Main Points

History is Now

If the story of the Formative Era is about the importance of nature and the physical geography of civilizations, then the Ancient Era is when human beings really start to come into their own. The Ancient Era is when the determining factor of success is not where a civilization lives or what resources it is blessed with, but what it does with them. Already the Formative Era had demonstrated that those who work together reap far greater rewards than those who try to go it alone, and the civilizations which succeeded in the Ancient Era found new and revolutionary ways to harness that power.

And yet geography was not entirely irrelevant. The seeds of the mega-empires which arose during the Ancient Era all began on the periphery of the geographical heartlands which had dominated the Formative Era. The major Formative powers controlled these mighty territories and were unwilling to let go in more ways than one. Not only were they intent on ruling the lands they had traditionally ruled, but on ruling them in the ways they had traditionally ruled them. From 3000 - 500 BC, Formative Era empires had slowly grown and accumulated knowledge. They were entrenched and used to the way they had always done things. The power players who would dominate the Ancient Era came from the less desirable regions on the outskirts of these territories. They were far enough away that they were not part of the entrenched and invested powers, but near enough that they had access to the accumulated knowledge of these civilizations. This combination allowed the peripheral states the freedom to innovate – perhaps the key spirit of the Ancient Era – which the Formative Era powers lacked. Soon these powers would conquer the geographic heartlands and build some of the largest states in all of history – states so massive that art and culture flourished, and they lacked competition except for the mega-empires of other regions.

Learning, Literacy, and Education

As the mighty civilizations of the Formative Era grew and prospered, they were not alone. Interlopers has always raided and made trouble for the settled lands of the Formative empires, some even became successful conquerors. But always, the mighty river valleys were the keys to the corridors of power, whatever happened on the battlefield. Those who conquered settled lands either seized them and rode the wave to power, or returned home and withered away.

But around 500 BC, strange things began to happen. In China, the Chou Dynasty had lost its credibility and with it, power. China fragmented politically and began centuries of civil war that slowly ground out the weak states until the ultimate victors emerged; but they came not from a great river, but from the mountains. The Medes and Persians conquered Mesopotamia; however rather than staying, they returned and ruled from their home in the mountains and valleys of the Iranian Plateau. This fundamentally moved the center of Middle Eastern power out of Mesopotamia. The Greeks emerged along the Aegean Sea and the Romans grew up on the small Tiber River; from these unlikely seats of power, they would not only build kingdoms that dominated Europe, but would forge the first international empires. The great river valleys continued to be important. Throughout history they have been major agricultural centers and critical breadbaskets for population growth. But slowly, in ways the great empires did not appreciate, the rules of the game changed.

China was entering one of the most dynamic periods in its history, indeed in world history. The same can be said for the Greeks. Political fragmentation did not translate into a cultural weakness, but instead an explosion of learning, art, and culture as the warring states tried to outdo one another in every way they could think of. Throughout the Ancient Era previously "barbaric" mountain peoples took an interest in the dominant culture. They opened themselves to outside influence and generated revolutionary responses to what they learned.

The common thread among all these civilizations was the explosion of learning and culture. Each state in its time began to realize what the great empires had done and for the first time to understand it. Formative empires had grown technologically, but they had muddled through. The new Ancient states found ways to neutralize the advantages of living along the great rivers by harnessing the power of their minds. With directed, self-conscious study came the development of a more sophisticated culture and a more impressive art. So it was the rise of new "barbarian" empires that were near but "off center" from the great river valleys that brought the world into the light of the Ancient Era.

The ability of these outsiders to learn was not inherently new. For example, Greek powers had learned much and brought a lot of Mesopotamian culture to Europe under the Formative Era Minoan and Mycenaean empires. What transformed in the Ancient Era was the ability of civilizations to systematize learning, analyze patterns, and learn from the past. The major civilizations that lined the river valleys were all heavily monarchical, ultra-conservative bastions where the great leaders were typically hard-nosed and intent on their Formative Era duties of protecting what existed from those who might take it away. Embracing learning whole-heartedly had never been a "tradition". Careers had provided limited institutional support for learning in the great civilizations, and compared to the hunter-gatherers who came before they seemed dynamic and fast-growing. On the other hand, the barbarian kingdoms which emerged on the periphery of the great civilizations shared a comparatively "free" attitude that allowed more dynamic development. Here, the Greeks represent the extreme edge of this trend, and it was no accident that they were the first international empire.

