Bible of the Time. …from the Big Bang to the present day…

History of Antiquity

Sumerians. Ancient Egypt

Ancient Babylon. Artistic painting. Once upon a time, ate and drank…

…Sumerians. Four and a half thousand years ago. Territory of southern Iraq. Cuneiform, the world’s first wheel, brewing. First, Babylon was formed as a small village. Sumerians dissolve into new peoples. But their withered blood gives new, wonderful shoots. The Babylonian kingdom rises, flourishes for several centuries, then it is ravaged by the Hittites (the area of residence is the south of modern Turkey). The Hittites are at war with Egypt, seizing its province, but unable to survive the bronze collapse – a sudden loss of writing and skills, possibly under the influence of the eruption of the supervolcano Hekla, lose to the «sea peoples» who came from the Balkans and Asia Minor.

From a modest nome, i.e., the rural settlement of Ashur, in the center of modern Iraq, the great power of antiquity, Assyria, is developing. Piece by piece, exuding bloody drool, it engulfs the territories of modern Turkey, Syria, Israel and partially Egypt. The pearl of Assyria, Babylon retains autonomy from its once province, seeks allies, revolts, dies and rebuilds again. In the absence of strong garrisons, shouts, swords, chariots, whips and overseers, military power in the new provinces simply does not work. Assyria gets tired of fighting. Descending from the northern mountains, at first as loyal allies, even more ruthless and uncultured Scythians wander through its territory, almost without encountering resistance. Media and Babylon are gathering armies according to the Assyrian model, destroying the new capital of Assyria, Nineveh, its sacred center Ashur and all this utterly militarized state.

Excavated ruins of Babylon, 6th century BC. In the background is a temple complex, reconstructed by order of the current head of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.

The remnants of the armies of the once formidable superpower are looking for an alliance with the reborn, like Osiris, Egypt and in the end are lost somewhere in its endless deserts …

Sample of Sumer poetry:

 
«… Your beauty is divine, dear
Leo, dear to heart
Divine beauty is your dear
You conquered me, I tremble before you…
Leo, let me caress you
My precious caresses are sweeter than honey…»
 

…

Ancient Egypt (Latin pronunciation «Ayguptus», Hebrew «Mitsraim», Arabic «Masr», self-name Ta-Kemet, «Black Earth»).

Ancient Greek goddess Isis, friend of all

The oldest Egyptian kingdom was founded five thousand years ago by the monarch Menes and his people, who supposedly arrived from the now flooded coast of Western India. Let's remember and color this historical scheme. Early Kingdom, Ancient, Middle and New. Pharaoh Psammetichus (664-610 BC) expels hard-hearted Assyrians from his country. Independence does not last long. In the fifth century BC, Egypt was captured by Persia (the Achaemenid dynasty). Two centuries later, the country is ruled by the Hellenic dynasty of the Ptolemies. As a rule, the conquerors, admiring the developed culture of the "Black Earth", treat the Egyptians rather softly. In total, for two and a half millennia of the era of the Ancient World, 32 rather long dynasties rule Egypt.

Poetry of Ancient Egypt:

 
…I heard the words of Imhotep and Jedefkhor
Words that everyone repeats
What about their tombs?
The walls have come crashing down
Even the place where they stood was not preserved
As if they never were
Nobody has come from there yet
To tell what is there
And soothe our hearts…
 

(Song from the house of the deceased king Antef, inscribed in front of the singer with a harp)

…In the first century BC, with the death of the son of Cleopatra and Caesar, the unfortunate youth Caesarion, Egypt completely passed into the hands of the Romans. Since the beginning of the eighth century AD, the Arabs have dominated here.

Until the very late period, the Egyptians did not know any developed monetary system. At the very least, financial means are substituted for 42 kg sacks of grain. and the debens are bars of copper or silver. To a large extent, everything in Ayguptos depends on what the rulers decided and how correctly their words were reflected on the papyrus by an almost equally significant figure – the scribe.

