Gods and Myths of Antiquity

Ancient Middle East and Mediterranean region were the birthplace of many beliefs, rituals and religious concepts. Interestingly enough, the faith of a small and politically insignificant Hebrew nation was the one whose influence has proved to be the most durable.

Religion seems to be older than history. It can be assumed that Neanderthals buried their dead in accordance with a specific religious ritual, while certainly did so the earliest Homo sapiens. It is believed that from prehistoric times, great cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira that depict animal life scenes have certain religious value. There's also substantial evidence for the existence of numerous local cults narrowly predating the rise of the very first civilizations.

In the earliest of them, the Sumerian civilization, cities emerged as centers of religious worship around 5000 BC and it was only later that they turned into political and commercial hubs. The first great religious epic, Gilgamesh, was written around 2000 BC, but in fact must be much older than that.

Telling a story about an expedition in search of eternal life, Gilgamesh posed a problem that was to become pivotal in later religions - how to overcome death. One of the stories of the epic describes a great flood that killed all creatures except those who sought shelter in the ark. A striking resemblance to the biblical story of the flood lends evidence to the extent to which the Sumerian concepts influenced the beliefs of ancient Jews and other religious systems.

The power of the gods

Sumerian religion revolved mostly around attempts to placate harsh gods by making substantial offerings. Fearful nature of its followers can be partly explained by the environmental conditions in which they lived - flat, open space made them particularly susceptible to all kinds of disasters such as floods and invasions by neighboring peoples. In addition, the system relying on absolute submission was convenient for the ruling caste of priests who monopolized access to knowledge.

In many different cultures, each of the early cities had its patron deity. Over time, some of those deities gained wider popularity and got grouped in the pantheon (the hierarchy of gods connected by family ties) whose authority extended over the whole country.

Typical was also the way the pantheon expanded to assimilate newly established cults or in response to new socio-political situation. A good example would be the "promotion" of Marduk, the deity of the city of Babylon, the leader of the pantheon at a time when the city gained a dominant position in Mesopotamia.

Similar changes took place in Egypt whose religion survived for over 3000 years, although its history was quite complicated. Its 2,000 deities adopted all possible forms - human, animal or fitted with human body and animal head. They included, among others: Anubis (jackal-headed man), the goddess Bastet (portrayed as a female), Tot (a male with the head of an ibis) and other deities represented by a cow, beetles, and even hippos. Just like in Sumer, the priests were an influential caste, but the bulk of the power was in the hands of Pharaoh, who was worshiped as Earthly incarnation of the a falcon-headed god Horus. Growing importance of the city of Thebes paved the way for greater recognition of its deity Amun. As a result of its fusion with the sun god Ra (Re), the supreme deity of the Egyptian religion - Amun-Ra - was born.

Osiris underwent a different evolution - killed by his brother, he was brought back to life thanks to the efforts of his wife Isis and her son Horus. Osiris has become a very important deity of the Egyptian religion, upholding the death and having the power of granting people eternal life.

The concepts of life after death

Sumerian concept of life after death was rather gloomy, while the Egyptians perceived death as a "passage to happiness." Consequently, the Egyptians treated the earthly life as a preparation for death. Apart from maintaining a virtuous life, one had to secure mummification after death and equipping their coffin with all the supplies and equipment useful in the eternal life. Moreover, in order to overcome all the dangers on the way through the underworld, the deceased had to be cleared elaborate rituals written in the book of the dead. The biggest of all the tombs found in Egypt, the pyramids, were built by the rulers of the fourth dynasty (2613-2494 BC).

Another type of tombs were mastabas and chambers forged in the rock like those in the Valley of the Kings. Only one of these tombs, the burial place of a young pharaoh named Tutankhamun, remained undiscovered by looters. Its treasures, found in 1922, proved to be one of the greatest archaeological sensations of the twentieth century.

