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pre-Hannibalian Roman history: *
In 509 Rome the last king Tarquinius was forced into exile. Following his exile, he attempted to regain the throne. He sent ambassadors to the Senate to request the return of his family's personal effects; they conspired with leading men of the city to pull off a coup. The conspirators included 2 of Brutus' brothers-in-law & his 2 sons Titus & Tiberius. The conspiracy was discovered, they were executed & the king’s property plundered. Next Tarquinius attempted to regain Rome with force. He led the armies of Veii and Tarquinii against Rome at the Battle of Silva Arsia. Brutus was killed but the Romans won. Tarquinius made a thrid attempt in alliance with the king of Clusium. Rome was placed under siege until a peace treaty was agreed; however Tarquinius failed to regain the throne. In a final attempt Tarquinus & his son Titus allied with Mamilius of Tusculum & the Latin League against Rome; they lost at the Battle of Lake Regillus. He fled taking refuge with the tyrant of Cumae in 495. The Gauls destroyed much of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city (see below) & what was left was eventually lost to time or theft. The 7 kings are of dubious historical value, though the last-named may be historical figures. This traditional account comes down to us through Livy, Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Varro; it allots 243 years for the 7 king’s reigns, an average of almost 35 years, a figure which is widely questioned.
In Rome a new constitution emerged with checks & balances and separation of powers. Popular assemblies arose notably the comitia centuriata, which voted on war & peace and elected magistrates. A secondary assembly was the comitia tributa or tribal assembly, which elected less important offices. The magistrates were initially restricted to patricians, but later opened to common people (plebeians). The most important magistrates were the 2 consuls who exercised executive authority such as military command. They worked with the senate, initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility (patricians). Later the senate would assume greater size & powers. Other magistrates include tribunes, quaestors, aediles, praetors & censors.
In the 4th century BC, Rome came under attack by the Gauls. In 390 a Gallic army led by Brennus met the Romans on the banks of the Allia River. Defeating them he marched onto the city which (with the exception of the Capitoline Hill) was burnt & looted. The latter was placed under siege, until the Gauls agreed to peace in exchange for 1,000 pounds of gold. A legendary account claims that the Roman supervising the weighing noticed that the Gauls were using false scales. The Romans then took up arms, defeated the Gauls and thei Roman general Camillus remarked "With iron, not with gold, Rome buys her freedom."
Having survived the Gauls Rome went on the offensive, gradually subdued the Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans. The last threat to Roman hegemony came when Tarentum (a major Greek colony) allied with Pyrrhus of Epirus in 281 BC, but this effort failed. The Romans secured their conquests by founding strategic colonies therby establishing stable control over the conquered regions.
Without archives or records early histories of the kingdom must be questioned. Some historians believe that Rome was under the influence of the Etruscans for about a century; this is substantiated by archaeological finds. During this period, a bridge was built called the Pons Sublicius to replace the Tiber ford, and the Cloaca Maxima was also built; the Etruscans were great engineers of this type of structure. From a cultural and technical point of view, they had the second-greatest impact on Roman development, only surpassed by the Greeks.
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Brutus: *
The catalyst for the royal deposition was the rape of the noblewoman (and kinswoman of Brutus) Lucretia at the hands of Tarquin's son Sextus Tarquinius. Following this, Brutus, a tribune, summoned the people to the forum and exhorted them to rise up against the king. The people voted for the king's deposition & banishment of the royal family. Brutus proceeded with armed men to the Roman army; the king, hearing of the developments left the camp for the city before Brutus' arrival. The army received Brutus as a hero, & the king's sons were expelled from the camp. The king was now refused entry into Rome & fled into exile. Brutus was were elected first consul. His first act was to assemble the people, to swear an oath never to allow any man again to be king. There is no scholarly agreement that the oath took place & is reported differently by different historians. Brutus also restored the number of senators to 300 from the principal men of the equites, and created a new office of rex sacrorum to carry out the religious duties previously performed by the kings.
During his consulship the ex-king made several attempts to regain the throne. His first attempt was a coup involved leading Roman citizens which included the 2 sons of Brutus. They were eventually execution when the plot was discovered. Brutus gained respect for his stoicism in watching the execution of his own sons, even though he showed emotion during the punishment.
At the Battle of Silva Arsia Tarquinius led the forces of Tarquinii & Veii (both Etruscan cities) against Rome. Consul Valerius led the infantry, Brutus the cavalry. Aruns, the king's son, commanded the Etruscan cavalry. When the cavalry joined battle, the 2 leaders (cousins), charged & killed each other. The infantry soon joined the battle, the result being in doubt for some time. However the Etruscan forces eventually fled, the Romans claiming victory. The surviving consul, Valerius, after celebrating a triumph for the victory, held a funeral for Brutus with much magnificence. The Roman noblewomen mourned him for 1 year, for his vengeance of Lucretia's violation. We have few if any reliable accounts of this period .
