in 514, returning in 490 BC when the Persians (unsuccessfully) invaded Attica.

After another period of instability following the expulsion of Hippias, two aristocratic leaders, Cleisthenes and Isagoras, emerge as the leading contenders for rulership of Athens in 510. When Isagoras calls on the Spartans to help him assume power and banish the family of Cleisthenes, the Athenians reject the outside interference and Isagoras himself. Cleisthenes becomes archon. He redraws the political map of Athens in a way that breaks the power of the old aristocracy and gives all the Athenian people a voice in politics. His reforms include the annual rotation of power (so no single group or person could become dominant) and the splitting up of the four tribes of Athens into ten new tribes which were then broken up into smaller demes (municipalities) which were then spread around so that it was more difficult for the old families to organize into a political faction. The Athenians embrace this and identify strongly with their deme to such a degree that when asked his name he would give his first name, the name of his father and his deme. (So I would be Matt, son of Nicholas of Kalithea). Read more on Athenian Democracy...

The Persian Wars

It is this sense of identity as an Athenian, combined with that of being Greek, which gave the people of Athens a feeling of superiority. As anyone who watches sports knows, believing in yourself can be the most important factor when facing a superior opponent. When the Persian empire expanded to encompass the Ionian Greek city states in Asia Minor they decided to punish the Athenians for sending a contingent during the rebellion that burned the city of Sardis in 498. It was the classic David vs Goliath scenario. (Just imagine the US declaring war and invading Costa Rica). An expedition sent by the Persian King Darius landed on the coast at Marathon, just 26 miles from Athens where they were defeated by the Athenian army. When a herald named Phidippides runs the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory and dies on the spot, an event which may or may not have happened, we have the origin to the marathon races which are now run all over the world. (That's why they are 26 miles. The distance from Marathon to the center of Athens). Those who fought at Marathon are treated as heroes for the rest of their lives. It also added to the Athenian mystique and the feeling that they are superior and can not be beaten.

Almost twenty years later King Darius died and his son Xerxes mounted another attack on Athens, this time with overwhelming force by land and sea, planning to conquer and annex all of Greece. In the years following the battle of Marathon the Athenian statesman Themistocles had convinced the Athenians to use the silver which had been discovered in Lavrion, to build a fleet in order to fight the Greek state on the island of Aegina, which was so close it could be seen from the Acropolis. As the Persians advanced this Athenian fleet was sent north where they fought an inconclusive battle with the Persian fleet at Artemisium. On land the Greeks could not agree on the best way to fight the Persians. Their first defense at Tempe was abandoned and there were plans to fall back as far as the Peloponessos and make their last stand there. A Spartan King named Leonidas wa sent with his Royal Guard of 300 men to delay the Persians at a narrow pass at Thermopylae where they held out for three days before being overwhelmed and killed. The epitaph of the heroic Spartans was written by the poet Simonides and carved in the stone walls of the pass:
Tell them in Lacedaemon passerby
that here obedient to their words we lie
As the Persians continued their relentless march south towards Athens, the Greek fleet lures the Persian fleet into the straits between Attica and the island of Salamis where their smaller and more maneuverable ships have an advantage. As Xerxes watches from a hill the Greeks sink 200 Persian ships, capture some and the rest flee. Xerxes and his army retreat north where they wait through the winter and return in the summer of 479 to burn and sack Athens. The Greeks are now one hundred thousand strong, commanded by the Spartan General Pausanias and reinforced by other Greek city-states which have entered the war sensing a Greek victory. They defeat the Persian army in the battle of Plataea while the Greek's navy destroys the Persian fleet at Mykale off the coast of Asia Minor. This is the end of the Persian wars and the beginning of the end of the Persian empire.

Had the Persians won and occupied Greece, western civilization as we know it might not have occurred. What did occur is a feeling among the Greeks that because they had defeated a larger and more powerful enemy, the Persians must be somehow weak, effeminate and inferior to them. It creates a sense among the Greeks that they are meant to live free from outside influences and the word for freedom: eleftheria, becomes an important idea which it has remained even to this day. It also is the beginning of the split between east and west and the word barbarian which had meant speaking an incomprehensible language, now came to mean uncivilized or inferior.

In 476 the Athenian general and statesman Cimon travels to the island of Skyros where he finds the bones of Theseus, brings them back and builds a shrine to the great king who had not only been an inspiration to them but who had been seen fighting alongside the Greek soldiers in the battle of Marathon.

The Age of Pericles

With the threat from the east gone Athens begins a fifty year period under the brilliant statesman (495-429 BC) during which time the Parthenon was built on the Pericles Acropolis and the city becomes the artistic, cultural and intellectual as well as commercial center of the Hellenic world, attracting all sorts of smart and interesting people and taking command of the other Greek states. Continuing their war against the Persians they liberate the Ionian Greek cities of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands.

In 478 the Delian League is formed by Athens and its allies on the island of Delos, the sacred island of Apollo. After swearing an oath, these Greek city-states, some who were forced to join by threats, begin to rid the land of the last remaining Persians and free the seas of piracy. But as enemies became fewer and members of the league want to devote their resources to peaceful endeavors, Athens is becoming more powerful and forces other members do what is best for Athens. This takes the form of payments, supposedly for the maintenance of the fleet, from the other members. The flow of money is used to build the temples and monuments of the city of Athens. When the island of Thassos rebels against this payment they are attacked by Athens. In 454 the treasury of Delos is moved to the Acropolis for 'safe-keeping'.

Greek Philosophy, Theater and Historians

in the form of written dialogues which are conversations with other learned and un-learned men on a variety of topics. The ' Among the dwellers of Athens during its Golden Age is the philosopher Socrates. Though he left no writings of his own, he is mostly known through the work of his student Plato negative Socratic method' consists of asking questions until you arrive at the essence of a subject, (or sometimes not) by a method of hypotheses elimination, where the better hypotheses are found by identifying and eliminating the ones that lead to contradictions. His philosophy begins with the belief that he knows nothing and that life is not for attaining riches but a process of knowing oneself. He believed that virtue was the most valuable of all possessions and that the job of a philosopher was to point out to people how little they actually knew. He was executed by the state, forced to drink hemlock, for corrupting the youth of the city. Oddly, more members of the jury voted to give him the death sentence than originally voted that he was guilty. In other words some who thought he was innocent still voted to have him executed, pointing out early problems of democracy that are still with us today, (that people are either stupid or not paying attention.) Plato became an opponent of the Athenian-style democracy, probably because any society that would condemn someone like Socrates to death had to be insane. He believed that society should be governed by governor kings, or benevolent dictators, educated and trained from the beginning of life for this purpose. He went on to open the world's first university, the Academy, the ruins of which can still be seen in Athens. Plato was an idealist. He believed in a higher reality of which the material world is just a manifestation. It is said that all philosophy is just a footnote to Plato. His student and then fellow philosopher Aristotle was more of a materialist and he believed in putting everything in categories and was the inventor of logic. He opened his own school the Lyceum and went on to become the tutor of Alexander The Great. He is considered the father of European thought, though some of his scientific observations were simply wrong.