The stability of the Egyptian religion has always made an impression on the people who encountered it at first hand. Changes it underwent over the millennia largely involved assimilation of new cults without any serious conflicts. Perhaps the only exception was during the reign of Akhenaten (c. 1369-1352 BC), who tried to introduce a cult of just one deity - the solar disc of Aton - and founded a new capital of the state - Akhetaten. To this day, Akhenaten is seen as a progressive monotheist on one hand, but also as an intolerant fanatic on the other. However, this religious reform did not survive its creator and the opposing forces made every effort to erase his name from the memory of posterity.

Gods and Myths of Olympus

Greek rituals and religious beliefs were strongly influenced by cults of Egyptian and Middle Eastern origin, but evolved in a completely different way. It was important because from the fourth century BC on Greek ideas - along with the culture and language - began to spread to the Middle East following the victorious army of Alexander the Great. Although later the Greeks were defeated by the Romans, their culture dominated by that of the invaders, and consequently spread throughout the Mediterranean and up north, reaching as far as the British Isles where the Roman soldiers serving on the Hadrian Wall erected temples dedicated to Jupiter and Fortuna.

Greek deities are often referred to as the Olympian gods, because they were thought to inhabit Mount Olympus in Greece. The best known deities include Zeus (the ruler of the gods), Athena (goddess of wisdom), Artemis (goddess of hunt), Ares (god of war) and Aphrodite (goddess of love). Their Roman counterparts were Jupiter, Minerva, Diana, Mars and Venus, respectively. A characteristic feature of the Greek deities was that, apart from certain exceptional abilities and immortality, they were almost completely human. The first written document that mentions them (epics of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey) presents them as creatures full of flaws and passions, eager to stir intrigues among human. This type of "humanization" of the deities was characteristic for Greece in the mature stage of its development and fit into a broader conception of the world, with man as the measure of everything. Greek sculpture presented people in their perfection, while myths were full of characters that combined human and godly qualities (Hercules being among the best know ones).

Greek religion, with its sinful deities, may be difficult to understand for contemporary people. However, the sheer number of human sacrifices whose remains were excavated in the temples in Europe and the Middle East provides substantial evidence that the gods were treated with grave seriousness as personifications of powers ruling the world. Also the Greek myths were very rich and contained stories describing creation of the world as well as “histories” of dynasties, wars and expeditions. Their impact has been so great that they are a source of inspiration for artists, humanists, and the whole of modern culture to this day.

Craving for faith

Worshiping Olympian gods seemed to be on the wane during the last centuries BC, although the Romans maintained the cult of Jupiter and the other gods of the pantheon as a form of civil service. One of the reasons could be that in the Hellenistic period (after the death of Alexander the Great) and during the existence of the Roman Empire, people began to feel insecure about their fate. The result was not skepticism, but the hunger of faith. The world of late antiquity was full of all kinds of cults and mystery religions that promised salvation and immortality. Faith in the Egyptian and other gods penetrated Rome and although this trend caused discontent among many citizens of the "eternal city", their tolerant attitude actually created the right conditions for those cults to spread. Aiming to assimilate cults of subordinate nations, they expanded their pantheon with many new, sometimes very strange deities whom they later worshiped.

The hunger for faith in the ancient world was eventually satisfied by a new religion - Christianity, which was born in the Roman province of Judea. Residents of the province were Jews or Hebrews, a nation that has already developed its own monotheistic faith, completely different from the religions of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece.

The early history of the Hebrew people is known only from their own religious and historical writings, called the Old Testament, whose final form solidified many centuries after the events described in them. According to this source, the Hebrew patriarch Abraham left the city of Ur and settled in Canaan in Palestine. His descendants, the Israelites, were freed from slavery in Egypt by Moses and later, under the leadership of Joshua, reclaimed the territory of Canaan where they settled and founded the state of Israel. Like most of records of this kind, The Old Testament contains echoes of memories of real events, but it is difficult to assess the extent of subsequent distortion.

This is also the case with the first rulers of Israel - Saul, David and Solomon. But it is certain that Philistines, the enemies of the Hebrews who came to Palestine in the twelfth century BC, really existed. After Solomon's death, Israel split up into two separate kingdoms, Israel and Judah which soon began to feel the effects of being sandwiched between the great empires. Israel was completely destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC.

