Introductory articles on eras and countries of ancient history.
Introduction, links, and a picture to go with ancient countries and peoples around the Fertile Crescent.
A Semitic people, the Assyrians lived in the northern area of Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers at the city-state of Ashur. Under the leadership of Shamshi-Adad the Assyrians tried to create their own empire, but they were squashed by the Babylonian king, Hammurabi.
Babylonians believed the king held power because of the gods; moreover, they thought their king was a god. To maximize his power and control, a bureaucracy and centralized government were established along with the inevitable adjuncts, taxation and involuntary military service.
Phoenicians from Tyre (Lebanon) founded Carthage, an ancient city-state in the area that is modern Tunisia. Carthage became a major economic and political power in the Mediterranean fighting over territory in Sicily with the Greeks and Romans.
A look at ancient Chinese dynasties, writing, religions, economy, and geography.
The land of the Nile, sphinxes, hieroglyphs, pyramids, and famously cursed archaeologists exhuming mummies from painted and gilded sarcophagi, Egypt has lasted for thousands of years.
Fast Facts About Greece. What we call Greece is known to its inhabitants as Hellas.
Shortly after the Trojan War, Greece fell into a dark age about which we know little. With the return of literacy at the beginning of the 8th century B.C. came what is called the Archaic Age.
The Classical Age of Greece begins with the Persian War (490-479 B.C.) and ends with the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.). Besides war and conquest, in this period the Greeks produced great literature, poetry, philosophy, drama, and art.
Archaic and Classical Greece produced a culture that the third era, the Hellenistic Age, spread throughout the known world. Because of Alexander the Great, the realm of Greek influence spread from India to Africa.
Fast Facts About Italy: maps of ancient italy mountains of italy italy location facts about italy italy rome
Mesopotamia is the ancient land between the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris.
Phoenicia is now called Lebanon and includes part of Syria and Israel.
The four periods of Roman history are the period of kings, the Republic, the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. These eras of Roman history are based on the type or place of central authority or government.
These are questions to think about as you read about and explore the history of Ancient Rome. There may not be a single correct answer. For those with concrete answers, you may need to explore further than the linked article on the
Eras of Roman History.
Until recently, it was thought the earliest civilizations began in Sumer in Mesopotamia (roughly modern Iraq).
To the fourth millennium Egyptians and third millennium Sumerians, the Syrian coastland was the source of the soft woods, cedar, pine, and cypress. The Sumerians also went to Cilicia, in the northwest area of Greater Syria, in pursuit of gold and silver, and probably traded with the port city of Byblos, which was supplying Egypt with resin for mummification.