The kitchen of a standard Egyptian dwelling does not have a roof, but has a millstone for grinding grain and an oven. The basis of the diet of ordinary, and not ordinary residents of the country Ka-Temet, too, is wheat buns. Beer «hake», from date juice and bread, sweetish or bitter, considerable 10 degrees, almost like wine, with additions of mandrake, anise, saffron. Famous varieties – «Merry fellow traveler», «Fine».

For some religious reasons, the ancient Egyptians do not eat pork, as well as the Semites living a little to the east.

Egypt today. Behind the complex of majestic pyramids lies the desert, in which about 80 million mummies of ordinary people find their rest. It is interesting that at one time the Jews, admired by the culture, wisdom and kindness of the Egyptians, recognized them as almost equal to themselves. Three generations later, descendants born in a marriage with an Egyptian woman could already enter society

Temples and other large-scale religious buildings in Egypt are not intended for mass gatherings. Only priests are involved in the service. The basis of religion is the need to collect some disconnected «aspects» in order to continue to exist in a spiritual form. On the physical plane, this is expressed in the need to mummify and preserve the bodies of people who have gone to another world in a special way.

Greece and Persia

Ancient Greece. One thousand hundred years BC – the beginning of the so-called polis period. The first cities, houses, temples and fortress walls. The invasion of the Dorians from the north (in their pure form – the Spartans), the high achievements of culture and social structure. Amphoras and Forums. Militant Sparta rules over the Greek world on a par with the wise Athens. Mighty, albeit imperceptibly withering, Persia concludes a de jure treaty with the Greeks, on the protectorate, which Sparta monitors.

Greco-Persian Wars 500—479 BC.

By this time (or, to be precise, 492 BC), the new ruler of Persia, Darius the First, founds the Achaemenid empire, including, among other things, Syria, Asia Minor and Egypt. Accusing the Greeks of violating the union treaty, formalized in a "small text" as an entry into this empire, he sends an expeditionary force of 25,000 soldiers to Greece, but receives a decisive rebuff from the founders of democracy. The Persians lose 7,000 soldiers, the Greeks – only 194. 19 years after the Battle of Marathon that has not faded for two and a half millennia, the Battle of Thermopylae and the naval battle of Salamis follow. The troops of the son of Darius, Xerxes, suffer a final defeat at the Greek Plataea.

Ancient Greek poetry:

 
…And every time, as soon as I
I’ll get along with you, from a tender meeting
Suddenly my soul trembles
And speech grows numb on the lips
And a keen feeling of love
Runs faster through the veins
And ringing in the ears… and a riot in blood…
And cold sweat comes out…
And the body – the body keeps trembling…
The faded flower is paler
My look, exhausted by passion…
I am breathless… and, numb
In my eyes, I feel the light is dimming…
I look, not seeing… I have no strength…
And I wait in unconsciousness… and I know
Here, here I will die… here I am dying
 

(Sappho, Lesvos Island, 570—630 BC, translated by V. Krestovsky)

Greece and Asia Minor on the eve of the Peloponnesian War (431 BC). Numerous, relatively independent Greek colonies stand for Athens

But the testosterone-soaked, muscle-flexing allies now turn their gaze to each other. … In the First Peloponnesian, ancient Greek Civil War, Sparta prevailed. The country of aggressive ascetics seizes Athens, exhausted by struggle, and ends the century of its democracy with the accession of a militaristic oligarchy devoid of any creative principle. This is not at all pleasant to the freedom-loving Greek colonies on all sides of the Ecumene (the world mastered by mankind). Detachments of volunteers, grasping the oars, amicably rush to the metropolis. In the end, the troops of Thebes (a powerful polis somewhat north of Athens) and Athens, which are reborn in spite of the enemies, unite, and step by step, push the Dorians back to the southeast of the Peloponnesian peninsula. Here the Spartans, becoming, in their own way, a relic of the poor, but implacable warriors, century after century, turn into ordinary Greeks.