In 587 BC the Babylonians conquered Judah, looted Jerusalem and deported the Jewish population. But the Babylonian captivity did not mean the end of the nation. Some Jews returned to their homeland where he rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, and survived as subjects until 63 BC when the Romans occupied Palestine and turned it into a province called Judea.

One almighty god

By this time the Jewish religion - Judaism - developed many of the features that set it apart from the others. Their god was not just a local character and was considered to be the sole, universal and all-powerful. It was not a property of rulers and priests either. Perhaps it was the complicated history of the Hebrew nation that prevented the religion from becoming a state institution and made it function as a set of beliefs and values, available to everyone. These beliefs were interpreted and updated by the "scribes" and prophets whose position could be in conflict with the authorities.

The Jews regarded themselves as the chosen people and their belief in one god allowed neither compromises with other religious doctrines nor placing their god among gods of the Roman pantheon. Their independence made them unpopular, although their steadfast faith attracted new follower, contributing to the growth of their communities scattered throughout the Roman Empire. In Judea itself dissatisfaction with the power of the Romans was mounting and in the final years of the first century BC the situation in the province became very tense.

In addition to the zealots - patriots who were ready to take up arms and stand up to fight against the Romans - there were competing fractions within Judaism. Among theme were conservative Sadducees who strictly interpreted and followed the Scripture, and the Pharisees whose interpretations were more liberal and who professed new doctrines. One of them was the idea of doomsday that would see resurrected people face God and answer for their deeds.

It was the times of social and political unrest and there was little doubt that Judah is on the verge of dramatic changes.

Important dates

• around 2000 BC
  The epic of Gilgamesh is written on clay tablets
• ca. 1369-1352 BC
  The reign of Akhenaten in Egypt
• ca. 1352-1343 BC
  The reign of Tutankhamun in Egypt
• 9th century BC
  Reign of Saul and David in Israel
• ca. 970 - 930 BC
  The reign of Solomon in Israel
• 722 BC
  The Assyrians destroy the kingdom of Israel
• 587 BC
  The Babylonians conquer the kingdom of Judah
• 539 BC
  Persians conquer Babylon, the Jews rebuild Jerusalem
• 539 - 142 BC
  Jews under successive rule of the Persians, Egyptians and Seleucid
• 168 - 142 BC
  The Jewish revolt against the Seleucid
• 142 - 63 BC
  Period of Jewish independence
• 37 - 4 BC
  The reign of King Herod, appointed by the Roman Senate

The Roman Empire

Being originally just a colony of a few settlements lying on the hills, within a few centuries Rome grew to the size of a huge empire that dominated the area of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Romans saw themselves as descendants of Aeneas, Trojan, who escaped after the Greeks conquered and destroyed his hometown. Rome itself was to be founded by Romulus, one of the two twin sons of the god of war - Mars.

In reality, however, Rome was originally a settlement on the Palatine, and a city-state that included seven surrounding hills. Thanks to its convenient position at the intersection of trade routes running through Italia, the city prospered very well. Nevertheless, for a long time the Romans were in the shadow of another ethnic group - Etruscans from which many Roman rulers originated.

The new republic

About 510 BC, the Romans expelled the last king of Etruscan origin, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and established a republic in their city. However, it took another two centuries of conflicts between the patricians (the privileged) and plebeians (lower class) before it the country settled into relative stability.

In the republic it was the senate that passed new laws took important state decisions was. It was composed of representatives of the aristocracy, and the executive power was in the hands of two consuls. The consuls were elected each year by the centurial congregation which comprised representatives of the people. Despite this, the congregation was usually called upon to choose candidates of the aristocracy, and therefore the interests of commoners were represented only by the tribunes, having the right to veto the Senate resolutions and decisions of officials. In practice, however, this system gave the people a sense of civic belonging to Rome which was one of the strengths of the state.

