Peoples of the Ancient World (B.C. 4500 – 1 A. D.)

Decline of the Roman empire came after the triumph of Christianity. Meanwhile, Julius Caesar’s heir and successor, Octavian, was but 33 years old, when he became sole ruler of the Roman Empire in B. C. 30. The Roman world had suffered a century of bloodshed, caused by the rival groups who wished to rule and the public realized, that only a great statesman, could solve Rome’s problems. The Roman Senate conferred several titles and the name Augustus, upon this first emperor. As Augustus, he unified the Empire and initiated the Pax Romana, or some two hundred years of peace. That …

Roman republic, for “westward the course of empire makes its way,” first to Rome and ultimately, by way of northern Europe, to the Americas. Civilization moved eastward and northward from Egypt, whose culture first met the requirements of a civilization. Rome – a bridge over which the contributions of Egypt, of the Fertile Crescent and of Greece, passed to form a base for Western civilization. Rome is called the Eternal City, because it has existed as an important world city for more than 2,000 years, linking ancient times with modern. We usually divide Roman history into two fairly equal parts: …

Alexander and the Great Hellenistic Age – was the supreme achievement, of Alexander the great. When summarizing the rich heritage from Greece, mention must be made that the great weakness — the Achilles’ heel of the city-states was – their inability to unite politically as one nation. The struggle for leadership, or hegemony as the Greeks called it, led both to the decline of Greece and the loss of her independence. The citystates exhausted themselves with interstate wars so that it was easy for an outsider, Philip of Macedon, to conquer them and force union upon them. From there on …

Ancient Greeks, is where the history of Europe and of Western civilization really began, with the arrival in the Aegean world of those invaders we call the Greeks. There, amid an earlier civilization that had been enriched by those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the newcomers developed many city-states and democratic procedures. The culture that arose in the city-state of Athens became the crown jewel of ancient civilizations and the foundation of Western culture. Through their study of man, the Greeks came to appreciate the dignity of man and the social contribution made by individuals – those individuals who had much …

Ancient Far East, included the early Chinese people, the early Japanese people and the ancient civilization of India. The early peoples of Egypt and the Fertile Crescent achieved a high degree of civilization in ancient times. At about the same time, in another part of the world, other peoples were also developing civilizations – the achievements of the ancient peoples in the Far East and the factors which influenced their civilizations. As in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, geography was a major influence upon the early peoples of the Far East. River valleys cradled the early civilizations of China and …

Kingdoms of the ancient Middle East included the Egyptians, Hebrews and Phoenicians. The culture of a people is not regarded as a civilization, until the people have devised a system of writing and developed communities large and complex enough to be called cities. Here in we may trace the many steps by which, ancient peoples of the Middle East met these requirements and achieved the status of civilization in the valleys of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Egyptians took thousands of years to achieve the requirements of civilization, but farther east, the Sumerians came more quickly to writing …

Prehistoric ages of man include – the dawn of life on our planet, the tools and weapons of prehistoric man, the deep roots of civilization and the achievements of prehistoric man. Scientists estimate that man may have lived on the earth a million years or more. During these many centuries man has learned very slowly, mostly by trial and error. For example, many hundreds of thousands of years — perhaps millions — passed before man was able to develop a spoken language. Then he slowly — very, very slowly — discovered methods of making symbols which would represent the spoken …