…Macedonia (northern part of the Balkan Peninsula), the Greek kingdom, before that, by the way, the former vassal of Persia rises and sets up its garrisons in all the major city-states of Greece.

The ruler of the now united Greece, the commander Alexander the Great, conquered Persia and part of the adjacent countries in 330 BC. e. Seven years later, this huge, but loose, like a jellyfish state disintegrates into Seleucia, Parthia and Egypt. Egypt is now ruled by the wise companion of Alexander Ptolemy, who becomes the new pharaoh and the founder of the dynasty of his name.

But quite soon, by historical standards, even more powerful western neighbor – Rome, will pay attention to sunny, even Great Greece…

Second Peloponnesian War (197—200 BC). Macedonia and Greece on the eve of their conquest by Great Rome. Under the sun of Hellas, phalanxes and long spears will lose to legions and short swords

Ancient China. Thirty-six centuries BC. This is the bottom of the world history known to us.

The first state covered by written sources is the semi-mythical Shang-Yin (1600 BC – 1046 BC). Difference from states, for example, European ones – both in ancient and modern China there are no temples dedicated to the great gods. Everywhere there are only home altars dedicated to deceased ancestors, a kind of technical points of contact with them. The Great Sky, in which the souls of ancestors and great rulers live, is not a personified deity, the giver of the meaning of life and the resonator of all your actions.

…After Shang slides into the abyss of corruption and debauchery, the whole kingdom is easily conquered by the army of the benevolent rebel general U-Wang. Now it is called Zhou, after the ruler of one of the provinces, Wu-Wang’s father.

The flowering of Confucianism and Taoism falls on the fourth century BC. Be that as it may, prosperous Zhou is divided into seven warring states – Qin, Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi, Yan, Chu.

Emperor Qin Shi Huang in a medieval Chinese painting

For two centuries BC. the legendary emperor of one of them, Qin Shi Huang, deprives all his neighbors of independence. The northern sections of the walls of the former kingdoms are joined together and henceforth form the Great Wall of China. The dictator massively destroys scientists in whom he sees the main reason for the changes in the beneficial Heavenly Order and burns every single book, as far as possible. However, shortly after the physical death of Qin Shi Huang, this whole «unchanging» order, together with the state and the Qin dynasty, disintegrated.

Ancient Rome

A pencil sketch of a living picture this time is as follows. Seven centuries BC – the foundation of the capital of the future Empire by the children of the vestal Rhea Sylvia and Mars itself, lovers of wolf milk, brothers Romulus and Remus. Two centuries BC – the royal period, seven active Roman kings.

Capitol Hill in Antiquity. Here, as well as on the nearby Palatine Hill, Romulus, a descendant of the Trojans, founded Rome. If his brother Rem had won the dispute, the new community, and then the huge state, would have been called «Remoria»

Then, following the progressive model of the Hellenes and in opposition to the barbarians, the Romans form a Republic – the «Common Cause». New strokes – the invasion of Gauls, the same geese not sleeping on the Capitol, a sword in the scales – «woe to the vanquished», a war with Great Greece, which settled in southern Italy, King Pyrrhus and catastrophic Pyrrhic victories.

First Punic War. Struggle with Carthage for the island of Sicily, the founding of a fleet modeled on a progressive Carthaginian ship washed ashore. The theater of military operations moves to Africa, where the Roman victories first entail euphoria, and then a serious defeat. The remnants of the army are evacuated by sea. But on the way back, almost the entire Republican fleet perishes in the storm.

World of the Punic Wars. The third party to the conflict is Great Greece. Now this state entity belongs to the entire south of Italy and part of Sicily.