Roman citizenship

This strength contributed to the Romans' ability to create and dominate a confederation of peoples of Latium as well as defeat the Etruscans, Samnites and Gauls. One of the secrets of their success was that their allies and defeated enemies - after some time - were granted Roman citizenship. This meant that the number of Romans increased with their conquests, thus boosting their strength further. This way they gained the favor of the conquered peoples, which would otherwise constitute a permanent threat to the expanding country. These new allies remained generally loyal to the Romans, even in the case of periodic failures, resulting in the latter usually winning the wars, despite the fact that they quite often lost the battle.

By 272 BC The Romans dominated the entire Italian peninsula. Allied with with Carthage, they subjugated the Greek cities of southern Italy, and then expelled king Pyrrhus from Sicily. This island later became the subject of a conflict with Carthage, a north African Phoenician colony, which was the main rival of Rome in attempts to dominate the western areas of the Mediterranean. This led to the First Punic War (264-241 BC). Roman legions, which were primarily land army, fared very well with the mercenary armies of Carthage, but it was only when the Romans decided to create a strong fleet that the fate of the war was set. The war ended with the Carthaginians leaving Sicily and soon after the Romans managed to control the Sardinia and Corsica.

Hannibal

However, this was only the beginning of the conflict whose continuation would put the Roman state to a severe test. A brilliant Carthaginian commander Hannibal (whose father made him swear eternal hostility to Rome) captured Saguntum in Spain in 219 BC and daringly crossed the Alps with his battle elephants. His attack on Italia started the Second Punic War (218-202 BC). Although Hannibal had fewer troops, the Romans suffered a defeat at the Trebbiano (218 BC), Lake Trasimeno (217 BC) and at Cannae (216 BC). However, he failed to make it to Rome itself and despite remaining on the peninsula for 16 years he did not win the final victory. In the meantime, the Romans began to be successful in the fight against the allies of the Carthaginians, conquered Spain and invaded North Africa. Summoned from Italy, Hannibal was defeated at the Battle of Zama (202 BC), and Carthage surrendered.

From that moment the power of Rome grew steadily. In order to avoid any possible threat in the future, the Romans started the Third Punic War (149-146 BC) that resulted in the conquest and destruction of Carthage. Shortly afterwards Greece was conquered too. In total, in the second century BC the Romans subdued even Macedonia, Pergamon in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and the coast of present-day France. Weakened internal conflicts, Egypt remained officially independent, but in reality it was within Roman sphere of influence. Mediterranean Sea was gradually becoming Rome's inland sea.

Reluctance

Expansion on this scale had a huge impact on the lifestyle of Roman citizens. The wealth and luxury did not have beneficial effect on characters of Romans who used to live strict and simple life. The political system of Rome, created for the city-state, could be barely adapted to the conditions of a great empire. Increasingly prosperous class of soldiers reluctantly watched monopolizing power of the aristocracy. The Romans imported huge quantities of war slaves who were cheap labor, which resulted in massive relocation of peasants from the countryside to the cities. There, their growing discontent was becoming a threat to the stability of the state. At the same time, rising numbers of slaves made the outbreak of a rebellion more and more likely. Also the free inhabitants of Italy who had not yet been granted Roman citizenship began to express their opposition to the uneven distribution of privileges in the state.

The time of civil wars

All these factors led to a period of wars and political conflicts that started in the end of 2nd century BC and continued to rage through most of the first century BC, making disintegration of the state a real threat. They resulted in the growth of rivaling parties: optimates who favored the aristocracy and populares who opposed them. The conflict between the two groups largely contributed to the fall of the republic.

State weakness became evident during the invasion of Teuton and Cimbri tribes (113-101) who were eventually driven out by the leader of the populares - Gaius Marius. Then broke out the War of the Allies (91-88 BC) which ended only after Italic allies of Rome were granted Roman citizenship. In 87 BC Marius was driven from Rome by Sulla, the leader of the optimates and winner in the fist Civil War (88-81 BC). Sulla declared himself a dictator in 82 BC, arranged a series of purges and conducted several political reforms that strengthened senate's authority.

After he gave up his power in 79 BC, external and internal crises in the country were addressed by prominent individuals who also began to consolidate their personal power. They were Pompey the Great, the man behind great conquests in the East, and Crassus - the one who suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus.