Other well known personalities of this period were the great dramatists Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Menander, and Sophocles (photo) all who performed at the theatre of Dionysios at the foot of the Acropolis and whose comedies and tragedies tell us a lot about ancient life, history and the psychology of the ancient Greeks. The sculpture artist Praxitelis was the most famous of the period, though few of his originals remain. Most of his work is known through ancient descriptions and Roman copies. Demosthenes, known as the greatest orator in Athens, actually overcame a speech impediment through a variety of methods which might be described as self-torture. Apparently they worked and he is known to us today. Herodotos, from Halicanarssis in Asia Minor, moved to Athens and became known as the 'father of history' through his writings on the Persian Wars which were detailed and hard to separate fact from fiction and even history from mythology. Thucydides who came a few decades after, was more of a journalist, collecting information and writing history from his own personal viewpoint. His primary subject was the Peloponnesian war, which he believed was the greatest of all wars. His analysis of war was for future generations to understand the causes and progression of future wars, though not necessarily to prevent them.

Music in Ancient Greece was seen as something magical, a system of pitch and rhythm ruled by the same mathematical laws that govern the universe and capable of changing the heart and soul of humans. This was known as the 'Doctrine of Ethos' and as an art form it was humanistic, as was poetry, drama, sculpture and the other art of ancient Greece. It was the rediscovery of the ancient Greek view that music should move the heart and soul which led to the science of harmony in the early Renaissance and gave us the music that we are familiar with today, just as the rediscovery of the other aspects of classical Greece inspired the artists, poets, writers, philosophers and architects of the 15th and 16th Centuries. When you read that the ancient Greeks gave us our culture this is what they meant. The Renaissance was a re-discovery of what was going on in 4th century Athens and emancipated European culture from the dark ages.

Greek Religion

Religion was an important part of Greek society and they believed in a polytheistic system, a belief in many Gods. These Gods lived on Mount Olympus, led by Zeus, whose job was to keep all the other Gods in line, a difficult task, considering that he was one of the most unruly, coming to earth in various forms to seduce immortals and mortals alike. His sister Hera was also his wife and was the protector of women and the family. Ares was the God of war. Haephestus was the God of craftsmen and created the first women, Pandora, as a punishment for man. Her box unleashed all the evils that were to afflict mankind. Aphrodite was the beautiful Goddess of love and lust, punished by Zeus and forced to marry the unattractive Hephaestus. Demeter was the goddess of the fertility of the earth and the harvest who was celebrated in the ancient mysteries of Eleusis . Athena was the Goddess of Wisdom and the patron of Athens. Poseidon (photo) was the God of the sea, a brother of Zeus and a moody individual who caused storms, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Apollo was the God of the sun who daily drove his chariot through the sky. He was also the God of light, both physical and spiritual. Artemis was the Goddess of childbirth and the protector of young animals. Hermes was the God of commerce, wealth, and oratory and was also known as the messenger of the Gods. Today he is the symbol of the Greek postal system. Dionysus was the God of wine and song. Asclepius was the God of healing, Eros the God of Love, Hypnos the God of sleep and Pan was the God of shepherds. The most important part of the ancient Greek religion was the act of sacrifice. Though we often think of the Greek temple as being the center of the ancient Greek religion it is actually the alter which was the most important. Sacrifices were held at festivals devoted to the God where animals were slaughtered and cooked, their rising smoke was the offering.

The most important of the festivals in Athens was the Panathenaea. All the inhabitants would meet at the Dipylon gate, walking the road known as the Sacred Way up to the Acropolis where sometimes hundreds of cattle were slaughtered on the alter of Athena which must have created rivers of blood. There were seasonal festivals for the harvest and grape-picking among others as well as astronomical festivals. A ritual known as Apatouria was a rite of passage for young men going from adolescence to adulthood. They are introduced to the fellow demesmen of their fathers and the initiates name is inscribed on the roll of Athenian citizenship. The girls had a ceremony that took place in the coastal town of Bauron where at the age of 12 or so they passed into womanhood in a festival dedicated to the Goddess Artemis. A ritual to ward off evil in the home was called the Anthesteria and was performed at the same time by everyone in the city. The Mystery cults like that of Demeter at Elefsis had its origins in the dark ages. Initiates may have taken psychedelics to induce a religious experience and create a sense of awe and a sense of the divine. There were also many shrines in Greece where one could supposedly have direct contact with the gods, similar to the experience at Delphi.

Though later on Christianity claimed that pagan religion failed because it did not address the inner need of humans, this seems to not be the case. For the ancient Greeks their religion and faith was a highly personal matter which did spring from a sense of awe, based on experience. If one is to believe the accounts of this period it seems possible that the Greeks did talk to the Gods and the Gods talked back.

The Peloponnesian War

The ancient Hellenes often fought each other and the period is a series of wars and changing alliances. It was the Peloponnesian war which finally brought down Athens. The historian Thucydides has written an eye-witness account that goes into great detail and is a fascinating window on what the ancient Greeks said, and thought and how and why they fought. The cause of the Peloponnesian War (from 431 to 404 BC) had to do mainly with Sparta's fear of the expansion of Athens. This and the plague finally brought down Athens, along with an unhealthy dose of Athenian arrogance that usually comes with power, particularly after the death of Pericles in 430 and the rise of the next generation of Athenian leaders who were unscrupulous and hungry for power. In one well known incident the island of Milos did not join the Athenian league and so was given the choice of paying tribute or being destroyed. These negotiations, written about by Thucydides, had the people of Milos taking the point of view that by trusting in God and having faith in human decency they would be spared. The Athenian's point of view was that 'might makes right' and because they were powerful they could do whatever they wanted including wipe out the people of Milos, which they did in 416 BC. The men were massacred and the women and children were made into slaves. Five hundred Athenians were sent to the island to re-colonize it. It was the beginning of the end for the Athenians as well. The massacre of the Melian's exposed the Athenians as ruthless imperialists and turned the ancient world against her in a way that seems to mirror events of our own times.

It is the ill-fated invasion of Sicily in 415 that finally brings down the Athenians. Alcibiadis claims passionately that they can easily defeat the enemy and that they will be welcomed as liberators by the Sicilians. Despite the apprehensions, the Athenians are convinced that this is an opportunity to defeat the Spartans and their allies and rally to the cause. But they are victims of poor intelligence or perhaps over-zealous leadership and find themselves with fewer allies and a larger and more organized enemy then they had planned on. Rather than withdraw they decide to escalate (or as we might say now surge). It was a disaster.

The Athenian fleet is destroyed by the Syracusians. Athenian troops watch in horror realizing their escape is cut off. They are then defeated and sold into slavery. With the Athenian army and navy gone the Spartans are able to march right into Athens, suspend the democracy and install a pro-Spartan oligarchy known as ' The Thirty'.

After a period of civil war The Thirty are overthrown and democracy is restored. What follows is a period of decline in the 4th century where though Athens is not the great power it was, it is still capable of producing the most important developments in philosophy, drama, art and literature.

The Hellenes of the Golden age, when threatened by an external enemy were capable of coming together and performing miracles. This is true all the way to the present time as is the sad fact that when there was no external threat they were their own worst enemy and throughout history have fought amongst themselves, sometimes turning what could have been great victories into sad defeats or chaos.