The fighting moves to Sicily, where the troops of Carthage are commanded by the commander Hamilcar Barca. The forces of the parties are extremely depleted. Toward the end of the day, the Carthaginian fleet is severely defeated by the Romans who have learned to fight at sea. Carthage pays Rome a hefty indemnity and renounces Sicily.

Second Punic War. Two centuries BC. The commander Hamilcar Barka dies, leaving the world, or rather the war, three sons – Hannibal, Magon and Hasdrubal. Their goal is the same as that of their father – Rome must be destroyed.

Hannibal transports his troops to Italy across the icy Alps and, among other things, inflicts a cruel defeat on the Romans at Cannes. 60 thousand Romans die here. A year later, having pacified three quarters of Italy, Hannibal tries to take the city of Rome. Due to unpleasant omens for both sides, the assault will not take place. The Romans capture the Greek city of Syracuse, allied to Carthage. At the same time, the great scientist of antiquity, Archimedes, perishes. The 30,000th Roman Expeditionary Force under the command of Scipio Africanus sets foot on the land of Africa. The commander makes an alliance with the Libyan tribes and defeats the army of Carthage at Zama. Hannibal flees to the king of Antioch, in the south of modern Turkey. This commander more than once participates in battles against Rome and the second time he personally meets with Scipio. Then he moved to Armenia, which became independent from the Seleucids, where he supervised the construction of the capital near modern Yerevan. In Bithynia (northern Turkey), the local king, not wanting unnecessary complications, decides to extradite Hannibal to Rome. The Carthaginian general takes poison.

Sunset of Carthage. Medieval engraving

Fifty years of peace. Carthage pays indemnities, which seemed to the Romans themselves simply unaffordable. He is still rich and dangerous. Having violated the terms of the treaty, the Carthaginians rebuff the official ally of Rome, a certain Libyan tribe. The thought of Cato the Elder, «Carthage Dilindum Essay -“ Carthage must be destroyed», repeated at the Senate meeting, now acquires energy and flesh. The third Punic War begins. Legionnaires disembarking in Africa lay siege to the capital of the African and Asian empires. Three years later, the civilization of the Pun-Phoenicians-Canaanites ceases to exist on the physical plane.

Rome during the Civil War

…The Roman Republic is experiencing the tyrannies of Sulla and Gaius Maria, who almost became kings, with difficulty reflecting the large-scale invasion of the Gauls and Teutons. Only by calling in troops from the provinces, the Romans suppress the uprising of the gladiators led by Spartacus. Ten years after the suppression of this rebellion, the Caesar-Pompey-Crassus triumvirate is formed. Dreaming no longer of money (he has it), but of military glory Crassus with four legions perishes in Parthia, (modern Iran and Turkmenistan) formed from the Seleucid state.

Fifty years BC e. An all-out war of the Romans under the leadership of Guy Julius Caesar against the Gauls begins throughout the territory of modern France. There is a brief invasion of Britain. With the death of the wife of Gnaeus Pompey (the Great), daughter of Caesar, the family ties between the Roman consuls disappear. The ambitious Gaius Julius crosses the Rubicon River (not alone, but with legions of hardened loyal soldiers) and captures Rome. The Civil War, which broke out on all sides of the world, takes away at least a quarter of the Roman male citizens. The loser of everything, Pompey tries to find refuge in Egypt, but dies off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea at the hands of a traitor.

Guy Julius Caesar (100—44 BC) on a Roman coin

Caesar starts an affair with the heiress of the pharaohs, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, which, in the end, leads to the inclusion of Egypt in the structure of the not republican, but not yet imperial Rome.

