Classical Civilizations of the West: Persia, Greece and Rome

1. Classical Civilizations of the West: Persia, Greece and Rome The Overview Sterns World Civilizations Chapter 4 Plato The Republic (146 and 149) Horace “Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori”(173)

2. World History and the West • In the interest of being more global and less “Eurocentric”, the text combines what had been three different “chapters” in the traditional narrative: Persia, Greece and Rome • In the west, the histories of Greece and Rome had been romanticized (pun not intended) to the exclusion of other places • This text works to address this • AP World History curriculum: only 20% Europe • AP offers a European History course

3. Classical Persia • Persia would emerge and reemerge throughout world history- The latest reincarnation being the Islamic Republic of Iran • Classical Persia united under the religious of Zoroastrianism • Classical Persia played a major rule in the rise of Judaism as well as classical Greece • Religious tolerance, effective and developed roads were the hallmark of classical Persia

4. Classical Greece • Greek history re-emerged after a Dark Age by the 8th Century BC- Hellenic Greece • Competing city-states (polises) experimented with various forms of government • Many ideas re-emerged in the early modern period of history (like democracy) • Wars would both unite and divide Greek polises • Many Greek cities supported philosophers who would lay the foundation for modern western science and mathematics • Outsiders (Macedonians) united and expanded Greek culture throughout the Middle East (Hellenistic Greece) • Greek culture and lands would be absorbed into the Roman Empire by the beginning of the Common Era

5. Classical Rome • Rome grew from a city-state to a Mediterranean Empire • Roman expansion would fuse Greek and Latin culture and spread it- The cultural legacy is most pronounced in Europe today • As a republic, Roman leaders struggled to maintain order and it became an Empire at the dawn of the Common Era • For nearly 200 years, Roman armies and Roman order would dominate from Britain to Egypt and the Middle East • Slavery would be a common feature in Greece and Rome