The Olympics

to compete in the From 776 BC through the Golden Age until they were finally banned by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in 393, every 4 years men from all over the Greek world came to the town of Olympia Olympic Games. Though there were other games in classical Greece, the Olympics were the most important. During the period of the games a sacred truce was in effect so competitors could go through hostile territories to get to Olympia. The games were held on the second full moon of the summer solstice and was not restricted to athletic events. There were also feasts, competitions between orators, poets, prayers and sacrifices since it was in actuality a religious festival dedicated to Zeus for his enjoyment as well as for the Greek love of competition and the Homeric value of arete or excellence which was perhaps the most important quality of the Greek heroes of the Illiad. Athletic fanaticism is yet another gift of the ancient Greeks and by the 2nd century even the priests in Jerusalem were spending more time practicing the discus then they were on their priestly duties. The Olympic and other pan-Hellenic games were open only to Greeks and one's Greekness was confirmed by his inclusion in the games. By the definition of Herodotus to be a Greek meant to share blood, language, religion and customs. But eventually to be considered a Greek meant to live and act as a Greek particularly by engaging in competition with other Greeks. Those who competed were not after riches and lucrative endorsement contracts but for undying glory or cleos aphthiton for themselves, their families and their community. Their victories were turned to prose by poets like Pindar so that even today we know their names and exploits. While the Greeks who competed at these games did not see themselves as a nation they did see themselves as a culture united in language, blood, religion and especially the spirit of Homeric competitiveness as they cheered on the athletes who modeled themselves on Homer's heroes.

For more on the 2004 Olympics see www.greecetravel.com/2004olympics

The Oracle at Delphi

Delphi was believed to be the center of the Universe, not just another holy site or shrine, but the place where the physical world and the spiritual worlds met. Like the Olympics the oracle of Apollo was open only to Greeks. In the 4th Century the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi was at its height of popularity as pilgrims, poets, politicians and kings all sought the advice of the Oracle, said to be the voice of Apollo. Leaders wanting to know if this was the time to go to war asked the Oracle. Many times the answer was vague and open to interpretation. The way it worked was a priestess of Apollo, called a pythia, would enter a trance after breathing fumes that came through a hole in the earth. She would then speak in riddles and the priests would interpret what she was saying. Cities would bring offerings and great wealth was built up in Delphi. As the Greek world grew, Delphi, which was a separate entity with allegiance to no particular city-state, became a mediator in disputes between the city-states and Greek colonies. Delphi shaped policies, settled border disputes and authorised the founding of new colonies. Because of the competitive nature of the Greeks disputes were common not only among the individuals but communities and city-states too. The Oracle at Delphi kept everything together in the Greek world and its importance can not be underestimated. The Delphic Games like the Olympic games harnessed the competitive spirit of the Greeks and helped create and sustain an ethnic and cultural identity which two thousand years later became a national (and international) identity. Later a series of wars which broke out over control of Delphi called The Sacred Wars and eventually like the Olympics the Delphic games and the Oracle were outlawed by the Roman Emperor Theodocious as were the rest of the pagan sanctuaries. Some say the spirit of Apollo has never left but the ability to hear him has gone. See www.greecetravel.com/delphi

The 4th Century

From 396 to 387 BC the Greek states were in revolt against Sparta. Led by Corinth, and fueled with funds that came from Persia to keep the Greeks fighting amongst themselves peace finally comes to all the Greek states for the first time in what is known as the Peace of Antalcidas. In 398 the Athenians reform the Delian league and once again becomes the leading power in the Aegean world. In 371 the Thebans defeat the Spartans in the Battle of Leuctra. Sparta is then invaded and the Messinian helots emancipated. Hemmed in on all sides, Sparta will never again be the power it had been. Thebes under Epaminondas becomes the most powerful city-state though not powerful enough to unite the others. Much of this period is witnessed by the soldier-writer Xenofon. In 4th Century Athens sculpturers like Scopas and Lysippus are exploring the beauty of the human form. The playwright Menandor has introduced a style of drama known as New Comedy which might be compared to what we know as situation comedy. Aristotle is busy collecting data on everything to develop his theories of the visible world while Plato is focusing on the spiritual with his theory of forms, which will influence Christian mysticism. Meanwhile the speeches of Demosthenes and his rival Aeschines are asking the critical question of the time, how to deal with the rising power of Phillip of Macedon.

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History of Greece The Golden Age of Greece

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The Classical Period or Golden Age of Greece, from around 500 to 300 BC, has given us the great monuments, art, philosophy, architecture and literature which are the building blocks of our own civilization. The two most well known city-states during this period were the rivals: Athens and Sparta.

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Greece

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The Golden Age of Greece Achievements During this age, Greece achieved success's in government, art, philosophy, drama and poetry. The Greek theater promoted globally famous philosophers, Socrates and Plato. This age also produced admirable sculptures and Parthenon art. Sources http://www.education.com/study-help/article/ancient-history-greece-golden-age/ Golden Age Began with the defeat of Persian army by badly outnumbered Greeks Ended with the lengthy war between Athens and Sparta.

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Greece

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The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles (495-429 B.C.), a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician-"the first citizen" of democratic Athens, according to the historian Thucydides. Pericles transformed his city's alliances into an empire and graced its Acropolis with the famous Parthenon. His policies and strategies also set the stage for the devastating Peloponnesian War, which would embroil all Greece in the decades following his death.

Pericles: Rise to Power

Pericles was born into one of Athens' leading families. His father Xanthippus was a hero of the Persian War and his mother belonged to the culturally powerful Alcmaeonidae family. He grew up in the company of artists and philosophers-his friends included Protagoras, Zeno and the pioneering Athenian philosopher Anaxagoras. Pericles' earliest recorded act, the financial sponsorship of a play by Aeschylus in 472 B.C., foreshadowed the future leader's wealth, artistic taste and political savvy. The play expressed support for Athens' embattled populist leader Themistocles over Pericles' future archrival, the aristocrat Cimon.

Did you know? All surviving statues and images of Pericles show him wearing a helmet-his rightful symbol as an Athenian general. The armor also covered up his one known physical flaw-his outsize head. Contemporary poets nicknamed him Schinocephalos, "sea onion-head," after a bulbed plant found on the Mediterranean coast.

Between 463 and 461 Pericles worked to prosecute and eventually ostracize Cimon for allegedly betraying Athens and emerged as the leader of Athens' democratic party. In 454 he led a successful military campaign in Corinth and sponsored the establishment of Athenian colonies in Thrace and on the Black Sea coast. In 443 he was elected strategos (one of Athens' leading generals), a position he held, with one short interruption, for the rest of his life.

Pericles and the Athenian Golden Age

The golden age of Athenian culture is usually dated from 449 to 431 B.C., the years of relative peace between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. After the second Persian invasion of Greece in 479, Athens and its allies throughout the Aegean formed the Delian League, a military alliance focused on the Persian threat. Following a failed Athenian attack on the Persians in Egypt in 454, Athens' leaders pushed to transfer the League's treasury from Delos to Athens. Three years later, a coinage decree imposed Athenian weights and measures throughout the league. By the time Pericles was elected strategos, the league was well on its way to becoming an Athenian empire.

During the 440s and 430s Pericles tapped the league's treasury to fund vast cultural projects in Athens, most notably a series of structures on the city's hilltop Acropolis: the temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheum and the towering Parthenon. Built to the highest standards of aesthetics, engineering and mathematics, these white marble structures were decorated with intricate statues and friezes carved by the era's greatest sculptors.