The cultures that became Ancient Era powers adopted literacy, and not in the Formative Era sense as a scribal tradition for managing the bureaucracy. This was literacy as a requirement for acceptance among the cultural elite; moreover, every culture that embraced literacy saw it not as an end in itself, but as one component in a larger intellectual and moral education for being "Greek", or "Chinese", or "Indian". Learning was no longer something that one did to steal from a more advanced civilization. Learning was something you did talking with your teacher in school, and thus education became a cornerstone in culture. Learning was something you did while talking with your friends over dinner – allowing different ideas to come together and create new ideas no one had ever imagined before.

The rise of literacy was also important for the development of new kinds of writing and new genres. For example, history emerges as a distinct discipline; we enjoy a level of literary detail in the progress of the rise of Greek and Roman civilization that quite literally dwarfs what we know of the Formative Era. Previously, historical writings had taken the form of King Lists, Royal Proclamations, and monuments describing the success and omnipotence of monarchs. Literature of the period had been dominated by religious texts devoted to the Gods, and thus the lists and sayings of the god / kings are generally the only information we have. In the Ancient Era, the deeds of men become important topics for study and learning. A much broader group of writers begin to set down information that bears some relation to the way things actually happened for the first time. That's why 3500 years of formative Era history reads so quickly (if dryly), while the 400 years of Greek power have given us an enormously vivid and detailed picture of what Greek life, culture, history, hopes, and dreams were like.

Literacy also resulted in an explosion of libraries, and while education may have been the most immediately important application of learning, libraries and books were the long term engine of transformative change. Learning was no longer something you gleaned from those you met and those who taught you, but something you wrote down for future generations. They studied these ideas and passed them on in their turn. Learning was no longer something passed from one person to another, but something which could be stored for centuries and used at need; libraries became banks for knowledge or "archives" where the collected understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of civilizations were held. If there's one theme that dominates the Ancient Era (as it would many other Eras), it's the expansion of learning in new ways, via new institutions, and to new populations which put before unknown power into the hands of more people.

New Institutions and Limited Government

The most successful Ancient empires were the ones that built new traditions based on intelligent analysis. Learning was a critical step that allowed governments to harness the new knowledge for useful purposes, but it was only through applying those innovations that civilizations actually derived real benefit from the knowledge which was now exploding across continents. And the primary trait which defined those civilizations that saw great success during the Ancient Era was advances in government institutions, especially those which placed restraints on government authority.

During the Formative Era, strong governments had been successful because they limited the random exercise of power to just one person. A foolish ruler could do great damage to his lands and his people, undermine his army, and threaten his own ability to rule. However, there were fundamentally only a few people in any culture who could screw things up. The army and the first law codes were created to prevent the whims of 99% of a civilization's population from misbehaving. In the Ancient Era, successful governments found ways to restrain even those in charge.

One of the cornerstones of all the important powers was new law codes that not only restricted the authority of citizens, but of governments. The Greeks and Romans developed sophisticated law courts. Cyrus the Great of Persia set down what is considered the first declaration of human rights; in it he defined the rights of citizens which government officials were required to respect and outlawed slavery. The Chinese Qin Dynasty and the Indian Mauryan Dynasty turned their back on these wise principles and paid the price. The Qin Dynasty lasted exactly two generations before internal rebellion cast it from power. While China was reunited by Han Gaozu, this time it was held together for centuries by cooperation between the Emperor and his subjects rather than oppressive dictatorship. The Mauryans too, lasted just a few generations; Chandragupta Maurya was one of the most paranoid and ruthless despots in history and his grandson attempted to enforce Buddhist practice on his people. When their less powerful successors assumed control of the dynasty, they were swept from power. It was not just among the social elites that the Ancient Era was transforming society; from the top to the bottom, people had different expectations of their rulers than they had accepted previously.