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constitution of Servius Tullius: *
A popular king & benefactor of Rome; he enjoyed military successes against Veii & Etruscans, and expanded the city to include the Quirinal, Viminal & Esquiline hills. He is traditionally credited with the institution of the Compitalia festivals, the building of temples to Fortuna and Diana and, less plausibly, the invention of Rome's first true coinage. He expanded the Roman franchise and improved the fortunes of Rome's lowest classes of citizens & non-citizens. He reigned until his murder by his daughter Tullia and son-in-law Tarquinius Superbus. In consequence of this crime & hubristic arrogance as king, Tarquinius was removed therby ending Rome's monarchy and founding the Republic, its groundwork laid by the reforms of Servius.
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Second Punic War: *
The war was initiated by Carthage at Saguntum in Spain & is marked by Hannibal's surprising overland journey over the Alps, followed by his reinforcement by Gallic allies and crushing victories over Roman armies in the Battle of the Trebia & ambush at Trasimene. In the following year (216 BC), he defeated the Romans at Cannae. Many Roman allies now defected to Carthage, prolonging the war in Italy for over a decade. The Romans began using a Fabian strategy avoiding battle. Roman forces were more capable in siege warfare than the Carthaginians and recaptured all of the major cities that had joined the enemy, as well as defeating a Carthaginian attempt to reinforce Hannibal at the Battle of the Metaurus. A Roman expedition into Iberia under Scipio Africanus took Carthago Nova, and ended Carthaginian rule over Iberia at the Battle of Ilipa. As Iberia as the main source of manpower for Hannible, this loss was fatal. The final engagement, the Battle of Zama in Africa, between Scipio &Hannibal, resulting in the latter's defeat and the imposition of harsh peace conditions on Carthage which ceased to be a major power and became a Roman client-state.
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Messenians and Arcadians: *
Inhabitants of 2 regions in the Peloponnese (see map below), to the north and west of Laconia (Sparta)
Victory in the Second Messenain War made Sparta the dominant power in the Peloponnesus & in all Greece. Spartan society became increasingly militaristic, her army vital for control of the helots of the Peloponnese and to prevent further uprisings. Aracdia like Messenia faced aggression but at Fetters (550 BC) they defeated the Spartans. Sparta changed their tactics from outright conquest to alliance building from which the Peloponnesian League emerged. For the next 2 centuries Sparta dominated the Peloponnesus. In 371 BC Thebes defeated Sparta at Leuctra; in an attempt to maintain their status in 370 Sparta invaded Arcadia. The latter appealed to Boeotia (home of Thebes). Boeotia responded and a large army (led by Epaminondas) marched on Sparta and then Messenia where the helots were already rebelling. Epaminondas made that rebellion permanent by fortifying the city of Messene.
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Nietzsche: *
In Ancient Greece he found the original system of morality - the "master-morality", which values heroic traits such as wealth, strength, health and power and discredits traits conventionally associated with slaves – poverty, weakness, sickness. He argues “Slave-morality" was a reaction to this original system and was developed by Jewish and Christian institutions, it credits charity, piety, restraint, meekness and subservience and marks as evil values linked to cruelty, selfishness, wealth, indulgence and aggressiveness. It was a ploy among the Jews and Christians (dominated by Rome) to overturn the values of their masters, to justify their situation and to gain power for themselves. It was a hypocritical social illness, working by condemning others as evil. Because Christianity allowed the weak to rule the strong, stifled artistic creativity & most critically, suppressed the "will to power", it was harmful.
He argued science and secularization had "killed" the Christian God, the basis for meaning and value in the West for a thousand years. This would lead to the loss of any objective truth, leaving only multiple, perspectives (Perspectivism, a type of relativism). Nietzsche was himself clearly a relativist: "There are no facts, only interpretations" and "There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths". He was concerned that the death of God would leave a void where certainties once existed, leading to nihilism. In the absence of God, values must be created by us rather than merely handed to us by some outside agency. His solution to the vacuum was "be yourself", be true to oneself, be uninhibited, live life to the full, have the strength of mind to carry through one's own project, regardless of obstacles or concerns for other people - the weak. His "Übermensch" was the person who lives above and beyond pleasure and suffering, lives life to the full according to his own values, a goal for all of humanity. The best, and perhaps the only, way in which life can be justified is as an aesthetic phenomenon, any justification or meaning that life has must be derived from within itself, not from others or via approval from ancient institutions like the Church or God.
His “will to power" was a direct response and challenge to Schopenhauer's "will to live". That all creatures aim to avoid death & procreate is, according to Schopenhauer, the source of all evil & unhappiness. Against this Nietzsche appeals to examples where people &animals willingly risk their lives to promote their power, the struggle to survive is a secondary drive in the evolution of animals and humans, less important than the desire to expand one’s power. The will to power was very much a source of strength, a positive thing in opposition to Schopenhauer. Nietzsche argued that the "will to power" provides a more useful guide & general explanation of human behavior than Utilitarianism, Platonism or Christian Neo-Platonism.
He believed that in order to achieve anything worthwhile hardship & effort were necessary. His was the original "no pain, no gain" philosophy, and he believed that in order to harvest great happiness it was necessary to live dangerously & take risks. Sorrows and troubles were to be welcomed, turned to one's advantage: "what does not kill me, makes me stronger".