Pericles' social innovations were equally important to the era. He worked to democratize the fine arts by subsidizing theater admission for poorer citizens and enabled civic participation by offering pay for jury duty and other civil service. Pericles maintained close friendships with the leading intellects of his time. The playwright Sophocles and the sculptor Phidias were among his friends. Pericles' consort Aspasia, one of the best-known women of ancient Greece, taught rhetoric to the young philosopher Socrates. Pericles himself was a master orator. His speeches and elegies (as recorded and possibly interpreted by Thucydides) celebrate the greatness of a democratic Athens at its peak.

The Peloponnesian War and the Death of Pericles

As Athens grew in power under Pericles, Sparta felt more and more threatened and began to demand concessions from the Athenians. Pericles refused, and in 431 B.C. conflict between Athens and Sparta's ally Corinth pushed the Spartan king Archidamus II to invade Attica near Athens. Pericles adopted a strategy that played to the Athenians' advantage as a naval force by evacuating the Attic countryside to deny the superior Spartan armies anyone to fight. With all his people collected within the walls of Athens, Pericles was free to make opportunistic seaborne attacks on Sparta's allies. This financially costly strategy worked well during the war's early years, but a plague hit the concentrated Athenian population, taking many lives and stirring discontent. Pericles was briefly deposed in 430, but after the Athenians' efforts to negotiate with Sparta failed, he was quickly reinstated.

In 429 Pericles' two legitimate sons died of the plague. A few months later, Pericles himself succumbed. His death was, according to Thucydides, disastrous for Athens. His strategies were quickly abandoned and the leaders who followed lacked Pericles' foresight and forbearance, instead "committing even the conduct of state affairs to the whims of the multitude." The glory of ancient Greece was far from over- Plato was born a year after Pericles' death-but the golden age slid away.

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The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles (495-429 B.C.), a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician-"the first citizen" of democratic Athens, according to the historian Thucydides. Pericles transformed his city's alliances into an empire and graced its Acropolis with the famous Parthenon.

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Gupta Empire

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The Gupta Empire stretched across northern, central and parts of southern India between c. 320 and 550 CE. The period is noted for its achievements in the arts, architecture, sciences, religion, and philosophy. Chandragupta I (320 - 335 CE) started a rapid expansion of the Gupta Empire and soon established himself as the first sovereign ruler of the empire. It marked the end of 500 hundred years of domination of the provincial powers and resulting disquiet that began with the fall of the Mauryas. Even more importantly, it began a period of overall prosperity and growth that continued for the next two and half centuries which came to be known as a "Golden Age" in India's history. But the seed of the empire was sown at least two generations earlier than this when Srigupta, then only a regional monarch, set off the glory days of this mighty dynasty in circa 240 CE.

Gupta Period - Early Days to the Zenith

Not much is known about the early days of this Gupta dynasty. The travel diaries and writings of Buddhist monks who frequented this part of the world are the most trustworthy sources of information we have about those days. The travelogues of Fa Hien (Faxian, circa 337 - 422 CE), Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang, 602 - 664 CE) and Yijing (I Tsing, 635 - 713 CE) prove to be invaluable in this respect. The Gupta Empire during the rule of Srigupta (circa 240 - 280 CE) comprised only Magadha and probably a part of Bengal too. Like the Mauryas and other Magadha kings who preceded him, Srigupta ruled from Pataliputra, close to modern day Patna. Srigupta was succeeded to the throne by his son Ghatotkacha (circa 280 - 319 CE).

The territorial heads ruling over various parts of India could not counter the superior armed forces of Chandragupta I and had to surrender before him.

Chandragupta I

From the Kushans, the Gupta kings learned the benefit of maintaining a cavalry and Chandragupta I, son of Ghatotkacha, made effective use of his strong army. Through his marriage with Licchhavi Princess Kumaradevi, Chandragupta I received the ownership of rich mines full of iron ore adjacent to his kingdom. Metallurgy was already at an advanced stage and forged iron was not only used to meet the internal demands, but also became a valuable trade commodity. The territorial heads ruling over various parts of India could not counter the superior armed forces of Chandragupta I and had to surrender before him. It is conjectured that at the end of his reign, the boundary of the Gupta Empire already extended to Allahabad.

Samudragupta (circa 335 - 375 CE), Chandragupta I's son who ascended the throne next, was a military genius and he continued the growth of the kingdom. After conquering the remainder of North India, Samudragupta turned his eyes to South India and added a portion of it to his empire by the end of his Southern Campaign. It is generally believed that during his time the Gupta Empire spanned from the Himalayas in north to the mouth of Krishna and Godavari rivers in the South, from Balkh, Afghanistan in the west to the Brahmaputra River in the east.

Samudragupta was very attentive to rajdharma (duties of a king) and took special care to follow Kautilya's (350 - 275 BCE) Arthashastra (an economic, social and political treatise that has clear instructions about how a monarchy should be governed) closely. He donated large sums of money for various philanthropic purposes, including the promotion of education. Besides being a courageous king and able administrator, he was a poet and musician. The large number of gold coins circulated by him showcases his multifaceted talent. An inscription, probably commissioned by subsequent Gupta kings, known as the Allahabad Pillar is most eloquent about his humane qualities. Samudragupta also believed in promoting goodwill among various religious communities. He gave, for example, Meghavarna, king of Ceylon, permission and support for the construction of a monastery in Bodh Gaya.

A short struggle for power appears to have ensued after the reign of Samudragupta. His eldest son Ramagupta became the next Gupta king. This was noted by 7th century CE Sanskrit author Banbhatta in his biographical work, Harshacharita. What followed next forms a part of Sanskrit poet and playwright Visakh Dutta's drama Devi Chandra Guptam. As the story goes, Ramagupta was soon overcome by a Scythian king of Mathura. But the Scythian king, besides the kingdom itself, was interested in Queen Dhruvadevi who was also a renowned scholar. To maintain peace Ramagupta gave up Dhruvadevi to his opponent. It is then Ramagupta's younger brother Chandragupta II with a few of his close aides went to meet the enemy in disguise. He rescued Dhruvadevi and assassinated the Scythian king. Dhruvadevi publicly condemned her husband for his behaviour. Eventually, Ramagupta was killed by Chandragupta II who also married Dhruvadevi sometime later.

Like Samudragupta, Chandragupta II (circa 380 - 414 CE) was a benevolent king, able leader and skilled administrator. By defeating the satrap of Saurashtra, he further expanded his kingdom to the coastline of the Arabian Sea. His courageous pursuits earned him the title of Vikramaditya. To rule the vast empire more efficiently, Chandragupta II founded his second capital in Ujjain. He also took care to strengthen the navy. The seaports of Tamralipta and Sopara consequently became busy hubs of maritime trade. He was a great patron of art and culture too. Some of the greatest scholars of the day including the navaratna (nine gems) graced his court. Numerous charitable institutions, orphanages and hospitals benefitted from his generosity. Rest houses for travellers were set up by the road side. The Gupta Empire reached its pinnacle during this time and unprecedented progress marked all areas of life.

Politics & Administration

Great tact and foresight were shown in the governance of the vast empire. The efficiency of their martial system was well known. The large kingdom was divided into smaller pradesha (provinces) and administrative heads were appointed to take care of them. The kings maintained discipline and transparency in the bureaucratic process. Criminal law was mild, capital punishment was unheard of and judicial torture was not practised. Fa Hien called the cities of Mathura and Pataliputra as picturesque with the latter being described as a city of flowers. People could move around freely. Law and order reigned and, according to Fa Hien, incidents of theft and burglary were rare.