The freedom to question and discuss government was also a common characteristic of these civilizations. One of the most critical accusations leveled at the Qin Emperors was that they had executed scholars who disagreed with them; nor did this seem to have much impact as throughout their reign there was a constant stream of executions trying in vain to silence those who disagreed with Qin policies. Nowhere, however, was this more institutionalized than in Greece. Formative Era Greek traditions had included public religious ceremonies, typically carried out by a chorus singing hymns during stately, traditional dances. Performances were viewed in the amphitheatres of the city-states; at the bottom lay a small temple with a plaza in front of it where the ceremonies were performed. The Ancient Era Greeks co-opted this tradition and began to create new choral performances which extended commentary about Greek traditions, Greek culture, and what it meant to be Greek in the first place. The performances began to explore the most fundamental questions of human existence, fate vs. free will, the individual vs. the state, good vs. evil. And Greek drama was born. The institution of the theater defined an explosion of Greek drama which is still read by school children to this day for its insights into the human condition, its pathos, and its humor. The theater was a way for the Greeks to bring the same kinds of discussion to government that they were having in classrooms, libraries, and dinner parties.

Further, alternative forms of government were also a feature of the Ancient Era. In some sense Greek democracy – government by cooperative discussion and voting – was simply the most extreme "performance" of Greek drama. The Romans rose to power partly because of their willingness to make sacrifices for the good of the state, but it is no accident that the conquerors of Italy had the most innovative and dynamically cooperative government. Nor is it an accident that they would parlay that success into an international empire. They created the most innovative and cooperative treaties with their conquered subjects ensuring they would successfully hold their territories, at least until the Republic collapsed. The Persians and Han Dynasty Chinese also enjoyed governments that had taken important steps to institutionalize restrictions on government power; their success was directly attributable to the level of cooperation they cultivated with their subjects.

Culture and Empire

With all these dynamic changes in the Ancient Era, Empires were more powerful, better run, enjoyed broader support from their subjects, and could turn that power to an almost endless number of projects. It is therefore no surprise that these empires grew... and grew, and grew. The Perisan Empire encompassed the Middle East and the Macedonians not only conquered it whole, but extended it from Greece to India. The Romans conquered most of Europe and battled for control of Mesopotamia. The Mauryans created the largest state in Indian history until the Mughals more than a thousand years later, and the Qin unified China before the more tolerant Han Dynasty seized power and extended Chinese power into Central Asia. Indeed, Ancient Era powers grew so big that their only rivals were internal foes for control of the government and international wars against the other regional powers. The Ancient Era was a time of mega-empires, and many historians would later look back on these periods in their history as a golden age because of the massive tracts of territory which they were able to conquer.

Nor were the size of these empires their only claim to greatness. The power of learning led to the most dynamic economies and the most diverse and productive trading empires ever before created. Learning also allowed the development of ever more sophisticated, expert and beautiful art objects from special occasion pieces to items of daily use. So too did literature, sculpture, poetry, architecture, painting, drama, and many other arts bloom and flourish during the Ancient Era. It is therefore little wonder that later generations look back with so much interest and so fondly on this period in their history.

The Ancient Era saw some of the largest and most powerful states rise and do battle with each other. They lacked major adversaries in their own regions, having gobbled them all up. However, what goes up must come down. While civilizations had periods of unity and fragmentation, individual states generally did not survive for the more than 200 - 300 years before they were replaced by war, by coup, or by internal collapse. Religion provided stability to these civilizations. Religious faith was a critical way to comfort people, speak to their spirits, while also encouraging them to bow to the will of government and embrace a larger community. Even in times of political breakdown, religion provided a cultural continuity that held regions together.

However, the cost was in complacency; religion – especially intense religious faith – was difficult to integrate with the passion for learning which had powered the success of the great Ancient Era powers. Faith trumped knowledge and many civilizations eventually allowed learning to slide while they enjoyed the comfort and assurance of intense religion. Its ability to hold civilizations together through the good times and the bad was simply too powerful a dynamic for the Ancient Era empires to compete with.