In 60 BC, they made a gentleman's agreement with Julius Caesar (I triumvirate), which allowed for effective governance of the whole country. In 58 BC, Caesar received a lieutenancy of Cisalpine Gaul and proved his military genius by conquering the entire Gaul (58-51 BC) and carrying two famous expeditions to distant Britain (55 and 54 BC).

In the meantime, the balance within the triumvirate staggered with the death of Crassus during his expedition against the Parthians. Considering his position at risk, in 49 BC Caesar marched with his army to Italy, thereby starting the second civil war. In 45 BC Caesar came out victorious as the new dictator of Rome, but in 44 BC he was murdered by the Republicans.

This gave rise to the third civil war, in which Republicans, led by Cassius and Brutus, were defeated by Octavian (Caesar's relative and adopted son), Antony and Lepidus who formed the second triumvirate. Lepidus was soon ousted, while Octavian and Antony turned against each other. Defeated at the Battle of Actium, Antony committed suicide and all power fell into the hands of Octavian.

Octavian, who went down in history under the honorary nickname Augustus ("dignified"), was the first Roman Emperor and ruled until 14 AD. Though republican system was never officially lifted, Augustus held absolute power in the country by holding all key civil and military offices. Republic was therefore fiction, despite the fact that its traditional institutions (eg the Senate) still existed.

Octavian was a skilled ruler - during his reign borders of the empire reached as far as the Danube. The rule of his successors - Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero - who lacked Octavian's restraint were tyrants whose reigns were marked by scandals. However, this had little impact on the functioning of the whole empire, whose heyday was the result of "Roman peace" (Latin: Pax Romana) - giving up further conquests in favor of preserving status quo and excellent organization of the state. Granting citizenship to the inhabitants of the provinces also helped stabilize society of the Empire. Somewhat less glorious was the policy of "bread and circuses" that was meant to keep the masses in the idle, persistent state of contentment by regularly organizing various events that included the struggles of gladiators and other bloody demonstrations.

The only exception to Pax Romana was an attempt to conquer Britain in 43 AD during the reign of Claudius. As a result, the territory roughly corresponding to present-day areas of England and Wales fell under Roman control.

Nero (54-68 AD) was the last ruler related to Caesar and Octavian, but the title "Caesar" (from which the words "emperor", "tzar" and "Kaiser" are derived) was also passed on to his successors. After a bloody conflict that took place in 69 AD it was granted to Vespasian. It was a tough and determined ruler who gained popularity through a program of public works, including the construction of the Colosseum.

The end of the dynasty

Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, Domitian) could boast of many achievements, though its reign ended as early as in 96 AD with the assassination of Domitian. However it's the Nerva-Antonine dynasty (96-192 AD) that is credited with bringing the times of political, economic and cultural flourishing of the state. The period was marked by the rule of "Five Good Emperors" (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius). Characteristic feature of this dynasty was that each of the rulers assigned his successor not from the circle of his closest relatives, but among the most talented individuals in the country. During the Nerva-Antonine rule the area of the empire reached its peak size.

However, the situation changed for the worse after Marcus Aurelius (161-180) appointed his own son Commodus (180-192) as his successor. He proved to be a tyrant whose death in a plot marked the end of the dynasty. The civil wars that followed were the beginning of the crisis that engulfed the country in the third century.

IMPORTANT DATES

• 753 BC
  Founding of Rome (according to tradition)
• 264-241 BC
  First Punic War
• 202 BC
  Victory of the Romans at Zama
• 146 BC
  The conquest of Greece
• 91-88 BC
  War of the Allies
• 82-79 BC
  The dictatorship of Sulla
• 73-71 BC
  Slave rebellion under the leadership of Spartacus
• 58-51 BC
  Caesar conquers Gaul
• 49-45 BC
  Second Civil War: victory of Caesar
• 44 BC
  Caesar's assassination
• 31 BC
  Augustus brings together all the power in his hands
• 43 BC
  The beginning of the conquest of Britain
• 96-192
  Nerva-Antonine dynasty
• 122-128
  The construction of Hadrian's Wall