The following also speaks volumes about the prudence of the Gupta kings. Samudragupta acquired a far greater part of southern India than he cared to incorporate into his empire. Therefore, in quite a few cases, he returned the kingdom to the original kings and was satisfied only with collecting taxes from them. He reckoned that the great distance between that part of the country and his capital Pataliputra would hinder the process of good governance.

Socio-economic Conditions

People led a simple life. Commodities were affordable and all round prosperity ensured that their requirements were met easily. They preferred vegetarianism and shunned alcoholic beverages. Gold and silver coins were issued in great numbers which is a general indicative of the health of the economy. Trade and commerce flourished both within the country and outside. Silk, cotton, spices, medicine, priceless gemstones, pearl, precious metal and steel were exported by sea. Highly evolved steelcraft led everyone to a belief that Indian iron was not subject to corrosion. The 7 m (23 ft) high Iron Pillar in Qutub complex, Delhi, built around 402 CE, is a testimony to this fact. Trade relations with Middle East improved. Ivory, tortoise shell etc. from Africa, silk and some medicinal plants from China and the Far East were high on the list of imports. Food, grain, spices, salt, gems and gold bullion were primary commodities of inland trade.

Religion

Gupta kings knew that the well-being of the empire lie in maintaining a cordial relationship between the various communities. They were devout Vaishnava (Hindus who worship the Supreme Creator as Vishnu) themselves, yet that did not prevent them from being tolerant towards the believers of Buddhism and Jainism. Buddhist monasteries received liberal donations. Yijing observed how the Gupta kings erected inns and rest houses for Buddhist monks and other pilgrims. As a pre-eminent site of education and cultural exchange Nalanda prospered under their patronage. Jainism flourished in northern Bengal, Gorakhpur, Udayagiri and Gujarat. Several Jain establishments existed across the empire and Jain councils were a regular occurrence.

Literature, Sciences & Education

Sanskrit once again attained the status of a lingua franca and managed to scale even greater heights than before. Poet and playwright Kalidasa created such epics as Abhijnanasakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Raghuvansha and Kumarsambhaba. Harishena, a renowned poet, panegyrist and flutist, composed Allahabad Prasasti, Sudraka wrote Mricchakatika, Vishakhadatta created Mudrarakshasa and Vishnusharma penned Panchatantra. Vararuchi, Baudhayana, Ishwar Krishna and Bhartrihari contributed to both Sanskrit and Prakrit linguistics, philosophy and science.

Varahamihira wrote Brihatsamhita and also contributed to the fields of astronomy and astrology. Genius mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata wrote Surya Siddhanta which covered several aspects of geometry, trigonometry and cosmology. Shanku devoted himself to creating texts about Geography. Dhanvantri's discoveries helped the Indian medicinal system of ayurveda become more refined and efficient. Doctors were skilled in surgical practices and inoculation against contagious diseases was performed. Even today, Dhanvantri's birth anniversary is celebrated on Dhanteras, two days before Diwali. This intellectual surge was not confined to the courts or among the royalty. People were encouraged to learn the nuances of Sanskrit literature, oratory, intellectual debate, music and painting. Several educational institutions were set up and the existing ones received continuous support.

Art, Architecture & Culture

What philosopher and historian Ananda Coomaraswamy said in The Arts & Crafts of India & Ceylone, about the art of the region must be remembered here,

The Hindus do not regard the religious, aesthetic, and scientific standpoints as necessarily conflicting, and in all their finest work, whether musical, literary, or plastic, these points of view, nowadays so sharply distinguished, are inseparably united.

The finest examples of painting, sculpture and architecture of the period can be found in Ajanta, Ellora, Sarnath, Mathura, Anuradhapura and Sigiriya. The basic tenets of Shilpa Shasrta (Treatise on Art) were followed everywhere including in town planning. Stone studded golden stairways, iron pillars (The iron pillar of Dhar is twice the size of Delhi's Iron Pillar), intricately designed gold coins, jewellery and metal sculptures speak volumes about the skills of the metalsmiths. Carved ivories, wood and lac-work, brocades and embroidered textile also thrived. Practicing vocal music, dance and seven types of musical instruments including veena (an Indian musical stringed instrument), flute and mridangam (drum) were a norm rather than exception. These were regularly performed in temples as a token of devotion. In classic Indian style, artists and litterateurs were encouraged to meditate on the imagery within and capture its essence in their creations. As Agni Purana suggests, "O thou Lord of all gods, teach me in dreams how to carry out all the work I have in my mind."

Decline of the Empire

After the demise of his father Chandragupta II, Kumaragupta I (circa 415 - 455 CE) ruled over the vast empire with skill and ability. He was able to maintain peace and even fend off strong challenges from a tribe known as Pushyamitra. He was helped by his able son Skandagupta (455 - 467 CE) who was the last of the sovereign rulers of the Gupta Dynasty. He also succeeded in preventing the invasion of the Huns (Hephthalites). Skandagupta was a great scholar and wise ruler. For the well being of the denizens he carried out several construction works including the rebuilding of a dam on Sudarshan Lake, Gujarat. But these were the last of the glory days of the empire.

After Skandagupta's death the dynasty became embroiled with domestic conflicts. The rulers lacked the capabilities of the earlier emperors to rule over such a large kingdom. This resulted in a decline in law and order. They were continuously plagued by the attacks of the Huns and other foreign powers. This put a dent in the economic well-being of the empire. On top of this, the kings remained more occupied with self-indulgence than in preparing to meet with the challenges of their enemies. The inept ministers and administrative heads also followed suit. Notably, after the defeat and capture of Mihirakula, one of the most important Hephthalite emperors of the time, Gupta King Baladitya set him free on the advice of his ministers. The Huns came back to haunt the empire later and finally drew the curtains on this illustrious empire in circa 550. The following lines of King Sudraka's Mricchakatika (The Little Clay Cart) aptly sum up the rise and fall in the fortune of the Gupta Dynasty.

Fate plays with us like buckets at the well,
Where one is filled, and one an empty shell,
Where one is rising, while another falls;
And shows how life is change - now heaven, now hell.

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The Gupta Empire stretched across northern, central and parts of southern India between c. 320 and 550 CE. The period is noted for its achievements in the arts, architecture, sciences, religion, and philosophy. Chandragupta I (320 - 335 CE) started a rapid expansion of the Gupta Empire and soon established himself as the first sovereign ruler of the empire.

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Gupta Empire

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THe Golden age of the gupta empire sculpture Sculpting was another great achievement of the Gupta Empire. Sculptures were made of all types of materials and mostly portrayed Buddhu or other religious figures, such as one statue made into the river god, Ganga.

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Gupta Empire

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Having conquered the mighty Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great set his sights on the north western region of the Indian subcontinent. Thus, in 327 B.C., the Macedonian king began his campaign by invading the valley of the river Kabul. Whilst Alexander won some spectacular battles, his Indian campaign was ultimately a failure. Alexander's battle against King Porus was to be his last major victory, as the Macedonian army's refusal to go further east meant that the Macedonian king had to relinquish his dreams of conquering the entire known world. Yet, Alexander's campaign in India would have important consequences for the subcontinent and its people. One of them is the founding of a new Indian Empire - the Mauryan Empire, which would eventually unify the whole of India.