…Gaius Julius Caesar, dictator, great pontiff (literally «Builder of bridges»), high priest, willingly or unwillingly, the founder of the famous title Caesar – Ksar – King. A representative of the patrician estate, beloved by ordinary people (including soldiers). It is not known for sure whether Gaius Julius was involved in suppressing the uprising of the world’s most famous gladiator Spartacus. At this time, he, the military tribune, prepares new recruits. From 63 BC – thanks to his popularity and big money, the young Caesar becomes the Great Pontiff. From 58 BC the Gallic War starts. In something more like genocide, a million Gauls die. Ten years later, Caesar and his ambitions are against the Republic. Four years of the Civil War culminate in the Battle of Munda (Spain), the hardest of all that Caesar fought. This time, 30,000 rebel supporters of the republican system are killed. The dictator first triumphs after the victory of the Romans over the Romans, which is considered not comme il faut. In the same year, for the first time, an image of a living person appears on coins – of course, Caesar.

A year later, Gaius Julius Caesar, already dreaming of an invasion of Arabia, is killed by conspirators, led by Mark Brutus, possibly the illegitimate son of the dictator. At the stake of judges’ chairs and benches, the body of the beloved dictator burns the people. After the fiery speech of Gaius Julius’ comrade-in-arms, Mark Antony, here, over the ashes, the Civil War in the bleeding country breaks out with renewed vigor.

Ancient israel

The first Hebrew tribes, in the manner described in the Bible, or in some other way, appear in the territory with the general name Canaan forty-two centuries ago. This is followed by a series of periods of assimilation or isolation of the Jews among other nations.

Canaan, «the Promised Land» on the map of the Ancient World

The Epoch of Judges, interpreters of the law, lasts three hundred years, marked, at the end, by a certain decline in morals. The last of the Judges, Samuel creates a kind of school of prophets who speak the truth to the rulers in the face, not caring about the consequences. He anoints the kingdom of the chosen one of God, Saul. His successor, the shepherd David, who ascended to the very pinnacle of power because of his decisive disposition, has the capital in Jerusalem. Having finally dealt with the Ammonites, Philistines and other tribes that have inhabited Canaan since ancient times, he created a mono-ethnic Jewish state. The son of David, Solomon erects the First Temple – the only legal place for God to serve among the Jews. After the death of the king, the country is divided into Israel with the capital Samaria, where ten tribes of Jews find shelter and Judea with the center of power – Jerusalem.

Judea (Jerusalem), Israel (Samaria) and Assyria (ancient capital – Ashur), eighth century BC

Seven centuries BC. The first superpower of antiquity, Assyria, turns Israel into a scorched desert. Ten of the twelve tribes are taken prisoner by the invaders. Their traces are lost. Later, Judea, which remained aloof from the battle, includes Babylon into its empire. Residents are taken away into slavery. After some time, thanks to the beloved wife of King Esther, the Babylonians declare them equal and allow them to return to their historical homeland. The liberated Jews build the Second Temple on the ruins of the First Sanctuary. Another one and a half centuries of relative peace and Judea falls under the control of the Greek dynasty of the Ptolemaic-Seleucids. The uprisings directed by the Hasmonean clan and the branch of Maccabees emanating from it (a nickname that has become a household name for the implacable defenders of the faith), dissatisfied with Hellenization, make the Hasmonean kingdom quite independent. But internecine wars break out. To resolve all issues, as an arbitrator, the Jews call on the great Wrath Pompey. All this ends with the fact that the Roman commander includes Judea in the structure of his Republic.

In the sixty-sixth year A.D. The First Jewish Revolt breaks out. The emperors of Rome, father and son, Titus and Vespasian, are systematically carrying out reprisals against the rebels. In Jerusalem, six hundred thousand inhabitants perish from hunger, in internecine massacres and at the hands of legionnaires. Another fifty years of dull discontent and under the Emperor Trajan follows the Second Uprising. As a result, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and founded the Hellenized city of Aelia Capitolina in its place.

Fifteen years later, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, who forbade circumcision so important for the Jews, the rebellion of Shimon Bar-Kokhba breaks out. The Iron Legions capture the last stronghold of the rebels – the mountain fortress of Betar. Judea completely loses its autonomy. The surviving 30% of its inhabitants are settled throughout the Ecumene.