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Hellenistic literature: *
Poetry flourished in Hellenistic Alexandria. The chief poets were Theocritus (310 - 250 BC), who invented new genre of poetry-bucolic (imitated by the Roman Virgil in his Eclogues); Callimachus (famous for his Aetia or Causes, 4 books of elegiac couplets, explained legendary origin of obscure customs, festivals & names; a model for the Roman poet Ovid); and Apollonius of Rhodes (famous for his epic Argonautica, Jason & the Argonauts, influenced Virgil’s Aeneid). Hellenistic New Comedy replaced Classical Old Comedy; its most famous playwright was the Athenian Menander (only incomplete plays survive-The Bad-Tempered Man & The Girl from Samos). The historian Timaeus (born in Sicily, lived in Athens) wrote the now lost History of Sicily & Italy to 264 BC; influenced Polybius. He also wrote the Olympionikai, a chronological study of the Olympic Games. In the 3rd century BC the Septuagint was produced (Latin, meaning "Seventy"), a Greek translation of the Old Testament, quoted in the Pauline epistles & later by the Apostolic Fathers & Greek Church Fathers. Very little prose fiction has survived. We have only references to Milesiaka by Aristides of Miletos (2nd Century BC), which established a whole new genre (the "Milesian tales," of which The Golden Ass by the Roman writer Apuleius is a prime example).
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Indian Culture: *
In 1500 BC the Aryans, nomadic cattle herders, migrated into the northern Indian subcontinent from central Asia. They come into contact with the decaying Indus Valley Civilization & may have been invaders. Their language gained ascendency over local dialects. They gradually adopted an agricultural lifestyle which was widely established by 1000 BC.
The only surviving written evidence of this period are The Vedas, sacred religious literature; we have no knowledge of the authors, as the focus is on the ideas not the writers; the reader needs to consider the message not the messenger. While stories of military conflicts & other hostilities are recorded, their historical reliability is suspect. Part of oral tradition, in 1500 BC the Vedas were committed to Sanskrit text. Over the next 500 years further writings were added, written by the Brahmans (priestly class) who held a monopoly on the editing & transmission of the texts. They reflect a priestly bias, & give us the Brahman worldview, spiritual preoccupations & social attitudes.
The Vedas consist of 4 separate texts, the Rig-Veda being the largest, oldest & most important. They cover hymns of praise, melodies for chanting, sacrificial & magic formulas & reference a multitude of gods, most related to natural forces (storms, fire, wind). They contain multiple creation stories, most inconsistent. They often refer to a particular god as “the greatest god of all” but later another god will be regarded as the "greatest". The Vedas contain elements of the older religion, animistic and totemic, worshiping spirits dwelling in stones, animals, trees, rivers, mountains & stars.
Three of the many gods stand out: Agni, Soma & Indra (the latter the head god of the pantheon, storm god, sky god, killer of the serpent). These myths reflect the concerns and experiences of a community based on agricultural. Rituals were critical to maintain the order of the cosmos, part of the compact between humans and the gods: humans (meaning the Brahmans) performed sacrifices & rituals; in return the gods offered protection & prosperity. However when natural calamity occurred despite the sacrifices & rituals, society blamed the priesthood. In turn the priests claimed that the sacrifices had been wrong or inadequate & demanded more royal support. They refused any curtailing of their privileges and began writing definitive standards for prayers/rituals/sacrifices. This was codified in the Brahmanas and attached to the Vedic collection (6th century BC). They claimed that if sacrifices were performed exactly as they said, then the gods would respond. But when these new rituals also proved useless, scepticism began; many sectors of Indian society became doubtful of ritual & sacrifice. .
In the late Vedic period (800-500 BC), the priestly class came under scrutiny & were gradually rejected. Some critics engaged in spiritual progresses, living as ascetic hermits, rejecting ordinary material concerns & giving up family life. Their speculations & philosophy were compiled into texts called The Upanishads. This is a new spiritual approach which embraces meditation, celibacy & fasting. Priestly orthodoxy gradually decayed. The focus of religion shifted from external rites & sacrifices to internal spiritual quests. This would end Vedic hegemony and authority.
The decay of this authority led to a new synthesis dominating Indian society for centuries to come. A new spirituality, based on world renunciation, gradually emerged around the 7th century BC. This distinctive culture is the common origin of many Indian religions, namely Charvaka, Jainism & Buddhism. Such departures were initially deemed “heretical” by the Indian Brahman class.
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Buddhism: *
religion characterized by the development of numerous movements, schisms, and schools, among them the Theravāda, (Pali: "The School of the Elders"), Mahāyāna (Sanskrit: "The Great Vehicle) and Vajrayāna. These traditions had contrasting periods of expansion & retreat. Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and authenticity of various teachings and scriptures, &their respective practices. Practices of Buddhism include taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, study of scriptures, observance of moral precepts, renunciation of craving and attachment, the practice of meditation (including calm and insight), the cultivation of wisdom, loving-kindness and compassion, the Mahayana practice of bodhicitta and the Vajrayana practices of generation stage and completion stage.