The founder of the Mauryan Empire was a man by the name of Chandragupta Maurya. Chandragupta is said to have been born in about 340 B.C. Little is known about Chandragupta's ancestry and his early years. According to some later sources, both of Chandragupta's parents belonged to the Ksyatria (warrior) caste. Other sources, however, state that his father was a king, whilst his mother was from the Sudra (servant) caste. It has also been claimed that Chandragupta was the son of a Nanda prince (the dominant power in northern India during the 4 th century B.C.). Regardless of the various accounts, we can be fairly sure that Chandragupta was of humble birth, as the details of his life before becoming an emperor were not recorded by contemporary writers.

It is said that the young Chandragupta displayed the qualities of a natural leader - courage and charisma. As a result, he caught the attention of the famous Brahmin scholar, Chanakya, the 'Indian Machiavelli'. The scholar began training the young Chandragupta to become a great king. With the help of this tactician, Chandragupta managed to raise an army and wage war against the Nanda Empire. Although Chandragupta's army was initially defeated by the Nandas, he did not give up, and continued fighting them. By 321 B.C., Chandragupta Maurya laid siege to and captured the capital of the Nanda Empire, Pataliputra. Thus, the Mauryan Empire was established.
Coin of the Maurya Empire, with wheel and elephant symbols. ( ) The Mauryan Empire in its largest extent ( Creative Commons References )
Alexander's death in 323 B.C. was another opportunity for Chandragupta to extend his empire. The division of Alexander's empire into satrapies meant that the empire was no longer a unified entity. Thus, by about 316 B.C., Chandragupta was able to defeat and absorb all the Greek satrapies in the mountains of Central Asia. As a result, the western border of the Mauryan Empire was extended to the edge of modern day Iran, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In 305 B.C., Chandragupta sought to further expand his empire into eastern Persia. This region belonged to the Seleucid Empire, and was ruled at that time by its founder, Seleucus I Nicator, a formidable general of Alexander the Great. Whilst the resulting conflict was inconclusive, the peace treaty struck between Seleucus and Chandragupta seems to have favored the latter. Seleucus ceded the areas in eastern Persia conquered by Chandragupta. In addition, one of Seleucus' daughters was given to the Mauryan emperor. In return, Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 war elephants.

According to Jain tradition, Chandragupta decided to abdicate when he was 42 years old, and became an ascetic. Jain tradition also reports that Chandragupta ended his life by sallekhana - meditation without eating or drinking until the person dies of starvation. He was succeeded by his son, Bindusara. It was Chandragupta's grandson, the emperor Ashoka, however, who ushered in the golden age of the Mauryan Empire. Nevertheless, Chandragupta is perhaps best remembered today as the king who unified India.

Lendering, J., 2014. Maurya. [Online]
Available at: http://www.livius.org/dynasty/maurya/

Szczepanski, K., 2014. Chandragupta Maurya. [Online]
Available at: http://asianhistory.about.com/od/india/p/Biography-of-Chandragupta-Maurya.htm

Violatti, C., 2014. Chandragupta. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ancient.eu/Chandragupta/

Wikipedia, 2014. Chandragupta Maurya. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandragupta_Maurya

Wikipedia, 2014. Indian Campaign of Alexander the Great. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_campaign_of_Alexander_the_Great

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The Rise of Chandragupta Maurya, and the Golden Age of the Mauryan Empire

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Having conquered the mighty Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great set his sights on the north western region of the Indian subcontinent. Thus, in 327 B.C., the Macedonian king began his campaign by invading the valley of the river Kabul. Whilst Alexander won some spectacular battles, his Indian campaign was ultimately a failure.

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Han Dynasty

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The Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE) was the second dynasty of Imperial China (the era of centralized, dynastic government, 221 BCE - 1912 CE) which established the paradigm for all succeeding dynasties up through 1912 CE. It succeeded the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) and was followed by the Period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280 CE).

It was founded by the commoner Liu Bang (l. c. 256-195 BCE; throne name: Gaozu r. 202-195 BCE) who worked toward repairing the damage caused by the repressive regime of the Qin through more benevolent laws and care for the people. The dynasty is divided into two periods:

Western Han (also Former Han): 202 BCE - 9 CE

Eastern Han (also Later Han): 25-220 CE

The separation is caused by the rise of the regent Wang Mang (l. 45 BCE - 23 CE) who declared the Han Dynasty finished and established the Xin Dynasty (9-23 CE). Wang's idealistic form of government failed and, after a brief period of turmoil, the Han Dynasty resumed.

Gaozu initially retained the Qin Dynasty's philosophy of Legalism but with less severity. Legalism gave way to Confucianism under the most famous monarch of the Han, Emperor Wu (also given as Wudi, Wuti, Wu the Great, r. 141-87 BCE) who, among his many other impressive achievements, also opened the Silk Road, establishing trade with the West. The Han also negotiated a peace, which was more or less observed, with the nomadic peoples of the Xiongnu and Xianbi to the north and the Xirong to the west which stabilized the borders and encouraged peace and cultural development in the arts and sciences. Many of the commonplace items taken for granted today were invented by the Han such as the wheelbarrow, the compass, the adjustable wrench, seismograph, and paper, to name only a few.

The Han restored the cultural values of the Zhou Dynasty, which had been discarded by the Qin, encouraged literacy, & the study of history.

The Han also restored the cultural values of the Zhou Dynasty, which had been discarded by the Qin, encouraged literacy, and the study of history. The historian Sima Qian (l. 145/35-86 BCE) lived during this period whose Records of the Grand Historian set the standard and form for Chinese historical writings up through the 20th century CE. Chinese mythology and religion also developed during this time including the popular messianic movement focused on the Queen Mother of the West.

By c. 130 CE, however, the imperial court had become corrupt with eunuchs exercising more actual power than the Chinese emperor. By the time of the emperor Lingdi (r. 168-189 CE), the Han royal house had less actual authority than the palace eunuchs and the generals (who were more or less autonomous warlords) stationed at the borders of the country. In 184 CE, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in response to high taxes and famine and these generals put it down.

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Among them was Cao Cao (l. 155-220 CE) who, afterwards, waged war against his fellow commanders for control of the state. He was defeated at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE after which the country was divided between three kingdoms and the Han Dynasty fell. Its legacy is so profound that it continues to the present day and the majority of ethnic Chinese refer to themselves as Han People (Han rem) proudly in identifying themselves as descendants of the great ancient dynasty.

The Qin Dynasty's Rise & Fall

The Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) established itself as a decentralized government in which lords, loyal to the king, ruled over separate states. Initially, this form of government worked well but, in time, the states grew more powerful than the central Chinese government and each tried to claim from the Zhou the Mandate of Heaven.

The Mandate of Heaven was a concept originally conceived during the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE) and developed by the Zhou which maintained that a monarch's reign was legitimized by divine powers which had made an agreement with him: he would rule with their blessing as long as he cared for the welfare of his subjects. When it seemed the monarch and dynastic house cared more for themselves than the people - evidenced by social and economic turmoil - it was understood they had lost the Mandate of Heaven and should be replaced.

The seven separate states fought each other for supremacy - which would grant them the mandate - throughout the era known as the Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE) but none could gain the advantage until the state of Qin, under their king Ying Zheng, adopted a policy of total war and defeated the others. Ying then proclaimed himself Shi Huangdi ("First Emperor") and founded the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE. At first, Shi Huangdi seemed to observe the Mandate of Heaven in caring for the people but became increasingly oppressive and tyrannical. By 213 BCE, people were being conscripted to work on his projects and essentially serve as slave laborers while freedom of speech was banned and any books other than those on Qin history, Legalism, or practical matters were burned.

When Shi Huangdi died in 210 BCE, his weak son, Qin Er Shi (r. 210-207 BCE) succeeded him but could not maintain the empire against rebellion. The rebel forces were led by the noble Xiang Yu of Chu (l. 232-202 BCE) who ennobled the commoner Liu Bang of Han as King of Han. Liu Bang accepted the surrender of the last Qin emperor, Ziying (d. 206 BCE), and treated him and his family courteously but Xiang Yu ordered them all executed.

This was far from the first time the two men had disagreed (they had been sparring with each other for over a year by this time), and their ambition to become sole ruler of China ignited the conflict known as the Chu-Han Contention (206-202 BCE) which was resolved in Liu Bang's favor at the Battle of Gaixia in 202 BCE. Xiang Yu's forces were defeated; he committed suicide afterwards. Liu Bang (known later as Gaozu) was now the supreme ruler of China and founded the Han Dynasty.

Western Han

He initially rewarded the generals Han Xin, Peng Yue, and others who had helped him defeat Xiang Yu, with grand estates and their own kingdoms but later grew suspicious of them and had them all executed, possibly at the urging of his ambitious wife, Empress Lu Zhi (l. 241-180 BCE). He first established his capital at Luoyang but then moved it to Chang'an for defensive purposes. With no experience in government, Gaozu had to rely on earlier models and so adopted the decentralized government of the Zhou and the Legalism of the Qin (though the latter was implemented more benevolently). The decentralized state was divided into 13 administrative districts known as commanderies (also as jun) and awarded ten kingdoms to members of his family whom he expected to rule justly.

The Qin Dynasty had misused the Mandate of Heaven to repress the people for the greater glory of the Chinese emperor and Gaozu took steps to make sure he would not make the same mistake. As a former commoner, he understood the life of the peasantry and initiated programs, such as lowering taxes and opening up bureaucratic positions to all classes, to provide people with upward mobility.

Gaozu died in 195 BCE and was succeeded by three puppet kings controlled by Empress Lu Zhi: Hui (r. 195-188 BCE), Qianshao (r. 188-184 BCE), and Houshao (184-180 BCE). Empress Lu Zhi was the power behind the throne during this time and was so feared that no one questioned her policies. When she died, the nobles had her entire family executed and chose one of their own, Wen (r. 180-157 BCE), as emperor who is considered among the most effective monarchs of the Han.

The Han Dynasty was still operating at this time as a decentralized state along the lines of the Zhou and under Wen's son, Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE), the states' threat to the throne was recognized as their power grew. Jing understood it was only a matter of time before they rebelled and accused the rulers of the states and officials of commanderies with various offenses and decreased their territory.

It was clear that a decentralized state would work no better for the Han than it had for the Zhou.

His actions resulted in the Rebellion of the Seven States of 154 BCE. Jing's imperial forces defeated the rebels and restored order, but it was clear that a decentralized state would work no better for the Han than it had for the Zhou. Jing centralized the government and instituted other measures to keep the states in line. The reigns of Wen and Jing are often referred to as a "golden age" of Han history for their stability and cultural advances and, had they been weaker monarchs, the Han Dynasty would have ended with the Rebellion of the Seven States.

Jing was succeeded by his son Wu who is usually referenced as Wu the Great for his expansionist policies and reforms. His early reforms opened up possibilities for the lower class that had never existed before in governmental positions, curtailed the greed of the nobles, and expanded the law code so that all were equal under the law. These reforms were rejected by the nobles and, especially by Wu's grandmother who was a powerful influencer at court. Wu got around their objections by creating his "insider court" comprised of commoners he elevated to important government positions to act on his suggestions for reform without them being officially approved. When his grandmother died, he was able to implement the reforms openly, including the adoption of Confucianism as the national philosophy.

He also engaged in a policy of expansion in every direction, defeating the Xiongnu in the north and conquering the regions of modern-day Korea and Vietnam. In 130 BCE, he opened up the Silk Road, establishing trade with the West, and initiating cross-cultural transmission, and encouraged the expansion of the Cult of the Queen Mother of the West which inspired religious, philosophical, and literary works on immortality and the meaning of life.

During Wu's reign, the Cult of the Queen Mother of the West became so popular that shrines to her multiplied throughout China. The Queen Mother of the West first appears in the inscriptions on oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty and she continued to be invoked throughout the Zhou and Qin dynasties. She is also known as Golden Mother of the Jade and was a goddess of prosperity and eternal life.

Stories circulated that the Queen Mother of the West met secretly with Wu on the sacred night of the 7th day of the 7th month, sharing her secrets with him, which accounted for the wisdom of his reign. Scholar Patricia Buckley Ebrey notes that "this movement was the first recorded messianic millenarian movement in Chinese history" (73) and encouraged the further development of the concepts of life after death, eternity, and ultimate meaning regardless of what trials one might be suffering through. Worship of the Queen Mother of the West often took the form of passionate outbursts and prophetic visions, one of which was said to foretell the coming fall of the Han.

Xin Dynasty & Eastern Han

This fall came to pass after the last of the eight Han monarchs who followed Wu when the nephew of empress Wang Zhengyuan (l. 71 BCE - 13 CE), Wang Mang, was appointed regent for a young heir to the throne, swore he would surrender control when the boy came of age, but then seized power instead and established the Xin ("new") Dynasty. Wang was a Confucian scholar and idealist who believed that a single, strong ruler with a clear vision and the freedom to do as he pleased would be more effective than one who took counsel and had to discuss policy with others before implementing it. He therefore became, essentially, a one-man government and attempted to do everything himself.

Wang meant well in trying to fully implement Confucian ideals in government policy but had neither the experience nor the character to govern effectively.

Since he did not trust others, he refused to delegate responsibilities and so the government payroll, which was supposed to have been reformed, was neglected and officials were working without pay. This encouraged corruption because, in order to buy necessities, these officials began charging citizens for services that should have been free as well as accepting bribes. Wang meant well in trying to fully implement Confucian ideals in government policy but had neither the experience nor the character to govern effectively.

He instituted state ownership of forests to provide access to all, built public halls for rituals and public granaries for food distribution, and cut the court's budget in order to provide more funds for public programs. His inability to delegate, however, and his unrealistic vision of himself and what he could accomplish, eventually led to his downfall. The people grew frustrated with his ineptitude and a mob overran the palace, hacked him to pieces, and used his head as a kickball.

After Wang's death, a prince named Liu Xuan took the throne (the so-called Gengshi Emperor, r. 23-25 CE) but he was weak and was deposed during the Red Eyebrows Rebellion (so-called because the rebels painted a stripe of red over their eyebrows). His reign is usually dismissed by scholars as an aberration of the rebellion and the period of the Eastern Han begins with the reign of Emperor Guangwu (r. 25-57 CE). Guangwu moved the capital back to Luoyang and instituted a number of reforms to prevent the kind of chaos of the Xin Dynasty from happening again.

Guangwu's reforms enabled the continuation of the Han Dynasty but the Han ruling house fairly quickly devolved into a series of monarchs who cared more about indulging their pleasures than ruling a country. Emperor An (r. 106-125 CE) turned over his responsibilities to the palace eunuchs and preferred to drink all day. His successor, Shun (r. c. 125-144 CE), was equally inept and so corrupt that his reign inspired the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion of 142 CE. Huan (r. 146-168 CE), who followed Shun, was so lazy and incompetent that when a group of students demanded he do something to remove and punish corrupt officials, he found it easier to have the students arrested and leave the officials in place.

The Eastern Han continued on this downward trajectory, with eunuchs and corrupt officials making political decisions and appointing inept relatives to important bureaucratic positions. At the same time, the Han was funding their expansionist policies in Vietnam and Korea while also defending against raids by the Xianbi along the borders. These campaigns were not only costly, requiring higher taxes to pay for them, but necessitated a strong military presence in border regions which empowered the generals stationed there at the expense of the emperor who became more and more isolated.

Under Huan's successor, Lingdi, floods, famine, and exorbitant taxes led to the Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184 CE, which these generals put down, ostensibly in his name but actually for their own self-interest, further weakening imperial authority. Among these generals was the warlord Cao Cao who then went to war against the other commanders in an attempt to unify China under his reign. He was defeated at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE which left the country divided into the Period of the Three Kingdoms - Cao Wei, Eastern Wu, and Shu Han - each claiming the Mandate of Heaven for themselves and signaling the end of the Han Dynasty.

Conclusion

The Han Dynasty began as a kind of experiment in government as Gaozu and his advisors tried to find a balance between the overly trusting policies of the Zhou and the paranoid repression of the Qin with no model to work from. The Han inherited the vast territory that the Qin had held together with excessive brute force and that the Zhou had lost through too little. In trying to strike the perfect balance, they encouraged the concept of innovation among the people.

The Han developed music theory by c. 180 BCE, the seismometer was invented in 132 BCE, paper by c. 105 BCE, the waterwheel for producing power was in use by 40 BCE. The calendar, mathematical and medical treatises, cartography, metallurgy, architecture, astronomy, and many other disciplines, concepts, and items of common and uncommon usage were invented or developed by the Han. The Silk Road created a direct link to the West, allowing for these inventions, as well as religious, philosophical, and other cultural values, to be transmitted between different civilizations.

Their fall was inevitable as the empire had grown too large for the central government, as it had been formed, to govern effectively. Adding to this problem was the poor character of the later Han emperors who forgot their duty to the people and saw them only as a means to fund lavish lifestyles instead of their responsibility to care for and protect.

The Period of the Three Kingdoms which followed the Han Dynasty's fall was a time of violence and uncertainty equal in suffering to the Warring States Period. The stability and unity of the Han Dynasty would only be restored many years later by the Sui Dynasty (589-618 CE) who implemented reforms to protect against the weaknesses which led to the fall of the Han while retaining the aspects which had made the dynasty among the greatest in China's history.

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The Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE) was the second dynasty of Imperial China (the era of centralized, dynastic government, 221 BCE - 1912 CE) which established the paradigm for all succeeding dynasties up through 1912 CE. It succeeded the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) and was followed by the Period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280 CE).

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Han Dynasty

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Science and Medicine Medicine Technology and Engeneering The Arts Wang Chong, one scientist disagreed with the belief that comets and eclipses showed the gods' or heaven's anger. He said that no scientific theories should be accepted unless supported by proof. Calendars and timekeeping devices were improved because of close observation of stars and planets by Han astronomers.

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Han Dynasty

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5. Geographic Distribution

The Han people belong to the largest ethnic group in China, with around 90% of people in mainland China being Han. Taiwan counts 90% of its people as Han Chinese as well, Hong Kong has about 6.6 million Han Chinese, while Singapore has 2.7 million Han. The Han people have long prospered in China, and increasingly many have ventured abroad and settled worldwide. Internationally, Han people can be found in Macau. Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, India, Cambodia, Malaysia, Russia, the United States, Canada, Peru, France, and England. Almost 1 in every 5 people on our planet are ethnically Han Chinese, though most of these live in the People's Republic of China.

4. Historical Role

Han people originally ruled and influenced China during the Han Dynasty, beginning in 206 BC. Arts and science flourished during this time, which is often referred to as the Golden Age of China. The period introduced Buddhism, saw the spread of Confucianism and Taoism, and further developed the use of Chinese characters in writing. This was also the start of the Silk Road route that established trade between China and many nations far to the west. The first Chinese emperor, Huang-di, also called the Yellow Emperor, who united China, is considered by many Han as an ancestor. Huang-di ruled the Hua Xia tribe that lived by the Yellow River, thus his title as the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow River in China is considered by the Han as the cradle of their civilization, from where Han culture began and spread outwardly.

3. Language, Religion, and Ways of Life

Hanyu was the original language of the Han, and a tongue which later developed into an early version of Mandarin Chinese. Then, a written vernacular Chinese was increasingly used as a link among and between the many local languages used that time. Folk religion also played a large role in Han life. The worship of figures in Chinese mythology and clan ancestors were fused with Confucianism and Taoist Buddhism. The Han family structure was run like a business concern, with the head, the treasurer manager, and the family members all working together. A typical house had different areas and buildings designated for every member of the family. Food varied from spicy Sichuan cooking to Dim Sum "small dishes" to various ethnic influences.

2. Notable Han Accomplishments

The Golden Age of China during the Han Dynasty brought a renaissance to Chinese literature, philosophy, arts, and cuisine. The early Han people introduced many discoveries to the outside world that came into contact with them. These included fireworks, rockets, gunpowder, the crossbow, cannons, and matches. Paper, printing, paper money, porcelain, silk, lacquer, compass, and earthquake detectors were also developed in China long ago. The Ming Dynasty, also ruled by Han people, contributed to the building of the Great Wall, which was began by the first Han Emperor, Huang-di, during the first Imperial Dynasty. The Terracotta Army of Huang-di is also a Han accomplishment. The Terracotta Army and Great Wall alike have been declared as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

1. Modern Presence and Influence

Modern Han people are still receiving accolades for their meaningful contributions to the fields of science and mathematics. A few of them have been recipients of Nobel Prize awards. Namely, Han Nobel Laureates have included Charles K. Kao, Daniel C. Tsui, Chen Ning Yang, Yuan T. Lee, Samuel C. C. Ting, Roger Y. Tsien, Tsung-Dao Lee, and Steven Chu. One of the founders of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is also a Han named, Tsien Hsue-shen. In 1942, the Manhattan Project was helped along by another Han, Chien-Shiung Wu, a Han physicist. Charles Kao, is a Han who is considered as having discovered fiber optics and broadband. A Han also, Ching W. Tang discovered organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), and is considered a leading researcher in the field of Organic Electronics. The list goes on and on, as this group has long made contributions for the betterment of humanity, and is still doing so today.

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The Han people belong to the largest ethnic group in China, with around 90% of people in mainland China being Han. Taiwan counts 90% of its people as Han Chinese as well, Hong Kong has about 6.6 million Han Chinese, while Singapore has 2.7 million Han.